Thank God I am an Israeli, living in Israel!

Thank God, I am an Israeli, living in Israel!

By David Verveer

I just finished to read 200 reactions on an article by a Dutch Journalist, Jaap Hamburger, who consider himself in having objective opinions on Israel and Israeli policies, specially concerning Israeli treatment of the Palestinians (Arabs) living in and around Israel. The article was published in the Dutch daily, de Volkskrant, and received more than 200 reactions, opinions of extremists against and pro Israeli, with arguments based on religion, history, racism and mostly, insufficient data based on propaganda media proclaimed by all sides involved in the conflict.

Clearly, this discussion is an intellectual exercise which has no influence, what so ever on the situation, but today, with the existence of the Internet, people are free to try to convince others of their insight on the crimes and behavior of those terrible Israelis / Arabs, etc.

Don't worry, I am not going to add to this my one-sided opinion on our rights (Israeli) and why we do what we do, and are rather successful in doing it. This letter has an entire different purpose, I am trying to show you that I became Israeli and Zionist, not because of having a feeling of superiority on other people, but due to what happened to me, during my life-time, I can put my trust only in people of my kind, as I was a stranger (and fugitive) in my native country, "the Netherlands".

I was born one year before the German invasion of Holland, and being only three years old (and one day), I was taken into hiding, and during 3 years, I was moved from one place to the other, when the last place became unsafe (neighbors talking and traitors living near by). I was saved by good Dutchmen, who risked their own life in order to save mine. The last 1 and half years I lived in a village near Leiden, in the house of a Protestant church alder, in the middle of the German Army Division Head quarter, which had taken over the neighborhood. The fact that I survived was mainly because we lived in the middle of the spider web, a place were they did not count the number of children next door, and the SS hesitated in entering.

The war ended, and the war-worn country was run by the Allies, who put restriction on traveling. My mother, who had been hiding in the north of the country, in order to find her family, had to fight to get travel permits put upon her by the Allies, but mostly fight the Dutch civil administration, who during the war served the German, and now again carried on as loyal civil servants. Letters and permits issued by these Dutch clerks showed that anti-Semitism is something you can learn, but not lose.

My father, an civil engineer and architect was caught by the SS and murdered in October 1944, when in service of the résistance, tried to prepare drawings of the famous Ijsel Line, a design of critical dikes systems, which if bombarded, would put half of Holland underwater, and complicate the Germans from retreating with their tanks, back over the German border.

I am one of four children, three boys and one girl. My sister who is the youngest, was not as lucky as me, and was arrested by the Germans (she was nearly two years old at that time), and transported to the concentration camps, which she survived. A documentary was made of this called "the unknown children".
After liberation, she was send back to Holland by the Red Cross, and after uniting for a weekend with my mother, sent to Switzerland to recover and strengthen.
My older brothers also survived, and were sent for recuperation to Denmark.
I was nor so lucky, suffering from a skin disease, the Red cross did not accept me, and my mother and me received a temporary home in the village from where we fled 3 and a half years earlier. Our previous prewar (rented) house was still standing empty with our own furniture inside, but the wise civil administration decided that a woman with one child does not have to live in a big house, and should live in a leaking wooden summer house, in the middle of the woods, during a severe winters (1945 / 6)

The family was united in 1946, when my mother was appointed director of a Jewish parent home, which served at the time as first stage collection center for Jews surviving camps and returning to Holland. I don't have to explain that this was not an ideal place to bring up children, having them selves suffered sufficient traumas to last a lifetime.

Only in 1947, my murdered father was recognized as War hero and resistance fighter, and we were allotted a pension that enabled my mother to move to a flat and start rebuilding the family. We never became a normal family, and about 8 years later, the family fall apart, when one brother immigrating to Israel, the other brother in the Dutch Army sent to Suriname (S.A), and me, going to England to study Agriculture. My mother and sister remained together in Holland.

None of us remained in Holland, as we felt not belonging, not trusting anybody and un-equal with our neighbors. Not that we suffered anti Semitism, but we were and are treated as "outsiders", and the few Jews who remained in Holland know either that I am right in this observation, or try to deny this and remain an outsider for life.

And now, I finally reach the reason of writing all this, Israel provides me with a feeling of belonging, I am here because this are my people, here I can do something against being hunted as animal because religion and race. Of course I do not agree with every political move of the Israeli Government, of course I don’t agree with any extremist from either side, but I am home, this is my country, which we fought for and succeeded in creating against all odds. We did not get the country as present from anybody, just the opposite; nobody made it easy for us.

How irrelevant and stupid are arguments from all sides in the Dutch, English or US papers, "promised land", Arab Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, discrimination, this one said, that one wrote, all bull-shit, Israel is a relative democratic society, existing in the middle of a sea of dictatorial and autocratic regimes, trying to be human, even though sometimes our behavior sounds illogical, remember we are here, we stay here and we have no other choice in being always the strongest, as we don't have the luxury of losing. Remember, the Europeans ousted us, not by a decision of the Spanish Monarch in 1492, but by allowing the Nazi beast to kill 7 million of my people.

We made true the phrase "never again" by creating our own fortress, not perfect, but independent, our current enemy fights us and tries to terrorizes us, but we are able to defend ourselves, we hit back, we do not have to go into hiding, we are not hunted as animals. The Europeans, or anybody else in the Diaspora, can not give us such assurance, the Islam is invading you and slowly but surely, you are losing your democracies, your freedom and right to live, and you will have to fight to regain your freedom, just as we did and do, and the sooner the better you need to realize that your criticism of our policies will not save you, nor spare you.