LETTERS

Collective punishment of Palestinians must cease

Posted 10/19/23

To the Editor,

The efforts of President Biden to restrain Israel’s war against Gaza is commendable. He has also sought the release of hostages and worked ceaselessly to open Egypt’s …

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LETTERS

Collective punishment of Palestinians must cease

Posted

To the Editor,

The efforts of President Biden to restrain Israel’s war against Gaza is commendable. He has also sought the release of hostages and worked ceaselessly to open Egypt’s border for humanitarian aid.

This is a positive example of realpolitik, the diplomacy of the possible. Sadly, it is not enough.

In a BBC News interview, former Israeli negotiator, Daniel Levy, passionately questioned, “Can someone credibly tell me that when the leadership of a country says we are cutting off food, electricity, water, all supplies to an entire civilian population, that they’re targeting militants? I’m sorry, these kind of lies can’t be allowed to pass.”

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel’s Air Force stated it dropped 6,000 bombs on Gaza in six days and will continue these bombings “as long as necessary.”

Palestinian Muslims and Christians should not be collectively punished for the sins of Hamas. Yet they are.

For 16 years, two million residents of Gaza have been the world’s largest ‘open-air prison,’ subjected to the relentless daily tyrannies of an ethnic and religious apartheid. Now the trauma is intensified for the innocent civilians of Gaza with displacement from their homes, deprivation of food, water and medicine, and the terror of air attacks.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken properly stated, “Anyone who wants peace and justice must condemn Hamas’ reign of terror.

It’s corollary is also true: Anyone who wants peace and justice must also condemn Israel’s reign of terror.

Rev. Harry Rix

 

Reverend Rix, a retired pastor, currently serves part-time as a counselor with psychiatric patients at Fuller Hospital in Attleboro.

letter, mail. Palastinians

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  • Straightnnarrow

    Rev Rix, as a faithful member of the Party, cannot deviate from the Party line, therefore he starts his letter with "The efforts of President Biden to restrain Israel’s war against Gaza is commendable. .." What is commendable about giving only lip service to the Gaza victims and no restraint to the Israeli perpetrators who continue daily with their inhumane and merciless killing? President Netanyahu and the USA have lost all moral credibility in the rest of the world. The daily slaughter and injury to civilian innocents will not be tolerated no matter how much smooth talk is provided by President Biden and his sycophant media.

    Saturday, October 21, 2023 Report this

  • Straightnnarrow

    "This performance has distracted the western world from understanding fully what radical ministers in Netanyahu’s government have been planning:

    One key commitment of Netanyahu’s Cabinet colleagues is to build the Jewish (Third) Temple on Temple Mount, where al-Aqsa Mosque presently stands. Plainly put, this implies a commitment to demolish al-Aqsa and build a Judaic Temple in its stead.

    The second key pledge is to found Israel on the biblical ‘Land of Israel’. Again, plainly put, this would dispossess Palestinians in the West Bank; as National Security Minister Ben Gvir made clear, they would face a choice: leave or live under subservience in a Jewish supremacist state.

    The third is to institute Jewish law (Halakha) in the stead of secular law. This would divest non-Jews in Israel of their legal status.

    Put together – the Judaification of al-Aqsa; the founding of the State upon the biblical ‘Land of Israel’ and the ending of secular Basic law – Palestine and the Palestinian people simply are erased. Three weeks ago, Netanyahu waved a map of Israel as he gave his address at the UN General Assembly; have a look: Gaza and the Palestinian territories do not appear on it at all. They are erased. The situation is as existential as that."

    Alastair Crooke, October 16, 2023

    Sunday, October 22, 2023 Report this