European Jews for Palestine (EJP) is an umbrella network organisation consisting of 24 Jewish collectives based in Europe, representing diverse Jewish backgrounds, traditions and perspectives. Its member organisations share a commitment to the Palestine solidarity movement and to combatting the many forms of racism that form the bedrock of ongoing colonial projects such as Zionism. The network is both a political home for all those who do not conform to settler violence and who oppose racism, colonialism and religious supremacy, and a developing Jewish movement in Europe fighting for justice and equality for all.
Created at a pivotal moment, as the crackdown on civil anti-colonial movements intensified, the network has proved particularly important in withstanding that pressure and forming a counter-narrative at a time when genocidal violence is justified and widely fuelled by state powers. This is a movement composed of bottom-up Jewish collectives, until then dispersed, created to develop a solid narrative in which antisemitism and Palestine solidarity are not pitted against each other but interlinked as one organising and interdependent force, where one cannot exist without the other.
EJP’s members vary widely in size and capacity: some groups are well-established organisations with legal registration, funding, large member bases and decades of experience, while others are newly formed, informal groups of a handful of activists. Member groups operate largely independently in their local contexts, drawing on their knowledge of local realities, and come together to share hardships, but also the wins and solidarity actions their activism produces. EJP’s function is essentially to connect these groups, coordinate transnational actions and campaigns, and bring the voice of its member groups to EU institutions, where it has been sorely lacking.
Coming together for networked action means the network does not only uplift local actions and spotlight injustices and solidarity, but also plans and coordinates international actions and campaigns for the movement – strategising, contributing to lobby work, and developing a mission for the network. One of the core tasks already identified moving forward is reaching and mobilising affiliated member groups to take a more active role in EJP, and organising structurally to create concrete roles and opportunities for more people to plug into.
The Guerrilla Redistribution
The grant supported EJP in designing and implementing lobbying and advocacy efforts at EU level, including bringing representatives from member groups to Brussels and Strasbourg for lobby days. There, EJP advocated against the implementation of the IHRA definition across Europe and pushed instead for an approach that situates the fight against antisemitism within the broader anti-racist movement, and for the inclusion of anti-Zionist Jewish voices in all matters related to Jewish life in Europe. The grant also allowed EJP to host Jewish holiday events that built and strengthened its anti-Zionist Jewish community and presented a real alternative for Jewish life in Europe, free from Zionism and pro-Israel institutions; to invest in essential organisational digital tools and training so the network ran more smoothly and effectively; and to offer compensation for at least some of the many working hours this work required.
These celebrations were held in the form of public events that empowered the local EJP chapters across Europe, alongside the local groups of the Palestinian solidarity movement, strengthening both and fighting all forms of racism, including anti-Palestinian and anti-Jewish racism. The aim was to make EJP’s work more visible, legitimate and officially recognised, to enter institutional spaces from which these groups had been excluded, and to celebrate Jewish life and cultural events together with their Arab and Muslim partners, from an anti-racist, decolonial and anti-Zionist perspective.