Jewish scholar urges Jews to speak out against atrocities in Gaza

According to www.thestar.com, delivering a speech on the ‘Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - Proposal from a Secular Jewish Academic’ at Universiti Malaya on Monday, Slezak said, 'We have to be more subtle about blaming Jews as a whole for the Israeli government’s actions. But the difficulty is that Jewish communities around the world are uncritical supporters of Israel, and to that extent, they do share some of the blame.

The web site adds, “The professor of philosophy at the University of New South Wales is among a handful of Jewish scholars strongly advocating for an end to the occupation of Palestine” by the Zionist regime.

Saying that he agreed that not all Jews are supportive of Israel, and urging them to actively speak out against the atrocities in Gaza, he added, “Unfortunately, Israel is acting in the name of all Jews. Therefore, they have the responsibility to say that it’s not in my name. And that I, as a Jew, do not accept that Israel is committing its crime and stealing Palestinian land for us'.

He urged the Jewish communities to stand up and speak up, and do what they supposed to in order to stop the occupation.

According to the website, he said that Jews who are critical of Israel - like him - are treated with hostility by the Jewish community and are often labeled as being 'self-hating.'

'On one hand, the Jews will look away and be silent when Israel does terrible things to the Palestinians, and on the other hand they vilify Jews who speak out,' he said.

Saying that it was wrong to suggest that all Muslims disliked Jews and vice versa, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “was not a religious problem, but a political one”, he added that the cause of the conflict is “not Islam and it’s not the Palestinians, these are political problems we have to understand. Our job is to help clarify the real source of the problem and not to be manipulated by the propaganda.”

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