We are sorry to hear about the predicament of Mohammed as indeed we are sorry about the suffering of all non-combatants in this war. We Israelis, Arabs and Jews, have had many casualties every day and many children are left orphans, too. We as citizens of Israel will continue to urge our government to come to a lasting agreement with Hamas.
You have read what the situation in Gaza looks like to citizens such as Mohammed. However, as academics, we should be aware of all the facts and definitions supplied by Hamas and its supporters. This is not the 'history' that Mohammed was allowed to hear by the Hamas government; nor was he allowed to ask questions. As an intelligent person, earning his Ph.D., he surely is aware that IDF soldiers are not risking their lives just because Jews suffered in history.
We would like to shed light on a few of the assertions and then to make an appeal to our community for the children being held hostage in underground Hamas tunnels :
1. Does Israel occupy Gaza?
Apparently, Mohammed did not have access to this information because he feels "the Jews are cruel because other people were cruel to them'". We (the authors) were witnesses to this history, which is also documented in the prominent news media of the day. Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2007. The Israelis who were living there were forcibly removed by the IDF. Even the dead were removed from the cemeteries. Israeli residents left houses, synagogues, very profitable farms, and businesses. The export from the Gaza community was in the millions.
2 What was the reaction of the Gazans to the evacuation of Jews?
Immediately after Israel left, the Gazans tore down and destroyed everything, even the greenhouses that were donated to them and would have afforded them a good livelihood. They then elected their own government, Hamas, whose written 'constitution' sets as its aim the destruction of Israel and 'all its infidels' and replacing it with Moslems. Qatar and the EU sent millions of dollars to build up the economy but Hamas used the money to build tunnels, manufacture missiles and smuggle in weapons. Gazans could only earn a good livelihood by working in Israeli communities across the border. Until Oct. 7 Israel was issuing over 18,000 permits for Gazans to work in Israel in jobs that typically paid much higher salaries than what a worker could earn in Gaza. In addition, Gaza was also
exporting over $130 million a year of fish, agricultural produce, textiles and other products to Israel and the West Bank.
3. Whom did Hamas attack?
Many Israelis had set up kibbutzim (community farming villages) on our side of the border. These were settled by predominantly idealistic people who wanted to reach out to their neighbors and held many joint activities with them. Among these, the Israelis had volunteers who would accompany patients from Gaza to be treated in Israeli hospitals. A very well-known person was Vivian Silver, the head of "Women Wage Peace", an organization of Palestinian and Israeli women who have been campaigning for a peaceful solution to our conflict. `
4. What happened on Oct. 7, 2023?
Since Israel’s withdraw, Hamas attacked Israel 5 times; Israel did not strike first. After each missile attack from Gaza, the IDF would counter-attack, and eventually, the sides would reach a ceasefire. These attacks recurred repeatedly over the years. The most recent one on October 7, 2023, was not a missile attack but a massacre of the very communities which had been established to live in peace and help the Gazans. We will not repeat the brutality of the massacre, which was well-documented by the terrorists themselves. Among the dead was the peace activist Vivian Silver, whose burnt body was only found later, in the charred remains of her house. Among the dead were also the daughter and son-in-law of Dr. Carole Troen, a linguist and colleague of Beverly's. Carole's family used their bodies to protect their 3 children. The children survived, but the terrorists succeeded in killing their parents. Today, Carole and her husband, Dr. Ilan Troen, a historian, are senior citizens who must raise their grandchildren. In addition, the terrorists invaded a nearby music festival, murdering over 300 young people.
5. Who are the hostages?
Besides the murders, Hamas captured men, women, children, and babies; they released some hostages, murdered other captives and are holding the remaining 100 as hostages until this day. Among the remaining hostages are Shiri Bibas and her two children: Kfir, captured when he was 9 months old, and Ariel, 4. None of the hostages has received the medications they were sent by Israel, none has been visited by the Red Cross, and they receive very little food, as reported by those hostages who were released in the Nov. cease fire. We are in doubt as to how many of these 100 hostages are still alive.
6. Accuracy in terminology
Apartheid is constantly applied to Israel by its critics, but it is inaccurate. Unlike South Africa, which did not even allow Black (Native) South Africans to vote, or share a drinking fountain with Whites, Arab-Israelis have the right to vote, have their own political party, which now sits in the Knesset [parliament], a Judge on the Supreme Court, a high percentage of university students in non-segregated universities, and a high percentage in the medical profession, etc.
Genocide is another word which is misapplied. Absolutely, any intentional killing of non-combatants is to be condemned. But so far, the International Court has found it can’t make a case for genocide. For one thing, there are no objective counts of people killed by Israel bombing. We quote Joan Donoghue - now retired from the ICJ – who appeared on the BBC’s HARDtalk programme and explicitly tried to end the debate by setting out what the court had done.
“It did not decide - and this is something where I'm correcting what's often said in the media... that the claim of genocide was plausible,” said the judge.
“It did emphasise in the order that there was a risk of irreparable harm to the Palestinian right to be protected from genocide. But the shorthand that often appears, which is that there's a plausible case of genocide, isn't what the court decided.” [source: BBC: what did the ICJ ruling really say? May 17, 2024]
As of this writing, it is a question the court is far from deciding.
Academics should equally ask, “Is Hamas trying to commit genocide?” We refer you to the Hamas Covenant:
“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it” (The Martyr, Imam Hassan alBanna, of blessed memory).
Hamas believes that “Palestine is an Islamic Waqf, land consecrated for Muslim generations until Judgement Day” and calls for the obliteration of Israel and its replacement with an Islamic state – not a democratic one - extending from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea (article II) … the Day of Judgment will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say, “O Muslim, O servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him” (article 7). (“Why is this Seder different from all other Seders?” David Breakstone, Jerusalem Post, April 19, 2024)
7. Has Israel tried to make peace with the Palestinians?
We can only turn to former President Bill Clinton, the author of many peace plans, who tried continuously to get the two sides together during the 1990s. You can access his latest statement about the history of this attempt on You Tube.
In sum, honest people should conclude there is no side which is totally innocent or totally guilty in this conflict. We urge you as academics to contribute to help Mohammed and his family. Could we ask for a parallel gesture towards the Israeli hostages? Can you write to human rights organizations such as Save the Children and Amnesty International, and urge them to press for the release of the Bibas family and all young children?
Save the Children
Janti Soeripto, President & Chief Executive Officer of Save the Children US.
jsoeripto@savechildren.org. You can also find her on social media. She has a profile on LinkedIn.
With hope for a peaceful future for all.
Beverly Lewin, Daniel Portman, and Hagit Rifinski
