CJJ Organizational Policy on Israel/Palestine

CJJ is sometimes asked to make statements and join campaigns for justice in Israel/Palestine. This policy articulates how our Core Principles and Theory of Change guide those decisions.

Palestinians and Israelis deserve freedom and dignity

CJJ envisions a just and joyful future where we and our neighbors live with equal rights, dignity, safety, and access to the resources we all need to thrive.

We extend this vision to all who struggle for freedom and dignity in Israel/Palestine amid ongoing violence, displacement and occupation – as well as to all people facing growing antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab/Palestinian racism worldwide. CJJ organizes for co-liberation. Co-liberation means we have a shared stake in dismantling all systems of oppression: fighting for justice and equity alongside our neighbors is the only way to achieve lasting safety for everyone.

We need all of us to achieve transformative local and state policy wins

CJJ’s mission is to build a grassroots network of Jewish people who educate, advocate, and take action towards a more just, fair, and compassionate North Carolina.

Big tents are hard, but necessary to build power for our movements. CJJ is a place where all Jews with a range of politics and relationships to Israel/Palestine come to fight for justice in North Carolina. If you are committed to our vision for justice, affirm the humanity of all people, and are willing to learn and grow, you are welcome at CJJ. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab/Palestinian racism – as well as racism and bigotry in any form – are never welcome.

We fight white supremacy in all its forms – including antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab/Palestinian racism – in mutually accountable relationships 

Pitting Jews against our neighbors is a longstanding tool of antisemitism and white supremacy. This makes us all less safe because it weakens our power to fight collectively for safety and justice for everyone. CJJ empowers our leaders to build relationships that can work through complexity and conflict, acknowledge differences in power and lived experiences, and work together to fight for co-liberation. We challenge binary thinking that forces us to choose the safety and rights of one community over another. We are committed to teshuvah, or repair, when our statements, actions, or inactions cause harm. We hold our non-Jewish partners accountable to understanding and fighting antisemitism. Similarly, we hold our Jewish partners accountable to disrupting Islamophobia and anti-Arab/Palestinian racism – particularly when bad faith accusations of antisemitism are used to silence those advocating for Palestinian human rights.

We are focused on local policy change, but we are connected to movements for justice in Israel/Palestine

Israel/Palestine is not a core focus of our organizing, but we know it greatly impacts our community and our work. Our ability to organize for local and statewide justice issues is impacted by U.S. politics on Israel/Palestine, including efforts to discredit progressive leaders of color, growing police brutality and repression, increased antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab/Palestinian racism, and the ways in which the conflation of anti-Zionism and/or speech critical of the State of Israel with antisemitism is used to threaten human rights and a range of institutions. As a small organization, we can’t do it all. Here’s how we relate:

1. CJJ sometimes expresses moral concerns related to Israel/Palestine and draws connections between Israel/Palestine and our local work. 
2. CJJ is a space where leaders can share information from other movements. We hope that as folks organize with us, they find relationships and onramps into other justice work.
3. CJJ occasionally partners with organizations working for justice in Israel/Palestine when campaigns directly focus on the local or statewide progressive policy space and/or target antisemitism, Islamophobia, and anti-Arab/Palestinian racism in our communities, including the misuse of antisemitism and manipulation of Jewish safety to advance authoritarianism.

This policy is lightly adapted from Detroit Jews for Justice, a partner organization in the Collaborative for Jewish Organizing.