Speaking of the silence of Nobel Peace Prize winners Obama & Suu Kyi on the ethnic cleansing in Gaza & Burma, where’s our man, Elie Wiesel? Here’s the man who said, “I swore never to be silent whenever & wherever human beings endure suffering & humiliation. We must always take sides.” In his acceptance speech for the Nobel in 1986, he said, “Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion or political views, that place must, at that moment, become the center of the universe.” So why is he struck dumb at the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians!? His silence is thundering.
No less a personage than Hedy Epstein, a holocaust survivor & Palestinian solidarity activist, appealed to Wiesel to speak out after the 2008-2009 Israeli bombardment of Gaza which killed 1,400 men, women, & children, made 100,000 homeless, destroyed one-third of the agricultural land, & denied 1.5 million people of food, water, electrical power, & medical supplies.
Here Palestinian women grieve for 4-year-old Mahmoud Raed Sadallah, killed Friday from an explosion in Gaza. Wiesel’s self-aggrandizing statements spoken with soulful eyes & somber tone don’t cut it when he stands mute before such crimes. He in fact stands shamed by his own pronouncements. (Photo by Anne Paq/ActiveStills)
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