Other People’s Mail Compiled

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN

VICE

1600

by Dale Sprusansky

Witnessing Grief And Death At The Hands Of Israel

To the Oroville Mercury-Register, Feb. 2, 2023

When I was in Israel and the Palestinian West Bank in January 2009 with a Christian Peacemaker Team, I saw for myself some of the horrors of Israel’s apartheid government. That was the time of Israel’s “Operation Cast Lead”—bombing Gaza, killing over 1,400 people, including around 350 children killed in three weeks. We were able to watch Al Jazeera’s TV reports in Arabic. Al Jazeera in Arabic shows a lot more blood and guts than Al Jazeera in English.

I spent one night in the home of a Palestinian doctor. His younger brother had been shot through the shoulders by Israeli soldiers. Three days later, a 17-year-old relative of theirs was killed by Israeli soldiers. Another group from our tour was going to spend a night with a different family. They were turned back because one of the men in the family had died that day after having been arrested by Israeli soldiers. He had been plowing a farm field that day, when the Israeli soldiers arrested him; several hours later he was dead—no reason given for his death.

I watched at Israeli checkpoints in Hebron while school children and teachers walked to school. They have to show their passports to Israeli soldiers before crossing the street, both going to school and returning home, five days a week. They can be arrested and held in jail without charge for six months.

America needs to stop giving $3.8 billion a year to Israel.

Sharon Fritsch, Chico, CA

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Israel Wrong To Withhold Money From Palestine

To The Dallas Morning News, Jan. 15, 2023

Re: “New Israeli government penalizes Palestinians—Security Cabinet withholds millions after U.N. move,” Jan. 7 news story.

When I read this headline, I expected to hear of a rocket attack from Hamas-controlled Gaza or renewed violence in East Jerusalem. I could scarcely believe it when I read that the true provocation was that Palestinian leaders were publicly urging the International Court of Justice to render an opinion regarding the legality of Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. That $39 million isn’t aid; under the 1994 Oslo Accord, it’s tax revenue that Israel collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority—money earmarked for schools, clinics and governance.

Even if that $39 million belonged to Israel, it’s wrong to punish Palestinians for seeking redress through peaceful, diplomatic means. Wrong and shortsighted. The closure of Palestinians’ hospitals and schools will certainly not prompt Palestinians to give up their struggle against the Israeli occupation. To many, it will enforce the argument that violence is the Palestinians’ only recourse.

Paul Zoltan, Dallas/Little Forest Hills, TX THERE’S

Nothing Democratic About Illegal Settlements

To The Davis Enterprise, Jan. 24, 2023

George Rooks in a letter (Jan. 22) argues that the new government of Israel stands for democratic values. He devotes the first half of the letter to describing the undemocratic behaviors of Hamas and the

SECRETARY OF STATE ANTONY BLINKEN

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Palestinian Authority. Near the end of the letter, he lists the wonderful things that the Netanyahu government is doing to support democracy.

Strangely to my mind, he includes on the list “advance[ment of] the rights of Israelis living in Area C of Judea and Samaria.” Area C is the designation given in the Oslo Accords to what many refer to as the Occupied West Bank. It covers 60 percent of the West Bank and is home to an estimated 180,000-300,000 Palestinians and to a settler population of at least 325,500 living in 125 settlements and approximately 100 outposts.

Those outposts and settlements occupy land stolen from Palestinian Arabs and have secured water in this very dry land in violation of water laws, hence Amnesty International’s phrase “the occupation of water.”

This theft of land and water has been and continues to be supported—at times with violence—by the Israeli military. Palestinians can obtain water from some of the settlements but must request it and jump through procedural hoops. How can anyone celebrate this as advancing democracy?

Stu Pettygrove, Davis, CA

Speaking Openly About The Palestinian Experience

To The Hamilton Spectator, Jan. 20, 2023 Regarding “The sources of Gaza violence” (Nov. 19): When I was looking for a home for my family, Hamilton [Canada] was our top choice, with diversity near the top for the reasons why. Having grown up in a suburban, non-diverse community, I couldn’t speak of my Palestinian roots confidently because of the negative, false stereotypes. Today, my children know their grandfather was forced out of his home in Palestine in 1948 with no payment or opportunity to come back.

The world is waking up to the type of state Israel is. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and even the South African government all refer to Israel’s regime as apartheid. We no longer live in a world with limited media options that can provide one biased narrative: Israelis good, Palestinians bad.

The truth is in the daily accounts from social media and alternative outlets that show the suffering Palestinians face daily. I’m proud that my daughters can raise their heads in pride in understanding their history and speak honestly about the oppression their family has faced.

Tarek Jalbout, Hamilton, ON

UNJUSTIFIED ATTACKS ON REP. ILHAN OMAR

To the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Jan. 31, 2023

As a supporter of Jewish Voice for Peace, I must say that Marc Thiessen’s Zionist attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) has no basis. She is not “anti-Semitic” nor is anyone else who tells the truth about the police state of Israel. The Israeli government has launched a new escalation of violence against Palestinians. It’s a government of brutal apartheid and settler colonial rule over Palestinians.

For decades, the U.N. has condemned Israel for violations of human rights and for its illegal settlements. Rep. Omar speaks the truth, but it seems that the truth no longer sets one free.

Joan Quilter, Santa Cruz, CA

DON’T HIDE THE REALITY OF MODERN BETHLEHEM

To The Philadelphia Inquirer, Dec. 30, 2022

I listened to King Charles’ first Christmas address and also Pope Francis’ Christmas message for peace from the Vatican. Both referred to Bethlehem, where Christianity started and which both have visited. Charles quoted lines from the famous carol about Bethlehem, “Yet in the dark street shineth the everlasting Light,” alluding to the efforts of volunteers and service communities to help others in distress. Later he described his reverential presence in the cave under the Church of the

Nativity, standing next to the silver star inlaid on the ground that marks the place of Christ’s birth.

The pope pleaded for an end to conflicts around the world. “If we want it to be Christmas, the birth of Jesus and of peace, let us look to Bethlehem and contemplate the face of the child who is born for us,” he said.

I found it strange that neither man remarked on the situation in the Bethlehem of today. The small town is subject to frequent incursions of Israeli soldiers and tanks and is hemmed in by a high wall that inhabitants have to get permits to cross. People lack livelihoods because of the Israeli occupation, which is now 55 years old. International law condemns Israel’s settlements and land grabs. Upholding the rule of law seems worth supporting for any world leader.

Joan Hazbun, Media, PA

Churches And Governments Must Put Pressure On Israel

To the Church Times, Jan. 13, 2023

The challenging article by Canon Richard Sewell on hope in the Holy Land (December 23/30) quoted Palestinian church leaders calling for churches to abandon their neutrality over the situation there and to take urgent action. It is, however, difficult for those in the situation to specify what kind of action, and easier for those of us outside to do so.

This is even more important in the light of the policies being proposed by the new government. These seem to be designed to provoke a new intifada, or uprising, in order for the Israeli security forces to crack down even further against any resistance— peaceful or otherwise.

What those of us involved over 30 years in the anti-apartheid movement in relation to South Africa learned was the need for a kind of pincer movement, where we on the outside responded to the calls for action from those inside. In those discussions, it became clear that an escalating economic boycott, alongside those of sports and culture, would be essential to force the regime to listen to the internal African leadership.

It was difficult then for leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu to urge economic sanctions, but he endorsed them. He also endorsed the same stance in relation to what he described as apartheid in Israel/Palestine. Nelson Mandela intimated similarly, saying that Africans could not be free until freedom came to Palestinians. What is needed now is political and economic pressure on Israel to honor its commitments to being a genuinely democratic society, and to recognize that Palestinians who have lived there as long as the Jewish people must be treated as equals, with equal rights for all in the land.

To give hope to Palestinians requires active pressure on Western governments to stop wringing their hands at every tightening of “security measures,” and every successive Israeli atrocity against Palestinians, and introduce serious sanctions, such as expelling diplomats, reducing trade and ending all “security” collaboration with Israel. Aid could also be cut. If the U.S. reduced its $3.8 billion a year by half, and put blocks on the money transfers that enable the purchases of Palestinian land and property, that could encourage the Israeli government to think again.

Pressure is also needed on the UK banks that support the occupation. The recent “Don’t Buy into Occupation” report showed that HSBC and Barclays are two of the three largest lenders to the 50 companies that are most involved in developing the infrastructure and construction in the occupied territories. The churches all have large investments in those two banks, and some of the named companies, and should be addressing this issue in their dialogues with them. They could also press for more investment in the Palestinian economy.

Hope is a vague concept. Making it real usually needs both political and economic content. If the churches here were to adopt some of these policies instead of simply offering prayers or sympathetic messages, Palestinian Christians—a vital if small minority—would have more grounds for hope. Although many Palestinians are being forced to leave to escape the occupation, Jews and the Palestinians remaining will always have to share the land between the river and the sea. Whether they do that in mutual respect and dignity rather than acrimony and hate may well depend on how much effective weight the outside world brings to bear.

David Haslam, Evesham, England ■