Stop Acting So Surprised
The JTA reports:
The bill calls for divestment of ASUC assets from General Electric and United Technologies “because of their military support of the occupation of Palestinian territories.” It further claims that the move is not an expression of support for either Israel or the Palestinians, but rather is “a principled expression of support for universal human rights and equality.”
Despite global efforts by pro-Palestinian groups, no American university has yet taken steps to divest specifically from companies alleged to support Israel’s military presence in the Palestinian Authority. Last year, Hampshire College’s trustees approved a measure to divest from 200 companies deemed to be in violation of the school’s investment guidelines, among them a number of companies that do business with Israel.
It is not particularly surprising, considering that much of the UC-Berkeley student body tends to gravitate towards a type of fashionably left-wing groupthink. I’m thoroughly convinced that pro-Palestinian activism is largely a loose web of flimsy slogans, fashion sense, flag-waving and arrogant pontification. Consequently, the successful campaign to divest from companies doing business with Israel is more a result of the vague sense that this community has of Jewish and Palestinian history, culture, spirituality and anxieties. I’m all for bringing to light the massive injustice done to the Palestinian people, and for more opportunities to contribute constructively to Jewish-Arab reconciliation.
Unfortunately, the vague sense here that militant Jewish nationalism broadly defined is more immoral than any other kind of militant nationalism, creates for Jewish students an atmosphere of hostility, disrespect, and at times, outright mockery. My fingers and toes are insufficient to count the amount of times I’ve been subjected to expletives and sarcastic remarks over the past 2 years from passersby who recognized my kippa but wouldn’t be able to tell me what the Talmud is, or who coined the term “Zionism.”
For those involved in divestment at Berkeley, I petition you to simply move to Israel/Palestine, and see for yourself what types of emotional, intellectual, religious and moral permutations take place in a land of hatred and indescribable beauty. I think, then, that creating the atmosphere you’ve created here will seem rather childish. Here is a video of type of pro-Palestinian activism that happens at Berkeley. Maybe I’m naive, but my guess is that many of your own supporters wouldn’t identify your cigarette and new era symbols of “human rights and equality.”
mmm… that girl has a nice uh… pair of jeans.
kinda tight there.
is that even an Israeli flag? I don’t see a magen dovid. It looks like a beach towel.
I am a member of UC Berkeley’s SJP though I graduated last spring. I follow this blog sporadically, and I am disappointed by this post. Do you care to elaborate on why you are “thoroughly convinced that pro-Palestinian activism is largely a loose web of flimsy slogans, fashion sense”? I find it particularly disheartening — and maybe you will change your mind once you dig in and learn more about that campus and the social justice activism dynamic there — that you characterize this divestment bill as happening at the expense of Jewish-Arab “reconciliation.”
You might be surprised to know that in many ways it is actually the product of Jewish-Arab cooperation — I won’t use “reconciliation” because I do not accept that every Arab and every Jew are at odds a priori. We re-founded SJP my freshman year (spring 2006) and the following three years were an educational, eye-opening, and inspiring journey, a far cry from the fashionable and superficial sloganeering that you think it is (even though many people at Berkeley may fall under this category). We may have started with less informed and one-dimensional views, but through our encounters with interested people on campus from various backgrounds with various stories, many of us developed more complicated and nuanced understandings to what is going on and what it means for us to do something about it. As only one example out of countless daily and ongoing interactions, every year for the past four years a group of Jewish and Israeli SJP members have organized social justice themed seders where many people of non-Jewish background came together to learn about traditions and underlying values. It’s in settings like these where people’s ideas are challenged and re-formed. That doesn’t immunize us to problems in our worldview, I’m only offering that as one counterpoint to your assumption that BDS organizing necessarily prevents or works against community conciliation (at this I have to say so does dispossession, repression, and oppression!).
It’s unfortunate that these kinds of interactions are invisible to people looking on from the outside. It’s unfortunate that the daily happenings over the course of four years will be backgrounded at the expense of one opportunistically distributed YouTube clip. Frankly, SJP and grassroots solidarity-based activism manages to do what Jewish and Arab establishments and institutions have failed hard at doing: producing real common grounds where people come together not for the simple sake of demystifying each other, but for fighting injustice, racism, and bigotry.
That’s not to deny the presence of real disagreements and conflicts, or passionate exchanges. But if you pretend that’s all there is, you’re missing the bigger picture.
Oh, and I want to add: the passage of this bill with this margin is definitely a surprise. Our student government isn’t run by activists or committed radicals, and hasn’t been for decades — but I wish it were.
I gotta say, man, welcome to college…
Yaman writes:
/Frankly, SJP and grassroots solidarity-based activism manages to do what Jewish and Arab establishments and institutions have failed hard at doing: producing real common grounds where people come together not for the simple sake of demystifying each other, but for fighting injustice, racism, and bigotry./
I can’t help but tell you that in the year since you’ve graduated, I haven’t experienced anything but heartbreak from many of my students, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who see SJP and much of pro-Palestinian activism on campus as hostile to the notion that Zionism and other forms of Jewish nationalism should be preserved alongside the nationalisms of Palestine. I am a doctoral student and I steer clear of the Israeli-Palestinian activism that characterized my undergraduate experience elsewhere. And again, SJP, as you represent it, seems to rely on the same tired sloganeering you seem to deny exists. Mobilizing phrases like “fighting injustice, racism and bigotry” gives you power over them – and honestly, I don’t see smoking cigs, mouthing off to Jewish students, stepping on star of davids, as anything but a polarizing action. If pro-Palestinian students want to be heard by Jewish students, they ought to educate themselves in the history, culture and politics of Jewish identity – something they seem to reduce to GE and UI, uzis and Israeli flags.
@yaman: Maybe you can write a post about some of your views on things.
“the vague sense here that militant Jewish nationalism broadly defined is more immoral than any other kind of militant nationalism, creates for Jewish students an atmosphere of hostility, disrespect, and at times, outright mockery.”
This misrepresents something. The less nutty Palestinian Solidarity activists in the US avoid placing Israeli nationalism on a spectrum of good vs. bad nationalisms. It’s that Israeli nationalism is massively enabled by American money and diplomacy. Or that the Israeli conflict is uniquely fueled by the support of Western countries’ economic ties AND involves the oppression of a downtrodden ‘other.’
Or that Israel has been the most enthusiastic fan of American intervention and imperial aims across the world and in the Middle East, making it more of a target for homegrown opponents of the US role in the world.
It’s not necessary to make Israeli extremism any uglier than say, Hindu crazies, Wahabis, anti-Indian Fijians, or anti-Chinese Malays.
As a Jew and Israeli, I’m glad for all the help the Palestinians can get. The stronger the Palestinian side, the more support for visions of Israeli dissidents. And most of them are in fact, Israeli patriots.
I agree with JG. It’s not a question of ranking oppressions and devoting time to which is the worst. It’s about looking at which we have the greatest ability to influence because of US government or U.S. corporate involvement.
Also, it is a good thing for us here in the U.S. whenever students organize for divestment from military contractors. Our country is too militarized and needs more students thinking about alternatives.
/I agree with JG. It’s not a question of ranking oppressions and devoting time to which is the worst. It’s about looking at which we have the greatest ability to influence because of US government or U.S. corporate involvement./
/This misrepresents something. The less nutty Palestinian Solidarity activists in the US avoid placing Israeli nationalism on a spectrum of good vs. bad nationalisms. It’s that Israeli nationalism is massively enabled by American money and diplomacy. Or that the Israeli conflict is uniquely fueled by the support of Western countries’ economic ties AND involves the oppression of a downtrodden ‘other.’
Or that Israel has been the most enthusiastic fan of American intervention and imperial aims across the world and in the Middle East, making it more of a target for homegrown opponents of the US role in the world./
Considering that American diplomacy and money is devoted to the Saudis, India, and that the Bay Area has an enormous Indian community, it would make sense to me that these types of international conflicts would have the same type of cred here. I’m all for chanting down American support of militant Israeli nationalism – but the tone of the debate is exactly what I described – Israel is a metonymy for all of the other imperial interventions you described.
And I am unaware of any Israeli dissident, or any Jewish identified pro-Palestinian organization, forming any type of coalition with SJP. If that existed, I wouldn’t be so miffed.
“If pro-Palestinian students want to be heard by Jewish students, they ought to educate themselves in the history, culture and politics of Jewish identity – something they seem to reduce to GE and UI, uzis and Israeli flags.”
As yaman said, there are Jewish students in SJP. Clearly, they are able to hear the claims made by SJP. If zionists are having trouble, that may not be SJPs fault.
In the future, please try to avoid conflating zionists and Jews. It may be taken by some as antisemitic. 😉
Zionists are Jews?
I’ve tried to make clear that SJP participants, whether they are Jewish or not, wouldn’t conduct as inflammatory and disrespectful actions if they had any kind of sympathetic understanding of Jewish history and culture. As someone who doesn’t identify as a Zionist, I’m happy to be conflated with Zionism. It demonstrates that stepping on symbols of Jewish identity – whether they be in the form of Israeli flags or not, is not only an attack on Zionism, but an attack on Jews, the Jewish community on this campus, and all those who feel that Jewish students have the right to be proud of their identities. Jewish and non-Jewish members of SJP use slogan like “universal human equality” etc when we are all cognizant of the fact there is hatred, bigotry, ignorance and cultural insensitivity rampant in their ranks. This isn’t to say that Zionist and other types of Jewish radicals on campus are not guilty of the same things, but as I said, it makes me, and many of my students, feel unsafe.
/As someone who doesn’t identify as a Zionist, I’m happy to be conflated with Zionism. It demonstrates that stepping on symbols of Jewish identity – whether they be in the form of Israeli flags or not, is not only an attack on Zionism, but an attack on Jews, the Jewish community on this campus, and all those who feel that Jewish students have the right to be proud of their identities./
— There identities being intertwined with an ancient attachment, both historical and spiritual, to the Land of Israel.
The same Berkeley student leaders who protest against Israel are the same people who think that protests against California funding cutbacks will work.
In other words they don’t live in anything resembling the real world.
Eli, I appreciate that you took the time to respond to my comment. Let me say a few things. I asked around about the flag incident shown in the video above — apparently the students removed the Star of David from the flag to avoid religious insensitivity. Whether that makes it less inflammatory is not that important to me, since I see the actions of 2 people on one day for a few minutes out of dozens of members over the course of four years to be insignificant. If you rely only on protest settings to form your image you’re doing yourself a disservice.
Let’s be clear about something. There’s a vast different between Jewish religious tradition and its spiritual attachment to the Biblical land of Israel, and Zionism and its political program for the land now called Israel. It does not help to equivocate the two. Obviously the Biblical land of Israel is much larger than the state of Israel and it was never understood according to the terms of the modern nation-state. Obviously that traditional attachment has nothing to do with racist Israeli land policies, with the dispossession of Palestinians, with theories of Jewish supremacy, or with awesome/symbolic shows of military power. The latter are all characteristics of 19th century European nationalism, not ancient Jewish tradition. I certainly think there’s nothing “exceptional” about Zionism (or you say “Jewish nationalism”) in that regard. It should be understood based on its roots, which are not so much in Jewish tradition and history as they are in anti-Semitic Europe and its associated nationalisms. Hannah Arendt was prescient to make this comparison before the post-Mandate conflict. None of this is necessarily self-evident to people whose image of Israel is based only on what they experience in their day-to-day lives or during their (attempted) visits to their families in Palestine. I think it’s important to keep in mind that talking about the issue can be educational as much as it can be impassioned and principled. The history of Zionism (and not only of Herzl’s variety) can be illuminating; and it’s rather self-centered to assume that what has befallen you is the worst to happen to any human anywhere in the world at any time in history. So I agree it’s important to dispel those notions when they arise, although I think the very notion of “solidarity” and connecting one’s own struggles to those of others (including Jews) resists that kind of exceptionalism.
Yaman writes:
“There’s a vast different between Jewish religious tradition and its spiritual attachment to the Biblical land of Israel, and Zionism and its political program for the land now called Israel. It does not help to equivocate the two. Obviously the Biblical land of Israel is much larger than the state of Israel and it was never understood according to the terms of the modern nation-state. Obviously that traditional attachment has nothing to do with racist Israeli land policies, with the dispossession of Palestinians, with theories of Jewish supremacy, or with awesome/symbolic shows of military power.”
While it might be comfortable to make such claims, there is a strong, textured and diverse relationship between Jewish religious tradition, observance and many different forms of Zionism. This relationship is characterized by the secularization and nationalization of Jewish religious concepts, including but not limited to a love for Eretz Yisrael, a belief in an inalienable Jewish right to fight for sovereignty there, the notion that Israel has the responsibility to rule foreign nations therein, and the massive landscape of Jewish mythical history to have taken place there. This leaves aside a Jewish diasporic history of liturgy and halacha that corresponded the shtetlach of Eastern Europe to a Palestinian climate, calendar and chain of religious authority. I would argue that all of the so called “Zionist” sentiments you listed are deeply Jewish, and are rooted in the religious heritage of Israel.
However, pro-Palestinian activists have been quick to argue not to equate Zionism with Judaism, simply because certain Jewish communities and individuals believe that Zionism is a form of heresy, or they have fetishized Judaism as a way of feeling less hostile towards our culture, history and heritage. So I resent your rhetorical move, which divorces entirely the historical development of the Jewish national idea, as it exists in Golus and Eretz Yisrael.
Eli, please don’t misunderstand my rhetorical move as divorcing the particular development of Zionism to Jewish community and history. In fact I argued the opposite, saying that it arose based on the experiences of Jewish communities in Europe dealing with anti-Semitism (the assimilation vs nationalism debate). To say that it borrows many ideas from European nationalism of the time is not to negate its Jewish history, only to point that it is not all there is to Jewish history. I also think it privileges the history of Ashkenazi Jews over Sephardim and Mezrahim in other parts of the world to insist on the centrality of this one particular Jewish experience over all others. I do not mean to minimize it, and I do not think that what I said is similar to what I think you’re referring to, which is the catch-all defense claim that many, especially from an Islam-inspired view, deploy to absolve themselves of any responsibility to engage the issues and histories further. That view is usually manifested along these lines: the Neturei Karta exist and they say that Zionism is against Judaism, therefore we can engage in whatever vitriol we want without any regard whatsoever for what non-NK affiliated Jews have to say about it. I think this is problematic for many reasons which I have written about before: http://www.kabobfest.com/2009/04/no-the-neturei-karta-should-not-speak-at-your-event.html
That aside there is one way in which Zionism in Israel differs from many of its contemporary theoretical counterparts. Resurgent nationalisms in Europe and America are premised on stopping the “influx” or “invasion” of “impure” elements (targeted at immigrants). That “purity” is thought to have existed in some glorious national past, only to be corrupted by weak national pride and lax rules applied to the “outsiders.” Israeli Zionism, or state ideology, has no contemporary pre-history in which to locate this “purity.” Instead it constructs it through various practices and policies (starting with dispossession, barring the return of Arabs who will upset the “demographic” balance, supporting the idea of partition with Arabs having autonomy without sovereignty, etcetera — all fundamentally anathema to democratic and progressive values). Samera Esmeir, a Palestinian professor from Haifa, recently wrote a thought provoking column making that argument and linking it to the idea of walling as well as global discourses on migration. See it here: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2010/981/re2.htm
I have to say about the flag – yes it is inflammatory, but I wish people would get less hung up on symbols and words and a bit more angry about the reality on the ground. People watched terrified during the war in Gaza, losing family members and friends as the world stood by, and 313 children got killed, and then people get incredibly excited when someone heckles the Israeli ambassador or steps on a flag. OK, there are more constructive ways of expressing anger but this isn’t coming out of nowhere. (and yes, I know Israelis have suffered too, not denying that for a moment).
About Zionism, yes it does draw on Jewish traditions but until the mid-twentieth century most Jews weren’t Zionists, there is a hole range of traditions that interpreted Judaism very differently. The most important question for me is what is the price necessary to keep Israel as a Jewish state as it is currently defined, and who is paying that price. It isn’t just an issue of spritual identity, it’s also about discriminatoty allocaiton of land, a warped immigration policy that prefers any Jew born anywhere in the world to indigenous Arabs, etc etc.
“And I am unaware of any Israeli dissident, or any Jewish identified pro-Palestinian organization, forming any type of coalition with SJP. If that existed, I wouldn’t be so miffed.”
I was, in another life, involved in an organization of Jews for Palestinian rights that was very involved in coalition work with SJP… Very committed Jews (ranging from atheist to religiously involved) with strong Jewish identity who felt seen and respected by SJP and pulled off a number of civil disobedience actions and protests. This was in SJP’s prior manifestation, around 2001-2004. So it may be different today, but I don’t know. There have always been Jewish students involved in SJP in small numbers, too. I had mostly very positive interactions with the Palestinian students I interacted with through our work with SJP on various projects (such as the Berkeley divestment campaign). That’s not to say that I was never disgusted by a slogan or sign choice or a strident comment here and there, but believe it or not it was the non-Palestinian, non-Jewish members (I remember one white guy from the larger Berkeley community, in particular) who tended to be the offenders.
Not only did our group, of the more radical variety, work with SJP… but a number of members of Jewish Voice for Peace (seen as a more moderate/”soft zionist” group by that Berkeley radical political scene) also did work with SJP, if not in an official capacity.
My politics have changed in many ways (and not at all in others) but I cannot resist speaking up in response to the charge that SJP has never worked with Jewish groups.
Again, things may have changed. But this wasn’t all that long ago.
Eli,…I would never deny your experience of Jew hatred whether in the context of Israel-Palestine or anywhere. As an observant,
anti-colonial, Jew, I have experienced anti-semitism in the context of activism around the conflict on my own campus in Kingston, Ontario. The majority of this shit has come from white, non-Arab Palestinian activists whose anti-semitic socialization has too often been transplanted onto the discourse of Palestinian freedom. A recent example would be when a Swedish solidarity activists was giving a talk and basically profiled me as a Dershowitz-toting Zionist because of my yalmuke and proceeded to berate me in front of the packed auditorium. Anyway, such bigotry ends up alienating (and oppressing)possible Jewish allies and creates an overall backlash against Arabs and Muslims both here and in the Middle East. Most definitely, I have found that the people who avoid falling into the hateful traps of anti-semitism are those who have a knowledge and respect for the richness and complexities of Jewish history.
So, I agree that everyone involved in Palestinian solidarity has a responsibility to educate themselves about Judaism, including the realities of anti-semitism. I challenge the idea, however, that “pro-Palestinian activism is largely a loose web of flimsy slogans, fashion sense, flag-waving and arrogant pontification.” I have heard too many pro-Palestine activists articulate a thoughtful, passionate, and just response to the realities of Israeli occupation and war crimes. I think the voices of
the BDS movement must be heard as well, coming as they are from a wide range of people and organizations from Palestinian civil society. My understanding of the BDS call is that it is not a proclamation that Israeli nationalism should be held to a higher
standard than other forms of nationalism. Rather, it is a tactic meant to destabilize the status quo in which Israel continues to get nearly unchecked support from the West and in which Medinat
Israel promotes itself as a model democracy when it acts in such a brutish, chauvinistic, and (as this yid sees it) un-Jewish manner. If I thought BDS would work to begin undoing the apartheid system I benefit from as a settler in Canada, I would support it`s application here too. Having said that, the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week in Kingston this year
included a number of events that sought to highlight various
manifestations of colonialism – not just the Zionist ones.
Finally, while I understand that being “on the ground” in the region would give all of us new and important perspectives on the situation, I don`t think that negates the need for a loud diasporic call to end injustice in Palestine and Israel. Not to mention the fact that, unlike myself, my Palestinian friends CANT go back to Palestine to visit their families, study, or travel there precisely because of the racist policies of the State of Israel.
Despite these disagreements, Eli, your insights are appreciated now as ever, and serve on this site as maror for an often sleepy and dogmatic am Yisroel.
For anyone interested, the radio show I work on just uploaded a podcast featuring a conversation with the author of a new zine called ZIOslam: Strengthening the anti-Zionist Movement. The discussion ranges from the author’s journey to Jewish anti-Zionism, moving from guilt to solidarity, positionality in the Free Palestine movement, strategies for confronting anti-semitism, and more. The podcast is available here: http://radio613.wordpress.com/2010/03/18/episode-35-zioslam/