Ayelet Gilboa is a colleague at the University of Haifa who directs the excavations at Tel Dor, where I was supposed to be part of the underwater archaeology that was supposed to take place October 9-26. She wrote the following open letter to colleagues, and with her permission I am including it here.
Friends and colleagues in Academia,
You may not like the attached but please try to read this through. It is the most difficult text I ever wrote. I write this as a 65 year old Israeli mother, grandmother and academic—a sworn leftist activist for my entire life, until three weeks ago.
Introduction
On October 8th, one of my sons was among those sent to ‘clean’ Kibbutz Kissufim after the Hamas attack. He told me that what he saw there is unutterable, and I did not the raise the subject again with him. Now I know – my compatriots and friends, including children, toddlers and babies – have been beaten to death, stabbed to death, chocked to death, their throats slithered, burnt alive, beheaded, dismembered, girls and women raped collectively, repeatedly, to death, to the point that their pelvis and legs broke and now cannot be closed, fetuses cut from their mothers’ bellies . Children were tortured and killed in front of their parents and parents tortured in front of their children. Can you imagine this? I will not burden you with ‘graphic’ videos –there are plenty on Telegram and such, mostly uploaded by Hamas, for those who have the stomach for them; I forced myself. Place your families in these films. 1300 confirmed dead, 200 (and rising) taken hostage and in Gaza, and 200 more still missing, mostly because families were burnt in their homes in such fierce ignited fires, that no DNA was left for identification (sounds archaeological). The youngest hostage (Kfir) is 9 months (40 children if not more; many without their parents that were killed), oldest 88. Proportionately, In US terms, these are 100,000 victims. Can you imagine being a girl or young woman in Hamas captivity?
This is the cusp of Hamas activities in Israel since Israel withdrew completely from the Gaza strip in 2005[1] (till now, we ‘only’ suffered thousands of rockets damaging property, killing civilians, mentally injuring the population, especially children, for life). They are also costing the lives of Israeli soldiers (my, our children), when Israel tried, unsuccessfully, to curtail Hamas, since it was always stopped by international outcries that we are not being ‘proportionate’ and by “Free Palestine” demonstrations that were and are flooding European and American cities and campuses. What, BTW, does proportionate mean? Send our special troops to burn the same number of babies etc. (see the attached Game of numbers)?
So I would ask you as scholars, teachers and educators to apply to the Israel-Gaza war some critical thinking (I hope this is still a major goal in Western and other Academia). Perhaps think of the subjects as a paper you are reviewing. Ask your students, colleagues, and others that are protesting passionately against Israel and against Israel’s very existence, and threatening Jewish students in campuses to follow and comment on the follow line of thinking.
1. If Israel does not control Gaza – how, the *** can Gaza be free of Israel?
2. Does Hamas – the organization that does control Gaza – believe they fight for the liberation of Palestine? Somewhat more complicated – some actual reading in needed here beyond Wikipedia, but the answer is NO. Hamas is a religious, fundamentalist, Jihadist movement. Its immediate goal is to annihilate Israel. Its ultimate goal, like other jihadist groups, is to establish Sharia law globally, especially in Europe. It does not care a tiny bit about Palestinian rights or for that matter women rights, or LGBT, some of whom are actually being executed,[2] while its leaders are safe under the Al-Shifa central hospital in Gaza, or better – in five star hotels in Qatar).[3] With all the worlds’ money pouring in , Gaza could have been a wonderful peaceful place if Hamas hadn’t taken over. Like its more powerful (in two orders of magnitude) sibling on our northern border– Hezbollah – Hamas takes its orders directly from Iran (as do the Houthies in Yemen who also fired a missiles at Israel a few days ago – perhaps you missed this).
You may also have noticed, BTW, that on October 7th, Hamas did not only target Jews – they killed (and kidnapped) Thai workers in the fields, Israeli Arabs, including Bedouins—not only by rockets, but slaughtered them face to face. They killed dogs and cats (I did not check their religious denominations). Upgraded Jihad.
3. Can Hamas be separated from ‘simple peace loving Palestinians’? Even more difficult, much more difficult to construct a database and no unequivocal answer here. Some of the Palestinian in Gaza definitely are, and are too afraid to speak up against Hamas. Thousand have been leaving Gaza by boats for years – listen to what they have to say. Most, however, especially the younger generations who grew up for the last two decades in the Hamas educational system and were taught that their aim in life is to kill Israelis (look them up on the web), cannot. Surely, they too are some sort of victims and if educated in Norway (or Israel) they would grow up differently, but sadly this is not the case. And if you look closely at the October 7th video clips you will see that about half of those who invaded Israel are ‘civilians; some of them even took their own ‘private’ hostages, especially those that could be easily taken – elderly and children. (This, BTW, makes the hostage situation even more complicated.) Many of these ‘civilians’ worked in Israeli homes, targeting them specifically, including many peace activists who for years took Palestinians in need to hospitals in Israel (remember – left-winged kibbutz members)
4. Following 3: Hamas is not in Gaza only. In the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, official rule is by the Palestinian Authority, but polls show that 80% support Hamas. I believe they will soon take over. And here dies the two state solution of which I was a passionate advocate till October 7th. We cannot afford a free Jihadist entity on this front too – see what happened when we withdrew from Gaza.
Future prospects (and what can we/you do)?
This is the most depressing part and there are no facts here, just (unprofessional) predictions and wishes.
1. In the short run – Israel, with or without the aid of the international community needs to do its best to wipe out the Hamas leadership and infrastructure. We just cannot live with this murderous body on our border (and ditto in the north), who will conduct horrific rampages whenever our defenses are down for a second. This will be terrible for both sides, especially for the Palestinians – but they can do something about it. They have been forewarned for nearly three weeks to move to the southern part of the strip – hundreds of thousands have, but most (I think) have not. Why? Because they have been convinced by their leader not to, some were blocked and some shot on their way south, and yes, it is very difficult to leave your home (currently in Israel 300,000 people are displaced from the north and south, 3% of the population). Have you, BTW, ever, ever heard, in the history of warfare, of a country who lets the civilian enemy population know when they are going to be attacked (say – allies in Dresden or Japan). Many Israeli soldiers will also be killed because of this and because underground Gaza that houses Hamas was built, mostly with European aid, especially under ‘civilian’ institutions (see the other attached video).
2. If you want to save Palestinian (and Israeli) lives – urge your governments to propose to evacuate to Europe, temporarily, patients from Gaza hospitals. (Can you guess what Hamas’s response will be?) And do not be misled by hypocritical outcries that there is no water in Gaza to bathe babies (someone said that in Kibbutz Nahal Oz no babies are left to bathe). Egypt or Europe can do that (but we still are).
3. In the long run – I really don’t know. Ask yourselves what you would have do. It is the first time I am not sure Israel will survive, especially if Hezbollah, Iran and who knows who else will join in. I am sure that if the snake’s head – Iran – is cut, this will change the world, but I, of course I have no idea if this is doable.
4. And to my European friends I sadly say – you are next. I know it is difficult for you to realize and /or accept this (though you can see the seedlings around you) but for now Israel is your shield. If Israel falls, they will prey on the next target.
5. What can you all do if you are convinced? This will demand courage. Try to make people open their eyes—especially those who are vehemently protesting in the campuses again Israel in a plethora of mind-blowing combinations of ignorance, hypocrisy, double-standards and simple good old anti-Semitism—to conduct some basic research (many of them are Palestinians themselves, so this will probably be of no avail).
For the really courageous – speak up, loud and clear, without any reservation or justification. Yes, the world is complicated, but in this case I urge you to stay on right side of history, on the right side of humanity.
[1] How many of you know how it came to be that the Gaza strip was under Israel’s control? Originally, it was Egyptian territory, conquered by Israel with Sinai in the 1967 war. When the Egypt-Israel peace agreement was signed in 1977, one of Egypt’s conditions was that we keep the Gaza strip and Menachem Begin succumbed. If you listen to the Egyptians now – you will hear the same threats: if, in any constellation, they will be pushed to be involved in Gaza – they will annul the peace treaty with Israel. Wise Egyptians. People tend to forget that Gaza also borders on Egypt. Egypt can supply them with anything the need, but they do not. They know who their neighbors are. Have you ever seen a pro-Palestinian demonstration against Egypt?
[2] This is sadly also happening in Israel on a smaller scope - various Arab youngsters, especially girls, being killed by their families.
[3] Did you know that when Hamas came to power in Gaza, they threw many of their adversaries – the former Fatah administrates, from rooftops. Some of them were shot in the knees beforehand, to make sure they do not survive the fall. Look it up!