The violence perpetrated against the funeral procession accompanying the American-Palestinian journalist to her final resting place is contrary to the values of Judaism.
All the signatories of this text are humanists – and Jews. Of course, everyone is Jewish in their own way. But under the circumstances, believer or not, practicing or not, Zionist or not, having or not having developed strong relations with Israel, the differences matter little. The common point of all the signatories of this text is that they give their attachment to Judaism an ethical scope. And even if some are not used to doing so, it is as Jews that they express themselves here publicly.
In 2018, the Knesset declared Israel a nation-state of the Jewish people. Without any of us having been consulted on what such a definition could mean, nor having participated in the election of the parliamentarians who adopted it. In this way, the Knesset automatically made the Jews of the Diaspora and beyond Judaism itself co-responsible for the policy pursued by the governing bodies of this state.
This is a clear abuse of power. The Jews of the Diaspora can in no way intervene in the definition of this policy. And Judaism obviously has nothing to do with it. This is the only thing that we Jews wish to solemnly recall today.
Why today? Because on Friday, May 13, like you, like millions of people around the world, we were shocked witnesses to the way in which the Israeli police attacked the procession of those who wanted to accompany the American-Palestinian journalist to her final resting place. Shireen Abu Akleh, killed in the field while covering the May 11 storming of the Jenin camp by Israeli military forces. Witnesses to how this police attacked those carrying her coffin, and her coffin itself, which narrowly missed being knocked down.
Such facts, attested by images relayed all over the planet, defile the earth which some believe was given to them by God. They also defile Judaism and our common humanity. We, Jews and humanists, declare that this police force is not our police force, that its principals are nothing to us. And that the acts of which this police and its principals are guilty do not bind us.
Judaism, however defined, neither authorizes nor commands any such act. Heirs, each in our own way, to a centuries-old history made up of just fights and nameless suffering, we Jews and humanists have an idea of Jewishness that is incompatible with the perpetration of such acts. From this Jewishness, we do not detach certain principles that are intangible to us. Simple respect for the dead and their bodies is one of them.
First signatories:
Jean-Christophe Attias, director of studies at EPHE.
Esther Benbassa, Director of Emeritus Studies at the EPHE, Senator for Paris.
Dominique Vidal, journalist and historian.
See also:Violence erupts in Jerusalem following Palestinian funeral | AP News
