In Brooklyn Meeting House, Jews Speak of Families Divided Over Israel Issue

by on May 22, 2008 19
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Tonight I went to a Nakba event at a Friends meeting house in Brooklyn. There were 130 people there and many Arabs but oddly the focus was on the Jews. In a way the evening wasn't about ethnic cleansing so much as a confessional for Jews like me, Jews critical of Israel, and their relationships with their families. I thought I'd blog about that part of the meeting now, and get to the Arab narratives tomorrow.
The meeting was organized by Brooklyn for Peace. Rusty Eisenberg opened it up and got right into the confessional mode. She said the great thing about the evening was it was even happening, a few years ago no one in the States would even acknowledge the Nakba. She was born in 1945 into a mildly Zionist family and all her youth there were heroic stories about Israel, and pictures of Nasser that made him look like Hitler, but she didn't know that there were Palestinians, even as she was emotionally caught up in Israel. I wondered if Eisenberg was doing a kind of penance. She said it amazed her that it possible to grow up as she did, with no knowledge whatsoever of 1948, "without knowing that the great moral story of the founding of Israel had to do with the eradication of another people."

After that Nadia Hijab also spoke about Jews. She said one reason things were changing in the U.S. was the "fastgrowing" number of Jews like me who are coming out against the occupation, thereby giving permission to nonJews to speak up. "They're brave and I salute them," Hijab said.

Adam Horowitz of AFSC spoke of his own family. He helped start Jews Against the Occupation. He talked about the right of return some, then told his own religious story. He'd been a kid in suburban Philadelphia in a Conservative synagogue. When his school handed out orange Unicef boxes at Hallowe'en, to collect coins with, his parents wouldn't allow him to collect money. "Because Unicef gave money to Palestinian kids."

When he said this there was a gasp all thru the audience. It was amazing how calm he was about it all.

Then he offered the flip side of the Unicef story: he had been the treasurer of his Hebrew school, he had the responsibility of collecting the blue boxes of money for the Jewish National Fund. A lot of that money went to plant trees in Israel. Forests where Palestinian villages had once stood, trees to cover up the villages. "There's a direct line between me and my community and the stories we're telling here tonight." Then he seemed to speak to Jews directly: "This type of reflection is going to be important for the community, as a whole, as we move out of the mindset of a people under siege."

A lot of people keyed off of Horowitz's comments. "We didn't grow up understanding this issue," a woman named Naomi said. Another woman said, There were a lot of Jews in agony in that room tonight. And their own families were divided, people weren't speaking to one another over this issue. What do you say to one another? Horowitz told about the conversations he's had with his mom. "She is concerned that the Jewish people are safe," he said. So he tries to move her concern to a general issue of human rights, and get her to see what has befallen Palestinians' human rights in Israel. I raised my hand, and got up and told a story about my mother, how she says that the refugees should have been absorbed by the Arab countries, what do I tell her?

It was a restless night in the Jewish soul. I took the subway into Manhattan with Horowitz. He's 30ish, reddish-haired, unpretentious, really smart. I told him how guilty I used to feel, how upset I'd get about discoveries, like when I was in Syria and I realized how much of Israel's history was a neocolonialist landgrab. I said he seemed a lot better adjusted than me on these issues. He said No, he'd just been at them longer, was further along in his journey.

I mentioned the most upsetting thing we heard that night, an Arab oral history they'd played at the start, a guy from Lydda, the late Ismail Shammout (who died in Lebanon) who had been forced with other villagers out of their homes at gunpoint by Israeli soldiers. They thought it was going to be like the British, they'd get harassed and their homes searched, then they could go back. But the soldiers had led them out of town in a long line. On the way he'd seen the shops' windows broken, the glass on the ground. I looked at Adam and neither of us had to say anything about that glass detail.

Jews are going to have to do some grieving over the Nakba too. Even after 60 years.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel/Palestine, Nakba, US Politics

{ 19 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. otto says:
    May 22, 2008 at 2:10 am

    The essential move is understanding Israel as Jewish colonialism, and all else follows: the collapse of Jewish self-congratulation and the refocusing from the 'occupation', 1967 and te 'settlements' to 1948 and even 1917.

  2. Anne Silver says:
    May 22, 2008 at 2:25 am

    Otto says it perfectly.

    And to you, Philip: this is your most eloquent and moving piece. Sometimes I feel a bit exasperated with your pace in getting to the real issues of the Occupation and Israel's brutal history, or in recognizing the widespread resistance in this country to the official narrative of Israel. Not today.

  3. roGER says:
    May 22, 2008 at 5:46 am

    Beware, Phil because there is a danger here; it's the danger of "shoot first and elaborately grieve later."

    It's a pattern already well established in "enlightened" Israeli memoirs, and it has a subtext which is "Aren't we wonderful and amazing, we can grieve in victory?!?"

    There's no doubt that when the occupation finally ends and there is a peace in the Holy Land there will be an avalanche of beautifully written hand-wringing Israeli memoirs along the lines of "Boy do I feel guilty about how I treated the Palestinians in my Army days and boy I should have spoken up but I didn't!"

    So yes, educate yourselves, question yourselves, but for everyone's sake do more than feel guilty.

    Please speak out – use your media contacts, make sure the Lobby is exposed and the plight of the Palestinians brought to wider notice.

    You're doing the right thing, but please focus on the task in hand rather than feelings of guilt and attonement.

    Keep up the great work!

  4. Kraut the nitwit says:
    May 22, 2008 at 6:39 am

    "You're doing the right thing, but please focus on the task in hand rather than feelings of guilt and attonement."

    ???????

    He is doing exactly what a journalist can do, and he is doing it for quite some time now. As you seem to realize:

    "Keep up the great work!"

  5. Interested Reader says:
    May 22, 2008 at 7:54 am

    Hello Philip, thanks for this great post.

    Here is an article from the International Herald Tribune about the different attitudes towards Obama among older and younger Jews in Florida. I think it perfectly demonstrates all your common themes here Please check it out:

    http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/05/21/america/jews.php?page=1

  6. sword of gideon says:
    May 22, 2008 at 7:55 am

    Not easy to pack that much narcissistic angst into a few paragraphs, truly a feat. BTW I was looking for some happy nakba day cards the othe day, where are they sold?

  7. Charles Keating says:
    May 22, 2008 at 9:12 am

    In Poland?

  8. Jessica says:
    May 22, 2008 at 9:16 am

    There is indeed a very human tendency to shoot first and grieve later–look at white attitudes toward Native Americans.

    Still, it is a little harsh to accuse Philip of this since he is not Israeli and, given the lack of honest discourse on the issue in America, he has had little opportunity to know of the issue until recently.

    Philip, thanks for the great work. Not only on Palestinian issues but on the Iraq war.

  9. geomarie says:
    May 22, 2008 at 9:53 am

    Thank you so much for being there. . and best wishes to your mother.

  10. 5 dancing shlomos says:
    May 22, 2008 at 10:02 am

    ive noticed these anguished, jewish souls since i first met several peace now members in approx'96. they were so sad – almost but not quite – weisel schlock suffering sad. leaving israel for belgium with a usa shopping spree in between. their families back in israel were well to do having stolen lots of palestinian land and palestinian gold and american tax dollars. of course they were heroes to their amurderkin jewish 'duals'.

    we shook hands. they left. i went to the wash room to clean my hands and my stomach with a good vomit.

  11. Raanan Geberer says:
    May 22, 2008 at 10:30 am

    The "Nakba" was definitely wrong and a violation of law, but it never would have happened had the Arabs accepted the 1947 partition plan. The link between the Jewish people and the land of Israel is essential–it's on every page of the JEwish prayerbook, every page of the Bible. There's plenty of land in Palestine for both peoples. And why doesn't anyone talk about the GOOD that Israel has done–the pioneering scientific research, planting crops in places that had been barren for 100s of years, the development of solar energy?

    It may surprise you that I'm basically on the left as far as Israel is concerned (I would be a Meretz voter if I lived there), I believe in a Palestinian state, I believe the U.S. should put pressure on Israel to comply with international law, but the existence of the state is not up for discussion.

    And finally, as someone who believes in the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, I believe the creation of Israel is the first step in a process that will include the appearance of the Messiah, the resurrection of the dead, and the rebuilding of the temple–all at the hand of God.

    Raanan Geberer

  12. 5 dancing shlomos says:
    May 22, 2008 at 10:48 am

    "And why doesn't anyone talk about the GOOD that Israel has done–the pioneering scientific research, planting crops in places that had been barren for 100s of years, the development of solar energy?"-Raanan Geberer |

    these 'goods' are done, will be done without the ###### state. crimes against palestinians and iraqis are not required for solar development. by "planting crops in places that had been 'barren'" you mean where a palestinians home used to be.

    there is no benefit of the ###### state of the ###### people. take you away and the world is a much better place.

  13. geomarie says:
    May 22, 2008 at 10:50 am

    Thank you for being there last night. And best wishes to your mother.

  14. 5 dancing shlomos says:
    May 22, 2008 at 11:41 am

    my post at May 22, 2008 at 07:48 AM was censored by the computer i used at that time.

    ####### replaced "shitty".

    i think it is important that "shitty" be used.

  15. Sam says:
    May 22, 2008 at 4:59 pm

    Phil, a very valuable blog.. but on the subject of Guilt why should you or any of your brethren (whether they be American or not) that share similar views on this issue feel guilty?

    I mean you did not push out the native population of the land called Israel did you? and of course you don't oppress the current refugee population do you?

    what you need to do is make the people in power that did this deed (and their supporters) feel guilty and instead you should feel righteous as you are speaking the hard truth.

    I mean my tax dollars are taken by the criminals in charge of this country to support the criminals in charge of Israel to support this apartheid structure.. but my tax dollars also support the jailing of a large amount of poor African Americans here. Even though I am 100% against these policies.

    I however do not feel guilty about it because I have nothing to do with it even though my friends or parents may support these policies so instead I challenge them and make them feel guilty for not seeing the truth.

    You have nothing to be ashamed of except for perhaps having too much faith in the power of Obama to solve the issues of the day..

  16. Peter H says:
    May 22, 2008 at 5:27 pm

    "The "Nakba" was definitely wrong and a violation of law, but it never would have happened had the Arabs accepted the 1947 partition plan".

    If the Arabs had accepted the 1947 partition plan, then the Jewish state would have had almost as many Arabs as Jews. At some point, because of differing birth rates, the Arab population would have outnumbered the Jewish population. The only way for Israel to maintain its Jewish majority would have been to "transfer" a large portion of the Arab population, which in fact before Zionist leaders had been talking about well before 1947-48.

    It's just a simple matter of math.

  17. chimpsky says:
    May 22, 2008 at 11:11 pm

    Those who think Arab opposition to the 1947 partition plan is the root of the conflict should understand that zionist acceptance the '47 partition plan was always just a tactical ploy. And this applies not just to Jabotinsky and Begin's "both sides of the Jordan" Revisionism, but to Ben-Gurion's Labor Zionism as well:

    "While the Yishuv's leadership formally accepted the 1947 Partition Resolution, large sections of Israel's society – including…Ben-Gurion – were opposed to or extremely unhappy with partition and from early on viewed the war as an ideal opportunity to expand the new state's borders beyond the UN earmarked partition boundaries and at the expense of the Palestinians."

    -Benny Morris, "Tikkun", March/April 1998.

    "In internal discussion in 1938 [David Ben-Gurion] stated that 'after we become a strong force, as a result of the creation of a state, we shall abolish partition and expand into the whole of Palestine'…In 1948, Menachem Begin declared that: 'The partition of the Homeland is illegal. It will never be recognized. The signature of institutions and individuals of the partition agreement is invalid. It will not bind the Jewish people. Jerusalem was and will forever be our capital. Eretz Israel (the land of Israel) will be restored to the people of Israel, All of it. And forever."

    -Noam Chomsky, "The Fateful Triangle."

  18. Arie Brand says:
    May 22, 2008 at 11:28 pm

    Yes, and one aspect of this ploy to undermine it was hatched by Ben Gurion's 1947 delegation to King Abdullah of which Golda Meir was the most prominent member.

    This delegation showed its acquiescence in the King of Tranjordan's plan to occupy the West Bank (anything rather than the Palestinians getting their own state).

    See Avi Shlaim "Collusion Across the Jordan".

  19. Diane Mason says:
    May 23, 2008 at 9:45 am

    There would have been Nakba whether the Palestinians accepted partition or not. The partition plan envisioned a "Jewish Palestine" where 45% of the population was Palestinian, guaranteed this large minority political equality with the Jewish majority through proportional representation, and forbade the seizure of the minority's land by the majority. Res 181 created a "Jewish Palestine" that was a binational state, and Zionists did not immigrate to Palestine to settle for a binational state.

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