Community response to Seattle Metro buses carrying ads critical of Israeli war crimes

The Seattle Times- Editor, The Times:

I was disappointed to see [president and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle] Richard Fruchter’s rejection of the exposure of the well-known and ongoing crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Israeli government against not only the Palestinian people but against its own citizens, such as Vanunu and including the murder of U.S. citizen Rachel Corrie [“Metro bus ad buy triggers backlash, debate,” page one, Dec. 21].

...Israeli war crimes deserve American public’s attention

We support the ads that will appear on a few city buses exposing how our tax dollars are enabling Israel to commit war crimes.

The adherents of the Israeli military occupation and its expansive policies in the West Bank and Gaza have been controlling the narrative in the U.S. media, in Congress and diplomatic circles far too long. The ads are a tiny effort to rouse our consciousness in defense of human rights and against war crimes being committed by Israel with our tax dollars!

If the adherents of Israeli policies can carry full page ads in The New York Times and in The Nation, then the tiny effort on behalf of those fighting for human rights is not to be denied.

— Barbara and J. Glenn Evans, Seattle

...Fighting for an oppressed people consistent with Jewish heritage, not anti-semitism

As a writer, educator and an individual of Jewish heritage for more than 75 years, I take exception to the actions of a handful of members of the Jewish community who have taken on themselves the right to censor that with which they disagree. Worse yet, they pretend to speak for the Jewish community. They do not speak for me.

Social justice, peace and compassion are all threads that run through the teachings of Judaism. Protesting military occupation; calling for the halt of taxpayers’ dollars to subsidize the continuing enslavement of a people; and insisting that real steps be taken toward peace in the Middle East are all actions consistent with the Jewish heritage that I know and live by.

Holding Israel and the United States to account does not make me or those like me anti-Semites.

— Lawrence Paros, Kirkland Read more