[1637] in peace2
forward
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Julia Steinberger)
Thu Apr 11 14:29:28 2002
Message-Id: <200204111829.OAA25591@department-of-alchemy.mit.edu>
To: peace-announce@MIT.EDU
Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 14:29:17 -0400
From: Julia Steinberger <julias@MIT.EDU>
Hi all, I'm forwarding this letter to peace-announce.
It was originally correctly sent to peace-discuss by
bangarangatan (unlike Ryan's original post, please in
the future keep peace-announce for posting events only).
From: Tree Monkey <bangarangatan@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: letter from an israeli student
To: Ryan R Klimczak <klimczak@mit.edu>
Aside from the historical revisionism, the outright
racism, and the fact that this supposed letter from a
supposed student has been circulating for years -
anytime the Zionists commit another atrocity - this
letter blatantly ignores the 500-pound gorilla that is
standing in the American living room: Without funding
from the Untied States, in the form of my and your tax
dollars, there would be no Zionist State (to call it a
"Jewish State" is slanderous to Judaism).
So, if he would like to express his contempt for our
opinions on the matter, then I suggest strongly that
he, like I already have, write a letter to a
Congressperson and tell them to de-fund the Zionists,
to cut off arms shipments, and to let them go it
alone, since they "could not care less".
In actual fact, of course, the Zionist lobby in
Washington is the second-largest lobby on Capitol
Hill, because the Zionists, far from being unconcerned
about US opinion, realize that their racist regime
could not exist without being propped up, like South
Africa before it, by the US government.
And, as for that bit about the world standing silently
by during the Holocaust, I completely agree. The world
did nothing while the Nazis decimated the minority
populations - including Jews, homosexuals, Roma,
communists, anarchists, etc, etc - of Europe. The
irony, of course, is that he would have us sit idly by
while the Zionazis do exactly the same thing in the
Middle East.
As a rebuttal-in-kind, though, I'd like to offer this
piece by way of jerusalem.indymedia.org:
Published on Wednesday, April 10, 2002 by
CommonDreams.org
Please, Dad, Tell Me: How Do I Stop Being Complicit?
by Sarah Shields
Dear Dad,
It was an enormously heavy responsibility you raised
me with. You taught me that the Jews have been
oppressed for centuries. You taught me that the
holocaust could only happen because the Germans were
silent. You taught me that Jews must never, never,
never be silent when injustice occurs, because our
silence makes us complicit.
You taught me about history, and you taught me by your
actions. As a rabbi, you preached against racism in
the south, and had to leave a pulpit in Louisiana when
they threatened to kill our family. You worked for
open housing laws, insisting that there should be no
ghettos in America like the ones your parents had
lived in in Europe. You counseled Jewish kids who were
conscientious objectors, eliciting the hostility of
many who believed that the Vietnam war was a valiant
struggle for justice in our time.
It is a heavy responsibility I carry now. Because now
I am complicit. I have not stood in front of the tanks
that are killing other mothers' children in refugee
camps. I have not ridden in ambulances to help them
get past checkpoints so that the injured could be
cured. I have not lay in front of the bulldozers to
prevent their destroying a family's shelter.
What can I do about this injustice?
Palestinians are losing their property, their lives,
and their children every day. The Israeli army shoots
at unarmed civilians, imposing collective punishments
that make it impossible for Palestinians to get food,
water, or power. For decades, Israel has paid settlers
to move into occupied territory.
International law reflects the consensus of the
world’s sense of right. International law seeks to
protect the powerless. And international law is clear.
Occupying countries have to protect the lives and
property of the local population. It is not legal to
establish settlements at all. Why do Israel and the US
pay Israelis to move into them?
There are Palestinian terrorists. They have been
raised under occupation. Know what? Israeli soldiers
treat occupied people the same way other armies have
treated occupied people. The stories are horrendous.
Arbitrary beatings. Tauntings. Killings. Arrests
without charge. Torture. Threatening parents in front
of children. Stepping on “prisoners” trying to move
between check points. Strip searches. The use of power
to humiliate.
When people are humiliated, and have no homes to
return to because the homes have been destroyed by the
occupying army, When people are humiliated, and have
no family to hold them in their arms because they have
been shot and unable to get medical care, When people
are humiliated, and have no hope for the future, They
see no alternative to violence.
You taught me Judaism’s universal message. “I am a Jew
because in all places where there are tears and
suffering the Jew weeps.” I believed Edmond Fleg’s
words, “I am a Jew because Israel places man and his
unity above nations and above Israel itself.”
Dad, we have become the oppressors. One rabbinic
student told me years ago when I lived in Israel that
this was the meaning behind the warning to remember
that we were slaves in the land of Egypt. We were
warned to remember, because sometimes slaves want to
become masters.
We are the oppressors, and we are also the victims.
Jews are being killed, and at the same time, the moral
imperative that you taught me was part of being Jewish
seems to be vanishing. I believe that Jews are being
used by an American administration to accomplish its
own ends, ends that have nothing to do with the ideals
of Jews. We need to shout aloud that 80% of the
billions that the US gives Israel in aid must be spent
on weapons, and that more than half of those weapons
are built in Texas. And Jews are being used by an
Israeli government that has no interest except
territorial expansion. Sharon is the ideological heir
to Jabotinsky. Land for peace was never in that
ideology. War makes conquest possible, and all the
people of Israel and Palestine are being drawn,
tragically and together, into that war.
We must act, and we must act immediately. Jews are
being used to legitimize the slaughter of
Palestinians.
Please, Dad, tell me how to be like you taught me to
be. How do I stop being complicit?
I love you.
Sarah
________________________________
Sarah Shields is an associate professor of Middle East
history at UNC Chapel Hill.
