ABOUT US:

We are a UK based national (non profit making) organisation representing anyone who whilst acknowledging the rights of the state of Israel to exist in peace and security, recognises that the Illegal Occupation, settlement, despoiling and general brutal oppression since 1967 has been the root cause of the growing hatred.

Ever since I was a young teenager at school, one of the very few things from history which ever really stuck in my mind was the story of the creation of the state of Israel.

At the time I couldn't understand how (to use Gandhi's words), the nation of Palestine was despoiled by the Zionists religious ideology which appeared to elevate them above all others on the planet who were not Jewish....  I know some Zionists will say there never was a Palestine, but there had certainly been Arabs Christians & Jews living there relatively happily with a beautiful rich culture for 2,000 years!

I remember learning what Gandhi had said in 1938 (of course this was before the Holocaust but in our opinion the Holocaust should not have diminished anyone else's human rights.  Surely it should have had the opposite effect?):

"It is not without hesitation that I venture to offer my views on this very difficult question. My sympathies are all with the Jews. I have known them intimately in South Africa. Some of them became life-long companions. Through these friends I came to learn much of their age-long persecution. They have been the untouchables of Christianity [...] But my sympathy does not blind me to the requirements of justice. The cry for the national home for the Jews does not make much appeal to me. The sanction for it is sought in the Bible and the tenacity with which the Jews have hankered after return to Palestine. Why should they not, like other peoples of the earth, make that country their home where they are born and where they earn their livelihood? Palestine belongs to the Arabs in the same sense that England belongs to the English or France to the French. It is wrong and inhuman to impose the Jews on the Arabs. What is going on in Palestine today cannot be justified by any moral code of conduct."

However I recognise today, that rightly or wrongly, the Jewish Nation of Israel was established and I for one do recognise the state of Israel and her right to exist, now that  most Jews living there were actually born there (need to check on this!).  Just as I believe that the Falkland Islanders should remain on the Falklands because they are so established - not because they say God gave them these Islands 3,000 years ago!

We are all entitled to our opinions, but none of us are entitled to use violence or intimidation against people of different views, sexuality or race.

On the subject of sexuality I know many Gay people seem to be especially caring and sensitive and I just wondered if anyone was interested in starting a group, branch or network such as Gay Friends of Palestine & Israel or Gay PSC?

After the Gaza Massacre in December '08/January '09, I decided that I couldn't sit by and watch the final nail being driven into the lid of Palestine's Coffin for a moment longer.  So I founded our strictly non-violent peace-organisation, UK Friends of Palestine & Israel.

We have many Israeli and non Israeli Jewish friends who agree that what Netanyahu is doing has nothing to do with Judaism.