noteflakes

On Palestine

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. Every individual must learn this, and every nation must learn this. Every nation must realize its dependence on other nations. - Martin Luther King

It is not for you to finish the work, but neither are you at liberty to neglect it. - Rabbi Tarfon, Pirkey Avot

We cannot look away from the suffering of people in Palestine and in Israel. It is our moral duty as daughters and sons of the earth to strive for peace and justice for all.

The Israeli military campaign against the people of Gaza and the West Bank is a grave moral failure, and will one day be universally recognized for what it is: a crime against humanity.

It is a crime against humanity to starve helpless people.

It is a crime against humanity to shoot at innocent people desparate for scraps of food.

It is a crime against humanity to drive people off their land because they do not belong to “the chosen people”.

It is a crime against humanity to imprison and torture men, women and children without trial or any due process.

It is a crime against humanity to destroy homes, schools, hospitals, wells and olive orchards.

Those crimes are driven by an extremist ideology that will not refrain from any means in pursuing its political objective - a land cleansed of its native population, with a few besieged enclaves for those who remain.

One basic principle must be the absolute rule for the SS men: We must be honest, decent, loyal and comradely to members of our own blood and to nobody else. - Heinrich Himmler

Anyone who wants to protect the Jewish People and opposes mixed marriages is not a racist. Whoever wants to let Jews live a Jewish life without non-Jews is not a racist. - Bezalel Smotrich

In its delusional, immoral project of ethnic cleansing and destruction of any non-Jewish presence in Israel/Palestine, the Zionist regime is committing crimes of war and crimes against humanity.

This war against humanity not only causes suffering and destruction to Palestinians, it also corrupts the souls of the people in Israel, who willingly and blindly obey the instructions of the regime. How can a soldier who shot an innocent child in the head come back home and with the same hand caress his own child’s head?

Just like in The Picture of Dorian Grey, Israel sees itself as a beacon of liberalism, of morality and of justice (“a villa in the jungle”, “a light unto the nations”), while hiding away its real, disfigured portrait in the attic so no one will see.

Zionism is not only destroying the Palestinian people, it is also destroying Judaism itself. A non-political religion, the religion of people who lived in the margins of society, who had no political power, who often fell victims to persecution, discrimination and violence, the religion of the descendants of slaves and of prophets, has become a vehicle for a racist colonialist project, and has been consumed by it.

Though I no longer live there, I still have family in Israel and I still follow the news from there. In my visits over the years, I have seen my country of birth change rapidly: nature subjugated and imprisoned under concrete, hills disfigured, trees uprooted, villages erased, walls and guard towers erected, and the Israeli people - the descendants of slaves and prisoners - become a “master race”, oblivious to the moral cost of maintaining an apartheid state, indifferent to the suffering of millions at the hands of “the most moral army in the world”, believing in military might as the answer to any political problem.

Indeed, what does remain of Judaism, what does remain of Israel, except for the racism and the war and the military and the endless violence?

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. - Universal Declaration of Human Rights

The current moral crisis engulfing humanity - not just in Palestine/Israel - requires us to step up and give voice to our moral convictions: stop the war, stop the bloodshed, stop the starvation, stop the occupation, stop the madness!

August 2025