About UK Friends of Standing Together

October 2023: The below statement was written prior to the outbreak of the current war in Israel/Palestine. For the statement of 27 Israeli human rights/anti-occupation organisations, including Standing Together, on that war, click here.

There has never been a greater need for a grassroots movement mobilising Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of real democracy: full equality for all, including an equal right to self-determination.

Unending and increasingly violent occupation, accelerated and deepened by the most right-wing government Israel has ever seen, has fed violence, fear, and hatred between Israelis and Palestinians. Social and economic inequality is widening. Israel’s Palestinian minority faces increasing discrimination. Women, Mizrahi Jews, immigrants, the LGBTQ+ community and others are increasingly marginalised — socially, economically, and politically.

Settler violence is at an all-time high. Based on the rhetoric and actions of the current government, we may well see moves to formally annex the West Bank and revoke the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian citizens of Israel.

And yet there is a growing movement which offers hope, in spite of the electoral decimation of Israel’s traditional left parties. Standing Together (עומדים ביחד نقف معًا), Israel’s fastest-growing grassroots movement over recent years, is uniting Jews and Palestinians within Israel to fight for an equal and just society, building a broad coalition of diverse communities – Jewish and Arab; Mizrahi and Ashkenazi; people of all genders; secular and religious; rural and urban.

It organised the first demonstration for democracy in Tel Aviv in January 2023, but unlike some involved in the democracy movement, it believes in democracy and equality for all Israel’s citizens. Along with other anti-occupation activists, it has raised the need to make the struggle for Israeli democracy a struggle against occupation.

We are launching UK Friends of Standing Together in solidarity with that movement, to promote its aims, principles and campaigns and to provide financial and practical support.

We will:

Promote in the UK, amongst all those who support peace, equality, and justice in Israel and Palestine, the benefits of joint struggle by Jews and Palestinians.
Campaign in the UK for peace, justice, and equality for Israelis and Palestinians – Jews and Arabs – including an equal right to self-determination, and for the full equality of Palestinian citizens of Israel.
Raise money to support the work of Standing Together in Israel.

Anyone based in the UK who signs up to be a Friend of Standing Together, by making a regular monthly donation of any size to Standing Together, is automatically an individual member of UKFoST.

You can view UKFoST’s democratic structure here. We currently have local chapters in Nottinghamshire, Bristol, Sheffield, and London (including a borough-based chapter in Barnet).

The current Steering Group of UKFoST is Eliaou Balouka, Dan Davison, Anas Dayeh, Tyrone Falls, Hannah Gaventa, Holly Kal-Weiss, Bernice Keshet, Jon Lansman, Gabriel Morris, Pete Radcliff, Daniel Randall, and Anna Roiser. Our founding Parliamentary supporters were Alex Sobel MP and Nadia Whittome MP.

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