The past month has been difficult for many Jewish-Americans but especially students. Fundamental questions of collective identity, religion, self, and history have surfaced with the ongoing genocidal war on the people of Palestine. We at the American Student Union understand that Zionism and the far-right Netanyahu regime do not represent American Jews or Israelis. This criminal regime that wears the mask of Judaism, disgraces everything that the heroic Jewish people have accomplished, fought for, and sacrificed for millennia.

The ASU and UJPFO despite these dark times look with hope, as Jewish students have been at the forefront of the struggle for the rights of the Palestinian people and the movement against the apartheid regime in Israel. These groups include Students and Justice for Palestine, Jewish Voice for Peace, Not in Our Name, and the United Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order. Some Universities, like Columbia University go as far as banning these Jewish organizations from speaking at all on their campus. The heroism demonstrated by these groups, amid censorship, blacklisting, and threats will not be forgotten.

We at the ASU call for continued solidarity between all peoples of the United States against not only the apartheid regime in Israel but against US imperialism which is ultimately responsible for the current atrocities against the peoples of Palestine and the world at large. The Jewish people have a heroic tradition in the struggle for labor rights, civil rights, and the emancipation of all peoples of the world. Judaism is not defined by the criminal Stern Gang, Kahane, Ben Gvir, or Netanyahu. It is the tradition of the revolt against Roman occupation, the democratic revolutions of the 18th-19th century, the labor movement, the struggle against fascism, and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising. We stand with the peoples of Palestine and Israel against the reactionary and corrupt Netanyahu regime.

ASU and UJPFO call for an immediate cessation of military hostilities in Gaza. We support an end to Israeli occupation, a sovereign Palestinian State alongside Israel, and to equality and security in a two-state solution.

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