This post originally appeared in Mondoweiss on July 17, 2014.
I am writing this to my fellow American Jews. Well, to some
of them. For a specific type of American Jew, actually. To those whose parents
or grandparents were socialists and started unions before marching with Dr.
King in Alabama. To those who despised George W. Bush and marched against the invasion
of Iraq. To those who knocked on doors for causes they believed in while
telling their children “be the change you want to see in the world”. To those
who read poems at Bar and Bat Mitzvahs about “first they came for the…and I did
not speak out because I was not a…” To those who instilled in me the
unshakeable conviction that we must always stand on the side of the oppressed,
even when no one else will.
Because of you, I am loud and I shout. But I’ve noticed you
are growing quiet – almost silent – as an injustice is taking place in Palestine.
I think that I know why. I think that as Operation Protective Edge marches
onward, you feel your convictions clashing. You, more so than me, were raised
to believe that Israel is something it is not: a democracy, with values just
like yours, amidst a sea of aggressors. But with each passing day, it becomes
harder and harder to close your eyes to a glaring reality.
I want to share with you the way I see things. Maybe it will
be helpful, maybe not.
Let’s start with Gaza. Since July 8, least 230 Palestinians have been massacred (what else can you call
it when one of the world’s most powerful militaries drops bombs all day and all
night on a population and locks down the borders so that they cannot flee?). Eighty
percent of those killed were civilians, including at least 34 children. Israel
consistently strikes non-military targets including mosques, hospitals,
rehabilitation centers for the disabled, schools, UN compounds and beaches
where children play. During Operation Cast
Lead they targeted these places when they knew hundreds of Palestinians had
fled there to take shelter after Israel shot missiles at their homes. Since the
beginning of this recent crisis/escalation/renewed cycle of violence/massacre
only one Israeli has died.
Israel likes to claim that it is acting in self-defense.
Putting aside the fact that, according to laws of armed conflict, Israel
does not actually have the right to self-defense against a population that it
militarily occupies, I still find this a hard pill to swallow. While
Netanyahu claims that Hamas has disrupted the ‘calm’ of the last few years,
I’ve lived in Palestine and I can tell you that there was no calm. At least not
for Palestinians. There is a constant, nagging, never-ending violence. This
didn’t start with three Israeli teenagers who were kidnapped while hitchhiking
home from their schools in settlements through an Israeli military controlled
area . Before there were those Israeli teenagers, there were two
Palestinian teenagers who were shot in the chest and in the back as they
milled around in front of a store in the West Bank. Their murders were caught
on camera and yet there was no justice. And there was the systematic and
institutionalized arrest and detention of approximately 8,000 Palestinian
children since 2000. And there was Israel’s torture and mistreatment of
hundreds of Palestinians who went on hunger strike to protest their detention
without charge or trial. And there were Israeli soldiers firing tear gas,
sewage water, rubber coated steel bullets and live ammunition at weekly
non-violent Palestinian demonstrations against settlements. And before that
there was the construction of a Wall that cuts through Palestinian land and
isolates families from one another.
I know that you were raised to believe that Israel exists to
protect Jews and Judaism. But Israel is killing my Judaism. It is killing the
Judaism you raised me with. How can I reconcile “stand with the oppressed” with
supporting an army that drops white phosphorous gas on children? How can I
“question everything” while believing New York Times headlines that blame
Gazans for their own deaths? “To remain neutral is to side with the oppressor”
- you taught me that. To grow silent is to turn my back on our Judaism – a
Judaism that speaks of community and love and healing the world. I refuse to do
that. I hope you will too.
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