Last night, I helped organize the second Documentary & Discussion night, a monthly gathering sponsored by IfNotNow Bay Area to watch the Oscar Award winning documentary, No Other Land. It’s still playing at the Roxie Theater until Tuesday, March 25th. This film was co-directed by Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers to help share facts about a side of a story that isn’t often shown.
Being open to see the lived experience of an oppressed people allows for what is seeming to become a strangely undervalued and declining human expression – empathy. (Listen or read the Speaking of Psychology podcast from 12/4/19) I wasn’t given the chance to have empathy for the oppressed during my Jewish upbringing because we were so focused on the trauma from the Holocaust that ended in 1945. We were given subtle and sometimes not so subtle cues that any non-Jews in the land of Israel were threats to our safety, specifically Arabs (who were never named as Palestinians because we were taught there’s no such land as Palestine.). The tactic of othering or even dismissing was used which is a defined value in the “us versus them” equation. It allows for the next stage which is being able to successfully dehumanize another being, thereby allowing no need for empathy.
The empathy that was activated was self-directed on our Jewish community from having been the “victim of all victims” as noted with educational irony by Gideon Levy, Israeli journalist and author. That’s not to take away from the fact that Jews have been oppressed and othered for so many years. That is history which also requires asking why and how this all happened, which I’ll continue to analyze at some other time. This begs for deeper listening and learning versus knee-jerk responding or sentimental attachment to learned stories. On one level, when the world acknowledged this pain by declaring a region for Jews, there was a big sigh of relief. This vision of safety makes sense when in the context of being given as an act of justice. But what I hadn’t learned and only in my late 30’s came to slowly understand, is the giving happened by taking away from those who were already there. The day in 1948 that marked Jewish and Israeli Independence occurred at the expense of attempting to dismantle a Palestinian identity and land, known as the Nakba (the catastrophe).
Hopefully, this sounds familiar in terms of what the U.S. did to Native Americans so we can recognize there’s already context for this. As Jews, we were taught that we were given “a land without a people, for a people without a land.” This was of course, just one small nugget of propaganda that carries into conversations to this day. This is said to be our biblical right even. What was to be an end to the suffering was the formation of the military state of Israel as a home, a safeland, a sanctuary for all Jews. But instead, it has become an area of tension that sustains an international focus and a story of colonialism that can be tracked to the late 1800’s with Nathan Birnbaum and later by Theodor Herzl who squeezed the term Zionism for his own vision of displacing Palestinians and justifying a nation-state for Jews.
It’s important to note that in the Bible, we as Jews, are not to claim land through our own doing. It would come with the return of the Messiah. Some claim that has happened and they are the Messiah. And then, debunked only to happen again. Most modern day Jews recognize the Messiah hss yet to come. So it’s not a Jewish matter that there is a land of Israel – we are meant to be bound by our traditions and practices, not by a land. Claiming a region as part of our religion is what the political ideology of Zionism conflates with Judaism.
But when one learns that Zionism was created by secular Jews and heralded more boldly by Christian Zionists, questions have to arise! There are roughly 4 times more Christian Zionists in America than there are Jews in America! And of the 8 million Jews, of course not all are Zionists, more so distinguished as separate from Judaism today than in the past – I’m in that camp after months of research and work to accept I was convinced of a distorted story. I can confidently say I’m an anti-Zionist in the same way that I’m anti-racist. Israel wasn’t the act of justice or apology for the Holocaust. It had been in the making for decades. And that’s not the issue I’m actually stuck on, just sharing some facts to help get to the full understanding of how the modern day tensions began.
(pewresearch.org, politicalresearch.org)
A major theme in the Hebrew Bible is God’s promise to give the People of Israel their land, and thus the geographic region variously known as Canaan, Israel, and Palestine became dubbed “the Promised Land.” But does this promise apply to our present time? This may be the biggest theological question in modern-day Judaism. – story by Elon Gilad – Ha’aretz writer
Read article: Haaretz.com
With deep attachment to the story of who is to own the land and inhabit the land, great conflict has arisen. I often have to pause and allow my mind space to accept that millions and millions of people from Jewish and Christian faiths closely follow the stories in the Bible as a basis for morality. Well, at least some but not all of the stories in the bible are taken and used when convenient. This great excerpt from West Wing that I discovered from an IG Reel helped me have a perfect reference for how clear the picking and choosing has worked for the sake of debate. And regarding the Quran, I have only the residue of some kind of learning where I was told it’s a book that details its hate of the Jews and that all Jews should be killed. The Quran is said to be written around 609 CE, so I’m willing to consider what tensions there were at that time informed by current story, much like the bible. But what I’m also hearing and open to learn more about, is that the Quran speaks largely of morality: 97% morality, 3% rules according to Dr. Jeffrey Lang. If you know differently and have facts to share, I’m open to learning from your perspective. In the meantime, I’ll keep researching to satisfy this curiosity.
What if I remove my mind from the biblical texts, remove my reference from the Torah/Old Testament that Jews aren’t meant to claim a sovereign state and all other references and look back 400-500 years back to understand how we got where we are. If I go that route, then we can discuss the centuries-long patterns of colonialism and Capitalism. I hope that paints a clear picture of patterns of behavior that have exposed an outdated way of existing on this planet. And if I choose to move beyond that, then I simply do my best to take what I feel is undeniably useful, and that is a humanitarian approach.
Now to that, some might immediately be triggered and say, that IS the approach to what’s happening today, which is why we must remove the terrorists! So, if you say the terrorists are the Palestinians and anyone who fights to keep their rights and the land they’ve been living on for generations, then we have to sit down and keep having a conversation on how we got here, and who are actually the terrorists. And I’m willing to do that. With Israel breaking the ceasefire and with so many Americans turning their backs on this crime, I am more than ready to help clear any remaining confusion. There was a time when I wasn’t willing and didn’t have the capacity to do more than say it’s a complicated story and as Jews, we’re always threatened. I would repeat what was repeated to me all of my growing up years and not have many facts but much defensiveness and emotion. Today, and since October 7, 2023, I have a clear understanding of human abuse patterns for power and sadly, the military state of Israel is following that playbook.
Last weekend I watched the documentary, There is Another Way. Shared at the Roxie Theater in SF. It’s by the filmmakers of the award winning film Disturbing the Peace.
From the film:
In the midst of darkness, we discover who we truly are. There is Another Way tells the story of a group of visionaries who refuse to surrender to violence and injustice, and in doing so show that another path is possible – for them, for us, and for all humanity. As we are all faced with essential questions about who we are, will we choose collective liberation, where the needs, rights, and safety of all are prioritized – in which our humanity comes first, knowing that no one is free until everyone is free.
Combatants for Peace, nominated for two Nobel Peace Prizes, is an extraordinary bi-national group of former enemy combatants – Israelis and Palestinians – working together during an ongoing armed conflict. Faced with the devastation and escalating violence of October 7th and the war in Gaza, the very core of the movement must face great challenges and show that there is another way. The first question they have to face is their own belief…is this possible?
We can be on a journey towards peace if we can take the moments we need to sort out where we have bias and where we ourselves have given up on the willingness to lean in and wish for change. Things stay stuck because our creative brains turn off and we become positioned in a default mode. While I’ve actively worked on so many areas of my life, I defaulted to my religious and political understanding of the Israel/Palestine conflict. In solidarity with my Israeli friends and Zionist American Jews, I wanted to keep the old story intact.
With the clarity that I’ve gained from being open to hearing about the Palestinian experience, and with courage to change, life has actually changed for me. Like our own western history, I had believed the dominant narrative that’s convenient for some but neglectful, hurtful and damaging to others. Now that I see the pattern, it’s easier for me to come to terms with how this has worked elsewhere and why this has worked across the globe. And yes, how this can also change. Things will change when we truly envision another way and when those of us who are willing, can step forward and speak up. I had no way to even imagine another way when my mind was fixed on the old version of this story. Now that I see it, there’s no going back. And because I know things can change and because I know there is another way, I trust we’ll get there, just not in the time that I wish.
I feel better situated as a human being on this planet by speaking up about our most visible human rights catastrophe that America is financially suppporting. And, as an American Jew who had been taught Jewish fears based on historical trauma, my Jewish values have also taught me to build community that seeks to repair the harms done on all beings. My Yoga practice and studio name, Mukunda, are all about liberation. In Sanskrit, Mukunda is the liberator! As I continue to organize with IfNotNow Bay Area, I’ve been able to channel my grief, frustration, sadness and anxiety through our efforts in the movement. Having a new base of fellow Jews who are focused on Palestinian liberation, a sense of balance and peace are stronger than ever. I hadn’t been this inspired to step up and be a voice for change until the worst harms were being committed. What world are we not seeing that causes us to not care? What world can we imagine when we care about every being?
“We are what we imagine. Our very existence consists in our imagination of ourselves. Our best destiny is to imagine, at least, completely, who and what, and that we are. The greatest tragedy that can befall us is to go unimagined.”- N. Scott Momaday
Let’s stay connected,
Marc
