-------------------------
Via Workers World News Service
Reprinted from the Jan. 16, 2003
issue of Workers World newspaper
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IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN STRUGGLE:
JEWS REJECT "RIGHT OF RETURN" TO ISRAEL

[In a letter to the Israeli government, nearly 60 Jewish Americans have 
renounced their legal right to Israeli citizenship in order to 
dissociate themselves from Israel's "barbaric" policies towards the 
Palestinians. The letter originally circulated in England.
The text follows:]

We are Jews, born and raised outside Israel, who, under Israel's "law of 
return," have a legal right to Israeli residence and citizenship. We 
wish to renounce this unsought "right" because:

1) We regard it as morally wrong that this legal entitlement should be 
bestowed on us while the very people who should have most right to a 
genuine "return," having been forced or terrorized into fleeing, are 
excluded.

2) Israel's policies towards the Palestinians are barbaric--we do not 
wish to identify ourselves in any way with what Israel is doing.

3) We disagree with the notion that Zionist emigration to Israel is any 
kind of "solution" for diaspora Jews, anti-Semitism or racism--no matter 
to what extent Jews have been or are victims of racism, they have no 
right to make anyone else victims.

4) We wish to express our solidarity with all those who are working for 
a time when Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip can be lived in by 
people without any restrictions based on so-called racial, cultural, or 
ethnic origins. We look forward to the day when all the peoples of the 
area are enabled to live in peace with each other on this basis of non-
discrimination and mutual respect. Perhaps some of us would even wish to 
live there, but only if the rights of the Palestinians are respected.

To those who consider Israel a "safe haven" for Jews in the face of anti-
Semitism, we say that there can be no safety in taking on the role of 
occupier and oppressor. We hope that the people of Israel and their 
leaders will come to realize this soon.

- END -

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