LETTERS
Peaceful protesters deserve to be heard
I read in Other Voices that the petition signers opposing the vigils at Beth Israel Congregation "recognize that well intentioned and well informed people can disagree and encourage open, candid, respectful dialogue on difficult issues." Nowhere did I read that protesters were invited into the Beth Israel synagogue for the "respectful dialogue."
Local church leaders seem to believe that their houses of worship are above things political. But they are political in so many ways. Now we have more taxpayer dollars being given to the different faiths for their own agendas, bishops saying it might be OK to refuse to give communion to those who believe in choice and many church leaders telling their parishioners to vote or not vote for certain secular legislation or candidates.
Religious meddling has gotten so bad that some pharmacists say they will not fill certain medical prescriptions because their religious conscience tells them not to, and many hospitals can refuse pregnancy prevention aid for rape victims for the same reason.
It seems to me these peaceful, law-abiding protesters need to be heard and nobody in the religious community wants to listen. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a more than 50-year-old scenario of hatred and death - somebody better listen! Religion has become political by choice and if it can't stand the heat, (and the picketing), it better get out of the kitchen.
Michael J. Bertan, Grass Lake
Protesters form common cause with rest of world
Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends have taken note of the opinion of 34 local clergy that our peaceful vigils at Beth Israel Congregation cause an impediment to dialogue. We wonder where this dialogue exists presently in the religious Ann Arbor Community. Our experience tells us that dialogue does not occur in the synagogues, and this absence was the prime motivator for the start of our vigils.
We recognize that our experience might be limited, and that clergy are in fact discussing and educating their parishioners about Al-Nakba, the Arabic word for catastrophe and the Zionist-planned depopulation of over 400 Palestinian villages in 1948.
We hope clergy is questioning the myth that five Arab countries invaded Israel unprovoked when statehood was declared on May 15, 1948. They would deflate this myth by simply pointing out that the documented massacre at the village of Deir Yassin occurred on April 9 of that year, and would field comments from their members questioning how Israel could claim it was fighting a defensive war, when the Zionists had already started their program called Plan Dalet of systemized population transfer of Palestinians.
We also hope clergy is pointing out that while our vigils are a small group of protesters, in reality we form common cause with the rest of the world, and join in the majority of countries (latest U.N. vote was 150-6) who oppose Israel's record of atrocities committed against the Palestinian people.
Henry Herskovitz, Ann Arbor