Passover Madness: The End of Israel

The Seder asks us to remember oppression. What happens when Israel is the oppressor?

Dedicated to the memory of Hind Rajab, a five year old Palestinian girl murdered along with six of her family members in their car by Israel Defense Forces

Passover is a celebration of freedom for the Jewish people. At one time, so the story goes, Jews were slaves to Egyptians and were forced to leave Egypt for the promised land. Even though there is zero archeological evidence to indicate slavery at the hands of Egyptians or a mass exodus to the promised land, Passover remains an integral part of Jewish identity. Jews in the Passover narrative must struggle against Egyptians to survive and thrive.

Part of the Passover ceremony is devoted to asking four primary questions. These questions are designed to solicit reflection and connection to hardships, oppression and leaving Egypt. Each generation of Jews is alerted to what their ancestors suffered. The youngest person at the Seder is assigned to ask the question, “How does this night differ from all other nights?”

The real question for me this year is: What happens when Israel, a widely assumed national representation of Jewish people, becomes ancient Egypt on steroids—a genocidal, technological-driven state that is hell bent on killing and displacing Palestinians from their homeland land; on erasing Palestinian cultural identity; and trapping Palestinians in a death spiral, denying food, medicine, access to health care and housing.

My questions for the Seder are:

1. At what point does Israel become a nation that forfeits its right to be part of the international community? Isn’t killing over 75,000 Palestinians, 18,000 children, with tens of thousands buried under rubble, and destroying over 90 percent of Gaza’s infrastructure sufficient to indicate violations of humanity? Isn’t it enough to bomb and decimate almost all universities and 160 medical facilities, killing an estimated 350 health care workers in Gaza?

2. How does Israel relate to Egypt in the Jewish historical narrative? Israel is deploying advanced AI to identify, and kill tens of thousands of innocent people. This killing is not confined to Gaza, but includes Lebanon, and Iran. Israel is a rogue country, not bound by international laws or laws of humanity. It has, in fact, violated more UN laws than any nation that belongs to the United Nations by threefold. It drops cluster bombs, which are banned by UN and international law, which years later blow up in fields dismembering kids that are playing. No one is held accountable.

3. Why is Israel—and many complicit Jews and Rabbis—able to hide behind the Holocaust, and “Never Again” as it systematically murders Palestinian civilians, children, medical staff, and journalists of all nationalities? How is it acceptable for Israelis to poison water wells of Palestinian farmers, block their fishing rights for food, use the army to defend ‘Jewish settlers’ who kill and maim Palestinian farmers, destroy their crops and steal their land? No Israeli in Israel has been held accountable for murdering Palestinians, or Lebanese, even when they are caught in the act of murder on film and/or social media—not one. Not even the ones who have filmed themselves celebrating atrocities that they have committed moments ago.

4. Why did Israel just pass a law that legalized hanging of Palestinians for violations of a host of laws. Recall that Palestinians are tried in Israeli military courts, they have no civil rights. Conviction rates of Palestinians are over 98 percent. Israel, in other words, has just legitimized military hanging of Palestinian citizens at will. The new hanging law was celebrated on the eve of Passover by opening champagne bottles with glee.

While millions of Jews around the world are sitting comfortably around their dinner tables, retelling the story of overcoming slavery, they would do well to choose between complicity in genocide or a radical reform of the Passover narrative, as it applies specifically to Israel now.

Please call or email your representative and tell him or her, Passover demands that the U.S. hold Israel accountable for genocide, or crimes against humanity. Bring to justice those persons guilty of murder, including military personnel. No more American tax dollars should be spent to support a rogue nation of killers.

Call or email Israel embassies and leave a message telling them Never Again applies to Jews committing atrocities against Palestinians. Hold Israel accountable.

Israel’s ruthless madness must be stopped at all legitimate costs.

Please donate to the Hind Rajab Foundation mainly dedicated to the quest for justice in response to the crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights violations perpetrated by the Israeli state against Palestinians.