Tell the truth: these atrocities are crimes against humanity.

from the Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.

We invite survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, refugees and their descendants: Add your name to our call to stand up and stop the genocide.

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As rabbis, we have assumed the sacred responsibility to protect our ancient traditions, support our community, and provide moral leadership in times of crisis. We find ourselves in a terrible historical moment. Many of us have parents, grandparents and great-grandparents who survived or died in the Nazi death marches, and we all grew up in the shadow of the Nazi Holocaust. The State of Israel is currently carrying out a Holocaust, the deliberate mass killing of the Palestinian people using weapons provided by the United States.

The photos and videos from northern Gaza are a frightening echo of all-too-familiar images of European ghettos and Nazi concentration camps during World War II. The Nazi camps were hidden from the world, but as Susan Albuhawa writes: “Israel is committing the Holocaust of our time, before the eyes of a seemingly indifferent world.” Today, with our ancestors behind us, we stand in solidarity with our Palestinian brothers and sisters and call for an immediate arms embargo and an end to the genocide – we will not remain indifferent to Palestinian suffering.

There is no time to waste and no room for ambiguity. We must call the Israeli government's actions what they are: genocide. The Palestinian testimonies we receive throughout the year are now accompanied by a growing mountain of documentation. While the Zionist discourse spreads the myth that Israel must Although we commit these heinous acts for the sake of Jewish security, we know that they were never about the safety of anyone, as the horrifying death toll confirms. The Israeli military has killed at least 42,000 Palestinian grandparents, parents, babies, children, artists, leaders, poets, teachers, journalists and doctors. Countless others lie under the rubble that have not yet been documented in Palestine's devastated health system.

We call on you and all people of conscience to show up today and follow our tradition of telling the truth – dabru emet (Zechariah 8:16) and choose life – u'vacharta bachayim (Deuteronomy 30:19). We must ask ourselves who we are: Will we be like the brave “righteous gentiles” who risked their personal safety to protect and save Jewish lives during the Nazi Holocaust? Or will we behave like those who “didn’t want to get involved” or enthusiastically joined the Nazi Party? There is no middle ground. We implore you: join us in speaking the truth and choosing life. We need everyone.

Dabru emet, Tell the truth: The Israeli military herds Palestinian men and boys into lines and forces them to run to the pits. These are death marches.

Dabru emet, Tell the truth: The Israeli military continues to force Palestinian families to flee, even though there is no place safe from their bombs. This is ethnic cleansing.

Dabru emet, Tell the truth: the Israeli military is Burn Palestinians to death in hospitals and displaced persons camps. The Israeli military is Palestinians buried alive in the rubble of their destroyed homes. The Israeli military is Babies left to die and rot. This is a campaign of destruction.

These atrocities are crimes against humanitya phrase codified into international law in response to the Nazi Holocaust and intended to prevent atrocities of this magnitude from ever happening again. Lo ta-amod al dam re'echa (Leviticus 19:16): We must not and will not stand by and watch endless Palestinian blood being shed. So many lives can still be saved.

We must honor our ancestors who were murdered by the Nazis as the world's most powerful nations allowed genocidal violence to escalate unchecked. We must honor all of our ancestors who have been displaced and killed throughout our history because of racist, nationalist ideologies. We must honor our ancestors by shouting the truth to the heavens and putting our bodies on the line to stop the Israeli government's genocide against the Palestinians now. Ameinuour people, are those who are committed to stopping the genocide.

Join us as we join our Palestinian allies in calling on our government to block arms sales to Israel and commit to a comprehensive arms embargow.

We invite survivors of the Nazi Holocaust, refugees and their descendants: Add your name to our call to stand up and stop the genocide.