Even in the annals of wretched Zionist propaganda that has served to justify the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their native lands, it is hard to find anything more disingenuous than the use of the term “Judenrein” to describe Palestinian goals, as does Steve Slivnick (Letters, 4/30). This is, of course, an effort to compare desperate and futile Palestinian resistance against brutal Israeli occupation, ethnic cleansing, and confinement to the Nazi genocide against Jews. As a Jew, I find this tactic truly disgusting.

Since at least the 1930s the Zionist project has openly and successfully endeavored to remove Palestinians to make room for Jews. Since 1967, Israelis have built illegal and Jew only settlements in occupied territories, as well as roads for Jews alone. It is Israel that has – consistent with Zionist ideology – promoted the separation of Jews from non-Jews, both within Israel and the occupied territories. Jimmy Carter, Nelson Mandela, and Desmond Tutu have all correctly labeled Israel’s policy one of apartheid. Mandela said that “we know all too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.” When the Palestinians are free to determine their own destiny on their own land, we as Jews and Americans will also be free of the sort of twisted thinking that – indeed similar to Nazi propaganda – sees victims as perpetrators and perpetrators as victims.

David Green

University Employee