Micha Kurz of the Israeli soldiers’ group Breaking the Silence is touring the country and we met up at a coffee shop in Manhattan Friday. He looks Israeli to me: compact and animated, rugged and unpretentious. He wore a gray sweatshirt over a t-shirt and drank three cups of coffee.
Here’s what he had to say:
There is no such thing as the left in Israel right now. No one believes in politics, they are an abstraction, the politicians have delivered nothing. So Avigdor Lieberman’s rightwing party gets more votes than the old Labor Party. Five years ago if you had said that Lieberman would be Foreign Minister, Kurz would have said you are crazy.
The only hopeful sign in Israel are the NGOs. They are the grass roots. They don’t call themselves left or right, they are trying to build a civil society, along with Palestinian NGOs. The people in the NGOs don’t want to talk politics.
I didn’t believe that Kurz doesn’t have politics. When I pressed him he said he does not want to live in Israel if his children are going to have to serve as he did in an army of occupation, defending a border that does not even exist. And as for the two-state-solution, it was probably a joke 8 years ago and now people are coming to awareness. BDS? It is a good tool. Obama. "He has managed to bring our public discussion down to freezing the settlements or not, and even then the answer is No."
Kurz is raising money for his group
Grassroots Jerusalem.It aims to coordinate all the groups working for justice in Jerusalem. Activists can go to the site and figure out where to go. He is trying to get support from Americans the way the illegal colonies get support.
He was amazed and appalled that the Mets are helping the occupation by hosting the Hebron Fund dinner. (There will be a protest outside the baseball commissioner’s office Wednesday, 12:30-1:30, 245 Park Avenue near 47th St.) The settlers are building at a frenzied pace right now. Houses are going up everywhere. "Settlers know exactly what Jerusalem is going to look like in five years. They have the funding, the families and the guns to make it happen." The other side has to answer that.
"They say we are undermining the legitimacy of the Jewish state. Well the occupation is undermining the legitimacy of the Jewish state. I don’t know about a Jewish state, I know about not standing by and watching as human-rights atrocities happen 20 minutes from where I live."
Kurz finished his coffee and walked me to Grand Central Station. Night was falling. The Jewish sabbath. He might go on to a friend’s house for Sabbath dinner.
"I am optimistic," he said. Something has stirred since Gaza, in Jewish identity. Recently he saw two young American Jews at a Palestinian refugee camp. They had come over on birthright and realized they were being brainwashed. They are waking up. He had the same experience as a soldier.
A war in the soul of Israel parallels the civil war in American Jewish life. "It will take the American Jewish community to wake up for things to change over there. To realize what is actually the case there. It’s not about terrorism. It’s not about the Palestinians. It’s about the Israelis and the ultra-right-wing settler movement and their funding." Kurz is optimistic because that awareness is growing. I told him about a statement by Michael Walzer earlier this year, that the Jewish community must act to "defeat the settler movement." He agreed.
How Jewish are you? I said.
"I’m much more Jewish than I have ever been. I feel much stronger in my identity as a Jew. What’s that mean? As far as I’m concerned, what’s going on in Israel and the occupation is completely against what I was brought up believing. I always heard of Jerusalem as the city of light. It makes more and more sense. This is where we must learn to live with our neighbors."
He went to a synagogue in Summit New Jersey. It was weird. They looked at the flag of Israel and sang the Israeli national anthem. Then he had a respectful conversation and tried to tell them what was happening in Palestine and Israel. They didn’t deny what he was saying. A man said to him, "We have our boot on the Palestinians’ face. But how do we get our boot off their face, when they have a knife that they are going to kill us with?"
The answer to the man’s mindset is from Micha Kurz’s own life. He served in the occupation in Bethlehem. Years later he went back to Bethlehem as a member of Breaking the Silence. He was terrified. Everyone there wanted to kill him. But he was not wearing a uniform, and the people opened their doors to him, one family after another.
Imagine.
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kudos to him for the work he is doing… more jewish people like him need to get involved in similar work…. thanks for the article..
Thank you Phil.
They are more likely to listen to Israelis than to American Jews, particularly Israeli veterans. These are the people who need to be heard.
Ditto over here:
http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php
I was organizing my bookmarks when I came across an article titled: “How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas “.
I thought it might be of interest to some readers so here is the link:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123275572295011847.html#printMode
Yea, that is an old story. Really never denied by the israelis either. Basically they helped Hamas in the beginning as a means of undermining Arafat’s authority. They did this in two ways: one was to give them money and the other was to give them freedom of movement on the WB and not arresting and hassling them like they did to those suspected of PLO sympathies.
I see a lot of ignorant American apologists for Israel denying it with great indignation. And Israel seems more to be trying to peddle the responsibility as Iran’s these days.
They helped social services in Hamas at a time when that was all that they were doing.
“Spawn Hamas” is a lie. Tell Hamas leadership that Israel started their organization and controlled them for ten years, and see if you get out alive.
Ooooh I get it, Witty. So as long as Hamas is on Israel’s leash, and under Israel’s, ahem, “guidance,” you consider them docile. Is that right?
Talk about confirming my point!
“We have our boot on the Palestinians’ face. But how do we get our boot off their face, when they have a knife that they are going to kill us with?” I recognize that! It’s the national founding slogan of Israel: “No Choice”.
” It’s the national founding slogan of Israel: “No Choice”.
Along with martyrdom over conversion!
Mooser, you’re going to fast for me. Are you thinking of Shlomo Sand here? In any case, my ‘no choice’ joke is only dressed up as a joke. It’s the shooting and crying thing. That is, I’m focusing on the apologists rather than on the likudniks. Imagine a small modification to the Israeli flag, add a bullet top left and a tear bottom right. Now wouldn’t that be appropriate?
It is amazing that you described Kurz “He looks Israeli to me: compact and animated, rugged and unpretentious.” The interview that I watched with Kurz on Laura Flanders does demonstrate that he is “unpretentious”
But from the clips that you have shown on this website of Israeli in the streets and their feelings about Palestinians, Obama etc and from what friends of mine who have gone to spend time in Israel many times have shared that they have found many “pretentious” and racist Israeli’s. Kurz does not seem to be one of them
Amazing spin “A man said to him, “We have our boot on the Palestinians’ face. But how do we get our boot off their face, when they have a knife that they are going to kill us with?”
Israel has their boot on the Palestinians face, the knife at their backs and the guns in their faces’
Come on.
Hillary “they will build no new settlements, expropriate no lands, allow no new construction or approval”
Micha Kurz “the settlements are on a BUILDING FRENZY lately just because of the discussions going on, no matter what Hillary is saying”
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Micha Kurz was an Israeli soldier during the second intifada, and when he left the military he co-founded Breaking the Silence, an organization that collects stories from members of the service (which is compulsory in Israel for young men and women) who served in the occupied territories. Breaking the Silence allows soldiers to confidentially speak out about the things they did and saw while in the military.
Kurz is now with Grassroots Jerusalem, where he helps bring together grassroots social justice activists from across Israel. Kurz notes that his Jewish upbringing is what caused him to question the way Israel conducts the occupation and to speak out against it, and he talks to Laura about what Americans can do to help bring peace in Israel and Palestine
http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/
Amazing spin “A man said to him, “We have our boot on the Palestinians’ face. But how do we get our boot off their face, when they have a knife that they are going to kill us witI don’t think it’s spin Kathleen. It’s a core myth.
I tend to worry a bit over the value of the Israeli grassroots organizations but my first impression of Grassroots Jeruzalem is good. It’s not a ‘good zionist’ or ‘let’s try not to fight’ agenda . It also doesn’t seem to be stuck with the dilemma that Nomi Lalo of Machsom Watch describes in an article by Jonathan Cook.
In fact their site could become a useful portal.
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