By Gilad Atzmon

I believe it was my recent expose of JVP’s harassment, slander and herem (excommunication) campaigns that led to a new petition calling on us to “End slander in the pro-Palestine movement online.”

Of course I oppose slander and abuse, but I also reject any form of censorship and thought control. Even though, more than anyone else, I have been the target of vile slander, I will not sign this petition nor will I support it.

The petition pledges to “block”, “delete” and/or “remove” those who behave in such a way as to interfere with ‘unity’. Do I have to remind our activist ‘undersigners’ that while ‘unity’ is not exactly a value, truth, justice and freedom most certainly are?

Rather than blocking the JVP leadership for tagging Ken O’Keefe as a ‘prominent Neo Nazi’ or associating Alison Weir with ‘White Supremacism’, we have to deal with the problem by openly questioning why these tactics are prevalent within certain Jewish groups - both Zionist and anti-Zionist - and why they keep appearing in our midst. And at the same time we must encourage our Jewish liberal ‘allies,’ as they call themselves, to search their souls, self-reflect and then to mend their ways.

I suggest that those who signed this petition bear in mind that the solidarity movement is not the ‘end’ nor is it the ‘goal’, it is only the ‘means.’ And our precious ‘unity’ is insignificant and redundant unless we learn to exchange freely and without fear.

Rather than turning this movement into an ‘ideological collective,’ driven by a quest for correctness, let it be simply a melting pot of thoughts, ideas and activism, but all aiming at truth and justice rather than at conformism and unity.