Zionism is now a dirty word, and politicians are starting to turn away from it.
Ron Kampeas at the Jewish Telegraph Agency asked both the Harris campaign and the Trump campaign if the candidates considered themselves a Zionist. Neither replied with an easy “yes.”
Asked by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency if Vice President Kamala Harris considers herself a Zionist, a campaign aide replied:
“The Vice President and Governor [Tim] Walz have been strong and longstanding supporters of Israel as a secure, democratic homeland for the Jewish people. They will always ensure Israel can defend itself from threats, including from Iran and Iran-backed terrorists such as Hamas and Hezbollah.”
Told that the first sentence of that response would meet perhaps the most common definition of “Zionist,” the aide replied that beyond the statement she relayed, she had “nothing for you.”
Thinking about what we’ve lost
I was deeply moved by the artwork of Bayan Abu Nahla, a Palestinian artist who grew up in Gaza. We published the English translation of a profile of her and her work from the Al-Akhbar Newspaper. Her work is haunting, with beautiful colors depicting tragic scenes. I hope you will give it a read and pause to take in the images she created. Much of her body of work is now lost, destroyed in the Israeli war on Gaza. The images shared in this article were sent to Bethlehem for an exhibit before the war began.
I was already thinking a lot this week about what had been lost before this collection of art was published. Estimates on rebuilding Gaza are starting to be thrown around and the numbers are staggering. The United Nations estimates that right now there are 40 million tons of rubble in Gaza that will take 15 years and as much as $600 million just to clear. Rebuilding could cost $18.5 billion. If the war stopped today, it would take at least 16 years to rebuild residential buildings, but likely many decades longer than that. The financial losses, of course, pale in comparison to the staggering loss of life. At least 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in the eleven months of this genocide, and over 95,000 have been injured.
Sarah Friedland condemns genocide at the Venice Film Festival
Friedland’s debut feature film, Familiar Touch, won three awards at this year’s Venice Film Festival, including best director, and best actress for star Kathleen Chalfant. During her acceptance speech, Friedland said, “I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for liberation.” She was met with loud applause from the audience.
Chalfant is an accomplished actor who has been outspoken for Palestinian freedom for many years. Here is a clip of a dramatic reading of the Caryl Churchill play Seven Jewish Children, written after the Israeli attack on Gaza in 2008-2009, featuring Chalfant.
No, Israel does not have a right to defend itself in Gaza. But the Palestinians do.
Readers of Mondoweiss likely know Craig Mokhiber well. He is an international human rights lawyer and former senior United Nations Official. He left the UN in October 2023, penning a widely read letter warning of genocide in Gaza, critiquing the international response, and calling for a new approach to Palestine and Israel based on equality, human rights, and international law.
In this piece, Craig explains that, under international law, Israel has no right of self-defense in Gaza, the West Bank, or East Jerusalem. Further, the acts of “self-defense” Israel routinely carries out are unlawful even in instances where self-defense applies.
Must reads
🚨 Qassam Muaddi has testimonies from survivors of the Israeli attack on the al-Mawasi tent camp near Khan Younis. At least 40 people died and 60 were wounded by the attack that left gaping craters in the sand. “They told us to move to al-Mawasi, so we came to al-Mawasi,” a middle-aged man told Mondoweiss in the wake of the attack. “They gave us no warning. They didn’t tell us to move or that this was a combat zone. They hit us completely by surprise.”
🌾 Fathi Nemer, Al-Shabaka’s Palestine policy fellow, says Palestinians in the West Bank are completely unprepared for the coming genocide there. He argues that food sovereignty is the first step in building a self-reliant infrastructure that will help defend against Israeli ethnic cleansing.
👩🏫 Joshua Frank covers the Five Cal State Long Beach professors who are being reprimanded by the school for their role in a Palestine solidarity protest. There is speculation that these actions may be retribution for an article they published in Mondoweiss exposing the school’s ties to the Gaza genocide.
🫏 Mitchell Plitnick writes about the Biden-Harris double standard on Palestine. “On August 31, when the dead bodies of six captives, including a dual American-Israeli citizen, were found in a tunnel in Rafah, President Joe Biden made a statement that very day condemning and threatening Hamas for the act. … In comparison, when Israel killed activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a dual Turkish-American citizen, in the West Bank town of Beita, the White House was silent. Neither Biden nor the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris said a word.”
✡️ Michael Arria interviewed Rebecca Vilkomerson, the former Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, about her new book, co-authored with Rabbi Alissa Wise. In the book, Solidarity Is the Political Version of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing, they reflect on their time with the organization and talk about the role of anti-Zionist Jewish organizing within the Palestine solidarity movement.
📰 Lara-Nour Walton looks at the New York Times’ coverage of Americans killed by Israelis and finds it, unsurprisingly, lacking. “[It] now appears that the mere act of aligning oneself with the Palestinian cause saps one’s murder of newsworthiness—even if the victims of Israeli state violence are American.”
We understand the limited context in which you say “Zionism is now a dirty word,” but of course we all know that in the context of most American discourse it is “anti-Zionism” that is dirty, unfit, and needing to be suppressed. Pundits and pols, media execs and university trustees across the nation fret about the growing anti-semitism from the left. They struggle to distinguish “legitimate” free speech from the threat of pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
One example out of many is provided by the pols in Texas, and the trustees they appoint:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/ut-austin-ranks-among-worst-colleges-in-nation-for-free-speech-a-recent-survey-finds/ar-AA1qCTEI
We should mention a recent development with regard to Zionism, reported by Jewish Currents: a recent court case has classified Zionism as a religious belief, which means it has to be accorded the same protections as any other religious belief – this is part of a conservative campaign to classify pretty much anything as a religious belief. You don’t like gay people and refuse to serve them at your restaurant? Hey, it’s a religious belief! From Jewish Currents:
“The ruling, which UCLA has decided not to appeal, sets a dangerous precedent that public institutions must legally accommodate Zionism as they must other sincerely held religious beliefs….Today, conservative lawyers wield “religious liberty” to defend not just familiar, flashpoint issues like prayer in schools or display of the Ten Commandments in courthouses, but a broader reactionary policy agenda. As the writer Jay Michaelson has documented, the right-wing legal establishment has invoked religious liberty to defend businesses’ right to discriminate against gay, lesbian, and transgender people and to undermine contraception protections in the Affordable Care Act….the goal is to transform Zionism from the object of political argument into a protected identity characteristic for the sake of creating anti-discrimination protections….Religion tends to function in American life as what the philosopher Richard Rorty called a “conversation-stopper”—the point at which discussion ends. It is seen as a sacred archive of beliefs that may not be interrogated, the ark of the sovereign individual’s interiority, at whose opening public critique must give way to a reverent hush, and the state must piously doff its hat….Israel’s defenders want to enshrine Zionism in this legal context, to afford it the protection of being insulated from free and raucous debate, contest, and disagreement.
https://jewishcurrents.org/a-dangerous-alliance
Always important to remember that not all Jews are Zionists and not all Zionists are Jews; in fact, there are far more non-Jewish adherents to that racist, supremacist ideology than Jewish people.