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Writing about Weiss

(In response to Hannah Wasserman’s Tuesday column, “Hamas-supporting rabbi does little to promote peace” and Shauna Tasa’s Tuesday letter, “Re-evaluating campus speakers.”)

“Wow!” is what I thought when reading Wasserman and Tasa’s comments regarding speeches given last week by Rabbi Dovid Weiss.

Then, I remember, what should I expect from students in a country whose politics is heavily influenced by AIPAC, America’s pro-Israel lobby?

Rabbi Weiss’s speech never once mentioned any words of destruction, hatred or terrorism, as apparently misunderstood by these students. On the contrary, the rabbi expressed that Jews, Muslims and Christians in Palestine have lived in harmony for hundreds of years.

It is only with the creation of the Zionist state of Israel that destruction, hatred and terrorism came about — a state that calls for “peaceful” dialogues when it is committing atrocities against Palestinians, with daily killings of innocent people, construction of illegal settlements, occupation, illegal use of military weapons on civilians, with countless violations of U.N. regulations.

Rabbi Weiss never denied the Holocaust. In fact, many of his family members were killed by it. If peaceful talk by the rabbi doesn’t represent Judaism, I hope Israel doesn’t represent it.

And as again heard incorrectly, the rabbi doesn’t support any terrorist organizations, only a peaceful dismantlement of the state of Israel. Why is it that the one time an anti-Israeli speaker who talks of peace, justice and who dares to tell the truth about Israel is brought to campus, uproar erupts and calls for re-evaluation of speakers come out?

If anything should be re-evaluated, it is the crimes Israel has been able to get away with for 61 years.

Hanin Bearat

Graduate student


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