Petition Against the Right of Return

Petition Against the Right of Return to Israel on Behalf of Australian Jews

February, 2010

The following statement reflects only the views of those signatories whose names appear below. Signatories of other statements or authors of articles and blogs on our IAJV website are not to be taken as endorsing this statement.

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We are Jews from Australia, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel’s “law of return.” While this law may seem intended to enable a Jewish homeland, we submit that it is in fact a form of racist privilege that abets the colonial oppression of the Palestinians.

Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land—a right recognized and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish, thereby potentially taking the place of Palestinians who would dearly love to return to their ancestral lands.

We renounce this “right” to “return” offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may “return” to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.

Signed:

Professor Dennis Altman

Dr Tony Balint, Blue Horizon Clinic.

Russell Bancroft

Alice Beauchamp

Professor Andrew Benjamin

Eva Cox (AO)

Wendy Crew

Dr Ned Curthoys

Bronwyn Dahlstrom

Professor John Docker

Sara Dowse

Nicole Erlich (PhD candidate, University of Queensland)

Michael Goldstein

Professor David SG Goodman

Marshall Harris

David Hermolin

Dr Rick Kuhn

Sylvie Leber

GJ Lindell (Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Adelaide)

Antony Loewenstein

Jeff Loewenstein

Miriam Margolyes (OBE)

Jean McClean (advisor to Vice-Chancellor at VU on East-Timor)

Stefan Moore

Michael Munz

Haskell Musry

Dr. Tamas Pataki

Vivienne Porszolt

Joe Rich

Margot Salom

Professor Peter Singer

Dr Peter Slezak

Rene Tsukasov

Susan Varga

Nic Witton

Ron Witton