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.
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
