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31 Jul, 2014

The ethical defence to Israel’s actions in Gaza – by Rabbi Gideon Sylvester

by Rabbi Gideon Sylvester

Earlier this month the Unite union passed a resolution denouncing Israel as an apartheid regime, supporting boycotts against it and accusing it of “feeling able to commit war crimes with complete impunity”. When Israel launched its latest operation in Gaza, the union issued a statement to “unreservedly condemn the continuing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people”.

This savaging of Israel by Britain’s largest trade union is deeply disturbing. It follows days of distressing images of the awful civilian casualties in the Gaza strip screened around the clock in the British media.

Israelis too are exposed to many of these images. Here too they cause great anguish and soul searching. At the heart of Jewish belief lies the idea that every human being is created in the divine image, every person is of infinite value and no innocent human being should suffer. The shofar blown on Rosh Hashanah echoes the sound of the weeping of a mother for her son Sisera, the mortal enemy of the Jewish people who was killed as he fled the battlefield.

Read the rest: The ethical defence to Israel’s actions in Gaza | The Jewish Chronicle.