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JEWISH FIGURES ACROSS THE GLOBE CALL ON UN AND WORLD LEADERS TO
SANCTION ISRAEL  
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Joseph Gedeon
October 22, 2025
The Guardian
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_ In an open letter, Israeli ex-officials, artists and intellectuals
say ‘unconscionable’ actions in Gaza amount to genocide _

2024 Oscar Winner Jonathan Glazer was one of the signers., (Jordan
Strauss/Invision/AP)

 

Prominent Jewish figures around the world are calling on the United
Nations [[link removed]] and world
leaders to impose sanctions on Israel
[[link removed]] over what they describe as
“unconscionable” actions amounting to genocide in Gaza
[[link removed]].

Over 450 signatories, including former Israeli officials, Oscar
winners, authors and intellectuals have signed an open letter
[[link removed]] demanding accountability over
Israel’s conduct in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The letter’s release comes as EU leaders meet in Brussels on
Thursday
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reports they plan to shelve proposals for sanctions over human rights
violations.

“We have not forgotten that so many of the laws, charters, and
conventions established to safeguard and protect all human life were
created in response to the Holocaust,” the signatories write.
“Those safeguards have been relentlessly violated by Israel
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Signatories include former speaker of the Israeli Knesset Avraham
Burg, former Israeli peace negotiator Daniel Levy, British author
Michael Rosen, Canadian author Naomi Klein, Oscar-winning film-maker
Jonathan Glazer, US actor Wallace Shawn, Emmy winners Ilana Glazer and
Hannah Einbinder, and Pulitzer prize winner Benjamin Moser.

The signatories urge world leaders to uphold international court of
justice (ICJ) and international criminal court rulings, avoid
complicity in international law violations by halting arms transfers
and imposing targeted sanctions, ensure adequate humanitarian aid
to Gaza [[link removed]], and reject false
claims of antisemitism against those advocating for peace and justice.

“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 letter reads.

The appeal follows a sharp shift in public opinion for US Jews and the
wider electorate over the last few years. A Washington Post poll
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that 61% of US Jews believe Israel has committed war crimes in Gaza,
and 39% say it is committing genocide. Among the broader American
public, 45% told the Brookings Institution 
[[link removed]]they
believe Israel is committing genocide, while a Quinnipiac survey
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half of US voters share that view, including 77% of Democrats.

Other signatories to the letter include the Israeli conductor Ilan
Volkov, playwright V (formerly known as Eve Ensler), American comedian
Eric André, South African novelist Damon Galgut, Oscar-winning
journalist and documentarian Yuval Abraham, Tony award winner Toby
Marlow and Israeli philosopher Omri Boehm.

“Our solidarity with Palestinians is not a betrayal of Judaism,
then, but a fulfillment of it,” the signatories write. “When our
sages taught that to destroy one life is to destroy an entire world,
they did not carve exceptions for Palestinians. We shall not rest
until this ceasefire carries forward into an end of occupation and
apartheid.”

Since 7 October 2023, at least 65,000 Palestinians have been killed
and more than 167,000 injured, according to Gaza’s health ministry,
while the UN estimates
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90% of the population is internally displaced. Two US Democratic
senators, Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley, concluded after a
fact-finding mission
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the region in September that Israel was implementing “a systematic
plan to destroy and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from Gaza”, with
the US complicit in these actions.

Their report detailed the near-total destruction of civilian
infrastructure, the weaponization of food and systematic obstacles to
humanitarian aid delivery.

The 10 October ceasefire has been shaken by repeated violations. The
Palestinian news agency said Israel had violated the ceasefire 80
times and killed at least 80 Palestinians in the past 11 days. The
Israeli military accused Hamas of violating the agreement, killing two
Israeli soldiers in Rafah and delaying the return of hostages’
bodies.

The public letter says that the truce makes no reference to the West
Bank [[link removed]], where settler
violence continues, and the underlying conditions of occupation remain
unaddressed.

More than 3,200 Palestinians have been injured in attacks in the West
Bank this year, according to the latest UN humanitarian office report
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and the UN documented 71 settler assaults during a single week in
October. In one incident this week, a 55-year-old woman was
hospitalized after being clubbed by a masked settler while picking
olives, an attack captured on video
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The Israeli civil rights group Yesh Din has found that
[[link removed].] just
3% of investigations into settler violence between 2005 and 2024 led
to convictions. Shortly after taking office, Donald Trump lifted the
limited sanctions
[[link removed]] Joe
Biden had imposed on dozens of violent settlers and settler groups.

The ICJ is expected to issue a new ruling this week
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Israel’s obligations in the occupied territories, following its July
2024 non-binding advisory opinion
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the occupation unlawful. Yet EU foreign ministers are reportedly
backing away from sanctions, despite findings by the bloc’s
diplomatic service that there were “indications” Israel was
breaching its human rights obligations under the EU-Israel association
agreement.

_Joseph Gedeon is a politics breaking news reporter based in
Washington. X @JGedeon1 [[link removed]],
Bluesky @jgedeon.bsky.social [[link removed]], _

* Israel
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* Gaza
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* Jewish community
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* Israel Sanctions
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