Alice Rothchild is the latest peace activist to visit the Detroit area in Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit  fall activities directed at educating the Jewish community and the public on the continuous genocide being practiced against Palestinians under Israeli occupation.

The reception, presentation and book-signing event for Rothchild, a gynecologist from Boston who wrote a book titled “Broken Promises, Broken Dreams – Stories of Jewish and Palestinian Trauma and Resilience,” was held Friday, October 3 at the Pleasant Ridge Community Center. The meeting was an intimate affair that allowed for one-on-one interactions with the writer, and included Arabic food provided by the organizers.

Alice Rothchild

Rothchild is an activist and supporter of Palestinian human rights who got involved 11 years ago with Boston Workmen’s Circle. The group wanted to start a dialogue with the Palestinians and co-organized the Jewish American Medical Project. She went with a human rights delegation in 2003. As she worked the clinics in Gaza and Israel she got exposed to the victims and the victimizers and she recorded interviews with countless patients on both sides.

In 2005 she had a ruptured disc that put her in bed, and as she listened to her recordings she started writing her book of her travel diaries that tells the compelling stories of the atrocities being committed against Palestinians under Israel’s brutal military occupation.

“How have they (Israelis) become the perpetrators of the cruelty that was inflicted on them?” Rothchild asked. “It is like the child of an abused father that feels being a victim gives him the right to inflict pain on others…” This comes with a cost though as Rothchild states that 20% of Israelis suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome, and suicide, in 2007, claimed more Israeli soldiers than all other causes of death combined.

To read more go to www.alicerothchild.com and to see upcoming events in Detroit visit www.JewishVoiceforPeace.org.