FEATURED JOBS
Comments (8)One day in the mid 1980s, while waiting at the Israeli Knesset to meet a Member of Knesset (MK), I was stunned to see MK Meir Kahane, who founded the virulently racist Jewish Defense League and whose life was devoted to promoting hatred and inciting violence, looking relaxed and carefree as he was quickly ushered into the Knesset by bodyguards.
This is the image that flashed before me as I watched the video of Knesset member Hanin Zoabi being viciously attacked by fellow Knesset members. MK Zoabi had participated in the Gaza freedom flotilla trying to break the illegal siege of Gaza and bring humanitarian aid to the people living there. The juxtaposition of this image of the cavalier-seeming Kahane with that of the besieged Zoabi was overwhelming.
Despite attempts—as witnessed most recently with Justice Richard Goldstone and now with MK Zoabi—to vilify and discredit those who bring the truth about Israeli government actions and the reality of Gaza a little closer to Israeli and world consciousness, more American Jews seem willing to confront these truths today.
I stand on line regularly in a heavily Jewish neighborhood with a group, Jews Say No!, holding signs that read: “What Jewish law permits the killing of 1,400 Gazan citizens?,” “Doesn’t the Holocaust teach us that it must never happen to anyone ever again?,” and “Does Israel’s security really hinge on illegal occupation and siege?” Many people stop and ask questions, while others simply say “bravo” or thank us for being there. Others approach more tentatively to let us know they appreciate our presence. Yes, some are angry, even very angry, but much less so than when I stood on similar lines in the 1980s. The difference is palpable and can be felt in many Jewish spaces today.
Possibilities for continuing to push open that space seem more and more real.
In 2005, Palestinian civil society organizations initiated a campaign to adopt and maintain “nonviolent punitive measures” against Israel, calling upon “….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….until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law” (http://bdsmovement.net/).
As with other actions (such as the flotillas, for example) that call for an end to the occupation and siege of Gaza and self-determination for the Palestinian people, the boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaign insists that “business as usual” is not acceptable. Support for this call has strengthened around the world, including among Jews.
But, until now, despite the continued devastation of Palestinian society by the Israeli government, the primary response of the Jewish establishment and many Jewish organizations has been to try to discredit, rather than engage with, this call of conscience and those associated with it.
What can we do? Like the group I stand with, many Jewish voices are speaking out and taking action, trying, among other things, to disrupt the normalization of acquiescence and silence of the mainstream Jewish community and of those who claim to speak in our name. As part of this effort, we can join others who are insisting that the Jewish community engage directly and honestly with the BDS campaign. We can challenge Jewish institutions that have consistently blocked this issue from being addressed and insist that BDS, a powerful form of nonviolent resistance, be given the attention it deserves. We can insist that it—and the conditions it is a response to—be pushed to the forefront of the Jewish community for open discussion and serious consideration.
We can insist that “business as usual” within the Jewish community is not acceptable.
Donna Nevel, a community psychologist and long-time organizer for Israeli-Palestinian peace and justice, was a co-sponsor of a recent panel, “Jewish Perspectives on Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions,” that brought this issue into the NYC Jewish community.