I sent the following (unpublished) letter to the Sydney Morning Herald yesterday:
Israel’s 60th birthday is being celebrated by Jews the world over but a growing number of global citizens share the view of South African liberation hero Desmond Tutu who said after returning from the Holy Land: “It reminded me so much of what happened to us black people in South Africa”. In other words, apartheid.
Peter Manning’s sensitive retelling of history (Opinion, 29/4) is a rare occasion to hear a Palestinian narrative. By explaining the roots of the conflict, Manning articulates the reasons why peace is so unobtainable in the Middle East. Two, often conflicting narratives must be heard.
Zionist head Colin Rubenstein takes the path of empty platitudes. By talking of “two states for two peoples”, he conveniently ignores Israel’s ever-expanding settlements in the West Bank in violation of international law. The unspoken truth about the Jewish state, increasingly articulated by historians the world over, is that Israel has never wanted a resolution of the impasse and simply stalls for time to make a contiguous Palestinian state impossible. This is today’s reality.
As a Jew, I can never celebrate a nation that deliberately discriminates against Arabs within its borders.