JVP’s pro-Toronto Declaration letter–which has been signed by Eve Ensler, Naomi Klein, David Byrne, Howard Zinn, and blacklisted Walter Bernstein– collected over 2,000 signatures in its first hour. Amazing. The world’s changing.
Jane Fonda also signed the letter, and now is wiggling just a little on Huffpo. Mostly defensive post, but:
As I said in my recent blog, the greatest "re-branding" of Israel would be to celebrate that country’s long standing, courageous and robust peace movement by helping to end the blockade of Gaza through negotiations with all parties to the conflict, and by stopping the expansion of West Bank settlements. That’s the way to show Israel’s commitment to peace, not a PR campaign. There will be no two-state solution unless this happens. The Israeli-Palestinian story cannot be reduced to a simplistic aggressor-victim relationship. In order to fully understand this, one must be willing to come together with an open heart and really hear the narratives of both sides.
Fonda has an equivocal history on antiwar stuff. The Hanoi Jane moment scarred her; and in 1982 she actually cheerled the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Ugh. Interesting to read the first comment at that link, about the time that Vanessa Redgrave [pictured] called out "Zionist hoodlums" for seeking to intimidate her on pro-Palestinian statements. That moment seems to be over now, or anyway there’s pushback.
Here’s part of Fonda’s blog, by the way.
I have been to Israel many times. The first was in the early 1980s and it was love at first sight…for the country and for its people. I stayed in a Kibbutz with the great Israeli novelist, Amos Oz, and his family. I raised money for a senior center in Haifa, for a girl’s shelter in Jerusalem. I have spoken at the Hebrew University. I traveled into Lebanon with the Israeli army in 1981.
It includes some pro-Palestinian stuff, too.
