It is with profound sadness that I write this letter. The recent article by Nathan Cherry and Abby Karesh calling on us to cast off indifference in the face of great injustices such as the Holocaust is painfully hypocritical. And it is especially troubling for Jews like me whose family history (and whose very name) bears the odious marks of the sort of oppression against which Cherry and Karesh urge us to struggle. Cherry and Karesh argue that we cannot remain silent as others suffer horrible oppression. But their silence in the face of the grave atrocities committed against Palestinians by Israel (a state that was founded in the shadow of the Holocaust) is identical to the very silent indifference condemned by their article.
I, for one, cannot imagine how it is possible to honor the six million Jews who perished in the Shoah by quietly supporting the Israeli government's murderous policy of systematic and brutal oppression of the Palestinian people. How is it that Cherry and Karesh (and the rest of the American Jewish community) cannot see that U.S.-funded oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis is not itself one of today's gravest injustices and that we cannot remain silent as it rages on? How is it that the very community that is the loudest in proclaiming "Never again!" also insists that we must uncritically support the systematic murder and oppression of the Palestinian people?
I ask all American citizens to honor the victims of the Holocaust this week by breaking the silence and calling on their congressmen and senators to halt all U.S. aid to Israel. The greatest way to honor those murdered by Hitler and the Nazis is not to endorse the inhuman policies carried out by Israel. Rather, it is to demand loudly the immediate end to the murdering and oppression of Palestinians that is carried out by Israel at least partially in the name those who died in the Shoah.
There is no doubt that the Palestinian suicide bombings targeting civilians are outrageous. But no behavior by a few Palestinians is outrageous enough to justify the systematic oppression of all Palestinians. Furthermore, such a response is counterproductive. One need only to reflect on the fact that as Ariel Sharon has sought ever more violent and barbaric revenge for Palestinian attacks, the Palestinians attacks have come with greater frequency and greater brutality. Justice, justice, justice, ye shall seek, not revenge.
Matthew Smith
Graduate Student
Philosophy
