Kudos to Ben & Jerry 8/11/2021

 

11, August 2021                       Kudos to Ben & Jerry

Kudos to Ben and  Jerry for banning the sale of their ice-cream in Israel’s occupied West Bank. This should bring world-wide attention to the appalling treatment of Palestinians in the occupied territories. It is a pity they did not go further and ban their ice-cream from the whole of Israel. We should not reward Israel’s apartheid system with dollops of their cool delicious ice-cream.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and like-minded critics use the common Israeli refrain that such actions are dubbed “anti-Semitic” and “anti-Israel.” I would suggest such critics study their own scriptures. George Orwell famously opined that “political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” The belief that Jews should not criticize Israeli policies is reminiscent of Americans chanting “My country, right or wrong!” during the Vietnam War.

Judaism  does not condone the inhumane treatment of non-Jews. Palestinians were killed in large numbers and  driven off their land in much the same way that Native Americans suffered genocide.   Israel’s leaders today defend an inhumane  policy of subjugation and oppression of Palestinians, of denial of democratic rights to self-determination and equality by wholesale delegitimization of critics and those who refuse to be complicit in their offenses to justice and human rights.Ben and Jerry should have gone much further and vigorously supported the BDS movement. Israel’s apartheid system parallels the apartheid system of  white South Africa. It is excessively cruel to promote a separate Palestinian state when Israel has illegally confiscated the available land with illegal settlements.