Page One

To the Editor: 

I am not sure what Mayor Shirley Dean was thinking with her latest round of appointments to the Peace and Justice Commission. 

One of the them, Micki Weinberg, plans on joining the Israeli military after he graduates. He said it was “a moral responsibility.” 

This statement is testimony to a willingness to be on the firing end of a bullet that kills an innocent Palestinian child. 

Just yesterday, an Israeli tank officer shot a woman and both of her kids because he saw shadows lurking in the bushes. Amnesty International wrote that the same army Weinberg plans on joining is known for its regular“unlawful killings, destruction of property and arbitrary detention, torture and ill-treatment.” All of these are violations of “international human rights and humanitarian law.” 

In a recent opinion piece, he wrote Israel must “purge” the Palestinians. “Arafat” and even civilian “perpetrators” of the Palestinian uprising “must be rooted out.” His plagiarism of George Bush is just one of the many indications of his antipathy to peace and justice. 

After Colonel Micki Weinberg is done demolishing a home in a Palestinian refugee camp, I will pay for Mayor Dean to fly there to explain to there-displaced refugee family what an advocate of peace and justice he is. 

-Will Youmans 

Berkeley