A letter to the Methodist Church about a boycott of Israel

[Mark Mentzer]

I was raised Jewish. Now, most of you know that I don't practice any form of religion so I consider myself open-minded on the subject.

I'm not saying I support a boycott of Israel but I'm not saying I don't. Indeed I hadn't heard about this boycott until this letter was brought to my attention. Personally, however, I find Israel to be a very right wing war-mongering state.

I received the letter below from a fellow progressive Jew. Her brother, who is also progressive except when it comes to Israel sent it to her.

I find this letter to be full of holes and rather racist in it's language about Arabs and Palestinians in general.

These are my feelings on the subject and my answer to my friend (the body of the letter follows):

"This is racism plain and simple. He starts off by saying Jesus was a Jew and was born in Israel. True, but let's face it Jesus was not white as the European Renaissance painters would have you believe, he was olive skinned as are Arabs. Modern Israel post 1948 is white not olive skinned as Israel had been for over 3000 years. Moses was not Charlton Heston, he was not white nor were the slaves of Egypt white as Cecille B. DeMille would have you believe. Yeah, 3000 years of olive skinned population has been taken over by white people. To me that's apartheid, same as the Natives of the USA were victims of apartheid. Like everyone else I think the killing of 6,000,000 Jews by Nazi Germany was an atrocity but two wrongs don't make a right and for the Europeans to take over the land occupied by Palestinians for thousands of years is wrong.

All the technology and inventions he talks about are true but these are being made by former European white skinned Caucasians who came to be Jews sometime in the 9th or 10th century. Jews such as Jesus were olive skinned Caucasians like the Arabs and Palestinians. It makes sense that this would be the answer since Jews came from the Middle East they were of Olive skin i.e. Semitic. Jews became white Caucasians in the 9th or 10th century according to my research when the Ashkenazim (dark skinned Jews and in my opinion the true Jews) moved to Europe and mixed with Europeans. But for the 2 millennium before that this was not the case. 

I don't understand calling anti-Jewish racism by Arabs anti-semitic when, in fact, semitic Caucasians are olive-skinned.

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Semitic definition:

Of or pertaining to Shem or his descendants; belonging to that division of the Caucasian race which includes the Arabs, Jews, and related races. [Written also Shemitic.]

Semitic language, a name used to designate a group of Asiatic and African languages, some living and some dead, namely: Hebrew and Phœnician, Aramaic, Assyrian, Arabic, Ethiopic (Geez and Ampharic).  Encyc. Brit.  

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I'm not sure how Palestinians became Muslims when throughout most of history they were most likely Jews but this is the most sensible answer that I've found to that question:

"By the end of WWII, Britain was the colonial power over Palestine, which was a no-man's-land of nomadic tribes, small towns and cities with long histories like Jerusalem. This area had been under the Ottoman Empire and arab rule for many hundreds of years. 

The entire Western world was feeling guilty over the Holocaust and the fact that all Western countries had refused to admit Jewish refugees seeking asylum from Hitler's 'Final Solution' of annihilation of European Jews. The thinking was that if the Jews had had a 'homeland' or a place where Jews had to be admitted no matter what, the Holocaust wouldn't have been as far-reaching as more people could have escaped.

So, a bunch of Jewish people were asked where they'd like to settle, and they picked Palestine because there were some historical associations for Jews of Semetic origin (the Jews in question were not Semetic, they were natives of Europe who were of the Jewish faith, but many of the non-Semetic Jews wanted a homeland established in Palestine). Many religious Jews were opposed to this, as they said that Jerusalem and Israel were holy places to be reestablished only by God and not by decree of the UN.

Those objections were ignored and Israel was created by UN decree. The Jews moving there to establish the new country interpreted this decree to mean that they did not have to work with the existing tribes and peoples living there; they routed them out of their homes and workplaces and sent them to refugee camps to create an entirely artificial, new Western-style 'democracy' except that citizens had to prove their Jewish connections to be a part of it.

Since that time, relations between the new country and its neighbors have grown steadily worse, as no assimilation of the original populace has taken place and Israel has focused outside itself by concentrating on obtaining funds and benefits from worldwide Jews (who did not flock to populate the new country as had been predicted) and is now a dependency of the United States. Israel receives $4 billion per year and up to $43 billion in loan guarantees a year in aid from the US, which makes it the largest receiver of funds in the world.

The areas where Israel could work with its neighbors to foster peace in the middle east are:

1. Water conservation techniques. Israel has spent billions of US funds on learning how to convert desert to arable land. Many arab nations probably would like to learn that.
2. Development. Israel has learned lots of good building and architecture techniques suited to its area. This would also be helpful to its neighbors.
3. Environmental considerations. Israel probably knows more about environmental issues in its area than any of the other countries. This, too could be shared.

Finding ways to assimilate the Palestinians and provide useful services to its neighbors as export strategies could make Israel a shining jewel in the middle east. Let's all hope that a government with these goals comes into power soon there."

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Arabs over the course of 3000 years have naturally come to occupy the land and that history was taken away from them in 1948. These things are not at all mentioned in the letter below and they have the nerve to claim that Arabs are nothing but war mongering individuals. Let's not forget that Persia (now Iraq and Iran) was once known as "The Cradle of Civilization" 

IMHO THIS IS RACISM AND APARTHEID PLAIN AND SIMPLE.....".

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Here's the letter, read it and let's discuss YOUR feelings on the subject:

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To: The General Secretary of the Methodist Church and Connexial Team

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Dear Sir,

In your annual conference you have passed a policy calling for a boycott of goods from “illegal” Israeli West Bank settlements”.  You claim this is not anti-Semitic. But how else do you explain this strange obsession with Israel? What about the Chinese occupation of Tibet, or the Sudanese slaughter in Darfur, persecution in Zimbabwe and elsewhere?

Politically, one could probably compile a case for a boycott against just about every country on the planet, but the only country in the world being subjected to a call for a boycott is Israel.

The so-called West Bank has been Jewish for more than 3000 years. A large part was known as Judea. Jesus, a Jew, was born there. Who do you imagine lived in Judea, if not the Jews? Who lived in Hebron but the Hebrews? The name Bethlehem is Hebrew. Only the Jews, of all the people in the world, living in their own land, are besmirched by being called illegal settlers.

Israel is monstrously depicted as Apartheid, notwithstanding the fact that one fifth of her population is Israeli Arab with full rights. The Palestinians claim the West Bank as theirs and require the land to be Juden Frei.

And just who are the “Palestinians”? Palestine has never existed as an autonomous entity. There is no language known as Palestinian. There is no distinct Palestinian culture. There has never been a land known as Palestine governed by Palestinians. There has never been a King of Palestine. Palestinians are Arabs, indistinguishable from Jordanians, Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, etc. The "Palestinian" leader Yasser Arafat was an Egyptian. They have no claim on the West Bank. Israel is not wrongfully "occupying" or “settling” anything.

Israel is currently the subject of a demonisation and misinformation campaign put out by Arab sources and propelled with a strong anti-Semitic undercurrent. The Arab world is  spewing out anti-Semitism unequalled since the Hitler era. It is so pervasive, many Jews are being infected.  Israel is portrayed as the most evil state on the planet.  

Why are you so obsessed with Israel, yet say nothing about the persecution of Christians? According to Justus Reid Weiner, an international human rights lawyer, the dwindling Christian communities in Palestinian-run territories are likely to dissipate completely within the next 15 years as a result of increasing Palestinian maltreatment: "The systematic persecution of Christian Arabs living in Palestinian areas is being met with nearly total silence by the international community, human rights activists, and the media".

Your boycott of Israeli “settlements” is, of course, the prelude to a boycott of all Israel. I trust you are preparing a complete boycott of everything coming out of Israel.

Check all your medications. An Israeli company has developed a simple blood test that distinguishes between mild and more severe cases of Multiple Sclerosis.  So, if you know anyone suffering from MS, tell them to ignore the Israeli patent that may, more accurately, diagnose their symptoms.

An Israeli-made device helps restore the use of paralysed hands. This device electrically stimulates the hand muscles, providing hope to millions of stroke sufferers and victims of spinal injuries. If you wish to remove this hope of a better quality of life to these people, go ahead and boycott Israel .

Young children with breathing problems will soon be sleeping more soundly, thanks to a new Israeli device called the Child Hood.  This innovation replaces the inhalation mask with an improved drug delivery system that provides relief for child and parent. Please tell anxious mothers that they shouldn't use this device because of your passionate cause.

These are just a few examples of how people have benefited medically from Israeli research and developments.

Boycotts often affect research.  A new research centre in Israel hopes to throw light on brain disorders such as depression and Alzheimer's disease.

The Joseph Sangol  Neuroscience Center in the Sheba Medical Center at Tel HaShomer Hospital , aims to bring thousands of scientists and doctors to focus on brain research.

A  researcher at Israel 's Ben Gurion University has succeeded in creating human monoclonal antibodies which can neutralize the highly contagious smallpox virus without inducing the dangerous side effects of the  existing vaccine.

Two Israelis received the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. Doctors Ciechanover and Hershko's research and discovery of one of the human cells most important cyclical processes will lead the way to DNA repair, control of newly produced proteins, and immune defense systems.

The Movement Disorder Surgery program at Israel's Hadassah Medical Centre has successfully eliminated the physical manifestations of Parkinson's disease in a select group of patients with a deep brain stimulation technique.

For women who undergo hysterectomies each year for the treatment of uterine fibroids, the development in Israel of the Ex Ablate 2000 System is a welcome breakthrough, offering a non-invasive alternative to surgery.

Israel is developing a nose drop that will provide a five year flu vaccine.

These are just a few of the projects that you can help stop with your Israel boycott.

Most of Windows operating systems were developed by Microsoft-Israel.  So, throw away your computer. Computers should have a sign attached saying Israel Inside. The Pentium NMX Chip technology was designed at Intel in Israel. Both the Pentium 4 microprocessor and the Centrum processor were entirely designed, developed, and produced in Israel.

Voice mail technology was developed in Israel. The technology for the AOL Instant Messenger ICQ was developed in 1996 in Israel by four young Israeli whiz kids.

Both Microsoft and Cisco built their only R. & D. facilities outside the US in Israel.

Get rid of your mobile phone. This technology was also developed in Israel by Motorola which has its biggest development centre in Israel.  Most of the latest technology in your mobile phone was developed by Israeli scientists.

Part of your personal security rests with Israeli inventiveness, borne out of our urgent necessity to protect and defend our lives from the terrorists you support.

A phone can remotely activate a bomb, or be used for tactical communications by terrorists, bank robbers, or hostage-takers. It is vital that official security and police have access to cellular jamming and detection solutions. Israel's Net line Communications Technologies has the security expertise to help the fight against terror.

Israel has the highest concentration of hi-tech companies outside of Silicon Valley. Israel has more museums per capita. Israel has the second highest publication of new books per capita.

Relative to population, Israel is the largest immigrant absorbing nation on earth.  These immigrants come in search of democracy, religious freedom or expression, economic opportunity, and quality of life.  Israel is the only country in the world which had a net gain in the number of trees last year.  Israel is making a massive contribution to the world, including the Palestinians - and to you - in science, medicine, communications and security.

Pro rata for population, Israel is making a greater contribution than any other nation on earth.

And what is the Arab world doing? Buying rockets and missiles and threatening to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.  The call by your church to boycott Israel, which is the intention, reeks of the stench of anti-Semitism.

You should all hang your heads in shame.

Yours faithfully,

There was no name under the salutation.

[Madhatterat60]

Remember, you're dealing with "christains" who believe that the 2nd coming is JUST around the corner. I'm not sure that most Methodists are also Armageddonists, but you can bet they sympathize.

[Mark Mentzer]

Yeah, and like the person who wrote the letter they probably believe that Jesus was Blonde with Blue Eyes...

[Mark Mentzer]

Wow, Pacis.

Thank you so very much for your insight on this matter. My gut always told me something wasn't right and I did find some information in my investigation but you have shed some much needed light on this subject.

As a man of no religion I made the mistake of marrying a religious Jewish woman. I tried to raise the kids with no religion but lost out on that idea unfortunately. So, I ended up going to synagogue every once in a while with her and the kids early on in the marriage before I got sick of the whole thing shortly before the divorce LOL but, I always had these views about Israel because it's plain to see that they are a right-wing state and I've always been a left wing person. So, one day I innocently discussed my views with some of the congregants and even the Rabbi. My views were met with much disdain and I learned to keep my mouth shut about this subject.

But I never strayed from realizing that Israel was practicing apartheid. I mean it only makes sense that people native to the middle east would not be white but more brown or olive skinned. So, knowing what happened in 1948 I came to my own conclusions. But, I thank you, once again, for your insight. I learned a lot.