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06/27/2008

Stop the Kassam Attacks Without Collective Punishment	Email article
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By Julia Chaitin, Ph.D.

As a resident of the area and a lecturer at the Sapir College, a place that is in the heart of "kassam land", I stand with the people of the western Negev in their demand that the extremely threatening and frightening situation cannot continue. Innocent people are being harmed – physically, but also no less importantly psychologically – from the kassam and mortar attacks. This widespread and deadly violence, on the part of the Hamas and the Islamic Jihad against citizens, who only want to live their lives, is neither justified nor moral.

All forms of non-violent protest on our part – directed against the decision makers on both sides of the border – are legitimate.

In recent weeks, some residents of the area have been gathering near the borders to prevent the transfer of supplies, food and medicines to people in Gaza, who are living under conditions that are much worse and much more dangerous than the conditions under which we Israelis live. Their reasoning: As long as the rocket attacks continue, we will prevent the people in Gaza from having access to needed supplies.

This is both an unjustified and immoral act.

Preventing the transfer of supplies that are necessary for the sustaining of life is collective punishment – and it constitutes widespread and indiscriminate violence on our part against innocent people on the other side. Neither the children in Sderot and Otef Aza, nor the children in the Gaza Strip, are responsible for the violent conflict that exists between Israel and the Palestinians.

I call upon residents of the region not to support, and to actively oppose, acts of protest that prevent the transfer of food, medications and any and all supplies that are necessary for ordinary people – such as us – who live on the other side of the border. This is a violent act that is an immoral one. We need to demand from our leaders and decision makers that they find other ways to solve to the insufferable ongoing rocket fire on Sderot and Otef Aza regions, but not by imposing collective punishment against innocent people.

Our protest against this impossible violent situation needs to be grounded in respect for human life – ours and that of the population in Gaza. We cannot allow ourselves to be convinced into believing that supporting, and even worse, encouraging collective punishments, that directly harm the basic rights of the people, is a legitimate form of protest. In the end, such forms of protest and punishment will become a deadly boomerang. If we adopt non-violent measures that are rooted in demanding human and civil rights for all peoples in Israel and the Gaza Strip, we will not only be fighting for the rights to live securely in our home, but for the true honor and morality of this home.

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Comments

August 6th, 2008 - 18:46:22	Back to top^
By Uri Russak
I think that basically we owe it to our Jewishness and our Jewish humanity not to target innocents when trying to punish those that attack and kill Israeli civilians with rockets and other means. It is not racism but experience over nearly one hundred years of the conflict with local Arabs and Islam, that should teach us, not to apply the same means to kill innocents as our enemies do. This tactic, however, deprives us of all realistic means of defence and of hitting back, since Hamas (and others of that ilk) hide behind children and civilians, actually ordering them to become Shaheeds, whether they want or not. Two facts should be remembered: The Palestinians freely elected Hamas and are therefore responsible for their choice and its consequences, just as the Germans in 1933 let Hitler democratically become their Führer - and had to live with the consequences. Arab hatred of Jews is so deeply entrenched, that they are incapable of rationally dealing with us. Israel, though, seems to be used as a safe haven for one sort of Palestinians that are in danger of being killed by another sort of Palestinians (this by the way, is a repetition of PLO killers fleeing to Israel during the Black September days in Jordan in 1970 - which I was involved in as a soldier at that time. Secondly, it should not be forgotten, that whole convoys of trucks bringing supplies to Gaza have been attacked by Hamas and others, Israelis have been killed trying to bring such supplies to the supposedly hungry and needy Gaza inhabitants. Is the price of even one Israeli killed not far too steep for that?

July 29th, 2008 - 17:01:33	Back to top^
By Morris Amsel
Israelhas no obligation to provide humanitarian aid to GAZA especially when this is the area where Kassams originate from. Egypt also has a border with GAZA why don't they provide this assistance.

July 7th, 2008 - 11:35:26	Back to top^
By Avram Kalisky
Maybe someone should figure out how you can send food only to those residents of Gaza that do not let anyone teach their children how to hate. How many residents of Gaza disapprove of their children being taught to hate? Will we ever live in peace with Gazans before any Gazans are willing to stop hating?

July 7th, 2008 - 11:35:03	Back to top^
By Ben Burrows
Chaitin is right that Jews need not imitate the Romans who destroyed the Temple and martyred our teachers -- as retaliation and collective punishment against Jewish rebels at Masada and elsewhere. While we can easily identify inappropriate responses to Palestinian collective punishment -- through kassam bombardment and through refusal to honor Geneva conventions on communications with prisoners of war -- it is unclear what an appropriate response is to the war crime of stationing military installations in civilian areas, where response against the site of attack becomes itself a deliberate targeting of civilian areas -- which lack military significance once the chicken-hearted belligerents have left the site of their attack.

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