Toban Black

(Photo by “marvocado“)

At a protest in Jerusalem, Israel

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Deb Reich (who describes herself as “an Israeli Jew”)
in CounterPunch -

“Choose Life!” – “A View From the Gazan Cliff”

Selected exerpts -

“Dayenu! (Enough!).Enough suffering inflicted on the surviving families in Gaza who are hungry, thirsty, cold, frightened, wounded, traumatized for life, and bereaved. Enough. And enough suffering on the other side of the fence in Sderot and environs, too. (Their fates are inextricably intertwined; all our fates are inextricably intertwined.)

The generals and the militants have had their day, for the nth time – and at the end of it, as usual, all that we (any of us) have now, as a result, is war crimes and grief. War crimes and grief and fear. War crimes, grief, fear, hatred, and despair… with thousands of injured and disabled people bearing the burden most directly, forever.

Enough! Israelis are more afraid now than before, and more at risk, too. Time to ABANDON this insane strategy that we (any of us) can force people to love us, or anyhow accept us, by killing them!”

“They have lost everything and their situation is dire. We in Israel have lost our moral compass and we want to reclaim it.”

“Let the governments of the world, led by the USA, immediately stop sending Israel aid for military ordnance, and earmark it instead for a massive rehabilitation and reconciliation program.

Let all the tens of thousands of Palestinian professionals who are citizens of Israel, born and raised here – doctors, social workers, nurses, dentists, psychiatrists, lawyers, engineers, teachers, designers, journalists – join gladly and wholeheartedly in this effort.”

“Which is crazier — rampant slaughter, or rampant cooperation? Rivers of blood, or the free flow of joint prosperity?”

“Once we dare to envision a shared future, we can make it happen. And if not now, when?”

“Let’s put the guns away for good” –
“Beat the swords into ploughshares and recycle the tank parts” and “retool the death factories.”
There’s “no time for missiles.”

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Here are some photographic examples of Jewish-Palestinian and Israeli-Palestinian solidarity -
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tobanblack/sets/72157612566588809/comments/

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A few related posts at this blog -
- “Transcending old colonial roles and imperial mindsets”
- “One human race”
- “Imperialism and fossil fuels”

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A related article -

Judith Laitman and Tsela Barr (who describe themselves as “American Jews”)
in The Capital Times -
“We Must Demand a Just Peace for Palestinians”

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A related blog post by Lisa Goldman -
“Eretz Nehederet satirizes Israeli “hasbara” with hip hop song”

(That video promotes patriarchal sex and gender positions, unfortunately.)

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A couple of relevant Wikipedia pages -
- …/Israeli_peace_movement
- …/Refusal_to_serve_in_the_Israeli_military#Shministim