PHRC response to the Zionist Federation

In a Press Release on 8 April, the Zionist Federation took issue with FIANZ President Hazim Arafeh’s recent observation that “Israel has no regard for the sanctity of human life”, by claiming that “Israel has absolute regard for life which is a central tenant of Judaism.” Zionism is not Judaism, and the assertion that there has been “no attack by the IDF on unarmed Palestinian civilians”lacks any vestige of credibility.

Writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the paper’s editorial board columnist writes of Israel’s indifference to Palestinian suffering, noting that it “doesn’t see them as human beings, it doesn’t see their despair; it doesn’t see the bitterness of their fate.” The Zionist regime has no fear of such expressions of truth and humanitarian empathy being heard inside Israel because it knows that the majority are sufficiently mesmerised by the state’s founding ideology.

Palestinians in Gaza are refugees, trapped in the world’s largest open air concentration camp. Dispossessed and largelyabandoned by world governments, they are the victims of 70 years of Israel’s ideologically-driven ethnic cleansing programme.
Leslie Bravery, Palestine Human Rights Campaign www.palestine.org.nz