Rev. Graylan Hagler Asks Supporters of Israel: “Isn’t it about time to break your silence?”
Graylan Hagler and I have known each other for at least a dozen years. He was our guest speaker for our 2018 Annual ICMEP Commemoration of the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And I was a guest interviewee on his weekly radio show a couple of years ago.
Graylan is Pastor Emeritus, Plymouth United Church of Christ, Washington, DC and Director & Chief Visionary, Faith Strategies, Washington DC. He is the former Co-Chair of DC’s Poor People’s Campaign,, and a Palestinian solidarity movement leader.
Whether in Chicago, Boston, or Washington DC, for over four decades, he has been a powerful voice for disenfranchised communities fighting racism, homophobia, Islamophobia, and other injustices by which government and corporate entities exploit those marginalized communities.
In his Op-Ed, Graylan suggests that even those who continue to be supporters of Israel – even for them – it is time for some critical self-reflection, that the time for “We’ll wait and see” is over, that “it is time to break your silence.”
To support Israel demands calls for accountability and restraint. If we remain non-judgmental in the face of wrong, injustice, and demagoguery then we are not supporting Israel, but ushering its demise. Diminishment comes in many forms: losing respect in the eyes of the world community; devolving into a totalitarian state; becoming a religious state of exclusivity and hate; and, in general, being a morally and ethically bankrupt country.
If we allow Israel to continue to take this route it will cease to be — maybe not physically, but at the very least, it will be ethically and morally diseased. This coalition government of white supremacists, religious and political extremists need to be challenged now before it is too late.
The full essay, A letter to supporters of Israel: It is time to break your silence, can be read by clicking below.