From Schindler to Gaza– two evenings at the Lensic theater

A day after Max Blumenthal’s appearance with Amy Goodman at the Lensic performing arts center in Santa Fe on October 10, Tanya Taylor Rubinstein posted this report on her Facebook page. She allowed us to publish it.

Twenty-one ears ago, I sat in the Lensic theater in Santa Fe about to watch a film with [my daughter] Chloe’s dad, Steven. We had been together for about one year at the time. Her birth was still several years in the wings. We had walked downtown from our tiny apartment on Santa Fe Avenue to take in the new Spielberg film, which we were both excited to see. The opening credits rolled across the huge screen and we settled in. The film was “Schindler’s List” and although I had seen films on the Holocaust previously, none of them had the effect on me that this film ended up having. I sat in the theater both enraptured and deeply pained. To refresh your memory, the film centered on the character of Oskar Schindler, a self centered, greedy German businessman who ended up saving a thousand or more Jews during WW 2. Several themes and images from that movie have stayed in my head and heart for all of these years. One disconcerting and disturbing view that Spielberg captured brilliantly, was the jarring schism between the lovely home and yard of the brutal Nazi officer, played by Ralph Fiennes, and the concentration camp right outside his other door. To see his family life “normalized” with all the comforts of any German officer of that time contrasted with skeletal, terrified and freezing people gave us a peek into the most extreme emotional dis-connect that can be possible in the human heart. The other image that haunts me from that film was towards the end, when Schindler, played so beautifully, by Liam Neeson, sinks down on the train tracks and weeps, crying out “I could have saved more.” His spiritual transformation is complete. Moving from a cold-hearted egoist, he has come to know the power of love through his act of both defiance and courage.

Steven and I walked home in the cold air, holding hands and in silence. In that silence, I thought about how such an atrocity could happen and it also sent me into years of reflection on how denial and fear enable such events to manifest in the world.

Last night, I was once again, back at the Lensic Performing Arts Center, this time for a talk given by Max Blumenthal that was hosted by Amy Goodman. Max was actually in Gaza, this summer for five days, during a cease-fire of Operation Protective Edge. He described images that were surely as disturbing as anything that was viewed in Schindler’s List. He spoke of five naked men chained up in a bathroom and killed. He spoke of repeated incidents of the Israeli army members asking if anyone spoke Hebrew when they barged into a private home. If someone in a house answered in the affirmative, they were shot and killed on the spot. He spoke of the Israeli bombing of the UN school after their coordinates had been transmitted seventeen times to the Israeli Army. He also shared news of the many Palestinians who have now drowned at sea. These are the ones who die trying to get away from Gaza, as they find no opportunity for their futures, and as they cannot move freely in and out of their country. There was his description of Gaza itself, which was reminiscent of the disconnect Spielberg featured in Schindler’s List. On one side of the wall, one is walking in a lovely, prosperous Israeli town. On the other side of the door, one walks into a ghetto that has been bombed and decimated into near oblivion.

Even more disturbing to me that these obvious atrocities have to do with some other facts that were shared with us about the control and manipulation inherent in the entire situation. Max shared that he has concluded, through his experiences, that Israel is becoming more and more right-wing. The youth have been groomed to be good soldiers, not good citizens. The small faction of courageous Israeli progressives who protested the operation on Gaza this summer experienced threats on their lives. Some were taunted and followed to their homes after the protests in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Max reported that many of the progressives he spoke to want to leave the country, saying, there is no space for leftist dissent in Israel.

Because of that fact alone, it is up for the rest of the world to speak up. My own regret is that I haven’t done it sooner and louder. The Palestinians are human beings with the right to belong, the right for safety and security, the right to experience their full lives knowing that they have futures.

With all the indignities currently happening worldwide, why am I throwing my energy into the ring with this one?

#1 ) Because, Israel is only an arm of the U.S. at this point. Our country is funding the illegal occupation and ongoing wars. Three billion plus dollars of our tax money per year filters straight to Israel.

#2) Because my daughter’s father is Jewish and I do not want her to confuse the beautiful soul of Judaism with the atrocities being perpetuated by the Israeli government.

#3) Because it frightens me to see my fellow American’s look the other way when it comes to Palestine. As Max and Amy Goodman stated last night, their is a rampant syndrome known as PEP which means “Progressive Except Palestine”. It needs to end because it is not based on either critical thinking or heart.

#4 ) Because not only did Obama throw the Palestinians under the bus this summer, but so did Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Max and Amy Goodman both explained that this is all about money and fear of backlash from their constituents. If even our best and brightest Dems are too terrified to speak out, then who is left but us?

#5) Because I was not alive, during the time of Oskar Schindler. But his life is a legacy, an invitation to all of us to move past our self centered concerns and figure out how we can contribute to the saving of innocent lives. Nothing less is at stake. What I know is that it takes many people’s denial, apathy and fear to enable any kind of sociopathic regime. And yet, we always have the choice to speak out. For me, that time is now.

#6) Because my life as a solo performer, writer and director has always been about speaking the unspeakable. And, giving voice to the voiceless. As artists, we do not create to simply entertain or gain popularity. As artists, it is our job to stand in the truth and speak what is taboo or risky or unspoken. This is our duty and it is what makes our very lives holy. We are meant to inspire and lead the politicians, not the other way around.

#7 ) Because like Oskar Schindler, we must all draw our own line in the sand in this one blessed life we’re given. If we turn from what we know, at some point, we denigrate our own humanity, our own soul.

I personally add my voice to the many Americans and other global citizens who will continue to speak for the many who are voiceless or in other ways, rendered powerless: Jimmy Carter, Amy Goodman, Sarah Schulman, Max Blumenthal, Denny Cormier, Naomi Wolf, Hector Aristizabal, Alice Walker and the millions more worldwide who are standing in this truth.

For those of you who resonate with this, please share this message with others. You may share, In my words, or your own. But, please speak before another several thousand Palestinian lives are lost. We must not be complicit through our silence.