Inappropriate behavior for Jews

The arrest (which has since been reduced to house arrest) of Iz a-Din Badran, the parliamentary aide of Balad MK Azmi Bishara, due to suspicions that he organized trips by Israeli Arabs to Syria without a permit, testifies to the hardheartedness of the Israeli security system, which does not distinguish between issues of a human-humanitarian nature and issues of security and politics.

Those Israeli citizens whom Badran is suspected of helping traveled to Syria in order to meet family members that they had not seen for 57 years. Most of these citizens are elderly people who became separated from their family members in 1948 in the wake of the expulsion or flight from Israel (depending on whom one asks). Since then, they and their relatives have not met, in spite of the fact that each of them knows where the other lives. These people suffer from daily trauma. A person who lives in Nazareth, for example, has great difficulty digesting the fact that in the 21st century he cannot see his brother or sister, who lives about a two-hour drive away. He lives in constant fear that he will die before he sees his loved ones. These are first- or second-degree relatives - brother and sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts - and even childhood friends. People on whom separation inflicted deep wounds that have not healed during all the intervening years. Many of them in fact died before receiving an opportunity to meet with their loved ones again. The others live in the hope that they will fulfill their dream one day.

And finally, after years of being buffeted between fears and hopes, they received the opportunity to meet their loved ones, thanks to MK Bishara. The meetings were very moving and provided them with moments that they will never forget.

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The encounters between Arab citizens and their relatives in Syria are no less moving. Only people without feelings could wish to prevent these meetings, or to punish those who help to make them possible. And for the Jews, who have had terribly harsh experiences of separation, it is simply inappropriate to cause a similar injustice to other peoples.

The Israeli government would do well to rethink the matter, and to give immediate permission for the meetings to be held. In effect, it should even thank MK Bishara and his aide. They are not only serving their people and helping to carry out a humanitarian mission of the utmost importance, they are also serving the state of Israel. Each person who dies before being allowed to see beloved members of his family will reinforce the hatred and alienation between the two peoples and will strengthen the war-mongerers on both sides. And in contrast, every encounter between families will arouse feelings of gratitude and appreciation on the part of the families on both sides of the border.



The writer is a commentator on Israeli affairs for Arab television stations and the newspaper Al-Sharq al-Awsat.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/662276.html

by the actions of the State of Israel. And I am equally frustrated by the tendency of American Jews to excuse Israeli abuses. Even some of the most liberal, most secular Jews who I have known maintain an amazing double standard when it comes to the oppression and religious bigotry perpetrated or sanctioned by the Isreali government.