ERLICH, Nicole. Australian psychologist: "It is time for a country that has been defined for almost the entirety of its existence by ethnic cleansing to find a new path”

Nicole Erlich is an anti-racist Jewish Australian psychologist, writer, human rights activist and peace activist and a signatory of the letter in which prominent Australian Jews rejected the Israeli Law of Return (see: http://antonyloewenstein.com/2010/03/03/prominent-australian-jews-including-peter-singer-reject-the-israeli-right-of-return/ ).

Nicole Erlich on finding intense awareness of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine (2012) “I picked up the book “The Other Side of Israel” by Susan Nathan. The author, a British-born Jew and initially a passionate Zionist, made the highly unusual decision to move to the Israeli Arab village of Tamra to experience and document the lives of the Indigenous population … The book listed every atrocity of which I am now intensely aware, but that back then I could never have imagined … I share the sentiment of Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, who has stated that, “Israelis will never be free unless Palestinians are also free.” It is time for a country that has been defined for almost the entirety of its existence by ethnic cleansing to find a new path.” [1, 2].

[1]. Nicole Erlich, “Once you see you cannot unsee” in “Beyond Tribal Loyalties. Personal Stories of Jewish Peace Activists”, edited by Avigail Abarbanel (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012) (pp 19, 23).

[2]. Nicole Erlich quoted in Gideon Polya, “Book Review: “Beyond Tribal Loyalties”. Stories of anti-racist Jews”, MWC News, 18 January 2012: http://mwcnews.net/focus/analysis/24184-gideonpolya-beyond-tribal-loyalties.html .