| Jaicee said: I just wanted to weigh in on this topic today if I can. As we get into another week of anti-Israel protests on college campuses and police being called in and politicians opportunistically weighing in and all that here in the U.S., I wanted to share a conversation I saw from last week between a pro-Palestinian protester at Columbia and a Jewish student who left campus after experiencing much harassment there simply for wearing low-key Jewish insignia because it was the most inspiring exchange that I've seen on the subject to date not only in terms of the relationship between these student groups, but also in terms of the relationship between Palestinians and Jewish people everywhere. The conversation was facilitated by an NBC host and, to my surprise, it was remarkably constructive to a degree that I think may just give you hope against hope that peace between Palestinian and Jewish people is possible. What specifically made it possible to have such a healthy exchange, I would observe, was the fact that... 1) both students happen to be against the war in Gaza, which makes it clear that both are able to see the basic humanity of the people of Gaza, and... 2) Parker (the Jewish student) pressed the issue that anti-Zionist attitudes don't welcome conversation or respect for Jewish identity. I think those principles are really the bottom line of how you get past the heat of the conflict and into a productive conversation: you must recognize the humanity of the people of Gaza in a meaningful and substantive way and also the right of Israel to exist. The protests need to be about peace like they are for Nadia, not agitating for the liquidation of the world's only Jewish state, and no one should pretend like Gaza's whole population and every pro-Palestinian activist is Hamas. I only wish that's what I saw more often at these encampments, from politicians weighing in, and so forth. Just food for thought. Please try to see the humanity in other people. Everyone. |
There is a lot of that, however the mainstream media chooses to focus on conflict :/
There are also many Palestinians living in Israel (in fear nowadays sadly) as well as Arabs and other nationalities. They can all live together, however it's the extremists (on both sides) that have kept the conflict and current escalation going.
On college campuses kids have also prayed together, both Muslim and Jewish prayers, eat together and generally have peaceful exchanges of ideas. But there are always trouble makers which the media focuses on. Part of those troublemakers are the universities themselves sending state troopers in, provoking violence.
Anti-Zionism is also not anti-Judaism. Zionism has been hijacked by ultra right hardliners like Ben-Gvir, now part of the war cabinet, living in an illegal settlement in the West Bank. So yes, the protests are anti Zionist anti current ultra right government of Israel. They are not anti Israel. At least I haven't heard anywhere that Israel should be disbanded and the 7.2 million Jews living there should pack up and leave. There aren't even many voices saying all the illegal settlements should be disbanded, but some reparations do have to be done for a 2-state solution.
The 2-state solution is the most heard, an intermediary phase to hopefully a union in the future.
Anti-Zionist attitudes are deserved as the way the Israeli government acts in the name of Zionism is the root cause of what's happening in Israel/Palestine. Yet anti-Zionist attitudes do not diminish respect for the Jewish identity. Zionism is just a recent experiment, which started with good intentions, yet has been hijacked by ultra nationalist and fascist movements.
https://www.huckmag.com/article/zionism-is-not-judaism-myths-about-israel
However Zionists do try to conflate Judaism with Zionism calling Jews that denounce Zionism self-hating Jews.
Also not all Jews in Israel are Zionists.
https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/03/08/israels-religiously-divided-society/
Another thing to note is that the fear of Islam, Muslims, Arabs in general is what has been keeping people inline since the fall of the Soviet Union. The Islam scare is the new Red scare. And that needs to be maintained for the powerful elite to continue to get away what ever they want. Hence so much push back against any empathy towards Palestinians...
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