Diaspora Jews Commemorating the Nakba

Certainly, choosing not to celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary of independence is a personal choice. In fact, many Israelis have criticized the Israeli government for spending too much money on 60th anniversary celebrations and not enough on education and elder care, which, in fact, forced the government to reallocate a proportion of the millions of shekels originally earmarked for Independence Day to improving schools and public spaces such as parks.

However, I have some issue with the group of diaspora Jews who published a letter on April 30, 2008, in the UK’s Guardian about not celebrating Israel’s Independence Day because it is also the anniversary Nakba, or the catastrophe, which is what the Palestinians call the eve of Israel’s independence and the ensuing war: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/apr/30/israelandthepalestinians.

And additionally, with those Diaspora Jews in the United States who are now sending around a letter to be published in the Jewish Advocate, The Nation, and The New York Review of Books come Thursday, Israel’s Independence Day. Below are the statements with which the signatories of this letter agree to assist, support and encourage, some of which I strongly disagree. After listing them, I will explain why or why not.

Taken from the letter:

“…we refuse to celebrate ‘Israel 60.’ We will take action to make our shared position clear and visible. In cities across the U.S. and Canada this year, we pledge to participate in or to support:
- Refusal to participate in Israeli Independence Day activities;
- Peaceful disruption of these events;
- Nakba commemoration events and actions organized by Palestinians and the Palestine solidarity movement;
- Incorporation of Nakba remembrance into our Passover seders;
- The movement for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of Israel;
- Other efforts to challenge the perceived Zionist consensus among American Jews through education of Jewish and broader communities about the Nakba, about the colonial nature of Zionism, and about the history of Jewish dissent and Palestinian resistance.”

http://notimetocelebrate.wordpress.com/

As mentioned in the beginning of this article, choosing not to participate in Israeli Independence Day activities is not something with which I have a problem. This is a personal choice and not even necessary to list as there is no mandate that all Jews must rejoice on this occasion.

Peaceful disruption of these events – I wholeheartedly believe in the right to freedom of speech, thought and assembly. I too support the right to disrupt Israeli Indepenence Day events on the basis of the right to dissent and opinion. My only hope is that these disruptions are constructive, informative and awareness-building and approach the situation as an opportunity to spark dialogue, not to cause further polarization and alienation between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian camps. My wish is that disruption of these events is in the name of promoting a pro-peace platform that envisions a win-win outcome for both sides, which is what the peace movements in Israeli and Palestinian societies are promoting and hoping for.

Nakba commemoration events and actions organized by Palestinians and the Palestine solidarity movement- I support this statement as well. It is important that history include all narratives of all peoples. In every war there is a winner and a loser, this is the miserable nature of battle and its outcome. Customarily it is the victor that tells the story and it is a wonderful human development that increasingly oral history and general efforts to document the history of the “other” are becoming more and more popular and funded in academia and in the non-governmental organizations of the world. It is especially necessary for Diasporic Jews to be aware of the fact that in 1948, not every indigenous Arab of Palestine attacked the Jewish population. Hundreds of Palestinian villages were razed to the ground, people were forcibly transferred to the far reaches of the West Bank and Gaza, never to return to their homes, and if they did, to find that new residents had taken up the space and called it home.

It is necessary to educate about the Nakba to understand the humiliation that every day Palestinians have endured and continue to endure under the brutality of a military occupation that assumes all are guilty or have potential to be guilty of wishing harm against the Israeli people and the State of Israel. Then, to further understand the damage this does to a society of people, and how it perpetuates a self-fulfilling prophecy of ill-will, hatred and violence.

Incorporation of Nakba remembrance into our Passover seders- I believe in this statement merely because as far as I have been taught, on Passover we remember and acknowledge the continued suffering of all people. And perhaps most importantly the Nakba because as long as the Paelstinians continue to suffer without reprieve, Israel will suffer and the stakes only grow higher every year this oppression continues.

The movement for boycotts, divestment, and sanctions of Israel- This is where I begin to part ways with this letter. Boycotts, divestment, sanctions of Israel, whether or not they ever happen, simply as a message from the outside Jewish community to the inside Israeli society creates an incredible chasm between those criticizing and those being criticized. If the criticizers want to be taken seriously and contribute to bettering the State of Israel, another approach would be more constructive and therefore actually useful.

Telling the Israeli people we support your financial ruin for the sake of the Palestinians creates a “who needs you anyway” attitude that allows Israelis to become further spiteful toward the outside world, and even more supportive of a sustained existence based on military might and NOT diplomacy, negotiation or coexistence, let alone creating foundations of trust necessary to establish a Palestinian state side-by-side with Israel.

For Jews in the Diaspora to promote divestment projects and boycotts of Israel, but not to call attention or for divestment and boycotts of the United States and the U.S. government in the same letter (especially since President Bush is flying here for the celebration) for its lack of real action when Israel makes a breach of its own policy, for example, continued settlement expansion, is ridiculous and a mistake in approach to this situation, by the Jews in the Diaspora.

Other efforts to challenge the perceived Zionist consensus among American Jews through education of Jewish and broader communities about the Nakba, about the colonial nature of Zionism, and about the history of Jewish dissent and Palestinian resistance- Challenging the “perceived Zionist consensus” about the State of Israel among American Jews strikes me as off-target for managing and ameliorating a rather uncomfortable, desperate and time-bomb ticking world issue as that which is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It ignores the fact that Israel isn’t simply the Jewish State, it is Israel, a nation-state in the global community. It ignores the fact that there are generations of Israelis who live here, who identify as Israeli first, and as Jewish second. This is their only home.

Zionism as colonialism? All nations are guilty of this transgression. It is no excuse, but it is hardly something to dwell on when those who are turning Zionism into a bad word by calling it colonialism are members of previous or current colonializing societies and therefore direct beneficiaries of colonialism over other nations whether in the form of traditional colonialism, or more modern forms of colonialism like globalization, its best friend outsourcing and outsourcing’s progeny—sweatshops and democracies supporting dictator-regimes to keep oil flowing.

If anything, today colonialism and the struggle to decolonize serve to catalyze independence movements, giving fuel to a people’s call for their own nation-state so that they do not have to live under another people’s self-serving, discriminating rule. (They can then create their own self-serving rule that will eventually discriminate against another people and the cycle will continue until once again we are a world of tribes and clans as opposed to nations, perhaps organized into confederations.)

When the United Nations created the partition of the British Mandate of Palestine, two states were created: Israel and Palestine. When the War of Independence and the initial phases of the Nakba were finished, did the West Bank and Gaza become a split state of Palestine as did Pakistan and East Pakistan, but with their independence intact no less? No. The West Bank and East Jerusalem fell under martial law of TransJordan, and Gaza belonged to Egypt.

I wonder if the State of Israel hadn’t survived, how do we know that the Palestinian statehood movement would have formed and persisted? Would Egypt and Jordan have duked it out over the “Holy Land” if the Zionist dream had never come true?
What example of successful democratic struggle do we have in the Middle East? Jordan- a kingdom, Egypt- practically a dictatorship, Lebanon- overwhelmed by Syria, Syria- practically a dictatorship, Morocco- a kingdom, Libya- a dictatorship, not so many examples of democratically-elected governments representing the will of the people.

The point is, with Israel it’s complicated. It’s not apartheid South Africa and it’s not Communist China. To illustrate this point it is worthwhile mentioning the more than 5,000 African refugees in Israel right now, who have fled Eritrea, the Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and of course Darfur. These people have come to Israel in search of a better life, which they hear is possible even for them. And, because the Israeli people are making a big and welcomed-stink about the plight of these bonafide refugees, more and more receive work visas because Israeli individuals are demanding action from the Israeli government, and because Israelis, tourists and international volunteers are coming together to organize shelters and education and work opportunities for refugees (illegal and at the risk of being fined by government authorities) and language classes, these refugees have a chance at regaining -- and in some cases for the first time -- creating a life with dignity.

This is not a Jewish community thing protecting these refugees, this is an Israeli thing -- Israeli people and other international residents of Israel accepting Muslim, Arabic speaking African refugees. Is it frustrating that this same recognition of shared humanity cannot be extended to the Palestinians, indubitably, YES! And so, it does not make up for racist and dehumanizing behavior toward Palestinians, but before writing off the entire country to boycott, sanctions and divestment, try looking into the situation a little more deeply and seeing how there needs to be another answer to end the injustice.

Personally, I will celebrate Israel’s Independence. I will celebrate it in part in memory of the six million Jews who perished in the hell of Nazi Europe and also the nearly seven million others who were slaughtered by Hitler's forces for not fitting into the Aryan race, who did not have a safe haven to which they could flee.

I will celebrate Israel’s Independence Day as a reminder of the realization of a dream come true, a dream that all oppressed peoples of the world wish and fight and die for, at this very second as I write this sentence.

I will celebrate Israel’s Independence as a symbol of hope and possibility that because of the Palestinian Nakba, one day there will be a free Palestine and it will exist in independent imperfection, side-by-side to its equally imperfect neighbor, Israel.