What to expect if you say you won’t buy “West Bank” produce
Posted on Oct 14th by William in A place to live, Faith & practice
Check out the quality of thinking and dialogue in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz: see this exchange for example between the writer Roi Ben-Yehuda and Aziz Abu Sarah from the Center for World Religions. They have some class newspapers in Israel.
Since my own post on boycotting “West Bank” produce I’ve had some intelligent but frankly bruising exchanges by email and on blogs. I have learned that if one expresses concern about the human rights and treatment of farmers in the West Bank one can expect:
- to be accused of religious intolerance and disrespect
- to be queried about anti-Semitism (”is this a Jew thing?”)
- that it is assumed one takes an entirely one-sided pro-Muslim-Arab and anti-Jewish-Israeli stance
- and furthermore that one is blind to anything bad done by Arabs.
Tripe. Triple tripe.
Furthermore one can expect:
- to be treated to accurate but selective lectures on history (fair enough, to the extent that I don’t know the history that well and one can always learn more)
- to have the question constantly deflected to “the other” side (why do I not understand that it’s all their fault, why on earth do I ignore the terrorism, have I protested against female genital mutilation etc)
These are perfectly intelligent engagements with people fuelled with passion and backed by extensive knowledge. But it’s only when blogger Yisrael Medad (62, Male, Gemini) eventually agreed (from his direct experience) that
there are instances of criminal behavior or plain harrassment which I find intolerable
that I saw what every other reply and reaction to date had avoided.
The single issue preventing Godalming Friends buying West Bank produce from Waitrose is the daily humiliations and abuse of human rights of farmers living in the occupied West Bank. It’s nothing to do with theology, race or history.
All it takes to be concerned about daily reality in the West Bank is a degree of empathy. Such empathy is deeply built into the tenets of Jewish faith, isn’t it?
