Rashida Tlaib was recently elected to Congress. Let me be one of the first persons writing a letter to the new Congresswoman.

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The Honorable
Rashida Harbi Tlaib
United States House of Representatives

Dear Ms. Tlaib,

There are nearly 1,694,000 Muslims living peacefully with Jews in Israel. They are the neighbors, colleagues, teachers, lawyers, judges, deputies, police officers, firefighters, soldiers, cooks, sexual partners and much, much more of the Jewish population. They laugh, live, eat, cry and fight together. They live together, not only because they want to live together, but because they have to live together. They share the same country. They are connected in fidelity with the trees, rivers, mountains, seas, lakes, towns, villages and deserts of their homeland which they often include in their prayers. They are one family! Some are distant relatives, others trusted friends. 1,694,000 Muslims are affirmative in their attitudes towards Jews and reach out their hands in peace.

However, those 1,694,000 Muslims are discriminated against by the global campaign of hatred called BDS! The name BDS stands for „Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions“. BDS opposes Israel as a whole and is against Israeli culture. All 1,694,000 Muslims who are living in peace, neighborliness, equality, tolerance and respect with Jews are Israeli citizens and thus the target of BDS discrimination. The campaign encourages boycotting and punishing Muslims, as well as to end any kind of support for those Israeli Muslims.

BDS demands that Muslims who live peacefully with Jews be treated as Jews. What do you say about this hate?

The Hamas Deputy Minister of Religious Endowments, Abdallah Jarbu, declared on February 28, 2010:

“Jews are foreign bacteria –microbes unparalleled in the world. (…) I condemn whoever believes in normalizing relations with them, whoever supports sitting down with them, and whoever believes that they are human beings. They are not human beings.“

Wiam Wahab, a former Lebanese minister, said on Al-Jadid / New TV (July 4, 2010) that he supported Brazil for their soccer, but Germany politically „because they hate the Jews and they burned them“.

Lebanon is one of the countries which have imposed a travel ban against me, Gerd Buurmann, just because I dared to visit the land of Israel. Besides Lebanon, Syria, Kuwait, Yemen, Libya, Saudi Arabia and Iran reserve the right to not let people into their countries if they are Jews or visited Israel. Many of these countries express pride in having expelled all Jews from their countries. They are proud of genocide. These countries also have pride in pursuing homosexuals. Homosexuals are executed regularly in Iran, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and in Gaza. These countries operate the worst kinds of apartheid.

The hate is directed against a country which decided to equip public hospitals with prayer rooms for all religions, after a Muslim had successfully appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court because he had to pray outdoors in front of a hospital in Tel Aviv. There are no prayer rooms in hospitals in the Gaza Strip, in Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and in Libya for Jews, much less even residence permits for them. In these regions, it is forbidden to be a Jew. Those places are all „Jew-free“!

Israel is a country in which a 19-year-old Arab woman from the northern port city of Akko, Lina Mahul, won first place in the Israeli edition of „The Voice“. Mohammed Assaf on the other hand won „Arab Idol“ with a song which tells of the destruction of Israel.

What is your position on this hate?

Some time ago in Israeli television, a hidden camera revealed how the people of Israel responded to discrimination. A gas station retailer refused to serve Arabs. TV show guests responded as follows:

Israel is the only country in the Middle East in which 1,694,000 Muslims live securely, in a democracy which allows them to be gay or lesbian. They have the same rights as all other citizens in the country, regardless of their gender and skin color.

Every fifth Israeli is a Muslim. Israel is the only country in the Middle East, in which the people can choose their government… and have it replaced. The Israeli government is the only democratically elected country in the Middle East in which Muslims and Arabs reside.

Do you support Israel?

Mahmoud Abbas was elected in 2005 as president of the Palestinian Authority, but his term ended on January 9, 2009. Since then, he holds no legitimacy. BDS remains silent! Jordan is a monarchy with Islam as the state religion and Sharia law. All non-Muslim Palestinians in Jordan are second-class citizens. BDS is silent! In Syria, all Palestinians have been disenfranchised and are locked up in refugee camps. In January 2014, the Syrian army encircled Palestinians in a camp and let them starve.

Dear Ms. Tlaib,

Jew-hatred is a special form of discrimination and can be expressed in this simple formula:

„A Jew-hater criticizes Jews for things that non-Jews are not criticized for.“

This is precisely the hatred of the BDS movement and of everyone blaming Israel while keeping silent about the Hamas and Fatah, formally known as PLO.

BDS is silent on all barbaric inhumanity in the world, but criticizes Israel because the country is not perfect. BDS denies the right for the existence of Jews if they are not perfect. Jews must be superhuman in order to retain a right of existence. For all others it’s OK to just be human. An Israeli politician is already demonized when he’s not a saint. An Arab politician can be a saint for just not being a devil. This is the century old campaign against Jews and BDS is a modern child of that ancient hatred.

This hatred spends billions to find Jews who are not perfect and call out: Look, the Jews! Countless journalists, correspondents, European and American organizations are in Israel for the sole purpose of making documentaries and writing stories that show that Jews are not perfect. These images, films and stories are produced in short intervals in order to perpetuate the idea that Israel is the greatest threat to world peace.

Israel is the only country that despite a nearly seventy-year-long war, whereby adversaries aim for its complete destruction, has retained all basic principles of a democratic society. This is unique in history. Although Israel is not perfect, there is no other country which does so well in the face of such animosity and hate. The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said in 2015:

„President Abbas, I know it’s not easy. I know it’s hard. But we owe it to our peoples to try, to continue to try, because together, if we actually negotiate and stop negotiating about the negotiation, if we actually sit down and try to resolve this conflict between us, recognize each other, not use a Palestinian state as a stepping stone for another Islamist dictatorship in the Middle East, but something that will live at peace next to the Jewish state, if we actually do that, we can do remarkable things for our peoples.“

The Israeli Declaration of Independence states:

„WE EXTEND our hand to all neighbouring states and their peoples in an offer of peace and good neighbourliness, and appeal to them to establish bonds of cooperation and mutual help with the sovereign Jewish people settled in its own land. The State of Israel is prepared to do its share in a common effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.“

Dear Ms. Tlaib,

should Israel’s peace offers be boycotted or should Israel be supported?

Please don’t list the mistakes Israel has made. I’m informed enough. Please explain why you are not only more critical of Jews, but very tough in your assessment. Why do you support an organization that boycotts, sanctions and punishes Jews when they’re not perfect, but then silent on the barbarous inhumanity of those who want to annihilate the Jews?

Part of your family is living in an area between Jordan and Israel. It’s not the fault of Israel that they live in misery. It’s the fault of the Palestinian National Authority. Fatah as well as Hamas oppress life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They have installed an apartheid regime. They are to blame! Don’t you think so, too?

Alles Liebe,
Gerd Buurmann (Cologne, Germany)