Dear Stan,
No no no no no.
1,400 Palestinians were injured and 18 were killed in Gaza - nonviolent protesters shot by Israeli soldiers during the #MarchForReturn on Friday.
The Israeli military evidently believes that any time Palestinians assert their basic rights in any way, they will be considered violent, and met with deadly violence. This cannot stand.
It feels impossible that this should be true. Like Sharpeville, Selma, or Kent State, again and again into 2018.
Because I know in my heart that the right to peaceful protest is sacrosanct. The biggest and boldest mobilizations of my lifetime are rolling into the streets. It’s a truly beautiful thing.
These protesters - people just like you and me - prove that there’s another way, one we have to recommit to today.
I think the only way truly forward is to recognize that there is a root cause: 70 years of Nakba.
After all, that’s the reason 15,000 people were marching in the first place.
The catastrophe of Palestinian dispossession and expulsion by the Israeli government has gone on 70 years too long. And the #MarchForReturn is about making good on the undeniable, basic right of Palestinians, and all people, to live freely in their homelands.
It was difficult to sit through a Passover seder Friday night with family that doesn't yet share my outrage at Israel’s aggression. But that’s what makes this community at JVP all the more important to me today as a place I can bring my full heart - and where we’re all working together for real and lasting peace.
Onward,
Rabbi Alissa Wise
Deputy Director
Deputy Director
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten