In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians.

In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa's market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorised the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.

In July 1948, 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in Lydda and Ramleh in the heat of the summer with no food or water. Hundreds died. It was known as the Death March. We will not be celebrating.

In all, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Some 400 villages were wiped off the map. That did not end the ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Palestinians (Israeli citizens) were expelled from the Galilee in 1956. Many thousands more when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Under international law and sanctioned by UN resolution 194, refugees from war have a right to return or compensation. Israel has never accepted that right. We will not be celebrating.

We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.

Seymour Alexander

Ruth Appleton

Steve Arloff

Rica Bird

Jo Bird

Cllr Jonathan Bloch

Ilse Boas

Prof. Haim Bresheeth

Tanya Bronstein

Sheila Colman

Ruth Clark

Sylvia Cohen

Judith Cravitz

Mike Cushman

Angela Dale

Ivor Dembina

Dr. Linda Edmondson

Nancy Elan

Liz Elkind

Pia Feig

Colin Fine

Deborah Fink

Sylvia Finzi

Brian Fisher MBE

Frank Fisher

Bella Freud

Catherine Fried

Uri Fruchtmann

Stephen Fry

David Garfinkel

Carolyn Gelenter

Claire Glasman

Tony Greenstein

Heinz Grunewald

Michael Halpern

Abe Hayeem

Rosamine Hayeem

Anna Hellman

Amy Hordes

Joan Horrocks

Deborah Hyams

Selma James

Riva Joffe

Yael Oren Kahn

Michael Kalmanovitz

Paul Kaufman

Prof. Adah Kay

Yehudit Keshet

Prof. Eleonore Kofman

Rene Krayer

Stevie Krayer

Berry Kreel

Leah Levane

Les Levidow

Peter Levin

Louis Levy

Ros Levy

Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky

Catherine Lyons

Deborah Maccoby

Daniel Machover

Prof. Emeritus Moshe Machover

Miriam Margolyes OBE

Mike Marqusee

Laura Miller

Simon Natas

Hilda Meers

Martine Miel

Laura Miller

Arthur Neslen

Diana Neslen

Orna Neumann

Harold Pinter

Roland Rance

Frances Rivkin

Sheila Robin

Dr. Brian Robinson

Neil Rogall

Prof. Steven Rose

Mike Rosen

Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead

Leon Rosselson

Michael Sackin

Sabby Sagall

Ian Saville

Alexei Sayle

Anna Schuman

Sidney Schuman

Monika Schwartz

Amanda Sebestyen

Sam Semoff

Linda Shampan

Sybil Shine

Prof. Frances Stewart

Inbar Tamari

Ruth Tenne

Martin Toch

Tirza Waisel

Stanley Walinets

Martin White

Ruth Williams

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

Devra Wiseman

Gerry Wolff

Sherry Yanowitz

