Invest In Peace

Dear Sisters and Brothers:

I am the daughter and granddaughter of Holocaust survivors. I moved
to the United States from Poland with my mother and grandmother when
I was five years old. From early childhood I knew that most of our
family had been murdered by the Nazis, and that the ones who survived
endured unbelievable ordeals because they were Jews. For my family,
the experience of the Holocaust formed a single moral imperative: to
never dehumanize others. Prior to her death three years ago, my
mother grieved over the policies of the Israeli government, which she
saw as degrading and humiliating to the Palestinian people. She knew
that occupation breeds hatred in the occupied, and heartlessness in
the occupier. In my mother’s memory, I salute you for struggling over
the issue of Israel and Palestine, and urge you to vote for selective
divestment from companies that benefit from the occupation. The true
flourishing of both Israelis and Palestinians requires an alternative
to the brutal and self-defeating policy of occupation.

Yours most sincerely,

Maia Ettinger