Concern for all women?

Letters

Editor: Dear Ms. Kler:
Can you blame the Vancouver Jewish community when it questions the bias of the "Vancouver Rape Relief collective" in only choosing to come out in support of alleged Israeli actions against Palestinians, and signing your organization's name to anti-Israeli newspaper petitions? If you truly believe that you are a "front-line, anti-violence" collective whose goal is to "end male violence against women," as you stated in a recent letter to the Jewish Western Bulletin ("Support for women worldwide," July 26) then how come I have never seen the Vancouver Rape Relief collective actively condemning the murder of young women by men in many Arab countries, in the guise of "honor killings"; nor the stoning to death of Muslim Nigerian women who are accused of adultery (note that Nigerian male adulterers suffer no such fate); nor the fact that Saudi Arabian women are forbidden to drive cars or be seen in public without male chaperones; nor the condemnation of Palestinian homicide bombers who kill Israeli women; and so on.

Isn't it interesting that the only issue that seems to spur you into taking global action involves Jews? Do you see why some people might interpret your alleged concerns for Palestinian women as being anti-Semitic? Have you ever researched whether Arab-Israeli women appear to have civil and human rights afforded them by Israeli judicial system that most Arab women in Arab countries can only dream of?

Just in case you should ever feel outrage against other nations besides Israel, I am enclosing an article from an international women's magazine outlining violence in China against infants at birth who are systematically being murdered just for being born female. Dare I say that I don't anticipate the Vancouver Rape Relief collective signing petitions against China any time in the near future?

Sharon Isaacson
Vancouver

This letter was originally sent to Daisy Kler of Vancouver Rape Relief. It is reprinted with permission.

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