Contemporary Forms of Oppression
The Palestinian people
One of the most radical messages of the torah is that cruelty is not destiny. Though we tend to treat others the way we way we ourselves were treated the message of the Torah is that the chain of pain can be broken - that we do not have to pass on to others what was done to us. Again and again, the torah commands the Israelites to remember that they were foreigners in Egypt, and to treat foreigners with kindness and empathy. It would be especially tempting to the Israelites to mistreat Egyptians, given their painful history. But the Torah explicitly commands that the memory of slavery in Egypt is to prompt the Israelites to resist the temptation to be unkind to Egyptians. We celebrate this Seder at a moment when Israel remains an occupier ruling over the lives of more than a million Palestinians who seek their own state and their same right to national self-determination that Jews rightly achieved for ourselves. We are proud of the steps that Israel has taken to change this situation, but we cannot forget on this anniversary of our own national liberation struggle that our people, so unfairly treated throughout our history, has now become the face of the oppressor to another people…It would be hypocritical for us to celebrate our own victory over oppression if we did not commit ourselves to overcoming the role that the State of Israel now plays as an oppressor to the Palestinian people.
Excerpt from Kvutsah Yovel Hagaddah
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