February 2010
I am excited to share with you a statement that I have worked on with Anna Baltzer, Nava Etshalom, and Amy Kaplan, and to invite you to sign and/or support it. Throughout the years, many people have drawn attention to the injustice of Israel’s denial of Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homes and land, and Israel’s simultaneous implementation of a “law of return” that affords Jews from anywhere automatic Israeli citizenship rights and privileges. In “Breaking the Law of Return,” we are pledging not to take advantage of this law of return (promising that we will not take Israeli citizenship), and we are doing so in the context of the Palestinian-led Boycott/Divestment/Sanctions (BDS) movement. We are, essentially, boycotting the law of return. The full statement is below.
What you can do:
1. If you are a U.S. Jew who supports this statement, sign on by e-mailing breakingthelawofreturn@gmail.com with your name, city, and institutional/organizational affiliations, if any. (We won't publicize institutional affiliations.) Do it now - it only takes a minute!
2. If you are anybody anywhere in the world who supports this statement, Jewish or not, join the Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=296967332350 and invite all your friends to join! Do it now - it only takes a minute!
3. Stay tuned for further announcements as we gather more signatures on the statement. It is not simply a statement; we will use it in BDS-related actions in the coming months, and will keep you posted about this.
Looking forward to seeing many of your beautiful faces on our Facebook page, and your names on the statement.
-Hannah
Breaking the Law of Return:
We are Jews from the United States, who, like Jewish people throughout the world, have an automatic right to Israeli citizenship under Israel's "law of return."
Today there are more than seven million Palestinian refugees around the world. Israel denies their right to return to their homes and land—a right recognized and undisputed by UN Resolution 194, the Geneva Convention, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Meanwhile, we are invited to live on that same land simply because we are Jewish.
We renounce this "right" to "return" offered to us by Israeli law. It is not right that we may "return" to a state that is not ours while Palestinians are excluded and continuously dispossessed.
In 1947-49, Zionist militias destroyed more than 500 Palestinian villages and made more than 800,000 Palestinian people refugees in order to create a Jewish state on land where the majority was not Jewish. It is Palestinians who have the right to return to their own land.
Now in Gaza, where more than three quarters of the people are refugees, the State of Israel not only denies the population its right of return, but also incarcerates the entire Gaza Strip under illegal and inhumane siege conditions.
We reject the notion that Israel is a "safe haven" from anti-Semitism for Jews. No one is truly safe when the price of that "security" is oppression, inequality, and occupation of another people.
Today there is a growing transnational movement for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, called for by Palestinian civil society and supported by activists, artists, and academics around the world, including an increasing number of conscientious Israelis. As part of this campaign, we pledge to boycott the "law of return." As an act of political and ideological divestment, we repudiate the claims the State of Israel makes on us as potential citizens.
We protest Israel’s colonial policies and discriminatory laws toward the Palestinian people, as well as the U.S. government's political and financial support of these policies.
We hereby renounce Israel's "law of return" and refuse to lend the state our support, resources, or passports.
------
TO SIGN THE "BREAKING THE LAW OF RETURN" STATEMENT: email breakingthelawofreturn@gmail.com. Please include your name, city, and institutional/organizational affiliations, if any. (We won't publicize institutional affiliations.)
Note: This statement specifies the United States because of the enormous funding, political support, and international legitimization the U.S. supplies to Israel. Israel's "law of return," however, applies to Jews throughout the world, and we hope organizers in other countries will make use of the statement and adapt it for your own use.
We are inspired by the letter by UK Jews, "We Renounce Israel Rights," published in the Guardian: http://bit.ly/aidlq2
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Monday, July 20, 2009
Security
“The war is with the Arabs.”
I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem. The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank. Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts. Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a humongous sign that says, “The war is with the Blacks.”
I think about security. Israel’s abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people’s right to security. “The war is with the Arabs” is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like “Death to Arabs” and “Kahane was right” (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to “Hitler was right” in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).
But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed. Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people. I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael (“Heroes of Israel”) Street. Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders. None of the old Arabic street names remain. Even the large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing the Arabic names officially erased from the signs. In Arabic script, “Yaffa” will become “Yafo,” “Nasra” will become “Natzeret,” and “Al Quds” will become “Yerushalayim.”
Lack of security goes beyond denial of identity and history as visually expressed through signs. A Palestinian friend with Israeli citizenship told me he has heard a rumor that a huge piece of land in Jordan is being cleared and built up for the eventual arrival of the Palestinian population of Israel after they are transferred from their homes. “It may be conspiracy theory,” he said, “but I don’t know.”
“I’d like to think that Israel couldn’t get away with that,” I responded.
“Of course they can,” another friend from Lyd said, “and if the conditions are right, they will.”
Imagine living day to day thinking you might be expelled from your country in the near future. Or in Gaza, wondering if you will be killed tomorrow, or if you will ever be able to come in and out of your country at will. Or in the West Bank, if your son will be arrested, or if you will be able to get through the checkpoint in the morning to get to work. Or in Jerusalem, if your residency will be stripped or your house destroyed.
Imagine little correlation between choice and consequence, an arbitrary relationship between cause and effect. If you are just as likely to get shot and killed sipping tea in your doorway, or sitting in your fourth grade classroom, or participating in a demonstration, or joining the armed resistance, is it any surprise that some choose each?
A friend of mine from the West Bank once told me that she never feels safe, so safety is not a consideration for her in making decisions. As much as I may try, I cannot truly imagine this lack of control.
I met a woman in Jerusalem who was displaced from her home by settlers, physically removed from her house by dozens of Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. Twice a refugee (1948 and 2008), Um Kamel currently lives in a tent near her house that has been destroyed and re-pitched six times in the past six months. This is perhaps the height of insecurity, and yet Um Kamel stays strong and determined. Many in Palestine would call it sumoud, or steadfastness.
This kind of strength is seen remarkably often in Palestine, and indicates a deeper security that comes in part from faith. Faith in God, sometimes, but also faith in each other, in the justice of one’s cause, in the tide of history that has shown that no single occupation in Palestine lasts forever. This, of course, is also Israel’s deepest fear. That no matter how many walls they build, how many people they imprison, how many homes they destroy, how many signs they erase, and how many people they expel, true security will remain elusive, and eventually, Zionism will fail. As many older Palestinian people have said to me, with security, “We have lived through many occupations. This too shall pass.”
I saw this sign as I was entering Nablus last week, again on my way to Ramallah, and again near Bethlehem. The phrase is printed in Hebrew, presumably by Israeli settlers, on huge signs throughout the West Bank. Israeli racism rarely shocks me anymore, but its blatant display still makes me stop and catch my breath as I translate it into other contexts. Imagine driving through the middle of a predominantly black neighborhood in a US city or town and seeing a humongous sign that says, “The war is with the Blacks.”
I think about security. Israel’s abuse of the word has rendered the concept almost meaningless in the region, but the importance of security on individual and communal levels cannot be underestimated. However, most discussions I see in the media about security ignore the Palestinian people’s right to security. “The war is with the Arabs” is a new sign, as far as I know, but for years in the West Bank I have seen stars of David scrawled on Palestinian shops and homes, and signs like “Death to Arabs” and “Kahane was right” (Kahane was an extremist political leader who promoted ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people; this sign is essentially equivalent to “Hitler was right” in the middle of a Jewish neighborhood).
But signs are not only created; they are also destroyed. Since 1948, Palestinian people inside Israel have experienced erasure and denial of their identities that is perhaps stronger than that of any other group of Palestinian people. I visited a friend in Lyd last week who lives on Giborai Yisrael (“Heroes of Israel”) Street. Driving around the Palestinian neighborhoods in Lyd, we passed roads bearing the names of Herzl, Jabotinsky, and other Zionist leaders. None of the old Arabic street names remain. Even the large cities with considerable Palestinian populations are now seeing the Arabic names officially erased from the signs. In Arabic script, “Yaffa” will become “Yafo,” “Nasra” will become “Natzeret,” and “Al Quds” will become “Yerushalayim.”
Lack of security goes beyond denial of identity and history as visually expressed through signs. A Palestinian friend with Israeli citizenship told me he has heard a rumor that a huge piece of land in Jordan is being cleared and built up for the eventual arrival of the Palestinian population of Israel after they are transferred from their homes. “It may be conspiracy theory,” he said, “but I don’t know.”
“I’d like to think that Israel couldn’t get away with that,” I responded.
“Of course they can,” another friend from Lyd said, “and if the conditions are right, they will.”
Imagine living day to day thinking you might be expelled from your country in the near future. Or in Gaza, wondering if you will be killed tomorrow, or if you will ever be able to come in and out of your country at will. Or in the West Bank, if your son will be arrested, or if you will be able to get through the checkpoint in the morning to get to work. Or in Jerusalem, if your residency will be stripped or your house destroyed.
Imagine little correlation between choice and consequence, an arbitrary relationship between cause and effect. If you are just as likely to get shot and killed sipping tea in your doorway, or sitting in your fourth grade classroom, or participating in a demonstration, or joining the armed resistance, is it any surprise that some choose each?
A friend of mine from the West Bank once told me that she never feels safe, so safety is not a consideration for her in making decisions. As much as I may try, I cannot truly imagine this lack of control.
I met a woman in Jerusalem who was displaced from her home by settlers, physically removed from her house by dozens of Israeli soldiers in the middle of the night. Twice a refugee (1948 and 2008), Um Kamel currently lives in a tent near her house that has been destroyed and re-pitched six times in the past six months. This is perhaps the height of insecurity, and yet Um Kamel stays strong and determined. Many in Palestine would call it sumoud, or steadfastness.
This kind of strength is seen remarkably often in Palestine, and indicates a deeper security that comes in part from faith. Faith in God, sometimes, but also faith in each other, in the justice of one’s cause, in the tide of history that has shown that no single occupation in Palestine lasts forever. This, of course, is also Israel’s deepest fear. That no matter how many walls they build, how many people they imprison, how many homes they destroy, how many signs they erase, and how many people they expel, true security will remain elusive, and eventually, Zionism will fail. As many older Palestinian people have said to me, with security, “We have lived through many occupations. This too shall pass.”
Friday, May 22, 2009
Leonard Cohen to play in Israel... unless we stop him!
Dear friends,
For those of you who haven't been following the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, I have good news: It is growing! And even meeting many successes! Not too many in the US yet, but I do believe we are well on our way. Just as in the movement against apartheid South Africa, which is in many ways a model for this movement against apartheid Israel, cultural boycott plays a key role. Some of you may remember "Ain't Gonna Play Sun City." Well, we are now encouraging artists to say, "Ain't Gonna Play Israel." Many cultural workers (musicians, writers, directors) have canceled recent trips to Israel; some (like Adrienne Rich) have declared support for the BDS movement, and some have simply cited "logistical concerns" but were actually in private conversation with leaders in the movement.
We often try to put pressure on artists who are otherwise progressive, who otherwise believe in peace and justice. We remind them that performing in Israel right now will only serve to whitewash Israel's apartheid policies, and will be used by the Israeli government to legitimize its actions. We say this now to Leonard Cohen. If you haven't already, please write to Cohen's manager Robert Kory - info@rkmgment.com - and encourage him to cancel the show in Israel. It is scheduled to take place on September 24, but tickets have not yet been put on sale. Some fellow activists of mine met with Kory last week in New York, and it seems that we have a fighting chance, if only because they are desperate to avoid protest. We need to tell them that the way to avoid protest is not to perform in Israel! To take a stand against apartheid, instead of for it.
If you need some inspiration, watch this video of our demonstration in New York last week when Cohen performed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjU_zdfX9Eg It's complete with chants and songs that you are welcome to use. And please forward to anyone you know in eastern Canada, Denver, or the various places in Europe that are on Cohen's tour schedule in the coming weeks and months.
And... for the Facebookers out there, join the group "Leonard Cohen, drop Israel from your world tour!" at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=81564072660&ref=ts.
For more on the NY Leonard Cohen demo and to download the flyer: adalahny.org.
For more info on cultural boycott: pacbi.org.
Hope all is well with all of you. My next e-mail may very well be from Palestine.
Best,
Hannah
For those of you who haven't been following the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, I have good news: It is growing! And even meeting many successes! Not too many in the US yet, but I do believe we are well on our way. Just as in the movement against apartheid South Africa, which is in many ways a model for this movement against apartheid Israel, cultural boycott plays a key role. Some of you may remember "Ain't Gonna Play Sun City." Well, we are now encouraging artists to say, "Ain't Gonna Play Israel." Many cultural workers (musicians, writers, directors) have canceled recent trips to Israel; some (like Adrienne Rich) have declared support for the BDS movement, and some have simply cited "logistical concerns" but were actually in private conversation with leaders in the movement.
We often try to put pressure on artists who are otherwise progressive, who otherwise believe in peace and justice. We remind them that performing in Israel right now will only serve to whitewash Israel's apartheid policies, and will be used by the Israeli government to legitimize its actions. We say this now to Leonard Cohen. If you haven't already, please write to Cohen's manager Robert Kory - info@rkmgment.com - and encourage him to cancel the show in Israel. It is scheduled to take place on September 24, but tickets have not yet been put on sale. Some fellow activists of mine met with Kory last week in New York, and it seems that we have a fighting chance, if only because they are desperate to avoid protest. We need to tell them that the way to avoid protest is not to perform in Israel! To take a stand against apartheid, instead of for it.
If you need some inspiration, watch this video of our demonstration in New York last week when Cohen performed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjU_zdfX9Eg It's complete with chants and songs that you are welcome to use. And please forward to anyone you know in eastern Canada, Denver, or the various places in Europe that are on Cohen's tour schedule in the coming weeks and months.
And... for the Facebookers out there, join the group "Leonard Cohen, drop Israel from your world tour!" at http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=81564072660&ref=ts.
For more on the NY Leonard Cohen demo and to download the flyer: adalahny.org.
For more info on cultural boycott: pacbi.org.
Hope all is well with all of you. My next e-mail may very well be from Palestine.
Best,
Hannah
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Hampshire College divests... and needs your support!
Dear friends,
I am so excited to report to you that Hampshire College has become the first US college or university to divest from Israeli occupation, just as they were the first to divest from South African apartheid in 1977! You can read all about it to your heart's content at the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) website: http://www.hsjp.org/
But Hampshire SJP, and the boycott and divestment movement at large, need your help! The Hampshire administration has distanced itself from the decision, claiming that the board's decision to divest was a broader one, not tied to any particular political cause. The Hampshire community knows better. Alan Dershowitz also knows better, and has threatened Hampshire with his own divestment campaign against the college. It seems the administration is trying, as Alan Dershowitz has said, to play to both sides. Let's help them be clear, by writing to them, congratulating them, and encouraging them to be proud of their groundbreaking decision!
Below is a suggested letter that SJP has drafted. You can feel free to use it or write your own to Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521.
And do check out the students' website for more, including:
SJP's press release
SJP's response to the administration's clarification
videos of student and community voices in support
Onward!
-Hannah
From Hampshire SJP:
The following is the script to guide you in e-mailing the president's office [Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521]:
Hello, my name is _____. I am calling/e-mailing to express my congratulations to Hampshire College for your historic decision to divest from the Israeli Occupation. This move should be an example to all institutions of higher learning across the world.
However, I am disappointed that the administration has been trying to distance itself from the decision and de-politicize the powerful statement that divestment sends. In your response to the Student's public campaign, you have repeatedly insisted that the divestment decision had a "variety of reasons" for going through, and that it had no regional or political significance. However, the length & intensity of the campaign that the Students for Justice in Palestine have run makes it clear that it was their efforts that brought this divestment to the table. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your position on divestment and express your support for the students' efforts in an official statement soon.
Lastly, your failure to condemn the threats Alan Dershowitz has made towards SJP's spokespeople is deplorable. Dershowitz has called for a boycott on the College and you have still maintained your "neutral" position, hurting the students, the college, and yourself. I urge you to protect your students and their right to speak out on this monumental occasion.
Thank you.
I am so excited to report to you that Hampshire College has become the first US college or university to divest from Israeli occupation, just as they were the first to divest from South African apartheid in 1977! You can read all about it to your heart's content at the Hampshire Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) website: http://www.hsjp.org/
But Hampshire SJP, and the boycott and divestment movement at large, need your help! The Hampshire administration has distanced itself from the decision, claiming that the board's decision to divest was a broader one, not tied to any particular political cause. The Hampshire community knows better. Alan Dershowitz also knows better, and has threatened Hampshire with his own divestment campaign against the college. It seems the administration is trying, as Alan Dershowitz has said, to play to both sides. Let's help them be clear, by writing to them, congratulating them, and encouraging them to be proud of their groundbreaking decision!
Below is a suggested letter that SJP has drafted. You can feel free to use it or write your own to Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521.
And do check out the students' website for more, including:
SJP's press release
SJP's response to the administration's clarification
videos of student and community voices in support
Onward!
-Hannah
From Hampshire SJP:
The following is the script to guide you in e-mailing the president's office [Hampshire President Ralph Hexter: rhexter@hampshire.edu, 413-559-5521]:
Hello, my name is _____. I am calling/e-mailing to express my congratulations to Hampshire College for your historic decision to divest from the Israeli Occupation. This move should be an example to all institutions of higher learning across the world.
However, I am disappointed that the administration has been trying to distance itself from the decision and de-politicize the powerful statement that divestment sends. In your response to the Student's public campaign, you have repeatedly insisted that the divestment decision had a "variety of reasons" for going through, and that it had no regional or political significance. However, the length & intensity of the campaign that the Students for Justice in Palestine have run makes it clear that it was their efforts that brought this divestment to the table. I sincerely hope that you will reconsider your position on divestment and express your support for the students' efforts in an official statement soon.
Lastly, your failure to condemn the threats Alan Dershowitz has made towards SJP's spokespeople is deplorable. Dershowitz has called for a boycott on the College and you have still maintained your "neutral" position, hurting the students, the college, and yourself. I urge you to protect your students and their right to speak out on this monumental occasion.
Thank you.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
update on Gaza mother's story, and some inspiring activism
Dear friends,
Since my last e-mail, many of you wrote asking for more information about the story I shared of a mother whose five children were murdered. Barbara Lubin, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, was the person I was quoting, and she has also received many e-mails, prompting her to look more fully into the story. The most recent update follows, and is from an e-mail that Barbara received from her friend Talal, who did further research after Barbara left Gaza. You will see that many of the details are the same and many are quite different. You can also find this family’s story on various new sites online. Below is the e-mail from Talal.
Let us also remember that despite a “cease-fire,” Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a daily basis (albeit less so than during the “war”). People in the hospitals continue to die because of the ongoing siege and lack of treatment. And… the world continues to protest. Congratulations to the South African dockworkers who refused to unload a ship with Israeli goods last week: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/286, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11864. And kudos to all the university students who have been occupying campus buildings to demand justice for Gaza and divestment from Israel. Most of those students are British, but a special shout out to the students of Rochester, NY, who have conducted (with success!) the first campus occupation at a US university during this time: http://prometheus.scp.rochester.edu/ursds/node/86, http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/.
Let’s keep on keeping on.
-Hannah
E-mail from Talal to Barbara:
Dear Barbara,
It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends. I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details. We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.
It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.
The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezz Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old
The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.
This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.
Regards,
Talal
Since my last e-mail, many of you wrote asking for more information about the story I shared of a mother whose five children were murdered. Barbara Lubin, director of the Middle East Children’s Alliance, was the person I was quoting, and she has also received many e-mails, prompting her to look more fully into the story. The most recent update follows, and is from an e-mail that Barbara received from her friend Talal, who did further research after Barbara left Gaza. You will see that many of the details are the same and many are quite different. You can also find this family’s story on various new sites online. Below is the e-mail from Talal.
Let us also remember that despite a “cease-fire,” Israel continues to bomb Gaza on a daily basis (albeit less so than during the “war”). People in the hospitals continue to die because of the ongoing siege and lack of treatment. And… the world continues to protest. Congratulations to the South African dockworkers who refused to unload a ship with Israeli goods last week: http://bdsmovement.net/?q=node/286, http://www.anarkismo.net/article/11864. And kudos to all the university students who have been occupying campus buildings to demand justice for Gaza and divestment from Israel. Most of those students are British, but a special shout out to the students of Rochester, NY, who have conducted (with success!) the first campus occupation at a US university during this time: http://prometheus.scp.rochester.edu/ursds/node/86, http://www.thesitch.com/occupation/.
Let’s keep on keeping on.
-Hannah
E-mail from Talal to Barbara:
Dear Barbara,
It's the first time i have had internet. I hope you are O.K...you and all of our friends. I heard from Dr. Mona that you are under great pressure because of the story you have published about the crime of that woman. Be sure that it was a fact and we are ready to receive any investigation committee to check out the facts. But as you know during the wars and when death is very close, the popular memory interferes and colors the action with it's special details. We all heard the story on the local radio as I narrated it to you. But when you wrote the story and you faced so much pressure I decided to investigate and caught the real story.
It's not so far from from what you reported because the victims are the same...the story happened in Bourij Camp in the middle of the Gaza Strip. The Israelis called the woman Manal Albatran and told her that they wouldn't kill her or her husband Hussein Albatran, instead they would make them die of sadness because they would kill her children. The next day they shot her house with a rocket killing her and 5 of her children.
The dead:
Manal Albatran 30 years old
Walaa Albatran 12 years old
Islam Albatran 11 years old
Belal Albatran 10 years old
Ezz Albatran 8 years old
Ehsan Albatran 7 years old
The father who is an employee at an UNRWA school and the youngest child were saved.
This is the real story and I hope the amount of victims will convince others to believe the crimes we face. Thanks a lot for your appreciated visit and I hope to see you again soon.
Regards,
Talal
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Gaza in my heart
I am sad.
Deeply sad.
A sadness that is somehow scarier than the anger, because the anger is an expression, and the sadness just sits.
I want to share my sadness with the world. Somehow I believe that if everyone in the US felt the sadness I feel about Gaza, no massacre would happen ever again, anywhere. Part of my sadness, though, and my fear, is that I am not sure whether this is true.
Unread e-mails sit in my inbox. I still haven’t watched the video plea from the doctor in Gaza whose three daughters were killed. I still haven’t read the testimony of the nine-year-old boy whose father was shot and killed in front of him while his hands were in the air. Or the girls who walked out of their house carrying white cloths and were shot and killed on the spot. Or all the children who somehow survived with no food for days as they lay next to their dead relatives’ rotting bodies or crawled to nearby buildings to wait out the bombing. I read the headlines only, and then I stop. I cannot continue.
I received an e-mail today from an American Jew I know who has just entered Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. She shares one story: “I met a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her.”
The nightmare of reality is truly more horrific than anyone could imagine. And yet I worry that if I share this story, or any number of others that are flooding my inbox, some might not believe them. They are almost unbelievable. And yet. Story after story. I worry that some might dismiss the unbearable suffering of 1.5 million people as mere propaganda. And I worry, quite selfishly, that I cannot handle the doubts right now. That I am holding all this sadness and all this anger and that my faith in humanity is on the line, and one more person who dismisses a tragedy as propaganda, or one more person who justifies massacre in the name of security or self-defense, might just break me.
So I wonder if I should share these stories. I go back and forth. If this mother’s five children were still alive, would Israel’s army be any more moral? If the 1,312 Palestinians killed in the past month were still alive, would Israel’s 18-month siege of Gaza be justified? If Israel had never occupied Gaza in the first place, would it have any more right to exist as an ethnically and religiously exclusive state?
I search for the roots, I write from the roots, I act from the roots. Israel is bad from inception, Zionism is wrong, and we need to boycott until all Palestinians have rights. Yes. This is true. But right now I’m thinking of this mother. And all the mothers. And wondering if this pain can just spread, spread until it is diffused. I’m wondering if the world can hold this pain, just for a moment. Hold it collectively. I don’t want to have to fight anymore. I don’t want to answer questions about why “they” hate “us” and I don’t want to resent the lightheartedness of strangers on the street. I just want this to stop.
I know, of course, that for it to stop, we must know where it started. Tomorrow I will get back to working on that. But right now, right now, let us just hold the people of Gaza in our hearts and hope that somehow, against all odds, they will rebuild their lives, that soon they will get a full night’s sleep without nightmares, and that sometime they will feel joy again.
-Hannah
P.S. And because I can’t end any e-mail without sharing more resources, check out the new website www.thinkpalestineact.org. It has lots of great multi-media and popular education tools regarding Gaza and Palestine in general. And keep checking it. It will grow. And check www.endtheoccupation.org for updates about campaigns throughout the country and for ways to engage President Obama (I know, I know, maybe naïve, but I do believe that the image of Obama, if not the man himself, has created the biggest opening we’ve had in electoral politics in a long time).
Deeply sad.
A sadness that is somehow scarier than the anger, because the anger is an expression, and the sadness just sits.
I want to share my sadness with the world. Somehow I believe that if everyone in the US felt the sadness I feel about Gaza, no massacre would happen ever again, anywhere. Part of my sadness, though, and my fear, is that I am not sure whether this is true.
Unread e-mails sit in my inbox. I still haven’t watched the video plea from the doctor in Gaza whose three daughters were killed. I still haven’t read the testimony of the nine-year-old boy whose father was shot and killed in front of him while his hands were in the air. Or the girls who walked out of their house carrying white cloths and were shot and killed on the spot. Or all the children who somehow survived with no food for days as they lay next to their dead relatives’ rotting bodies or crawled to nearby buildings to wait out the bombing. I read the headlines only, and then I stop. I cannot continue.
I received an e-mail today from an American Jew I know who has just entered Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid. She shares one story: “I met a mother who was at home with her ten children when Israeli soldiers entered the house. The soldiers told her she had to choose five of her children to "give as a gift to Israel." As she screamed in horror they repeated the demand and told her she could choose or they would choose for her. Then these soldiers murdered five of her children in front of her.”
The nightmare of reality is truly more horrific than anyone could imagine. And yet I worry that if I share this story, or any number of others that are flooding my inbox, some might not believe them. They are almost unbelievable. And yet. Story after story. I worry that some might dismiss the unbearable suffering of 1.5 million people as mere propaganda. And I worry, quite selfishly, that I cannot handle the doubts right now. That I am holding all this sadness and all this anger and that my faith in humanity is on the line, and one more person who dismisses a tragedy as propaganda, or one more person who justifies massacre in the name of security or self-defense, might just break me.
So I wonder if I should share these stories. I go back and forth. If this mother’s five children were still alive, would Israel’s army be any more moral? If the 1,312 Palestinians killed in the past month were still alive, would Israel’s 18-month siege of Gaza be justified? If Israel had never occupied Gaza in the first place, would it have any more right to exist as an ethnically and religiously exclusive state?
I search for the roots, I write from the roots, I act from the roots. Israel is bad from inception, Zionism is wrong, and we need to boycott until all Palestinians have rights. Yes. This is true. But right now I’m thinking of this mother. And all the mothers. And wondering if this pain can just spread, spread until it is diffused. I’m wondering if the world can hold this pain, just for a moment. Hold it collectively. I don’t want to have to fight anymore. I don’t want to answer questions about why “they” hate “us” and I don’t want to resent the lightheartedness of strangers on the street. I just want this to stop.
I know, of course, that for it to stop, we must know where it started. Tomorrow I will get back to working on that. But right now, right now, let us just hold the people of Gaza in our hearts and hope that somehow, against all odds, they will rebuild their lives, that soon they will get a full night’s sleep without nightmares, and that sometime they will feel joy again.
-Hannah
P.S. And because I can’t end any e-mail without sharing more resources, check out the new website www.thinkpalestineact.org. It has lots of great multi-media and popular education tools regarding Gaza and Palestine in general. And keep checking it. It will grow. And check www.endtheoccupation.org for updates about campaigns throughout the country and for ways to engage President Obama (I know, I know, maybe naïve, but I do believe that the image of Obama, if not the man himself, has created the biggest opening we’ve had in electoral politics in a long time).
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Gaza: Day 18
*At the bottom are suggested resources and action items for Gaza.*
Eighteen is a significant number in Judaism. It means life. Today is day 18 of Israel’s war on Gaza. More than 935 people in Gaza are dead, with thousands more injured. Taking the total population into account, this is equivalent in US terms to about 200,000 Americans. That’s right, two hundred thousand Americans dead in less than three weeks.
I turned on the news for an hour yesterday. Across the bottom of the screen, over and over again, ran the statement, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians.”
#1: Bullshit! A third of the people murdered so far have been children alone. The equivalent of 65,000 American children. The Israeli army is not so sloppy as to miss its targets 300 times. Are they deliberately killing civilians? Perhaps it is a matter of semantics. I’m not so sure they said, “Let’s kill Miyasar Abu Maatak and her four young children today,” but they certainly aren’t trying NOT to. In other words, at best, the Israeli army is targeting no one, and therefore potentially hitting everyone.
#2: Huh? Only targeting Hamas, not civilians? Suppose someone bombed the US and then tried to justify it with, “We are only targeting Republicans, not civilians.” If you protest, “But the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, most Republicans are civilians,” the response would come: Sure, but Republicans are in control in the US, and therefore should be held responsible for every crime committed by an American while they are in power. (I am not even talking here about the massive war crimes committed by the US government itself, which gives much more legitimate reasons for bombing the US).
And so, once again, we are in the twilight zone. Where houses, schools, universities, and mosques are fair targets. Where Israel can close all entrances and exits to Gaza and then become indignant that people dig tunnels to transport necessary goods between Gaza and Egypt. Where Israel claims to be humanitarian because it stops indiscriminately bombing for up to 3 hours a day (and even during this short time, people are not safe; on Sunday 14 people were shelled and killed in these hours). Or because it drops leaflets as a precursor to bombs, warning the residents of Gaza to leave the area. Leave what area? Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and the people are closed in from all sides.
I watched the new for only an hour yesterday, and cannot get the images out of my head. Parents crying over dead children. Injured children being rushed to the hospital in ambulances, in taxis, on foot. The interview with a 16 year old boy whose mother and four brothers were killed in the attack on the Samouni family in the Zeitoun neighborhood last week (soldiers forced the entire family into one house, supposedly for their safety; the next day it was bombed). Were there 30 people killed there? 70? Accounts vary, mostly because the Israeli army will not allow journalists or ambulances to approach the neighborhood. One young EMT, exhaustion and trauma written all over his face, explained to Al Jazeera how he and others were able to enter a few houses yesterday and pull out the injured only after parking the ambulance 2 kilometers away from their intended destination and passing by 9 dead bodies on the road. Are these bodies counted in the 935? What about those in the houses the EMTs did not reach?
I saw these images, heard the stories, and heard the desperate pleas of Gazans and internationals (UN officials, EU parliament members, and more), the smug assertions of the Israeli army that their operations are going well, and the smirking George Bush as he once again blamed Hamas for the actions of the Israeli army. I wanted to throw something at the television. After less than an hour of news, I, a nonviolent person by disposition, felt my anger and hatred lead me to thoughts and desires I rarely have, some of which would actually harm me and my loved ones. I can only imagine what people living through this horror must feel. Or Arabs and others throughout the world with less personal connection to the enemy, be it Israelis, Americans, or Jews. I must admit I have little concern at the current moment for Israel’s safety, but if Israeli leaders have any concern at all for their own people’s safety, what the hell are they doing?
The princess of Dubai, a humanitarian official with the UN, gave an exacerbated interview in which she talked about the anger of the Arab streets and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. “What scares me most,” she said, “is that the news is repeating itself day after day, and those in the West can just turn it off.”
Shortly later, I turned the television off. I couldn’t bear it anymore. But we must not turn off our opposition. Running across the bottom of the screen, right after, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians,” is “World protests continue over Gaza war.” It is important. It may not seem like it right now, but whenever this does stop, it will be sooner for the protest. The people of Gaza cannot afford our inaction.
Take action:
US Campaign to End the Occupation – info on lobbying, protests, and more: www.endtheoccupation.org
Donate money for emergency supplies: http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
Media monitoring / letters to editor: http://www.writetruth.org
Buy a Gaza t-shirt, or 10: http://247463.spreadshirt.com/-/-/Shop/
This is more long-term, but no better time than now to launch a boycott campaign against Israel: http://bds-palestine.net/
Recommended articles:
“What You Don’t Know About Gaza” by Rashid Khalidi: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=2&em
“A 14-year-old in Gaza Has One Question: Why?” by Eyad El-Sarraj: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/11/a_14_year_old_in_gaza_has_one_question_why/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
“Hello, this is the IDF” by Muhammad Ali Khalidi: http://www.counterpunch.org/khalidi01052009.html
For more about the attack on the Samouni house in the Zeitoun neighborhood: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-zeitoun-attack-deaths
Recommended sources for constant information:
Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/
Blog of Sameh Habeeb (journalist in Gaza): http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/
Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/
Free Gaza Movement (the folks who have been sending boats to break the siege for a few months now): http://freegaza.org/
And more. A good combination of news, resources, and action: http://gazasiege.org
Eighteen is a significant number in Judaism. It means life. Today is day 18 of Israel’s war on Gaza. More than 935 people in Gaza are dead, with thousands more injured. Taking the total population into account, this is equivalent in US terms to about 200,000 Americans. That’s right, two hundred thousand Americans dead in less than three weeks.
I turned on the news for an hour yesterday. Across the bottom of the screen, over and over again, ran the statement, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians.”
#1: Bullshit! A third of the people murdered so far have been children alone. The equivalent of 65,000 American children. The Israeli army is not so sloppy as to miss its targets 300 times. Are they deliberately killing civilians? Perhaps it is a matter of semantics. I’m not so sure they said, “Let’s kill Miyasar Abu Maatak and her four young children today,” but they certainly aren’t trying NOT to. In other words, at best, the Israeli army is targeting no one, and therefore potentially hitting everyone.
#2: Huh? Only targeting Hamas, not civilians? Suppose someone bombed the US and then tried to justify it with, “We are only targeting Republicans, not civilians.” If you protest, “But the two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, most Republicans are civilians,” the response would come: Sure, but Republicans are in control in the US, and therefore should be held responsible for every crime committed by an American while they are in power. (I am not even talking here about the massive war crimes committed by the US government itself, which gives much more legitimate reasons for bombing the US).
And so, once again, we are in the twilight zone. Where houses, schools, universities, and mosques are fair targets. Where Israel can close all entrances and exits to Gaza and then become indignant that people dig tunnels to transport necessary goods between Gaza and Egypt. Where Israel claims to be humanitarian because it stops indiscriminately bombing for up to 3 hours a day (and even during this short time, people are not safe; on Sunday 14 people were shelled and killed in these hours). Or because it drops leaflets as a precursor to bombs, warning the residents of Gaza to leave the area. Leave what area? Nowhere in Gaza is safe, and the people are closed in from all sides.
I watched the new for only an hour yesterday, and cannot get the images out of my head. Parents crying over dead children. Injured children being rushed to the hospital in ambulances, in taxis, on foot. The interview with a 16 year old boy whose mother and four brothers were killed in the attack on the Samouni family in the Zeitoun neighborhood last week (soldiers forced the entire family into one house, supposedly for their safety; the next day it was bombed). Were there 30 people killed there? 70? Accounts vary, mostly because the Israeli army will not allow journalists or ambulances to approach the neighborhood. One young EMT, exhaustion and trauma written all over his face, explained to Al Jazeera how he and others were able to enter a few houses yesterday and pull out the injured only after parking the ambulance 2 kilometers away from their intended destination and passing by 9 dead bodies on the road. Are these bodies counted in the 935? What about those in the houses the EMTs did not reach?
I saw these images, heard the stories, and heard the desperate pleas of Gazans and internationals (UN officials, EU parliament members, and more), the smug assertions of the Israeli army that their operations are going well, and the smirking George Bush as he once again blamed Hamas for the actions of the Israeli army. I wanted to throw something at the television. After less than an hour of news, I, a nonviolent person by disposition, felt my anger and hatred lead me to thoughts and desires I rarely have, some of which would actually harm me and my loved ones. I can only imagine what people living through this horror must feel. Or Arabs and others throughout the world with less personal connection to the enemy, be it Israelis, Americans, or Jews. I must admit I have little concern at the current moment for Israel’s safety, but if Israeli leaders have any concern at all for their own people’s safety, what the hell are they doing?
The princess of Dubai, a humanitarian official with the UN, gave an exacerbated interview in which she talked about the anger of the Arab streets and the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza. “What scares me most,” she said, “is that the news is repeating itself day after day, and those in the West can just turn it off.”
Shortly later, I turned the television off. I couldn’t bear it anymore. But we must not turn off our opposition. Running across the bottom of the screen, right after, “Israel says only targeting Hamas, not civilians,” is “World protests continue over Gaza war.” It is important. It may not seem like it right now, but whenever this does stop, it will be sooner for the protest. The people of Gaza cannot afford our inaction.
Take action:
US Campaign to End the Occupation – info on lobbying, protests, and more: www.endtheoccupation.org
Donate money for emergency supplies: http://www.mecaforpeace.org/
Media monitoring / letters to editor: http://www.writetruth.org
Buy a Gaza t-shirt, or 10: http://247463.spreadshirt.com/-/-/Shop/
This is more long-term, but no better time than now to launch a boycott campaign against Israel: http://bds-palestine.net/
Recommended articles:
“What You Don’t Know About Gaza” by Rashid Khalidi: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08khalidi.html?_r=2&em
“A 14-year-old in Gaza Has One Question: Why?” by Eyad El-Sarraj: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/01/11/a_14_year_old_in_gaza_has_one_question_why/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
“Hello, this is the IDF” by Muhammad Ali Khalidi: http://www.counterpunch.org/khalidi01052009.html
For more about the attack on the Samouni house in the Zeitoun neighborhood: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-zeitoun-attack-deaths
Recommended sources for constant information:
Al Jazeera: http://english.aljazeera.net/
Blog of Sameh Habeeb (journalist in Gaza): http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com/
Democracy Now: http://www.democracynow.org/
Electronic Intifada: http://electronicintifada.net/
Free Gaza Movement (the folks who have been sending boats to break the siege for a few months now): http://freegaza.org/
And more. A good combination of news, resources, and action: http://gazasiege.org
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