Our statement of core principles: An idea whose time has come
We are Jews who love Israel, who stand with Israel, whose lives are bound up with Israel. We believe in its right not just to exist, but to flourish. We stand against those who defame it.
We believe that Israel’s best hope for safety and security lies in a stable, enduring, comprehensive peace with its neighbours – and that this means two states for two peoples fated to share the same small patch of land. Only a two-state solution can ensure what we most want – a safe, secure and democratic national home for the Jewish people within universally-recognised borders, alongside a viable, sovereign and democratic state for the Palestinian people, allowing both nations to exercise at last their right to live as free peoples.
In practice, that’s likely to mean staying close to the pre-1967 lines, subject to minor adjustments through mutually-agreed land swaps, with a Jewish Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and an Arab Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state. We believe the occupation – however one explains its origins and whatever security arguments are put forward for its continuance – must end. Israel has ruled over another people for more than two thirds of its young history, to the detriment not only of the Palestinians but of Israel as well.
Yet the two-state solution is now in peril, apparently slipping out of reach. It is threatened by terrorist violence that destroys lives and hardens hearts. It is undermined by the construction of Jewish settlements on land destined for the future Palestinian state. It is imperilled by the pretence that “time is on our side” when, in fact, time is running out.
Now is the moment for diaspora Jews to play their part, to draw on the most enduring Jewish values and do all they can in the search for peace. As a growing consensus across the diaspora now agrees, we have both the right and the responsibility to step up.
We call on those who are pro-Israel and pro-peace – indeed who are pro-peace because they are pro-Israel – to join us as we harness the energy, goodwill and resources of British Jews in order to build support for the steps, some of them hard, which Israel in particular will have to take to make peace a reality. It will mean heeding the call of those in Israel working for peace and democracy who seek the moral support of their fellow Jews abroad. It will mean broadening the current conversation about Israel in the Jewish diaspora. It will mean making whatever contribution we can, whether through education, debate or advocacy, to achieving the only outcome that guarantees Israel a secure future: a viable and agreed two-state solution.
If you share this vision, if you still yearn for the Israel promised in the Declaration of Independence – a land “based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel” – then join us. Add your name to Yachad and become part of our movement. The time has come for those who love Israel to play their part.
