Dear Readers, Friends and Supporters of the Palestine Israel Journal,

What follows is an exchange of thoughts about recent Israeli Government actions initiated by PIJ Cultural Editor Galit Hasan-Rokem, with follow-up comments by our PIJ editorial board members: 

Gershon Baskin, Dan Jacobson, Benjamin Pogrund, Kholoud Khayyat Dajani, Daniel Bar-Tal, Ziad AbuZayyad, Francis Raday, Hillel Schenker, Edy Kaufman, Ali Abu Shahla and Tony Klug. 

We thought that it’s worth sharing with you this stimulating debate between us in the PIJ Forum. 

The Editors 

Hillel Schenker & Ziad AbuZayyad

Feeling Anger, Shame & Deep Sorrow about the Israeli Government’s Actions

Galit Hasan-Rokem

Dear Editorial Board Members, colleagues, and friends,

I am writing to express my anger, shame and deep sorrow for the conduct of the Israeli government, military and police forces in all the Occupied Territories, but especially in Palestinian East Jerusalem at this time. The ruthless killing of young Palestinians including children in the last weeks has been terrible, the robbery of land all over the Occupied Palestinian Territories especially in the Hebron mountains and the Jordan Valley, and the inhuman eviction of the inhabitants of Wadi el-Hummus must alert us to the grave situation that we all live in, although as we must emphasize, under very different conditions for Palestinians and Israelis.

It should be of no comfort to anybody that the evil government ruling at the present also robs Israeli citizens of their democratic rights by overturning the legal system, by impoverishing the health and educational systems and by fostering inequality and hate among the various groups of Israeli citizens.

The next weeks will obviously be devoted to attention and efforts to change the political leadership of this country, hoping for positive results also in the governing of the occupied Palestinian lands and eventually in a change of heart regarding the work of peace together with the lawfully and internationally recognized Palestinian leadership.

Nevertheless, I feel that as an Israeli that is privileged to work with Palestinian colleagues against the occupation and for a better future in our societies, I must express, as I said, my anger, shame and utter sorrow for not being at the present able to prevent the extreme expressions of evil by the government and forces that rule my country.

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I join Galit and support all of her wise words. This is my Jerusalem Post column that will appear tomorrow - Encountering peace: Have we no shame? (posted also on the PIJ blog). https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Encountering-Peace-Have-We-No-Shame-596738

Dr. Gershon Baskin 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Thank you Galit, 

I think that you and Gershon express, very eloquently, the feelings of all the Israeli friends and colleagues on the PIJ editorial board about the recent shameful events, all products of the ongoing occupation.

Your words should inspire all of us to continue the struggle to end the occupation, for the sake of both peoples.

Hillel Schenker 

Co-Editor

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Dear Hillel, 

Thank you for this letter. Palestinian colleagues, please do not express any positive feedback on this letter, it is the least and much too little I could do at this moment. It would only increase my shame. 

The struggle continues. 

Galit

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Indeed. 

Prof. Dan Jacobson 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Thank you, Galit, for what you wrote. I agree fully.

May I also offer my years-long experience in apartheid South Africa: the day by day struggle was filled with despair because the evil kept growing and spreading with little sign that it would or could ever end. To survive and to keep up hope, you had to work hard to maintain an inner core of belief. Armed with that, you had to be unflinching in sticking to your moral values in a highly hostile environment.

Benjamin Pogrund 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Thanks Dear Galit and friends for your kind words and supportive feelings.

Am still hopeful.

Sincerely yours 

Prof. Khuloud J. Khayyat Dajani 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Dear friends, 

The words of Galit are carved in the rock. They express clearly what a very small percentage of Jews in Israel think. We live in a very difficult period as human beings and shameful as Jews. What is especially shameful is the helplessness that characterizes many of this small minority. But some of them still feel hope knowing that the end of the occupation will come as it happened in all the other cases. Liberal civilization is not progressing linearly but is progressing. The pages written in history books in the future will strongly condemn Jewish behaviors.

Prof. Daniel Bar-Tal 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Dear Danny,

I subscribe to every word you said in your email, and again express my appreciation of Galit’s words which touch the heart from the bottom.

I read also Gershon’s article in The Jerusalem Post and it too is very highly appreciated and valued for its courage and honesty.

My love to you all.

Ziad AbuZayyad 

Co-Editor PIJ

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Dear friends and colleagues,

I join Galit and Gershon in their expressions of shame, fury and deep sorrow at the policies of our government and the behavior of those members of our military and police who have brought tragedy to Palestinian families in acts of arbitrary violence and destruction.

We are witness to a precipitating deterioration in public reason, restraint and respect for human life, dignity and rights. This can be attributed not only to colonialist greed but also to religious nationalism.

I greatly appreciate Khuloud's expression of hope. The only way to fulfill that hope is by a massive effort to shift public opinion and mobilize it in favor of a leadership which is committed to universal human rights.

With sorrow for those mourning loss of loved ones or suffering loss of homes,

Prof. Frances Raday 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Dear friends,

Following the moving and important exchange of messages among Galit, Danny, Khuloud, Frances, Ziad and others, needless to say that deep feelings of identification with the Palestinian families, victims witnessing their own homes being destroyed; clearly, this concern is shared by all our Board members. The challenge is for each of us individually and PIJ as a joint journal is - how can we translate solidarity into concrete steps? We are united in the intellectual mission of bringing to the world a unique message. Now the exchange of ideas about how to stop the Israeli government to continue this usurpation of individual and collective rights perhaps can be produced by a fruitful brainstorming. I could come up with a few ideas about what ourselves and people like us, human rights worldwide and other NGOs can do, and perhaps we can do it through correspondence or as an agenda item in the next meeting.

Ironically, it seems that not many international governmental and non-governmental organizations specialize in the prevention of house demolition, perhaps HABITAT? The sad truth is that few countries have used such cruel policy, heritage of the British Mandate; since the end of Apartheid in South Africa so shamefully. Israel is perhaps the only country that practices a systematic pattern of such human rights violation. Even in Israel, the NGO against of House Demolition [run over many years by Jeff Halper and our colleague Meir Margalit) to the best of my knowledge is no longer active. In short, we should make an effort and add to our concern for the suffering some concrete ideas how can it be stopped.

Prof. Edward Edy Kaufman 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Thank you Edy for your constructive ideas.

Thanks for Galit, Danny, Khuloud, Frances, Ziad, Gershon, and all of our PIJ board.

Ali AbuShahla 

PIJ Editorial Board

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Complete support and solidarity from outside Israel and Palestine for everything that has been written in this and the parallel stream.

Frances Raday has fittingly commented: "I greatly appreciate Khuloud's expression of hope. The only way to fulfill that hope is by a massive effort to shift public opinion and mobilize it in favor of a leadership which is committed to universal human rights."

Too right! We've waited far too long for such a massive, coordinated, effort. But how to achieve it? In the light of the current emergency, general urgency and the pending election, would this not be a suitable topic for the next edition of PIJ?

Dr. Tony Klug 

PIJ Board of Sponsors, London