A Rabbi defends Gaza, Libby Davies and Human Rights

I was so excited to read this open letter to Jack Layton defending Libby Davies. You can see the whole post at: http://rebdavid.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html#3002382674389795855

Here's part of the letter to Jack Layton from Rabbi David Mivasair, that is posted on his blog.


Libby said that she thinks the Israeli occupation began in 1948. Well, it did. I can introduce you to Palestinians living here in Vancouver who were forced out of their homes at gunpoint by Jews in 1948 and their villages destroyed. That’s occupation. It happened. Denying it doesn’t change a thing.

Just look at this map on the left here of the 1947 UN partition plan. The UN assigned the orange parts to the Jews' control and the pink parts to the Arabs. Now, look at a 1948 map of the ceasefire lines. The purple is what Israel held and eventually became its more-or-less acknowledged boundaries until 1967.

Even well before 1948, Jewish organizations launched a well-planned and well-executed campaign to establish “facts on the ground” by planting 57 settlements literally in the middle of the night all over the country. This was especially true in the southern Negev desert region so that the UN would grant that area to the Jewish state-to-be. Even though there was negligible and recently imported Jewish population amidst a far larger and very well-established Arab population (in that large orange area in the south), the UN partition granted it to the Jews and not the Arabs. This is a source of great pride in Israel, well-known to every school child and celebrated in museums. To know more, see "Tower and Stockade", tourist attraction and commemorative coin.

To imply that Libby doesn’t support the existence of the State of Israel is nothing but disingenuous manipulation. You know that’s not true; Libby does support the existence of the State of Israel. It is Israel’s behaviour that Libby condemns – and rightfully so.