In May, Jewish organisations [and Jewish people] will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of the state of Israel. This is understandable in the context of centuries of persecution culminating in the Holocaust. [and even more understandable when you realize that Israel is the Jewish national homeland where all Jews belong] Nevertheless, we are Jews who will not be celebrating. Surely it is now time to acknowledge the narrative of the other, the price paid by another people for European anti-semitism and Hitler's genocidal policies. As Edward Said emphasised, what the Holocaust is to the Jews, the Naqba is to the Palestinians. [what a lack of historical judgement - six million equals a few thousand? and who but five Arab states and the Arab community of the Palestine mandate that attacked Israel?]
In April 1948, the same month as the infamous massacre at Deir Yassin [and the infamous massacre by Arabs of the Hadassah convoy] and the mortar attack on Palestinian civilians in Haifa's market square, Plan Dalet was put into operation. This authorised the destruction of Palestinian villages and the expulsion of the indigenous population outside the borders of the state [borders the Arabs never recognized]. We will not be celebrating.
In July 1948, 70,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes in Lydda and Ramleh in the heat of the summer with no food or water. Hundreds died. It was known as the Death March [so it can be equivalized to the Death Marches of 1945?]. We will not be celebrating.
In all, 750,000 Palestinians became refugees. Some 400 villages were wiped off the map. That did not end the ethnic cleansing. Thousands of Palestinians (Israeli citizens) were expelled from the Galilee in 1956. Many thousands more when Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza. Under international law and sanctioned by UN resolution 194, refugees from war have a right to return or compensation. Israel has never accepted that right. We will not be celebrating.
We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state founded on terrorism, massacres and the dispossession of another people from their land. [er, so an Arab Palestine cannot be recognized because it is based on terror] We cannot celebrate the birthday of a state that even now engages in ethnic cleansing, that violates international law, that is inflicting a monstrous collective punishment on the civilian population of Gaza and that continues to deny to Palestinians their human rights and national aspirations.
We will celebrate when Arab and Jew live as equals in a peaceful Middle East.
Seymour Alexander
Ruth Appleton
Steve Arloff
Rica Bird
Jo Bird
Cllr Jonathan Bloch
Ilse Boas
Prof. Haim Bresheeth
Tanya Bronstein
Sheila Colman
Ruth Clark
Sylvia Cohen
Judith Cravitz
Mike Cushman
Angela Dale
Ivor Dembina
Dr. Linda Edmondson
Nancy Elan
Liz Elkind
Pia Feig
Colin Fine
Deborah Fink
Sylvia Finzi
Brian Fisher MBE
Frank Fisher
Bella Freud
Catherine Fried
Uri Fruchtmann
Stephen Fry
David Garfinkel
Carolyn Gelenter
Claire Glasman
Tony Greenstein
Heinz Grunewald
Michael Halpern
Abe Hayeem
Rosamine Hayeem
Anna Hellman
Amy Hordes
Joan Horrocks
Deborah Hyams
Selma James
Riva Joffe
Yael Oren Kahn
Michael Kalmanovitz
Paul Kaufman
Prof. Adah Kay
Yehudit Keshet
Prof. Eleonore Kofman
Rene Krayer
Stevie Krayer
Berry Kreel
Leah Levane
Les Levidow
Peter Levin
Louis Levy
Ros Levy
Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky
Catherine Lyons
Deborah Maccoby
Daniel Machover
Prof. Emeritus Moshe Machover
Miriam Margolyes OBE
Mike Marqusee
Laura Miller
Simon Natas
Hilda Meers
Martine Miel
Laura Miller
Arthur Neslen
Diana Neslen
Orna Neumann
Harold Pinter
Roland Rance
Frances Rivkin
Sheila Robin
Dr. Brian Robinson
Neil Rogall
Prof. Steven Rose
Mike Rosen
Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead
Leon Rosselson
Michael Sackin
Sabby Sagall
Ian Saville
Alexei Sayle
Anna Schuman
Sidney Schuman
Monika Schwartz
Amanda Sebestyen
Sam Semoff
Linda Shampan
Sybil Shine
Prof. Frances Stewart
Inbar Tamari
Ruth Tenne
Martin Toch
Tirza Waisel
Stanley Walinets
Martin White
Ruth Williams
Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi
Devra Wiseman
Gerry Wolff
Sherry Yanowitz
Thursday, May 01, 2008
Mark Their Names
This letter published in The Guardian is Exhibit A in the case against anti-Zionists as it displays their ignorance, moral inequivalency and inability to fathom the real world. I've parenthesized some comments. Mark the names of the signors:-
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2 comments:
First of all: English is not my first language, so forgive me my possibly crooked writing.
Dear Mr. Medad,
These British Jews wrote: "We will celebrate when Arab and Jews live as equals in a peacefull Middle East."
My question to you, Mr. Medad is; Won't you?
Of course you can have your own opinion on this matter (I've never been to the middle east, I'm not a Jew, so what do I know?), but don't you agree with them on this? And do you really think that (to start on a personal scale) critisyzing this article is helping to make this thought reality? Do you really think that Israel's way of dealing with Palestinians is helping?
I'm not sure which one -Israelian Jew or Palestinian Muslim- has my personal sympathy, but both of them are heading for the wrong direction.
Hoping that ,some day, we'll be all celebrating when Arab and Jews live as equals in a peacefull Middle East,
F. Quartero
Sure I would celebrate - and having been trying to do so for years. But the Arabs who temr themselves "Palestinians", up until this very day do not recognize Israel's right to exist anywhere and never accepted in the past or the present any compromise proposal. They don't consider us a nation with a genuine claim, better than there's to most of what we call Eretz-Yisrael and they call, not in Aarbic but in Latin, "Palestine". We, the Zionist movement, has always compromised and accepted partition - not that I supported that but majority rules in our democratic framework - but no response from the other side. This is truly the "wrong way" for the Arabs but it is not our way.
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