Letter to the editor

Editor,

A pro-Palestinian solidarity event took a sharp turn to show the ugly face of intolerance and racism at an event on Feb. 3. The event was organized by those who started the petition to boycott all Israeli products from the Davis Food Co-op.

Following a screening of a movie criticizing Israeli policies in the West Bank, a discussion was initiated and quickly deteriorated into calling all Israelis Nazis. If that was not enough, members of the crowd pointed specifically at the three Israelis in the room and referred to them as Nazis.

I am a new resident of Davis. When I arrived here I witnessed and appreciated an open, liberal community. All religions are represented and respected, sexual orientation is personal business and environmental issues are at the heart of public opinion. I saw the people of Davis as citizens with higher causes at heart. The above-mentioned event reminded me that no place is immune to ignorance, prejudice and hatred, and that we should never stop telling the horrific story of the Holocaust.

Jan. 27 marked the International Holocaust Remembrance Day commemorating the six million Jews and millions of other nationalities who were brutally murdered in gas chambers and labor concentration camps. The vandalizing of Jewish cemeteries, broken tombstones and graffiti swastikas all shocked participants in memorial ceremonies on that day.

“This is a living reminder that anti-Semitism is not dead,” said Shlomo Mula, member of the Israeli Parliament.

The first amendment addresses side-by-side freedom of religion and freedom of speech. Those two freedoms go hand in hand. Calling for the annihilation of a people for being part of a religion denies them both.

URI FISHELSON

Israel Program Director

Hillel at Davis and Sacramento