Stop those settlements! AJDS Editorial

Many people within the Jewish community, whose support for Israel is not in question, have watched and noted the way in which the occupation of Palestinian land has had a corrupting influence on Israel’s soul. Many Jewish Israelis are blind to the indignity and abuse on a daily basis accorded to ordinary Palestinians passing through Israeli checkpoints. They are insulated from feeling the deprivation, frustration and powerlessness in the lives of people under occupation behind a wall and out of view.

Freeze is essential

A letter in the Melbourne Age, 18 Nov 2009
THE Australian Jewish Democratic Society concurs with your editorial’s conclusion that ”the only way that Israel can avoid having to choose between its Jewish identity and democracy is to keep the two-state solution alive”. A settlement freeze is the essential precondition to any credible negotiations.