Last Sunday at a solidarity with Ferguson, Missouri rally in New Paltz some women from the Woodstock Jewish Congregation felt that speakers linking Israel's brutal treatment of Palestinians to the brutal treatment of Michael Brown was "muddying the water."
Oppression is oppression. When governments participate in killing, repressing, and brutalizing innocents it is incumbent upon people of good conscience to speak out (as we all did in New Paltz on Sunday). It does not matter where the injustice occurs or who the victims are. It could be gays in Uganda, or women in Saudi Arabia, or children in Gaza, or young Black men in America. We must be witnesses to the truth.
There is an old saying that "If enough people tell you that you stink, you will eventually take a shower." Perhaps, the well meaning and good hearted women from Woodstock need to wash themselves in the unmuddied and crystal clear waters of the truth.
The truth is that nearly all human rights organizations, the UN, and the community of nations have condemned Israel's brutal occupation, oppression, and military attacks on Palestinians. Hopefully, when enough people hear the truth, Israel will stop the vicious and unrelenting collective punishment that has taken the lives of so many innocent Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza and the West Bank. As Martin Luther King Jr. stated, "Injustice anywhere is a threat the justice everywhere."
Eli Kassirer