Jews speak out against Gaza carnage
We the undersigned are all of Jewish
origin. When we see the dead and bloodied bodies of young children, the cutting
off of water, electricity and food, we are reminded of the siege of the Warsaw
Ghetto. When Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Ehud
Olmert, talked of putting Gazans “on a diet” and the deputy defence
minister, Matan Vilnai, talked about the Palestinians experiencing “a bigger
shoah” (holocaust), this reminds us of Governor General Hans Frank in
Nazi-occupied Poland, who spoke of “death by hunger”.
The real reason for the attack on Gaza is that Israel is only willing to
deal with Palestinian quislings. The main crime of Hamas is not terrorism but
its refusal to accept becoming a pawn in the hands of the Israeli occupation
regime in Palestine.
The decision last month by the EU council to upgrade relations
with Israel, without any specific conditions on human rights, has encouraged
further Israeli aggression. The time for appeasing Israel is long past. As a
first step, Britain must withdraw the British ambassador to Israel and, as with apartheid South Africa, embark on a programme of boycott, divestment and
sanctions.
Ben Birnberg, Prof Haim Bresheeth, Deborah Fink, Bella Freud,
Tony Greenstein, Abe Hayeem, Prof Adah Kay, Yehudit Keshet, Dr Les Levidow,
Prof Yosefa Loshitzky, Prof Moshe Machover, Miriam Margolyes, Prof Jonathan
Rosenhead and 65 others.
Letters page, Guardian,10 January
2009