End the occupation

Letters

Editor: The occupation has endured for 35 years and it has been an unmitigated disaster. It has brought neither peace, justice nor security; rather the reverse. The present actions and policies of the Israeli government in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, especially the recent attacks against such civilian centres as Ramallah, Bethlehem and Tulkarm, serve only to intensify the disaster. Smashing more cities, killing more of the people who live in them, embarking on a “war without borders” in order to “deal them a terrible blow” and “cause them heavy casualties” – to imagine that such actions will “end the violence” is to stand meaning, reason and ethics on their heads.

The Sharon government and its supporters try to tell us that the occupation is necessary in order to fight terrorism. We deplore terrorism; we condemn attacks against civilians as abhorrent and inexcusable. But continuing and intensifying the occupation will not stop terrorism.

Many among Israel’s own military and security elites have made this point. Ami Ayalon, the former head of Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security service, said in an interview for Le Monde in December that continuing the occupation only intensifies the violence; that it’s useless to try to use military power to conquer terrorism; that Israel should withdraw unconditionally from the occupied territories. As Ayalon remarked: “Reoccupying the Palestinian Authority lands and killing Arafat, what would that change? Those who want victory want an unending war.”

At a time like this, we need courage and I don’t mean the courage to kill. We need the forthright courage to open our eyes and ears and to see and hear what’s happening; the courage to open our mouths and say no, not in my name; above all, the courage to hope. Thousands of Israelis have displayed such courage and hope in recent days, demonstrating under slogans like “The occupation is killing us all” and “We refuse to be enemies,” while hundreds of soldiers have refused to serve in the occupied territories.

Those who would counsel us to seek peace through oppression and justice through military might speak the counsel of Pharaoh: the counsel of despair. They counsel us to harden our hearts and abandon our humanity; that the humanity of Jews differs from the humanity of Palestinians. We need the courage to say no to despair, and yes to hope: yes to our shared humanity and to the knowledge that if we will it, peace is no dream. I do not speak of blind or naïve hope. I speak of the hope that sees obstacles and works to clear them.

Our religious tradition teaches that “the sword comes into the world through justice delayed and justice denied.” It’s time to end the delay, to end the denial of justice to the fatally tangled peoples of Israel and Palestine. The first step on the road toward justice and peace must be: End the occupation. Now.

Stephen Aberle,
on behalf of Jews for a Just Peace
Vancouver

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