Lessons from ghetto
Published: 1 October, 2010
• READING Claude Coopersmith’s letter (Ghetto talk provocative, September 24) I know how my father, a victim of anti-semitism, would have felt – shame. Shame that the suffering of his generation is exploited to victimise other people.
More than 30 years ago my father already observed that racism in Israel against the Palestinians was worse than his experience in 1937 in Nazi Germany. He was horrified that fellow Jews acted like those who robbed him of his childhood.
I learnt from my father to speak out against injustice, which is why I’m appalled with Mr Coopersmith not even stating that the hardships and blockade should be ended. Instead, he ignores the fact that they are deliberately caused by Israel. If he is concerned about lessons taught in Gaza schools – shouldn’t he worry about the lessons taught by the Israeli siege?
After escaping to London, my father experienced the Blitz. How mortified would he have been to see the Israeli Blitz of Gaza? The Warsaw Ghetto wasn’t blitzed, but should we ignore the similarities, especially the lessons from how it escalated? Though Mr Coopersmith is unlikely to be a casual observer, given his familiarity with the Israeli official line, I doubt he is as well informed as the letter writer he is responding to, Tom Gooding, who bought the Gaza painting Child Entrapped after it was exhibited at Islington town hall. I met Mr Gooding at Islington meetings and found him passionate about the suffering of Palestinian children.
Sharing Mr Gooding’s concerns is Reuven Moskovitz, who sailed with the Jewish Boat to Gaza, stating: “It is a sacred duty for me, as a [Holocaust] survivor, to protest against the persecution, the oppression and the imprisonment of so many people in Gaza, including more than 800,000 children.”
YAEL KAHN
Chair, Islington Friends of Yibna