8 | MAY 27 • 2021

essay
Israel Under Attack: A Community Briefing
T

his has been a tragic
and terrifying time for
the people of Israel.
It has also been an extraor-
dinarily difficult time for
Jewish people across the
world, as well as
for anyone who
hopes for peace.
My perspec-
tive is somewhat
unique. As an
Israeli citizen
currently living
in Detroit, thou-
sands of miles away from my
home, my friends and loved
ones, I have witnessed first-
hand the profound concern
and anxiety of this amazing
Jewish community. I also
know and understand the
experience of Israelis, now liv-
ing through this conflict.

Rockets from terrorists in
Gaza inflicted great damage
and trauma in Israel, and trag-
ically, there wsere a number
of casualties. I am deeply sad-
dened by the loss of innocent
lives.
Of greater concern to me,
and many Israelis, is the vio-
lence in the streets — the civil
unrest that is threatening the
delicate Arab-Jewish relations
within Israeli society. There is
a growing sense of despair that
irreparable damage already
has been done in these violent
intercommunity incidents
over the past few days. This is
a heartbreaking development.
We must be unequivocally
clear — there is no justification
for racist violence perpetrated
against any citizen of Israel.
For many years, Federation

has funded projects that have
made great strides in developing
intercommunity trust, respect
and collaboration in mixed
cities such as Lod as well as in
our Partnership Region in the

Central Galilee, home to both
Jewish and Arab communities.
I pray that when calm returns,
we can rebuild these essential
ties between Jewish and Arab
neighbors.

Yiftah Leket

Tamar Shooval attends a peace rally in the Partnership 2Gether region
with her Arab neighbors and daughter. The sign reads “Together
Forever.”

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued on page 11

continued on page 11

essay
Appropriating ‘Apartheid’ to Bash Israel
Human Rights Watch defames the sacred memories of South African victims.
H

uman Rights Watch
accuses Israel of
apartheid. Yet in
making the accusation in an
April 27 report, the group bra-
zenly acknowl-
edges that it has
“detached the
term apartheid
from its original
South African
context.”
This is immor-
al. “
Apartheid”
has a sacred
historical meaning, sanctified
by the blood and suffering
of millions of South Africans
who were oppressed and
discriminated against on the

basis of race. In appropriat-
ing the word, Human Rights
Watch presents a grotesquely
distorted picture of both
South African history and the
current reality in Israel.
Apartheid was a state-en-
forced national system of
racial discrimination that
manifested in a slew of
oppressive laws aimed at oblit-
erating the human rights of an
entire race — among them the
Population Registration Act,
the Group Areas Act and the
Separate Amenities Act. Black
South Africans were denied
the vote and equality before
the law until 1994.
In contrast, within the

borders of the State of Israel,
all citizens — Jews, Arabs
or otherwise — have the
right to vote and compete
equality before the law. They
participate side by side in
elections, and Israeli Arabs
hold high-ranking positions
throughout the Israeli govern-
ment, including the Knesset
and the Supreme Court. After
the recent election, an Arab-
led party holds the balance of
power in the Knesset, and it
was an Arab judge that con-
victed former Israeli president
Moshe Katzav.
There is a continuing and
bitter dispute around estab-
lishing a Palestinian state

in the West Bank and Gaza,
which aren’t legally part of
Israel. The Palestinian leader-
ship has consistently rejected
concerted efforts to create
a separate Palestinian state
in these territories, from the
United Nations partition plan
in 1947 to Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert’s offer in 2006.
Successive Israeli governments
have demonstrated that they
are willing to pay a huge price
for a lasting two-state solution.
Israeli overtures have been
met with terrorist attacks,
rockets and mortars.
No one who truly under-
stands the systematic racism
and denial of basic human

Rabbi
Warren
Goldstein