Top reasons this Jew supports the Sumud Freedom Tour of Palestine and Israel
Why we need to support the movement for Palestinians rights this winter
I hope to take, two weeks in Israel and the West Bank over Winter Break with human rights activists of all stripes. It’s called the Sumud Freedom Tour and it’s going to be an amazing experience. Everyone has their reasons for wanting to bear witness to the struggle for peace and justice Palestine and Israel; these are mine.
1. Either we’re all free or no one is. If I call myself anti-racist and anti-sectarian at home, I have to address Palestinians’ rights too.
At some point I couldn’t push for equal treatment for everyone at home while ignoring the oppression committed in my name in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. I haven’t stopped insisting on full equality for non-white people at home, in the workplace and in the courts, but now I also work for full human suffrage for all residents of Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories. On the tour we’ll meet many people working for peace and justice in Palestine and Israel.
2. Israel speaks for all Jews, whether we like it or not
I know that Jews don’t control US policy in the Middle East any more than we control the media or pull the strings behind the global economy, but Israel’s prime minister calls himself every Jews’ Prime Minister and few see the contradiction. Israel’s every action is seen by audiences domestic and international as referendum on my very right to exist.
I am outraged at Israel’s policy of bulldozing the homes of family members of suspected Palestinian bombers. In part since Israel speaks for me and not for other Americans, I hear the call to action more keenly.
The US commitment of $38 billion over 10 years in military aid to Israel is composed of all Americans’ tax dollars and all Americans should be as outraged as I am, but I’m no longer surprised they’re not. I’m still convinced that de facto access to Israel’s nukes in hostile but oil rich territory guides more US policy than any feelings towards the Jews, but the aid is made in my name and it will be used in my name. Truly, the fun never stops.
3. I know better, we know better
Teen Vogue writes this about gas lighting: “To gas light is to psychologically manipulate a person to the point where they question their own sanity, and that’s precisely what Trump is doing to this country.” Well, that’s what Israel does to all of us when it demolishes the homes of possible Palestinian criminals while calling them all terrorists. Gas lighting is when non- Jews living in Israel have different license plates on their cars and are subject to different courts, but calls itself a beacon of democracy in the Middle East. Either we all have rights or none of us do.
In a political moment when the US president cannot bring himself to admit that people waving Nazi flags are bad, the truth on the ground, people’s every day experiences are more important than ever. We know how Israel treats non-Jews, regardless of Brand Israel’s insistence that everything they experience simply does not exist.
Join Holy Land Trust in resisting not only the violence here, but in all systems of oppressions. Join us this winter, Dec 21 through Jan 3, on the Sumud Freedom Tour as we partner with the village of Um al-Khair to re-create a world altogether different than this one, one based in equality and restorative justice. Stand with us in vulnerable co-resistance as we build the sacred community.
