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To the editor:
The recent article by "City Workers for Palestine" (“Unions, city pension board failing workers’ moral call,” The Chief, Aug. 16) requires rebuttal. The authors are entitled to their own opinions but not their own facts. To cite Gazan deaths without recognizing what precipitated this war, namely Hamas' terror attack of Oct. 7 is to exhibit selective amnesia. Not a word about the murder, rape, sexual violence and hostage taking by Hamas and their Gazan cohorts. Israel vacated Gaza in 2005. No Israelis and no so-called occupation since. All Gazans did was to relinquish control to Hamas.
Israeli genocide? It is Israel that is allowing polio vaccines to be delivered daily to tens of thousands of Gazan children. In Israel proper, there are Arabs on Israel's Supreme Court. There are Muslim legislators in the Knesset. Palestinian Arabs vote in Israel's elections. The charge of genocide is laughable. The veil of antisemitism is lifted when the writers go beyond questioning Israel holding land, captured in a defensive war in 1967. They write of "occupied Palestine," suggesting Israel should be obliterated. Never mind that Jews have lived there for thousands of years, long before Islam even existed.
Yakov Moshe
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reenjoe
Mr. Moshe, the last line of your letter is very telling. Islam is a religion, Palestinian is a people. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about a "district of Syria, called Palaistinê" over 2,500 years ago. And 3,000-year-old Egyptian hieroglyphs mention an eastern enemy as P-r-s-t, that historians believe refer to Palestinians.
Lastly, how does "occupied Palestine" translate to "Israel should be obliterated"? Opposing the Netanyahu government and IDF actions isn't antisemitic. Thousands of Jewish protestors flooding the streets in Israel is proof of that.
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