Merle—I love all you do for the community, especially Family of Woodstock. But I think you are way off base here. As an American Jew I believed Israel was a wasteland filled with lazy Arabs until I went then in 2006 and 2007. As a youth I bought lots of $2 trees to make Israel green. However, during my three times of doing human rights work with International Women’s Peace Service, I saw that the trees were used to obliterate thriving Palestinian villages once 750,000 Arabs were driven out of the new country of Israel. I saw homes demolished, children injured and gassed, school kids terrorized by Israeli Army Jeeps outside their classrooms, teens sent to prison for throwing a rock at a tank and so forth.
An IWPS volunteer from South Africa said apartheid in Israel was worse than in her own country. It was a shock to see how Palestinians had to use sub-standard back roads while Israelis sped by on highways, how Israelis drove right through checkpoints while Palestinians sometimes waited 3-6 hours to pass through. I personally know a pregnant woman who lost her baby because she was held up for his hours at a checkpoint. I interviewed a man in Nablus whose 6 year old son was shot by an Israeli soldier as he sat on his home’s stoop eating a snack after kindergarten.
Sometimes it’s hard to face the truth but I hope you will soon realize that the Israeli army commits human rights abuses daily.
Paula Silbey