2009 AZAG|GAZA

Curator Essay

On Gaza

I have traveled to Palestine on three different occasions. I have built trusting, working relationships with the faculty and staff at the International Center of Bethlehem. I have even taught at Dar al-Kalima College in Bethlehem. Since the first time that I visited the West Bank in Palestine, I have seen the “Wall” built by Israel to separate Israel from Palestine expand to places where it was not once present. I have seen Israel change the boundary at the checkpoint between Jerusalem and Bethlehem further into Palestine. I have witnessed this.

My Israeli friends tell me that God gave them this land where Palestine is now located. That is reason that they give for moving into Palestinian territory and building settlements that appear almost daily more and more inside of Palestinian Territory. Each time that a settlement is built, more land is taken from the Palestinians.

The Palestinians tell me that they were on the land when Moses led his people to “The Promised Land” and when Abraham finally arrived there. The Palestinians assert that they were there when Abraham arrived. So whose land is it?

After what humankind did to the Jews in World War II, the Jewish people needed a place away from all the Europeans who hated them and acted to exterminate them. Thus, I support Israel’s right to exist as a state.

The world community, including the United Nations, the United States and Amnesty International, condemn the Israelis for their treatment of the Palestinians. Israel’s acts of war go against world opinion. We can no longer stand idly by while Gaza is devastated, and so many men, women and children are killed by Israeli aggression.

We know what the Israelis did to the Palestinians in Gaza. We also know that there are many Israeli peace activists who too were against the war on Gaza. These Israelis stand with the world community in the condemnation of the actions of their own state. They are no less Jewish than other Jews, but they know a wrong when they see it.

Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were killed, but more than 1,400 Gazans were killed. A 2009 United Nations Report led by South African Judge Richard Goldstone accused Israel of using “disproportionate force” in Gaza.

Though the Report noted that there was evidence that both sides committed war crimes in Gaza, the report concluded that Israel “committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possible crimes against humanity.”

STOP THE WAR! STOP THE AGGRESSION. STOP THE INHUMANITY! Now is the time for all parties to come to the negotiating table. President Obama has provided such an opportunity. For the sake of humanity, we must seize the time.

This is our only hope. YES WE CAN! YES WE MUST!