4-12-2016 Sam Bryan

Well said Lee. Regarding “God gave the land to the Jews,” there’s a book published recently by the eminent Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann titled “Chosen?” that argues persuasively that the Biblical message is ambiguous regarding God choosing the Jews to occupy certain land. Parts of scripture say that the entitlement is conditional on the righteousness of the Israelites. It’s fine for the female Likud member to reference “The Book,”, but let’s look at the whole book. It has messages relating to the occupation that are decidedly unambiguous. Palestinian land is being occupied through stealing (settlements and separation wall) and through killing (incursive wars and extrajudicial executions). These actions are unambiguous contraventions of the Ten Commandments and, I will add, of the moral values of my Jewish friends.

4-13-2016 Miriam Thompson

Thank you for your detailed coverage in this morning's edition [http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/community/chapel-hill-news/article71421847.html ] of Monday's U.S. State Department International Visitors Leadership Program's sponsored tour of 4 Israeli Knesset members. The tour was coordinated by the Raleigh based International Focus. Our Town of Chapel Hill agreed to host. Your new article captured some of the key testimony at both the afternoon meeting between Council and Knesset members, and at the evening's regularly scheduled Council meeting. Although resident voices were raised initially in opposition to the invitation, the visit has offered an important opportunity for faith and human rights leaders to briefly testify and expose the $3.5 billion in U.S. military aid to Israel that supports (with our tax dollars) Israel's Occupation of Palestine; its illegal settlements built on expropriated Palestinian land and tens of thousands of Palestinian home demolitions; its night raids by police, detention and imprisonment of Palestinian children as young as 10 years of age; its overwhelming military might and devastating aerial bombardment and destruction of Gaza's infrastructure and civilian death toll that the UN warns may drive Gaza out of existence.

The documented evidence that faith and human rights leaders shared with Council and Knesset members, was provided by internationally recognized human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN's Human Rights Commission, Doctors Without Borders and Israeli's own beleaguered human rights organizations (see www.aimeproject.org) Yet the Knesset members' response - rather than engage in respectful dialogue and debate, was to attack the residents who testified, and flatly and angrily deny the violations committed against Palestinians in both the Occupied territory and within Israel. Shamefully, one of the Knesset members stood up and attacked the standing of a Palestinian American who rose to speak about the struggle of his family who still reside on the Occupied West Bank and whose home has been expropriated. As reported in your story, one Council member was so appalled at the Knesset member's outburst, she walked out of the meeting.

Of course, it is not only the Knesset members who deny the pain and dispossession caused by almost 50 years of their country's occupation of Palestine, and its threat to a just and secure peace for both Israelis and Palestinians in a land whose resources are equitably shared. We know how painful it is to face our own country's dark history against oppressed groups - long absent in our textbooks and classrooms. And let's also look at our own current NC State elected leadership and its appalling discriminatory legislation, and the 2016 political campaign rhetoric that continues to demonize and exclude the "other."

This weeks' event opened up a conversation that must continue. We are nationally known as a Human Rights City. We struggle to assure that all our residents are treated equitably. We are vigorous opponents of HB2 and all forms of discrimination. It is therefore incumbent on all our Town elected officials, staff, and residents to establish a strengthened democratic decision making process that would assure visitors to and residents of our Town honor the principles and standards we have established as a Human Rights City.