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To the Editor: 

Last night (Tue., April 23) I witnessed a horrific scene at the Berkeley City Council. In response to the recommendations from the Peace and Justice Commission that human rights be supported in Israel and Palestine, the councilmembers made some startling comments. 

Some claimed that calling on Israel to grant human rights for Palestinians was anti-Semitic! Many claimed that instead of making this call for human rights, we should instead call on “all sides to sit and talk and negotiate.” What kind of foolishness is this? 

It is outrageous to claim that human rights are something that people need to “negotiate over” or that the decades of denial of human rights to Palestinians is some “misunderstanding” that can be resolved by having people sit around and discuss their differences. 

Yes, negotiation and discussion are things will be a necessary and crucial part of any eventual peace and reconciliation process, but human rights are non-negotiable; they are international law!  

Yet, the Berkeley City Council seemed to claim that Palestinians should negotiate with the state of Israel not about substantive issues but for their basic rights. 

It is time that the Berkeley City Council takes simple moral actions to affirm the principle of “basic human rights for all” that all citizens of Berkeley believe in. 

- Sami Kitmitto  

Berkeley