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are humans too and deserve all the rights of every human, including the right to life and dignity? One reason why the Palestinian-Israeli tragedy persists is because the Palestinians’ terrorized existence under an obviously apartheid state is ignored by so many, including letters to the editor and most media. Another is that the American government and taxpayers support the Israeli military.
Leslie Sponsel, Hawaii Kai, HI PALESTINE AND UKRAINE
To the Financial Times, Dec. 5, 2022
Kristina Berdynskykh’s return to Kherson (“A bittersweet homecoming,” Life & Arts, FT Weekend, November 26) was a moving account of the effects of occupation on Kherson’s citizens and their happiness at Russia’s withdrawal.
But I have just returned from 11 days visiting the Palestinian occupied territories and each time I go the situation is worse. I witnessed continuing cruelty and grave breaches of international law. More and more land is illegally occupied, and the Israeli army is deployed to protect illegal settlers and oppress and kill Palestinian citizens. Now politicians who openly call for ethnic cleansing will take up senior positions in the new Israeli government.
Clearly Vladimir Putin’s invasion and occupation of Ukrainian territory is wrong, violent and cruel. But so is Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory. We claim we are upholding an international rules-based order in Ukraine. Yet we ignore international law and the opinion of the International Court of Justice in relation to Israel.
If we upheld international law, the Palestinians would have their state and Israel would be saved from its monstrous record of cruelty and illegality.
It is little wonder that so much of the world does not support NATO on the Ukraine war. They see clearly our hypocrisy and double standards.
Clare Short, former UK International Development Secretary, London, England CAMPUS SCANDAL ABOUT ISRAEL
To The Observer, Dec. 9, 2022
Dear President Eric Kaler,
Case Western Reserve University’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), alongside 13 different cosigning organizations, would like to issue a response to the email you sent to the campus community in regards to the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) passing Resolution 31-15.
In your campus-wide address on Nov. 9, you declared the efforts of SJP and the USG as “hateful,” “naive’’ and “anti-Semitic.” Resolution 31-15 seeks only to investigate CWRU’s investment in companies and institutions that are potentially contributing to the death and suffering of minorities within Israel and its occupied territories, the global military industrial complex and the global prison industrial complex. Resolution 31-15 was debated through open, respectful dialogue and ultimately passed by individuals who have been democratically chosen to represent our undergraduate student body. The members of SJP seek to foster an open dialogue with you in hopes of reaching an understanding. The students of CWRU have shown support for Resolution 31-15 and we urge the administration to implement the outlined conditions.
SJP and its allied organizations recognize and acknowledge the concerns of Jewish students on this campus. We validate the fears expressed by our Jewish peers and we are intent on taking a stand against the very real and growing threat of anti-Semitism in this country and world. The requests in the resolution do not seek to spread hate, nor are they inherently antiSemitic. Resolution 31-15 asserts a legitimate criticism of the actions of the Israeli government and does not target the Jewish community as a whole. The argument that a vote against Israel is one against the Jewish members of our community makes an extremely nuanced conversation morally impenetrable. We must be able to acknowledge when atrocities occur, and we reserve the right as students to request that our university investigate their financial support of said atrocities.
Your statement lacked consideration for the impact your words would have on the students whom you have been appointed to care for. It is evident that you have only prioritized the safety and concerns of the Jewish members of our community, as shown in your meeting with Cleveland Hillel. While you are not at fault for supporting a group of students—who have expressed concern for their safety and wellbeing on this campus—you have simultaneously chosen to neglect a community who has also conveyed concerns for their safety. This one-sided sympathy is further emphasized by your failure to meet with SJP, the Muslim Student Association or the Middle Eastern Cultural Association.
It is thus imperative that the voices of students are respected and taken into full consideration. Your desire to ensure that CWRU should be a “welcoming place for all” is contradicted by the fact that this statement draws negative attention to other voices. As the university president, you have power and influence on this campus, and to so rashly dismiss the voices of students acting in a democratic manner is irresponsible. This abuse of power has caused irrefutable harm and has placed a target on the backs of Palestinian students, members of USG and every student standing in solidarity. In the interest of student wellbeing, we expect a community-wide statement addressing the concerns this letter has outlined. Furthermore, we would like to request a public meeting with you and representatives of SJP. We make these requests with the desire to educate people on all sides of the issue, alleviate student concerns and pursue the investigation outlined in Resolution 31-15.
Signed by Students for Justice in Palestine and 13 other campus organizations. ■
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guished relatives, as a way of supporting them. I never received any response.
Until recently, the subject of NATO’s civilian deaths was a taboo in Libya. Talking about it publically could lead to unpleasant consequences. Libya’s new masters and their supporting militias still view NATO’s 2011 mission favorably since it ended the Qaddafi regime. They seem to believe that all civilians killed by NATO airstrikes in 2011 were, somehow, directly associated with Qaddafi’s efforts to stay in power.
Libya today is worse off than it was when NATO ended its air campaign in October 2011, leaving the U.N. to pick up the pieces. All U.N. efforts to broker a political settlement have so far failed. Last September the U.N. appointed its latest envoy—number eight in 11 years—to revive the political process prioritizing elections. Abdoulaye Bathily, a former Senegalese minister, is trying to get the Libyan factions to agree to a legislative base for elections to end the long overdue transitional period. It is unlikely that he will get anywhere, given the continuing foreign meddling in the country’s internal affairs and the corrupt political elite. Elections were planned for Dec. 24, 2021, but they never happened. Some optimistic observers think that elections might be possible by next summer, but that is very unlikely.
Ironically, the 2011 military intervention in Libya was packaged as an obligation for the international community based on the principle of Responsibility to Protect (R2P) civilians. The civilian population’s overall situation in the country, after all these years, is much worse than it was when Resolution 1973 was enacted, ostensibly to make Libya a democratic and peaceful country.
The Libyan experience is a testimony to the difficulties associated with “humanitarian military intervention,” as it violates the U.N. Charter which cherishes the sovereignty of nations. The involvement of NATO in Libya makes a mockery of everything the U.N. stands for.
Historically, NATO has never been successfully sued and hardly admitted any wrongdoings in the two other major interventions the alliance undertook in the former Yugoslavia (1999) and Afghanistan (2001-2021). Almost all major international rights groups accused NATO of killing civilians in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Libya but the alliance never answered to such accusations.
Al-Gharari, Al-Morabit and El-Hamedi vow to continue their efforts to hold NATO accountable, however unlikely that might be. They are not giving up just yet. ■ topics.” He is beyond the pale, and his opinion is cast beyond the fence, to the point of incriminating him. Decent and honest people should find it difficult to refute the claims Frey made. But in the ultra-nationalist, propaganda-driven and rapacious reality we live in, there is no room for such integrity. It’s easier to fire him from a workplace that’s enlightened and progressive in its own eyes, while accusing him of incitement to terror.
In an environment in which “terror” is anything the Palestinians do and “self-defense” is anything Israelis do; in a place in which the killing of children and youths in their tens and hundreds, including two brothers only this week, is not considered terror but in which harming violent and land-grabbing settlers or soldiers in the occupation army is illegitimate under any circumstance, there is no point in trying to explain why Frey’s position is correct. We’ll try anyway: There is no left without equality, and equality must include the right of both peoples, not just of one, to engage in resistance and self-defense. Not only Israelis are allowed to kill while calling the killers heroes.
It’s easy to don a sanctimonious anti-violence cloak—we oppose violence—yet see Frey’s words as incitement to violence. “I want to see every terrorist dead,” in the words of Police Commissioner Yaakov Shabtai, is not incitement to violence, since nothing is more fluid than the definition of a Palestinian as a terrorist. “Death to terrorists” is also not incitement. But expressing wonder at a Palestinian who refrained from harming civilians, seeking only soldiers as a target, that’s incitement.
The coming period will be challenging for anyone wishing to express truly courageous statements. One may assume that Grossman will continue to talk about two states and the end of the occupation, and garner more prizes. Frey may end up in jail. Is there any doubt as to which of the two has greater courage? ■
