I've not posted on Israel/Palestine for some time. Part of that is that there is a flood of information available and it's been more than I could post. I'll post this one...no,no...that one...no,no...this one over there..no,no...here's another one...nooooooooo!
Part of this flood is the work of anti-zionist Jews. There are three blogs by anti-zionist Jews to follow. Each has a wealth of posts with some cross posting. Two have visited Gaza and the third lives in Israel.
"I spent Thursday with Jews mostly, talking about the issue. We talked about all the progress we are making changing the discourse. We spoke about how afraid the Zionists are of the new non-Zionists.
"Then at 9:30 p.m. I met a Palestinian acquaintance who’s visiting New York. We got together in a park on the Lower East Side, and sat on a bench for a while in the dark.
"He told me that no one he sees here knows anything about Palestine. No one knows about the weekly non-violent protests in Bi’lin. Yes, you write about it on this website, but none of his American friends has any idea.They know that Palestinians are terrorists. That image is still solid. It will take sophisticated, Max-Blumenthal-like media to change the image, but this has not happened yet in the American mind (and it is why he is being censored).
" "I didn’t know you were so political," I said.
" "I am completely political. I am just not an activist. I am political all day on the internet."
" "How many Palestinians are political?"
" "Almost all," he said. "They have no choice. Because they are miserable."
"I said, "The Israelis are miserable too. That’s what I found out the one time I visited. They can only imagine war into the future. That is misery."
"He smiled politely. "They have freedom. Israeli youths have the ability to imagine their future. To dream about going here or there, of innovating in life, of getting education and participating in the world. Palestinian youth has almost none of that." "
The Western view of Gaza is of a desperate and violent place. Terrorism, extremism, Jew-hatred and poverty merge to create a dangerous brew. The Hamas-controlled territory poses a supposedly existential threat to Israel (and Jews everywhere.) But this is only one side of the besieged Strip. And much of it is blatantly untrue.
This video is an attempt to paint an alternative Gaza. Hatred exists there – I saw and heard it and challenged the conflation of Israel with Judaism – but what I found was something else entirely. Entire neighbourhoods flattened by Israeli missiles. Destroyed buildings with families living inside them. Refugee camps caused by IDF incursions. Beautiful singing and poetry sung by eager men. A will to survive and thrive despite the belief that the world, including the Arab neighbours, have forgotten their plight. Rappers desperate to tell the Palestinian narrative to the world and reflect a Gazan sensibility.
"A rally was held this evening protesting the arrival of the US envoys in Israel. Members of National Union, Likud and Israel Beiteinu led the crowd, which included Kahanists wearing t-shirts saying “Kahane was right,” referring to Meir Kahane’s ideology of violence against all who stand in the way of the constant expansion of Jewish territory.
"The people that attended the rally think that occupying another people and chanting racist slurs at the first black president of the United States (who was elected by a majority of American Jews who support him) is their expression of freedom and democracy. As a humanist and a pragmatist, it can feel very uneasy and unsafe in this country.
"While the people opposing settlement expansion get no coverage in the media, those supporting it get plenty. As we were filming the event numerous people asked us detailed questions about where we are from and what we planned on doing with the footage. It was striking that MK Michael Ari made a special point to thank Arutz Sheva, the Israel National News. The coverage they put out is fine, but our attempt to show the world their racism is definitely a no-no. Their relative self-awareness added a new layer to our understanding of settler insanity.
"Most people we talked to did not hesitate to attack Obama and his administration, of which many are Jews themselves. The general atmosphere of the rally was that Obama is a Muslim and a racist who denies the Jewish people their right to control the Land of Israel. When asked about American aid to Israel, most replied that this was a separate issue."
