Public Comment

Emboldened by President Biden’s words of encouragement (“Israel has a right to defend itself”) without acknowledging brutal attacks by Israeli police and settlers targeting Palestinian worshippers and driving them from their homes, was an appalling lack of leadership. His failure to demand an immediate cease fire resulted in a tragic loss of lives. His approval sending an additional $735 million in weapons sales to Israel makes no sense and only compounds America’s complicity in Israel’s war crimes. More and more American Jews are expressing profound concern of human rights abuses and living conditions of Palestinians under Israel’s apartheid military rule. Prime Minster Netanyahu, unable to form a government and facing serious charges of misconduct has fomented anger and encouraged settlers to terrorize Palestinians in their homes. Settlers with guns drawn shouting “death to the Arabs” were allowed to roam freely in Palestinian neighborhoods. Several police were seen to join the settlers. 

Many national newspapers, including the New York Times, carried articles exposing the appalling living conditions under which Palestinians are forced to live under a brutal Israeli military apartheid occupation. To add to Palestinian woes is the corrupt leaderless Palestinian Authority. Its president, Mahmoud Abbas, has delayed elections for 15 years in the firm belief that he will certainly be replaced. Palestinians have been systematically targeted from their homeland dating back to the founding of Israel in 1948 when 700,000 were driven their homes much like the genocide of Native Americans. Israel committed serious war crimes in all its attacks on Gaza. In its recent attack, American made “precision guided missiles” slaughtered at least 242 Palestinians including 63 children, hospitals were devastated and Gaza’s infrastructure destroyed, including the AP building. In contrast the American iron dome deflected 90% of Hamas’s rocket attacks. The United Nations’ top human rights body voted y to open an inquiry into Israeli abuses in Gaza and and the occupied Palestinian territories. 

The children of Gaza are suffering from severe PTSD and utter despair from Israel’s current and prior wars. The suffocating military occupation and siege of Gaza savagery makes Palestinians' lives a living hell. This speaks volumes of Israel's moral decay. It has already become a pariah and reviled by much of the world much like apartheid South Africa. 

By dishonoring the sacred passages of the Torah (in which Jews are told thirty-six times to welcome the strangers in their midst, as they are reminded that they themselves “were strangers in the land of Egypt” during centuries of slavery, and in Exodus, there are textual reminders to treat strangers kindly) Israel is rapidly losing its humanity. 

The Jews suffered unspeakable atrocities during World War 2 and the Holocaust Museum was built to honor the victims. Perhaps it’s time to build a Palestinian memorial alongside the Jewish Holocaust Museum to symbolize the suffering of the Palestinians and loss of their homeland.