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An Open Letter to an Israeli Settler
by Edna Yaghi
"Your past is not your
potential. In any hour you can choose to liberate the
future." –Marilyn Ferguson
I come in peace. In my hand I
hold an olive branch, above me flies the dove that symbolizes
the possibility of a brighter tomorrow for both you and me.
I am the daughter of the ancient
Canaanites. My forefathers have been living on this land you
now call yours for thousands of years. There was a time not so
long ago when my people and your people lived together and
shared the same dreams. Now your dreams have become my people’s
nightmares.
Your government encourages
settlers like you to come and live on my land, outside of
Israel proper. From the hilltops that belong to my people, you
take pride in shooting at my neighbors and me while we farm
our land. My small stone house is riddled with bullet holes.
At night my parents and I cannot sleep and my little brothers
and sisters wake up in the dead of night with bouts of screams
and their small bodies heavy with sweat. A few days ago, our
neighbor’s daughter was killed at home. She was my best
friend. While she was sleeping, some Israeli soldiers perched
on top of the hills where your settlement is, opened fire on
her house. A bullet hit her in her heart and struck her dead
instantly. Even in death she looked beautiful. I spent the
rest of that night crying for my friend Areej.
The Israeli government
encourages settlers like you to live on more and more of my
land and the land of my people. You are exempt from military
service, but receive military training in order to kill us
better. You are paid money to exploit us and to make sure we
live in constant fear. Your reprisals against our uprisings
are lethal, swift and without mercy. Inspite of this, the
other day my little brother bravely declared, "The
settlers can do what they want to our house. I’m not
leaving."
But my little brother deserves
more than a perforated house to live in and the fate of the
pogrom of him and his people.
As you sit on top of our
occupied hills looking down on us with contempt, I stare back
at you with a multitude of questions spiraling through my
mind. I mean you no harm. Surely you have a wife and children
of your own. I wonder where you came from and why you came
here now to take my father’s and my forefather’s land away
from my family and me. Would you like it if someone came and
took away your home and shot and killed your wife and
children? Surely a wrong committed against a Gentile is as
wrong as one committed against a Jewish settler. I should not
be punished for the suffering of your people that happened way
before I was born. I can’t understand why you hate me and my
people so.
Whatever you and your people may
have suffered generations ago is not my fault. I bear you no
malice. I just want to live in peace.
We believe in the same God. Our
God is the God of justice and He hates tyranny and oppression.
He would never condone your killing of my people and me so
that you can take our place on the land that is ours.
I urge you to put down your gun
and forsake your hate. Let us live in peace together and build
a better tomorrow for the children of the future. A future
where Jewish and Palestinian children will be able to play and
laugh together. A future where you guns will no longer shoot
down innocent civilians like my friend Areej.
You have sold your conscience.
Please do not sell your soul.
Source:
by courtesy & © 2001 Edna Yaghi
by the same author:
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Copyright
© 2001 Media Monitors Network. All rights reserved.
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in part without permission is prohibited.
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