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Vol. 1 #28 Jan 30, 1999 |
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A Palestinian - Zaki Obeid, was killed this week by a rubber bullet while demonstrating against a house demolition in Issawiye. It appears we are helpless to stop both the demolition policy and the stupid and brutal use of violence by our once beloved army. It may get worse. According to a Reuters News Service story, an Israeli Army official informed Hussein Issa of the Hope Flowers School that parts of the school will be demolished March 1 because they were built without a permit! Hope Flowers teaches peace and nonviolence. Its students learn Hebrew and meet with Israeli students. It has been a beacon of light and hope to everyone concerned for peace, and was visited by Hilary Clinton. It is difficult to believe that the Civil Administration could be stupid enough to act against this school, but that seems to be the case! A Bad Week Ami Isseroff In a hasty flurry of pre-election legislation, the Israeli Knesset (Parliament) passed a number of ill-advised laws, and throttled some very good ones. A basic law regarding religious freedom was not passed after it lost the support of Labor MKs afraid of vengeance from the all-powerful orthodox parties. A law guaranteeing that no part of the Golan Heights could be returned to Syria without a majority vote in the Knesset did pass. When it comes to setting up obstacles to peace, everyone is united. The Israeli Supreme Court had ruled that representatives of Reform and Conservative Judaism must be seated in local religious councils that are paid for out of public funds. The Ministry of Religious affairs has been doing its best to thwart this decision. This week the Knesset passed a law stipulating that all council members must swear to abide by orthodox Halachic law. This is designed to prevent the seating of Reform and Conservative Jews. The star performance was given by Center Party leader Itzhak Mordehai, who cast the deciding vote in favor of the Religious Council law, coming down squarely on the side of religious coercion and against the very principles his party was supposed to represent. As the centrist non-party is a party in search of a platform. Herewith are a few modest suggestions for a platform. 1 - Israel will honor international agreements signed by our government - including the Oslo accords and the Wye Memorandum. 2 - Separation of Church and State - no more tax money for religious councils, ritual baths and fictitious Yeshivas that teach fictitious Yeshiva Students to stay out of the army. 3 - Freedom of religion for the Jewish people - Israel is one of the few countries of the world where Jews are not free to practice their religion as they see fit. 4 - No imprisonment without due process - an end to administrative detention. 5 - An end to house demolitions - Palestinians and Israeli Arabs should be able to get permission to build houses like anyone else anywhere in the world. In any other country, these points would be considered middle of the road positions. In Israel, they are only adopted by the extreme left. Religious coercion is accepted by everyone as a kind of elemental fact of life. The Shas party is even gaining significant support among Israeli Arabs. Of course, there is no chance that any major party will come out against house demolitions and administrative arrest. It seems that these practices must now be a part of the great Jewish tradition, handed down with the law from Sinai. All this is by way of introduction to the guest column below, by PEACE participant and journalist Larry Butchins. Ami Isseroff, Rehovoth, Israel Elections - Cry the Beloved Country Larry Butchins The election shenanigans are really beginning to annoy me. Ramon is in….no, he’s out, Amnon Lipkin-Shahak is/isn’t/is starting a new party…Yitzhak Mordechai is Minister of Defense – oops, no he’s not, he’s leader of a centrist party…no, he supports Shas… Just what the hell is going on? As a member of what they used to call the "silent majority"...I feel it’s time for the ordinary, law-abiding "centrist" citizen to speak out. I really thought that with the formation of the so-called Centrist Party there may be some hope for those of us who just want to get on with our lives, live in peace and harmony with everybody and anybody, respect each others’ view points (while maintaining the right to disagree) show respect for human life and dignity, love animals, drive like a civilized human being, not litter our streets and keep our environment healthy (or return it to health). Alas. If this week’s less than exemplary opening performance by the new leader of the new party, Yitzhak Mordechai, is anything to go by, this just doesn’t seem possible. Does all the above seem like some kind of Utopia - unattainable, a dream never to be realized? Is what I have sketched above so difficult to achieve? Is it so against human nature to want these few simple things? In South Africa, from whence I sprung, there was once a great writer named Alan Paton, who wrote a book called "Cry the Beloved Country". This book was written at the end of the 1940's but it was prophetic and wise and predicted the course of race relations in that country for the following 50 years. One of it most prophetic and chilling concepts was expressed in the words spoken by a Black priest in mourning for his son, convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of a white man...."My greatest fear, is that when they (the whites) have turned to loving, we (the blacks) will have turned to hating...." I think it is time to write a book with a similar title "Cry the Beloved Country" - because, despite what some people would have you believe, we "lefties" actually do love this country and we do weep for it. We weep for the hatred engendered between our own "Blacks" and "Whites"; we weep for the mistrust and anger sown between Jew and Arab and Jew and Jew; we weep for the 19-year-old cut down in Lebanon in a useless, futile war...we weep for the family wiped out in a traffic accident by some idiot who wanted to get to the head of the line...we weep for the unemployed, and the underemployed and for street people and for the environment, being destroyed by pollution and litter. We weep for the bitterness and rancor between Orthodox and Conservative and Reform Jews and for the contempt by our Minister of Religious Affairs for the ruling of the Supreme Court...we weep for the threats made against judges and for the contempt for the rule of law....we weep for a media that is only interested in ratings and sensationalism and we despair for attitudes that extol an assassin. We weep for lost opportunities and lies and trickery of those who would call themselves our leaders. But most of all, we weep for our children who will somehow have to sort our this mess if they wish to remain in this land...we, who brought them here to what we thought was a better, more open, democratic, creative way of life appear to have condemned them to live in a morass of hatred, lies, contempt, cheating, dishonesty, deceitfulness, selfishness, coercion and fear. Yes, cry the beloved country; we cry for those who died here and for those who will die here - not in the peacefulness of their old age, but cut down by hatred - be it political terrorism or terrorism on the roads...there is much to cry for... But being an eternal optimist, I still seek for one candle in the darkness. I pray that candle can be lit soon, before the darkness – the "nothing" of the "Never Ending Story" - overwhelms us. Larry Butchins, Raanana, Israel Larry Butchins is a writer and journalist, working in Finance
and High-Tech. His wife's mother and sister were among the victims of the Dizengoff bomb
blast on Purim 1996. Despite that tragedy, the family has maintained a staunchly "Pro
Peace" position. While you are visiting us Peace Final Settlement Declaration -
Peace with security and dignity for everyone. Please view it and add your name! Click
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