Rabbi should consider new points of view
In his criticism of Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein’s
willingness to speak about the decades-long oppression of
Palestinians (“Holocaust survivor takes a stand,” Jan.
16), UCLA Hillel Rabbi Chaim Seidler-Feller said, “You have
to work within your community, not denounce it. … When you speak
for the other side, you lose your credibility.”
Does this mean Seidler-Feller feels that German-Americans who
publicly denounced Nazism, Khmer-Americans who denounced Pol Pot
and Serbian-Americans such as myself who publicly denounced the
genocidal policies of Slobodan Milosevic in Yugoslavia were also
wrong to do so?
I do not question Seidler-Feller’s sincere belief in his
position.
It is one he has been repeating for many years now at UCLA and
one that must be refuted.
Until he and others who hold his position come face to face with
the truth of Zionism and Palestine, there will never be any
progress.
The establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine was brought
about by ethnically cleansing the indigenous population of
Palestine and by establishing an apartheid state in which people
are told where they can go, where they can live and whom they can
marry based solely on their ethnicity.
This is a truth not popular in America, simply because it is
rarely aired.
Those who do give voice to it are quickly tarred with the brush
of anti-Semitism by Seidler-Feller and his allies.
But the fact is, more and more people are coming to question the
received accounts of how the problem in Palestine came into being,
including an ever-increasing number of our Jewish brothers and
sisters ““ such as Epstein ““ with whom we stand in
solidarity.
The time has come for those who would defend the creation of
this apartheid state in Palestine to confront the facts.
No matter how noble the idea behind its founding, the state of
Israel today is ridden with flaws and weaknesses.
It is understandable that Seidler-Feller so desperately wants
the state to be seen as legitimate.
Its creation, although envisioned before the Holocaust, became a
reality only after moral outrage ““ the greatest single crime
in the history of mankind.
But not even this crime can justify what was done to the
Palestinians.
It is not a crime for people to change their stand on an issue
upon deep reflection.
There is something, however, very wrong when individuals refuse
to admit even the possibility that they might be wrong ““
something we are all now experiencing with regard to the current
situation in the White House.
I would urge those such as Seidler-Feller to revisit the crux of
their arguments and open their minds to different voices and
different perspectives.
While I vehemently disagree with his position in favor of
Zionism in Palestine, I think he and I can agree that we want to
see a land ““ call it Palestine, call it Israel, call it New
Jersey for all I care ““ in which all people, Jewish and Arab,
Christian and atheist, can live in peace and with respect for one
another’s human dignity.
Ron Richards UCLA alumnus, class of 2001