To the Editor,

Many of us mourn the horrible, unimaginable attack on civilians in Israel, condemn Hamas and demand justice. 

It is the last issue, justice, that is imperative to me.

The potential for even more massive killing of civilians as Israel seeks to destroy Hamas is difficult to reconcile for many, yet simple and obvious for others. The basic issue is straight-forward.  Is there ever justification for killing civilians?  If no, as I am persuaded, then no. Never. There is no justification for killing civilians.

If one assert that there are conditions, events, reasons that justify the killing of civilians, say in the pursuit of terrorists, then all discussion is reduced to arguments about justification, not the killing itself.  I reject any and all reasons for killing civilians.  Allowing for any justification allows that there are justifications for killing civilians, which produces many such justifications.

I defer to the words of the Nobel Laureate and Nazi resistance publisher, Albert Camus, from his Neither Victims nor Executioners: “All I ask is that, in the midst of a murderous world, we agree to reflect on murder and to make a choice. After that, we can distinguish those who accept the conse¬quences of being murderers themselves or the accomplices of murderers, and those who refuse to do so with all their force and being.”  I refuse.  Join us.

Sean Hagberg, PhD

Cranston