To the editor,
Washington Post.
The
Post article, “Settler violence against Palestinians Surges in West
Bank,” tells an important story. According to the United Nations, since
Oct. 7, at least 121 Palestinians have been killed on the West Bank.
The U.N. Has recorded 171 settler attacks against Palestinians. Almost
half of these incidents involved Israeli forces accompanying and
actively supporting Israeli settlers.
The
Hamas terrorist attack against Israeli civilians was a horrible assault
and is indefensible. But this should not cause us to ignore Israel’s
behavior in the West Bank. It has occupied this territory in violation
of international law for more than 50 years. Its three million
Palestinian residents have no right to vote or legal rights. Their
treatment has been characterized as “apartheid” by Amnesty
International, Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights group
B’Tselem. Beyond this, their treatment is a violation of Jewish moral
and ethical values.
President
Biden continues to speak of a “two state solution.” Sadly, Israeli
Prime Minister Netanyahu rejects this and speaks of annexing this
territory. Some members of his right-wing coalition speak openly of
removing its indigenous Palestinian residents. Massive U.S. aid to
Israel means that U.S. taxpayers are helping to subsidize this
enterprise.
Even Israel’s
first Prime Minister recognized that Palestinians had legitimate
grievances about their treatment. Not long after Israeli independence
had been achieved, David Ben-Gurion told Zionist leader Nahum Goldmann,
“Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader, I would
never make terms with Israel. That is natural: We had taken their
country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to
them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it’s true, but two
thousand years ago, but what is that to them? There has been
antisemitism, Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They
only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country. Why
should they accept that.”
Today,
the majority of Palestinians in the West Bank want an independent
state, which previous Israeli leaders had promised, and for which
Yitzhak Rabin was murdered by a right-wing extremist. Yet, today’s
Israeli government rejects such a concept. Israel calls itself a
“Jewish state,” but there is nothing “Jewish” about mistreating people
because they are of a different religion or ethnic group. Indeed,
Zionism has, it seems, turned its back on the universal Jewish moral
tradition which Jewish critics of Zionism such as Albert Einstein, Judah
Magnes, Martin Buber and Hannah Arendt warned that it would.
That
tradition still lives among those who seek a world in which Jews,
Christians and Muslims can live in peace and mutual respect. The
extremists of Hamas and Israel’s right-wing want a different kind of
world. Let us hope that they will fail in their efforts.
Sincerely,
Allan C.Brownfeld,
Editor of ISSUES, the quarterly journal of the American