Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United Nations and international leaders to impose sanctions on Israel, accusing it of committing atrocities that meet the legal definition of genocide in Gaza.
More than 450 individuals, including former Israeli officials, authors, intellectuals, and award-winning artists, have signed an open letter demanding accountability for what they describe as Israel’s “unconscionable” actions in Gaza, the occupied West Bank, and East Jerusalem.
The letter comes as European Union leaders gather in Brussels to discuss human rights concerns, amid reports that some member states are attempting to block proposals for sanctions against Israel.
“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and conventions established to safeguard human life were created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories wrote. “Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel.”
Among the signatories are former Knesset Speaker Avraham Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, authors Naomi Klein and Michael Rosen, filmmaker Jonathan Glazer, actors Wallace Shawn and Ilana Glazer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Benjamin Moser.
The letter urges the United Nations, the United States, and European governments to uphold rulings by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and International Criminal Court (ICC), halt arms transfers to Israel, and impose targeted sanctions for ongoing violations of international law.
It also calls for full humanitarian access to Gaza and denounces what the authors describe as “false claims of antisemitism” used to silence critics of Israeli policy.
“We bow our heads in immeasurable sorrow as the evidence accumulates that Israel’s actions will be judged to have met the legal definition of genocide,” the statement reads.
The open letter highlights a growing divide within global Jewish communities. Many now openly question the morality of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, marking a major shift in opinion compared to previous conflicts.
A recent poll cited by The Daily National News found that 61 percent of Jewish Americans believe Israel has committed war crimes, while 39 percent say the country is committing genocide.
Among the broader American public, 45 percent said they believe Israel is committing genocide, according to a Brookings Institution study, while a Quinnipiac University poll found that half of all US voters hold the same view.
The signatories stress that their solidarity with Palestinians does not represent a rejection of Judaism but a moral continuation of its ethical teachings.
“Our solidarity with Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism but a fulfillment of it,” the letter says. “When our sages taught that to destroy one life is to destroy an entire world, they did not carve exceptions for Palestinians.”
The letter adds that the ongoing ceasefire must lead to a permanent end to what they describe as occupation and apartheid.
According to Gaza’s health ministry, more than 65,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 2023, while over 167,000 have been injured. The United Nations estimates that nearly 90 percent of Gaza’s population has been displaced.
Two US Democratic senators, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, said after a recent fact-finding trip that Israel’s actions amounted to “a systematic plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza,” accusing the US of complicity.
Their findings pointed to widespread destruction of civilian infrastructure, the deliberate blocking of humanitarian aid, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war.
The 10 October ceasefire remains fragile. Reports from The Daily National News indicate that Israel has violated the truce more than 80 times in recent days, resulting in at least 80 additional Palestinian deaths.
The Israeli military accused Hamas of breaking the agreement by killing two Israeli soldiers in Rafah and delaying the return of hostages’ remains.
Meanwhile, the letter draws attention to escalating settler violence in the West Bank, where more than 3,200 Palestinians have been injured this year. The UN documented 71 settler assaults in a single week in October.
One recent attack, captured on video, showed a 55-year-old Palestinian woman being beaten with a club by a masked settler while harvesting olives.
Israeli rights group Yesh Din reported that only 3 percent of cases involving settler violence between 2005 and 2024 resulted in convictions.
The letter also criticizes former US President Donald Trump for lifting limited sanctions imposed by Joe Biden on extremist settler groups accused of human rights abuses.
The International Court of Justice is expected to issue a new ruling this week clarifying Israel’s obligations in the occupied territories after its July 2024 advisory opinion declared the occupation unlawful.
Despite these findings, EU officials are reportedly retreating from sanction discussions, even as the bloc’s own legal advisors have concluded that Israel is likely violating human rights obligations under its partnership agreement with the EU.
For now, Jewish leaders behind the letter say they will continue pressing global powers to act, insisting that silence or neutrality in the face of what they call “an unfolding genocide” amounts to complicity.
