http://vancouver.indymedia.org/news/2002/12/24728.php

Delivered by Rabbi Mordechi Weberman Under the auspices of the Palestine
Right of Return Coalition (Al-Awda NY/NJ), at the march in front of the
Israeli Consulate, on Friday July 26, 2002

There are those who ask us why we march with the Palestinians. Why do we
raise the Palestinian flag? Why do we support the Palestinian cause?

"You are Jews!" they tell us. What are you doing?

And our response, which I'd like to share with you this afternoon, is
very  simple.

IT IS PRECISELY BECAUSE WE ARE JEWS THAT WE MARCH WITH THE PALESTINIANS
AND RAISE THEIR FLAG!

IT IS PRECISELY BECAUSE WE ARE JEWS THAT WE DEMAND THAT THE PALESTINIAN
PEOPLES BE RETURNED TO THEIR HOMES AND PROPERTIES!

Yes, in our Torah we are commanded to be fair. We are called upon to
pursue justice. And, what could be more unjust then the century old
attempt of the Zionist movement to invade an other people's land, to
drive them out and steal their property?

The early Zionists proclaimed that they were a people without a land
going to a land without a people.

Innocent sounding words.

But utterly and totally untrue.

Palestine was a land with a people. A people that were developing a
national consciousness.

We have no doubt that would Jewish refugees, have come to Palestine not
with the intention of dominating, not with the intention of making a
Jewish state, not with the intention of dispossessing, not with the
intention of depriving the Palestinians of their basic rights, that they
would have been welcomed by the Palestinians, with the same hospitality
that Islamic peoples have shown Jews throughout history. And we would
have lived  together as Jews and Muslims lived before in Palestine in
peace and harmony.

To our Islamic and Palestinian friends around the world, please hear
our  message --

There are Jews around the world who support your cause. And when we
support your cause we do not mean some partition scheme proposed in 1947
by a UN that had no right to offer it.

When we say support your cause we do not mean the cut off and cut up
pieces of the West Bank offered by Barak at Camp David together with
justice for less than 10 % of the refugees.

We do not mean anything other than returning the entire land, including
Jerusalem, to Palestinian sovereignty!

At that point justice demands that the Palestinian people should decide
if and how many Jews should remain in the Land.

This is the only path to true reconciliation.

But we demand yet more. WE demand that in returning the land back to
its  rightful owners we have not yet done enough. There should be an
apology to the Palestinian people which is clear and precise. Zionism
did you wrong. Zionism stole your homes. Zionism stole your land.

By so proclaiming we proclaim before the world that we are the people of
the Torah, that our faith demands that we be honest and fair and good
and kind.

We have attended hundreds of pro Palestinian rallies over the years and
everywhere we go the leaders and audience greet us with the warmth of
Middle Eastern hospitality. What a lie it is to say that Palestinians in
particular or Muslims in general hate Jews. You hate injustice. Not
Jews.

Fear not my fiends. Evil cannot long triumph. The Zionist nightmare is
at its end. It is exhausted. Its latest brutalities are the death rattle
of  the terminally ill.

We will yet both live to see the day when Jew and Palestinian will
embrace in peace under the Palestinian flag in Jerusalem.

And ultimately when mankind's Redeemer will come the sufferings of the
present will long be forgotten in the blessings of the future.

www.jewishfriendspalestine.org

***** >From the current web site of Jewish Friends of Palestine:

"SPOOFING" ALERT - Over the last couple weeks, people opposed to freedom
of expression for Jewish people have been sending out "spoofed" emails
in the name of "Jewish Friends of Palestine" containing virulent
anti-Semitic, anti-Arab, and Islamaphobic material in English, Arabic,
and Hebrew. This initiative firmly opposes Anti-Semitism, Anti-Arab
racism, Islamaphobia and all forms of hate and we are NOT responsible
for these "spoofed" emails. That these emails did not originate from us
can be confirmed by looking at the full headers of these emails. If you
receive an email from us, it will be specifically addressed to you
individually and will only go to you, not to multiple addresses.