Questions & Answers

Here we try to answer important or frequently asked questions related to our campaigns.


I live in South Africa. Why should I care about what happens in Israel and Palestine?

Short answer: Because human rights are everybody's concern, no matter where you live. Events in the middle-east have a bearing politics across the world. Also, because Jews and Muslims in South Africa are divided over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a non-sectarian movement committed to human rights will help heal that divide.

Long answer: In an increasingly interconnected planet, where often the actions of people in one city affect people far away, we all have a duty to do what we can to combat human rights abuses irrespective of where they take place. It is this idea that has resulted in many international campaigns to rectify breaches of human rights in a wide variety of situations. Think of the movements to abolish slavery, end Apartheid, restore democracy in Zimbabwe, free Tibet etc. It is also hard to ignore that events in the middle-east, including Israel and Palestine, have important consequences for politics all over the world.

Also, South Africa has a large Muslim community and a significant Jewish one. The identity of many people in these communities is strongly linked to Palestinian Muslims and Israeli Jews respectively. Both communities donate money to and regularly visit the region. Unfortunately, the conflict in Israel and Palestine has created fractures between South African Jews and Muslims. This is aggravated by intolerant, racist comments and actions in both communities. There are already numerous groups that advocate a wide variety of political opinions on what must happen in Israel and Palestine, so in that respect our organisation is not unique.

But in contrast to many sectarian organisations, we seek to unite Jews and Muslims as well as people from other religions and people with no religion, despite different cultural backgrounds and even widely differing political views on Israel and Palestine. As long as we share a commitment to human rights for all people and subscribe to a few principles that should be uncontroversial, including opposition to anti-semitism and Islamaphobia, then we can have a unified campaign that struggles for civil rights in Israel and Palestine and also improves relations between Jews, Muslims and others in South Africa.