Last week 72 South African Jews penned their name to an anti-Israel "Call by Concerned Jews" in the Mail & Guardian (M&G), a newspaper that never misses an opportunity to deride Israel and its supporters. (The link at the M&G website is for subscribers only but there is a copy here.)
Amongst the list of names that signed the article were Naomi Klein, Max Ozinsky, Ronnie Kasrils, Steven Friedman, Nathan Geffen and Jonathon Shapiro (aka Zapiro).
If the article was a genuine appeal to end hostilities then we would not have a problem with it. But there is nothing genuine about it. It seems like the product of a few narcissistic pseudo-intellectuals laying claim to a monopoly on Jewish morality. They write
| For the most part, the response of the Jewish community has been either to endorse this aggression – either through active support or by remaining silent and failing to condemn it. For many, any means adopted by the State of Israel, including these extraordinary attacks are acceptable or even warranted because they contribute to Jewish survival. We differ strongly from this view. We believe that Jewish support for Israeli aggression threatens both the moral and physical survival of the Jewish people. The overt support and the silent echo chamber around it robs us of our humanity and denies the lessons we Jews should have learned from our own history of oppression. |
Yet where is their 'Jewish' humanity when it comes to Israeli casualties? This declaration makes no mention of the 2 million Israeli civilians of northern Israel who have been the victims of Hizballah's relentless rain of terror; no call for the release of the 3 kidnapped Israel soldiers that sparked this latest conflagration and no condemnation of Lebanon and Hizballah for blatantly violating United Nation Security Council resolutions (a crime they so relish to castigate Israel for).
We find it curious that as even the typically anti-Israel Arab press finds space to blame Hizballah for the destruction in Lebanon and Northern Israel, South African Jews resort to one sided declarations that lay all the blame on Israel.
This one-sided declaration does not serve to promote peace in the Middle East and certainly does not ensure Jewish moral and physical survival. It serves only to further polarize this conflict, fuelling hatred in South Africa for mainstream Jewry.
In response we call on all South African's to publicly support our alternative Jewish declaration of conscience by posting their name and/or personal message in the comments section of our declaration of conscience.
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