{news} RE: Palestinian right of return: Letters on "Going Home" - Hartford Courant's Northeast magazine

[Justine McCabe]

Dear Greens,
Today, the Hartford Courant published my letter and 3 others all in support 
of the Palestinian right of return, a position endorsed by CTGP and USGP. 
As CCSU Prof. Sadu Nanjundiah notes below, this media success was the result 
of many letters and calls by progressives opposing US and Israeli policies 
preventing Palestinian refugees from returning home--a seminal and 
continuing source of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Justine

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sadanand, Nanjundiah (Physics)" <sadanand at mail.ccsu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, March 13, 2005 2:46 PM
Subject: [al-awda-CT] Letters on "Going Home" - Northeast magazine



 Friends

 Several letters criticizing the cover article (that appeared four weeks 
ago)
 justifying the unfettered right of Jews anywhere in the world to settle 
down  in Israel withoutallowing the right of the ative Palestinian people to 
their own land, finally appeared in the Northeast magazine today. There was 
not a single letter in support of the appalling article (it can be read at:
http://www.courant.com/news/local/northeast/hc-israel0220.artfeb20,0,7398883.story?coll=hc-utility-local-northeast)

Why the Hartford Courant waited as long as it did to print these letters 
critical of the utterly unjustfiable emigration enterprise is not clear. But 
if one considers the paper's support for Israel and the strong pressure 
exerted on it from the pro-Israeli community in the Greater Hartford region, 
it is likely they wanted to "balance" the letters critical of the article.
If people had not called/written to ask that they publish these letters in 
the interest of honesty and fairness, I would not be surprised if they had 
been scuttled altogether.

 Sadu
 _________________________________________________________________________

 http://www.courant.com/news/local/northeast/hc-letters0313.artmar13,0,7309262.story No Going Home While native Californian Lisa Klug waxes poetic ["Going Home," Feb. 20]about her own multiple journeys and that of other American Jews to their"spiritual" home in Israel, millions of Palestinian refugees - "earthly"natives of that same land  remain unable to return to their homes there. Ms. Krug proudly recounts Zionism's efforts to settle Palestine with Jewsbeginning in the 19th century. Yet she omits that crucial, andless-than-uplifting, context in which recent Jewish aliyah has occurred: toa land already populated with Palestinian Arabs who'd inhabited amulticultural place for centuries; that to make Palestine Jewish, Israelihistorians confirm that 75 percent of the majority Palestinian Christian andMuslim population - 800,000 people - were expelled by Zionist forces between1947-49, and another 350,000 in 1967; and that to implement a theological"right" of return exclusively for Jews, Israel has continued to violateseveral bodies of international law, United Nations resolutions and the U.N.Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirming the right of all refugees,including Palestinians, to return home, regardless of how they left. Imagine the joy Ms. Klug would find in reporting the story of Palestinianhomecoming? The fact is, Israel can't be an insurance policy for Jews while so manynative Palestinians are prevented from returning home. By omitting the legalright and longing of Palestinian refugees to return in an essay about Jews"going home" to Israel, Ms. Krug perpetuates the denial and misinformationthat has fueled more than 50 years of conflict between Palestinians andIsraelis. Palestinians and Israelis are inextricably linked by their attachment tothe same place they all call home. "Going home" must be for all. Justine McCabe, Ph.D. , New Milford Had I been afforded the opportunity to present another Jewish perspectiveon Israel other than Ms. Lisa Alcalay Klug's, my opinion would have beenentitled "Stealing Someone Else's Home," as there is nothing to be proud ofwhen the very foundation of Israel was built on the dispossession of anotherpeople and atop their hundreds of destroyed villages. Ms. Klug'sjustification for theft based on her religious beliefs is abominable and notcompatible with any concept of democracy. Furthermore, the litmus [test] forbeing a Jew depends only on having a Jewish mother, or if one converts toJudaism, therefore, anyone can be entitled to a home in Israel with thosequalifications alone. It is bizarre that Ms. Klug mentions that Israel's Law of Return for Jewsthat welcomes any person with one Jewish grandparent as a full citizen ofIsrael is the same criterion used by the Nazis to establish the "FinalSolution." This very criterion that was used in Nazi Germany's ReichCitizenship Law of 1935, which defined who was a Jew and deprived them ofGerman citizenship, is used by the Israeli state that deprives thePalestinian refugees of their inalienable right of return and citizenship toIsrael based solely on the fact that they are not Jews. Both laws areequally racist. The same kind of racism that once prevailed in German society is seen ...in Israel by the use of dual racist laws, a lenient one for Jewish settlers,and oppressive defense laws that collectively target anyone of Palestinianidentity to be subjected to wanton destruction of their homes and property,ethnic cleansing, indiscriminate killing, abuse and humiliation. Ironically,this is what is described as "the only democracy in the Middle East." Public discussions by Israeli officials regarding the "transfer" of Arabcitizens from the Israeli state is no different than what was once proposedin Nazi Germany when it was suggested transferring all the Jews to theFrench colony of Madagascar. The so-called "Jewish" problem of the 1930s hasnow become the "Arab" problem in the Zionist state of Israel, where evenproposed racist legislation is brought before Israel's Knesset supportingJewish-only communities. I can only wonder what Ms. Klug's reaction would beif such proposals by the Christian community were brought before the U.S.Congress that suggested legislation to specifically exclude Jews. Unlike Ms. Klug, I do not wish to live halfway around the world in asociety that gives me the right to trample on someone else's rights ordeprive them of their rights and their homes simply because they are notJewish. Tragically, history continues to repeat itself. The roles may change, butman's inhumanity to man goes on. Marlene Newesri , New York City As an American Jew, I was touched by the emotion expressed by those"returning" to Israel, in the article entitled "Going Home." But I wasstruck by the total lack of mention of Palestinians. It is like talkingabout American history without mentioning Native Americans or slavery. The article talks about the "longing" of Jews to "return to Zion" butignores the longing of Palestinians, many of whom still hold a key to ahouse they left in 1948, or which was demolished more recently before theireyes. The article says the phrase "Next year in Jerusalem," the closing line ofthe annual Passover seder, has deep resonance for all Jews. But there areother Passover lessons that resonated with me growing up: "If we forget ourbondage, how can we preserve our freedom? And if we remember our bondage howcan we stand aside when others are not free." And, in the words of the greatRabbi Hillel, "If I am not for myself who will be for me? If I am not forothers, what am I? And if not now, when?" These are the words that were passed down to me at my family's Passovertable. I have passed them to my children and now to their children. It is my belief that the peace, safety, security and freedom of Jews inIsrael is dependent on recognizing the legitimate longing of ALL thechildren of Abraham to GO HOME. Lucy Rosenblatt , West Hartford I assume The Courant, in the interest of fairness and balance, will soon doa cover story about the forced expulsion of the native Palestinianpopulation to make way for Lisa Klug's colonists "going home" to Israel. Whynot start with the Israeli Cabinet's recent vote to enclose several illegalsettlements within the new - and also illegal - separation barrier, whichwould seize yet another chunk of Palestinian land and put an estimated10,000 Palestinians under direct Israeli rule? John Lanefski , New Haven