Editor,
I urge you and your parishioners to denounce violent resistance.
As I’m sure you have heard, Israeli soldiers seized a flotilla carrying international activists and relief supplies from Turkey to Palestine. At some point during the flagship’s capture, the Israeli soldiers were met with violent resistance by the activists. Nine activists were killed by the soldiers.
Many of the programs aired on our local college radio station. KUNM justly condemned the killings that occurred on the flotilla’s flagship, the Mavi Marmara. However, it severely downplayed the violence that the soldiers were met with. I have seen footage showing several activists pummeling someone I assume was a fallen soldier with pipes or sticks of some sort. Metal pipes and wooden sticks, gas masks, bulletproof vests, slingshots with rock ammunition and a Molotov cocktail were found on the ship.
To the Christian, this is not a matter of who attacked first, because we do not believe in the right to “self-defense.” We must denounce violence from all sides. A regime that is inherently evil by nature of its occupation, such as the Israeli military, should not be met with the same evil. We cannot support these activists, their mother organization or their mission until they commit themselves to nonviolent methods — and only nonviolent methods.
Corey Davis
UNM Student
