Submitted by Lois Pulliam for the Peace and Justice Committee of First Parish on the Common
Occupation of Palestinian land by Israeli settlers was discussed as a civil rights issue during a panel presentation on Monday night, May 13, at First Parish in Bedford. The meeting was sponsored by the church’s Peace and Justice Committee, with David Packer as moderator.
Panel members were all part of an historic delegation of leaders from the nonviolent U.S. civil rights movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s. They traveled to East Jerusalem and the West Bank in October of 2012 to meet with social justice activists and leaders of the Palestine non- violent resistance movement and their Israeli allies.
Serving on the panel were Dr. Alice Rothchild, a Boston-based physician, author and film-maker who has been active in the Jewish peace movement since 1997; The Reverend Lucas Johnson, a Baptist minister from Georgia who identifies with the tradition of freedom fighters from the days of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and Rabbi Joseph Berman, who serves Temple B’nai Israel in Revere and co-chairs the Boston chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.
The panel presenters augmented their remarks with slides and maps that indicated the encroachment of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, and they emphasized the occupation as being neither a religious nor a political issue but a human rights issue.
A question-and-answer period followed the presentation, with discussion of boycotting, education, “spreading the word” and other non-violent ways of ending the occupation. Copies of Dr. Rothchild’s book, Broken Promises, Broken Dreams, were displayed along with flyers about her upcoming film, Voices Across the Divide, scheduled for release at the end of summer, 2013.
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I have been following events in Israel since the second intefada and I have looked at all sides. There are many Israelis who are not in favor of the settlements and there is no way, you can justify the settlements. Zionists want ALL of Israel and there is no middle ground. Boycotting is not wrong. It is about the only tool that nonviolent proponents have. A few years ago, Norway planned to boycott Israel over the occupation and an American Senator introduce a measure in OUR senate to boycott Norway if they did so. More recently, there is interest in not boycotting Israel but boycotting goods produced by the settlements. The bottom line is that the Israeli government should not be occupying the Palestinian territories.
I attempted to watch the video that was in an earlier article and could not tell what points of view they were promulgating. Boycotting is wrong and hurts everyone. They only got one side of the story despite their “historic” visit. If they had met with all the other groups, perhaps they would not so one sidedly believe that Israel is occupying anything. Israel unilaterally gave up gaza and the West Bank and they are repaid with this type of foolish politics. Israel has been looking for a partner to have peach with and frankly there is none.