Voices of Israelis “Outraged over Genocide in Gaza”

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[Please note the change in the title of this news release. Responding to requests from rape survivors, including Palestinian and Israeli feminists, the Institute for Public Accuracy has decided to refrain from using the word “rape” as an example or a metaphor. Though there are similarities between political violence and sexual violence, we recognize the need to use language in ways that do not cause further suffering to survivors of violence.]


SIMONA SHARONI, simona.sharoni at gmail.com
Sharoni is professor of gender and women’s studies at SUNY Plattsburgh and the author of Gender and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: The Politics of Women’s Resistance. She just wrote the piece “A Feminist Perspective on Israeli Aggression.”

She said today: “I participated in my first demonstration against Israeli aggression 32 years ago, after the massacre of Sabra and Shatila. Over the past three decades, successive Israeli governments continued to use military aggression rather than diplomacy as the centerpiece of their foreign policy. As an Israeli citizen, a daughter of a holocaust survivor, and a conflict resolution expert, I feel a strong obligation to speak up against the ongoing military onslaught inflicted on Gaza. This genocide, perpetrated by Israel in the name of security has claimed the lives of over 1,200 Palestinians in Gaza and completely destroyed their infrastructure. Notwithstanding the heavy toll this massive attack has taken on Palestinians in Gaza, it is obvious that it will not only undermine Israel’s security but also severely harm its foreign relations.”

YONATAN SHAPIRA, yonatanemail at gmail.com
Shapira, a former Israeli captain and Air Force pilot, who in 2003 spearheaded a letter signed by 27 Israeli pilots who refused to participate in military operations against Palestinians. He recently said on “Democracy Now!“: “Gaza is the biggest open-air prison. People inside cannot go in and out. They can find their way through tunnels sometimes, but most of the population is locked there as prisoners. Israel controls the air. Israel controls the sea and the land. And the little strip that Egypt controls is basically coordinated with Israel and the United States to keep this a cage with those 1.8 million people. I myself tried, with different groups and a flotilla, to sail to Gaza and to symbolically break the blockade, but we were stopped by the Israeli occupation forces, claiming that we are dangerous because maybe we are bringing a weapon. So, just it’s so ridiculous to see now. You know, they stopped us from bringing the weapons, and I don’t think that Hamas had any problem to bring a weapon in. Maybe even in some paradoxical way it helps Netanyahu and his guys, these missiles, because I’m here in Tel Aviv, and I have a 10-month-old baby, and I have to hug her and go to the shelter when the missiles are falling, but it’s really nothing compared to what people in Gaza are experiencing. And I have family in Sderot, next to Gaza, and I have even relatives who are in Gaza as soldiers.”

See “Open Letter by 50 Israeli Army Reservists on Why They Refuse to Fight in Gaza.”