Letter to The Guardian (UK)

British Jews can say things I dare not:

Letters: UK has led efforts for Gaza ceasefire | World news | The Guardian.

We the undersigned are all of Jewish origin. When we see the dead and bloodied bodies of young children, the cutting off of water, electricity and food, we are reminded of the siege of the Warsaw Ghetto. When Dov Weisglass, an adviser to the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, talked of putting Gazans "on a diet" and the deputy defence minister, Matan Vilnai, talked about the Palestinians experiencing "a bigger shoah" (holocaust), this reminds us of Governor General Hans Frank in Nazi-occupied Poland, who spoke of "death by hunger".

The real reason for the attack on Gaza is that Israel is only willing to deal with Palestinian quislings. The main crime of Hamas is not terrorism but its refusal to accept becoming a pawn in the hands of the Israeli occupation regime in Palestine.

The decision last month by the EU council to upgrade relations with Israel, without any specific conditions on human rights, has encouraged further Israeli aggression. The time for appeasing Israel is long past. As a first step, Britain must withdraw the British ambassador to Israel and, as with apartheid South Africa, embark on a programme of boycott, divestment and sanctions.

Ben Birnberg, Prof Haim Bresheeth, Deborah Fink, Bella Freud, Tony Greenstein, Abe Hayeem, Prof Adah Kay, Yehudit Keshet, Dr Les Levidow, Prof Yosefa Loshitzky, Prof Moshe Machover, Miriam Margolyes, Prof Jonathan Rosenhead, Seymour Alexander, Ben Birnberg, Martin Birnstingl, Prof. Haim Bresheeth, Ruth Clark, Judith Cravitz, Mike Cushman, Angela Dale, Merav Devere, Greg Dropkin, Angela Eden, Sarah Ferner, Alf Filer, Mark Findlay, Sylvia Finzi, Bella Freud, Tessa van Gelderen, Claire Glasman, Ruth Hall, Adrian Hart, Alain Hertzmann, Abe Hayeem, Rosamene Hayeem, Anna Hellmann, Selma James, Riva Joffe, Yael Kahn, Michael Kalmanovitz, Ros Kane, Prof. Adah Kay, Yehudit Keshet, Mark Krantz, Bernice Laschinger, Pam Laurance, Dr Les Levidow, Prof. Yosefa Loshitzky, Prof. Moshe Machover, Beryl Maizels, Miriam Margolyes, Helen Marks, Martine Miel, Diana Neslen, O Neumann, Susan Pashkoff, Hon. Juliet Peston, Renate Prince, Roland Rance, Sheila Robin, Ossi Ron, Manfred Ropschitz, John Rose, Prof. Jonathan Rosenhead, Leon Rosselson, Michael Sackin, Ian Saville, Amanda Sebestyen, Sam Semoff, Prof. Ludi Simpson, Viv Stein, Inbar Tamari, Ruth Tenne, Norman Traub, Eve Turner, Tirza Waisel, Karl Walinets, Renee Walinets, Stanley Walinets, Philip Ward, Naomi Wimborne-Idrissi, Ruth Williams, Jay Woolrich, Ben Young, Myk Zeitlin, Androulla Zucker, John Zucker

Comments

[taina]

more Jewish people need to speak out. Why does it take a human catastrophe like the Gaza massacre to get people to step out of their safe places? The Palestinians have been suffering for 61 years. Where have these voices been?

Of course, I am happy that these British Jewish academics have stepped out and issued this letter as the people of Gaza need every person's help to stop the killings and the injuring and the trauma and the destruction. I am just sad that the cost of this action has been very, very high.

[Cee]

Because they are getting away with this I fear they will attack Lebanon again with no repercussions.

I don't believe that anyone in Lebanon is firing weapons into Israel.
When these liars be stopped?

Israel warns Lebanon residents after new rocket attacks
Yesterday, 02:45 pm

Israel sent telephone warnings to residents of south Lebanon on Wednesday after militants fired three rockets over the border threatening a second front in the 19-day-old war in Gaza.

Gaza
"People of Lebanon, launching rockets from southern Lebanon against innocents in northern Israel harms your own interests," one of the warnings said, according to an AFP correspondent who was at the receiving end.

"We warn you against any repetition of these destructive acts."

A second message warned: "This is a statement from the state of Israel to the residents of southern Lebanon.

"If you allow groups like Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah to launch rockets against innocents in northern Israel as you did before, remember what happened to you last time."

The statement was alluding to the devastating 34-day war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006 sparked by the capture by the Shiite militants of Hezbollah of two Israeli soldiers in a deadly cross-border raid.

Wednesday's rocket salvo, which caused no casualties, was the second since Israel launched its onslaught against Gaza which has left nearly 1,000 Palestinians dead since January 27.

Hezbollah distanced itself from anything that might spark a new war with Israel, shifting suspicion against fringe Palestinian militant groups.

In July, Communications Minister Gibran Bassil accused Israel of bombarding Lebanese people with threatening phone calls, a day after a controversial prisoner swap between Israel and Hezbollah.

Many Lebanese received similar phone messages during the 2006 conflict which left more than 1,200 people dead in Lebanon, most of them civilians as well as more than 160 Israelis, most of them soldiers.