A news brief in your Oct. 2 issue reported that when several Jewish families recently moved into a mostly Arab neighborhood of Jerusalem known as Shiloach, “Arab rioters threw rocks and firebombs at them.”
This deplorable and racist mob violence is reminiscent of the experience of African-Americans in the South (and sometimes elsewhere) in the 1950s and 1960s. That the Obama administration condemned the Jewish families is all the more shocking. The apartments were vacant and legally purchased. Not a single Arab was displaced or harmed in any way by the Jewish families moving in.
The only issue is that these Arab rioters do not want to have Jewish neighbors. They want to have an all-Arab neighborhood. How is it that different from American racists wanting to have an all-white neighborhood?
Whatever one’s position on borders or settlements or other issues, we should all be able to agree that throwing firebombs at your neighbor, simply because that neighbor is of a different religion or ethnic group, is outrageous and unacceptable. It’s time for everyone – from left to right— to speak out against such reactionary mob violence.
MOSHE PHILLIPS,
BENYAMIN KORN
Religious Zionists of America
