At last Friday’s weekly protests of Palestinian evictions in East Jerusalem I talked with Marcey Gayer, who emigrated to Israel from New York in 1971.
Q. Some people here are for two states and some are for one state. What does that mean in terms of the movement’s direction?
A. The main thing is to end the occupation and let the chips fall where they may. We’re not strong enough to desire a schism between the two branches that want to end the occupation.
Q. Do you go to the West Bank demos?
A. No. There you confront the army with its teargas and maybe rubber bullets and it requires more of a commitment to risking your well being.
Q. What do you think of the tent protests in Tel Aviv?
A. I think they’re good because it’s a social justice movement, and though it tries to ignore the Palestinian question and keep it under the rug, ultimately it will have to be confronted. They are just starting at the easier edge.
Q. Are you a Zionist?
A. Huh. Well. I would say in a way that I think Israel has a right to exist. But Israel has never defined its boundaries. So I am willing to accept a one state solution out of practicality because I don’t think the settlements can be uprooted. And the biggest implication of all the settlement activity is that Israel would cease to be a Jewish state.
Q. Would that be a personal tragedy to you?
A. No. Have you been to Tel Aviv? It’s a monoculture. It’s as boring as can be. I’m from New York. I love diversity. And look at her. [Gayer points at a Palestinian woman in the demonstration] That woman was evicted from her house with her five children. She had to live on the street. In the cold. Where are her human rights?
Q. At times the Jewish state will be in conflict with human rights.
A. Then I am for human rights. Human rights trumps everything. We are for human beings.
“Then I am for human rights. Human rights trumps everything. We are for human beings.”
She’s talking sense. Send her to the re-education camp.
How refreshing to listen to a Zionist that makes sense and isn’t full of hypocrisy and contradiction!
“The main thing is to end the occupation”
This is a growing sentiment, within Israel and in the diaspora. Ignoring the occupation is no longer an option.
I applaud this woman for at least trying to think rationally, but two points:
1) she says “human rights” trumps “Jewish rights.” This is correct, but then why support one state only for the sake of “practicality?” Why not support it because it is the morally right/just thing to do? It seems that those on the Israeli left often support this because they can tolerate Palestinians more so than other Israelis. That, I’m sorry to say, is still racism.
2) Is she a Zionist? She carefully avoids the question; she wants it both ways. But I beleive one must choose: either one is a Zionist and supports all it entails, or one stands opposed to it. There is no middle ground with racism. If one had said s/he is “sorta” a Nazi, well, they’d be….a Nazi!
[1] But she says, Israel has no (declared) borders. And T/A is a boring monoculture. The obvious fix (if the fixing were to be done by a beneficent God) would be to assign Israel borders surrounding a small area within which T/A and other hot-spots of monoculture could exist, leaving the rest of M/P for a multi-ethnic, democratic, non-sectarian state whose people include all the sorts of people who lived in Palestine in 1930.
[2] She says that the settlements could not be uprooted. Politically, she is right if the politics is that of today’s Israel. Or of today’s USA. But the international community (or a beneficent God) might gear itself/herself up to enforce the law, in which case the settlements and wall would jolly well be uprooted. (Leaving the seriously depleted aquifers as a problem for people in both countries.)
[3] Is she a Zionist? Maybe pregnant with Zionism but considering an abortion? Isn’t that the case the pro-Palestine, pro-human-rights camp is hoping for, that more people pregnant with Zionism (on opening their eyes and seeing how the pregnancy is going, and looking at the pre-natal tests) will choose abortion?