Statement by Dr. Rueben Roth for Palestinian Support Rally, Sudbury, January 9, 2008

I regret that I was unable to join you at today’s demonstration.

I’m an anti-Zionist Jew, a claim that often confuses and confounds
those who have set ideas about the State of Israel and its claim that it
represents all of the world’s Jews. This also goes for the claims by
the B’Nai Brith and Canadian Jewish Congress that they represent the
views of Canadian Jews.

I grew up in a family that had both socialist and religious Jewish
traditions. I went to rabbinical college as a youth and was a
longstanding member of a socialist Zionist organization as a teen. I
came to my own conclusions about the conflict in the Mideast only after
many years of researching and questioning the establishment and history
of Israel. I came to realize that by the use of the political philosophy
of Zionism, and its militaristic and imperial actions, Israel
represented the antithesis of BOTH the secular progressive Judaism AND
the religious Jewish tradition as I had known it.

Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi wrote that Jewish history has been “a chain of
historic suffering and disasters; slavery, exile, hatred, pogroms and
[…] hostility (Beit Hallahmi, 1992).” I agree, and the events
unfolding in Gaza are a contradiction of Jewish culture and tradition as
I grew up knowing it.

Jews were the historically oppressed people, not the oppressors of a
weaker people, as is the case in Gaza today. It is only since the
establishment of modern political Zionism that we have seen the vicious
mistreatment of others by “Jews without mercy” a phrase used by Earl
Shorris for the title of his (1982) book. When he was asked about
Tuesday’s atrocities - the killing of 50 civilians in UN schools
sheltering refugees - Israeli minister Meir Shitreet told the BBC
"C'est la guerre." This is the language used by Zionists without mercy.

I urge all of you to reject the notion that anti-Zionism is the
equivalent to anti-Semitism. While these aren’t mutually exclusive,
most Canadians are frightened to speak out against Israeli atrocities
for fear that they’ll be accused of being racists.

So understand that the brutal 18-month blockade of Gaza by Israel,
which began in June 2007, amounted to a denial of essentials like food
and fuel to Palestinians, yet when Palestinians dug tunnels to transport
vital goods into Gaza, the media portray this as a ‘smuggling
operation’ intended primarily for the transport of weapons.

Understand that since 2001, fewer than twenty Israelis have been killed
by Qassam rockets, but the Israeli carpet-bombing of Gaza and the ground
offensive have resulted in almost 600 dead and over 3,000 injured
Palestinians in less than two weeks. We’ve all seen the videos of
death and chaos in the streets, carnage in the hospitals, innocent
civilians murdered, entire families killed in the attacks, the
deliberate targeting of two United Nations schools used as shelters -
all of this is anathema to Jews with a conscience.

It’s too easy to dismiss this conflict as irresolvable due to actions
on both sides. Israeli and Palestinian violence cannot be viewed as
equivalents - individual Palestinians have chosen to resist their
occupiers with home-made rockets while Israel, which boasts the
fourth most powerful military in the world, has responded by
collectively punishing the population that it illegally occupies. Under
the Fourth Geneva Convention, collective punishment is a war crime. As
the occupier, the burden is on Israel to end its state violence.

At the end of the day, all this military action in Gaza is going to
accomplish is the death and destruction of Palestinian civilians, their
homes and institutions.

In order for justice to prevail, I urge you to pursue actions that will
end the siege and occupation of Gaza and free Palestine. Write to the
Prime Minister and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and ask whether
Israel’s “right to defend itself” extends to the slaughter of
innocent men, women and children; ask whether this ‘right’ extends
to the bombing of civilians and civilian targets; ask whether this
‘right’ extends to the commission of war crimes; and ask when the
Canadian government will end its mindless championing and apologies for
Israeli apartheid.

Finally, demand that representatives of the New Democratic Party
address the root cause of the violence in Gaza, which is the Israeli
occupation of Palestinian territory and the persistent denial of the
right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.

In Solidarity,

Reuben Roth, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor,
Laurentian University (for identification purposes only)