Dear Dad,
It was an enormously heavy
responsibility you raised me with. You
taught me that the Jews have been
oppressed for centuries. You taught me
that the holocaust could only happen
because the Germans were silent. You
taught me that Jews must never, never,
never be silent when injustice occurs,
because our silence makes us complicit.
You taught me about history, and you
taught me by your actions. As a rabbi,
you preached against racism in the
south, and had to leave a pulpit in
Louisiana when they threatened to kill
our family. You worked for open housing
laws, insisting that there should be no
ghettos in America like the ones your
parents had lived in in Europe. You
counseled Jewish kids who were
conscientious objectors, eliciting the
hostility of many who believed that the
Vietnam war was a valiant struggle for
justice in our time.
It is a heavy responsibility I carry
now. Because now I am complicit. I have
not stood in front of the tanks that are
killing other mothers' children in
refugee camps. I have not ridden in
ambulances to help them get past
checkpoints so that the injured could be
cured. I have not laid in front of the
bulldozers to prevent their destroying a
family's shelter.
What can I do about this injustice?
Palestinians are losing their property,
their lives, and their children every
day. The Israeli army shoots at unarmed
civilians, imposing collective
punishments that make it impossible for
Palestinians to get food, water, or
power. For decades, Israel has paid
settlers to move into occupied
territory.
International law reflects the
consensus of the world's sense of right.
International law seeks to protect the
powerless. And international law is
clear. Occupying countries have to
protect the lives and property of the
local population. It is not legal to
establish settlements at all. Why do
Israel and the US pay Israelis to move
into them?
There are Palestinian terrorists. They
have been raised under occupation. Know
what? Israeli soldiers treat occupied
people the same way other armies have
treated occupied people. The stories are
horrendous. Arbitrary beatings.
Tauntings. Killings. Arrests without
charge. Torture. Threatening parents in
front of children. Stepping on
'prisoners' trying to move between check
points. Strip searches. The use of power
to humiliate.
When people are humiliated, and have no
homes to return to because the homes
have been destroyed by the occupying
army, When people are humiliated, and
have no family to hold them in their
arms because they have been shot and
unable to get medical care, When people
are humiliated, and have no hope for the
future, They see no alternative to
violence.
You taught me Judaism's universal
message. 'I am a Jew because in all
places where there are tears and
suffering the Jew weeps.' I believed
Edmond Fleg's words, 'I am a Jew because
Israel places man and his unity above
nations and above Israel itself.'
Dad, we have become the oppressors. One
rabbinic student told me years ago when
I lived in Israel that this was the
meaning behind the warning to remember
that we were slaves in the land of
Egypt. We were warned to remember,
because sometimes slaves want to become
masters.
We are the oppressors, and we are also
the victims. Jews are being killed, and
at the same time, the moral imperative
that you taught me was part of being
Jewish seems to be vanishing. I believe
that Jews are being used by an American
administration to accomplish its own
ends, ends that have nothing to do with
the ideals of Jews. We need to shout
aloud that 80% of the billions that the
US gives Israel in aid must be spent on
weapons, and that more than half of
those weapons are built in Texas. And
Jews are being used by an Israeli
government that has no interest except
territorial expansion. Sharon is the
ideological heir to Jabotinsky. Land for
peace was never in that ideology. War
makes conquest possible, and all the
people of Israel and Palestine are being
drawn, tragically and together, into
that war.
We must act, and we must act
immediately. Jews are being used to
legitimize the slaughter of
Palestinians.
Please, Dad, tell me how to be like you
taught me to be. How do I stop being
complicit?
I love you.
Sarah
Sarah Shields is an associate
professor of Middle East history at
UNC Chapel Hill.
E-mail: sshields@email.unc.edu
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