This weekend I travelled to Tel Aviv to take part in a major demonstration organised by various Israeli peace and justice organisations and a few left-wing political parties. The police estimated that nine thousand people were marching that night. This alone would have been a good reason for me not to go, as I don’t like crowds and I don’t like noise and I don’t like strangers, and I especially don’t like all three packed into one town square – especially when the square is full of banners reading ‘Two peoples, two states’.
“That is a very segregationist sentiment,” I said disapprovingly to Shai as we passed the first such sign. I support a one-state solution, partly for practical reasons, partly for ethical ones. For the past five years I have watched policymakers dreaming up ways to divide the land, and peace workers dreaming of ways to unite people, and gradually I found myself drifting into the second group. This has brought me face-to-face with injustice and pain that I didn’t even know existed, and which can’t be remedied by land division. In my experience with the Israeli left, too many of its members assume that Palestine’s problems can all be solved by simply parcelling off land for the Palestinians to govern for themselves. They often talk as though these problems began in 1967, as if the occupation is a dark stain on an otherwise bright history. 1948 and the years leading up to the ethnic cleansing constitute the elephant in the room. Obviously this isn’t true for every Israeli left-winger, but I have encountered these attitudes frequently enough for me to have become quite sceptical of the left.
My scepticism was summed up perfectly by another left-wing demo that was held in Jerusalem recently, under the inspired slogan ‘The Territories for them, the chunks for us’ (the ‘chunks’ being the illegal settlement blocs). As my friend David pointed out, they might as well have called it ‘Swiss cheese for them’. On the event’s Facebook page, one person asked, “How is this any different from the occupation?”
The Tel Aviv demo took a firmer line (“Israel says ‘yes’ to a Palestinian state”). I decided that the slogan was wide enough to encompass many views, including my own, so I agreed to go. When I arrived I saw several demonstrators carrying outsize photographs of a zombie-like Benjamin Netanyahu, bearing the caption ‘peace-decliner’, and this stinging critique of Israel’s PM reassured me that I had made the right choice. I was in a radical crowd.
The streets had been shut down for the march. As we wound our way through the city, heading from Rabin Square to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Shai translated the remarks from passers-by. “That woman just said, ‘Look, they’ve got the 1967 signs, the shitheads!’.”
Perhaps I should have seized the opportunity to do something practical for peace and run after her, telling her that I am not a fan of ’67 borders either, but I had a funny feeling that she would take even less kindly to me than she did to the ’67 placards. In any case, I was enjoying the atmosphere of the demo too much to want to leave. So long as we kept moving and stayed on the edges, I could tolerate the crowds, and the sense of solidarity was infectious. Busloads of people had travelled up from Beersheva just to participate. By the time we reached the plaza outside the museum, I was happy to admit that the leftist Israeli peace movement might have more spirit than I give it credit for.
But I do wish it could stay sober for longer than five seconds at a time. It seemed to me that half the marchers were up there with the clusters of green Meretz balloons that bobbed along overhead. This is where I began to feel overwhelmed. Acute sensitivity to noise, smell, light, and touch are features of my neuro problems, and when I am in a crowd it becomes painful. It gets hard to walk; I can’t concentrate on moving if I have to process so much numbing sensory information. Speech becomes hesitant. Then I start to want to hide. I coped by draping my scarf over my head and face to block out the world. When I sensed my balance starting to go, I got down on the floor.
I was afraid that I would panic, but I didn’t. Sitting there, clutching a book about reconciliation, I thought about all the different things that coming to Palestine has enabled me to do. Perhaps because the situation here is so extreme, I push myself to extremes. I try things that at home I wouldn’t touch. Back in England it’s sometimes all I can do to ask a waiter in a restaurant for a refill of my tea. Here I go up to heavily armed men and ask them why they are blocking my way. At home I hide upstairs if my parents have guests round whom I don’t know very well. Here I go marching with thousands of people. It isn’t easy, but it does make me feel good afterwards. In a sense, this is part of peace work: pushing personal limits, and finding out things you did not know about yourself.
In addition to the Meretz balloons and people high on weed, there were many Israeli flags streaming above my head. It was strange for me to see all the blue and white. Where I live, the flag hangs at the checkpoints. When you have been in a queue for hours and your back aches and you just want to sit down and the soldiers won’t stop screaming, the sight of that flag is like a taunt. Look, this is what we can do to you. We own this land and we own your time and we can make you wait as long as we like. It’s even worse when I’m in Hebron and I see the settlements. There the flag has been splashed brazenly across the water towers – towers that serve only the settlers, while Palestinian residents in south Hebron have to get by on fifteen litres of water per day. (According to the World Health Organisation, seventy litres is the bare minimum needed for each person.) Israel takes 80% of the West Bank’s water supply, the settlements get another 10%, and the entire population of the West Bank makes do with what is left of their own water – which they buy from Israel at inflated prices.
Sometimes I feel as though I can’t bear to look at that flag. It did me good to see it being used positively for once, although I don’t know if the symbol can ever be fully reclaimed after all it’s been made to stand for on this side of the wall. But conflicting emotions aside, I am glad I went on Saturday.
This post first appeared at Vicky's site, Bethlehem Blogger.
What a lovely post. I think you are right that many on the left are somehow avoiding the issues of ’48. But many aren’t avoiding them; they’ve simply come to conclusions remarkably similar to those of Yasser Arafat and many other Palestinian leaders – that a truly independent, viable state alongside Israel is the next goal post that both sides need to pass if there is to be peace.
I remember in the May Day marches in Tel-Aviv we would be given Israeli flags and red flags. I marched in organized lines wearing our white shirts and red scarves with Palestinians from Nazareth, Sakhnin, Ramle, Akko. I always took a red flag, never a blue and white one. It felt wrong somehow. But how much more wrong was it that they carried it?
I think today I’d rather not carry any flags at all.
Maybe you haven’t noticed, but the two state solution can’t happen while Israel keeps settlements — ESPECIALLY the settlements your government explicitly and categorically refuses to dismantle.
You know, it’s great that you’ve finally come around to the two state solution this late in the game. Now all you have to do is get your degenerate, colonialist government to respect international law and maybe it can save itself from the fate that every colonizer has ever suffered. (And don’t worry over there in the other corner, eee. The United States has one hell of a blowback in store for us when our finance system implodes under the record-breaking massive debt that we can never possibly pay off, so take comfort in the that.)
Readers should know that clenchner supports so-called Palestinian “leaders” because those leaders have been in Israel’s pocket all along.
His new line of argumentation is to claim that he is more Palestinian than many activists because he supports the Palestinian leadership — whoever that may be nowadays given Israel’s refusal to recognize a democratic Palestinian election.
But, the truth is that not only have those leaders who negotiated with Israel so far, offered Israel so much — as found in the Palestine Papers — they have compromised away some of the basic demands that UN resolutions have called for, to wit the right of return, Jerusalem and the colonies. No referendum, no international law and certainly no justice has been carried out by those “leaders”.
clenchner won’t admit it, and he’ll deny it vehemently, but the truth is that clenchner dreads a single democratic state in which both Jews and Non-Jews can live equally.
It’s not politically correct, much as it is self-defeating for his argument, to admit that his advocacy is focused on maintaining a Jewish state.
Sigh.
Nope. Needs to be said Avi, all your efforts to interpret me fall flat. Might as well stick to what’s written. Why not go back to accusing me of not being Israeli?
Has it occurred to you that it’s escaped no one’s notice that your primary compatriots here — the ones that will sidle up and nod and agree when you state something — are hophmi, eee and Witty?
I really can’t be held responsible for other people. Only myself. That said, has it escaped your notice that I’ve disagreed with hophmi, eee, and Witty on the issues?
Talk about guilt by association!
The following posts from previous months, show that clenchner is at least stolid, at worst dishonest:
That Barghouthi fella should write a letter and be content, you see?
You see, folks. It’s the dwindling role of the Ashkenazi elite that has led to this decline.
“A multicultural reality is a positive thing”, but it’s those darn Arab rejectionists who don’t “value highly the ability to integrate into Israeli Jewish society in great numbers” who are the obstacle.
Continued, from the same post:
Will you draw conclusions based on those who reject BDS, the only viable non-violent option left on the table?
So, because Palestinian organizations are finding new ways to end their people’s oppression and seek justice, you are fearful given the organizations involved.
It’s interesting circular logic.
First you reject Palestinians bringing the BDS debate into the Jewish community, then when the first and second Intifadahs fail as does the peace processing, you point to the Palestinian organizations who have decided to join BDS as a reason NOT to support BDS.
That’s a peculiar statement to make in light of the previous quote.
Continued….
So, it’s self-determination for Jews while embracing multi-culturalism, so long as Bargouthi can write a letter. Right?
More….
So, there is a conspiracy, a political conspiracy behind BDS. And it seems that conspiracy is global in scale. Got it.
And….
Perhaps what the BDS Movement needs is an organization like J-Street with “limited resources”, thus justifying the exclusion of the Other. No?
Excluding the voices of the victims from the stage is not ethical. It is morally bankrupt.
Continued….
Yes. It’s those darn far left supporters who are unleashing fury on an organization that supports Palestinian rights by doing nothing. Again, interesting circular logic.
And…
Cute lecture.
Oh the contradictions.
clenchner 1:01pm post – i agree it isn’t fair to paint some here with all one brush – guilt by association approach… thanks for responding to patm’s post asking your thoughts on the theft of water from the palestinians… it is a tough crowd at mondo, but i think it’is great that we can have these types of exchanges and i hope that you continue to participate..
Like when, clencher? Be specific.
What do you have to say about Vicky’s report on the water situation, Clenchner?
“There the flag has been splashed brazenly across the water towers – towers that serve only the settlers, while Palestinian residents in south Hebron have to get by on fifteen litres of water per day. (According to the World Health Organisation, seventy litres is the bare minimum needed for each person.) Israel takes 80% of the West Bank’s water supply, the settlements get another 10%, and the entire population of the West Bank makes do with what is left of their own water – which they buy from Israel at inflated prices.”
In my opinion, this situation should be considered one of Israel’s many war crimes.
I’m very familiar with the water theft in the West Bank. It’s a crime and should stop.
I don’t get the line of questioning though…. nothing I’ve ever said or written, on any forum, suggests that I’m a friend of settlers or occupation. Is there some checklist to go through, so that just dies down for good? No bypass roads, no land theft, no expansion, no hilltops, no roadblocks, no economic control, no water theft, no Jordan valley troops. Enough already. Sheesh.
What does Witty have to say about that water control and distribution?
It’s been mentioned often on this site but I can’t recall if he has ever specifically address that issue.
if, indeed, this turns out to be the moment
what will tell?
open-mindedness
how ill one know?
by the feel of it
the spirit of those eighteen glorious days in tahrir square
born again
the zionist cries “why single out israel, what about tibet, the kurds, the plight of the american indians?”
except a just and free palestine gonna free us all
free us all?
one big victory
what it’ll take
and the ones in charge know this?
know this? they’re experiencing it
the humpty dumpties of the world?
they’re having big falls, having big falls
good riddance too!
and the what sort of world?
it’s up to us
vicky – thanks for your post and sharing…
clenchner – mostly i think of national flags is a way of separating people and are used to dumb down people… i think people would be better off thinking of themselves as potential guardians of the planet as opposed to a guardian for some political boundary… at some point we are all going to have to get along and a flag isn’t going to work to do t\his.. and, as vicky points out the flag is sometimes used to demean others or express an arrogance that is ultimately counter productive to any possibility for peace… ultimately i think flags are unproductive…. in my lifetime i have seen them used for mostly stirring up feelings that are better left buried….
James, how old are you? Have you ever been a soldier? Are you an American? If so, have you ever talked to any WW2 veteran about their country’s flag? Just wondering. Many of my direct relatives died in the US Army, Navy, and Marines in WW2–they were young then. I myself served in the US Army in a combat unit during the Vietnam War Era. I was 18, as were most of the guys I knew while in that unit. I’ve never blindly supported anyone’s POV, whether they brandished 10 flags, or burned them. Does the Star Spangled Banner mean anything to you at all? How about the famous photo of the flag going up on that Japanese-held Island? Then we can also see old film of flag waving Imperial Japanese soldiers and Germans of all ages moved by the spirit symbolized by their swastika flag, which to them meant, any Germany reborn from the dire economic aftermath of WW1 and its total humiliation that was not unilaterally deserved by any objective criteria.
Is the conclusion, after all is said and done with an eye on history, that flags are always unproductive of anything good and therefore should never be regarded as symbols of anything good, something worthy of
human memorial and aspiration? Does only your personal lifetime experience have any application to your logic and feelings? Do you know any American family that has a dear one in the military “over there?” Any of your old high school or college pals? If you are not American, same questions suitable for your home country. I ask you these questions because I think they are relevant for anyone’s general take on a flag, especially their own country’s. For a half century I refused to display an American flag, but I never burned one either or
dissed one in any way. When my parents died, not long ago, I took my mother’s American flag and now display it from an outside wall anchor.
I do this even though my government has not engaged in one military struggle I’ve agreed with since I was able to vote–when I was in the Army I was not old enough to vote under the law at the time. Now I vote and it has had zero effect on my government’s wars, wars that bring back to me my father’s sneering judgment that (most especially enlisted) people in the military are stupid “cannonfodder,” for the Haves in an eternal often unreognized eternal socio-economic war with the Have Nots. Perhaps it would be productive to replace Old Glory with a green flag with a gold dollar sign in the middle of it? I don’t know anyone. young or old who would feel inspired by such a flag, let alone put their life on the line for it, perhaps because it too closely symbolizes reality? How about the traditional communist flag? The Dixie flag? Are they like symbols such as the cross, star of david, and Islamic flag? Too much evil has been done under their flutter or behind their label pin they don’t deserve to appear at all? Net judgment? Should all patriotism and religion be eradicated in the name of a better world? How about that blue UN flag? The Red Cross flag?
Great post, Vicky.
Vicky, you quite rightly highlight the deplorable water situation.
“There the flag has been splashed brazenly across the water towers – towers that serve only the settlers, while Palestinian residents in south Hebron have to get by on fifteen litres of water per day. (According to the World Health Organisation, seventy litres is the bare minimum needed for each person.) Israel takes 80% of the West Bank’s water supply, the settlements get another 10%, and the entire population of the West Bank makes do with what is left of their own water – which they buy from Israel at inflated prices.”
This discrepancy is intolerable.
Since over half of the water consumed in Israel is stolen, this makes every Israeli guilty of theft. I once asked Guilty Feat how it felt ever time he drank a glass of water or took a shower knowing that over half of it was stolen. He didn’t answer.
Great post. Witnesses so important. Thank you
Reacted to this
“Acute sensitivity to noise, smell, light, and touch are features of my neuro problems, and when I am in a crowd it becomes painful. It gets hard to walk; I can’t concentrate on moving if I have to process so much numbing sensory information. Speech becomes hesitant. Then I start to want to hide. I coped by draping my scarf over my head and face to block out the world. When I sensed my balance starting to go, I got down on the floor.”
I was a migraine sufferer for years. Your description of your reactions to smells, sounds,crowds etc sound so similar to my reactions. When I started meditating, awareness of breath, wearing sun glasses, prepping myself mentally before entering such a crowd, drinking lots and lots of water was able to handle more overwhelming input. Almost totally knocked out migraines. Paying attention to all of the pre indications. The calm breathing…. Really works
To tell the truth – it’s all worthless bullshit
These people won’t bring any change – even should they by some miracle get to power – they are THE state.
You see, the real problem is that MAJORITY of Israeli society – you know, lower-middle class: taxi drivers, kitchen workers, pc technicians, entrepreneurs, teachers, etc. are actually not presented at all. Nowhere.
Current regime – mostly consisting of second-generation HAGANA and LEHI fighters and those lucky enough to get close to the – basically rips Israelis off – Jews and Arabs alike – and will continue to do so for an indefinite amount of time simply because there is no trustworthy political movement – no goal, no leader, no agenda.
People here are not happy with current situation – prices are skyrocketing, fuel is most expensive in the world – 2.24 USD per liter, everything else is very expensive as well – I think Israel is most expensive county nowadays.
At the same time minimal wage remain un-indexed for years, and large part of population basically get every day poorer because everything gets more and more expensive while ministers and top management gets multi-million bonuses.
Now, these leftist movements – meretz and others – actually represent most well-established part of Israeli society – those residing in north Tel Aviv, Hertzelia Pituah and Saviyon.
Your attempts to establish dialog with these fraction shows just how naive you are, how little you know of Israeli society and how little positive outcome could be expected from combined efforts of smooth-tonged liars and human rights activists.
Situation here probably feels a bit like in Egypt just few months ego – everybody is fed up with government, there is an urge for change in the society and more and more often voices calling against government are heard.
The problem is that out-rooting current regime is only possibly by means of physical removal of all officials – I mean removal to their well-deserved pensions – which is however extremely unlikely to happen due to numerous reasons, most important of which I’ve mentioned earlier.
So why don’t you just go back to your fucking homes and let us rot by ourselves?
Your efforts will only bring more blood to this land.
Yeah. The United States didn’t exactly sit back and wait for Nazi Germany rot away on its own. There’s a reason for that.
Actually it is exactly what USA did until the moment when they realized that entire Europe might fall to kommies, which is the reason why they actually landed in Normandy.
Because Hitler was a “Commie?” Do you not know any history at all? Do you not know that there was an erstwhile alliance between Europe/US and Stalin’s Russia to fight Hitler?
Seriously. FAIL.
“Because Hitler was a “Commie?””
No, because Stalin was a Commie.
“Do you not know that there was an erstwhile alliance between Europe/US and Stalin’s Russia to fight Hitler?”"
Not exactly.
Molotov and Ribbentrop have signed non-aggression pack in august 1939 and until Germany “surprisingly” invaded USSR on early morning 22nd of June 1941 – after conquering entire Europe – except British Islands of course, and tiny bit of Vichy France – USSR kept supplying Germany with grain and other supplies, German and USSR armies was exchanging experience – entire concept of Blitzkrieg was actually invented by Kommies and relations among Soviets and Nazis was warmest possible – after all, Nazis = National-Socialists, and USSR was an Socialist state at the time.
Apparently your knowledge of WWII history is as vast as your acquaintance with Arab-Israeli conflict.