[Peace-discuss] The effects of occupation on Israeli Jews

[David Green]

"But of all the sad statistics, one of the more
shocking is that 40% of Holocaust survivors now live
in desperate straits. It is shameful that of all
places in the world, in Israel, Holocaust survivors
live in dire poverty and misery."

A note from George Salzman in Mexico:

Oaxaca, Sunday 28 May 2006 
Friends, 
  
      The single focus of this note is my support for
a request from Dorothy Naor, a compassionate and
wonderful Jewish Israeli woman, who writes, in part 

. . . poverty in Israel has increased sharply.  Over 
1/4  of  Israelis now live under the poverty line.  A
staggering 34.1 percent of them are children.  Last
year 1 of every 5 children lived under the poverty
line; now 1 of every 3 children goes to bed hungry.
And every 4th elderly person is poor.  No wonder,
then, that Israel's elderly are  "Suicidal," as
Yedioth Ahronot revealed in a report showing that over
50 percent of suicides in Israel every year are
committed by people aged 65 and more.  There are
additional worrying trends. Not only are the few rich
getting richer and the numerous poor getting poorer,
but also many in the middle class who have jobs are
sliding into poverty due to low wages. 
I ask you to take the few moments needed to read her
letter, frightening in its candor, and to then support
the request to the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. to begin
divestment from Israel.

Here is Dorothy’s letter, on behalf of the feminist
peace group New Profile. 
  
Rick Ufford-Chase, Moderator 
Stated Clerk 
Office of the General Assembly 
100 Witherspoon Street 
Louisville, Kentucky, 40202-1396 
USA 
  
Wednesday, May 17, 2006 
  
New Profile, an Israeli organization, wishes to
express appreciation to PCUSA for contemplating
adopting a policy of selective divestment as a means
of bringing  peace to Palestinians and Israelis.  We
fervently support such an endeavor, and hope that
PCUSA will indeed adopt divestment as a non-violent
means of ending Israel's Occupation of Palestinians
and their lands. 
  
We wish to assure PCUSA that it is no more
anti-Semitic to criticize and oppose Israeli
government policies than it was anti-American to
oppose the Vietnam war. 
  
Indeed, ending the Occupation can only benefit
Israelis.  For, the Occupation exacts a price from
Israelis as well as from Palestinians.  In addition to
loss of life and increased militarism, Israelis have
witnessed these past years a steady devaluation of
human life, as is evident from the socio-economic
sphere and the affliction of post-traumatic distress.
It also seems clear that without outside help,
Israel's Occupation of Palestinians and their lands is
unlikely to end. 
  
Successive Israeli governments have spent enormous
amounts of money on expansion, to the detriment of
social benefits for the Israeli population. While it
is true that had their been no Occupation, Israeli
governments might not have spent the money on social
benefits, the fact that expansion continues a pace
reveals Israel's intent to prevent the emergence of a
Palestinian state and to rid the West Bank of as many
Palestinians as possible. 
  
To this end, money is spent on maintaining a large
military presence in the Occupied Palestinian
Territories, on erecting the apartheid wall at 4
million dollars a mile, with 400 miles planned (twice
the length had it been built on the ‘green line’),
constructing 6,000 more units in highly subsidized
settlements (this past year alone, some 12,000 new
settlers moved into the West Bank, 4,000 more than
were evicted from the Gaza Strip). Much money goes
also for constructing super-highways for Israelis-only
in the Occupied Territories, as well as for new
lookout towers (that can double as sniper towers), and
checkpoints galore (mainly separating Palestinian
communities). 
  
While all this is taking place at considerable
economic cost, poverty in Israel has increased
sharply.  Over 1/4 of  Israelis now live under the
poverty line.  A staggering 34.1 percent of them are
children.  Last year 1 of every 5 children lived under
the poverty line; now 1 of every 3 children goes to
bed hungry. And every 4th elderly person is poor.  No
wonder, then, that Israel's elderly are  "Suicidal,"
as Yedioth Ahronot revealed in a report showing that
over 50 percent of suicides in Israel every year are
committed by people aged 65 and more.  There are
additional worrying trends. Not only are the few rich
getting richer and the numerous poor getting poorer,
but also many in the middle class who have jobs are
sliding into poverty due to low wages. 
  
One result of the increased poverty is that now 25% of
Israelis forego medical care because they cannot
afford it.  75% of the poor cannot afford medication.
But of all the sad statistics, one of the more
shocking is that 40% of Holocaust survivors now live
in desperate straits. It is shameful that of all
places in the world, in Israel, Holocaust survivors
live in dire poverty and misery. 
  
The worsening economic conditions contribute, in turn,
to escalation of stress and violence. Thus one of
every five elderly Israelis is subject to abuse,
mainly by spouses or children.  Additionally, the
Israeli police recorded a 36 percent increase in
violence among minors in 2004, a 24% increase in
violence among them the first months of 2006, and a
55% increase of violence against children these past
10 years. 
  
A direct cost of Occupation and a threat to Israel's
welfare is post-traumatic stress, which can result in
addiction to drugs and alcohol, and can also
contribute to violence. 
  
A rehabilitation center that opened in 2001 with
capacity for 25-30 addicts, soon discovered that most
of the problems resulted from experiences the addicts
had had while in the military.  The center, Kfar Izun,
then publicized itself, and was shocked to receive 900
requests for help in a single week. 
  
A counselor at a rehabilitation center terms the
malady  “a ticking bomb,” Help, he relates, is
unavailable for many soldiers who have gone “into
terrible distress of drugs, beatings, violence,
impatience, ... soldiers who clashed with a civilian
population, and when they were discharged understood
that they had been wrong.”  Hundreds, he reveals, “are
roaming about with the feeling that there is no point
to living, and the path to suicide and drugs is very
easy. We are afraid that former soldiers will commit
criminal acts as a result of their distress.” 
  
One young woman, having succumbed to drugs after her
discharge, blames the drug phenomenon on the “sick
Israeli society”- a “society of war.” The soldier who
killed “a man or a child” or “entered the home of an
Arab family at night, beat a child, a mother and took
the father into detention” upon release takes drugs
“to try to forget the pictures that are with him all
the time since then.” She said that drugs are “an
_expression of the strong desire of young Israelis to
escape from the insanity that has been forced on
them.” 
  
Yehuda Shaul, a former conscript, caps it all: “It's a
situation that screws up everyone. ... People start
out at different points and end up at different
points, but everyone goes through this process. No one
returns from the territories without it leaving a deep
imprint, messing up his head.” 
  
I apologize for the length of this letter, but hope
that the above data will help PCUSA realize that every
non-violent endeavor to end Israel’s Occupation would
be a humane act to Israelis as well as to
Palestinians. 
  
Below [Dorothy's personal note] is New Profile’s
policy statement on Selective Divestment. 
  
Sincerely, 
Dorothy Naor, 
for New Profile 
  
Dorothy’s personal note:   

I would very much appreciate your forwarding as widely
as possible New Profile's recent letter to the
Presbyterian Church USA, which will decide in June
whether to adopt divestment or not.  The letter
endeavors to furnish the PCUSA with arguments to
counter accusations of anti-Semitism.  The New Profile
policy statement on divestment that follows ... was
drafted in February 2005 and at that time was sent to
PCUSA to encourage its initiative to divest from
companies that contribute to Israel's occupation of
Palestinians and their lands.  True, the letter and
policy statement refer merely to selective divestment,
whereas much more is needed. But both the letter and
the policy statement were drafted with an eye to
encouraging existing initiatives in selective
divestment.  Let's get those going, then work for
stronger sanctions (which I personally support).
Thanks, Dorothy 
PS ... for those of you unfamiliar with New Profile, I
strongly recommend that you scan our website
www.newprofile.org  

Here is the New Profile Policy statement on Divestment

  
“We, a group of feminist women and men, are convinced
that we need not live in a soldiers’ state.  Today,
Israel is capable of a determined peace politics.  It
need not be a militarized society.  We are convinced
that we ourselves, our children, our partners, need
not go on being endlessly mobilized, need not go on
living as warriors.  We understand that the state of
war in Israel is maintained by decisions made by
politicians-not by external forces to which we are
passively subject.  While taught to believe that the
country is faced by threats beyond its control, we now
realize that the words “national security” have often
masked calculated decisions to choose military action
for the achievement of political goals.” 
  
[The opening paragraph of the New Profile Charter,
www.newprofile.org] 
  
New Profile aims to transform Israel from a highly
militaristic society to a civilian society dedicated
to equality of gender and ethnicity and firmly based
on universal  human rights. 
  
One of several characteristics of militarism is the
use of force to obtain political objectives.  New
Profile deems Israel’s Occupation of the Palestinians
to be a use of force to obtain the political objective
of creating the ‘greater Israel.’ 
  
New Profile opposes the Occupation on three counts: 
1.      Its destruction of Palestinian life, society,
land, and property. 
2.      Its role in maintaining militarism in Israel. 
3.      Its erosion of Israel’s socio-economic and
moral fabric 
  
We therefore seek non-violent means of ending this
catastrophic Occupation. One such means is using
economic sanctions to pressure the government to
change its policy.  To this end New Profile welcomes
and supports selective divestment aimed at divesting
from companies that contribute to the continuation of
the Occupation by supplying arms, other equipment, or
staff. 
  
We welcome all such endeavors, believing firmly that
ending the Occupation is not only to the benefit of
the Palestinians but also necessary for the welfare of
Israel, its youth, and future generations.  Over
22,000 Israeli soldiers have died in its wars since
1948.  Enough. It is time to beat our swords into
ploughshares, to bring security to Israel by giving
the Palestinians their freedom and recognizing their
absolute right to exist, and to build a future for
today’s Israeli youth and generations to come by
creating a civilian society whose underpinnings are
equality of gender and ethnicity and universal  human
rights.

_____________________________________


      I will simply mail a personal endorsement of the
letter from Dorothy to the address she provided, with
perhaps a few words identifying myself and a few
comments.

Sincerely, and with best wishes,

George 


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