Letter to the Editor – 11/20/13

Israeli crimes

Rand Pelligrino’s comments in his letter “False accusation” are most ignorant on the subject of Israel/Palestine. In 1948 after the unfortunate UN decision to establish Israel in Palestine, approximately 800,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and 500 villages were destroyed by Zionists. Today, millions of Palestinians reside in refugee camps and elsewhere in the world.

Interfaith Peace Builders (ifpb.org) offers accurate reports from people on the ground on Israel’s violations of international law. Israel is taking Palestinian water for its own use, rationing back water a few hours a day to the Palestinians. Israel is presently coveting oil deposits in the West Bank close to the Green Line set by the UN in 1948. Gaza residents are denied fishing rights, needed supplies and freedom of movement.

Palestinians who have remained in Israel in their ancestral villages are second-class citizens denied the rights and privileges available only to Jews. Jonathan Cook writes from Nazareth that Israel is threatening eviction of 15,000 Palestinians from their homes in East Jerusalem to expand its illegal settlements.

Most Israelis do not see Palestinians as human beings. Israelis have lost their humanity, brutally demolishing Palestinian homes, destroying 800-year-old olive trees, terrorizing Palestinian families in the Silwan neighborhood of East Jerusalem, according to the report in Counterpunch.org.

I would add the obscene walls that Israel has built to divide families, the checkpoints, the terrorizing of children, the holding of children in jails to be simply cruel! I would say that these Jews have lost their humanity. The U.S. Government should not support such apartheid.

I have been to the area with my Christian church. Readers can receive accurate info from Jewish Voice for Peace, End the Occupation, If americansknew.org, Sabeel, Christian Peace Makers, American Friends, Women in Black, Code Pink and Middle East Christian Churches, to name a few. Of course, Al Jazeera is online, but there are so many other news sources. Turn off the Zionist drivelble!

Patricia Blair
Kailua

Liberal tyranny

Bob Jones shows that bigoted progressives are nothing more than the new tyranny in America. It is not intelligent to compare race with gays. Gays are already human of any color;the alternative lifestyle is something extra. Our advancement with racial issues has a lot to do with tribalism and our identity. Our challenges about morality offer a more complex argument on social virtue or vice. Gays cannot be a protected class perpetually, otherwise it is a status quo. Even race can’t be a protected class perpetually.

Michael S. Teruya
Palolo

Send your letters to dchapman@midweek.com.