"PHYSICIANS
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS NEEDS HELP" (please scroll down for more!)
Urgent Appeal
Medical Aid for Palestinians
Yom Kippur, 5761
Israel’s use of massive military might—including high velocity bullets,
helicopter gunships and anti-tank missiles—against a Palestinian civilian
population armed mostly with stones has produced thousands of casualties. Access
to medical facilities has been prevented at times by Israeli military forces.
Ambulance drivers and other medical personnel have been shot.
Hospitals and other health care services are desperately struggling to tend
to the wounded, but they need adequate surgical equipment and pharmaceutical
supplies in order to do so. One thing that Jews in the United States could
do to help as a follow up to the Day of Atonement this year is to provide financial
assistance for this urgent task.
PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS, an Israeli-based organization long engaged in
the defense of medical human rights and the provision of direct medical services
by volunteer doctors, seeks contributions for the purchase of medicines and
medical equipment to enable it to continue assisting Palestinians recently
injured in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem. Tax deductible contributions
to:
New Israel Fund
POB 91588
Washington, DC 20090-1588
DONOR ADVISED TO PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
MAKASSED HOSPITAL, located on the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, is the
preeminent Palestinian medical institution in the area. In only the first three
days of the current crisis it treated over 500 of the wounded. Thousands of
Palestinians have donated blood, but the hospital is in urgent need of funds
to replenish medical and surgical supplies. Tax deductible contributions to:
American Jewish World Service
989 6th Avenue
New York, New York 10018
DONOR ADVISED TO MAKASSED HOSPITAL
"RABBIS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS SENDS A SUPPLEMENTARY AL-KHEYT"
Supplemental Prayer For this Yom Kippur
From Israeli organization of Rabbis for Human Rights
Dear Friends and Supporters,
None of us knows what the next day will bring, as the news seems to get worse
and worse. We want to let you know about the following activities, assuming
that the situation allows us to carry them out:
- visiting Jewish and
Palestinian injured in territories, if possible, and Hadassah Hospital ….
- condolence visits to
Arabs and visits to Jewish injured at one of the Northern hospitals
- A group of activists
began a 48 hour fast Sunday morning at 7:00 AM opposite the Defense
Ministry in Tel Aviv, calling for meetings with both Ehud Barak and
Yasser Arafat to ask them to stop the shooting, and will call on
Ehud Barak not to give up on the peace process or form a unity government
incapable of moving forward on the peace process. For more info,
call Ronen at 054-810226 or Keren at 054-688101). Such a fast overlapping
Yom Kippur seems incredibly appropriate.
- I am enclosing again
the vidui Rabbis for Human Rights is asking that you use on Yom Kippur,
along with prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured, the welfare
of the kidnapped soldiers, and the peace process.
This year the words of Al Kheyt take on new meaning in the wake of violence
hat has left tens dead, over 2,000 wounded and the future of the peace
process and coexistence in question. While not excusing Palestinian and
Israeli Arab violence, Yom Kippur is a time to rise above the justifications
which prevent us from looking honestly at ourselves. The examination of
our deeds tells us we have much to atone for. The provocation on the Temple
Mount was only the match which fell on dry tinder. Israeli Arabs are systematically
under represented in all areas of Israeli society, while their communities
are disproportionately ove- represented in terms of poverty and unemployment.
In the Territories, unfair allocation of water, land expropriations, harassment
by settlers, humiliation and despair leave Palestinians with little faith
in the peace process or hope for a better future. Excessive and unnecessary
use of lethal force has unleashed pent up rage, leading to another round
of violence. Within Israel, Israeli forces fired on rioters rather than
use accepted non-lethal means of riot control. Over the green line the
situation is more complicated because armed Palestinians were also firing
on Israelis, but disturbing evidence suggests that Palestinians took up
arms only after Israeli forces were firing chest high during the initial
disturbances.
B'Vrakha,
Rabbi Arik Ascherman
Executive Director
Rabbis For Human Rights
Al Kheyt
For the sin which we have sinned against You by hardening our hearts - To the
grinding poverty and despair of Palestinians and Israeli Arabs.
And for the sin which we have sinned against You by exploitation Living well
while others live in poverty.
For the sin which we have sinned against You, consciously or unconsciously,
Preventing Israeli Palestinians from fully and equally participating in Israeli
society, and leaving them under represented in government, academia and business.
And for the Sin which we have sinned against You knowingly or unknowingly,
Allowing the Israeli government to continue expropriating land, demolish homes,
build roads, uproot trees and deny water in our name, even while publicly speaking
words of peace.
For the sin which we have sinned against You by causeless hatred - Demonizing
the "other."
And for the sin which we have sinned against You with our words - Of incitement.
For the sin which we have sinned against You by desecrating Your Name - By
abusing others and calling it Your Will.
And for the sin which we have sinned against You through insolence - Saying
that only Jews have rights to the land.
For the sin which we have sinned against You by silence - When we knew that
human beings were being mistreated, and said nothing.
For the sin which we have sinned against You by the abuse of power - Using
excessive lethal force to kill and maim
And for the sin which we have sinned against You by justifying - The use of
excessive lethal force.
And for the sin which we have sinned against You by narrow mindedness - Feeling
only our own pain, closing our minds to the agony of bereaved Arab mothers
and fathers.
"BAT SHALOM SENDS MESSAGE"
Urgent Yom Kippur message from Bat Shalom, a feminist peace organization working
toward a just peace between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
Bat Shalom, together with The Jerusalem Center for Women, a Palestinian women's
peace organization, comprises The Jerusalem Link. [Visit our web site for more
information and our latest activities: http://www.batshalom.org]
Dear Bat Shalom Friends and Allies - Locally and Abroad,
The women of Bat Shalom have been in the streets this week, in front of the
Prime Minister's house, in Women in Black, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Tzomet Meggiddo,
sending protest letters, petitions, financial aid for medical supplies, press
releases expressing our rage at the excessive and lethal force used by the
Israeli army and police forces against the Palestinians and Palestinian Israelis
over the past few days. We are also organizing a women's forum on Tuesday to
try and determine what ELSE women should be doing and saying at this time.
Some women are considering a hunger strike - others have suggested a protest
demonstration of Israeli and Palestinian mothers and their children. We will
keep you posted and appreciate the contribution of ideas, analyses and funds
so that we might be as effective and visible as possible.
Women's voices for justice, for protection of human life and the earth that
sustains us, for unconditionally acknowledging the intersection of oppressions
that deny all peoples the right to live in freedom and dignity, have historically
been silenced and ignored. Today these voices resonate with anger, frustration
and indignation. It is imperative that we listen to and learn from these voices
- for they speak from that place we do not live in, and do not know. For those
of you who live in Israel, please join us on Tuesday, October 10th, 16:00 at
Bat Shalom.
The following Palestinian women's statement was forwarded by the
Jerusalem Center for Women:
TO: All Israelis with a live conscience
FROM: The Women's Technical Affairs Committee - Palestine
We are writing to let you know that we sympathize with your current position.
It must be very hard under the horrifying conditions that Palestine is witnessing
these days to be an Israeli with a conscience. It is definitely easier to be
a Palestinian. How else could a person bear to live with all the atrocities
perpetrated under one's name? How can one have a conscience and accept all
the lies spread by the biased Israeli and American media to cover up for the
brutal killings and the wounding of the Palestinian children, babies, men and
women?
It is definitely much easier to freeze one's conscience and to keep thinking
of the Palestinians as sub-human, as nasty creatures that can be shot by well-protected
and trained snipers. You must feel heroic when shooting Palestinian children
in their fathers' and mothers' arms and young unarmed men with deadly bullets
that rank under dum dum, rubber coated steel bullets and plastic that for sure
will cause either death or permanent disability. And you can always claim that
these killings were in self-defense or in the defense of the settlers residing
on Arab lands. Yet, bullets were not enough. Rockets had to be fired at civilians
protesting the massacres of
their children. You had to bring in your helicopters and tanks to fight stones.
It is definitely easier to accept that negotiations will solve everything as
long as you can get all the Palestinian natural resources and most of the land.
And why would it be a problem to annihilate us after all, when Israel is backed
up by the powerful and the mighty of this world? Why would you jeopardize the
US unconditional financial aid and moral support by standing for the cause
of the underdog?
It is definitely easier to hide behind the allegation "security reasons" to
continue harassing Palestinians in their daily lives, when crossing the many
borders you have created in our land, when wanting to simply live a normal
life, not that of an animal trapped in a tiny cell of repression and fear.
But guess what - we are not afraid, we do suffer, we do cry and mourn our dead
- but we're not afraid because unlike you, we have nothing to lose.
The Women's Affairs Technical Committee is a coalition of women's committees
and organizations working together for the achievement of equal political,
social, economic and civil rights of Palestinian women. Its headquarters are
located in Ramallah and it has a branch in Gaza.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
We gratefully accept contributions to help support our work. Checks in any
currency can be mailed to Bat Shalom, POB 8083, Jerusalem 91080, Israel. Tel:
+972-2-563 1477; Fax: +972-2-561 7983. See our web
site for information about tax-deductible contributions or bank transfers.
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MIDEASTWEB/PEACE
VIEWPOINTS
by Ami Isseroff
As the violence has escalated [as of Nov. 15], Mideast Web [www.mideastweb.org],
like other peace groups, has received many words of encouragement, but also
death threats from right-wing Jewish extremists, comments that we are anti-Israel,
comments that we are Zionist stooges, comments that we are Palestinian stooges,
that we distort the news, etc.
To anyone who has followed the deluge of claims and counterclaims, it is obvious
that it is very difficult to form an objective picture of what is happening.
Mideast Web, within the limits of a volunteer effort, tries to provide a balanced
picture of news as it is reported. Mideast Web is a dialog group and your opinions,
news and comments are welcome and will be circulated – provided they are
not simply inflammatory propaganda. To anyone planning further letters explaining
that you will do to me what was done to PM Rabin, be forewarned that any such
letters will be considered property of MEW and may be circulated with your
e-mail address.
As the lunacy spreads, we are being overwhelmed with absurd commentary about
an absurd situation, as people struggle to fit the facts into their preconceived
notions about what really has caused the violence, who is at fault and how
to solve it.
Consider:
A peace plan in which 94% of the West Bank will be given to the Palestinians,
but at the same time 11% (or 27%) will be retained for Israel. A plan worthy
of Milo Minderbinder, who bought eggs for 7 cents and sold them for 5 cents
at a profit.
The overwhelming majority of Palestinians, and a plurality of Israeli reject
the Camp David II proposals, even though the proposals are not public and very
few people know what they were.
A spontaneous protest by innocent citizens, using AK-47’s and machine
gun and led by uniformed officers.
A minimalist reaction by Israeli soldiers, who shoot in the sir to warn people
and somehow hit them square between the eyes. This minimalist reaction resulted
so far in about l70 deaths and thousands of crippling injuries.
The head of the secular Baathist party in Syria calling for liberation of holy
Jerusalem. Bashar Assad, who inherited one of the mot corrupt and tyrannical
regimes in the Middle East from his father, also spoke out against Western
globalization because, according to him, it is not sufficiently democratic
and egalitarian.
An Israeli Prime Minister who wants peace, but leaks to the press that he will
not even return to the rejected Camp David II proposals.
PNA Chairman Arafat mourning Leah Rabin, widow of Yitzhak Rabin, as a symbol
of peace, and at the same time calling for more intifadeh.
Peace activists who condone violence. People who condone the uprising, which
has claimed the lives of about 200 people, as legitimate, yet claim they don’t
support support violence.
Israelis who claim they want peace but insist the army punish their Palestinian
neighbors with closures and pounding by tanks, and insist on the right to live
on Palestinian land.
Palestinian who claim they want peace, if only they could get East Jerusalem
as their capital, and if only Israel would withdraw to the June 4, 1967 borders
or perhaps the borders of UN Resolution 181, and if only Israel will admit
4 million Palestinian refugees and vote itself out of existence.
The Intifadeh (or Mini-War as some Israelis call it) was started, supposedly,
to produce Israeli concessions, but it is obvious to everyone that it is having
the opposite effect on the Israeli public and the Israeli government and the
U.S. government. Yet the instigators insist on calling for more "armed
struggle."
One of the reasons cited by experts for the start of the Intifadeh was the
poor state of the Palestinian economy. During the Intifadeh or whatever you
want to call it, the Palestinian economy has lost about a billion dollars and
unemployment has soared. Yet the instigators insists on calling for more "armed
struggle."
We do not know:
We don’t know what the peace proposals were (see educated guess as http://www.mideastweb.org/campdavid2.htm).
We don’t know what the Palestinians really want, or who is speaking for
them:
Withdrawal to 1967 borders
Withdrawal and return of refugees
Withdrawal to the partition borders of UN Resolution 181, a solution Yasser
Arafat outlined at the Cairo summit, or a different solution. Resolution 181
called for the internationalization of Jerusalem, but Yasser Arafat claims
Jerusalem as his capital city.
If 89% of the West Bank is not enough, will 91% be OK? Or 100%?
If it is a cramped space for so many millions, will a few hundred square miles
make it adequate? What happens when the Palestinian population doubles?
Are the Palestinians fighting because Israel and the U.S. have imposed upon
them the corrupt PNA regime as Noam Chomsky claims, or are they fighting under
the direction of that regime and its leaders, with equipment and uniforms supplied
by that regime?
We don’t know what Israelis want, or whether the government of Ehud Barak,
hanging on to power by appeasing the right-leaning ultra-orthodox Shas party,
can represent Israel at peace negotiations.
Do Israelis want the Camp David II peace plan? Not according to polls.
Do most people in Israel want to annex part of the West Bank? How much?
Does Israel need a settlement like Ariel for security reasons, or for less
pure motives? What, exactly, does the settlement of 500 Jewish families in
Hebron, guarded by umpteen Israeli soldiers, contribute to Israeli security?
We do know that every day there are more dead people and the hope of peace
get dimmer. The only certain truth is that the way of violence is wrong. A
dead child is a truth we cannot ignore.
Sadly,
Ami Isseroff
Rehovot, Israel
[Mideast Web for Coexistence (R.A.) as a non-profit organization founded by
Israelis and Palestinians to promote dialog and peace education and is registered
in Israel to allow them to collect funds for this purpose. Contact: webmaster@mideastweb.org; http://www.mideastweb.org; http://www.ariga.com/peacewatch.
In the U.S., tax-exempt donations should be marked "For Mideast Web." Checks
for "Orange County Middle East Peace Fund" should be sent to Orange
County Middle East Peace Fund, Box 5891, Orange County, CA 92863-5891.
In Israel: Bank Bein-Leumi Harishon, Rehovoth, Main branch (#29) account of
Reshet Hamizrach Hatichon Ledukiyum- MidEast Web for Coexistence account #
409 95807. By mail, MidEast Web, c/o POB 2493, Rehovot 76100, Israel].
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Conscientious Objection in Israel
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Dec.24,2000) reports that, "There are not many
COs in Israel but their numbers are rising amid the latest wave of violence." A
few days later, the Los Angeles Times (Jan. 1, 2001) reported that, "the
resistance of a handful of regular soldiers and a larger number of reservists
reflects changes in the way Israelis see their once assailable army, and in
the role the army plays today." One Israeli resister, a paratrooper and
veteran of the war in Lebanon, stands at Jerusalem’s central bus station,
distributing leaflets suggesting that recruits think seriously about serving
in what he describes as an occupation force. The leaflet notes that fighting
to defend Jewish settlements "is not our war!" The Times account
goes on to say,"The willingness of resisters to speak out reflects a shift
in thinking about the army, once a sacred cow that could not be criticized.
That taboo has lifted gradually, starting with the war in Lebanon."
Amos Oz and Others on Intifada II
Some points made by longtime Israeli peace advocate Amos Oz (NY Times, Jan.
6, 2001), novelist and author of "Israel, Palestine and Peace."
The Israeli government no longer insists on governing another country [e.g.
Palestine] Israel’s proposal is to establish a peace agreement grounded
on the 1967 borders, with a few mutually agreed upon adjustments. "This
is the most far-reaching offer Israel can make." Palestinians have rejected
this and demand instead a "right of return" for Palestinians refugees
while "cynically" ignoring the many Jews who, during that same period,
were forced to flee from their homes in Arab countries. Allowing Palestinians
the "right to return" would, he writes, "make the Jewish people
no more than an ethnic minority." Rather, Palestinian refugees should
be resettled in a future nation of Palestine, not Israel. Thus, he proposes
that Israeli peace people should reformulate their positions and cease arguing,
as it has, that "the sole obstacle for peace is Israel’s occupation
of the Palestinian territories." Instead [Oz writes] "we should say
that even without peace, governing another nation is wrong. Wrong and harmful" and
that "Israel must withdraw from Palestinian-populated regions and enable
the Palestinian people to set up an independent state, immediately, even without
a peace agreement."
The day before (Jan. 5, 2001), the Times published several letters on the subject.
One, by Rabbi Henry Siegman, former head of the American Jewish Congress and
now a senior fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, says "what is
remarkable is not that Palestinians couldn’t take Israel’s occupation
another day but that Intidada II did not erupt long before it did." Another
letter writer, Jacob Bender, an American Jew "who lived in Israel for
many years" writes, "one of the missing elements in the current peace
process is an acknowledgment by Israel that its creation resulted in the dispossession
of another people." If, he concludes, some insist that Jews never relinquished
their own "right of return" for 2000 years, then "Why should
we expect the Palestinians to forget their homeland after only 50?" Finally,
Yitzhak Rabin biographer Dan Kurzman objects to the Times' Op Ed columnist
William Safire’s notion that Clinton and Barak’s peace terms disregarded
what it might cost Israel in terms of its security. "As PM Yitzhak Rabin
told me, such harm was most likely to result from a failure to make peace.
The alternative could be an eventual war waged by neighbors who might be armed
with unconventional weapons capable of annihilating Israel."
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On Helicopter Gunships and Jewish Moral Responsibility
by Marc H. Ellis
With Israeli helicopter gunships firing into cities and towns in the West Bank
and the Gaza Strip, and Tzahi Hanegbi, an Israeli cabinet minister in Ariel
Sharon's new government, speculating about another war in the Middle East,
American Jews are caught in a dilemma.
Most American Jews know little about the realities of the Middle East except
as communicated by Jewish leadership and media stereotypes. For American Jews,
the map of Israel as it is drawn today, with its expanding borders and sophisticated
military control of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, is plastered with pious
slogans of unity and defense. Israel is experienced by Palestinians as an unjust
power bent on continuing, even escalating, aggression. For American Jews, Israel
is under siege by a relentless terrorism that threatens to bring a second Holocaust
to Jews in Israel. If war comes, it will be one of defense.
The dilemma faced by Jews is found here. For over a century in Europe and America,
Jews have taken pride in our ethical tradition. We have been leaders in social
justice movements, from the struggle for civil rights, to feminism and in the
broader international arena of human rights. For most American Jews, Jewish
identity is defined around the themes of human progress and justice. If there
is such a thing as Jewish messianism in the contemporary world, it is found
here, in the realm of human affairs, in broadening inclusion and struggling
for the good. Even after the Holocaust, and perhaps because of it, this impulse
has remained strong. If the ultimate questions about God are unanswerable after
Auschwitz, and the Jewish covenantal framework in doubt, then recommitting
to the human project is even more central. What is fascinating about the Jewish
community after the Holocaust is the refusal to despair about the human condition
when despair would be perfectly reasonable.
And more. The refusal to despair has been taken up by Jewish thinkers around
the world in a tradition of critical thought that rivals and perhaps surpasses
any other community. American Jews have participated in this tradition as evidenced
by our numbers in universities, think-tanks and advisory posts in government
and industry. If anything, and perhaps paradoxically, the Holocaust has energized
Jewish life and thought, bringing Jewish contributions in the broader society
to a new level.
This is why helicopter gunships firing into Palestinian population centers
is so disconcerting and so difficult to come to grips with. What kind of search
for justice or critical thinking would allow this reign of terror? How can
such an articulate community shout pious slogans and turn a blind eye to the
reality of a power that may, especially with Israel's nuclear arsenal, have
no limits?
The situation is complicated to be sure. But wasn't the 1960's struggle for
civil rights complicated? Apartheid in South Africa was complex and its dismantling
far from perfect. Is the feminist movement without complication? International
human rights standards are hotly contested in the political and cultural arenas.
Did American Jews turn a blind eye to these struggles because of these complexities?
Do American Jews refuse to pursue a social justice agenda today because of
conflicting interpretations of rights and responsibilities?
As unwanted sojourners in Europe who, in the 1930's and 40's, were segregated,
despised and murdered in the millions, what option did Jews have but to form
a state in the Middle East? Palestinians were the victims of this European
syllogism, a defenseless people who became refugees in the formation of Israel.
A triumph for Jews. A disaster for Palestinians.
But the emergency of the Holocaust years has long since disappeared. Israel
has expanded its borders and its appetite for power, like any nation-state,
has long since replaced its ethical claim for a place in the sun. Meanwhile,
the Palestinian catastrophe has deepened with the loss of land and swelling
refugee populations. Offers of peace from Israel are trumpeted as a basis for
security and justice, but the details are less sanguine. Ariel Sharon's map
of a final settlement with the Palestinians resembles too closely the segregated
European ghettos that Jews lived in during much of European history and whose
renewal in the twentieth century forecast doom.
There are Jews who, remembering our own suffering, speak boldly against the
use of Israeli power to surround, enclose and humiliate the Palestinian people.
These Jews of conscience reside in Israel and America and though small in number
they remain committed to the Jewish tradition in its ethical dimension. Jews
of conscience recognize historic Jewish suffering and contemporary Palestinian
suffering as a call to end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian land and the
cycle of violence that once again envelopes the region. American Jewish leadership
calls for unity. It is really a call for silence. Jews of conscience here and
in Israel call for critical thought and compassion.
Who will win this other war, the civil war over the definition of what it means
to be Jewish? Will expansion and militarism win the day? Will the ethical be
reasserted, calling Israeli power to account before it is too late? Much depends
on mainstream Jewish leadership found in Jewish organizations, synagogues,
and among Jewish academics and intellectuals. Unfortunately, where much is
expected and needed, little is forthcoming. In the main Jewish leaders have
been silent and even aggressively attempt to silence and discipline Jews who
speak out on this issue. Jewish leadership has ignored the map of Israel as
it has come to be, perhaps out of ignorance, perhaps fearful for their own
position.
The time is now to overcome this ignorance and fear. We ask where others were
when we were suffering. Today an accusing finger is pointed at us as Jews.
How will we respond? Helicopter gunships are now part of the landscape of Jewish
life. What we do with them is defining us as a people. As sure as the rockets
fired from the air destroy, maim and murder property and life, they do likewise
to the ethical tradition Jews have cultivated and suffered for. Jews of conscience
hold open the possibility of averting the final catastrophe that threatens
both peoples with an end unworthy of either.
Marc H. Ellis is University Professor of American and Jewish Studies and Director
of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University in Waco,
Texas. He can be reached by email at American_Jewish@baylor.edu
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To IPPEN (Israeli-Palestinian Peace Education
Network):
9th May, 2001
Dear Friends,
Today I woke up and opened my e-mail to find three shocking pictures of a Palestinian
baby killed by an Israeli Army shell. I then turned on the radio to hear that
two young, Jewish adolescents were found dead, stabbed and stoned.
We are counting them now by the hundreds, and still many more lives of innocent
children continue to be sacrificed. It makes me sick and angry to watch the
lack of responsibility of our leaders. However I am no less depressed about
the lack of empowerment of people like us ... educators ... who undertook the
commitment to enrich the lives of future generations. And I say ENOUGH! We
should make our voices heard loud and clear:
PLEASE DO NOT MAKE OUR CHILDREN AND YOUNG THE TARGETS OF THE FIGHT AMONG OUR
ADULTS.
KEEP THEM OUT.
I do not want to go into a futile discussion about who is killing more children,
who are the killers, and whether or not they were officially sanctioned and
instigated. The crux of the issue is undisputed - children and infants are
dying.
Children under the age of 16 are normally protected by society. We do not allow
them to drive nor to vote or drink. Many of us question the morality and expedience
of using violence against each other. Indeed, there are different opinions,
but is seems to me that there is universal consensus - amongst Arabs and Jews
- as part of the world at large, that the human rights of minors must be protected
(there may be questions about the top age limit, let's say 16). Most certainly,
unarmed, innocent children should not be killed and wounded.
We must take responsibility and prevent their deaths, both by commission and
omission. By not using lethal weapons against them, as well as preventing them
from venturing into life-threatening situations, and unsafe environments.
From a previous attempt to set up a Palestinian/Israeli Network for HEALING
and learning to share the grief of each other, I am aware how difficult it
is to mourn the victims of the other side. And yet, there must be a way in
which people of good-will can do something... anything. Not only are our own
brothers cutting short the precious lives of our innocent children, but the
family, at large, is deeply suffering... the community is crying.
IS there anything we can do? Let me suggest a few concrete proposals for IPPEN
and each one of us:
1) We should ask our leaders, both Arafat and Sharon, to record, in their own
voices, a general statement deploring the death of children and young, and
calling our nations and armed forces to refrain from such acts. We should ask
the official media to broadcast these statements daily until violence stops
(- I hope that we, Palestinian and Israeli educators, could suggest a shared
text). Those receiving the IPPEN messages could give our own names and ask
our dynamic coordinators, Nedal and Art, to communicate this request not only
once but every time that there is another minor killed.
2) The Israeli Government and the Palestinian National Authority should at
least officially undertake to investigate the death of each minor and publish
the findings. Furthermore, if they could agree to have joint teams including
a representative of an international organization protecting the rights of
children (eg. UNICEF, Save The Children, Defense the Children International)
that would be a great step forward.
3) Regardless what the governments are going to do or not do, we must agree
to act ourselves: it could be as simple as sending joint letters of condolences
to the families of victims, or newspapers; that we ask our own Jewish and Arab
children or pupils to find ways to communicate to children of the other nation
that are wounded by our own people (Send books and/or pictures to one another,
establish pen-pals etc).
Many ideas come to my mind, but at this stage I would like to open a dialogue
with other IPPEN subscribers to enrich these ideas.
I have much I would like to express on these issues but perhaps it is better
to stop now and call upon all of you to come up with ideas, express the kind
of commitment that you and all of us should undertake, separately and together
to PROTECT THE LIVES OF OUR CHILDREN
With deep concern and hope,
Edy Kaufman
(E-mail: msek@mscc.huji.ac.il)
Edward (Edy) Kaufman, Ph. D.
Senior Researcher & Executive Director
Harry S Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace
Hebrew University
Jerusalem, Israel 91905
FAX (9722) 5828076, TEL (9722) 5882317
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© 2002
Jewish Peace Fellowship
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