Chomsky and Others Appeal to Jews Everywhere to Stand
for Palestinian Rights
By The Gazette (Montreal) 9:03pm Fri Nov 10 '00
Saturday, November 4, 2000
Jewish people are opening their hearts and minds to the reality of what has
become our most distressing issue, Israel and the Palestinian people.
Jewish people should resist the pressure to support the Israeli state's side
unconditionally in the conflict against the Palestinian people. It has been
depicted as an us vs. them battle, so that criticism of the Israeli
status quo or support for the rights of the Palestinians to regain their
occupied territory are attacked as an act of betrayal against our own people.
But is it really? In all likelihood, defending a status quo that perpetuates
war, pain anger, resistance and, perhaps, ultimately anti-Semitism is more an
act of betrayal. Fifty-two years of bloodshed since the founding of modern Israel is not a reason for pride;
rather it indicates a major policy
failure that must be changed.
Jewish people must amplify our dissident voices to escape this trap of silence.
During the Vietnam War, U.S. militarists unsuccessfully tried to bully
opposition with slogans like "My Country -- Right or Wrong." We now
say "My People -- Right the Wrongs."
Can we open up our hearts and our minds to the principles of what is just and
practical?
Do we have the courage to oppose the dogma that has governed Jewish and Western
relations with the Israeli state?
Jewish people have the power and we have the ability to
ensure the same rights, the same treatment and the same respect for the
Palestinian people in Israel as we expect for ourselves. We must no longer
abandon our Palestinian sisters and brothers to a similar fate that our Jewish
elders and ancestors righteously fought or escaped throughout our history.
We who are Jewish must demand an end to the war on the Palestinians, a proper
respect for the UN resolutions recognizing the rights of Palestinians, an end to
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, a guarantee for Palestinian
self-determination and the dismantling of the Israel-style apartheid system. It
is not in our interests that we continue enforcing unjust conditions that
perpetuate resistance and bloodshed.
Solidarity with the Palestinian people is in effect
solidarity with the Jewish people.
NOAM CHOMSKY
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Boston, Mass.
LILLIAN S. ROBINSON
Principal
Simone de Beavoir Institute
Concordia University
Montreal
NORMAN KALANT
Montreal
and 31 others Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation
Montreal
