In Praise of the Bil'in Resistance

12/02/2006

Sunday, February 12th, 2006,

The UJFP (French Jewish Union for Peace) is keen on paying a tribute to your peaceful and non-violent fight against the occupation that devours your land and holds you prisoners behind a wall.

Your fight is an exemplary one for us in several respects:

You have chosen non-violence, and Bil’in is now an example in the whole of Palestine, since all groups, even those who have chosen armed struggle, are joining you and demonstrating with you in their own manner, to oppose the wall of Colonization and the violence of the Occupation.

You have chosen to fight with all of those who share your vision, whatever their origins. To you, camps are clearly defined: those who collaborate and support the Occupation, and those who fight against it, whether Jews, Israelis, Arabs, Muslims or persons from any other origin or culture. Your struggle is firmly established upon ethical and political grounds, not ethnic or tribal.

You have chosen a struggle that closely associates Israelis who stand clearly against the Occupation and the Wall, internationals against the Occupation, and Palestinians. This golden triangle of joint action is the model of any strategy to fight efficiently in our current globalized world.

For all those reasons, and because this model is the only one that allows for a true Ta’ayush to exist, the only way to prevent wars of a hundred years and to promote civilization: our place is by your side.

We express our solidarity with you by actions aiming to educate public awareness in France and Europe about your situation.

Your struggle for Bil’in and all its inhabitants to recover their lands and a normal life, free of the occupation, is the fight of the whole of Palestine. As French and European citizens, we will continue without respite pressing our governments and the European Union, asking them to fulfill their responsibilities, to respect their commitments as well as the rights of the Palestinians, and to act clearly and firmly in order to end the unbearable injustice of the Occupation.

National Bureau
Union juive française pour la paix (UJFP)