The Jewish communal reality is that all the members of Jewish congregations across the world, Zionists and non-Zionists alike, adhere to the uniform code of silencing: “Thou Shalt not oppose Israel’s War on the Palestinians in the Jewish Community”. Jews are allowed to question Israel privately but are required to remain silent in public, Jewish spaces. That’s the price of admittance that even nonZionists must pay to be included in a Jewish congregation. Selfcensorship is not sufficient. In addition to self-censorship, members are required to join in enforcing that censorship on all others.

A recent US military visit to the illegal Jewish settlement in occupied Hebron shows that the Biden administration is legitimizing the occupation and accepting the one-state reality that is Israel/Palestine. Palestinians were not included in the visit, and the army host was settler Noam Arnon — who has called Jewish terrorists “heroes” — and whose settler cohort are not interested in peaceful coexistence but in military domination of the occupied Palestinians.

“Nobody ever invited me to tell the story in any other way but that we must live by the sword,” Yuli Novak says of her upbringing in the Israeli elite. In a new memoir excerpted by Haaretz in Hebrew this weekend Novak says that the moment she ceased to be obedient, “the system turned against me.” She came to the understanding that a South Africa style political struggle is necessary to bring peace and equality to Israel and Palestine.

Rabbi Michael Davis sought to further his Arabic studies by visiting his teacher in Hebron. She took him to the armed Jewish-Israeli settler encampment in the heart of the Palestinian city. “Despite the show of military force, the hospitality of my hosts reminded me: an outstretched hand provides greater security than all the guns in the world.”

Rabbi Michael Davis: “If you support the call for equality under the law in Israel-Palestine granting equal rights to Jews and Palestinians, as I do, there is no place for you in the rabbinic community.”

Rabbi Michael Davis writes to Rabbi David Stern, a leader of Reform rabbis in America: A year has passed since you returned “shaken” from a visit to the “prison” of the West Bank. I have a collegial challenge. Invite a Palestinian to speak from the same Dallas pulpit from which you gave a sermon that has been widely circulated. And call on your congregants to oppose Congressional legislation that would punish advocacy for BDS.

The official Jewish community has stated that all Jews are welcome, but not if you support Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel. A group of 15 synagogues nationally is resisting this policy by opening their doors to all regardless of their political beliefs for the High Holydays, in September. Rabbi Michael Davis of one of those synagogues, Makom Shalom in Chicago, explains.

For Rabbi Eli Sadan of a religious military academy on the West Bank, “the grand arc of the nation” commands from Jews “a heroism, determination, and commitment to sacrifice that is beyond words.” This militant mysticism is for Jews only and inevitably leads to moral corruption, Rabbi Michael Davis explains.

The Passover story is the story of Gaza today. Gazans have risen up and are demanding their liberty. .In the face of systemic violence and oppression, the Palestinian political mobilization is remarkable.