Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, October 2023, pp. 6-7
Letters to the Editor
HOW TO RESPOND TO BOGUS CHARGES OF ANTI-SEMITISM
I would like to comment on an excellent article by Thomas Suárez titled “We need to stop confronting Israeli propaganda on Israel’s terms,” which was featured in the August/September edition of the Other Voices supplement. Suárez writes, “The response must correctly throw the charge [of anti-Semitism] back and include words that the smear was intended to silence: ‘No, don’t try to cover up Israeli apartheid. You’re the Zionist. That’s anti-Semitism!’ Or, ‘I’m arguing for simple human rights. You are smearing Jews as opposing these?’ Or, ‘The only anti-Semitism here is from Zionists defending Israeli apartheid against Palestine in the name of Jews.’”
I would like to add that I believe another appropriate response would be the following: “Look what China is doing to the Uyghurs in Xinjiang province. Although I am deeply disturbed by the mistreatment of the Uyghurs, I do not believe it is necessary for me to justify that I am not harboring anti-Chinese sentiments to anyone. Why is it that I never hear Chinese Americans yelling and screaming like crybabies whenever the Uyghur issue is brought up? So, tell these Zionists to grow up and knock it off.”
—Yuhuda Littman, Brooklyn, NY
FOLLOW-UP ON REVIEW ABOUT MUGHRABI QUARTER
I read the review of In the Shadow of the Wall in the August/September issue. While the information is fascinating, I can’t imagine ever having the time or patience to read all 400 pages of the book. Like the reviewer, I hope for an abridged version. In fact, a 2,500-word article by Vincent Lemire, perhaps accompanied by some of the Gilles Caron photos mentioned in the article, seems like a perfect fit for the Washington Report. I would like to learn more about the Mughrabi Quarter, and I’m sure many others would like to, as well.
—Michael Keating, Olney, MD
CANADA’S SUPPORT FOR STATUS QUO IN ISRAEL
Canadian politicians quietly accept Israel’s gradual annexation of the occupied Palestinian territories where over three million Palestinians endure martial law. Gaza’s two million residents exist in a similar state of Israeli military control over all land borders, coastal regions and airspace. Canada is equally silent on this situation.
Israel’s traditional indifference to international accords such as the Geneva Convention is a vastly greater threat to its democracy than any judicial tinkering by Likud members. A genuine democracy requires more than formal mechanisms like voting.
Palestinians in the occupied territories face stark choices: exercise their legal right to resist, emigrate or accept Israeli domination. This situation can be changed and Canada ought to stop enabling and supporting the unjust status quo.
—Morgan Duchesney, Ottawa, Canada
SILENCE OF U.S. CATHOLIC CHURCH ON PALESTINE
I am a Catholic with a Jewish grandmother. My eyes and heart were opened to the suffering of Palestinians by my Jewish American theology professor. I have protested the occupation alongside Jewish Americans, Jewish Israelis and even a World War II Jewish Holocaust survivor. I have been a Catholic Church worker for parishes and dioceses and have developed a Holy Land ministry program that shines a light on the plight of Palestinians that is both informative and a call to action. Yet, the institutional church has done very little to raise the issue of Israeli human rights violations.
So I ask: Have people so given up on the U.S. Catholic Church that they don’t even call out the U.S. bishops for their silence on Palestine suffering under the apartheid regime of Israel? Muslims throughout the West Bank and Gaza are most certainly suffering from incursions, attacks, arrests, etc. And we should be acting in solidarity with their suffering and calls to the international community for justice.
But it is the “living stones” of our faith, Palestinian Christian families, who are also suffering from the daily horrors and humiliation of occupation, as well as land theft of Christian buildings through annexation!
And finally, our Jewish sisters and brothers living in Israel also suffer: some are killed (but many, many more Palestinians have been killed), but all are pawns (especially the fanatic fundamentalist settlers), used by the corrupt, racist, military apartheid regime of the Netanyahu government.
And yet, the U.S. institutional Catholic leadership, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, is silent!
—Richard DeBona, via email
TIME FOR BIDEN TO GET TOUGH WITH ISRAEL
I am appalled that our U.S. government is aiding terrorist attacks by Israeli settlers and the army on defenseless Palestinian civilians, including young children. For decades, the U.S. government has donated billions of dollars in aid and provided diplomatic impunity to facilitate these terrorist attacks.
From drone strikes to settler terrorist attacks, Israel is intensifying efforts to drive out all Palestinians to usher in a “greater Israel.” Israel has launched several attacks on Palestinians with new weapons, including deploying U.S.-made Apache helicopter gunships inside the West Bank and firing a targeted assassination aerial strike.
Jewish settlers have also raided Palestinian villages in the West Bank, attacking residents and setting fire to homes and vehicles. Mariam Barghouti, senior Palestine correspondent for Mondoweiss, calls the attacks “an intensification to completely take over Palestine.”
The growing violence is reflective of the leadership of Israel’s minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who recently called for the renewing of Defensive Shield, a military operation in 2002 that has been condemned for “crimes against humanity.” This all comes as Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s far-right government has agreed to accelerate the process for approving new settlements in the West Bank despite criticism from the United Nations, European Union and United States.
Mr. Biden, it’s time to stiffen your spine and call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to immediately halt Israel’s terrorism, end the occupation and lift the siege of Gaza.
—Jagjit Singh, Los Altos, CA
