The Daily Life of Kawther Salam

  ..: Mail Exchange with Mr. Howard Moss :..
 
August 23, 2003

Mr. Moss wrote me an Email in reaction to my article about the new Israeli law which recently received a majority of the votes in the Israeli Knesset.


From: "howard.moss" <howard.moss@cox.net>
To: <kawther_salam@yahoo.com>
Subject: The New Israeli Marriage Law - 'Israel Is A Racist State'
Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 16:25:37 -0500


Dear Mr. Salam,
Please keep in mind that Israel's laws are commandments from the Almighty
GOD of Israel. From Abraham through Jacob to present, the people of Israel
have been commanded not to marry outside their tribe, whether it be Dan or
Benjamin, or any other. Only to marry those of their father's tribe. Please
read in the Old Testament (Torah) in the book of Numbers chapter 36 verse
6-13. The Almighty GOD stated his reason in the passage. Should we call the
Almighty GOD or his chosen people racist? Heaven forbid. I hope you change
your mind on this.

Howard


Mr. Howard correctly pointed me to a relevant passage in the Bible, which in fact states that Jews should marry only among themselves so as to impede that the inheritage should fall to another tribe. Mr. Moss conveniently failed to mention that the Bible states that Abraham came to the land of the Canaanites, todays Palestinians, in Genesis 12. Apparently for the sake of convenience, he also fails to mention the duties of Christians as stipulated in Exodus 20, especially versicles 13, 15, 17, which are quite relevant to the situation at hand in my country. It looks like Mr. Moss is using the Bible to justify the genocide perpetrated against my people, slyly explaining to me that a racist law is needed so that none of the land stolen from Palestinians should ever come back to any of us. He thus justifies the bringing to ruin or breaking up of thousand of families just because they happened to marry into the "wrong" tribe. In his sickening logic Mr. Howard manages to tell us what Israel is all about: Land grabs. It is not about safety for Jews, not about the command of God, but only about land grabs for European colonial masters.

My response to his Email follows:


Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2003 16:03:34 -0700 (PDT)
From: "K Salam" <kawther_salam@yahoo.com>
Subject: Your Email re. my article 'Israel Is A Racist State'
To: howard.moss@cox.net
      
Dear Mr. Moss,
 
Thank you for your interest in my article about the racist law which has shortly
been passed in the Knesset.
 
I am sorry to dissapoint you, but in fact this law has been passed by a majority
of the votes in the Knesset. It was not passed by "God Almighty" as you chose to
say, but by a majority in the Knesset recruited from by the exponents of several
right-wing political parties. Thus, you will hopefully agree with me that this
law is the law of men and not the law of "God Almighty", which turns out to be
quite different a thing if one reads the bible with attention.

Some of the people who voted for this law have a record of having proffered
racist slurs against Arabs and of of having participated in actions which are
considered by most people to be crimes: murder, looting, wholesale pillage of
Palestinian property.

If you are a Christian you will probably be aware of Gods commandments regarding
killing, stealing, or coveting what belongs to others. If you are a Jew, of
course, these Commandments will not apply to you. After all, you have been
"chosen", and thus given carte blanche to commit any atrocities whatsoever if I
do understand correctly what you are trying to say to me.

I do wish you well, and I would like to invite you to read some other articles
which I have posted at my website at http://www.kawther.info, which
contain some of the material from my 20 years as a journalist in Hebron and the
West Bank.

I hope you will change your mind on this.
 
Regards,
 
Kawther Salam


Mr. Moss has not written again.