1.11.2009

People of the Book – The Jews You May Not Know About

Growing up in suburban New York, I made lots of Jewish friends. I enjoyed eating matzos with cream cheese at my Jewish piano teacher's home and I once enjoyed a Passover seder at the home of a South American Jewish friend when I was in college. Even after becoming a Muslim, I got on well with Jewish colleagues while working for the US's largest public housing agency. In fact one of my colleagues used always say we, as Muslim and Jew, were cousins. We often found similarities in our worship of God. When I lived in Spanish Harlem, I used to see a sister in the Laundromat often and we became friends. Like me she covered her hair and wore long skirts. Like me she was married to a man with a beard. Like me, she had small children and hoped to find a better life for them than what we lived at that time and place, me a Muslim and she a Jew.

Now living in Malaysia, I have no contact with Jewish people except for those I've seen on the internet and on TV since the rise in violence in Gaza these past few weeks. This past week I have wondered about that sister I use to chat with in the Laundromat. I wonder if she ever migrated to Israel as she once mentioned. I wonder how many of the Jewish people I came to think of as my distant cousins are aware of the real history and the ugly truths of current day Palestine.

I know them to be good God fearing people who would be outraged if they only knew. But I imagined that they are rare.

I am happy to say that I have been enlightened today. In the wee hours of this morning I have come across the names of numerous Israeli human rights groups. I have seen the testimony of Jews who are aware of the atrocities of the Zionist regime and deeply regret that they dare to represent all of jewry.

I've chosen to share one of the groups with you.

According to their website: B'TSELEM - The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories was established in 1989 by a group of prominent academics, attorneys, journalists, and Knesset members. It endeavors to document and educate the Israeli public and policymakers about human rights violations in the Occupied Territories, combat the phenomenon of denial prevalent among the Israeli public, and help create a human rights culture in Israel.

I'm so pleased to find that they exist and surprised that the Zionists have not rooted them out. In fact, look what I found at their website?


B'Tselem invites you to see video footage of Israeli human rights violations.

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