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We Have an Absolute Moral Duty
To Do Everything We Can
To Prevent ANY So-Called "Preemptive"
Nuclear Strike
Against Iran, Syria, North Korea
or Against Any Other People.
Humanity Check urges all people of conscience to notify all U.S. legislators and public officials that nuclear
war and nuclear threats are completely unacceptable under fundamental standards of morality and decency, and must be renounced
and discontinued.
Statement to U.S. Public Officials:
Dear ________________________
We insist, as a matter of fundamental morality and
human decency, beginning immediately, that you -- in your capacity as a U.S. public official -- agree to do everything in
your power to oppose the planning, funding, preparation, threat, or carrying out of any so-called "preemptive" nuclear first
strike by the United States against the people of Iran, Syria, North Korea, or against any other people, anywhere, without
exception. Even a tactical pretense of such an atrocious threat is unacceptable. This includes attacks against either civilian
or military targets.
Signed, X___________________________________
INTERFAITH PEACE DECLARATION
We, Muslim, Jewish, Christian and Druze
religious leaders, cry out in the name of our One God to recognize one another, all created in God’s image. Hate is
boundless not only in the Middle East but also around the globe. We must look into our religious traditions and speak out
in the name of compassion and justice. Our task as religious leaders is to engage our own people in self-reflection and point
the way to a better future for our children and ourselves.
We, therefore, out of our respective religious traditions
• Condemn all acts of violence and human rights violations,
seeing as they contradict God's will for humanity. The suffering of Palestinians and Israelis must stop. An attack against
any human being is an attack against God.
• Call upon Israelis and Palestinians to recognize each other's
humanity, deep roots in this land and suffering. We must find the courage to break the cycle of violence and human rights
violations. Each act of violence being committed by either side elicits further violence.
• Call for energizing the vision of peace through negotiations,
based on international legitimacy and respect for international law and the shared ethics of our religious traditions, thus
fulfilling the national aspirations of two peoples and ensuring the human right to live free from occupation and fear.
• Welcome the Saudi proposal. Emanating from Mecca, the heart
of Islam, these principles can potentially serve as a basis for feeing us all from the occupation, cycle of violence, human
rights violations and pervasive insecurity that impede the realization of peace. We also welcome the Alexandria Declaration.
• Draw from the wisdom of our faiths to accept the particularity
of each of our traditions while respecting one’s right to be different. Our Houses of worship must remain open and unharmed
with free access for all, especially in Jerusalem. Any desecration of our sanctuaries and cemeteries is a desecration of God’s
presence in this world. Even more important than those sanctuaries built of stone are the sanctuaries which God has implanted
within each andevery human being.
• Agree to act as a living bridge between despair and hope
and re-ignite the peace process, acting as mediators where possible and as agents of faith and instruments of love where it
seems impossible. We will collectively and individually employ all of our influence in every conceivable way to realize a
vision which goes beyond the cessation of hostilities and looks forward to the day when our peoples will be a mutual blessing
to each other. We will meet among ourselves and engage our peoples and leaders.
In the name of God Who is compassionate and just, in the Name of
God Who hears the cries of all those who suffer, in the name of God Who demands that we pursue justice through just means
and seek peace by actively pursuing it, we call on the peoples and leaders of the Middle East and the world to act at once.
(Declaration obtained by Humanity
Check from othe web site of Rabbis for Human Rights - Israel (http://www.rhr.israel.net/)
Click here for:
English text
Arabic
Hebrew
(NOTE: All three versions are in PDF format, and require Adobe Acrobat
Reader to open, read, or print. CLICK HERE for a free downloadable version of Acrobat Reader.
QUESTION:
When does criticism of Israel or Zionism
cross the line into anti-Semitism?
"Although the word only goes back to the 1870s, anti-semitism is an
old European fantasy about Jews. ... An anti-semite sees Jews [as] an alien presence, a parasite that preys on humanity and
seeks to dominate the world. Across the globe[, the anti-semite imagines], their hidden hand controls the banks, the markets
and the media. Even governments are under [supposedly] their sway. And when revolutions occur or nations go to war, it is
[supposedly] the Jews - clever, ruthless and cohesive - who invariably pull the strings and reap the rewards.
"When this fantasy is projected on to Israel because it is a Jewish state, then anti-Zionism is anti-semitic.
And when zealous critics of Israel, without themselves being anti-semitic, carelessly use language, such as "Jewish influence",
that conjures up this fantasy, they are fueling an anti-semitic current in the wider culture."
-- Dr. Brian Klug, "No, Anti-Zionism Is Not Anti-Semitism," The Guardian (UK), Dec. 3, 2003
Brian Klug is
Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at St. Benet's Hall, Oxford, and Associate Professor of Philosophy, Saint Xavier University,
Chicago. His articles on Jewish subjects have appeared in Jewish Quarterly and Patterns
of Prejudice. He is a founding member of the Jewish Forum for Justice and Human Rights.
(Complete article avaliable on line at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/comment/0,10551,1098625,00.html)
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