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About
We are a coalition of Jews and people of Jewish heritage who live in Hastings and the surrounding districts in East Sussex, UK who support an immediate and permanent end to the genocide Israel is carrying out in Gaza, and an end to Israel’s occupation, apartheid, and ethnic cleansing – in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem and within the State of Israel.
We attend events locally and nationally in solidarity with Palestinians and advocate to end complicity with the apartheid state of Israel, we also hold social events in the interests of building our community and strengthening our bonds.
Please see here a recent statement that we handed out during a town centre stall event.
If you are interested in finding out more, joining the group, coming to an event or just meeting like-minded people in the area, please contact us via the form on the website or email.
Our Judaism is grounded in the fight for justice and liberation - we know that our safety is inextricably linked to that of all members of our community.
Shelley, HJJ
I grew up in a modern orthodox Ashkenazi Jewish household. My sister and I went to local schools, and on Sundays we went to Hebrew School at the local Synagogue. We learned about Tu Bishvat and the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in those lessons.
Since its foundation in 1901, the JNF has invited European Jews to contribute funds to buy land and trees in Israel to “make the dessert bloom” occupying what they called a “land without people”. The truth was that Palestine was a thriving agricultural land famous amongst other things, for its dates and it Jaffa oranges.
Israeli policy has led to the desertification of Palestine, bulldozing trees, poisoning wells and diverting water into Israel, in a long standing policy to force Palestinians to leave their land. In Gaza, and in the West Bank this policy predates 7th October by decades, in a callous effort to drive people from their homes and lands, I am British, not Israeli, but this shames me more than I can say.
Katy, HJJ
In Jewish north London where I grew up, all the boys had barmitzvahs, while girls had batmitzvahs, at the age of 12 or 13. These coming-of -age ceremonies were accompanied by lavish parties and lots of presents; one very common gift was a certificate from the JNF stating that the giver had paid for 25, 50 or 100 trees to be planted in their name in Israel. This was seen as an unquestioningly ‘good thing’ by everyone. Most of us had no idea what the JNF was or that these trees were being planted on stolen Palestinian land and that we, as young British Jews, were being unwittingly coopted into this colonisation project.
We didn't know there was another way of being Jewish, one that didn't involve supporting Israel. Many of us had to stand outside of our communities to find out the truth.
Leah, HJJ
I remember the blue and white JNF box at my grandparents home with no idea of the heinous role of that organisation in providing the means, using its charitable status, to accumulate more and more of the land that could only be used by or for Jews.
And today I am horrified to learn that last year, 35,273 trees were destroyed and poisoned in the West Bank in addition to those destroyed through the pulverisation of Gaza. This included 26,988 olive trees in the areas of Salfit, Nablus, Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Hebron.