MiaFarrow.org |
Humanitarian and Advocacy Information |
Archives
- December 2017
- January 2013
- July 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- September 2007
| December 29, 2009 |
But the people of Gaza are not forgotten. On Tuesday Hedy Epstein, an 85 year old Holocaust survivor, began a hunger strike for Gaza.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/richard-hall/holocaust-survivor-goes-o_b_406655.html>
"There comes a time in one's life when one has to step up and risk one's own body," she said.
Hedy Epstein escaped Hitler's Germany in 1939, when she was 14 years old. Her parents sent her to England on the Kindertransport -- a rescue mission that took place nine months prior to the outbreak of World War II to evacuate predominantly Jewish children from Nazi Germany. Epstein's parents remained in Germany and she was never to see them again; they perished in the extermination camp at Auschwitz in 1942. Her extraordinary childhood is one of the reasons Epstein found herself inclined to become involved in the Palestinian solidarity movement.
After World War II, Epstein worked as a research analyst at the Nuremberg trials of Nazi doctors who performed medical experiments on concentration camp inmates. After she moved to the US, Epstein became an activist for peace and social justice causes. It was a particular event though, that triggered Epstein's interest in the Israel-Palestine conflict. <http://images.huffingtonpost.com/2009-12-30-epstein.jpg>
"I think for me the wakeup call came in 1982 with the massacres in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon. Up until then I had not paid that much attention to what was happening in that part of the world. Then I heard about that and questioned what is this all about," she said. "As I learned more and I discovered more, I became increasingly more horrified by the practices of the Israeli government vis-a-vis the Palestinian people. And I began to speak out publicly against those policies," she added.
Epstein acknowledged that she represents somewhat of an anomaly in the American Jewish community. "There is an almost thoughtless, blind support of Israel no matter what it does," she said. Epstein did, however, note a slight change in attitude recently: "Since the massacre in Gaza at the end of last year, I do see a crack in the way people are looking at what Israel is doing, and that crack needs to be broken wide open, so that a change will take place."