this is a family conversation between lefty jews, enter at your own risk.

one of the great things about stepping back from my responsibilities at the icarus project is that i have a lot more time these days to study and strategise about larger political/social movements. more and more i'm convinced that the Israeli divestment struggle is where it's at as far as uniting large groups of people to break the shackles of global capitalism and neocolonialism and bring on the rev. but maybe i'm just some crazy mad terrorist mental patient sitting alone in front of a computer screen listening to the voices in my head...

“Solidarity: not an act of charity but an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objectives.”

Mom and Gil –
this email was inspired by a small booklet that Gil gave me a few weeks ago entitled “Progressive Zionist Answers to the Anti-Israel Left” published by a group that calls itself “Ameinu.” Ameinu describes itself as the “leading grassroots progressive Zionist organization in the United States and the US affiliate of the World Labor Zionist Movement.”
The introduction to their pamphlet states:

“On college campuses, in community settings and in the media, Israel is under attack by left-leaning activists. These attacks often do not express legitimate criticism of specific policies or government decisions, but rather seek to delegitimate Israel as a Jewish, democratic state…For many American Jews who align themselves with the left side of the political spectrum on domestic and other international issues, the finger-pointing at Israel is confusing and causes discomfort. Reconciling a commitment to liberalism, equality and human rights with attachments to ethnic groups and nation-states is not a new dilemma. Progressive Zionists believe that our commitment to the universal values of liberalism and equality can be reconciled, in theory and in practice, with our particularist attachments to the Jewish people and to Zionism…
At Ameinu, we believe there is no contradiction between a progressive approach to political issues and critical support for Israel. Committed to peace, social justice and the centrality of Israel for the Jewish people, Ameinu serves the American Jewish community by providing a voice for liberal Jews on issues of concern in both the United States and Israel.”

In response to a close reading of their arguments, I have gathered some text from the most recent issue of Left Turn Magazine which published a series of articles under the title “We Cultivate Hope: 60 Years of Palestinian Struggle.” This is first time that I’ve ever tried to write about this issue, and I clearly have so much more to learn, but there are some points that are becoming clearer in my mind and I feel inspired to share them in the interests of community dialog and movement building. I’m writing this letter to you two, but I’m going to share it with my friends and the folks at the Icarus Project.

As you know, I’ve spent many years avoiding much of a connection to both my Jewish heritage and any responsibility for the role of Israel in the global political landscape. The issues have always been so confusing to me, and like many of my Jewish friends, I’ve chosen to distance myself from the struggle rather then grapple with the complexities. Despite numerous opportunities to exercise my “right of return” and visit this land I somehow have a historical and legal connection to, I’ve always found myself emotionally and intellectually shut down at the mention of the state of Israel. I’m definitely not alone in this one. Even for mom, who works for a Zionist organization, I know the political situation in Israel is a very painful topic of conversation. At times we have argued, and I’ve been told to do my homework.

As I have finally begun to explore the complex issues around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it has become clear to me how important it is that I, and my community of Jewish and non-Jewish friends, raise our voices in support for the emerging BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement in solidarity with the people of Palestine. I have many reasons for this.

As a Jew I feel a responsibility to speak out against crimes against humanity that are seemingly being carried out in my name and the name of my people. Though I was not raised religiously, I was raised with an understanding that I had a responsibility to know my history and feel a connection to other Jews. We sat at the Passover dinner table every year recounting the story of our Exodus from Egypt, and reveled in our freedom from slavery long in the past. The outsider identity that my Jewish heritage gave me is surely partly responsible for the directions my life has taken and the work I’ve ended up doing, and part of my sensitization to suffering and struggle in the world.

As a mad activist with an analysis of collective trauma, it seems painfully clear to me that my people, who have been so oppressed throughout history and most recently under Nazi Germany, are acting out the role of oppressor in the same way a traumatized individual will lash out and perpetuate the cycle of violence with the people in their life. In the same way that I’ve come to believe that the hardest and scariest parts of ourselves hold the secret keys to our problems, I think that politically the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the equivalent of our darkest fears and secrets. It’s as ugly as it gets and we have to stare it in the face and take action or else in the long run it will destroy anything good and just we are working towards. 

As the child of leftists and labor organizers, I am beginning to understand the role that “Labor Zionism” has played in the formation and defense of the state of Israel. I want to be able to reclaim the proud history of the kibbutzim movement while simultaneously acknowledging the shameful role that Labor Zionists played in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and the decades of Labor Zionist leadership in the Israeli military. I do not want to be associated with these people. It is not my movement, not my struggle. 

As an anarchist, in principle and emotion, I feel absolutely no solidarity with the state of Israel nor any other nation that oppresses the people under its rule. I believe strongly that within my lifetime we will witness the dissolving of what is now considered the “nation-state” and I feel a powerful responsibility to create alternate models of what the future might look like with a “global consciousness.” As scary as the future looks, I believe this is our only hope. Nationalism is destined for the collective compost pile and hopefully it will be reborn in its next incarnation as something less toxic and destructive. You may say I’m a dreamer but I’m not the only one.

As a white radical activist in North America who is committed to calling out racism and building solidarity with all oppressed groups, it is clear that more dialog needs to be happening between radical Jews and the modern people-of-color led social justice movements. The legacy of unhealed splits in the civil right movement of the 60’s is shameful, and is not going to change without acknowledging the divisive role North American Jews on the left have sometimes played in creating those splits. There are issues of privilege that many Jews I know have a hard time talking about because it’s so hard to give up the identity of the oppressed, even once we’ve made it inside the door and have institutional power. Radical Jews embracing the Palestinian solidarity movement is one more step in healing distrust that was caused by an earlier generation of activists. It feels like a very important piece of the puzzle to building a mass movement for justice.

As a founder of The Icarus Project, an organization that has profited from my direct connections to the Jewish philanthropic community, I am committed to challenging the role of what has been labeled as the “Non-Profit Industrial Complex” in watering down radical political movements. Miraculously, I don’t feel like we’ve ever compromised ourselves politically at all, we have some incredibly generous allies and we’ve managed thus far to stay out of the fire. But I am excited about being a part of the new wave of radical activists who are challenging the  traditional non-profit paradigm in the interests of building a truly grassroots revolutionary movement, and I’m hoping to find other allies in the funding world who recognize the importance of this struggle and cultural/political shift.

 Finally, I believe in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that a “commitment to peace, social justice and the centrality of Israel for the Jewish people” is in fact a manipulative contradiction in terms, and that “liberalism, equality and human rights” are nothing but hollow and tired slogans without actual justice and accountability for the oppressed and exiled. As much discomfort and confusion as this might cause in liberal Jewish circles, it has to be addressed. And then we have to take collective action.

“Any solidarity activities that ignore or treat the right of return as a separate issue will be self-defeating and even harmful in the long term. Under the current power dynamics of this conflict, ignoring or refraining from supporting the right of return means siding with the stronger side and the side that is invoking racism to trump this basic human right.”

I feel strongly that I was raised by my parents to challenge power and work towards peace. We are living in such important times: the choices we make today are going to have so much impact on the ones who come after us. I believe we are building the foundations of a mass movement for justice and cultural evolution. I believe, like everyone from the Neo-Cons to the Islamic Fundamentalists, that the area known today as the state of Israel is going to play an important role in what the future looks like for the rest of the planet. I think one of the keys to a future is to step outside of the narrow definitions that nationalism gives us to define ourselves.

We are one people. We have to respect each other’s common humanity above any other history.

I look forward to continuing this dialog in the coming months and years, and I’m hoping that we can all figure out a way to support each other, even if we don’t always agree on tactics and strategy.

With much love and respect,
Sascha


Here are more words from our friends at AMEINU:

“Israel is an Apartheid State”
Some critics of Israel erroneously use the world “apartheid” to describe both Israel as a whole and its treatment of the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. The Afrikaana word apartheid refers to the South African National Party’s system of institutionalized racial segregation by which the white minority dominated the non-white majority until 1994. The word apartheid also invokes Soth Africa’s pariah status within the international community. By labeling Israel an apartheid state, Israel’s critics are implicitly arguing that Israel is illegitimate and akin to pre-1994 South Africa and therefore sould not continue as a Jewish state. This is a more “politically correct” way to say that Zionism is racism, which is a false claim…
Israel is a multi-religious, multi-ethnic, multi-racial state in which all citizens have equal rights protected by the nation’s democratic system of laws. When individuals and segments of Israeli society feel they are being denied their civil liberties, they have full access to the Israeli courts to seek redress. The Israeli courts have frequently sided with minority communities to protect a full range of individual and community rights.
Using the term apartheid in the Israeli-Palestinian context is particularly unhelpful because it confounds two situations with little in common. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a class of national aspirations by two separate peoples with historical ties to the same land. Even the majority of Palestinians do not espouse the elimination of Israel as a Jewish state, but rather call for peaceful coexistance of two states for two people.


Here are links to five articles from the new issue of Left Turn with my selections from the articles below:

60 Years of Nakba – Palestinian Refugees and the New Anti-Apartheid Movement
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1091
No Backing Down on Palestinian Right of Return
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1095
From South Africa to Palestine, Lessons for the New Anti-Apartheid Movement
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1099
BDS Conference in Palestine: Building Solidarity, Combating Normalization
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1089
National Popular Palestinian Conference
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1093



60 Years of Nakba – Palestinian Refugees and the New Anti-Apartheid Movement
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1091

The story of the Gaza Strip is the story of the Palestinian Nakba – the catastropy – that saw the ethnic cleansing of Palestine in 1947-1948. The majority of those living in Gaza are refugees who can see their lands from inside the Gaza Bantustan. What we see in Gaza today is the model that Israel wants to implement in the West Bank. It reinforces the fact that the Israeli state is a settler-colonial project that closely resembles features of South African apartheid.

Israel apartheid supporters claim that Israel is a democracy because of its equal treatment of Palestinian citizens of Israel. However, those Palestinians who managed to remain on their land and became Israeli citizens are deliberately denied equal access to social services and the material resources of the state. …
In the West Bank and Gaza Strip Palestinians are subject to military law—a separate and discriminatory “legal” system drawn up by the Israeli military and regulated by Israeli military courts—while Israeli settlers in the same area are under civil law.

Lets look at the changes the Palestine solidarity movement is undergoing as it transforms itself from a movement which has to constantly respond to Israel’s ethnic cleansing to one that focuses on a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) aimed at ending the apartheid system that drives the ethnic cleansing.
Key to this new anti-apartheid movement’s success will be deepening its connection to struggles against neoliberalism, racism, and war.

No Backing Down on Palestinian Right of Return
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1095

Legal Cover
The Israeli Parliament passed legislation entitled the Absentee Property Act in 1950. This law was the legal tool Israel used to seize the property that the refugees had left behind.
The Nakba of 1948 and the harsh realities of living in refugee camps were some of the most definitive elements in the development of the Palestinian identity and the Palestinian polity.

Although often portrayed as an obstacle to peace, the issue of the refugees and their right of return and restitution is in fact the key to peace. In order to solve the conflict and achieve lasting peace in the region, the core issue of refugees and the ethnic cleansing of 1948 should be addressed adequately and in accordance with international law and the basic notions of justice.

Israel has openly and vocally declared, in all venues, that it is not responsible for the creation of the refugee problem, and therefore the refugees will never be allowed to return to their homeland. In doing so, Israel has totally disregarded a wide array of international law principles and more than a hundred UN resolutions calling on Israel to allow the Palestinian refugees to return.

Besides declaring that it is not responsible for the expulsion—which was proved untrue by an abundance of compelling evidence furnished by the Israeli archives—Israel has put forward a number of reasons that supposedly trump the right of return of refugees. The main one being that if refugees were allowed to return, Israel—because of demographic reasons—will no longer be a Jewish state. Simply put, Israel says that in order to maintain the hegemony of one ethnic group over another—which was acquired as a result of crimes against humanity (the ethnic cleansing process of 1948)—no refugees will be able to exercise their right to return to the their homeland. At the same time, according to the “Law of Return,” Israel allows anyone with Jewish background—even if they have no relations whatsoever with Israel—the “right” to immigrate to Israel and receive Israeli citizenship, including a package of financial benefits. Essentially, what Israel is demanding here is the right to be racist while insisting that the world acknowledges and justifies this form of racism.

Israel demands that the world recognize its “Jewish character” as a natural and historical fact because this recognition erases the history of ethnic cleansing in Palestine. Being defined as a “Jewish state” legitimizes the racist policy of not allowing Palestinians back to their homes and lands simply because they are not Jewish.

Any solidarity activities that ignore or treat the right of return as a separate issue will be self-defeating and even harmful in the long term. Under the current power dynamics of this conflict, ignoring or refraining from supporting the right of return means siding with the stronger side and the side that is invoking racism to trump this basic human right.

BDS

The 2005 call for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) issued by more than 170 Palestinian civil society organizations, offers a good guidance as to the preferences and the priorities of the Palestinians and should guide the efforts of any solidarity activity. The Palestinian organizations called “upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era.” These organizations appealed to the world to maintain these measures until Israel complies with international law—ending the occupation and dismantling the wall, granting full equality to Palestinian citizens of Israel, and allowing the refugees to exercise their right to return to their homes and properties.

Organizing around and focusing on these three demands, and adopting the apartheid analysis and BDS as a basis for solidarity work, will guarantee that all aspects of the conflict are addressed. It will also mean that the rights of the Palestinian people will be realized as part of globally coordinated activities—a development which almost guarantees the right kind of change.

From South Africa to Palestine, Lessons for the New Anti-Apartheid Movement
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1099

Solidarity: "not an act of charity but an act of unity between allies fighting on different terrains toward the same objectives."

The Palestinian struggle does not only exert a visceral tug on many around the world. A reading of imperialism shows that Apartheid Israel is needed as a fundamentalist and militarized warrior state both to quell the undefeated and unbowed Palestinians and also as a rapid response fount of reaction in concert with despotic Arab regimes to do the Empire's bidding in the Middle East and beyond. Over the years the latter included support for the mass terror waged against the people of Central and South America and facilitating the evasion of international sanctions against South Africa. Besides providing a ready supply of mercenaries to terrorize a populace-whether in Guatemala, Iraq, or New Orleans-Israel also lends its expertise of collective punishment and mass terror.

We have to recognize that the foundation of the Israeli economy is founded on the special, political, and military role which Zionism fulfils for Western imperialism. While playing its role to ensure that the region is safe for oil companies it has also carved out a niche market producing high-tech security essential for the day-to-day functioning of the New Imperialism.

"It is finally time. After years of internal arguments, confusion, and dithering, the time has come for a full-fledged international boycott of Israel. Good cause for a boycott has, of course, been in place for decades, as a raft of initiatives already attests. But Israel's war crimes are now so shocking, its extremism so clear, the suffering so great, the UN so helpless, and the international community's need to contain Israel's behavior so urgent and compelling, that the time for global action has matured. A coordinated movement of divestment, sanctions, and boycotts against Israel must convene to contain not only Israel's aggressive acts and crimes against humanitarian law but also, as in South Africa, its founding racist logics that inspired and still drive the entire Palestinian problem."

Name and shame

Secondly, arguments opposed to the boycott of South Africa claiming it would harm black South Africans and highlighting the need for dialogue and "constructive engagement" were easily rebuffed by lucid and knowledgeable counter-arguments. The South African regime, like the Israeli regime today, used homeland leaders and an assortment of collaborators to argue this case for them. But careful research played an important role in exposing the economic, cultural, and armaments trade links with South Africa to make our actions more effective as well as to "name and shame" those who benefited from the apartheid regime.

Palestinian struggle

The healthy linking of the Palestinian struggle with struggles against racism and in support of the indigenous people and workers in North America that I have witnessed must be lauded. For example, at the Six Nations reclamation site in Canada the Palestinian flag flew alongside the Six Nations flag because Palestinian activists made sure to be there to support this key indigenous rights struggle. Similarly, connections have been made between the right of return of refugees from New Orleans and Palestine.

Finally, the sanctions campaign in South Africa did produce gatekeepers, sectarians, and commissars but they were also challenged. Writing in support of the academic boycott a colleague, Shireen Hassim, does not gloss over the problems:

"Some academics who actively opposed apartheid had invitations to international conferences withdrawn; it was not always possible to target the supporters of the apartheid regime; and South African academics' understanding of global issues was certainly weakened. It is in the nature of such weapons that they are double-edged. But, as part of a battery of sanctions, the academic boycott undoubtedly had an impact on both the apartheid state and on white academics and university administrations. The [academic] boycott, together with the more successful sports boycott and economic divestment campaigns, helped to strengthen the struggle of black people for justice. …University administrations could no longer hide behind an excuse of neutrality but had to issue statements on their opposition to apartheid and introduce programs of redress… Universities became sites of intense debate, and, indeed, intellectuals became critically involved in debates about the nature of current and future South African societies. In the wake of the boycott, there was not a curtailing of academic freedom, then, but a flourishing of intellectual thought that was rich, varied, and exciting."

BDS Conference in Palestine: Building Solidarity, Combating Normalization
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1089

Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations Network (PNGO)

The call for BDS to isolate the state of Israel was issued more than two years ago, in 2005, and signed by 170 Palestinian organizations. They asked the international community to enact these punitive measures until Israel "recognize[s] the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law" in three ways: "ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall; recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and respecting [...] the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194." In response, the global BDS campaign has taken off, attracting steadily growing support from progressive communities in South Africa, the UK, Europe, the US, and Canada.

Gabi Baramki of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) puts it, "Feeling weak makes us lose dignity, and makes us act like a beggar accepting the remains from another people's table even if they are dipped in poison."

the importance of linking boycott with supporting Palestinian agricultural and cultural production.

BDS is likely the most effective strategy for Palestine solidarity work. Unlike so many equally well-intentioned solidarity efforts, it doesn't seem condemned to reiterate the very exploitative or divisive dynamics of colonial relationships it is attempting to overcome.

BDS avoids creating a situation in which solidarity activists undermine that unity by funding or grooming the Palestinian counterpart that reflect their own sense of a just solution, or of what "self-determination" should look like. Islah Jahad, a professor of Women's Studies at Birzeit University, referred to BDS as a way of developing "joint ownership" over a political process, and contrasts it with the divisive "clientelism" that has characterized the vast majority of international support for Palestinian non-governmental organizations since the first Intifada.

Most importantly, BDS is a framework for solidarity that directly counters normalization-the subtle and insidious processes from dialogue projects between Palestinian and Israeli women to the upgrading of military checkpoints into "terminals"-that legitimize Israel's colonization and occupation policies even as they purport to pursue peace. "How to stop normalization," says Juma', "is the major question for Palestinians today." By emphasizing the racism of the Israeli state and its policies, and insisting on Palestinians' inalienable rights to self-determination and to return, the BDS campaign attempts to answer that question.

So although much of the potential of the BDS strategy can be expressed in terms of its capacity to bypass the contradictions that too frequently plague international solidarity work, it nonetheless provokes a different, and possibly more productive kind of dissonance. The urgency of responding to military occupation, ethnic cleansing, and land-theft collides uneasily with the painstaking coordination and education necessary to build a global movement to isolate Israel and contribute to dismantling its apartheid policies. On the 60 anniversary of the Nakba, we must build, urgently.

National Popular Palestinian Conference
http://www.leftturn.org/?q=node/1093

Especially since the advent of the Palestinian-Israeli "peace process," Palestinian-Arab identity has been severely and systematically fragmented. Like the bantustanization of Palestinian lands, Palestinian national identity has been bantustanized by a series of laws, processes, and events. Today there are the Palestinians within Israel, those within the Occupied Territories, those in refugee camps, those in the global diaspora, and most recently those in the West Bank have become distinct from those in the Gaza Strip. Making Palestinian identity whole necessitates articulating a single narrative that addresses the whole and not just several of its parts.

In the US we began this process in June 2006 in Detroit, Michigan. Palestinian activists, academics, students, and professionals, met and agreed to organize a national popular conference of Palestinians in 2008. We committed ourselves to organizing a conference that would be transparent, democratically shaped, and above all, inclusive of all Palestinians.

Under the banner of Palestinians in the US: Reclaiming our voice, asserting our narrative, and shaping our future, the organizing body of the conference, the US Palestine Conference Network (USPCN), has held three preparatory meetings since its first one in Detroit. At each of those meetings in Cleveland, Chicago, and Washington, DC, the USPCN expanded its network and affirmed its commitment to a democratic and inclusive process by inviting the local Palestinian community to participate in the conference planning. Since Detroit, the USPCN has also maintained its commitment to decision-making by consensus. We do not want to build an organization, but instead to create an all-inclusive space for Palestinians in the US so the organizers have made nearly all decisions by consensus. Although this has been a very challenging task, we believe that the goal of this organizing is not just the national conference but also the establishment of new organizing principles-principles that prioritize our unity. We believe that such principles will facilitate our unity without compromising our vision, as opposed to enshrining our ideals, often times, at the expense of our unity.

In a similar vein, in order to ensure the greatest participation and inclusion, the program is being organized much like the World Social Forum. Essentially, the Program Committee has identified five different workshop tracks: education/political vision, youth/family, identity/culture, advocacy/strategy, and internal struggles. The Program Committee has also identified two themes: Nakba and youth. Finally, the program will also have room for exhibits and caucuses. What will constitute the substance of each of those tracks, themes, caucuses, and exhibits will be largely determined by the conference participants because the program will be built based on open calls for workshop and exhibit proposals.

The goals of the conference include cultivating our national Palestinian-Arab identity, exploring grounds for cooperation and collective expression, and motivating and organizing the US-based Palestinian community to assume a greater role in realizing Palestinian national objectives and preserving our collective identity.

By the conclusion of our last preparatory meeting in Washington, DC on November 11, 2007, the USPCN had made significant progress towards realizing the conference. The conference has been scheduled for the weekend of August 8, 2008 in Chicago-home to the largest Palestinian community in the US and a central location in the country. The four committees-finance/logistics, outreach, media, and program-have each established different timelines and goals. The Coordinating Committee is handling organizational issues like establishing our non-profit status. The Media Committee has created YouTube promotional videos, the Finance/Logistics Committee has narrowed the options of conference sites, and the Outreach Committee has created a website. Meanwhile the Program Committee has confirmed three keynote speakers: Dr. Azmi Bishara (by videoconference), Dr. Salman Abu-Sitta, and Bishop Atallah Hanna.

At this historical juncture, when Israel's ongoing efforts to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous population-as it has done with the inhumane blockade of Gaza-continue to threaten the existence of a Palestinian-Arab national identity, Palestinians in the US must step up as more powerful agents of change and accountability.