Roland Rance

Roland Rance is a Jewish-British Anti-Zionist socialist activist and a campaigner for Palestinian rights. He is the co-founder of the "Jews Against Zionism" (JAZ) organization, which believes that "the conflict in Palestine cannot be resolved without a return of Palestinian refugees and dismantlement of the Zionist structure of the State of Israel.” He was also editor of “Return”, a quarterly Anti-Zionist magazine.

Biography
Roland Rance studied at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1971-3) and University of Bradford (1976-9). He began his political activity in 1966 as a member of the Federation of Zionist Youth (FZY) and became the national director of the federation in 1970. Since 1976 he became an active campaigner for Palestinian rights. He was the Organiser of Sanad Community Service in Palestine, between 1978 to 1985. In August 1982 he was a member of delegation of British Jews to Beirut, Lebanon. Later that year he was a founder member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. He also wrote the 1987 "Return statement of anti-Zionist Jews", and the 2000 "Jews Against the Occupation" petition.

He was also Active in Dai la-Kibbush (Down with the Occupation) organization and a Member in International Socialist Group (1993-2002). Currently, he is the secretary of the Waltham Forest Trades Council. In October 2003, Rance came in last in The Clue-Writing Competition.

Anti-Zionist activity
Between 1989 to 1991 Rance was the founder and editor of “Return”, a quarterly magazine "Against the Israeli Law of Return - For the Palestinian Right to Return." According to the Jewish Chronicle, Return, headed by Rance, Uri Davis and Tony Greenstein, drew explicit parallels between Nazism and Zionism, saying that as Nazi policy in the 1930s set about transferring the Jews from Germany, so Zionism transferred most of the Arabs from Palestine. In a booklet, signed by numerous National Union of Students in the UK (NUS) executives, including President of the NUS Maeve Sherlock and the nowadays Labour Co-operative Member of Parliament Stephen Twigg, the magazine was condemned as “anti-Semitic.”

According to Rance, he has been denounced by the Alliance for Workers' Liberty (AWL) as an anti-Semite, banned from campuses as a result of Zionist pressure, and was reviled by the Jewish Chronicle and other elements of the official leadership of the Jewish community in Britain.

In June 2003, Rance chaired the inaugural meeting of "Jews Against Zionism" in London, with speakers Alice Coy, Prof. Haim Bresheeth and Lenni Brenner. At the meeting, he presented Brenner's book “51 Documents: Zionist Collaboration with the Nazis” and said:

"“For me certainly its an absolute fundamental for my whole political existence that Zionism is not just something I am opposed to - it is my enemy. This is part of the reason why we are taking steps to establish an organisation Jews Against Zionism'"

In his article, "Opposition to Zionism: The core strategy of a solidarity movement", which was published by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, he said that "any strategy for the liberation of Palestine will require dismantlement of the Zionist structures of the state of Israel” In 2004, Rance signed a petition against the Geneva Accord between Israel and the Palestinians, condemning it as "fundamentally inadequate".

In August 2006, During the Second Lebanon War, Rance claimed that "What Israel actually seeks is the cantonisation of Lebanon, and beyond that of the entire Arab world." He also said that Israel went to war because of its interest in the resources of southern Lebanon, particularly the water.

Rance is closely affiliated with Tony Greenstein, a fellow JAZ member and a British communist who campaigns for the destruction of Israel and cites the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. In November 2009, Greenstein declared that

"“Roland Rance and me are like Batman and Robin for British anti-Zionists. Nobody is more anti-Zionist than us. We eat bacon sandwiches!”"