Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and world leaders to impose sanctions on Israel for what they describe as “inconceivable” actions that amount to genocide in Gaza.
Former members of the Israeli government, Oscar winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter demanding accountability for Israel's conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. The publication of the letter comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on Thursday, amid reports that They plan to shelve the sanctions proposals for human rights violations.
“We do not forget that many of the laws, charters and conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories write. “Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.”
Among the signatories are former Israeli Parliament Speaker Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, British writer Michael Rosen, Canadian writer Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, American actor Wallace Shawn, Emmy winners Ilana Glazer and Hannah Einbinder and Pulitzer Prize winner Benjamin Moser, among others.
More than 450 signatories urge world leaders to respect the resolutions of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the International Criminal Court, avoid complicity in violations of international law by stopping arms transfers and imposing targeted sanctions, ensure adequate humanitarian aid to Gaza, and reject false accusations of anti-Semitism against those who advocate for peace and justice.
“We bow our heads in immense sadness at the accumulation of evidence indicating that Israel's actions will be judged as genocide by the legal definition,” the letter reads.
The petition comes after a sea change in public opinion among American Jews and the broader electorate in recent years. A Washington Post poll reveals that 61% of American Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza, and 39% say it is committing genocide. Among the American public at large, 45% told the Brookings Institution that they believe Israel is committing genocide, while a Quinnipiac poll in August found that half of American voters share that view, including 77% of Democrats.
Other signatories of the letter include Israeli conductor Ilan Volkov, playwright V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), American comedian Eric André, South African novelist Damon Galgut, Oscar-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Yuval Abraham, Tony Award-winner Toby Marlow, and Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm.
“Our solidarity with the Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism, but a fulfillment of it,” the signatories write. “When our wise men taught that to destroy one life is to destroy an entire world, they made no exceptions for the Palestinians. We will not rest until this ceasefire leads to the end of occupation and apartheid.”
Since October 7, 2023, at least 65,000 Palestinians have been killed and more than 167,000 injured, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, while The UN estimates that approximately 90% of the population is internally displaced. Two Democratic US senators, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, concluded after a fact-finding mission in the region in September that Israel was carrying out “a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse the Palestinians of Gaza” with the complicity of the United States in these actions.
Their report detailed the near-total destruction of civilian infrastructure, the use of food as a weapon, and systematic obstacles to the delivery of humanitarian aid.
The October 10 ceasefire has been rocked by repeated violations. The Palestinian news agency claimed that Israel had violated the ceasefire on 80 occasions and had killed at least 80 Palestinians in the past 11 days. The Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the agreement, killing two Israeli soldiers in Rafah and delaying the return of the hostages' bodies.
The public letter states that the truce makes no reference to the West Bank, where settler violence continues, and that the underlying conditions of the occupation remain unaddressed.
More than 3,200 Palestinians have been injured in attacks in the West Bank this year, according to the latest report from the UN humanitarian officeand the UN documented 71 settler attacks during a single week in October. In an incident this week, a 55-year-old woman was hospitalized after being hit with a stick by a masked settler while picking olives, a attack that was recorded on video.
Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din has found that only 3% of research into settler violence between 2005 and 2024 ended in convictions. Shortly after taking office, Donald Trump lifted limited sanctions that Joe Biden had imposed on dozens of violent settlers and settler groups.
It is expected that The ICJ issues a new ruling this week clarifying Israel's obligations in the occupied territoriesfollowing its non-binding advisory opinion of July 2024 in which it declared the occupation illegal. However, EU foreign ministers are reportedly waiving sanctions, despite findings by the bloc's diplomatic service that there are “indications” that Israel is failing to meet its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel association agreement.