Disarm
My family is half Jewish / half Irish. All my ancestors experienced oppression. The Irish side says Free Palestine. My Jewish side says more people should suffer.
I am moved by the women who are speaking. And this week in particular, I am deeply troubled that American women are not united in a voice for peace - demanding an end to the war. The anger people are expressing is difficult to bear. I wish down deep in my soul we were all out in the streets repeating the words of the Mother’s Day Proclamation: “From the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own. It says: Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice.” My family is half Jewish / half Irish. All my ancestors experienced oppression. The Irish side says Free Palestine. My Jewish side says more people should suffer.
My experience of my Jewish side is difficult. My father is embroiled in a belief that the Jews have suffered more than any people on Earth and that the answer to this atrocity in his mind is NOT to stop genocide in other places around the world but that people don't understand what happened to Jews, so they need to suffer more.
The anger and pain that he suffers breaks my heart but it has consumed him to the point of isolation. He is not able to have relationships with others because he believes only he has the right to express his opinions. He can be vulgar and rude and we are all supposed to tolerate it while if anyone else expresses something he doesn't like he feels free to scream at them, insult them, call them all sorts of names. Any attempt at drawing boundaries leads to more aggression and vulgarities. And he also says we are all supposed to know he loves us. Yet he feels no obligation to take care of his family. I spent years of my life dedicated to trying to ease his suffering, to help him find some joy and peace and be able to have caring relationships. He ultimately rejected all of it and chose misery and isolation to protect his pain and hate.
If this is a microcosm of what is at play, while I have compassion for his personal pain, and the pain of others, and while I am willing to bear witness to generations of unresolved grief, (it is in me, too), we must all evolve beyond ideas of righteous rape, taunting and brutality. We, as a species, created international law so that there would not be another holocaust. To ignore the international criminal court is to make the entire world lose faith in its own hopeful process to take collective responsibility for each other and for peace. The damage is extraordinary.
It seems that Hamas is not moved to back down by the destruction of the entire country or the starvation of the Palestinian people. Is it true that in 2017 Hamas issued a new charter declaring their opposition to Zionism as a colonial project - and not against Jews or Judaism as a religion? In July of 2024 Israeli government officials voted against a two-state solution. When they refuse to let aid in for months, how can it be perceived their intentions are anything other than eradication?
It can be said the bombs might stop if Hamas releases remaining hostages - but they might not. It also might be said that the hostages would be released if Netanyahu stepped down. In either case, what is happening now is wrong.
It is our moral obligation as Americans to discuss this. We vote. That's what we do. We could consider calling for a vote - something other countries do - to gauge the will of the people. Normally, I guess our 'news stations' poll and report and our officials incorporate that into their debates. Our dollars are paying for the arms, for the bombs. Our country has sent the bombs that are killing children - to a country whose leader is following his own laws and not working with those entrusted to investigate and apply international law.
Our media is not reporting the truth. We all know this. "Prominent U.S. media organizations like NBC and CNN confirmed that Israel had the authority to approve content from Gaza, with journalists embedded with the Israeli military required to submit materials for review." It is our individual responsibility to demand access to real information and to have a say so as to how our money is spent. The current administration won based on a promise to end the war Day 1. They have continued to supply arms and talk about throwing a military parade while they cut services for Americans. Regardless of who you voted for these are facts.
As Americans we are obligated to discuss this and should push our elected representatives to discuss it also. To our elected representatives we encourage you to throw off the fear of funders. We release you. The American people will either fund your campaigns without their help or we will support you rewriting campaign laws that remove the necessity for so much funding to run for office. Prioritize Peace. STOP Killing. Distribute food and aid. May no more children come to harm.
Photo: Rina Castelnuovo for The New York Times. NY Times reports in 2011 on Israeli women 'sneaking' Palestinian women into the country to go to the sea. "Most of the Palestinian women had never seen the ocean before, because they live in a part of the West Bank that is landlocked."