Wednesday 22 July 2009

OKUN: A Jewish state – or Jewish values?

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by Tema Okun

Mondoweiss
20 July 2009

EDITOR’S COMMENT: Every now and then one reads something that touches the heart and leaves a lasting impression. This is a plea to people so caught up in their own world view that they have lost sight of humanity – forgotten that by and large people everywhere just want to live their lives in peace, enjoy the fruits of this earth and share them with loved ones and their neighbours. Tema Okun speaks to the essence of who we are as people and appeals to the very best in us. Her words are directed to her own Jewish community, but they are equally potent and necessary for all of us to contemplate because we are all guilty for what the Palestinians have suffered. And not just the Palestinians – although theirs is the longest running brutal oppression of an entire population – but all peoples who are being cruelly mistreated, violated and condemned for reasons that ought to shame us every waking moment. How much more violence do we need to see, read and hear before we say “enough”, before we really mean “never again”?

Please read Tema’s eloquent plea and then send it to others and encourage them to pass it on further. We have no time to lose as the poisonous brew of racism bubbles over threatening to contaminate everything we hold dear. It is not the war on terror that we ought to be worried about, but the war on humanity. – SK


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On April 16, 2009, North Carolina Peace Action presented their annual Peacemaker Award to Tom Stern and Tema Okun, here at the podium, for their work with ICAHD-USA.* photo © Jerry Markatos


I am a Jew. I am a religious Jew. I am an anti-Zionist Jew. I realize that to make this last claim is to risk that you will stop reading, as often any claim of anti-Zionism brings with it a label of traitor, anti-Semite, self-hating Jew. I hope, however, that you will give me the benefit of the doubt, at least for the few minutes that it will take you to read what I have to say. Read More…

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