As a secular Jew, I didn’t feel I could comment on the war. Till now
by Deborah Ross, The Times:
Thus far, as a secular Jew (very), I have felt the need to stay silent about the horrific events unfolding. I haven’t earned the right to say anything. I don’t know enough. I haven’t set foot in a synagogue for years. What if I say something foolish? What if, God forbid, I’m just using my Jewishness to get a column out of it? And how will I know? Can I be trusted? Do I trust myself?
But I was utterly, utterly floored by the open letter released this week by Artists for Palestine UK with its 2,000 signatories including Tilda Swinton, Mike Leigh, Michael Winterbottom, Steve Coogan, Charles Dance, Miriam Margolyes and Michael Rosen.
The letter says “we are witnessing a crime and a catastrophe”, that the “‘spectre of death’ is hanging over the territory”, that “Palestinians whose grandparents were forced out of their homes at the barrel of a gun are again being told to flee”.
They continue with “our governments are not only tolerating war crimes but aiding and abetting them” and conclude with “we demand that our governments end their military and political support for Israel’s actions”.
I read it once, twice, a third time. Then a fourth. Had the letter been abridged? Surely it’s been abridged. Or I’ve somehow missed a paragraph. Would have to have done. I can be dozy. I’d best read it a fifth time. But it had not been abridged and I had not missed anything.
The fact is, there was no mention of Hamas. There was no mention of the rape, torture, kidnapping and murder of babies, children, grandparents, young people dancing peacefully at a peace festival.
The lack of basic compassion and humanity, that’s what was so unbelievably flooring. Is it so difficult? To support and feel for Palestinian citizens — even among my more observant relatives I’ve yet to encounter anyone who believes an Israeli life is worth more than a Palestinian one — while also acknowledging the indisputable horror of the Hamas attacks?
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