To donate by check, phone, or other method, see our More Ways to Give page.

×

Elie Wiesel's Wrong Move on Peace

Elie Wiesel, the noted Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust
survivor, has provoked a serious row with an open letter to President Barak
Obama published last month in The International Herald Tribune, The
Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His opinion was strongly
rebuked by Yossi Sarid, a former member of Knesset, and by a group of notable
Jewish leaders and academicians who live in Jerusalem.

"There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than
the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish
history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people
and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that
remains hard to explain, "said Mr. Wiesel in his letter.

Latter he added, "Today, for the first time in history,
Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And,
contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to
build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about
real state but about memory."

In an open letter published in Haaretz, Yosse
Sarid stated, "Someone has deceived you, my dear friend. Not only may an Arab
not build "anywhere," but he may thank his god if he is not evicted from his
home and thrown out onto the street with his family and property. Perhaps you
have heard about Arab residents in Sheikh Jarrah, having lived there since 1948,
who are again being uprooted and made refugees because certain Jews are chafing
from Jerusalem's
space constraints."

"Those same jealous Jews insist on inserting themselves
like so many bones in the throats of Arab neighborhoods, purifying and Judaizing
them with the help of rich American benefactors, several of whom you may know
personally. Behind the scenes our prime minister and Jerusalem's mayor are
pulling the strings of this puppet show while in public deflecting
responsibility for this lawlessness and greed. That is the real reason for the
'new and old tensions surfacing at a disturbing pace' of which you warn in your
letter."

"'Jerusalem is above politics' you write. It is
unfortunate that a man of your standing must confuse fundamental issues and
confound the reader. Is it not politics that deals with mankind's weightiest
issues, with matters of war and peace, life and death? And is life itself not
holier than historical rights, than national and personal memory - holier even
than Jerusalem?
The living always take precedence over the dead, as must the present and future
over the past."

Writing in The New York Review of Books, a group
of 100 prominent Israelis write,

"...Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is
replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an
attachment to some otherworldly city that purports to supersede the interest of
those who live in the this-worldly one. For every Jew, you say, a visit to
Jerusalem is a
homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes your homecoming possible. We
prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of
merely yearning for it."

..."We invite you to our city to view with your own eyes
the catastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction. You will witness that,
contrary to some media reports, Arabs are not allowed to build their homes
anywhere in Jerusalem. You will see the gross inequality in
allocation of municipal resources and services between east and west. We will
take you to Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families are being evicted from
their homes to make room for a new Jewish neighborhood, and to Silwan, where
dozens of houses face demolition because of the Jerusalem Municipality's refusal to issue building
permits to Palestinians."

"We, who live in Jerusalem, can no longer be sacrificed for the
fantasies of those who love our city from afar. The Jerusalem of this world
must be shared by the people of the two nations residing in it. Only a shared
city will live up to the prophet's vision: 'Zion shall be redeemed with justice.' As we
chant weekly in our vigils in Sheikh Jarrah: 'Nothing can be holy in an occupied
city!'"

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.

Elie Wiesel, the noted Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust
survivor, has provoked a serious row with an open letter to President Barak
Obama published last month in The International Herald Tribune, The
Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His opinion was strongly
rebuked by Yossi Sarid, a former member of Knesset, and by a group of notable
Jewish leaders and academicians who live in Jerusalem.

"There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than
the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish
history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people
and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that
remains hard to explain, "said Mr. Wiesel in his letter.

Latter he added, "Today, for the first time in history,
Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And,
contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to
build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about
real state but about memory."

In an open letter published in Haaretz, Yosse
Sarid stated, "Someone has deceived you, my dear friend. Not only may an Arab
not build "anywhere," but he may thank his god if he is not evicted from his
home and thrown out onto the street with his family and property. Perhaps you
have heard about Arab residents in Sheikh Jarrah, having lived there since 1948,
who are again being uprooted and made refugees because certain Jews are chafing
from Jerusalem's
space constraints."

"Those same jealous Jews insist on inserting themselves
like so many bones in the throats of Arab neighborhoods, purifying and Judaizing
them with the help of rich American benefactors, several of whom you may know
personally. Behind the scenes our prime minister and Jerusalem's mayor are
pulling the strings of this puppet show while in public deflecting
responsibility for this lawlessness and greed. That is the real reason for the
'new and old tensions surfacing at a disturbing pace' of which you warn in your
letter."

"'Jerusalem is above politics' you write. It is
unfortunate that a man of your standing must confuse fundamental issues and
confound the reader. Is it not politics that deals with mankind's weightiest
issues, with matters of war and peace, life and death? And is life itself not
holier than historical rights, than national and personal memory - holier even
than Jerusalem?
The living always take precedence over the dead, as must the present and future
over the past."

Writing in The New York Review of Books, a group
of 100 prominent Israelis write,

"...Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is
replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an
attachment to some otherworldly city that purports to supersede the interest of
those who live in the this-worldly one. For every Jew, you say, a visit to
Jerusalem is a
homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes your homecoming possible. We
prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of
merely yearning for it."

..."We invite you to our city to view with your own eyes
the catastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction. You will witness that,
contrary to some media reports, Arabs are not allowed to build their homes
anywhere in Jerusalem. You will see the gross inequality in
allocation of municipal resources and services between east and west. We will
take you to Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families are being evicted from
their homes to make room for a new Jewish neighborhood, and to Silwan, where
dozens of houses face demolition because of the Jerusalem Municipality's refusal to issue building
permits to Palestinians."

"We, who live in Jerusalem, can no longer be sacrificed for the
fantasies of those who love our city from afar. The Jerusalem of this world
must be shared by the people of the two nations residing in it. Only a shared
city will live up to the prophet's vision: 'Zion shall be redeemed with justice.' As we
chant weekly in our vigils in Sheikh Jarrah: 'Nothing can be holy in an occupied
city!'"

Elie Wiesel, the noted Nobel Peace Laureate and Holocaust
survivor, has provoked a serious row with an open letter to President Barak
Obama published last month in The International Herald Tribune, The
Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. His opinion was strongly
rebuked by Yossi Sarid, a former member of Knesset, and by a group of notable
Jewish leaders and academicians who live in Jerusalem.

"There is no more moving prayer in Jewish history than
the one expressing our yearning to return to Jerusalem. To many theologians, it IS Jewish
history, to many poets, a source of inspiration. It belongs to the Jewish people
and is much more than a city, it is what binds one Jew to another in a way that
remains hard to explain, "said Mr. Wiesel in his letter.

Latter he added, "Today, for the first time in history,
Jews, Christians and Muslims all may freely worship at their shrines. And,
contrary to certain media reports, Jews, Christians and Muslims ARE allowed to
build their homes anywhere in the city. The anguish over Jerusalem is not about
real state but about memory."

In an open letter published in Haaretz, Yosse
Sarid stated, "Someone has deceived you, my dear friend. Not only may an Arab
not build "anywhere," but he may thank his god if he is not evicted from his
home and thrown out onto the street with his family and property. Perhaps you
have heard about Arab residents in Sheikh Jarrah, having lived there since 1948,
who are again being uprooted and made refugees because certain Jews are chafing
from Jerusalem's
space constraints."

"Those same jealous Jews insist on inserting themselves
like so many bones in the throats of Arab neighborhoods, purifying and Judaizing
them with the help of rich American benefactors, several of whom you may know
personally. Behind the scenes our prime minister and Jerusalem's mayor are
pulling the strings of this puppet show while in public deflecting
responsibility for this lawlessness and greed. That is the real reason for the
'new and old tensions surfacing at a disturbing pace' of which you warn in your
letter."

"'Jerusalem is above politics' you write. It is
unfortunate that a man of your standing must confuse fundamental issues and
confound the reader. Is it not politics that deals with mankind's weightiest
issues, with matters of war and peace, life and death? And is life itself not
holier than historical rights, than national and personal memory - holier even
than Jerusalem?
The living always take precedence over the dead, as must the present and future
over the past."

Writing in The New York Review of Books, a group
of 100 prominent Israelis write,

"...Your letter troubles us, not simply because it is
replete with factual errors and false representations, but because it upholds an
attachment to some otherworldly city that purports to supersede the interest of
those who live in the this-worldly one. For every Jew, you say, a visit to
Jerusalem is a
homecoming, yet it is our commitment that makes your homecoming possible. We
prefer the hardship of realizing citizenship in this city to the convenience of
merely yearning for it."

..."We invite you to our city to view with your own eyes
the catastrophic effects of the frenzy of construction. You will witness that,
contrary to some media reports, Arabs are not allowed to build their homes
anywhere in Jerusalem. You will see the gross inequality in
allocation of municipal resources and services between east and west. We will
take you to Sheikh Jarrah, where Palestinian families are being evicted from
their homes to make room for a new Jewish neighborhood, and to Silwan, where
dozens of houses face demolition because of the Jerusalem Municipality's refusal to issue building
permits to Palestinians."

"We, who live in Jerusalem, can no longer be sacrificed for the
fantasies of those who love our city from afar. The Jerusalem of this world
must be shared by the people of the two nations residing in it. Only a shared
city will live up to the prophet's vision: 'Zion shall be redeemed with justice.' As we
chant weekly in our vigils in Sheikh Jarrah: 'Nothing can be holy in an occupied
city!'"