1. This is being circulated to Liberal Jewish Americans everywhere- those that are liberal on all topics but Palestine/Israel – by the Zionist National Network. So, all you fact checkers, history buffs, knowledgeable Israeli government observers, lets hear your comments on the statements below. We need to hear and respond to what is keeping American Jews silent and acquiescent on Israel’s actions and policies. There are ways we can post responses to this Open Letter that should also be read widely.
Your comments are welcome from where ever you are. They can be sent: info@shoah.org.uk
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From:
Date: Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:53:12 +0200
To: <ZNN@yahoogroups.com>
Subject: [ZNN] Chief Rabbi Goldstein and Professors Allan Boesak and Farid Esack
An open letter to Professors Allan Boesak and Farid Esack <http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id301.html>
I refer to your, article “IF THIS IS NOT APARTHEID, THEN WHAT IS?”
in the Johannesburg Star of November 10, 2010
Professor Boesak, I sincerely respect your role in 1983 as a patron of one of the most important anti-apartheid organizations of the period, the United Democratic Front, as way back in the 1940’s I too, was an anti-apartheid activist as a member of the radical WW2 ex-serviceman’s Springbok Legion, the first mass anti-apartheid movement of whites with nearly 60,000 members including a large proportion of Jews.
Professor Esack, I also respect and admire your anti-apartheid activities as well as your humanitarian work as a founder member of the Positive Muslims, dedicated to helping HIV-positive Muslims in Africa with its stated objective of encouraging compassion, mercy and non-judgementalism towards all human kind.
I therefore observe with sadness that you departed from the non-judgmentalism that you advocate in accusing Israel of being an apartheid state,. However, because I accept your sincere intentions, I believe the accusations you made were based on misinformation disseminated by mainstream media. Please therefore, allow me to provide a few accurate examples that will no doubt convince you that although Israel, like South Africa has its faults, “apartheid” is certainly not one of them.
You incorrectly claim that Rabbi Goldstein conflated (did not distinguish) between life inside Israel and life in the occupied territories. The fact is that in response to Archbishop Tutu’s call for a boycott of the State of Israel (which by definition does not include the occupied territories) Rabbi Goldstein specifically spoke of the Israel to which Tutu referred. This is what Rabbi Goldstein wrote absolutely correctly. “In the State of Israel all citizens – Jew and Arab – are equal before the law. Israel has no Population Registration Act, no Group Areas Act, no Mixed Marriages and Immorality Act, no Separate Representation of Voters Act, no Separate Amenities Act, no pass laws, or any of the myriad apartheid laws”.
They are antithetical to the tenets in Israel’s Declaration of Independence, which declares that the state “will foster the development of the country for the benefit of all its inhabitants; it will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations”.
Your statement that Jews and Palestinian citizens in Israel are certainly not equal before the law is confusing as I do not know what is meant by Palestinian citizens of Israel, but Supreme Court judgments prove beyond doubt that all citizens of Israel, Arab, Jew, Christian and others are equal before the law.
As pointed out by Rabbi Goldstein it is undeniable that Israel is a vibrant liberal democracy with a free press and independent judiciary, and accords full political, religious and other human rights to all its peoples, including its 1 million-plus Arab citizens, many of whom hold positions of authority including that of cabinet minister, member of parliament, and judge at every level of the judiciary, including that of the Supreme Court of Israel. All citizens vote on the same roll in regular, multi-party elections.
Yes you are correct in pointing out that there is a difference between the laws in Israel and the West Bank and here one must distinguish between areas A, B and C as spelled out in the Oslo agreements. There is not space here to discuss the status of the West Bank but I suggest that you will find a booklet by Australian lawyer Ian Lacey <http://www.2nd-thoughts.org/id160.html> very informative.
Sadly, the Palestinians do suffer serious hardships and disadvantages but in seeking the truth one cannot ignore that the checkpoints and the security barrier did not just happen in a vacuum. They are reactions to very real security problems in which thousands of Israelis died in terror attacks and fair minded people should see the situation in its context.
Prior to the outbreak of the second “Intifada” in September 2000, there was no need for checkpoints and the security barrier. Palestinian and Israeli business people and merchandise moved feely between the West Bank and Gaza (WBG) and Israel and Palestinian workers freely entered Israel without interference. 146,000 Palestinians were working in Israel and the settlements with average wages 70 to 75% higher than those in the WBG and in neighboring countries.
Israel and the PA cooperated in creating employment opportunities along the “seam-line” and a successful industrial zone was created at Erez which employed about 5,000 workers in some 200 businesses half of which were Palestinian-owned. They produced everything from plastics to car parts and continued to do so even as the Israeli-Palestinian conflict raged. This was part of a larger Gaza Industrial Estate (GIE), slated to provide up to 50,000 jobs. In addition a joint industrial zone was planned south of Tulkarm intended to provide jobs for more than 5,000 Palestinians. Additional areas were planned for Jenin and the Kerem Shalom area near Rafah in Gaza. But all these positive efforts were unfortunately thwarted when the GIE zone became the target of deadly Palestinian attacks
In today’s Israel proper, an unblinkered visit to a hospital or shopping mall will convince the most biased individual about the complete absence of any form of apartheid. Arabs and Jews mix freely in the shopping malls and Arab and Jewish doctors collaborate in the hospitals. In some hospitals Arabs outnumber Jewish patients. The Hadassah Medical Organization which operates two hospitals in Jerusalem, treats thousands of patients of diverse ethnic backgrounds annually, without any trace of discrimination. Its international reputation in the Middle East region by providing equal treatment to Palestinians and Israelis was recognized by nomination for the 2005 Nobel Peace Prize. All very different from the separate hospitals in apartheid South Africa.
The Schneider Children’s Hospital, like other Israeli hospitals, provides equal specialized treatment to children from Israel, the PA and neighboring countries. Some 30% of patients come from the Arab sectors and neighboring countries. Even in times of terror, the hospital welcomes Palestinians.
Does all this remotely resemble “apartheid”?
You justifiably refer to poverty in Arab communities in Israel. Yes, although there are many very wealthy Arabs and Palestinians, very sadly we cannot deny that poverty does exist in the Arab sector as it does in some Jewish sectors as well. According to a BBC report <http://tinyurl.com/27e5xv2> some 50% of Israeli Arabs live in poverty, as do 60% of ultra-orthodox Jews, compared to 20% of all Israelis.
This is an unacceptable situation that must be, and is, being corrected but I ask you to evaluate the situation here in the same manner as you evaluate it in the new South Africa. In fact I admire your courage in publicly criticizing the failures of the new South African government to live up to our high expectations and in your words, for bringing back “the hated system of racial categorization”. You were courageous too, in slamming the SA government for applying Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) in a discriminatory manner and for failing to improve the lot of colored communities. Even ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa has been quoted as saying that BEE “has created millionaires and superstars while our people should rather have been equipped with basic skills.”
I don’t for one moment quote these unpleasant facts in SA to justify negative aspects in Israel. But I do ask you to treat aspects of Israel in their proper context. Though you acknowledge that there are manifestations of apartheid in South Africa, neither you nor I would think of advocating sanctions. We prefer to constructively emphasize and support the positive aspects and all I ask is that you adopt an even handed attitude by applying the same approach to Israel.
As in South Africa, where, despite the imperfections, real progress has been made and is being made, so too, in Israel encouraging positive moves to improve the economic situation of the Arab communities are being made that are ignored by those who report only on our warts. For example, the Israeli cabinet recently committed additional 800m shekels to economic infrastructure, housing and transportation in 12 Arab localities.
In Nazareth, a unit funded by the government and private investors, known as Generation Technology is promoting Arab companies that will ultimately impact the world. It is one of 20 similar incubators that each house about 20 startups assisting Arab entrepreneurs. One of their companies, VPSign, has developed a technology that assigns a digital signature in face-to-face settings where an official signature has to be digitally recorded. Another, Lostam Biopharmaceuticals has found a way to overcome bacterial resistance to antibiotics through the development of a new antibody platform.
The incubators have already produced about 50 Israeli Arab biotech companies that have made their mark in the business world.
Rather than reject Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s sincere plea that “Without truth there can be no justice, and without justice there can be no peace” I hope you will agree that we won’t make progress towards understanding each other unless we make an effort to think beyond our preconceived ideas in seeking truth and justice.
You slate Israel for the fact that it is impossible to marry, except in religious courts. Marriages are not performed in courts in Israel but, as in Jordan, they are performed in religious ceremonies by all religious denominations, Muslim, Christian or Jewish and this has nothing at all to do with apartheid. In fact unlike in our neighboring states there is a great deal of public pressure to introduce civil marriage in Israel. If you consider religious marriage to be objectionable you may perhaps find time to compare the marriage laws in Saudi Arabia for example, where children as young as eight are unwillingly married to older men under religious law, where public worship by any faith other than Islam is not tolerated and where the wearing of crosses or any other religious symbol is prohibited. http://tinyurl.com/d9jnhs
The fact is that the great majority of Israelis would like to shake off the burden of involvement with the governance of the Palestinian people and I now ask you, in all sincerity, to offer some constructive suggestions that will help us figure out how we can achieve peace with our neighbors without committing suicide. In doing so please take into account
1) Israel’s willingness and anxiety to make peace with its neighbors has been unequivocally proved by the facts that
a) under the so-called hawkish government of Begin, Israel relinquished the entire Sinai with its oilfields in order to gain peace with Egypt
b) under the so-called hawkish government of Ariel Sharon Israel evacuated settlements in Gaza and transferred 3,000 greenhouses to the PA that offered an opportunity to create thousands of jobs and profitable exports. Instead of the peaceful coexistence Israel expected, the Gazans willfully destroyed the greenhouses and fired thousands of rockets into civilian centers
c) The offers made by Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert when they were prime ministers were rejected.
2) The question must be asked how peace can be achieved while the Hamas charter, unlike the South African Freedom Charter, declares there is absolutely no room for peaceful negotiation.and while article 13 of the Hamas Charter declares that initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement, that there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad and that initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
3) In seeking a peaceful settlement, Israel’s security concerns cannot be overlooked, especially in view of the intense rocket attacks experienced from Gaza. A glance at the attached map illustrates the concern at the possibility of rocket firing groups being stationed in the West Bank opposite Ben Gurion airport.
What kind of assurance would you offer in a comprehensive peace agreement?
This letter is being publicized and my readers will be very anxious to learn your considered opinion which will be similarly publicized.
Sincerely,
Maurice Ostroff
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2. The concluding statement of the Russell tribunal on Palestine’s November 2010 session.
TEL AVIV, Israel — There is a budding movement by foreign investors and activists to join a Palestinian campaign against companies doing business in the West Bank – aimed at hitting them in their pockets.
Pension funds in Norway and Sweden have divested themselves of holdings in some firms involved in building in settlements or helping to erect Israel’s contentious West Bank separation barrier.
European activists are cranking up pressure on companies by exposing the West Bank ties and picketing stores that sell settlement goods. And some major U.S. churches are questioning companies as a precursor to possible divestment.
The economic impact is still negligible. Jewish groups are pushing back and key institutions, including U.S. universities, have rejected calls to divest. But in business, where image is all-important, it’s tough to shrug off potentially negative publicity.
Israel accuses boycott advocates of trying to delegitimize the Jewish state. It also argues that plenty of companies with ties to states with horrendous human rights records are not similarly targeted.
The focus on corporate involvement comes against the backdrop of a wider Palestinian movement of divestment and boycott, inspired by the economic assault on apartheid-era South Africa.
The Palestinians hope such pressure will achieve what years of negotiations have not – end Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, lands they want for a state. Israel withdrew all forces and settlers from the Gaza Strip, the other territory claimed by the Palestinians, in 2005.
While the Palestinians seek a blanket boycott of Israel, many foreign supporters do not.
“This is not divestment from Israel. It’s divestment from companies supporting the occupation,” said William Aldrich, head of the divestment task force at the New England Conference of the United Methodist Church.
Divestment is meant to make a moral statement, said Aldrich, whose group recommends that Methodists sell stock in 29 foreign and Israeli companies, though that call has not been adopted by his church at the national level.
“The big success is that is has become an issue,” added Merav Amir of the Tel Aviv-based Coalition of Women for Peace, whose database of companies has become a resource for investors and activists.
Israeli opposition leader Tzipi Livni, a former foreign minister who supports a West Bank pullout, said Israel should be concerned.
“There is a trend of ideological consumerism in some of the world’s countries, in addition to a delegitimization campaign against the state of Israel,” she told a business conference Wednesday. “I believe we have to light a few warning lights.”
Foreign and Israeli companies operating in the West Bank have benefited over the years from cheap land, tax incentives and low-cost Palestinian labor. A growing settler population – 500,000 in the West Bank and east Jerusalem – has made it increasingly worthwhile for Israeli banks, supermarket chains and others to set up branches on war-won land.
With scrutiny intensifying, foreign companies and investments could be more vulnerable to pressure.
Results are still modest.
Norway’s $500 billion oil fund, Europe’s largest institutional investor, and Swedish pension funds managing more than $100 billion in assets have dropped the Israeli defense contractor Elbit Systems Ltd., which provides surveillance equipment for the separation barrier.
The funds say Elbit violated ethical norms because of its involvement in the barrier, ruled illegal in a nonbinding decision by the International Court of Justice. Israel says it built the barrier to keep out Palestinian militants, but it swerves through the West Bank to incorporate Jewish settlements on the “Israeli” side.
Norway’s investment in Elbit was $6 million, negligible for a company valued at $2 billion. Elbit won’t discuss the divestments. The Norwegian fund also sold its $1.2 million in shares in Africa Israel Investments, which has a real estate holding that builds in settlements.
The Brussels-based bank Dexia, targeted by Belgian activists for lending to settlements, said its Israeli subsidiary is phasing out the settlement business. Assa Abloy, a Swedish lock maker, said it would move its Israeli factory from a settlement industrial park to Israel proper within a year.
SodaStream, a maker of home carbonating systems, said some of the $109 million raised in a public offering in November is to be used to build a new factory outside the West Bank, though it won’t say whether it would eventually close an existing settlement facility.
Some major Christian denominations also are wrestling with the divestment issue.
The World Council of Churches, which represents 560 million Christians, has called for responsible investment and a boycott of settlement products.
The Presbyterians are trying to persuade several multinationals to cut West Bank ties and leave open the possibility of future divestment. The United Methodists, who have called on Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian-claimed territories, failed to pass a divestment bill at a 2008 convention, though activists said such efforts would continue.
For now, boycott and divestment don’t affect the Israeli economy or the businesses, said Israela Many, chief economist at the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce. “The problem is, it creates a negative image,” she said.
Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman, alleged that “boycotters show very selective indignation” and ignore egregious human rights abuses elsewhere, including in Libya, Syria and Iran.
The Scandinavian pension funds deny singling out Israel.
“There is no country perspective on this,” said Annika Anderson of the Ethical Council that advises four Swedish pension funds. She noted that the funds have dropped nine other companies from around the world since 2007.
The Norwegian fund, which invests in more than 8,000 firms, has dropped 49 companies worldwide, including those making cluster bombs and cigarettes. The list includes Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Wal-Mart.
The fund’s decisions are closely watched by other investors in Scandinavia.
Being excluded by the oil fund can cause “massive damage to a company’s reputation” in those countries, said Caroline Liinanki, editor of the Nordic Region Pensions and Investment News at the Financial Times. “You don’t want to end up on the black list.”
