Jewish bloc to light Chanukah candles for Palestinian liberation

The Jewish Bloc for Palestine will hold a special Chanukah service to demand freedom and justice for the Palestinian people. Titled ‘Chanukah action for Palestinian liberation’, the event will take place in Trafalgar Square on Monday 22 December from 6pm.

The group says that the event will:

Use ritual, prayer and song to mark the end of Chanukah and conduct a mass candle lighting to show our continued support for Palestinian liberation. To demand an end to Jewish institutional and leadership complicity in Israel’s occupation and genocide in Palestine, and to express our solidarity with the hunger strikers.

The Jewish Bloc also expressed its solidarity with the victims of this week’s murderous attack near Bondi Beach. It called on authorities to ignore attempts to exploit the killings to inflame divisions or — as the Starmer regime is already doing — to trigger repression of opposition to Israel’s genocide, land theft and apartheid:

This year’s festival of light has been marred by an antisemitic attack on Bondi Beach, and we are devastated by the loss of life and threat to the Jewish community. As we hold our community members in our hearts, we also hold the Palestinian people, who have been decimated by similar hate and violence that we have faced over centuries.

We know the answer to our persecution is not to persecute others.

Pitting our communities against each other, as the Met police did when they banned all pro-Palestine protest in central London due to a menorah located in Trafalgar Square.

Many of the Jewish Bloc had planned to attend the protest and we will not allow the government to conflate protest with terrorism or a threat to Jewish safety.

The groups describe their action as “the voices of the ever-growing anti-Zionist Jewish community”. Photos and footage will be published after the event closes.

Featured image via JSC