A letter from a member of Jewish Voice for Peace (courtesy of Inge Barthel) My name is Eran Efrati, I am Jewish, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, and a 7th generation Jerusalemite. What Ive seen in Israel over the last few weeks is beyond anything I have witnessed in my life. Ive seen terrified Palestinian children in Hebron and Halhul, sitting on the ruins of their homes. Ive seen mobs in the street chanting death to Arabs and pulling out Palestinian men from their stores to beat them as other Israelis stood idly by. Ive seen soldiers lined up at the Gaza border, ready at a moments notice to invade. And now, like you, I’ve seen the climbing death toll in Gaza, over 100 dead and some 500 injured –all by Israeli missiles, with no end in sight. As much as it pains me to say it, I don’t think I can do a lot about it. But I believe you can. American voices - and especially Jewish American ones - are probably the most critical voices in the world right now. We need you to tell us - Israeli politicians, the Israeli media, Israeli society - that you cant support this. That you cant support human rights violations. That you cant support racism. That you wont support the idea that Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian lives. Join me and sign this Open Letter now—if they get another 10,000 signatures, Jewish Voice for Peace will take out ads in Haaretz and the Jewish Forward with our message. We know the roots of this are long and deep. But the truth behind this latest assault has finally coming: as J.J. Goldberg documented in The Forward, the Israeli government lied, and created this situation. For weeks, the government knew that the three kidnapped teenagers were dead. But they instituted a gag order on the media, lied to Israelis and the world, and falsely claimed the mass arrests and collective punishment of Palestinians was all in the hopes of finding the teenagers alive. In other words, their chosen response was to kidnap the mind of an entire country. From the very beginning, this has been about punishing Palestinians. From the beginning, the government has been willing to manipulate and use its own people for that goal. Overhead, I hear airplanes headed to Gaza all day long, and I know theres nothing I can do to stop them. And now we all know the lengths theyve gone to justify this attack, and how fully Israeli society has bought into it. And I dont think we can stop it from within. But I think you can. Please join me and sign this statement: We oppose the occupation, the bloodshed, the privileging of Jewish lives over others lives.
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 19:26:00 +0000
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