We're Not Celebrating Israel's Anniversary

[Rana]

We're not celebrating Israel's anniversary

The Guardian,
Wednesday April 30 2008

In May, Jewish organisations will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians.
In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa's market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorised the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state. We will not be celebrating.

In July 1948, 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in Lydda and Ramleh in the heat of the summer with no food or water. Hundreds died. It was known as the Death March. We will not be celebrating.

In all, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Some 400 villages were wiped off the map. That did not end the ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Palestinians (Israeli citizens) were expelled from the Galilee in 1956. Many thousands more when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Under international law and sanctioned by UN resolution 194, refugees from war have a right to return or compensation. Israel has never accepted that right. We will not be celebrating.

We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.

We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.

Seymour Alexander
Ruth Appleton

Steve Arloff

Rica Bird

Jo Bird

Cllr Jonathan Bloch

Ilse Boas

Prof. Haim Bresheeth
Tanya Bronstein

Sheila Colman

Ruth Clark

Sylvia Cohen

Judith Cravitz

Mike Cushman

Angela Dale

Ivor Dembina

Dr. Linda Edmondson

Nancy Elan

Liz Elkind

Pia Feig

Colin Fine

Deborah Fink

Sylvia Finzi

Brian Fisher MBE
Frank Fisher

Bella Freud

Catherine Fried

Uri Fruchtmann

Stephen Fry

David Garfinkel

Carolyn Gelenter

Claire Glasman
Tony Greenstein

Heinz Grunewald

Michael Halpern

Abe Hayeem

Rosamine Hayeem

Anna Hellman

Amy Hordes

Joan Horrocks

Deborah Hyams

Selma James

Riva Joffe

Yael Oren Kahn

Michael Kalmanovitz

Paul Kaufman

Prof. Adah Kay

Yehudit Keshet

Prof. Eleonore Kofman

Rene Krayer

Stevie Krayer

Berry Kreel

Leah Levane

Les Levidow

Peter Levin

Louis Levy

Ros Levy

Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky

Catherine Lyons
Deborah Maccoby

Daniel Machover

Prof. Emeritus Moshe Machover

Miriam Margolyes OBE

Mike Marqusee

Laura Miller

Simon Natas

Hilda Meers

Martine Miel

Laura Miller

Arthur Neslen
Diana Neslen

Orna Neumann

Harold Pinter
Roland Rance

Frances Rivkin

Sheila Robin

Dr. Brian Robinson

Neil Rogall

Prof. Steven Rose

Mike Rosen
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead

Leon Rosselson

Michael Sackin

Sabby Sagall

Ian Saville

Alexei Sayle

Anna Schuman

Sidney Schuman

Monika Schwartz

Amanda Sebestyen
Sam Semoff

Linda Shampan

Sybil Shine

Prof. Frances Stewart

Inbar Tamari

Ruth Tenne

Martin Toch

Tirza Waisel

Stanley Walinets

Martin White

Ruth Williams

Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi

Devra Wiseman

Gerry Wolff

Sherry Yanowitz



__._,_.___

[Marc Peterson]

Peter Vandermeulen suggested that I post on this blog and I'd be happy to, but it appears I'll be in the minority. Following is a letter I wrote to Peter and some of those mentioned in the June Banner article on the trip to the disputed territories:

I'm writing in response to the article in the June Banner in which you were each referenced. I was disturbed by what I saw as half-truths and mis-representations and I hope to clarify some of them below. Contrary to the statements of some of those quoted, their point of view is very much the prevailing view in the media and is heard very often.

First of all, let's start on a positive note; I agree with you all that life in the disputed territories is hell on earth and a humanitarian disgrace. Also, I agree that the modern state of Israel is "not chosen of God" or in need of saving for some End-Times purposes. My disagreements were not influenced by Zionist preachers, simply by my heart and brain.

1) First of all, the Palestinians are kept in sub-human conditions for political purposes. Do any of you find it ironic that the wretched people you observed are "brothers and sisters" to some of the wealthiest nations and kingdoms on earth that surround them? These countries literally have wealth pouring out of the ground and yet find it more convenient to keep the "Palestinians" in the world's first multi-generational refugee camps to show the TV cameras and tour groups how mean the Israelis are. The U.S. and the UN have poured billions of dollars of aid into these territories and yet no one's life seems to improve.

2) The Jews have been living in the West Bank and Gaza strip for over 4,000 years of uninterrupted occupation except for some periods when they were massacred and chased out by the Ottoman Empire.

3) Are you aware that the Disputed Territories never belonged to the “Palestinians” and only came into Israeli possession as a result of the 1967 six day war in which Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon all massed forces at Israel’s border in order to “push the Jews into the sea”. The Arabs lost and Israel took control of the land as a buffer to future, promised attacks.

4) Did you know that the “Palestinians” could have had their own country as far back as 1948 had they accepted the UN sponsored partition plan which gave Israel AND the Palestinians a country of their own on land which Jews had lived on for thousands of years? The Arabs rejected the UN offer and instead went to war with the infant Israeli nation. Did you know that many of the Palestinians are Jordanian but were massacred and kicked out by King Hussein of Jordan in 1970 after an uprising?

5) If your complaint is about the security fence which Israel is finally building in the Disputed Territories, are you aware that it is built solely to keep the Arab terrorists out so that they can no longer self detonate on busses, in dining halls or pizzerias and kill Jewish grandmothers and schoolchildren? Attacks have dramatically dropped off since the security fence has been built.

6) Regarding your concerns for fellow Christians in these territories, I am with you whole-heartedly. You seem, however, to blame their current troubles on Israel somehow and not the fact that they are being systemically harassed and threatened out of their historic towns by the Muslim majority. Ask yourselves this: Would you rather be an Arab in Israel where they are citizens and are allowed to vote and are even in the Knesset or a Jew in any Arab nation on earth?

I am not trying to start a fight, but I admit I was angry seeing what I saw as a very biased paper that my denomination put out under my name. I would love a response by any of you to any of these points to start a dialogue.

[Rana]

Konae,
You are assuming too much and falsely. God knows my heart, what you assume is false. I do not have time to engage in conversations who accuse and presume to know my heart. I do not presume whether a group of Jewish and Israeli leaders wrote this letter in a Christian spirit.

Assumptions, also this may or may not be directed at you that all of us here are a bunch of Liberals because we criticize Israel's hand in the issue of Palestine is also false. I really don't care for these Liberal/ Conservative wars in the church. In my experience conservative churches can be just as misguided in their moralism as liberals can be in their humanism.

I know plenty of people who are critical of Israel and are "conservative" my background is not CRC, but rather OPC and PCA. I know plenty in the URC as well who do not blindly support Israel. Again just pointing out that this is not a I am a liberal Christian and you are conservative Christian issue.

I can agree with writing that is written from a non-Christian perspective.

All I wanted was a brief history lesson that recognizes "the other" has suffered and paid HUGE costs for the creation of Israel, something few people (especially Christians) know.

Peace to you.

[Rana]

Again you assume I have not forgiven. I have plenty of Jewish/ Israeli friends and family members.

I agree with you that peace is only through forgiving, and that works both ways. This is why I believe in reconciliation of Jew and Arab so that they can live side by side in peace under a true democracy that does not favor Jew, Muslim or Christian.

The injustices that continue daily with the blessing of many Christians is what I have serious problems with. Christians supporting hateful, racist regimes believing it is fulfilling prophecy.

[Marc Peterson]

"Christians supporting hateful, racist regimes believing it is fulfilling prophecy." You may not have known, but many Christians support Israel without a thought of some kind of end-times prophecy, but merely because we've judged that they have a right to exist and defend themselves. If you read the blog post on the front page from an Arab writer and the Lebanon Star article from this forum, you'll see that one doesn't have to be a crazy end-timer to want Israel to exist without having it's civilians targeted for destruction. Speaking of things that not many people know, did you know that approximately the same number (800k or so) Jews were kicked out of their homes in Arab lands during the formation of Israel and the Arab attacks that immediately followed? They left with nothing on their backs but what they could carry and, unlike the Arabs who stayed behind in Israel, could never have survived and thrived if they had stayed behind. This is just to show that I'm not coming at this from a religious POV, that I've thought about this, as you have, and have come to a different conclusion.

[Rana]

Sorry guys, I don't have time to respond I am in the middle of moving.

[Marc Peterson]

Take your time, Rana. We'll be here as will the issue, unfortunately. Write if you need help.

[Rana]

We could use lots of help if you are serious, :)

[Marc Peterson]

You're in Kentwood, right? I'm working most of the day, but if you have some pieces in particular or if an hour would help, my # is 485-3300. Also, our deacons were a lot of help with our move when my wife was in the hospital on bedrest with our twins if that avenue hasn't been explored.