A panel of four American and Israeli Jews called for Americans to assume some level of responsibility for what they characterized as grievous human rights abuses and condemned the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories on Wednesday.
“I want to elaborate on who was funding those torture chambers, those raids,” panelist Shamai Leibowitz said in reference to his experience serving as a soldier in the West Bank. Leibowitz is a prominent Israeli human rights lawyer and a reserve staff sergeant in the Israeli military.
“I think you guys are partially accountable,” he said, in reference to Americans. “American money should not be enabling such gross human rights violations.”
The panel, sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine, Amnesty International and GU Peace Action, included three Jewish American peace activists. According to Greg Delhaye, a visiting researcher at Georgetown who introduced the panelists, the opinions expressed on the panel represented a side of Jewish and Israeli public opinion that often goes unmentioned in the United States.
Josh Ruebner, a panelist and Grassroots Advocacy Coordinator for the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, told the audience that Israel’s policies toward Palestinians directly contradicted the teachings of Judaism.
Those teachings, he said, most importantly encourage respect for human rights and non-violence. In committing what he termed violations of Palestinian rights, Ruebner said that Israel’s actions were comparable to the injustices of historical anti-Semitism, including tragedies like the Holocaust.
“We’re supposed to worship God, not materialism, not nationhood,” he said.
With an audience of about 30 and a lively question and answer session, Delhaye called the event a success but said he was disappointed that neither the Jewish Student Association nor the Georgetown Israel Alliance co-sponsored it.
He said that the two groups had routinely and unfairly criticized SJP for taking what they considered extreme positions against the Israeli state.
Matt Singer (SFS ‘07), President of GIA, said that he refused to co-sponsor the event because he thought the panelists did not represent the views of most Jews on campus.
“An event like the one tonight strains relationships between groups on campus,” Singer commented. “I do not think this kind of event is productive.”
The panel was well received by the diverse audience of students and community residents, who clapped vigorously at the discussion’s conclusion.
Maida Zamoff, an area resident who identified herself as Jewish, said that she was impressed by the various arguments against the occupation expressed by the panel.
“It’s wonderful when you can see the information first-hand because the news is so slanted,” she said.
