diff --git a/CHANGES.txt b/CHANGES.txt
index c73a1887a3..7c10e29a08 100644
--- a/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/CHANGES.txt
@@ -166,6 +166,7 @@ Merged from 2.0:
  * Fix streaming not holding ref when stream error (CASSANDRA-9295)
  * Fix canonical view returning early opened SSTables (CASSANDRA-9396)
 Merged from 2.0:
+ * Allow JVM_OPTS to be passed to standalone tools (CASSANDRA-5969)
  * Fix bad condition in RangeTombstoneList (CASSANDRA-9485)
  * Fix potential StackOverflow when setting CrcCheckChance over JMX (CASSANDRA-9488)
  * Fix null static columns in pages after the first, paged reversed
diff --git a/bin/sstablekeys b/bin/sstablekeys
index 8308b88ac6..77d2e64c89 100755
--- a/bin/sstablekeys
+++ b/bin/sstablekeys
@@ -48,7 +48,7 @@ if [ $# -eq "0" ]; then
     exit 2
 fi
 
-"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -cp "$CLASSPATH" -Dstorage-config="$CASSANDRA_CONF" \
+"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -cp "$CLASSPATH" $JVM_OPTS -Dstorage-config="$CASSANDRA_CONF" \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.SSTableExport "$@" -e
diff --git a/bin/sstableloader b/bin/sstableloader
index 2ee4f51e01..26b1e3f490 100755
--- a/bin/sstableloader
+++ b/bin/sstableloader
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ if [ -z "$CLASSPATH" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
-"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp "$CLASSPATH" -Xmx256M \
+"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp "$CLASSPATH" $JVM_OPTS -Xmx256M \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.BulkLoader "$@"
diff --git a/bin/sstablescrub b/bin/sstablescrub
index a5f9a675dc..ea784ef60b 100755
--- a/bin/sstablescrub
+++ b/bin/sstablescrub
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if [ "x$MAX_HEAP_SIZE" = "x" ]; then
     MAX_HEAP_SIZE="256M"
 fi
 
-"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp "$CLASSPATH" -Xmx$MAX_HEAP_SIZE \
+"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp "$CLASSPATH" $JVM_OPTS -Xmx$MAX_HEAP_SIZE \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.StandaloneScrubber "$@"
diff --git a/bin/sstableupgrade b/bin/sstableupgrade
index 6248ac8a97..c972d5409c 100755
--- a/bin/sstableupgrade
+++ b/bin/sstableupgrade
@@ -47,7 +47,7 @@ if [ "x$MAX_HEAP_SIZE" = "x" ]; then
     MAX_HEAP_SIZE="256M"
 fi
 
-$JAVA $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp $CLASSPATH -Xmx$MAX_HEAP_SIZE \
+$JAVA $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp $CLASSPATH $JVM_OPTS -Xmx$MAX_HEAP_SIZE \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.StandaloneUpgrader "$@"
diff --git a/tools/bin/json2sstable b/tools/bin/json2sstable
index bb10b5123c..a0278d43c0 100755
--- a/tools/bin/json2sstable
+++ b/tools/bin/json2sstable
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ if [ -z "$CLASSPATH" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
-"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -cp "$CLASSPATH" -Dstorage-config="$CASSANDRA_CONF" \
+"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -cp "$CLASSPATH" $JVM_OPTS -Dstorage-config="$CASSANDRA_CONF" \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.SSTableImport "$@"
diff --git a/tools/bin/sstable2json b/tools/bin/sstable2json
index a7882bf615..7eeb708824 100755
--- a/tools/bin/sstable2json
+++ b/tools/bin/sstable2json
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ if [ -z "$CLASSPATH" ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
-"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -cp "$CLASSPATH" -Dstorage-config="$CASSANDRA_CONF" \
+"$JAVA" $JAVA_AGENT -cp "$CLASSPATH" $JVM_OPTS -Dstorage-config="$CASSANDRA_CONF" \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.SSTableExport "$@"
diff --git a/tools/bin/sstablesplit b/tools/bin/sstablesplit
index 73e736e662..1775c650ed 100755
--- a/tools/bin/sstablesplit
+++ b/tools/bin/sstablesplit
@@ -43,7 +43,7 @@ if [ -z $CLASSPATH ]; then
     exit 1
 fi
 
-$JAVA $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp $CLASSPATH -Xmx256M \
+$JAVA $JAVA_AGENT -ea -cp $CLASSPATH $JVM_OPTS -Xmx256M \
         -Dcassandra.storagedir="$cassandra_storagedir" \
         -Dlogback.configurationFile=logback-tools.xml \
         org.apache.cassandra.tools.StandaloneSplitter "$@"