Jews for a Just Peace (JFJP) was a Vancouver, Canada-based organization of Jews whose mission is to work “for a fair and just solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” Central to the organization’s vision of justice was its unyielding opposition to any and all measures taken by the Israeli government to thwart Arab terrorism against its citizens.

For example, JFJP condemned Israel’s “military attacks against civilian populations” and its destruction of Palestinian homes and farms — ignoring, at least in its public rhetoric — the fact that these operations were targeted specifically at Palestinian terrorists and their collaborators. Similarly, the organization denounced such Israeli anti-terror measures as the imposition of curfews for Palestinians and the construction of physical barriers like the separation wall (which essentially brought suicide bombings to an end) in the West Bank. Said JFJP: “We do not believe that such actions, in contravention of the 1949 Geneva Convention accords to which Israel was signatory, serve genuine security needs.”

A notable JFJP steering committee member was Vancouver resident Stephen Aberle, who supports the Palestinian “right of return” and has worked cooperatively with the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions.

On February 16, 2006, JFJP demanded that the government of Canada recognize the terrorist group Hamas (whose founding Charter is specifically dedicated to Israel’s destruction) as the legitimate, democratically elected government of the Palestinian people, and that Canada support the imposition of sanctions against Israel if the latter refused to negotiate politically with Hamas. Said JFJP: “Hamas received the overwhelming support of the Palestinian people in free and fair elections. That population has suffered a cruel occupation for decades. The new Palestinian government deserves our recognition.”

JFJP officially endorsed StopWar.ca, formerly known as the November 17th Peace Coalition, a broad-based alliance of more than 180 anti-war organizations, labor unions, and individuals that oppose not only the U.S. military presence in Iraq, but also the profiling of immigrants and refugees in North America. Fellow endorsers of StopWar.ca included: the Arab Palestine Association; Artists Against War; the Canada Palestine Association; Coalition in Solidarity with the People of Iraq; the Communist Party of Canada; Direct Action Against Refugee Exploitation; Global Justice; International Socialists; Lawyers Against the War; Oxfam Canada; the Palestine Solidarity Group; Queers United Against Kapitalism; the Trade Union Committee for Justice in the Middle East; Veterans Against Nuclear Arms; the War Resisters Support Campaign; and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

In July 2006, JFJP published a joint statement with StopWar.ca expressing outrage over Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s justification of Israel’s military action against Hezbollah forces in Lebanon. The statement read, in part: “We would remind Mr. Harper that Palestinians have a right under international law as an occupied people to engage with the Israeli military and to take their soldiers as prisoners of war. … While Hezbollah’s initial attack on an Israeli military target and the subsequent attacks on civilian areas in Israel is in contravention of international law, these actions can never constitute a justification for Israel to ignore the Geneva Conventions and to launch the massive attacks on civilian populations that we have witnessed …”

JFJP also endorsed the “Combatant’s Letter” crafted in 2002 by Courage to Refuse, an organization of IDF (Israeli Defense Force) combat officers and soldiers accusing Israel of trying to “dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people,” and demanding that Israelis evacuate all Jewish settlements located outside their country’s pre-1967 borders.

JFJP identified Noam Chomsky, Norman Finkelstein, and the International Solidarity Movement  as “like-minded groups and people.”

JFJP has been defunct since approximately 2012.