Dear Friends and Family, I wanted to offer the following possible addition (or some variation thereof) to your Passover seder if you are having one. Warmly, Donna
During this Passover Seder, we lift our glasses to a Jewish hero of our time, Justice Richard Goldstone, for issuing the Goldstone Report as part of the "United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict."
Honoring Justice Goldstone, an internationally respected jurist with a long-time relationship to Israel, is particularly meaningful at this time: Rather than seriously reflecting upon and addressing the content of this evidence-based report, which detailed human rights abuses and violations of international law committed by Israel as well as Hamas, the Israeli government and Jewish establishment engaged in a shameful campaign to silence and discredit Justice Goldstone and the Report.
As expressed in a statement initiated by Jews Say No! and signed by over a thousand individuals and groups world-wide: "When those within a community try to "excommunicate" and dishonor truth-tellers, it is our obligation and responsibility to speak out vehemently on their behalf and on behalf of the truth they bring." Therefore, in the spirit of Passover, the holiday of freedom from oppression, we commit ourselves tonight to insuring that the findings of the Goldstone Report are kept alive and to continuing our struggle for Palestinian-Israeli peace and for justice for the Palestinian people.
