Elizabeth Rumelt: A third way to respond to the tragedy in Israel/Gaza

The recent article “Oct. 7 victims remembered” concerning the one-year anniversary of the Hamas attacks featured two opposing points of view. One is that of the Jewish Federation of Western Massachusetts, concerned mainly with the suffering inflicted on the Jewish population, directly in Israel by the terrorists and indirectly on the world’s Jewish population by the reawakening of generations of trauma.

The second was that of Jewish Voice for Peace, concerned mainly with what is seen as the essential wrong inflicted on the Palestinians by the establishment of the state of Israel and the many consequent wrongs, including those of the occupation of the West Bank and the unequal application of laws.

There is a third, very important point of view that was omitted. That is of those in the joint Israeli-Palestinian peace movement, whose adherents are working together in Israel toward the establishment of freedom, equality and safety for all in this land in which two peoples live and belong. In our community, this movement is represented by Friends of Standing Together, which holds a weekly vigil that welcomes all in downtown Northampton.

Gazette readers should know that it is not necessary to choose one or the other of two opposing sides when it comes to basic human values.

Elizabeth Rumelt

Northampton