A recent article in the Seattle Times reported on attacks by Israeli West Bank settlers and military forces attacking Palestinians in order to drive them out from areas in the West Bank where military exercises were to take place. Schools, other public buildings and houses were destroyed int eh melee; Palestinians had no recourse to redress their grievances. “The nearby affluent town of Turmus Ayya was the site of a vicious settler pogrom in June 2023 where 400 settlers under army protection burned 60 cars, 30 homes, killed one man and tear-gassed villagers.”
What is amazing about these events – and the posture of the Israeli government – is that this is the kind of activity that the Jews in Germany and surrounding countries experienced under Nazi rule. They know what it was like to be so unjustly persecuted – and yet, they forget and do it themselves to defenseless people they regard as their enemies. There is no question: it is genocide. Voting rights are restricted or denied to Arabs and Palestinians inside of Israel – and now there appear to be efforts in the Knesset to annex the West Bank against the will of the Palestinians, In the meantime, the pattern or terrorizing the local population and seizing land with impunity is repeated in the West Bank, in Jerusalem and in Gaza as well. Israel’s military has now occupied the West Bank and seized control, annexation in all but name.
To their credit, some Jewish organizations in the United States, oppose these anti-Palestinian policies and actions that are taking place in Israel. A recent poll of American Jews indicated that roughly two-thirds oppose Israeli policy and support a two-state solution. “Let justice roll down like water and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.” (Amos 5:24) Given the horrors of the Holocaust, Israel has a right to exist, though it should recognize the words of Amos and the UN Declaration of Human Rights. Critics of Israeli policy are not denying Israel’s right to exist nor denigrating Jews for who they are. But Israel has a responsibility to cooperate with the Palestinians in creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank – and to avoid interference in its ability to govern its people. The past mistakes of both parties should be put behind them and the must work for peace and justice. This hostility must cease. It has raged on now for more than 75 years. It cannot continue on forever.