Why I do I keep spending my precious vacation days not really on vacation?
My Jewish upbringing instilled in me values of justice, tikkun olam (repairing the world) and loving your neighbor as yourself. Israel was portrayed as a haven for Jews fleeing the Holocaust and religious persecution, filled with pioneers making the desert bloom, living on socialistic kibbutzim.
It wasn’t until I spent a college semester abroad in Jerusalem that I started to see that Israeli democracy included the oppression of non-Jews and the displacement of Palestinians.
It is unjust that I, as an American Jew, am welcome to immigrate to Israel while my Palestinian friend, born in East Jerusalem, had his Jerusalem ID taken away for spending too many years getting his education in the United States. That is why I’ve started to spend my vacation days helping to end 50 years of occupation — by using my privilege as an American Jew to create a more democratic Israel.
Last month I joined my second delegation with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence, working in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank to fully demonstrate that occupation is not my Judaism.
The injustices of the occupation are most striking in Hebron, one of the largest Palestinian cities with 150,000 residents. After the 1967 war, settlers moved into Hebron and today the heart of the old city is surrounded by checkpoints, as more than 500 ideological Jewish settlers — protected by at least that many Israeli soldiers — live amongst 35,000 Palestinians.
Following the 1994 massacre of 29 Palestinians by Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein, an official separation of Palestinians and settlers was instituted by the Israeli government to prevent revenge attacks. This collective punishment continues today, and “sterilization” forbids Palestinians from driving on some roads and from walking on others. Since 2001, the Israeli military locked every shop on Shuhada Street, and Palestinians who live above these closed shops must exit their homes in creative ways to avoid stepping onto sterilized streets.
Israeli civil law applies to Jewish settlers in Hebron, while Palestinians are subjected to military law. I witnessed two settlers attack an Israeli photojournalist, running up and kicking the video camera resting on his shoulder up into his face. The Israeli soldiers standing 20 feet away had no authority to detain the settlers. By the time the police arrived, the settlers had fled the scene.
It wasn’t until I spent a college semester abroad in Jerusalem that I started to see that Israeli democracy included the oppression of non-Jews and the displacement of Palestinians.
Despite 40 American and European Jews having witnessed the attack, and our video documentation of it, the police refused to take our statements, claiming they couldn’t be sure what had happened. On a tour with Breaking the Silence, we learned how the Israeli military makes its presence known by randomly invading Palestinian homes in the middle of the night to ensure Palestinians know they have no freedom.
It wasn’t until I spent a college semester abroad in Jerusalem that I started to see that Israeli democracy included the oppression of non-Jews and the displacement of Palestinians.
Last July, Jawad Abu Aisha invited us to help turn his shuttered factory on Shuhada Street into a cinema. A coalition of Palestinians (from Youth Against Settlements), Israelis (from All That’s Left), and American and European Jews (from the Center for Jewish Nonviolence) managed to work several hours before the army issued a closed military zone order.
At that point, we sat down, linked arms and alternately sang civil rights-era protest songs and Hebrew songs while the police removed us. Six Israeli citizens were detained, but the police were not yet ready to arrest 40 American Jews. This showed us how we could use our American Jewish privilege to help Palestinian nonviolent activists.
Youth Against Settlements, boldly led by Issa Amro, focuses on nonviolent resistance, promoting justice and human rights. The group opened a kindergarten so kids wouldn’t have to pass through checkpoints to get to school. They help Palestinians resist eviction and run an annual campaign to re-open Shuhada Street. Issa teaches nonviolent resistance and encourages Palestinian youth to not give up hope. He fearlessly intervenes at checkpoints when soldiers are harassing Palestinians, and inserts himself between violent settlers and Palestinians.
In retaliation for his nonviolent resistance efforts, Issa faces 18 criminal charges ranging from insulting a soldier to entering a closed military zone. With a military court conviction rate of more than 99 percent, international governments will need to intervene on Issa’s behalf. Urge your member of Congress to sign the Congressional letter of support for Issa, a true partner for peace.
As I was entering Israel for this trip, I was detained at Ben Gurion Airport for three hours and questioned about traveling to the West Bank and other Middle Eastern countries, and Arab-sounding names in my phone. I was falsely accused of participating in a demonstration in a town I never visited and threatened to be put back on an airplane. Eventually I was not deemed a security threat and got my entry visa.
On my way home, again my passport was taken for 45 minutes, and other Center for Jewish Nonviolence participants were questioned and strip-searched.
The real threat to Israel’s security is the continued occupation. Almost 10 million U.S. dollars each day enable the occupation and illegal settlement expansion. I will continue to put my Jewish values into action to end the occupation and bring about equality and justice for Palestinians and Israelis.
Israel is a shining star of freedom in a region, sadly, largely devoid of it. In truth, Israel is a veritable social justice Shangri-La compared to the rest of the Arab Middle East.
With regards to the anti-Israel gadfly who wrote this Orwellian diatribe against Israel, I looked up the “New Israel Fund” (which the author is “active” with–whatever that means) and quickly learned that the “NIF” is a radical, fringe, far-left organization that supports the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) and cooperates with the United Nation’s Anti-Israel activities.
With regards to the merits of this silly, one-sided article: the author is simply going to have to come to terms with the fact that in light of Israel’s experience with Gaza, a majority of the Israeli electorate have come to conclude that there’s no rational reason to believe that a Palestinian state would be anything other than a dangerous, antisemitic, religiously intolerant, homophobic, misogynistic country that is home to Islamist terror groups, just a stone’s throw away from Tel Aviv and Haifa.
Cry me a river. And after, read this.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/what-happens-when-famous-novelists-confront-the-occupation-in-the-west-bank/2017/06/23/4541c1d8-2927-11e7-b605-33413c691853_story.html?utm_term=.e207d877dc31#comments
A completely different perspective from someone on the exact same trip (Apparently the rosy warm glow of self righteousness wasn’t universal)
http://www.israellycool.com/2017/05/22/an-anti-israel-activist-shares-her-resistance-experience/
“Day two was even more meaningful. Our hosts took us to the backyards of Palestinian homes in Hebron. They told us that illegal settlers dumped garbage in their yards and forbade them from weeding, raking and engaging in any other type of basic upkeep. Although dirt poor due to the oppressive occupation, they generously provided us with garbage bags and gardening tools. While our indigenous friends watched us, in awe of our pure goodness, we enthusiastically picked up the trash and filth. Our Palestinian friends shared in our joy, their laughter strengthening us in the stifling humidity.”
It is a mistake to think of Judah and Shomron as ‘occupied’ territories. These are part of the historic homeland of the Jewish People. Jews are indigenous to Israel in the same way Navajo are indigenous to their Homeland. It is right and proper for us to return to our Homeland and reclaim it. It is a common wish for all indigenous people to reclaim their historic homelands. We Jews have been able to do so. To deny this is to deny the right of native peoples to return to their ancestral lands and puts the author of this piece squarely in the camp as those native Americans who collaborated with the cavalry in the destruction of their Peoples.
Thanks, Laura. I was there too, and I also will return time and again with the Center for Jewish Nonviolence because of the integrity and great leadership of CJNV and its Palestinian and Israeli partners. The contradictions are glaringly, horrifically indefensible between how regular Palestinians are treated and how everyone else is treated. It is not democratic or fair or just or consistent with the highest ideals or practical realities of our faith.
If you want democracy and fairness, go to Pakistan.
Israel is the national home of the ethnic Hebrew People. Only the Hebrew People have national rights there.
Everyone else is allowed to apply for residency.
More nonsense by a crazed leftist Jew. Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Fatah, Hezbollah and the Iranians work tirelessly to destroy Israel – and Israelis – and this nutter says “the real threat to Israel’s security is the occupation?” Sadly, this mishegoss is standard fare among leftist Jews. Finally, someone should tell the author that it is Jewish land and you cannot “occupy” your own land.
By publishing this article (and deleting my initial comment) the J is clearly supporting a false narrative about Israel that will further divide us all. SHAME ON THE J.
Hopefully your ngo and you will be banned from israel.
You cry about the isolated incidents of Israeli violence against Arabs which Israelis almost universally decry but ignore the continued slaughter of Israelis and wars of genocide launched against us. I guess that’s because like everyone else in the world you feel israeli lives don’t matter. There’s no penalty for killing a Jew.
If you try and kill a Jew and destroy a Jewish country and fail you should get all your stuff back so you can try again. It’s only Jews. Trying to kill us us good fun.
You’re nothing more than a agent if the terrorists trying to murder my family.
It’s interesting that so many lefty american Jews decry Russia’s supposed meddling in the us elections but insist on their right to travel to israel where they are not citizens and interfere with our politics and actively work against our democratically elected government.
Bless ur heart! I want u to know u will be in my prayers.,. Shalom
Why don’t you spend you precious vacation time saving persecuted Middle East Christians? Are they less worthy? Why don’t you spend your precious vacation time ensuring that Christians are not forced out from Bethlehem?
Double standard is your middle name
I was on the trip with Laura. We stayed at a hotel in Bethlehem, actually and enjoyed its safe streets at night. What a weird thing for you to accuse anyone but Israel for being hard on Christians in Bethlehem. I saw Palestinian Muslims and Christians uniting as Palestinians against the pressures by Israel to force all of them out.
Jim, here are some facts:
Bethlehem was mostly Christian until the 1990s.
In 1950, Bethlehem and the surrounding villages were 86 percent
Christian. But by 2016, the Christian population dipped to just 12
percent, according Bethlehem mayor Vera Baboun.
In Israel Arab Christians population has stayed
stable..
These are facts, not to be confused with “feelings”.