Discussion on Racism and Violence in Israel

By now, many have already watched the shocking BBC interview

in which Yehuda Shimoni, a settler,

a lawyer whose work is to represent Israelis accused of violence against Palestinians.

In that interview, he said that one Jewish life should

be equated with a million Palestinian lives.

Let's watch the clip.

I think now, after they killed one Israeli people,

we need to kill all the people in Tel and Sara,

even Jit and Farata.

Why? Because we don't want it to happen again.

It sounds like you're saying one Jewish life is

worth hundreds or thousands of Palestinian lives. Not

million. One Jewish life,

it's 10 million.

Okay. That just sounds racist.

Yes, I know. I know.

But this is the truth. Because God chose us.

Because of this, you are jealous.

Friends, it's difficult to find adequate words to respond to such blatant racism.

But this is actually beyond racism.

Because this is the ideology that makes genocide possible.

What is especially important is that he does not even attempt

to justify this as a matter of security or self-defense.

But he grounds this belief in his theology of election.

We are chosen. For this to come from a religious person is actually

shocking. Because this is not only against basic human morality,

he even violates the Torah's own principle of proportional justice, an eye for an eye.

Now, given what has happened in Gaza,

given the settler violence that's now in the West Bank,

given the settler movement is now at the heart of the Israeli government,

and given the impunity it continues to enjoy from the likes of the Palestinians, the United States,

Europe, and many Christian Zionists, including

Ambassador Mike Huckabee, such

rhetoric should alarm everyone.

It's actually terrifying.

Because these are not French ideas.

They are increasingly normalized within structures of power.

Again, this is what we saw in Gaza.

We saw the results.

And this is what we continue to see in the West Bank and Jerusalem,

where, by the way, there was yet another attack on a church in Jerusalem.

Our response cannot stop at expressions of concern.

We must continue to insist on the biblical truth shared by many Jews and Muslims, by

the way, that every human being is created in the image of God.

Every human life is equal in dignity and worth,

including the life of that settler.

This is not only our faith.

This is the only foundation upon which a just and lasting peace can ever be built.

Without this belief, we cannot even hope for the future.

There can be no peace while theologies of supremacy remain unchallenged.

The Israeli government must be held accountable for promoting and empowering this religious extremism.

And those governments, churches, and institutions that continue to normalize relations with a state

advancing such ideologies are complicit and are allowing these ideologies to grow

with devastating consequences on the lives of Palestinians.