As we welcomethe Jewish new year, we look back at the year behind us to address ourcomplicity in the many injustices of our time by recommitting to our collectiveresponsibility for justice and humanity. In particular, we reflect on the commonplight and struggle of political prisoners and the many people across the worldwhose dignity is denied and liberty is threatened by mass incarceration andmilitary blockades.

We are inspiredin our struggle for justice by the sacrifice and courage of so many in the yearbehind us - the late Troy Anthony Davis, the Georgia prison strikers, Mumia AbuJamal, Ahmad Sa'adat, Leonard Peltier, the people of Gazaconfined to an open-air prison - and in front of us: the Palestinian prisonersand those jailed at Pelican Bay State Prison and other California prisons onhunger strike and carrying out civil disobedience in defense of the most basicof dignity and rights.

On September30, 2011, Palestinians across occupied Palestine - from the West Bank to theState of Israel to Gaza - put out a call for solidarity with Palestinianpolitical prisoners.  In response to this call, we Jews of conscience intend to startour fast of atonement a day early, on Friday, October 7, and take action todemand:

• An end to the isolation of Ahmad Sa'adat - General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine;
• A meeting of the demands of the civil disobedience and hunger strike of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli occupation prisons;
• An end to the death penalty in the United States and all other places it remains a State practice
• A meeting of the demands of the hunger strike at California state prisons
• An end to the Israeli blockade on Gaza and unconditional and permanent opening of the Rafah crossing

Women theworld over suffer the daily impact of the global market, of chess games playedwith our lives by the rich and powerful over who has access to political powerand resources, of military economies, and of the criminalization and otherviolences inflicted on those who stand in the way of power and profit.

The Zioniststate of Israel participates in all of these violences.  The impact on women, children and families ofbuilding an exclusive, Jewish state in Palestine takes so many forms:

Palestinianwomen visiting, defending and supporting there sons, brothers, fathers, and uncleswho are the 60 percent of Palestinian men who end up as political prisoners atsome point in their lives.  Women whomaintain the Palestinian culture that Zionism tries so hard to destroy. Womenwho confront Israeli soldiers on a daily basis who are attempting to take theirland, their houses, their families. Women who rebuild life after Israel's assault on Gaza.

Meanwhile,Israeli families are being imbued with, implementing and inheriting nationalistmessages of racism, fear and hate, and spreading around the world is the Islamophobicdiscrimination and targeting that Zionism promotes and encourages.

In all of ourmovements for justice across the globe, including the incredible bursts of hopeand possibility spreading across North Africa and Southwest Asia now, women,queers and trans people, and moreso those of color, make movement happen.  We, all in our own and specific ways, understandso viscerally the impact of bigotry, chauvinism and racism that fuel andjustify the creation of haves and have nots. This understanding has always given us the motivation, courage andstrength to survive and resist, and to not be interested in the kind of powerthat is used against us, but to be the foundation of the mass movements thatare the power behind our collective liberation.