Jews Against the Occupation

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JATO activists demonstrating during a pro-palestine rally in Seattle, 2002.

Jews Against the Occupation (JATO) describes itself as "an organization of progressive, secular and religious Jews of all ages throughout the New York City area advocating what it calls "peace through justice for Palestine and Israel" [1] and the removal of the Israeli West Bank barrier," which it refers to as the "Apartheid wall."

The organization claims that it seeks unity with the Palestinian people by promoting human bonds that transcend religious, ethnic, and political divisions. There are six major planks in its platform, which consists of opposition to what they claim:

Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands,
Israeli military aggression and police brutality,
U.S. foreign aid to Israel,
Israeli economic strangulation of Palestinian society,
Exclusion of Palestinians from their ancestral homes,
Censorship of anti-Israeli political speech under pretext of accusations of anti-Semitism.

According to member Rachel Newmann, on the JAOC website [2]

"Israel was created, at least in part, because of anti-Semitism; because Europe and the U.S. wanted a dependent ally in the Middle East, a non-Arab proxy that could be counted on to represent their interests in the oil-rich region."