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Liberal Jewish scholars, leaders urge increased focus on Palestinians in protests of Israeli judicial overhaul
(JTA) — Ever since hundreds of thousands of Israelis began pouring into the streets to oppose their government’s plan to weaken the courts, the protests have faced a contentious question: How much, if at all, should the demonstrations focus on Palestinian rights?
The answer to that question, over the past seven months, has been very little. While some demonstrators at the main weekly protest in Tel Aviv wave the Palestinian colors or wear t-shirts opposing Israel’s occupation of the West Bank, the focus of the protests has remained squarely on the judicial overhaul in part so that it can maintain a broad tent.
Several large American Jewish groups — which have historically been reticent to publicly criticize Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians — have also come out against the judicial overhaul.
Now, hundreds of American Jewish academics and other public figures, in two letters published in the past week, are calling for U.S. Jewish groups and President Joe Biden to draw a closer link between the overhaul and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. The overhaul, if passed in its entirety, would sap the Israeli Supreme Court of its power and independence. The first component of the legislative package passed last month along party lines.
In one petition that went online last Friday, titled “The Elephant in the Room” and directed at “leaders of North American Jewry,” 800 signatories “call attention to the direct link between Israel’s recent attack on the judiciary and its illegal occupation of millions of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.” The petition’s lead action item is a call to “support the Israeli protest movement, yet call on it to embrace equality for Jews and Palestinians” both within Israel’s recognized borders and in the West Bank.
The petition is topped with a cartoon by an artist named Shoshke, depicting a large elephant bearing the words “Israeli occupation” and standing in the middle of a progressive American protest. Among the signatories to the petition are professors of Jewish studies at leading U.S. universities and top Israeli professors, from the progressive writer Peter Beinart to Hasia Diner of New York University and Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller, the former longtime executive director of Hillel at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Palestinian scholars have also signed on, as have prominent non-Jewish scholars who are experts on Jewish-adjacent issues, including Timothy Snyder, a historian of the Holocaust, and Stefanie Schüler-Springorum, the director of the Center for Antisemitism Research in Berlin.
Separately, the liberal Jewish group Americans for Peace Now sent a letter to President Joe Biden this week thanking him for his outspoken criticism of the overhaul and urging him to extend that pressure to issues concerning the Palestinians. The letter asks Biden to “no longer automatically [prevent] efforts to hold Israel accountable at the United Nations for its settlement activities and human rights violations against Palestinians.”
That letter’s 163 signatories includes rabbis as well as leaders of organizations like T’ruah, a liberal rabbinic human rights group, and the New Israel Fund, which fundraises for progressive and civil society groups in Israel. Also among the signatories are Alex Soros, a funder of liberal Jewish causes who recently took the reins of his father George’s massive charity, and Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers.
The two new statements reflect a growing perception on the left that American Jews and Democrats are becoming less hesitant to criticize Israel.
Omer Bartov, the Brown University professor of Holocaust and Genocide studies who initiated the “Elephant in the Room” statement, wrote in an email that activists have long been frustrated by what they characterize as U.S. Jewish leaders’ inattention to the Palestinian issue. The petition hopes to seize upon the disaffection of many American Jews with Netanyahu’s government, which includes far-right figures in senior roles.
“This may well indicate a watershed moment in American Jewish views about Israel, and a new willingness by public figures, reflecting the sentiments of the younger generation, to honestly criticize Israeli policies,” he said.
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The post Liberal Jewish scholars, leaders urge increased focus on Palestinians in protests of Israeli judicial overhaul appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.