[Jewish] Join me in signing the Call to Bring the Settlers Home to Israel

[ajos02 at hampshire.edu]

Dear JSU members,

I signed the Call to Bring the Settlers Home petition at 
http://bringthemhome.btvshalom.org/ and I would like to take issue with Jesse's 
response.  I feel Jesse's response was overly reactionary, and while I know 
that his heart is in the right place, I feel that Jesse missed the point of the 
e-mail and of the petition.

Jesse claims that "Forcibly expelling people from their homes simply on an 
account of their religion is a crime against humanity and totally outlawed 
under the nuremburg laws of 1946 and the 1949 Geneva code."  I completly 
agree.  However, the e-mail and the petition make no suggestion at all about 
using force to expel people.  Rather, the petition suggests an end to the 
financial inducements given to people moving to the settlements and instead to 
provide financial assistance to people willing to move from the settlements to 
Israel proper.  Again, the petition does not mention force at all.  
Essentially, the petition is advocating alternative allocations of finances.

Jesse wrote "Not to mention [forcible expulsion] is an outright racist ideology 
which contends that Arabs have some kind of right to live where ever they want, 
Gaza, Ramallah or Tel-Aviv while Jews are banned from living outside the green 
line."  Again the petition is about inducing voluntary relocation and not about 
forcible expulsion.  Moreover, the petition makes no reference to who has a 
right to live where.

Jesse wrote "If I sent an e-mail around claiming that Palestinians living in 
Israel or in a section to the West Bank were an obstacle to peace and shoud be 
given financial incentive to move, I would be accused, rightly so, of being a 
racist."  I doubt it.  I know I would not call you a racist for it.  Again, the 
point is in the wording "given a financial incentive to move" rather 
than "forcibly expelled." 

Jesse ended with "Please, who ever is in charge of the jsu mailing lists, 
remove my name so I no longer have to receive diatribes and jingoist rants from 
Arab supremacists."  I am surprised and appalled that you would choose to end 
your e-mail by slandering the Brit Tzedek V'Shalom organization as Arab 
Supremacists.  They are an organization of American Jews striving for "Justice 
and Peace."  Both the e-mail and the petition were well written and not 
belligerent to anyone.  It's your choice to remove yourself from the JSU 
mailing list, however I believe the only diatribes present on the list are 
those of your own creation. 

Sincerely,

Ari Shapiro


P.S.  I miss Shabbat with everyone from JSU.  Anyone want to come to my house 
for dinner tommorrow?