The world is changing. Yesterday, when most people were focused on Obama, Michael Ratner (who works at the Center for Constitutional Rights and pressed the lawsuit against Caterpillar springing from the killing of Rachel Corrie in Gaza in 2003) was thinking about Gaza. And in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr.'s opposition to the Vietnam War–at a time when King couldn't really afford to spend political capital on other causes–Ratner realized that American Jews can no longer claim a
separation between their opposition to civil and human rights abuses
here (or in Darfur or Central America) and their support for Israel's
treatment of Palestine.
Then he told this story about the late great painter Leon Golub on his blog [emphasis Phil Weiss's]:
brings me to Gaza and the role of American Jews and, in fact, of almost all
Americans. For too long, and I do not exempt myself, most of us have
stood silently by or made only a marginal protests about the massive
violations of Palestinian rights carried out by Israel. I
recall a conversation I had some years ago with the political artist
Leon Golub, famous for his outsized oil paintings of torture carried
out by American mercenaries in Central America.
[like The Interrogation, left] Leon told me that he
had been invited to attend a panel to address what it meant to be a
Jewish political artist. He said he had never thought of himself as a
“Jewish political artist” but only as a “political artist.” Then
he thought some more. Of the works of art he had made, none concerned
Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. And then he knew, at least for
himself and probably many others: to be a “Jewish political artist” was
to be an artist who avoided depicting the horrors inflicted on
Palestinians. Of course, that is true for more than just artists. Many
Jews who are very involved in human rights, ending poverty and war, and
fighting for the underdog avoid criticism of Israel. They wrongly think
that human rights are divisible; or that like ostriches they can hide
their heads and pretend not to see what is clearly staring them in the
face and makes them uncomfortable: the inhuman treatment of
Palestinians.
Its ok to be honestly pulled in multiple directions.
That can be apparent in art as well.
It NEED NOT be propaganda, presenting only simplistic aggressor/victim polarity.
David Tartakover. http://www.tartakover.co.il
Phil, where have you BEEN? America. The Israeli arts scene is FILLED with some of the most graphic indictments of state power in ANY artistic lexicon. Israelis are even conversant with most of the art of Palestinian resistance, like Ismail Shammout's work.
It's true that Golub may have elided Israeli faults, but isn't that a product of the American assimilation you praise? He was *preoccupied* with America's sins.
The kid's are all right:
"I'm going to tell the recruitment officer that I'm not serving because of the occupation," Vardi said, just before entering the Tel Aviv military base for new conscripts. "I've seen Palestinian kids get shot and beaten by the army in the West Bank and this is something that I'm not going to be a part of." She seemed calmed and defiant, wearing a "courage to refuse" t-shirt with the graphic of a broken M-16.
View from Ramallah/Israeli refuseniks confront the IDF, from Ni'lin to Tel Aviv by Jesse Rosenfeld, Haaretz, 21/01/09
link to haaretz.com
New Profile/Movement for the Civil-isation of Israeli Society
link to newprofile.org
all good jews, if such there be, shout: "jews have no rights to palestine, israel does not have any right to exist, israel and its jews(internal/external) are war criminal savages."
can our liberal, anguished jews say these truths?
"He was *preoccupied* with America's sins."
Ah, but our blind support for Israel is one of our sins, so why did he elide it? It wasn't due to assimilation, according to Golub.
And of course, his paintings included depictions of South Africa. He wasn't "preoccupied" then.
Phil…very interesting Ratner posting. As I was listening to CSPAN House of Representative proceedings with much being centered on MLK/Obama, my thoughts drifted to nonviolent protests, marches and the Freedom Riders. When will we all meet in Gaza? When will our march begin? Will John Lewis and Sheila Jackson Lee be in the front line? Will W/M, Jimmy Carter, Mr. Ratner, the Corries, be there? Norm Finklestein, Juan Cole, Michele Obama, will they be marching? And is the road to Rafah through Washington D.C.?
The reason Rachel Corrie was so dangerous was because she is an American. The reason the ISM is so dangerous to the Israels is because they are doing what the MSM is supposed to do…report from the hellholes of the world…and as we all saw from Gaza, MSM was locked out. The reason that an American Jewish artist artistically speaking about Palestine is important is that it will force Americans to look at their roles. Israel can tolerate discussion in the Israeli art world. What cannot happen is discussion in the American world. AIPAC knows this, I believe Congress knows this and I believe the American Jewish mainstream know this.
From www.rachelcorriefoundation.org; U.S. strategy for Mideast peace misguided
Written by Craig Corrie on Jan 14, 2009
ORIGINALLY IN THE SEATTLE POST INTELLIGENCER:
Like many others, I enter the New Year with shock and horror at the attacks in Gaza. The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, fragile from the start, was shattered last fall. Some say it was broken when fighters in Gaza fired rockets into Israeli towns the morning of Nov. 5; others say it was the evening before, when the Israeli military entered Central Gaza and commandeered a family’s home to stop Palestinian men allegedly digging a tunnel. Israeli air strikes killed six Palestinians that night.
In fact, there was never a genuine truce. Israel has held Gaza in a state of siege since Israeli colonies were removed in 2005. Siege is an act of war. Uninterrupted by last year’s cease-fire, this siege has tightened, not lifted. Now, from the passive violence of constantly looming famine, the area has exploded into the active violence of war. Reports indicate 900 dead in Gaza (40 percent women and children) and 13 Israelis killed.
I know the violence of war. I saw U.S. bombing in Vietnam and Cambodia, and carried wounded, while wounded myself, from return rocket attacks. Six years ago my daughter was crushed to death in Gaza under an Israeli bulldozer as she tried to save the lives and home of a Palestinian family.
I know something of the loss felt by my Israeli friend Yitzhak, whose son Arik was captured and murdered by Hamas in 1994, and by my Palestinian friend Bassam whose daughter Abir was shot and killed by Israeli solders as she walked home from school in her West Bank village in 2007.
I cannot, though, know the loss felt by Anwar Khalil Ba’lousha, whose five daughters, asleep in their beds, were killed in Gaza by Israeli bombing on Dec. 28. I haven’t the courage to imagine his pain.
Having reversed diplomatic course Thursday and allowed passage of a United Nations resolution for a cease-fire, the U.S. must now work actively to see that it is enforced. Regardless of our ability to change the behavior of leaders in Israel or Palestine, we must change our own behavior.
The U.S. must make clear that we will not support either side when it uses violence beyond its borders. We must demand that humanitarian aid as well as press and U.N. observers be permitted to enter Gaza without delay — and that hostilities cease so that lifesaving commodities can be distributed.
If Israel will not comply, as when it attacked a U.N. relief convoy Thursday, the U.S. should break the siege of Gaza itself to supply food and medical supplies, just as we would for Israel in similar circumstances. The special U.S.-Israeli relationship puts us in a unique position to take that temporary step, while assuring our Israeli friends that no rockets enter Gaza along with aid.
We must make clear that we will protect Israel, but we will no longer protect its occupation of the West Bank or its attack and siege on Gaza. Finally, we must reverse the Bush administration’s program to send $30 billion in military aid to Israel and another $33 billion to Arab countries, a strategy for peace that is misguided to the point of obscenity.
It’s sad to see again, but on an even greater scale, the horror and devastation my daughter witnessed when she wrote from Gaza in 2003: “This has to stop. I think it is a good idea for us all to drop everything and devote our lives to making this stop.” Her plea was never more urgent than it is this New Year.
Thispiece was written by Craig Corrie in a guest column for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The original item can be found here.
Phil Weiss mentioned my musical work from 2003-2004 about Rachel Corrie in passing, in his article about the NYC cancellation of My Name is Rachel Corrie in the April 3 edition of the Nation.
I'm not Jewish, but learned a lot in the 19-month struggle to find a venue for my work, "The Skies are Weeping," and made dozens of Jewish and Palestinian friends in that struggle. Ultimately, the cantata I wrote in memory of Corrie, was performed in London, after cancellations in Anchorage (by me) and in NYC (by the producers). Written to be performed by college students in the USA, I doubt that it will ever see such a performance.
The "Where is the art about all the other Rachels?" meme was started by an Israeli blogger, in response to TSAW's cancelled April 2004 performance.
(Another, similar cantata about Corrie, "An American Persephone," by Paul Crabtree, has been performed in the NYC area, apparently without the rancor engendered by my work, or by the play, MNIRC.)
I've listened as Jewish artists in the UK and in the Seattle area, thinking about the play or my work, talked about the difficulties of convincing artistic colleagues who are appalled by Israeli policies in the territories, to come out publicly. Israeli friends who were interested back in 2004 and 2005 in an Israeli production of my work on Corrie, couldn't get enough musicians together, or a venue, even though they thought the music compelling.
I can say that the 58-month-long experience of having been falsely accused of being an anti-Semitic artist, and even having been denounced as such a person before a joint session of the Alaska legislature, has done nothing to help me get new commissions for new works. On the other hand, it hasn't stopped people from good organizations from being interested in my music for reasons having nothing to do with the minuses or pluses of such notoriety.
I do believe, though, that in terms of serious art music, for instance, we are a long way from being able to confront this issue productively. Two people who could add a lot to this discussion are New Yorker music critic, Alex Ross, who is generally a Zionist; and composer John Adams, whose Choruses from the opera Klinghoffer, have been hard to mount since September 11, 2001, as they attempt to portray displaced Palestinians and displaced Jews in similar light.
Background on some of my experience with the music about Rachel Corrie is at:
http://xferstoothers.blogspot.com/
Philip Munger
Wasilla, Alaska
It's true that Golub may have elided Israeli faults, but isn't that a product of the American assimilation you praise? He was *preoccupied* with America's sins.
Good comment Eurosabra, although it doesn't withstand Phil's larger thesis.
The Israeli arts scene is FILLED with some of the most graphic indictments of state power in ANY artistic lexicon. Israelis are even conversant with most of the art of Palestinian resistance, like Ismail Shammout's work.
I am interested. Ismail Shammout
Can you give us more names?
Again,
Being a Jewish artist is to know that a single voice or image is an insufficient presentation.
It tells a quarter of a multi-voiced story.
Both Nadia Abu el-Haj and Joseph Massad have pointed out that Zionist hegemonic discourse tends more to integrate Palestinians into a very restrictive Zionist framework than to exclude them.
They are correct insofar as they go, but the real issue is a hegemonic Jewish discourse that does not permit disagreement with the prevailing Jewish mythology.
It applies just as much to second Temple Judaism, the history of Jews in the Russian Empire or the Soviet Union, the Holocaust, and the role of Jews in slavery or civil rights.
I object to the hegemonic Jewish discourse as a matter of principled scholarship, but because Jews now play such an important role in the world economy and international politics, hegemonic Jewish discourse has become a serious international political threat. It is a theme of my blog.
Just consider the discussion of Scaliger and Bernays in Jewish, Christian, and Palestinian Holidays or the total hysteria with which the organized Jewish reacted to Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ.
The organized Jewish community goes into ecstasy over depictions of the crucifixion, in which Jesus looks like a modern Jew (instead of a Greco-Roman Galilean) especially when Jesus' passion can be analogized to real or imagined modern Jewish suffering, but the ADL brings out the big guns whenever the dying Christ and Mary are (much more appropriately) analogized with Palestinians: Cartoon Summarizes Zionist Christmas Wishes.