NORTHAMPTON – Seventy years ago, the United Nations declared December 10 as International Human Rights Day in an attempt to establish a set of global values and standards of equality for all people of all backgrounds.
That same year, 1948, also saw the establishment of the State of Israel east of the Mediterranean Sea — a region once belonging to the United Kingdom, which had divided Palestine into two nations following World War II, setting off a decades-long conflict for land ownership in the region.
That bloody conflict continues today, and it is one that Amherst-resident Yoav Elani Elinevsky lived first-hand growing up in Jerusalem. Elinevsky, a semi-retired math professor, stood in front of the Hampshire County Courthouse on Saturday morning to call for an end to the billions of dollars that the United States provides in military aid to Israel.
“The war on Palestine has been going on for so many years and it has been going on for too long,” Elinevsky said. “Like all people, they are fighting for their freedom. And the bombs used to kill civilians in Gaza are American-made — and not only American-made, it’s given to Israel by American tax-payers.”
Following the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, Israel gained more control of the western-half of Jerusalem, expelling large numbers of Palestinians from their homes in the process, creating a massive refugee population that has grown to an estimated 5.6 million today, according to Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
Elinevsky held a sign with photographs taken by his friend in an all-woman group in Israel that documents and “witnesses” the humanitarian violations of Palestinian people — the very rights proclaimed by the United Nations, such as “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights” in Article 1, or “Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration” in Article 2, or “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person” in Article 3 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The photographs on Elinevsky’s sign displayed Palestinians at an Israeli checkpoint, and one showed a man sitting on the ground handcuffed and blindfolded by a soldier.
“It’s very inhumane and cruel,” Elinevsky said. “Imagine that there is a checkpoint between Amherst and Northampton, and if you want to go from one city to another, you need to go through the checkpoint. Then you have to wait. And if a soldier likes you, he lets you go. If he doesn’t like you, he doesn’t let you go. It’s humiliating.”
Saturday’s demonstration was a collaboration between the Northampton Committee to Stop the Wars, which has held weekly peace vigils since the mid-1990s, and the Middle East Peace and Justice Coalition of Western Massachusetts (MEPJC).
“It’s not just about Gaza — it’s about how the U.S. is funding Israel and defunding Palestine,” said Sherrill Hogen, a member of MEPJC.
The coalition calls for the restoration of U.S. funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency to provide schools, clinics and food aid to Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, as well as other countries, according a press release by MEPJC.
Saturday’s demonstration called to attention not just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Elinevsky said, but also to the current wars in the Middle East. He said 85,000 children in Yemen have died from starvation in the past three years because of war.
“We are calling for an end to U.S. support to wars, to killing of civilians,” Elinevsky said. “We want these resources invested in our communities here, not in wars all over the world.”
Northampton resident Claudia Lefko, who works with the Boston-based project called Baghdad Resolve: An International Collaboration to Improve Cancer Care in Iraq, joined Saturday’s rally out of frustration with the conflict in Israel and Palestine.
“I am very concerned about what is happening in Palestine, specifically with the Israeli army shooting unarmed protesters every week,” Lefko said. She said there have been more than 200 killed and nearly 20,000 injured.
“It just seems like this is a day to reflect on that and bring attention to it,” Lefko said. “We are here to hold up those people in our hearts today.”
Luis Fieldman can be reached at lfieldman@gazettenet.com