[lit-ideas] Israel has Crossed Over a Moral Boundary
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: polidea@xxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 09:42:10 -0700 (PDT)
Israel has Crossed Over a Moral Boundary
by Rabbi Michael Lerner
July 10, 2006
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In 2003 I was prevented from speaking at a large
demonstration protesting the impending war in Iraq
because I was deemed too pro-Zionist by one of the
sponsoring organizations. My sin then, as now, is that
I believe that both sides have acted with
insensitivity and have been oblivious to the needs of
the other, and both sides need to repent.
I still believe that now, and as late as last week was
calling on the tens of thousands of readers of
www.tikkun.org to insist to the Palestinians that they
would be far more effective if they were to adopt the
non-violent strategies of Gandhi, King, and Mandela
rather than to imagine themselves capable of
militarily defeating Israel. And just as I've
critiqued the state terrorism against civilians that
the IDF brings to the West Bank occupation, so I've
always critiqued the terrorism of some sectors of the
Palestinian population.
But this week it's impossible as a Jew and as an
American to not notice that a new human rights
violation by Israel has taken place which manages to
surpass many of its previous violations in cruelty and
in the outrage it has generated.
Anyone has ever faced the crippling heat of the
desert-like conditions of southern Israel or the Gaza
strip knows the desperation for water that comes each
summer. So when Israel bombed and destroyed the
electricity system for 1.2 million Gazans and thereby
made all electric pumps inoperable, they inflicted a
collective punishment on the entire Gazan population.
The alleged justification was a desire to punish
Palestinians for electing a Hamas government, and more
immediately to retrieve a soldier who had been
"kidnapped" (the quotes because this was not a
civilian but a soldier in uniform, so if Israel sees
itself as at war with Hamas, then the only possible
description is that their soldier was captured by the
other side). The Hamas government, however, has
publicly urged the "kidnappers" whom it does not
control to free the captured soldier.
Moreover, the outrage in Israel about this "kidnap"
reflects a huge level of systematic denial going on in
the consciousness of Israelis and many who support its
policies-because virtually every human rights group
including the various Israeli human rights
organizations has chronicled tens of thousands of acts
of "kidnap" of this sort by the IDF against
Palestinian civilians, who are then kept in detention
for as long as six months without a trial, often
facing brutal torture, and then released without ever
having been charged with any crime. Of course, and I
thank God for this because I care for the well being
of the people of Israel , and as a Jew I am deeply
tied to the success and safety of this particular
Jewish society, the Palestinians have never been able
to punish hundreds of thousands or millions of
Israelis collectively for these systematic violations
of human rights. To the extent that they do so through
acts of terror, I condemn those acts.
This is a defining moment in our relationship with
Israel for all Americans of whatever faith. Just as we
need to make clear to our own government that its
human rights violations in Guantanamo and Iraq are
unacceptable, so we need to communicate to the Israeli
people that the mass punishment of a million people
for the acts of a few is as unacceptable when it comes
from a democratic society as when it comes from the
willful oppression of entrenched authoritarian
dictators. Even if, God forbid, the captured soldier
is murdered by the lunatics who captured him, it is
only they and their conscious sponsors who should be
punished, not random Palestinians, unless you think it
equally appropriate to some day punish the entire
American public for the three million Vietnamese
killed by American action in Vietnam or for the
horrendous acts which continue in Guantanamo and Iraq
even today.
Unfortunately, we can't count on our U.S. government
to convey this sentiment without qualifying its
concerns in ways that essentially communicate that
Israel can do whatever it wants and we won't
interfere.
So the onus is upon us as ordinary citizens to act and
act decisively. We need to communicate our concerns to
legislators and media. We need to organize
demonstrations in front of the offices of our elected
officials, and also outside Israeli consulates and
those Jewish institutions which continue to use their
influence to support Israeli policy even at this
moment (there are a few which have spoken out in
critique, but very very few). And we need to write to
those in power in Israel, starting with Prime Minister
Olmert, telling them that even those of us who love
Israel and will never let it be destroyed find this
particular action unconscionable, demand that Israel
immediately rebuild the electricity system, and that
Israel stop trying to impose its will with military
might but instead sit down with the Palestinians and
negotiate a lasting peace.
Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of Tikkun magazine, the
largest circulation liberal/progressive Jewish
magazine in the world. He is rabbi of Beyt Tikkun
synagogue in San Francisco, national chair of The
Network of Spiritual Progressives , and the author of
ten books, most recently a 2006 national best-seller
The Left Hand of God: Taking Back our Country from the
Religious Right.
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