Open Letter to Israeli Leadership

Open Letter to Israeli leadership

I write to you as a supporter of Israel, and someone who hopes fervently that there will always be an Israel that will be a place of refuge where Jews under pressure can come, establish themselves, and live happy and fruitful lives.  With on-going discrimination against Jews around the world such a place of refuge is necessary, and it is logical that it should be in the holy land, where Abraham wandered, David reigned, and Solomon built the first sacred temple.  My fear is that, if you continue your present course of action, you will ultimately destroy the very dream that you cherish.  I believe that your security strategy is fatally flawed.

As outsiders like myself watch, it is difficult to escape the conclusion that Israel has forgotten that the Palestinian people are sons of Ishmael, son of Abraham, have also lived there for thousands of years, and have a right to share this land.  It seems as though the current objective is to continue to build settlements until it owns and controls the entire West Bank, and that Israel's preference would be to push the Palestinians who live there out—to places like Gaza, Syria, Jordan, and other places that will take them (such as Canada, where I live.)  Israel has not hesitated to use every possible tactic, from daily humiliation, walls and border controls, abusive policing and imprisonment, and brute force including bulldozing entire villages to achieve these goals.  The bombardment and destruction of Gaza is particularly brutal. 

Claiming that Hamas is responsible for the deaths of children and civilians because it hides terrorists amidst children is a spurious argument.  Over the years Israel has never presented evidence for such claims and I have read first hand witness reports from many people there is no evidence of that.  I do not condone the Hamas missiles any more than I condone the Israeli bombardment.  Violence will not bring peace and Hamas should stop making the situation worse.  But it must be recognized that Palestinians are in a struggle for their ultimate survival -- just like Israel.

Ultimately Israel will have to take responsibility for its deliberate attacks on UN schools, and shelters for civilians.  I would hate to see the day when its leaders are held to account in the international criminal court.  That is not the Israel the world dreamed of as a refuge and a sanctuary.  Citizens of the world call you to stop before it comes to this.

This kind of bombing will never end the Palestinian threat to Israel.  The German holocaust, brutal as it was, was unable to eradicate the world Jewish population or its spirit, its culture, and its identity.  That was certainly its goal.  Canadians have much experience with trying to eradicate a people and a culture.  Our goal was eradication of First Nations culture through assimilation.  We tried to take away the language, culture, and history of our First peoples by reducing their land to small reserves, and by forcibly putting their children in residential schools.  We outlawed their languages and their culture.  But our First peoples resisted and survived our colonial onslaught.  Their rich cultures are in renewal and my hope is that we will find a way to let them inform who we become as Canadians.

Of course, colonialism is not the model for Israel.  Israel’s situation is totally unique.  But the reality is that there were people living in the State of Israel that were pushed out, and this process continues.  Palestinians are desperately fighting for their very survival.  There are Palestinians in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and all over the world who remember their homeland, who remember their culture, and who expect to have the right of return outlined in United Nations treaties.  You will never build peace and security through brute force and totalitarian control.  Your approach produces resistance, anger, righteousness, and ultimately revolution and you are risking spreading these characteristics to Arab countries all around you that are already hotbeds of rebellion.  There must be another path and if Israel wants to survive and thrive in the long term, it must seek another way. 

 A winning solution for Israel must also be a winning solution for Palestinians.  There will be no peace and security if it is not for both parties.  We must not be fooled on either side by tactics of stereotyping people as extremists and terrorists.  In the end we are all human beings and all everyone wants is the chance for our children to grow up, find jobs, support their families, and live in peace.

In their book, Sons of Abraham, Rabbi Marc Schneier and Imam Shamsi Ali outline the great principles and values that Jews and Muslims hold in common through their shared history and scriptures.  There are profound resources available in the holy texts and the oral tradition of both religions for building a shared peace.  Religious leaders on both sides have fomented fear and discontent.  They have a responsibility to take leadership in holding up the resources and spiritual values that will lead to building trust and creating peace.

Both Israelis and Palestinians have a great love of the land from which they both come.  Perhaps it is through the land itself that a route to peace can be found.  If both Israel and Palestine could rise above their differences and commit themselves to working together to protect and manage the land, the water, the air, and the energy resources, perhaps a new quality of bonds could be forged between them.

In her book, Blue Future, Maude Barlow outlines the abuses of water in many Arab countries and in the Gaza strip.  She describes how water has been used as a weapon of war between countries, and how usurpation of water by the rich and powerful at the expense of ordinary people and farmers was a key factor in bringing about the Arab Spring.   Because the people of Gaza have no access to plumbing parts, a bombed out sewage and water infrastructure is leaking all sorts of human and toxic waste into the aquifer shared by Gaza and Israel.  It’s a classic example of the harm you do to others coming back to haunt you. For Maude, “hope is a moral imperative.”  She proposes that instead of making water a source of conflict, we let it “teach us how to live together.”

My hope is for a two state solution, an Israel and a Palestine where each people has what they need in terms of energy, water, land and resources to live and even thrive; a land where security is built on a new relationship between two peoples based on trust and a shared commitment to each other and to the land they have shared for thousands of years.  I personally think this would be easier to make real than the other solution which offers some hope--one secular democratic country with one person one vote.  That would require a great deal more trust than a two state solution.  In either case, a vision of caring for the land for future generations is my suggestion for the bridge to peace.

Rev. Frances Deverell

Unitarian Minister in the Community in Ottawa