I Wish Obama were listening

To tell you the truth, I am disappointed in Barak Obama's anemic response to the Israel/Palestine crisis. I remember well his beautiful declaration in Cairo in 2009.

It is undeniable that the Palestinian people, Muslims and Christians, have suffered in pursuit of a homeland. For more than 60 years, they have endured the pain of dislocation. Many wait in the refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza and neighboring lands for a life of peace and security that they have never been able to lead. They endure the daily humiliations, large and small, that come with occupation.

So, let there be no doubt, the situation for the Palestinian people is intolerable. And America will not turn our backs on the legitimate aspirations for dignity, opportunity and a state of their own.

Hamas must put an end to violence, recognize past agreements, recognize Israel's right to exist. At the same time, Israelis must acknowledge that just as Israel's right to exist cannot be denied, neither can Palestinian's [right to exist]. The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements. This construction violates previous agreements and undermines efforts to achieve peace. It is time for these settlements to stop.

These was the most encouraging words spoken by a president in my life time, and millions of people dedicated to peace through justice around the world remember them well. I wish that Obama also remembered them. But it seems that he is choosing to wash his hands of the whole Israeli/Palestinian mess. Peter Beinart in Newsweek writes, “Even though E1 has long been an American red line.(1) And even though the Israelis alerted the White House mere hours before they announced the decision, the Obama administration's response was pro forma and bland. Publicly, Obama said nothing. It was the first sign of what senior administration officials predict may be a new approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in Obama's second term: benign neglect. (2)

In what terms can the silence of Obama be described other than that he has in fact “turned his back on the Palestinian people?” He obviously knows that the United States is up to its ears in supporting Israel's illegal activity with our money, weapons and UN Security vetoes.

Roger Waters, addressing the United Nations on November 29, 2012, spelled out Israel's guilt of international crimes in five terms: apartheid, ethnic cleansing, collective punishment, violation of Geneva Convention and use of illegal weapons. At risk of diminishing the power of his full address I will summarize his presentation.

APARTHEID – to establish on a racial basis the domination of any one group of persons over any other group of persons and systematically oppressing them, as has been the policy of Israel towards the Palestinians since 1948.

ETHNIC CLEANSING - as in the systematic expulsions of Palestinians from their homes in 1948 and 1967.

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT – as in the punishment of an entire civilian population, explicitly prohibited by the Geneva Convention. Israel has violated its obligation as an occupying power by the virtual imprisonment and blockade of the entire population of Gaza.

VIOLATION OF GENEVA CONVENTION - which prohibits an occupying power from transferring citizens from its own territory to the occupied territory.

USE OF ILLEGAL WEAPONS – such as dropping white phosphorus on civilians, which sticks to the skin like jelly and burns at 1500 degrees, declared to be a war crime.

To those who say, “But, Hamas started it all.” Roger Waters responds. How we understand history is shaped by when we start the clock. Start the clock in the afternoon with rockets flying into Israel and Hamas looks guilty. Israel is simply defending itself. But, start the clock earlier that same morning when a 13 year old boy was shot dead by an Israeli soldier as he played soccer, and history looks a little different. Start the clock even earlier, like in 2009 and 271 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers. During that same time, not a single Israeli was killed.  In fact, Waters, said, “IT” actually started in 1967 with the occupation of Gaza and West Bank. The crisis of rockets is rooted in occupation.

Obviously the rest of the world takes these facts into consideration. I only hope Obama is listen.

Thomas Are

December 17, 2012

1 – The geographical area of Palestine between the West Bank and Jerusalem.

2 – Peter Beinart, Why Obama Will Ignore Israel, Newsweek, December 17, 2012. p.22

Recognition by the Unite Nations

I have never thought of Israel as being afraid of annihilation as much as Israel being afraid of exposure. Let us be clear, the U.N. Resolution was not about the destruction of Israel, it was and is about the human rights of Palestinians. Mahmoud Abbas, President of Palestine, speaking before the UN, while seeking to upgrade Palestine to a “non-member observer state, said:

We did not come here seeking to delegitimize a state established years ago, and that is Israel. Rather we came to affirm the legitimacy of a state that must now achieve its independence and that is Palestine. The moment has come for the world to say: enough of aggression, enough with settlements and occupation.(1)

Israel and the U.S. cast off the Palestinian bid as merely a meaningless gesture saying that the vote by the UN to recognize Palestine is no more than a symbol. If that's the case, it's strange how hard Israel and the U.S. worked to stop it from happening, even threatening to withhold tax funds due for services in the West Bank. And the US sent Bill Burns, the U.S. Deputy Secretary of State, to visit Muhmoud Abbas in his New York hotel room to urge him to “reconsider” his request for recognition.

Why so much panic over a mere symbol?  Because this “symbol” allows the Palestinians access to the International Criminal Court and there's the rub.

Suddenly, a people whom Israel had hoped would remain invisible will have a channel of revealing to the world 62 years of continuing “criminal” conduct by our “closest ally.” If Americans actually knew the history of Israel's oppression of the people upon whom it planted its nation, we might begin to ask questions. Questions such as, Why is there “no daylight” between the US, which publicly declares its commitment to democracy, and the State of Israel, which publicly declared itself a theocracy, a state for Jews only?

Some might even ask why the US refuses to recognize the democratically elected government of Gaza instead of broad brush declaring Hamas a “terrorist” organization. Worse still, why do we continue to give Israel more than $8,000,000 a day in foreign aid to build settlements when every news program on TV talks about the horrible financial situation we are having at home?

Some might even begin to wonder if our blind support for Israel's criminal activity could have contributed to 9/11 which ultimately got us bogged down in two wars, which threaten to bankrupt our nation. Some might even ask for an investigation into the crushing death of Rachel Corrie or Israel's deliberate attack on the USS Liberty.

Exposing Israel in a trial before the International Criminal Court would surely raise questions. Our US political leadership might be forced to use more honest language than Hillary Clinton's, “a step that will not bring us closer to peace,” which she immediately followed it up by declaring, “America has Israel's back,”(2) and Barak Obama's declaring that the Palestinian bid for recognition was “unhelpful.” Susan Rice, U.S. Ambassador explained, “Today's unfortunate and counterproductive resolution placed further obstacles in the path for peace, that is why the United States voted against it.”(3)  Perhaps, exposing Israel also exposes us.

Henry Seigman in Foreign Policy.com. said, the U.S. uncritical stance “confirms America's irrelevance” in resolving the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. It dooms President Obama's efforts to renew peace talks as an “empty and purposeless exercise.” Unless the U.S. demands that Israel accept its 1967 borders as a starting point, negotiations have “no prospect of producing anything other than cover for Israel's continuing colonial behavior.” (4)

Immediately, the day after 138 nations voted to recognize Palestine, Israel announced the construction of 3000 new houses in Palestinian. The location of these new settlements is significant in that they will cut off the West Bank from Jerusalem and put an end to any hope of a Palestine with contiguous territory. Dani Seidemann, a Jerusalem lawyer and peace activist, described Israel's latest settlement plans as “the fatal heart attack of the two-state solution” and said Mr. Netanyahu was wielding “the doomsday weapon.” (5) All that over a “mere symbol.”

Thomas Are

December 12, 2012

1 – Reported by John Glaseer, UN Votes in Favor of Upgrading Palestinian Status, Antiwar.com, November 29, 2912.

2 - Housing Move in Israel Seen as Setback for a Two-State Plan, Jodi Rudoren and Mark Landler, New York Times, November 30, 2012.
3 – John Glaser, UN Votes in Favor of Upgrading Palestinian Status. Antiwar.com. November 29, 2012.
4 - Housing Move in Israel Seen as Setback for a Two-State Plan, Jodi Rudoren and Mark Landler, New York Times, November 30, 2012.
5 - The Week, The Israeli-Palestinian Rift Deepens. December 14, 2012. p.3.

Another "War" with Gaza

Why are we seeing another “war” with Gaza? I can think of several reasons. None of them have to do with rockets. (See my Post of January 7, 2009, Rockets, Rockets, Rockets)

Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak are facing an election in January and need an atmosphere of fear to insure their re-election. (After all, it worked for George W. Bush.) Israel's method of operation for years has been to provoke a reaction and use that as an excuse to “defend” itself. Last week, Israel assassinated the leader of Hamas, Ahmad Jaberi, his body guard and a cameraman, by firing a rocket into their car just days after Israel had reached a ceasefire agreement with Hamas. Israel expected a response and it worked. After all, it worked four years earlier when rocket fire had stopped for four months. Suddenly Israel invaded Gaza killing six Palestinians. Hamas called off the cease fire and Israel get the war it wanted.

In the past week, Hamas has launched a thousand qassam rockets, weighing less than a hundred pounds each, into territory taken from them by Israel. One crude rocket hit a building and three innocent Israeli citizens were killed. Israel has retaliated with round the clock bombardment which has resulted so far (as of November 20^th) in killing over 100 and wounding 860 Palestinians, mostly women and children. The Gaza hospitals are running out of beds, drugs and supplies.

The media calls it a war. However, one side has an army; 175,000 troops, 3,000 tanks and 786 fighter aircraft. On the other side is Hamas with 12,000 volunteers at best, ill trained and poorly equipped. However, Israel is in an uproar. For the first time, Hamas has fired “long range” (40 mile) rockets at Tel Aviv. Two rockets got through the Iron Dome, which Israel got to test with 90 percent success. One fell into the sea and the other in a field. But the psychological impact is enormous. If suddenly Hamas can reach the center of Israel's business and playground, nobody knows what effect that could have on investments, tourism and Jews who might return to Israel for the good life?

I saw on the internet a placard carried by an old man which read:

                                                                             You

                                                                     take my water
                                                                 burn my olive trees
                                                                  destroy my house
                                                                       take my job
                                                                     steal my land
                                                                 imprison my father
                                                                    kill my mother
                                                                  bomb my country
                                                                        starve us
                                                                      humiliate us
                                                                           BUT
                                                                     I am to blame:
                                                                  I shot a rocket back.

Israel's ambassador and our U.S. News media constantly explain that Israel, “Has a right to defend itself.” Noam Chomsky defends Hamas:

When Israelis in the occupied territories now claim that they have to defend themselves, they are defending themselves in the sense that any military occupier has to defend itself against the population they are crushing … You can't defend yourself when you're militarily occupying someone else's land. That's not defense. Call it what you like, it's not defense.

So, add it up. Netanyahu and Barak need election propaganda, the Iron Dome defense system needs to be tested, Iran is too tough to tackle and the U.S. is bogged down in re-election adjustments and debt crisis. Wow! What better time could there be for Israel to do what it seems to do best. Attack its neighbors, especially those who are unarmed and defenseless.

Thomas Are

November 20, 2012

Chosen-ness

Several years ago, the Christian leadership in Israel and Palestine sent out a plea known as Kairos Palestine which said, “We cry out from within the suffering in our country under the Israeli occupation... We have reached a dead end in the tragedy of the Palestinian people.”(1) They simply asked the Christians of America to acknowledge what is happening to them and to notice that they are being strangled to death by the ”acts on the ground” of Israel's occupation.

Last winter, a dozen people of conscience published a response to that plea called Kairos USA which said, we repent of our silence and abuse of theology which continues to allow your persecution unchallenged. They wrote:

Today, the churches of the Holy Land are calling us to stand with them in their

        nonviolent struggle. How can we do otherwise? … You cannot silence the cry of the
        oppressed nor suppress the human hunger for justice for all of God’s children.(2)

I studied these documents in Atlanta. That was last month. This month, I attended the Mountain Top Lecture Series at Amicalola Falls State Park in North Georgia which featured Brian McLaren. I was exited because I had read several of McLaren's books and knew his passion for better understanding among people of different cultures and religions. And he has a heart for peace for the Palestinians. In his latest book, he wrote:

A distorted doctrine of chosen-ness tells many sincere but misguided Christian                   Zionists that the Jews have been chosen by God to own certain land without concern for the well-being of their non-Jewish neighbors. As a result, these Christians fervently support Israel in a Domination Narrative, justifying the continued military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. They may even support the Purification Narrative that inspires some Israeli settlers and political parties to drive Palestinian Muslim and Christians from their homes, whether through sudden expulsion or gradual colonization and appropriation.(3)

However, and this is my concern, during his lecture when he came to the subject of chosen-ness, he mentioned the conflict between Israel and Palestine only among several other conflicts. But, he used as his primary illustration the Hutu/Tutsi massacres in Rwanda. He even mentioned the horrible record of Christopher Columbus, both matters safely tucked away in history. However, he did not mention Israel's abuse of the Palestinians. I sat there in amazement, thinking, this Zionist theology of chosen-ness is driving our foreign policy, pulling us into a possible war with Iran and destroying our relations with the Arab world. How can he not put this on the table?

To be fair, I think Brian McLaren is a genuine prophet of peace and reconciliation. I marvelled at what he had to say and his passion for understanding and acceptance of others. But, I hurt because of what he did NOT say.

He referred in his book to the way of Jesus as “Peace, justice and reconciliation.” However, I agree with Naim Ateek who says that the formula must be justice, peace and reconciliation, and in that order. I don't mean to single out McLaren, To be fair, as part of the Mountain Top Lectures, Bart Ehrman did not talk about the plight of the Palestinians, even when asked a question about Rapture Theology, nor did Robin Meyers. A.J. Levine, if anything, was defensive of the State of Israel and criticised Palestinian Christian leaders for their resistance.

While we spent two days talking about being a better church, Israeli rockets killed seven Palestinians in Gaza, including three children and injured 30 to 40 more. While we were in church listening to an emotional sermon about peace, Israeli bulldozers were destroying another home in West Bank.

When will justice become the concern of the Christian leaders in America?

I support what has become popularly known as the emerging church. However, I wonder. Have we become just one more retail outlet for selling a popular religion? When I asked about our having someone like Mark Braverman, Norman Finklestein, Naim Ateek or a Miko Peled to be our lecturer at the Mountain Top Series, I was quickly told by a friend that we wouldn't get twenty people interested enough to come and hear about justice for the Palestinians. He is probably right. But then, I ask, are we only interested in that which is popular?

Self disclosure – I ask myself if I am disappointed because I am genuinely concerned for the Palestinians or did I just want my ego affirmed by a celebrity? Most everyone there knew that my passion is justice for the Palestinians. I will probably never know. But either way – while we talk, Israel bulldozes more houses and drives more Palestinians into homelessness, uproots more olive groves, steals more water, erects more road blocks and check points, and imprisons more kids. Should that in itself not be enough to merit serious attention when discussing “chosen-ness”?

Thomas Are

        November 15, 2012

1 – Kairos Palestine, A Moment of Truth, (Published by the Israel/Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church, U.S.A., 2010) p.13.

2 – Kairos USA, U.S. Response to the Kairos Palestine Document. (Published by Kairos USA, www.kairosusa.org. 2012) p.13.

3 – Brian D. McLaren, Why Did Jesus, Moses, the Buddha and Mohammed Coss the Road? (Jerocho Books, New York, 2012.) p. 119

I Grew Up Guilty

I grew up guilty. It was not that I just felt guilty, I was guilty. In my little home town in South Carolina, there lived a whole community of black people with whom I seldom, if ever, had a conversation, shared a meal or knew much about the life they lived. But, in spite of attending a segregated school, a segregated church, and listening to talk about how important it was to keep things segregated, I knew. Deep down, I knew that the people on my side of town benefitted from the exploitation of those African Americans who lived on the other side of town. Few people ever talked about it but I knew. And to this day, I still carry the remnants of that guilt.


I grew up hearing that “they” were lazy, not as smart as white people, and always smelled bad. While I took baths in hot water, it never occurred to me that they did not have indoor plumbing and were forced to wash outside, even in winter. I seldom connected the dots that my privilege was connected to their suppression. Oh, there were some, a few, black people who “made it.” Johnny owned and operated a dry cleaning business and someone ran a little grocery store down by the school, but by and large, most black people were dependent upon the economic handout from the white community. But, there were times, when I would think about it, I had to confess, at least to myself, that I lived a privileged life simply because of the accident of birth. I even thanked God that I had not been born black.

My parents never told me that black people were inferior, but the entire system in which I lived said they were. I went to the new high school while they attended class in the old fire trap on the poor side of town. I wore clean clothes, washed by our black maid, while their shirts were wrinkled and often torn. I had no trouble in accepting things as they were and, along with all my friends, accepted it as something for which God was responsible. Yet, down deep. I knew better, and I felt guilty. I still do.

I feel sorry for Mitt Romney. There is going to come the day, when like George Wallace who, broken in heart and spirit, rolled down to the front of the African American church in Montgomery, Alabama and said, “I was wrong and I am sorry.” Mitt Romney is so caught up in doing anything he can right now to gain money and votes until anything goes to out-do Obama in proving his loyalty to Israel. He shows no concern for the illegal policies for Israel’s Zionist government, no matter how extreme. To heck with UN resolutions, international law and human decency. He spoke to a wealthy Jewish audience in Israel and according to The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, said:

That Israel’s GDP per capita was $21,000 while that of the Palestinians was $10,000. Romney showed “a dramatic, stark difference in economic vitality.” The actual figures are $31,400 for Israel and less than $3,000 for the Palestinians – but that is not because, as he said later, “culture makes all the difference,” but because of occupation, discrimination and oppression.(1)

Then to put icing on the cake, he declared Jerusalem to be the forever capital of Israel. He brags about his close personal friendship with Benyamin Netanyahu and totally ignores the plight of the Palestinian. Not unlike my days in high school, he just did not see across the hill to the poverty and squalor in which those living under Israel’s military rule are forced to live.

Maybe he really does not see. Maybe his understanding is distorted by the sheltered and privileged life he has always lived. The rules of life, including his economic success have been so rigged that he is blinded by his own advantage and wealth. Maybe he does not know that Israel’s economy is built upon handouts and theft. It may be years before he will allow himself to see what he has become a part of, whether he does or does not win this election next month.

But, I have to believe, the average Jew living in Israel knows, whether he will admit it or not. He knows that his country was started by confiscating the land and homes of more than 700,000 innocent people who were expelled from 78 percent of their historic Palestine, not unlike the land on which I live was taken from the Cherokee Indians. He knows when he is taking a hot shower, the water is diverted from the Palestinian West Bank. He also knows that the modern highway on which he rides was built by the cheap labor of those forced to work in Israel. He knows that his economy grew at an amazing rate because of the control on the production of Palestinian banks and production. He knows about the settlements, the wall, checkpoints and the uprooting of olive trees. He knows that his privilege is paid for by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are living in refugee camps. He knows. And deep within himself, he feels guilty. For that reason, he will not allow himself to engage in a conversation with, or even about, the plight of the Palestinians and will gladly sell his conscience to a shyster like Mitt Romney. He is trapped. To admit what he knows produces more guilt than he can handle and he knows it.

I once heard a Palestinian say, “I thank God that I was not born a Jew.” I immediately thought of that as anti-Semitic, and rejected him, But, the more I listened to him I realized that he had no dislike for the Jews. He earnestly felt compassion, even pity. The Jew, he declared, cannot enjoy his privilege because deep down he knows that it was stolen from another people and he will live with that guilt forever.

I understand. I still struggle with mine.

Thomas Are
September 20, 2012

[1]  John Lee, Romney on the Palestinians: It’s not the “Culture,” It’s the Occupation,  Washington Report in Middle East Affairs,  October 2012., p.16.

More Than One Way

There are many ways that we can approach the problem of seeking justice for the Palestinians.


One, is a head on confrontation with Israel. You hear those who hold this view saying such things as: Israel will never voluntarily give up power or give up claiming Palestinian land for its own use. Therefore the only solution is force. The Palestinians need a sponsor, they say, some Arab nation willing to risk suicide to send an army up against the state of Israel which has the fourth strongest military on the globe. Or, they say, “The Palestinians need a PAC. They need to organize enough financial resources to bribe US politicians into taking up their cause.” Those in this camp are pessimistic about anything of this caliber ever happening. Therefore, they say such things as, “It’s sad, but the Palestinians are a lost people.

This position leads some to justify Israel’s brutal control over the Palestinians and assault on its neighbors by declaring, “Israel lives with a siege mentality. They know if they let down for one moment, the Arabs will push them into the sea. Israel is forced to operate under a no tolerance policy against any threat, real or imagined.” Thus, Israel kills 1400 citizens in Gaza in the winter of 2008 because some renegade fired homemade rockets into Israel. “Israel can only survive by pouncing upon anyone who appears to be gaining power in the region.” Besides,” they say, “Nothing is going to be gained by criticizing Israel, especially in an election season.”

There is another camp of opinions which advocates, “allowing the two parties involved to work it out between themselves. Those who take this position say such things as, “Until both sides want peace enough to compromise, it’s not going to happen.” This seems to be the position of Hillary Clinton who says, we won’t do anything to help the Palestinians until they come back to the negotiating table.

This proposal sounds noble, but it’s a little like telling the slaves in 1830 to just work it out with the overseer. The problem is, only one side has power. Only one side has an army The weak side lives behind an apartheid wall and is controlled by the stronger.

Then, there are those who seek peace by bringing hearts together.. This group brings Jews and Arabs together to work and study toward accomplishing some goal beyond just talking about how to get along. The results of this effort, (I want to say ministry) is that individuals get to know each other. They hear one another’s narrative. By the end of their time together, they have developed a relationship of respect and affection.

This works. I have seen it in the youth camps run by Roscoe Possidenti where Jews and Palestinians hug and weep on the others shoulders. Elias Chacour, a Melkite priest in the West Bank village of Ibillin built a school in which the faculty is half Jewish and half Arab. The student body is also equally divided. The goal is education, but the result is united hearts. Jim Crupi brings together business and community leaders for training. The participants in his seminars include those of ethnic and religious backgrounds from numerous Middle Eastern nations. In the long run, this may be the best solution to bringing about harmony among some very hostile nations and people.

However, all these approaches to peace are too slow. Before Israel comes to any just agreement, or the Palestinians find a big brother, or enough hearts are changed, there will be no Palestine. Israel will have very well claimed the total of Palestinian land and natural resources, including water, except for a few Bantustans here and there. .

There is another possibility. What I think will happen and what is happening, which will result in peace and citizenship for the Palestinians, is that Israel will not be controlled from the outside but will crumble from within.

The conscience of the world, including many young Jews, both in the US and in Israel, are rejecting the brutality of the right wing Zionist regime. Today’s younger Jews are not as emotionally tied to the holocaust, or to the state of Israel, as are their parents. Non-Jews simply find it hard to stomach the stories of cruelty coming out about the actions of Israel. And Israel is being trapped by its own Jewish theology. The story of Naboth’s vineyard found in the Book of First Kings, and such texts as Amos, “Let justice role down like waters, and righteousness like an ever flowing stream,” cannot be reconciled with the bombing of civilians, building of settlements, check points, restrictions on travel, demolition of homes, the assassination of neighboring scientists and treating a whole people as subhuman. This “God gave your land to me" theology, just does not fit with historical Judaism’s mandate for justice.

I honor those who chip away at the hard line Zionist agenda. I teach classes, lead discussions, donate money, give away books, show documentaries and put a bumper sticker on my car in an effort to support the “chippers”. I believe their method of seeking justice is the only hope for peace for Palestine and Israel and I believe it is working.

Thomas Are
September 2, 2012

He Just Doesn't Get It

Back in 1957, Golda Meir said something like:

     "Peace will come when Palestinian mothers learn to love their children
     more than they hate the Jews."

She also said that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people. Of course, several years later she apologized, saying, “That was the silliest damn thing I ever said.” Well, I don’t know. I think accusing Palestinian mothers of not loving their children merits a gold medal for silliness.

Palestinian mothers do in fact love their children as do mothers all over the world. They also fear for their safety. They are concerned for their future in an apartheid state where their rights as human being are being ignored because the big superpower occupying them wants their land and water. Mothers in Palestine long for their children to have an opportunity to grow up with dignity, to have a safe place to sleep and go to school, all of which are systematically jeopardized by Israel’s military occupation. Far from choosing to hate their enemies more than they love their children, Palestinian mothers on numerous occasions have sacrificed their lives to cover their children with their own bodies to protect them from bombs, tanks and white phosphorus.

I think I first heard this little caricature of Palestinian mothers in 1988 during the first intifada. Kids who had never lived a day in their entire life free of the humiliation and the pain of military occupation suddenly began throwing rocks at Israeli tanks, trucks and troops. Israel responded with “An iron fist policy.” by killing, beating, and torture.

During the first year of the intifada:

Amnesty International reported 540 killed by Israeli troops including 159 children. Their average age was ten years old.

Save the Children reported 7000 hospitalized from beatings, 1/3 were ten years old, 1/5 five years old.

Dennis Madden, Roman Catholic Priest attested,

"If you take all the Palestinians who have been killed, the number is roughly around 1,000. The number who have required medical attention is roughly around 106,000. The over 50,000 who have been in prison, the houses that have been demolished, the thousands of trees that have been uprooted, the deportations. You take all of the statistics together...what it averages out to is that every Palestinian family has had at least two members that have either been killed, deported, arrested or tortured."(1)

And this was BEFORE suicide bombers.

According to Rosemary Radford Ruether:

Anyone arrested in the occupied territories can be held without trial or consultation with a lawyer for eighteen days. During this period (and also during extensions of this period) those arrested are typically subject to brutal treatment, ranging from kicking and beatings to elaborate form of torture...” (2)

Ari Shavit, a young Israeli soldier ordered to serve in Ansar II, one of Israel’s prisons for Palestinians, reported in Ha’aretz.

Perhaps the fault lies with the screams: At the end of your watch, on the way from the showers, you hear horrible screams...from over the galvanized tin fence of the interrogation section come hair-raising human screams. I mean that literally. Hair-raising. And you of course have read the B’Tselem report...And you ask yourself, what is going on here five meters away? Is it someone being tied in the “banana” position? Or is it a simple beating? You don’t know. But you do know that from this moment forth you will have no rest. Because 50 meters from the bed where you try to sleep, 80 meters from the dining hall where you try to eat, human beings are screaming. And they are screaming because other people wearing the uniform as you are doing things to them to make them scream. They are screaming because your state, your democratic state in an institutional systematic manner — and definitely legal — your state is making them scream.” (3)

To avoid the moral judgment of the world, Israel shifted the responsibility of their treatment of Palestinian youth onto the mothers whom they said, “sent their children out to commit violence.”

But, why bring this up now, twenty five years later? Because that old unfounded quip is still being passed around by intelligent people in an effort to give Israel legitimacy. Recently, I was referred to this very slogan to make the case that the Palestinians are really the cause of their own pain.

It was quoted by a friend who is quite superior to me in education and theological acumen. I was shocked, not so much by the quote, but that with all his credentials, he still thinks this is relevant to the Israel/Palestinian situation. In spite of his creditability in other areas, when it comes to applying his biblical faith to justice for the Palestinians, he just doesn’t get it.

Thomas Are
August 22, 2012

------------------------------------------
 1 - Private conversation with Father Dennis Madden, Tantur Institute, Jerusalem. Summer, 1991.
2 - Rosemary Radford Ruether, Herman Ruether, The Wrath of Jonah, (Fortress Press, Minneapolis, 2002) p. 157.
3 - Marc Ellis, Beyond Innocence and Redemption, (Harper and Row Publishers, San Francisco, 1990,) p.73.