Why you are not anti Semitic if you stand against Israel's abusive human rights activities.

The media in the UK is having a field day over the comments made by Bradford MP, Naz Shah about her views on Israel and how Israel treats Palestinians. She has been accused of being antisemitic by making comments that are deeply hurtful to the Jewish community.

I agree that the MP made comments at a time of tension and anger and perhaps her choice of words were unfortunate, but what she was expressing was anger at the devastation that Israel delivered to Gaza in 2014.

It would seem that in some parts of the Jewish community , Israel very much defines their identity as Jews. It is deeply rooted in the history of this religion and in many ways has a root for Christianity too. Indeed, Israel spends a lot of money giving young Jewish people from all over the world a free 10 day vacation in Israel so that they can get a sense of what their 'homeland' is all about.  This is a small part of Israel's Public relations machine. Being a part of a religion often does have a geographical context eg Israel for Judaism and Christianity, Saudi Arabia for Islam, India for Hinduism.

But I struggle to understand why criticising the acts of a country that are perpetrators of serious human rights abuses means that you can be labelled as antisemitic. What is happening in the West Bank and Gaza in terms of Israel's illegal oppression of those territories is a an attempt at land grabbing, ethnic cleansing and a clear lack of respect for the value of human rights.

Palestinians are being displaced from their homes , many of their children are being put in detention and land that is owned by Palestinians is being occupied with illegal Israeli settlements.

My time in the West Bank made me think clearly about how much of the world has been deceived by Israel who still uses the Holocaust to halt comments about the state being an abuser of human rights. Yes the holocaust was terrible and should never happen again and yes perhaps comparing the Israeli government to Hitler and the Nazis is wrong and hurtful. But both organisations share a common appetite for displacing a race living among them and have turned to violence to oppress them.

Let's be clear here. These actions are not about being Jewish, these actions are being taken by people who do not respect human life and are looking to extend their prosperity and greed. There are many Jewish people that are against Israel's actions against Palestinians too all over the world, including many that live in Israel itself. Israel isn't a bad country, but it's leaders are racist, make no mistake.

Don't you dare try to warp the discussion on these human rights abuses by playing the anti-Semite card because if you do, you are aligning yourself with human rights abusers, not Jews.

Why I am jumping for justice.

Hi I am John Hicks.

I am nearly 44 and I live with my wife Diane and my two daughters Beth and Jess in Cambridgeshire, UK.  On July 10th,  I am going to take part in a tandem skydive raising awareness about human rights and raising money for the London based human rights charity, Amos Trust.  Today I received the all clear from my doctor and I have a certificate to say that I am medically ready to jump out of that plane!

Ooh er!  It looks like I am committed now!

One of the things that we love to do as a family is to travel and we have been to many different countries and explored different cultures.
In 2009, we visited Durban in South Africa, almost at the tip of Africa.




We decided to go there because we had heard a lot about a project that sought to help children and young people that lived on the streets of a city famous for violent crimes and abuse.
The project, Umthombo Street Child, gave street children a place to go for support and hope to one day be reunited with family or develop a better life for themselves.
Umthombo used sport (surfing and football), art and dedicated workers to reach out to those children, some of whom could be as young as four.
On one occasion, the then director of the project, Tom Hewitt MBE, said to me that every street child that I would have met will have had experienced some form of sexual abuse in order to be accepted into the numerous gangs in the city.  For many of those kids, being in a gang meant being 'safe' on the streets.
Considering what these kids had to deal with, they were always friendly to us and Umthombo gave them hope for the future, and opportunities to set away from life on the streets.

In June 2014, I was fortunate to visit another project based in Bethlehem in the West Bank, Middle East.



I was playing in a band for an arts festival and so by night I did the rock n roll thing and by day I visited places where Palestinians lived.
On one occasion I visited a family just outside Bethlehem and they gave me a seat under an olive tree and served me tea.  I played with their kids for a while too, I tried to teach them to juggle.  They thought it was funny.

The only problem with this scene, was that in the background lay the demolished house of that family.  The Israeli Defence Force, gave them an hour to abandon the house before a bulldozer smashed it down.  This was the start of Israel taking their land, which the family had owned for generations, and trying to force the family out.
Despite this, they welcomed us and gave us what little they had and told us their story.  Their water supply which was a borehole was even demolished by the bulldozer so as to make life really hard.

You can read about my visit there by visiting my blog which includes photos, stories and some poetry that I wrote about my experience.  Click here

In both South Africa and in The West Bank, despite what is happening at a political level, children's lives are being negatively affected by the selfish actions of adults.  These actions take away justice and hope for these children.

I am committed to doing what I can to change situations like those described and I am doing this by raising money for The Amos Trust, a UK organisation that supports grass roots organisations in countries that rebuild hope and restore justice.

This is why I am going to jump out of a plane at 15000 ft in a tandem skydive. As I do this I will think of those kids that I have met, some of whom have died at the hands of people that do not champion hope and justice choosing to oppress, damage and belittle the lives of children and adults that have such potential.

I will write more blogs about my upcoming experience and about the experiences that have led me to do the skydive. I hope that I can help you to understand some of what I have seen and maybe even get involved yourself.

For now, if you would like to very practically get involved, I would be delighted if you could sponsor my jump by clicking the banner below or at the very least simply share my story to your Twitter, Facebook or Google accounts.

Thanks for listening.

John