Israeli Oppression Enslaves Jews

To the Editors of The Crimson:

The Crimson of October 11 made me sad. It contained an opinion piece headlined "Arab Activists Massacred the Facts." As a Jew I read it with interest. (Most American Jews are always searching for something which justifies Israel's actions.)

This article disappointed me. It was just another piece of angry, emotional propaganda, similar to so many produced by HIPAC and other groups in the last few years. Using phrases like "They had perfect position to attack the defenseless prayershawled worshippers below," and "the posters amounted to nothing short of blood libel against the Jewish state," it tried to press more fear buttons than a Republican political candidate.

The point of the article was not to set the record straight about this particular incident; it was to discredit the Arab voice on campus and to propagate old stereotypes.

It hurts me to see the Jewish voice on campus being dominated by these narrow-minded people. They ignore news reports, the statements of the U.S. and European governments and reports from various human rights organizations, while accepting the word of Israeli security agencies without question.

What really troubles me, however, is not the poor impression of the Jewish people they must give the rest of Harvard and the world, but the loss of these beautiful Jewish minds and souls to hate and ignorance.

The occupation has produced a culture of violence, fear and racism in Israel and has forced American Jews to abandon the central Jewish values of reason and compassion in order to defend Israel's immoral acts. Martin Luther King taught that oppression enslaves the oppressor as well as the oppressed. This has never been more clear than in the case of modern Israel and the Jewish people.

I pray that Jews in Israel and in the Diaspora will put pressure on the Israeli government to end the occupation and stop the violence now--if not out of compassion for the Palestinian people, then to free the Jews. Seth Daniel Tapper '91   Michael Cooper '91