Can Americans do it too? How about Arabs and Palestinians? While we are glad to see this apology put forward, not all of this problem is Israel's responsibility, nor America's.
Subject: When one culture asks forgiveness of another...
Thanks to Rabbi Arthur Waskow and my friend Eryn Kalish for passing on this
remarkable document, a strong apology from Israelis to Palestinians. I
could feel my energy shift as I read it. I can't help but wonder what
would happen if someone came up with something like this from the U.S. to
the entire Muslim world -- or even to the entire "Third World". Perhaps it
is time.... -- Coheartedly, Tom
Dear friends,
I was moved by these dark times in the Middle East to write the following
piece, an open letter to Palestinians. One Palestinian woman who saw it was
touched enough in turn to publish it in an Arab newspaper, together with her
response.
I've also had positive feedback from some Israelis who share my belief that
it's not a sign of weakness to say sorry.
So I've been emboldened to put it out on the net in the form of a petition,
which I'd very much like you to sign up to and support by sending it onto
colleagues, friends and appropriate networks. It will be sent on to
Palestinian media and web networks immediately after Yom Kippur.
The petition's internet
address.
It's easy to sign up. Please add your voice to a plea for peace which
attempts to address itself to the humanity in both sides.
Thanks and warm wishes,
In the period between the religious festivals of Rosh Hashanah and Yom
Kippur, Jews are enjoined to take steps to repair the wrong we have done to
others. This is an attempt to reach out to you, our Palestinian cousins, to
change the nature of the bloody and merciless exchange, which currently
dominates relations between us.
We who sign below, ordinary Jews, want to tell you that we are sorry.
We are sorry for the calamity you experienced in 1948, for the loss of your
homes and land, for your dispersal and exile, and for the families that have
grown up for three generations in refugee camps without a sense of home or
belonging.
We are sorry particularly for the Jewish part in your exodus - the
expulsions, the shelling of villages, and those killings which created the
climate of fear which prompted many to leave. We our sorry that our terrible
century of tragedy became your tragedy. You did not ask for it and you did
not deserve it. And we were blind to it.
Our people were blinded by our own suffering and loss, rage and grief,
desperate to survive, desperate for a home, a refuge, a place we could
call our own. We were unable to see the magnitude of the sacrifice
we were asking of you.
In 1948, and again in 1967, we were also blinded by the joy and relief of
the military victories which secured our homeland.
We apologise unreservedly for the increasing harshness of our occupation
since the victory of 1967, and for the further losses we have inflicted on
the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza. Losses of land, of water, trees
and homes, of dignity and humanity and freedom. This occupation has been
perverted by greed and hubris, and it has corrupted our people as it has
humiliated and angered your people. It has created hatred and a thousand new
wounds between us. It needs to end.
We want you to have your own state, that you can take pride in, a refuge and
symbol of hope for your own people, with Arab Jerusalem as its capital. We
want to return to you that land and those settlements which stand in the way
of the wholeness and territorial integrity of your state.
We will not now give up our own state. We have yearned for it for too long,
fought for it too hard, and need its sanctuary too much to let it go. But we
want our two states to work together as partners for the good of all our
peoples.
We want your refugees with our help and the help of the community of nations
to receive reparation and help to build new lives and re-settlement if they
wish. We will welcome a certain number to Israel. They will not find the
country that their forefathers left, but we hope they will find through this
process a new climate of acceptance and tolerance.
We respect the determination of the people of the West Bank and Gaza to
resist the occupation. But we ask you urgently to stop the suicide bombings
and the shooting of innocent people. These acts generate a climate of fear,
hatred and mistrust, and the belief that there is no rational partner in
peaceful dialogue. For our part we will resist the aggressive and
intimidatory acts of our own leaders. The shelling of villages and
assassination and destruction of homes and crops must stop.
At this time of darkness and war, it is incumbent upon us to search out
every glimmer of light and hope. We wish for our people and your people,
for our children and our children's children, joy and prosperity, peace
and God's blessing.
Rodger Kamenetz
From: Tom Atlee
PS: One of my favorite forgiveness
stories.
www.co-intelligence.org *
www.democracyinnovations.org
Paul (Morrison)
AN APOLOGY AND A PRAYER
An open letter to the Palestinian people from Jews in Israel and the
Diaspora
web site:
www.literati.net/Kamenetz
Beliefnet Column:
www.beliefnet.com