This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
Among Jews, the hoopla surrounding the upcoming Passover holidays continues as it does every year. This, despite the seemingly unusual circumstances of celebrating our liberation while oppressing another people. Sad to say, however, our oppression of the Palestinian people has become the normal state of Jewish affairs. So why not write endlessly about Passover recipes and whether men have now taken on some of the Passover preparation?
Some Jews of Conscience believe that announcing the need for liberation is even more important because of the normalization of the Israeli occupation. Striking out against our own oppression as unacceptable is imperative. The 2015 Jewish Voice for Peace Haggadah is one such way for Jews of Conscience to observe Passover, though I still find their 2012 offering superior.
Telling are the translation of the Ten Plagues of the traditional Passover story in contemporary terms as the Ten Plagues of Israeli Occupation. The ultimate reversal. Once we were enslaved. Now we enslave others.
This year Easter coincides with Passover and, to my mind, Christians of Conscience have another chance to take note of their own history. Some Christians of Conscience celebrate Passover as well. Perhaps the Ten Plagues in the Christian observance should be translated into the Ten Plagues of Christendom.
As with Passover for Jews, the triumphal language surrounding Palm Sunday and Easter should be toned down. Remnants of Christendom continue apace in Christian Zionism and beyond. Some Christians are doing just that, portraying Jesus as a prophetic figure who enters Jerusalem in defiance of the Roman occupation and is crucified by the Romans for the sin of suggesting a way of life beyond occupation. It is curious, though, how the most obvious aspect of Jesus confronting the contemporary occupation of Jerusalem is highlighted while Jesus’ Jewishness is barely acknowledged and rarely, if ever, emphasized. Downplaying Jesus’ Jewishness is a political and religious story in itself.
This brings us to a most telling lacuna in the celebration of Passover and Easter, even when both are claimed in a progressive direction. Most Jewish and Christian religionists leave to others the lack of historical verification for the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt or Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem and subsequent Passion narrative. Many historians believe it unlikely that either happened as told, if at all.
Nonetheless, the Jewish and Christian traditions contain resources for resistance to unjust power. Yet another question remains: How many more Passover and Easter seasons will Jews and Christians of Conscience observe until our dissent rings hollow even to ourselves?
Netanyahu’s disavowal of a two state solution and his warnings about Arab hordes are already being enhanced by the US presidential election focus on Israel and the Jewish community. The Republicans are way too obvious but during Passover and Easter don’t forget to check out Hillary Clinton’s and Elizabeth Warren‘s cozying up to the Jewish establishment’s occupation enabling powers that be.
No doubt, all of our presidential hopefuls will be attending Passover Seders with their well-connected donor base. And Easter services, too. Which tells me that “Next Year in Jerusalem” is likely to be more of the same.
It is part of the general, not just the Jewish, human condition, I think, to be sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes oppressed and a little servile, sometimes proud and domineering.
I’m hoping for “Next year in Palestine”!
(I can’t remember who said it first…)
And, 1S1P1V!!!
In the meantime, if Palm Sunday was any indication, Easter could be worse. From Kate’s compilation yesterday:
“Israeli soldiers raid Palm Sunday celebration in Beit Jala
IMEMC/Agencies 30 Mar — Palm Sunday celebrations in Beit Jala were brought to an abrupt end, on Sunday, when Israeli troops raided the majority-Christian town near Bethlehem and began threatening locals. Palestinian policemen on duty near the celebrations were threatened by Israeli soldiers with arrest during the raid, which took place in the middle of the day as Sunday mass was coming to an end in local churches, Ma‘an News Agency reports. The town of Beit Jala is subject to regular incursions by Israeli forces, even though the large majority of its population lives in Area A, subject to full Palestinian civil and military control under the Oslo Accords. Palm Sunday is celebrated this year on March 29 according to the Gregorian calendar, which is recognized for religious purposes by most Western Christian denominations in Palestine. Orthodox Christians, meanwhile, use the Julian calendar and will be celebrating Palm Sunday on April 5. The raid raises fears of a repeat of last Easter, when Israeli restrictions on Christian worship during the holiday prevented thousands of Christian Palestinians from traveling to Jerusalem and led to chaotic scenes in the city itself. Israeli authorities have in the past come under sharp criticism for the violation of religious freedom of Palestinian Christians, who number around 200,000, including 50,000 in the West Bank, 1,000 in Gaza, and the rest inside Israel. In March of last year, Christians from East Jerusalem issued a statement complaining that Christians are often denied access to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher during the Easter holidays.” – See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2015/03/protesters-bullets-ammunition#sthash.sil4QNIR.dpuf
Christmas was a hoot, too:
“‘We want Christmas without occupation’: Israel attacks Bethlehem protesters dressed as Santa with tear gas” – See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/12/occupation-bethlehem-protesters#sthash.oFr5r7hi.dpuf
Lastly, Ramadan 2014:
“Later, I accompanied Saleem al Qasas to his battered home. As we walked up a blackened stairwell, he told me that weeks before the bombing of the Basha tower, his home had been targeted by Israeli drones. “The 21st of Ramadan was a day from hell,” he said.
His sisters and their families who had fled the bombardment of Shujaiya were preparing an Iftar meal when two drone strikes hit the top floor apartment. When Saleem al Qasas heard the explosion from his home on a lower floor, he ran up the stairs and found nine family members, all girls and women, blown to pieces. “I found them with their legs and hands missing, and their heads halfway blown off,” he told me. Standing in the destroyed building, he pointed at a blast crater on the floor and told me, “My four nieces were killed right here.””
– See more at: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/10/protective-destruction-professional#sthash.qvGu4uJC.dpuf
“No doubt, all of our presidential hopefuls will be attending Passover Seders with their well-connected donor base. And Easter services, too. Which tells me that “Next Year in Jerusalem” is likely to be more of the same.”
They can’t help themselves. It’s what they do so well. But not a peep about Gaza, the Occupation, or Justice. Shhhhhhh.
If I hadn’t read this, I wouldn’t believe it:
“At Passover time, remember those struggling with infertility
One doesn’t have to donate a womb, an embryo or an egg to help out.
…Every Passover we read the section of Exodus where the Torah reminds us to remember the convert, the orphan and the widow: “For you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:20), it says, adding, “If you afflict him at all, and if he does cry out to Me, I will surely hear his cry.”
To the convert, orphan and widow, I’d add the fertility challenged.
…..Sometimes at joyous life-cycle celebrations — a bar mitzvah, a wedding, a bris — it can seem like everyone else’s life is proceeding according to plan: love, marriage, children, rinse and repeat.
A closer look may show a different picture. So let’s remember this Passover, as we recall the suffering of the past and the suffering of the present, the power of community to lessen the pain.”
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-opinions/1.649936?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter
I must be hallucinating.
(I have experience with and heaps of compassion for the plight of the infertile, but there are living children and others that suffer much more.)
I’d love to see awareness of BDS in connection with Passover, and have Jews spread the word not to buy Israeli-made matzoh, kosher wine and other products.
Thanks Mr. Ellis. Good concise article. I wonder what Hagee types think of the Palestinian Christians, and how they’ve been treated by the chosen ones?