Dear Jim Haber:
In response to your letter (“Port protest fights injustice,” Sept. 12), I think it’s great that you participated in the peaceful Port of Oakland protest in August against the Zim-operated cargo ship Piraeus, which was able to unload only after days of cat and mouse. A similar protest was held at the Oakland port last weekend, turning back the Zim Shanghai. It’s important that Jews stand up for what they think is right. Goodness knows, there’s not enough of that going on in the world these days.
Through efforts like establishing what you call a picket line — really, a straightforward political protest — the world has improved immeasurably. So much, in fact, that Israel is apparently one of the few targets left for comfortable, relatively safe Jews to rally against.
I am just wondering how protesting against lesser dangers to human rights, like ISIS, would go over with your colleagues?
While you were there, did you take a poll asking whether or not the Hamas government would/could probably enhance its constituency if it simply removed a few threatening words about Jews and Israel from its charter? Never mind terror tunnels, public executions, human shields, gazillions of rockets, mortars, sparklers, firecrackers and all of the ad nauseum arguments bandied about by those “right-wing” supporters of Israel.
I doubt the foot soldiers at the docks see much relevance in the other side of the story, nor, apparently, would Martin Luther King Jr., whose words about injustice, unbeknown to me but not to you, apply only to the side you have taken. Thank you for channeling him — that is an amazing gift.
No, I would think that this type of open expression about the imperfections on both sides (Ari Shavit’s book “My Promised Land” adds much clarity to this story) probably would have been unwelcome. Such dialogue would probably get in the way of the ultimate goal of efforts which, deep down, you must realize are more anti-Semitic than anti-Zimitic.
I mean, just look at Europe right now. Forget about protesting inanimate ships carrying furniture and toys. Let’s get right to the point: real, in-your-face-hate kind of stuff, not this metaphoric, Zim proxy protest-athon that masks a more troubling resurgence of anti-Semitism.
After hearing Mahmoud Abbas’ volatile, provocative Sept. 26 speech at the United Nations, do you think you could voice your disdain for his combustive, inciting words to those with whom you have formed allegiances as you cheered and high-fived the news of yet another delay in off-loading?
I am glad the recent protests didn’t result in violence. When this merry band got together under similar circumstances in 2010, all heck broke loose when several laborers just wanting to go to work were injured during clashes between Oakland Police Department and protesters. And just to be clear, in the August protest, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union did not claim that its membership abstained from off-loading the Piraeus due to “solidarity” with your cause; this is what you imply in your letter to the editor, and what is being said by organizers, both of which are disingenuous. The longshoremen declined, according to the ILWU, out of self-preservation. If you have evidence to the contrary, I would be most interested in seeing it. There may be exceptions, but not as offered by the union, which, perhaps, should be protested for off-loading the ship when you left. Collaborators!
Anyway, I am only guessing here, but a betting mensch would say that any worker who would attempt to unload a ship by walking through a sea of protesters probably would inspire a more robust, vociferous reaction from elements within the protest group and, hence, possibly law enforcement.
I won’t even start with the hypocrisy part (OK, I will): Turkish ships coming and going (doesn’t that country still have to come clean about the Armenians?), or the boring, redundant Chinese human-rights accusations. And what about U.S. ships, in light of slavery reparations and the treatment of Native Americans? It’s all too complicated, plus I would have to do all the organizing. Ugh!
No, instead, let’s pick on a shipping line that is only 28 percent Israeli-owned, on ships that never go to Israel, rarely carry Israeli goods and are suspect only because their company offices are in Israel. Last I checked, buildings in Israel include those of Apple, Google, HP and Intel, but I doubt they are protested by the InstaFada with similar vigor, if at all. Since so much of the world’s propaganda is transmitted through technologies generated by these companies, why bite the hand that tweets you?
If a man must protest, then protest he should. All I am saying, brother, is the times they are a changin’, and protesting Israel these days seems less about its policies than about its actual existence (have you been hearing the ANC lately?).
As for your family in Israel, please thank them for doing the real heavy lifting while others spend the day trying to blend in and wash off the guilt and blame that so many are trying to pin on the world’s Jews for any perceived Israeli injustice. In fact, ask them to leave a light on for you, ’cause you just might need a safe place to stay, the way things are going.
Yours truly,
Matt Elkins
Matt Elkins is a Bay Area freelance writer and co-founder of the Bay Area Torah Softball league (BATS).