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Berkeley SJP and JVP hold vigil for Pittsburgh victims, while blasting Israel

“Together we heal, united we fight,” said Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace chapter at the University of California, Berkeley, on Facebook before a planned Nov. 22 vigil.

Jewish students face a climate of anti-Israel intimidation on several California campuses, including from UC Berkeley SJP. Credit: Students for Justice in Palestine at University of California, Berkeley.
Jewish students face a climate of anti-Israel intimidation on several California campuses, including from UC Berkeley SJP. Credit: Students for Justice in Palestine at University of California, Berkeley.

Both the Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voices for Peace chapter at the University of California, Berkeley, plan to hold a vigil on Nov. 22 to remember the deadliest attack in American Jewish history, while at the same time blasting Israel’s defensive response to Palestinian and Hamas violence along the Gaza border.

“Our intention for this event is for our communities, Progressive Jews and Palestinians, to come together to grieve during these difficult times. Just as we organize in solidarity, we mourn in solidarity,” the groups said on Facebook. “We reject any attempts to politicize our communities coming together to mourn.”

The event was initially scheduled for Thursday night, but moved to the later date “out of concern for antendees [sic] safety and the threat of online harassment.”

“Rooted in Jewish values of social justice, Jewish Voice for Peace believes that safety comes through solidarity with marginalized communities rather than militarization,” stated the groups. “Together we heal, united we fight.”

“The sense of insecurity experienced by Jewish Canadians is now attracting international attention,” the J7 Large Communities Task Force Against Antisemitism wrote.
Eduardo Martinez “is a flagrant antisemite who used his platform to push hatred and misinformation against our community,” Tali Klima of the Bay Area Jewish Coalition-Action told JNS. “We are not sad to see him go.”
“We will not surrender to a cruel enemy and its collaborators, Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis,” Israel’s consul general in New York said.
“This should not be welcome in the Democratic party,” the New Jersey senator said.
“The outrage only exposes how the press and those poisoned by anti-Israel propaganda will twist anything to blame the Jews,” Lizzy Savetsky told JNS.
Israel said that it “firmly rejects” the charges, which it said targeted the Jewish state “camouflaged as measures against violence.”