viewpoints » S end letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com DETROIT JEWISH NEWS theJEWISHNEWS.com essay Arthur M. Horwitz Publisher / Executive Editor ahorwitz@renmedia.us I ‘Agree’ With Cornel West I agree with Cornel West. occupation of the Palestinian Authority I never thought I would find myself (P.A.) and, since 2007, 100 percent of the writing those words. West, a lead- residents of Gaza have been living under ing African American author and intel- the occupation of Hamas. Ain’t no doubt lectual, is a vicious critic of in my mind: One day, brother, the Israel. He supports the Boycott, Palestinians will be free of the cruel Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) totalitarian Palestinian regimes that movement. He says Israel’s lead- occupy and oppress them. ers are “war criminals.” In a One day, brother, the Palestinians speech at Princeton last year, he will have the freedom to demo- made the wildly absurd claim cratically choose their leaders. that the Israelis “are killing hun- Mahmoud Abbas was elected head dreds [of Palestinians] daily.” of the Palestinian Authority in Stephen M. But even a broken clock January 2005 for a four-year term. Flatow gives the right time twice a Yet somehow he is still in office, JNS.org day, so on the rare occasion seven-and-a-half years since his that West utters words of truth about the term expired. And Hamas has not held a Palestinians or Israel, I must acknowledge democratic election since taking over the that. Gaza Strip nine years ago. West was appointed by Sen. Bernie One day, brother, the Palestinians will Sanders (I-Vt.) to serve on the Democratic have the right to freedom of speech. Najat Party’s Platform Committee. He lobbied Abu Baker, a member of the Palestinian hard for a platform plank supporting the parliament, recently hid out in the parlia- Palestinian cause and was partly success- ment building for 17 days to avoid being ful. arrested by the P.A. police. The warrant for Speaking to a Jerusalem Post reporter on arrest was issued because — as the New July 26 on the floor of the Democratic con- York Times put it — “Ms. Abu Baker said vention, West said he was disappointed the Mr. Abbas should resign and suggested platform did not go further, but he vowed there would be money to pay educators if to continue his struggle. He declared: “The ministers were not so corrupt.” Palestinians will be free, brother. Ain’t no One day, brother, the Palestinians will doubt about that.” have the right to free assembly. Earlier And that’s where Cornel and I agree. this year, 20,000 Palestinian public school Since 1995, more than 98 percent of the teachers went on strike because they had Palestinians have been living under the not been paid (those were the unpaid educators to whom Ms. Abu Baker was referring). When some dissidents tried to hold a rally in support of the strikers, “the P.A. security services set up rings of checkpoints to prevent the teachers from attending the demonstration,” according to Haaretz. Twenty teachers and two school principals who did manage to reach the rally were arrested for doing so. One day, brother, the Palestinians will no longer have their basic human rights violated by the Palestinian occu- pation regime. According to the State Department’s most recent report on human rights around the world, the P.A. is guilty of “abuse and mistreatment of detainees, poor and overcrowded deten- tion facilities, prolonged detention and infringements on privacy rights, restric- tions on freedom of speech, press, and assembly, limits on freedom of association and movement, discrimination against persons with disabilities, discrimination based on sexual orientation and HIV/ AIDS status and limits on worker rights,” including “forced labor.” So, I agree with Cornel West: One day, the Palestinians will be free. The ques- tion is — how long will it take Professor West to acknowledge just who it is that the Palestinians need to be liberated from? * Stephen M. Flatow, an attorney in New Jersey, is the father of Alisa Flatow, who was murdered in an Iranian-sponsored Palestinian terrorist attack in 1995. letters Who’s ‘Observant’ And Who’s ‘Ultra’ Regarding the Point-Counterpoint in the July 28 JN (page 8), I found Yair Sheleg’s “Point” to be very interesting. His main topics boiled down to egalitarian prayer at the wall, diaspora conversions and the upcoming mikvah bill. The “Counterpoint” presented by Rabbis Yaakov Menken and Pesach Lerner did not truly address the issues raised by Yair Sheleg but only touched on them as they related to two of their own points: that of the shortcomings of non-Orthodox Jews, be they totally secular or followers of other streams of Judaism, and the point of the use of the term “ultra-Orthodox,” which they consider pejorative. As for the Counterpoint’s attacks on non-Orthodox streams of Judaism, those attacks are purely diversionary and do not address the primary issues raised by Sheleg. As for the Counterpoint issue of the 6 August 11 • 2016 term “ultra-Orthodox,” I never associated the term as in any way pejorative as I have taken the prefix “ultra” to mean “very much so.” However, if members of that group of Jews consider the term as a nega- tive, I will refrain from using it and revert to the Hebrew term “haredi.” I would like to point out that I am a longtime member of Temple Shir Shalom, and I spend every Shabbat morning at temple studying Torah. As such, I am deeply offended by the terms “observant” and someone “becoming observant” when it is used to describe someone who fol- lows the halachic dictates with regard to Shabbat. I do not follow Halachah, but I am very observant of Shabbat as prescribed by the stream of Judaism that I follow. To say that I am not is very denigrating to me. Kindly refrain from its use as a tool to indicate one type of belief as is used on page 18 of the same issue of the Jewish News. Burt Schwartz Beverly Hills CORRECTIONS • In “Understanding Cancer” (July 28, page 42), the correct phone number to learn more about partnering in Dr. Sofia Merajver’s cancer research is (734) 936- 6884. • “Northland Memories” (Aug. 4, page 10) should have stated that attorney Frank Simon was the court-appointed receiver to oversee the dissolution of Northland Mall, and John Polderman was the attorney rep- resenting Simon. Letters to the Editor: We prefer letters that relate to articles in the Jewish News. We reserve the right to edit or reject letters. Brevity is encouraged. Letters published will include the name and city of residence of the writer. Letters submitted must contain the name, address, title of the writer (if applicable) and a daytime phone number. We prefer emailed letters. Please email to letters@thejewishnews.com. (Letters sent by U.S. Postal Service must be hand-signed and mailed to the Jewish News, 29200 Northwestern Hwy., Suite 110, Southfield, MI 48034.) F. 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