Holocaust survivor Reuven Moshkovitz (82) flashes a victory sign aboard a British-flagged boat named Irene.
And why was a Jew trying to break the blockade of Gaza? In his own words: “It is a sacred duty for me, as a survivor, to protect against the persecution, the oppression and imprisonment of so many people in Gaza, including more than 800,000 children.”
“I as a Holocaust survivor cannot live with the fact that the State of Israel is imprisoning an entire people behind fences … it’s just immoral.
“What happened to me in the Holocaust wakes me up every night and I hope we don’t do the same thing to our neighbours”, he said, adding that he was comparing “what I went through during the Holocaust to what the besieged Palestinian children are going through.”
__________________________________________________
We believe in the Merciful One
who calls us to reject all idols and who seeks a deep communion with us.
We believe in the Merciful One
who is not remote but who is immersed in the life of this world sharing its hope
and feeling its pain.
We believe in the Merciful One
who identifies with the poor and the oppressed and those who long for faith and who calls us to stand with them.
We believe in the Merciful One
whose love is vulnerable, whose heart is aching and whose covenant with all people
is unshakeable.
Christian Conference of Asia News1
__________________________________________________
The great psychotherapist, Carl Jung wrote: “You always become the thing you fight the most.” And Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s propaganda minister reputedly said, “Even if we lose, we shall win, for our ideals will have penetrated the hearts of our enemies.” These words have once again sadly been proven correct in the horrifying violence in the Middle East.
Zionist Israel has become what they hate. They have so internalised their status as victims that they are unable to see themselves for the perpetrators they have become. They do to the Palestinians what anti-Semites have done to them.
It is especially sad when this happens because there is an expectation that those who know what it is to suffer so much would be determined not to be the cause of such suffering towards others.
To speak about the injustice and violence in the Middle East without naming USA-backed Israel as the overwhelming aggressor is to deny the truth, the cause and the carnage. What silences many on this matter of oppression is the fear of being labelled an anti-Semite. We are right to be sensitive about this but not silenced. As the prophets of old spoke directly to the people of Israel so should we: “Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to evil, and they rush to shed innocent blood … the way of peace they do not know and there is no justice in their paths.” [Isaiah 59:7-8].
As for the retaliatory violence of Hamas it does not help the cause of Palestinian Liberation. They too risk becoming what they hate. Only creative non-violent resistance will offer lasting liberation because it is the only method that allows us to regard the humanity of our enemy and resist our enemy at the same time and thereby preventing us from becoming what we hate.
Grace, Alan
__________________________________________________
For we knew only too well:
Even hatred of squalor
makes the brow grow stern.
Even anger against injustice
makes the voice grow harsh.
Alas, we who wished to lay
the foundations of kindness
could not ourselves be kind.
Bertolt Brecht
