I give thanks today to my community. We are building it, a diverse community of brave people working across traditional tribal and ethnic and religious lines to try and forge a vision of coexistence in a troubled brutalized place. Let us celebrate our commitment, and learn from one another. I'm trying to learn myself, and overcome my own deeply-engrained prejudice.
We disagree about stuff. OK. But remember what happens when we remain inside our own religious and national communities, how weak we can be.
Think about Israeli student Maya Wind, who is being pilloried in Israel's largest English language site. Wind is a shministim, she refused to serve in the Israeli occupation. Last week we did a couple posts about a brave thing Wind did, when she put on a uniform to act as a soldier at an Israeli checkpoint, at Columbia University. 
Well now Ynet has picked up Wind's story, and is trying to shame her in her own society. "Israeli student joins other side of conflict":
While Israel struggles to justify its actions to an ever-growing hostile international community, some choose to join the other side – Maya Yechieli Wind, 19, from Jerusalem, is currently studying in New York's prestigious Columbia University and chooses to spend her spare time organizing anti-Israeli displays depicting IDF soldiers beating and humiliating Palestinians at checkpoints....
While in Israel, Wind refused to don an army uniform, in the display she gladly depicted an IDF sergeant who, according to Wind, regularly abuses and humiliates the Palestinian population at the checkpoint. ...
Wind took her part very seriously, aggressively ordering students to kneel to the ground while threatening them with a carton rifle.
The "soldiers" then proceeded to check the "Palestinians'" bags, while tossing books and personal belonging onto the floor.
This is the price that a dissenter pays. I don't like to quote old posts, but here is what I said when Maya Wind and Netta Mishly spoke at the behest of Code Pink a year ago:
"the theme of the talk [was] how isolated these young women are. They are in a militarized society in which everyone serves, in which people look forward to serving. When Netta was 15, her class had been taken to a shooting range to try out guns and she had refused because she just didn’t want to–even when people said, you will have to get used to it in another three years anyway– and the school gave her a demerit for not taking “part in a social event.”
"Everyone they know has served. Their grandparents, their fathers, their uncles. Netta had gone to her own father’s release ceremony from the Reserves. “It’s all very personal.” And everyone their age is a soldier; and they are thought to be soldiers too, until they are asked what their role is in the army, and they have to answer. That is the way life is understood. And Maya said that her real punishment had not been jail– no, jail had actually brought her family together, gotten her mother to respect her choice—it had been the feeling of isolation in Israel society. She feels she can never be an ordinary person.
"Both women were declared mentally unfit. That was the only category the army had for them, after they had gone to jail for two weeks for not serving. Very Yossarianish. And the women are in support groups, because there are so few people like them in Israeli society.
"When I go to events like this, I also feel less isolated."
I like that last line. This week let's think of the community we are actually building, and be thankful for it.
Having spent much of my teens and twenties looking at and talking to beautiful women on CU’s College Walk, it thrills me to see Maya.
You left out this part, from an Israeli at Columbia WHO ACTUALLY SERVED:
“Omer Geller, a 26-year-old Israeli student of Economics said what bothered him most was that “many people – even in this university – don’t know what really goes on, thinking this is what actually happens to a person at a checkpoint.
“Since many of us served at checkpoints, it is especially infuriating – we tried to talk to people and explain to them what really goes on. Unfortunately, they invested a lot in their presentation, and as such it managed to steal the show,” he said.”
Seems to me that the opinion of an actual checkpoint soldier is at least as valuable as Maya Wind’s.
hophmi. there are numerous videos available of palestinians being humiliated at ‘actual’ checkpoints with ‘actual’ iof soldiers which refute the implication of mr gellers statement.
here’s an example for the zionist above, of what really happens at checkpoints:
and another example from the same source as above
for some reason the link to the source didn’t parse, so here it is again
http://notsylvia.wordpress.com/2010/06/22/dreams-of-palestine/
Again, one international’s testimony is not as credible as the testimony of a checkpoint soldier who did this for a long period of time.
“Again, one international’s testimony is not as credible”
actually it is far more so – she has no reason to lie – whereas a soldier who terrorises innocent Palestinians on a daily basis at a checkpoint, has plenty of reasons to lie in order to make him or her self look less monstrous
What you really mean to say is that you are always biased in favour of the Soldier. Whether that is because he is Jewish and you are an ethnocentric racist, is anyone’s guess
Was there anything specific in those two descriptions of Palestinian treatment at IOF checkpoints which you personally know for a fact to be demonstrably false?
Or were you just indulging your usual propensity for automatic knee-jerk denial of reality?
C’mon, hophmi. Israelis who have served in the army – including Mr. Geller – know what goes on at the checkpoints.
Here’s a sample of pure Israeli testimonies from the checkpoints:
link to shovrimshtika.org
one international’s testimony is not as credible as the testimony of a checkpoint soldier
hophmi, is there a reason you chose not to address my comment about the videos? this video is not pallywood, it’s an israeli presentation, no internationals. there’s a long column on the righthand side, many more to choose from. do you think these are all actors lined up at this checkpoint?
“It was so frustrating for me to see those innocent boys being taken away. . . . . . knowing whatever you say as a witness, it does not count with either the soldiers or the police.“
Or with hophmi, it seems
hophmi, do you know palestinian babies have died at checkpoints? are you going to make excuses for this also. do you think full term pregnant palestinian women run the risk of blowing themselves up? is preventing them the opportunity of giving birth in a hospital saving jewish lives? you tell us hophmi and then tell me it has nothing to do w/superiority.
Obviously, a wide variety of treatments and events occur at checkpoints.
From considerate and professional to indifferent to contempt.
In MANY films presented by dissent as indicating the contempt shown to Palestinians, I concluded restraint and professionalism, creating a confusion, a disbelief in my mind towards statements made by dissenters.
I am certain that the presence of checkpoints and the obvious severe inconvenience (and periodically worse) is invasive.
But, that is a different story than to portray IDF soldiers’ as inhumane. Its analagous to calling returning Iraq or Afghanistan stationed US military personnel, “murderers” or as in Vietnam “baby killers”.
Its a prejudice itself.
They’re IDF checkpoints, they’re one narrative among many, and the Shministim are still a small segment of the population.
I’m sorry Palestinians have to empty bags. I had to do the same when I brought a big bag of donated school supplies for Ethiopian schoolchildren on the plane with me last time I went.
the practice of placing checkpoints between villages, places israelis never need even be near, places separating children from their schools and people from their fields and families from their relatives and checkpoints everywhere requiring multiple in one day provide the opportunity of the occupier to invade every segment of the community, it is incredibly invasive, humiliating and is not limited to travel across the green line.
there’s over 600 of them. i can’t believe you are defending this practice or denying this humiliation does not go on day in and day out all thruout the occupied territory.
get a grip hophmi. don’t make a fool of yourself.
I’m sorry Palestinians have to empty bags.
sorry doesn’t cut it. why should a palestinian have to empty her schoolbag on the way to school between her home and her school deep within the west bank? what security does this provide israel?
all of this is presumably for the safety of settlers who are there to expand israel ! there’s no other reason. the very fact these people need to go thru these checkpoints is a humiliation in itself every if the soldiers were handing out candy and smiling. these are invaders, occupiers. don’t pretend it is the same as you being searched by someone in your jewish community. just stop.
the Shministim are still a small segment of the population
i could care less how many, even one it would make no difference. even if every single israeli person thinks this humiliation is acceptable you try telling me it would be ok for you to have palestinian checkpoints inside israel between your house and your school. if they were all nice! tell me it would not be a humiliation. it is sickening, disgusting and there is no excuse for it. you want checkpoints on the borders of your state, fine. that’s not what this is and you damn well know it.
now address the videos!
Narratives? Emptying bags? Here’s a sample from Breaking the Silence. I heard stories like this from my friends (I never manned a checkpoint myself), 20-25 years ago, and read reports about them during my own service. It’s still going on, and it is symptomatic and systematic.
But, that is a different story than to portray IDF soldiers’ as inhumane.
excuse me? maya was not being any more or less inhumane than what goes on there all the time. i don’t know what you’re talking about. is this the inhumanity you’re referencing? too mean for you witty?
In MANY films presented by dissent as indicating the contempt shown to Palestinians, I concluded restraint and professionalism, creating a confusion, a disbelief in my mind towards statements made by dissenters.
what kind of orwellian garbaldygook speech is this? have you arrived to save hophmi from recognition of what goes on w/this confusing doublespeak of yours?
hophmi, you are being ridiculous. What is your point, that there have been many instances of routine passage through the checkpoints? Of course there have been, but there also have been innumerable incidents of cruelty, sadism, or even simple indifference that have been catastrophic on the victims. But don’t forget that even the routine days involve people being controlled like animals as they go about their daily lives. They move about at the whim of foreign kids with rifles who have been taught contempt for them. If, on a given day, some Palestinians are fortunate enough to encounter a soldier who has not lost all his common sense and compassion, it’s still a miserable existence. And tomorrow, they may not be so lucky.
How dare you compare opening your bag when flying to what these people have to go through every day (though I must say we are all quite impressed with your gifts of supplies for the darker-skinned Israeli children). If I could, I would sentence you to living one week with these checkpoints. Anything more would be too cruel, even for you.
So, hophmi, I guess your answer to my earlier question
is
and consequently anyone here can now be safe in the presumption that you were in fact just indulging your usual propensity for automatic knee-jerk denial of reality
they probably started that meme when reports from people traveling in the OT came back and said given the way they were being treated the palestinian violence is low and restrained
A useful comment (I hoope historically correct) from the YNET article you linked to:
The checkpoints preceded the terror by 20-years. The first intifada broke out in 1987/88, 20-years after the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza (Judea/Samaria & Gush Katif) had begun. In fact the first intifada was a popular insurrection against the checkpoints and military occupation.
To say that the checkpoints are there to prevent terror is to distort the historical chronology. I too served at checkpoints. And, yes sometimes nothing happened. And sometimes you had to look at your feet in shame at the abuse and violence.
I disagree with this girls theatrical display of protest but I commend her for her courage to stand by her principles. Sadly, the state of affairs in our beleaguered society is such that we all just attack each other without showing any respect or admiration for our political rivals. It will all lead to civil war in the end; especially now that the Referenda Law has been passed.
The army is less and less necessary for occupation in Israel, as Israel turns (as the USA has already done) to private militias, thugs-for-hire like BlackWater. The importance of Israeli use of these thugs cannot be overstated. It means that there will be fewer and fewer refuseniks. It means that there will be less and less general-population first-hand experience with the occupation. It means the occupation will become more and more invisible to Israelis sipping lattes in coffee-shops in Tel Aviv. (Just like America in our wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, to say nothing of our — yes OUR — entirely invisible wars in Pakistan and Yemen).
Apparently some 35% of Israeli women try to avoid military service, but now the government is trying to catch them via Facebook!
link to bbc.co.uk
i wonder how many of them evade the military for moral reasons. imagine if all those women were as brave as the shministim.
i met maya and other young shministim in israel way out on a farm where they came spoke to us, some of the kids in this video. one was about to go into jail. the immersion of serving in the occupation is completely integrated into the teens lives prior to the time they are supposed to serve. i was reminded of the feeling i got from some of my classmates at highschool during the vietnam war. i don’t know anyone from my school who served but every boy i knew had to come up w/some plan to get out of serving, many of them elaborate. i remember one guy who didn’t eat for a week and took a bunch of speed before he went in and then jacked off. but that was temporary limited to my generation. this is routine. living in a society that brainwashes kids into facilitating a permanent state of apartheid.
yes, i am very thankful for maya, netta and all the brave shministim. i’m also very thankful we’re building our community across national and ethnic lines thruout the world. thanks to you and adam for being a huge part of that phil . and to all the posters that contribute to this site w/a special heads up to seham and kate for their daily lists.
thank you annie
and yr ee cummings orthography
;) batting my eyelashes and blushing.
New Profile issued a report on “Child Recruitment in Israel” in 2004, that documented the integration of a military lifestyle into the lives of Israeli children from an early age, for anyone interested in more information on the topic:
link to newprofile.org
reminds me of max’s photos of the kid’s helping to cleanse the bedouin village in the negev. all those school buses lined up. yuk
Phil,
When you say “your community”. Is that a new tribalism?
“We” as opposed to “them”.
Who do you include in the “we”? Liberal me? Liberal Bradley Burston?
Or only radicals, only refusniks and single staters?
Or, is the community, the tribe, “self-determining”?
And, do you think that later you will need a land base to protect yourself and community from harrassment?
Will you purchase that land on the open market? And, how will minorities be treated that fundamentally differ with some critical elements of your community’s assertions? Will you purge those, or accept them?
we’re human rights activists you dolt.
Annie,
I am a human rights activist, and I urge that the world NOT adopt arbitrary BDS towards Israel, and particularly not towards cultural and academic settings.
Am I part of the “we”, or am I a “they”?
You’re not a human rights activist. You are an apologist for human rights violations. But I think its very obvious that you are part of the “we” Phil is talking about.
you go put him in his place
Maya Wind is doing what a heroic German named Willie Brandt did 77 years ago after he fleeing Nazi Germany, going into exile in Norway, where as best he could, he continued to oppose the Third Reich. Maya hasn’t been forced out of Israel but while here she’s giving her all to educate Americans as to Israel’s Nazi-like humiliation of Palestinians. For her effort she’s being attacked in the Israeli press. It may comfort her to know that while the German press vilified Willie Brandt, this didn’t deter him Not only that but after WW II, he went home, took up where he’d left off in 1933, and went on to become Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany. Likewise, it’s certainly not difficult to visualize Maya Wind returning to Israel and becoming a leader in the new nation that’s going to emerge from the dissolution of the Zionist Israel.
Willy
“I’m trying to learn myself, and overcome my own deeply-engrained prejudice.”
I expect that you have two deeply engrained prejudices. One is towards Arabs, people of color, non-urban, non-intellectual, people that are unlike your upbringing.
The other is prejudices towards Jews that are also outside of your upbringing. In particular most secular Jews do not have any “prayer-life”. The language, reasoning, and conformity of those that do (orthodox and renewal) are probably foreign to you, orthodox and chasidic thinking in particular.
I find much inconsistencies in chasidic teaching, but I engage it anyway, and I find that there are more inconsistencies in the political and scientific approaches than in the prayerful, as odd as that may sound.
And, there are more possible progressive approaches in diving into Jewish identity prayerfully, than is imagined.
But, it is progressive with a body, rather than the oft cited radical imposition of entire assimilation.