This kid is the friend of an old friend of mine, a poet from Tampa. Tariq is 15 years old, Palestinian and American, and the cousin of the Palestinian boy burned alive last week. The Israeli police beat him to a pulp, and are currently holding him without charges. The beating is on camera...anything as bad as youd see from police in East Oakland or NYC. Meanwhile, my 20 year old cousin is in Tel Aviv this summer. Shes working at a program with Jewish and Arab youth doing peace-building through the arts. Her dad is Israeli. The three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped and killed...they lived right near where her dad lives. Its a small country. For my cousin, this hits closer to home than I can imagine. I have family on all sides of the green line, on all sides of the political spectrum. There is no good and evil here. But there are hard truths, and they must be said: Israel is Goliath. And it is fighting a million teenage Davids who have known nothing but occupation and checkpoints and racist treatment since their birth. Hamas is awful. The Palestinian Authority is corrupt. But at this point, theyre not the source of the conflict. Theyre small fish in the sea, and Israel is a shark, funded by the American killer whale. I am not a self-hating Jew. I am not an Arab-hating asshole. I am another loud, proud, Jewish Voice for Peace who stands in solidarity with all people pushing for justice. Over there and over here.
Posted on: Mon, 07 Jul 2014 00:01:04 +0000
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