This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
As news filters in that Bill Clinton is reaping $500,000 for a quick trip to Israel, Alicia Keys has decided to play Tel Aviv for some big bucks. This comes despite Alice Walker’s attempts to persuade Keys to cancel her appearance and honor the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel.
Former President and pop culture wins. Walker loses.
But then again, Walker’s boycott possibility was reported by the New York Times as a normal back and forth discussion. The Times quotes Walker’s plea to Keys: “I believe we are mutually respectful of each other’s path and work…It would grieve me to know that you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many globally conscious artists.” Key’s response seems shallow in comparison: “I look forward to my first visit to Israel. Music is a universal language that is meant to unify audiences in peace and love, and that is the spirit of our show.”
Shades of South Africa. Do you remember the Sullivan Principles, “constructive engagement” and artists talking about music unifying audiences, the artistic message being peace and love? That back and forth occurred for a while and then in the press and then disappeared. After a certain point no artist in their right mind traveled to South Africa.
Clearly something is happening that’s newsworthy. Check out a JTA article on Walker’s boycott call. JTA bills itself as the Global Jewish News Source. It includes her invitation to speak at the 92nd Street Y. From “Alice Walker calls on Alicia Keys to boycott ‘apartheid’ Israel“:
May 30, 2013
NEW YORK (JTA) — Novelist Alice Walker, who is slated to speak at Manhattan’s 92nd Street Y, called on singer Alicia Keys to boycott Israel and cancel a scheduled concert there.
In an open letter posted on her website, Walker wrote, “It would grieve me to know you are putting yourself in danger (soul danger) by performing in an apartheid country that is being boycotted by many global conscious artists.”
Keys is scheduled to perform in Tel Aviv on July 4.
Walker, who is slated to speak Thursday at the Y, has called Israel the world’s “biggest terrorist,” described suicide bombings as “last-ditch resistance” in saying it was dishonest to engage in “blaming the oppressed for using their bodies where the Israeli army uses armored tanks,” and refused to allow “The Color Purple,” her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about black life in the segregated South, to be translated into Hebrew. She also participated in a flotilla of ships attempting to break Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza.
A group called JCC Watch called on the 92nd Street Y to cancel Thursday’s event with Walker, at which she is scheduled to discuss her activism and her writing with Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues.”
The Y did not respond to a request seeking comment.
“A cultural boycott of Israel and Israeli institutions (not individuals) is the only option left to artists who cannot bear the unconscionable harm Israel inflicts every day on the people of Palestine, whose major ‘crime’ is that they exist in their own land, land that Israel wants to control as its own,” Walker wrote in her letter to Keys. “This is actually a wonderful opportunity for you to learn about something sorrowful, and amazing: that our government (Obama in particular) supports a system that is cruel, unjust, and unbelievably evil.”
Here’s what I see in the reporting on the Walker/Keyes back and forth and Walker’s appearance at the Y also reported in the Daily Beast. Thinking back just a decade ago where such quotes would never have made the rounds, there’s a shift of historic proportions occurring. It’s nothing less than amazing.
First off, Walker is quoted and given her say. In the JTA piece she gets the last, very strong word – Israel’s “apartheid” is a “system that is cruel, unjust, and unbelievably evil.” There’s no qualifier and no Jewish response that characterizes Walker’s comment as unfair or anti-Semitic. The Daily Beast’s reports on Walker’s entry into the Y and the conversation she had with protestors on the street as she entered the venue. To the accusation from a protestor that she is an anti-Semite, Walker retorts emphatically that she is no such thing. Here’s how the report ends: “As she stepped into the 92nd Street Y, I asked Walker what her message to the protesters would be. She paused and said, ‘Honor the truth.’”
Once again, Walker is quoted without being censored. Her strong words are the last words. No Jewish group or spokesperson enters the picture to “correct” her or to leave the reader with the impression that she is out of line. If you take the two endings and add the Times quote you come away with a message the sounds something like this: “On Israel, we need to speak the truth. Israel should be boycotted because its political system is cruel and unjust to Palestinians. As Americans and global citizens we cannot support a system that is evil. It’s not anti-Semitic at all to oppose such a system because Palestinians are people, too, just like us. It’s the right thing to speak and act against injustice everywhere, including in Israel.”
Jews of Conscience spokespersons or groups representing them don’t appear in these articles. Alice Walker is represented as a lone voice. And though she might be cut some slack since she’s a prominent African American, the Jewish establishment hasn’t cut other African Americans or groups that represent them any slack at all. Typically, such figures and groups are characterized as limited, in a racially charged, “What could Blacks possibly understand about the Middle East?”
Though I am a strict supporter of free speech, Jewish groups have rightly complained about internet anti-Semitism, asking sites like Amazon not to feature mythic propaganda booklets like the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” After all, how is the innocent reader to separate fact from fiction?
Here the Jewish establishment has a different problem, one that is clearly getting out of (their) hands. The accurate quoting of major public and literary figures by the mainstream print and internet media that compare Israel to apartheid South Africa and more, is now acceptable journalism. Having Jewish spokespeople “correct” these criticisms, label them as anti-Semitic and hate speech is seen as pandering and censoring. Isn’t it interesting as well that these quotes were carried in media outlets that have large Jewish audiences?
Think of what will be said and quoted accurately as the facts on the ground in Israel/Palestine continue to deteriorate.
Israel as innocent and redemptive is over in our public debate. Can politics be far behind?
Super article, Marc.
I do think that the tide has turned.
Long way to go yet, but the path to justice and freedom for Palestinians has many more footprints upon it than it ever has had. I hope that it will soon be veritably swarmed with folks who have awakened to the gross and unrelenting injustices endured by the Occupied Palestinian people.
Did this ever get an airing on Mondoweiss?
I found it in the Juedische Zeitung in a German translation
http://jewishcall.wordpress.com/2013/03/22/if-you-care-about-israel-silence-is-no-longer-an-option/
“If you Care about Israel, Silence is no Longer an Option!
by amitgoldenberg
A Call for Action from Israel to Liberal Jews around the World.
In the last years very alarming signs have appeared indicating that Israel is losing its moral and democratic compass. They lead us to focus on the half empty glass with recognition that there is also a half full glass. Although the results of the recent elections showed some kind of hope, the clouds of deterioration are still with us.
As concerned Jews and Israelis, we appeal to you to publicly express your concern about the current, critical situation in Israel, and to call for the State of Israel to return to the peaceful, moral, democratic, and humanistic values we all cherish. We are sending you this urgent appeal because we believe that, as liberal Jews, you share the humanistic values of our Jewish heritage, and support our struggle to prevent the deterioration of Israeli society.
We must all voice our reservations and criticism loudly and clearly. It is our responsibility to speak out and take action, as an ultimate expression of our identity and conscience. Ultimately, history will judge us by our actions (press here to see the whole call letter).
We Israeli Jews who cherish liberal values are sending a call letter to every liberal Jewish house and community in the world (press here to see the list of those who signed the letter) The list includes names of Israeli Jews from all the layers of Israeli society who support this initiative and represent a segment that cherishes Jewish and humanistic values. We are aware that there are liberal Jews around the world who devote time and efforts trying to influence the direction of Israeli policies, but there are still many more who need to express their concern. This letter aims to considerably amplify liberal voices.
In addition to the call letter we are also sending a document that provides evidence of the significant departures from democratic and moral codes by the State of Israel. You can view an executive abstract (press here to get it) and/or the whole document (press here to get it), with a map that illustrates the situation of the occupation (press here to get the map).
Finally a letter that provides initial suggestions for concrete actions is also attached (press here to get it). We hope that our letter along with the additional documents will be disseminated in the Jewish liberal world. They should serve as a basis for debate and action. It is possible to adapt and extend the list of actions according to the particular context, goals and conditions of each community and person.
Please bring the whole call letter to your home and community and pass it on to other Jews who cherish liberal values. Also try to publish it in Jewish newspapers and newsletters. In addition, spread the word through various social networks. It must reach every liberal Jew. It is our responsibility to speak out and take action, as an ultimate expression of our identity and conscience.
Sincerely,
Liberal Jews in Israel who Signed the Call Letter.””
“Jews of conscience” are never considered the “other” when the big US media choses to give opponents of Israel’s wars against its Palestinians and those whose land it occupies. You have to be Palestinian or at least Arab to fill that role. To allow a Jew to play that role would be truly beyond the pale.
Encouraging news. About eighty years too late, but better than never.
A small question. You say
‘Jewish groups have rightly complained about internet anti-Semitism, asking sites like Amazon not to feature mythic propaganda booklets like the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” ‘
Have those same groups also asked Amazon not to feature From Time Immemorial?
The day is coming when Israeli Jews will be held responsible just like everyone else for what they do, even by America. There will be no invisible shield provided by the holocaust, no possibility of calling out anti-semitism. As the 20th century fades, its psychological effect on those who lived in it, and the leverage it provides will disappear with them. Someone born in 2000 is now 13 years old. Time moves on.
Before we are Jewish or Muslim or Finns or Mongolians, we are human, something notable Jews have been saying for quite some time! Humans can behave badly. Jews can behave badly. That the terrible treatment received in ages past is now used, by the descendants of those maltreated, as a shield to permit them to treat others as subhuman, will stand monumentally in history as testament that there are no special human beings by group. One wrong, appropriated, can make another possible. Has there ever been a shorter interval between a group feeling the lash and then taking up the lash to apply it with a will?
Being human means identifying with the other. Sui generis is on overdrive in Israel.