NOVANEWS
Dear Sammi,
My greatest anguish is beholding what the Israelis are doing to themselves.
We saw what apartheid did to the white people, making it possible for them to commit horrendous atrocities.
In dehumanising others, they were themselves dehumanised in the process.
I saw it in the callousness of young Israeli soldiers at checkpoints when they could decide to let an expectant mother desperately needing a hospital to deliver her baby go through, or not, as the whim struck them.
I saw it when they bombed schools and hospitals in Gaza. I saw it when settlers uprooted hundreds-year-old Palestinian olive trees.
And it pains me to no end, especially when I see this dehumanisation happen to a people that has suffered for millennia.
What gave us strength to rebuild after apartheid in South Africa was believing in every person’s capacity to turn pain into healing, and fear into love.
Even when there is a price to pay — in their families, their synagogues and communities — the thousands who are a part of Jewish Voice for Peace continue to speak out on behalf of justice and love for all people. They push for change: through boycott and divestment campaigns, through political pressure, through inspiring others to follow their heart, and through challenging their own community.
I have worked my whole life to build a world of dignity for all people: a group like Jewish Voice for Peace needs your courage and your activism, but they also need your financial support.
Jewish Voice for Peace gives me a glimpse of a world in which mutual dignity and respect reign.
They connect the American Jewish community to its own beautiful history of social justice activism – including against apartheid in my country of South Africa.
They give me hope, especially when the night seems longest.
God bless you and all God’s children in Palestine and in Israel,
Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Cape Town, South Africa
