Re: “The rush to judge Israel,” June 2 David Harsanyi column.
The Gazan boat incident is but one festering lesion on the arm of occupation. The occupation of Palestine — and Gaza — must end.
Many voices challenge Israel’s actions and document its crimes against the Palestinians. Trade unions, academics, and corporations in growing numbers engage in boycott, divestment, and sanction.
Frustration leads Israel to cry that it’s a victim of “anti-Semitism,” or as David Harsanyi put it in his column, a victim of critics who “want to see them as smoldering ash.”
Such assertions are fear-mongering. Criticizing actions of a sovereign nation is not anti-Semitic, any more than me criticizing my Congress is anti-American. To use an “anti-Semitism” card seems an attempt to cow critics and shift focus, an occupier claiming status as victim. It’s a denial of the need to hold one’s acts to a moral standard.
Lock 1.3 million people in an area 28 by 9 miles, let in 171 truckloads of supplies each week when 400-500 are needed each day and you end up with collective punishment . . . and anger! International law says an occupier is responsible for the well-being of the occupied. Israel refuses responsibility. Even in spite of this, Palestinians have agreed to negotiate.
Our stance of continued support of Israel’s occupation negatively affects American interests. One Palestinian mayor shows us his collection of tear gas canisters, picked up from weekly Israeli incursions into his town, each one labeled, “Made in the U.S.”
“We cling to our tragedy, [the Holocaust],” writes Avraham Burg, “and the tragedy becomes our justification for everything. We sit on the branch of past mourning, not taking off to the heights of humanity and humanism where we belong . . . . We, and many of our leaders who incite us, believe that almost everyone wants to destroy us. By feeling so threatened by shadows that will attack us at dawn, we have become a nation of attackers.”
We do not want to see Israel “as smoldering ash.” Israel deserves security, but Palestinians deserve justice. Israel is the dominant party; it must come to an even table. If it refuses, if the U.S. remains spineless, then sanctions must increase. An inhumane and illegal occupation must end.
Arnie Voigt is a Lutheran pastor who volunteers with the Colorado chapter of Sabeel, an international Christian Palestinian human rights group.
