War Crimes 

Supporting Gush Shalom against war crimes


A letter from Anders Levermann

To: editor@haaretz.co.il

Dear madames and sirs,

I am writing to you in reaction to your editorial on the peace movement Gush Shalom. I do not agree with the opinion stated in the article and do not see any unethical or damaging aspect of the movements actions. On the contrary I find the procedure they used well balanced by giving all concerned parties a chance to react. (I am not part of the movement.) On the other hand, I find it strange that your article does not mention at all the fierceness and strength of the reaction of the political officials as well as the inappropriate political statement of the attorney general Rubinstein. Rubinstein does not have a political mandate, as I understand it, and as an attorney general has the obligation not to involve himself into the daily political struggle. It would be good for a newspaper like yours to deal with this issue in the same frame of reference.

However, as I understand the opinion stated in your editorial, the criticism of the author is not so much addressing the issue at hand, i.e. the conflict between Gush Shalom and the military. I find it puzzling that the author is mainly hiding behind the opinion of the Israeli public which he brings into the play as opposed to stating his/her own opinion. From my point of view it is much more suitable for a big newspaper and definitely much more interesting for me to read, what a hopefully well informed journalist has to say about a conflict, not so much what he believes (on no grounds of poll or anything, I presume) he can read off the public opinion, which he, by the way, is supposed to help shaping.

All together I am disappointed by the editorial, it does not live up to the standards of Ha'aretz by missing the problem at hand.

Sincerely,

Anders Levermann

Weizmann Institute of Science

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Anders Levermann Try to imagine: One world, One nation.

phone: +972-8-934-2091 Weizmann Institute of Science

fax: +972-8-934-4123 Dep. Chemical Physics, Rehovot, Israel

http://www.weizmann.ac.il/chemphys/anders --

Anders Levermann Try to imagine: One world, One nation. phone:

+972-8-934-2091 Weizmann Institute of Science fax: +972-8-934-4123

Dep. Chemical Physics, Rehovot, Israel