Israel trying to break Palestinians

Editor:
While Pesach is a time to celebrate our own liberation from slavery in Egypt centuries ago, it is also a good time to reflect on the striking parallel with the situation of the Palestinians today, who are under a cruel occupation by the state of Israel.

Since the election of the Sharon government, the escalating conflict has resulted in a relentless campaign of repression and violation of human rights in the West Bank and Gaza with collective punishment being the norm. To say that these Palestinian lands are under siege is no exaggeration ("Sealing off humanity," Bulletin, March 23). Home demolitions have increased in the last few weeks. According to Rabbi Arik Ascherman of Rabbis for Human Rights in Israel, "All in all, 15 homes were demolished by the Civil Administration [last week] in Anata, the Issawiya area and Hebron."

The home of Salim Shawamreh, who spoke at a public meeting in Vancouver in February, was demolished for the third time. Rabbi Ascherman, along with other Israeli Jews, was arrested while attempting to prevent the bulldozing of Shawamreh's home. All this injustice is taking place against a backdrop of expansion of settler housing in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

Trees are being uprooted as a regular practice and Rabbi Ascherman reports the uprooting of 1,500 trees in Dir Istya alone, thus undercutting the Palestinians' ability to earn a livelihood and resulting in mass hunger. Medical clinics have also been demolished, thus denying medical care to innocent civilians - children and the elderly among them.

Settlers in Hebron have been inflicting pogroms on innocent Palestinians in retaliation for the murder of a baby by one gunman, while the murder of Palestinian children by settlers goes largely unreported in the mainstream media in Israel and elsewhere.

I can only conclude that - with a wink and a nod from U.S. President George W. Bush - the Sharon government is attempting to break the Palestinian resistance completely, thus attempting to force them to accept a mini-state controlled by Israel.

We Jews need to ask ourselves why the Sharon government rejects calls by Palestinians, other nations and international human rights organizations around the world for an international peace-keeping force in the West Bank and Gaza. What are they trying to hide?

Yom Shamash
Steering committee member, Jews for a Just Peace Vancouver

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