By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — The BDS’ers (Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions) are at it again.
Alice Walker, author of the The Color Purple is urging singer Alicia Keys to cancel a concert she has scheduled in Israel in July. Walker wrote, “It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists.” (Ha’aretz on-line, May 29, 2013)
I know I sound like a broken record, but why does Walker focus on Israel? Why doesn’t Walker condemn the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan? Why doesn’t she take a stand against the growing mistreatment of Christians in Egypt? Why doesn’t she condemn the Sunni versus Shi’ite violence in Iraq or Syria? Of all Middle East countries, only Israel has a clear, if imperfect, record of equal rights for women, religious minorities, gays, lesbians, etc.
Walker’s call for Keys to boycott Israel follows on the heels of renown physicist Stephen Hawking cancelling his participation in an academic conference hosted by Israel. As columnist David Suissa wrote, “The most dramatic expression of that [Jewish] outrage could be found in the many commentaries and Facebook posts suggesting that if Hawking is going to boycott Israel, then why not also boycott the Israeli computer chip that enables him to communicate despite his severely handicapped state?” (Jewish Journal.com, May 13, 2013)
Suissa goes on to tell the story of three-year-old Mohammed al-Farra, who was born in the Gaza strip without any arms or legs. Mohammed’s parents abandoned him and the Palestinian Authority refused to pay for his treatment. He and his grandfather now live in the pediatric wing of an Israeli hospital where Mohammed is learning how to use prosthetic limbs. Why doesn’t Hawking concern himself with care for the disabled as much he worries about the Gazans, who today receive tons of supplies through Egyptian, as well as Israeli, borders?
Israel is far from perfect, but it is criminal that those who criticize her also refuse to acknowledge all the good she accomplishes.
Before the Children of Israel cross over to conquer the Promised Land, God instructed Moses, “Send men to scout the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelite people; send one man from each of their ancestral tribes, each one a chieftain among them.” (Numbers 13:2)
Scouting the Promised Land Moses sent twelve scouts into the land. He instructed them: “Go up there into the Negev and on into the hill country, and see what kind of country it is. Are the people who dwell in it strong or weak, few or many? Is the country in which they dwell good or bad?” (Numbers 13:17-19)
Only two of the scouts, Joshua and Caleb, brought back a good report about the land. The other ten returned with a bad one. While they all agreed that Canaan was a beautiful fertile country, the majority of spies said that Israel could not succeed in conquest. Only Joshua and Caleb said they could.
In Sefer HaZchut, the Ramban wrote: “The land of Israel is good, even when you see bad in it. Sometimes the good seems to be hidden by the bad, but if you look closely and fairly you will see holiness.”
I would suggest to the ferocious supporters of BDS that they should consider the Ramban’s advice: Decry the bad, if they must, but acknowledge the good as well. In the end, if they succeed in their mission, they will find the world and their own lives the poorer for want of all that Israel contributes to the betterment of humankind.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com