Veronica Darmon’s guest column “Pitting Jews against Jews makes us unsafe” [June 15]left me feeling troubled. There is no question that throughout history Jews have been the target of hatred and at the hands of the Nazis were victims of genocide. However, the current government of Israel has for 1,000 days raged a vicious war on Gaza, and many Jews, fearful of growing antisemitism, can’t acknowledge the tragedy of Israeli’s decimation of the Palestinian people. They do not make the connections that both Israeli’s treatment of Palestinians and the attacks on Lebanon are fueling the antisemitism they fear.
As we are in the midst of celebrating the 250th birthday of our now threatened democracy I see some parallels between the American history I was taught in high school and what I learned growing up about Israel in Hebrew school. It took the deaths of Black men like George Floyd and historical work like the “1619 Project” to push many Americans to question past narratives and look at the true history of our country, one of genocide and enslavement. Today our country hasn’t fully acknowledged the humanity and rights of Indigenous people or the ancestors of slaves. Looking at Israel, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have shown that Israel’s policies in Gaza have created an apartheid state. Before the establishment of the modern state of Israel, the country was multicultural and multiethnic. People shared a land that had never belonged to one religious group. What has the creation of a Jewish state wrought?
I am one of the 30 Northampton residents who is an intervenor in a lawsuit defending the right of the mayor to disinvest from companies that have been charged with international war crimes. Several of these companies supply the state of Israel with the means of killing Palestinians. I think that it is necessary to study history and not fall prey to the idea that Jews can somehow be safe by attempting to obliterate another people. What kind of security does that bring us?
Anne Fine
Northampton