Source >> Jewish Voice for Peace
Yesterday, hundreds of Jews and allies took over the Statue of Liberty with a clear demand: Ceasefire now.
The action marked a sharp escalation, one month into Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza. Over 10,000 Palestinians have now been killed, among them over 4,000 children.
The takeover on Liberty Island was led by JVP-NYC. Hundreds of us — young people and elders, rabbis, descendants of Holocaust survivors, elected officials — sang “Ceasefire now” and carried banners that read “The world is watching”, “Palestinians should be free”, and “Never again for anyone.”
“We came to the Statue of Liberty today because we are inspired by the words of our Jewish ancestor, Emma Lazarus, that are etched into the monument,” said Jay Saper, an JVP organizer. “Those words compel us to take action to support the Palestinians of Gaza yearning to be free. And we will continue to take action until we bring about a cease-fire and until Palestinians are free.”
The world really is watching: our action was on the front page of the New York Times.
In cities across the country, people of conscience are mobilizing to demand a ceasefire. Our protests are shifting and evolving tactically: shutting down highways, ports, train stations, and Congressional offices.
- On Thursday, November 2, over 500 faith leaders and organizers from JVP-Philly staged a sit-in inside Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station. Over 300 people were arrested, and trains were shut down for hours. Philly commuters received this alert:
- In Durham, North Carolina, JVP-Triangle organizers blocked traffic on the main highway for three hours. Congresswoman Foushee called for a “humanitarian pause” during a town hall that same evening.
- On Friday, dozens of JVP-Seattle organizers led a lockdown outside the office of Senator Patty Murray.
- Also on Friday, protesters from the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) and JVP-Bay Area locked themselves to a U.S. military supply ship at the Port of Oakland, delaying it for hours, as part of AROC’s #BlocktheBoat campaign.
- On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people marched in Washington, D.C. in the largest pro-Palestine demonstration in U.S. history.
- On Monday, hundreds of protesters at Tacoma Port in Washington blocked a U.S. military supply ship loaded with weapons bound for Israel.
- Also on Monday, organizers locked arms and blocked the entrances to a Boeing plant in St. Charles, Louisiana that manufactures the weapons used to kill Palestinians in Gaza.
We’re building power towards a ceasefire across the country, and our opposition is panicking. So they’re working twice as hard to attack the movement for Palestinian liberation.
As Jews for Palestinian freedom, we won’t waver in our belief that every life is precious. We know that these false accusations of antisemitism are a cynical distraction from Israeli atrocities, and that diluting the meaning of “antisemitism” puts Jews in greater danger. We know that there is no justice in arming an apartheid state — only in solidarity with each other.
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The UK state is not unitary from the point of taxation. There is significant fiscal devolution – council tax and its equivalent is devolved to all four polities, and property sales taxes devolved in Cymru and Scotland. Scotland has significant influence over income tax rates and bands, but the ability to create new taxes is largely controlled by Westminster though a Tourist tax has been approved. Interestingly, Corporation Tax was devolved to the Northern Ireland Assembly by the Tories (largely to encourage it to match the very low rates in the 26 county Republic of Ireland state). However VAT, National Insurance and many other taxes are UK-wide (not just “Britain”) and controlled by Westminster.
The STUC has identified measures https://www.stuc.org.uk/news/news/stuc-launch-tax-proposals-to-save-scotlands-public-services/ under current devolution arrangements that could be used to tax wealth more by the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Greens have in the last few days introduced an exemplary measure into the housing bill at Holyrood to remove the exemption on the monarch’s properties being taxed in Scotland (he owns 80), a symbolic gesture but not politically insignificant, and have proposed a new council tax band for mansions. The Scottish Socialist Party has long proposed removing the regressive council tax and replacing it with a redistributive Scottish Service Tax.
This is all in advance of the devolved Scottish Parliament elections in May 2026. Polls tell us voters in Cymru strongly support the extension of the fiscal powers devolved to the Scottish Parliament to Senedd Cymru, as a minimal demand, and also elect a new Senedd on a new PR system in May 2026.
The campaign for a wealth tax will therefore have a totally different character and demands in the different parts of “Britain” (which has not been a fiscal or economic unit for 225 years by the way). There are no Anglo-centric “one size fits all” fiscal solutions, even within the current form of the UK state.