I attended a presentation Wednesday night at Temple Shalom. The guest speaker was from the American Pro- Israel lobby that works to strengthen relations between Israel and The United States, American Israeli Public Affairs Committee, otherwise know, as AIPAC.
I went knowing full well that the speaker clearly would be seeing Israel through a lens that found no fault with Israel’s chosen, righteous, stance against Palestine. What surprised me was how completely in agreement the audience appeared to be. But then again, perhaps there were others like myself who sat there in silence, shocked to see the rabid attitude against the Palestinians. While choking my anger, I am ashamed to say I was afraid to speak.
I was raised in the Jewish Faith. I attended Sunday School. My parents were generous contributors to the building of our Reformed Temple in Mount Vernon, N.Y. My mother was the president of Hadassah and, as an interior designer, was instrumental in the color choices and design of the temple. In 1948, I was privileged to attend the ceremony at the United Nations when Israel was recognized as a state. Even at age 12 I knew this was an important historic occasion: I was proud, I was honored.
Over the years, I raised my children in the teachings of the Jewish religion, Bar Mitzvah my son and my daughter married under the traditional canopy, Chuppah. As a family, we traveled to Israel visiting every archaeological site dreaming of our proud heritage, thrilled to see the progress and miracle that sprout from the desert.
How fortunate we, the Jewish people, to have been granted a homeland after the horrific experience of near extermination in Nazi Germany.
As time went on, and I watched how the Palestinians were treated, I became increasingly uncomfortable.
Palestinians had been living on this land for hundreds of years. They had families, a history, deep roots here. Israel on the other hand became populated from refugees from all over Europe the Middle East and Africa. And yes, the Jews too inhabited this land before the diaspora. Don’t they both have a Justifiable claim to call this land home? With the support of the United States for a myriad of reasons, and the tenacity, determination and intellectual acumen that Jews have valued and traditionally honed throughout their history, they created a great … state in many ways. Their contributions over the last 60 odd years in medicine, technology, the arts have been a great gift to the world.
But, I look at the Israeli’s inability to be a compassionate, to embrace and support the rights of the humans …referred to as the enemy, the Palestinians. Yes, I know there has been a war between these people, a fight for the land (isn’t there room for both?) bombs, suicide bombers, DEATH on both side: tears for years of oppression and pain.
But I ask you:
- if your land was confiscated, if your freedoms were taken away,
- if walls were built that divided your land and separated you from your home and your work,
- if you lived under the rule of an occupying aggressive disrespectful, dehumanizing murderous regime,
- if water was rationed to your people so you could not grow crops, nourish your elderly, your children, your selves,
- if your infrastructure was destroyed and you were forbidden to rebuild and your children went to school in fear of being murdered or their parents not being there when they returned to the rubble they call home,
- if hospitals were bombed and life was fear want and despair,
what do you think you would do?
Would you never throw a stone at a soldier, try to kill your oppressors, would you not rise-up and fight for freedom?
The Jewish Religion is one of the great Religions of the world. We are known as the “people of the book.” Those in Israel who enslave the Palestinians and still call themselves Jews bring disgrace to a lineage of dignity, compassion and uncompromising moral fiber.
The world has turned inside-out and upside-down. No longer am I proud to call myself a Jew if it means the Judaism practiced by the Israeli political right. I am ashamed of the people of Israel and Jews worldwide who support the atrocities of apartheid and enslavement of another. They no longer reflect the magnificent teachings of a beautiful faith, a God of justice and love. Is it too easy to forget the days in the concentration camps, Auschwitz, Dachau?
The sacred stories we have preserved through the ages should have taught us that the web of life which ties us all inextricably together is most powerful. Prophets throughout the ages have said, Ye shall reap what you have sown.
Israel has lost their Moral Compass.
Greed and hate have infested the land.
God help them.
Sue Michalson is a resident of The Villages.
