Letters - 01 April 2011
From the peacemakers to humanists
Supporting both sides
Friends’ role in regard to Israel/Palestine should surely be as peacemakers. If we are to be accepted as peacemakers we must not only be even handed, but we must be seen by both sides as such.
No one doubts that the Israeli government has, and deploys, disproportionate power. We utterly deplore and are horrified by many of its actions. Nevertheless, we must recognise the effect of Israelis’ experience of being surrounded by nations that have long proclaimed, in the strongest and most violent terms, their hostility to the very existence of the Jewish state. And this is in the centuries-long context of anti-Semitic persecution.
However reasonable its intention, and however clearly a boycott might be labelled as aimed only at West Bank products, it will be perceived as hostile to Israel. The press and public opinion simply do not make these fine distinctions. Our primary aim to be peacemakers requires that we ensure, so far as possible, that we are not just open-minded, but perceived as such. In pursuing that aim a boycott would not just be ineffective, it would be counter-productive.
Philip Hills
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