zionist traitor
by basil 12:20pm Thu Jan 31 '02


Jew rejecting zionisms racist baggage
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After interupting a speech by Ariel Sharon - Israel's war hawk prime minister and former massacre-leading liutenant - with the phrase "you're a murderer," dozens of Jews who had been sitting around me cheering Sharon on turned on me. Immediately, and continuing for hours, I was harrassed, threatened, and spit on. So goes Jewish solidarity.

The scene was the Birthright Israel "Mega-Event." Birthright Israel is a Zionist program supported by philanthropists and the Israeli government that sends thousands of young Jews from around the world on 10-day all expense paid tours of Israel. (Zionism is the philosophy that Israel belongs to the Jews) The Mega-Event is the gathering for all the groups; the event had several thousand in attendance.

Sharon was the big attraction of the event and was greeted by a standing ovation lasting several minutes. He began his Palestinian/Israeli analysis with "Jews have suffered from 120 years of Palestinian terror."

At this point, I interrupted. People on the other side of the balcony report that after the interjection the crowd turned en masse to look at me. From my side, I had a similar experience, only more aggressive. People immediately started making threats, one person yelling "You deserve to die," punctuated a general sense of yelling, shaking fists, and pointing.

The most violent person attempted to choke me then left the auditoriom and reappeared, pointing me out to other people, and remained at teh exit for a long time. Later in the evening, he attempted to attack me but was held off by his friends. He had to content himself by spitting on me and making vague threats of future run-ins in dark alleys.

ZIONIST TRAITER

Fro the rest of the event, which was several hours, I was terrified. However, with the hindsight that I survived unscathed, I regret nothing. My motivation was to break the Zionist consensus. Along similar lines of Noel Ignatiev’s Race Traitor, I was attempting to break the assumed connection between Jewish identity and a racist analysis/complicity of the Jewish/Palestinian conflict. My Jewish identity does not mean I will holistically support the state of Israel and holistically criticize Palestinians. Race Traitor takes this a few steps further. It views whiteness as a social club that parcels out benefits to the members (benefits are synonomous with "white priviledge"). The club operates on the assumption that one can tell who is in the club just by looking at the color of one's skin. Race Traitor advocates a "new abolitionism" that destroys whiteness. This happens when it is impossible for self-identified whites to tell who is in the club, i.e. people percieved as white will actively reject the system of white supremacy and thereby disrupt the basic operation of the white club.

I don't think the category "Jewish" needs to be abolished. While whiteness is constructed through the negation of being marked (i.e., not Black, not Native American, not Latino, not Arab, not Other), Judaism is constructed on a history of being oppressed. We are the people of exodus, the survivors of the Holocaust and the Progroms (state and right-wing attacks on Jews in Eastern Europe), and - depending on location - modern day anti-Semitism.

Yet there is some things that need to be abolished. We need to destroy the idea that Jews deserve more than Palestinian. We need to destroy Jewish solidarity that ends with Jews and where there is no concern for non-Jews. We need to destroy the collapsing of Jewish identity and Israeli nationalism, being a Jew is not the same thing as being an Israeli nationalist.

It is these thoughts that motivated me to commint what Berkman calls “the deed.” Amid, the thousands of cheers for Sharon there was no discencion. While some refused to clap and other quietly slept in protest, the overall impression of the event was that Jews from around the world support Sharon. The deed was intended to break the consensus. It is clear that Sharon was widely enthusiastiacally supported, but after the interuption, the thousands of people in the balcony knew that one canot essentialize and universalize the connection between Jews and Israel’s acting prime minister. There are some Jews who are willing to reject the holiness of the prime minister along with the sanctity of the keystone Birthright event.

REACTIONS
Judging from people’s reactions, the message was effective. In addition to threats, pointing, and attacks, many people argued with me. I am breaking up criticisms into three categories: I failed to grasp my inner Jewishness, I am pro-Palestinian and anti-Jew, and that the act was inappropriate. I will look at each response individually.

A. Real Jewishness
The first response came from a person who told me that I need to look inside myself and find the Jewishness deep down inside. A few days earlier, two Birthright participants told me the same thing when I criticized Israel’s former prime minister, Barak. The arguments imply an essential nature of being Jewish that requires me to be supportive of the Israeli prime minister. A psychological problem is the cause of my politics and hte solution is to “look deep down inside.” If I were Palestinian, this plea for introspection would not have been made.

B. Criticizing Israel = Supporting the Enemy
The most common argument rested on the idea that Palestinians and Arabs do bad things too. People have criticized everything from suicide bombers, to Saudi Arabia’s classist society, to Arab culture. These criticisms are used to justify Sharon. They criticisms of Arabs are supplemented with accusatory questions: “Why don’t you go live in Palestine?” and “Whose side are you on?” These comments imply that there is a dualism, an us/them perspective. If you criticize one side, you must support the totality of the other side. In a democracy, this dualism is absurd. Voters in Israel are legally sanctioned to disagree with Sharon everytime an election comes around. Critiquing public figures is an essential part of democracy; critiquing Sharon does not neccisitate the faults of the “other side.” Yet, the criticisms people were giving me were not rooted in a love for democracy. Rather, they are borne out of loyalty to a club. In a club, this dualism makes sense. You pick sides, cheer for one – jeer at teh other.

C. Inappropriate
Many of the Birthright program organizers said that they disagreed with Sharon but the deed was inappropriate. I ask, inappropriate to who? I think it’s inappropriate to have a one-sided political discussion with no space for questions or dissent. It’s offensive to have someone like Sharon speak, punctuated by both his history and his speech presenting the conflict as if there are only Palestinian terrorists and Jewish victims. His narrative works to support the increase in Jewish settlements in the Occupied Terrotories, taking of political prisoners, demolition of Palestinian homes, shooting of non-combatants, and the rest of the terror caused by the Occupation.

In this context, it is an offense to not speak up. But it comes down to a choice. The sanctity of the event or the sanctity of critiquing Sharon. The event serves to foster Jewish support of Israel’s prime minister. This purpose has no sanctity to me.

THE ZIONIST CLUB vs DEMOCRACY
All of these critiques rely on an allegiance to the Club. A club that reserves Israel and free tours of Israel only to Jews while forcing Palestinians into exile. A club that supports Jews around the world while opprssing Palestinians in Israel’s backyard.

Many Zionists took offense because the deed was an offensive. There are Jews willing to dissent with the club, even if the prime minister of Israel is speaking, even if he is speaking at the Birthright Mega-Event, and even if one is attending due to the “generous gift” of Zionists and the Israeli government, and even if one stting among thousands of screaming pro-Sharon fans.

From another vantage point, this deed was an act of democracy. Engaging in political debate, adding a dissenting voice in a space where there was none. It was enriching a biased narrative of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict with another perspective. Yet, The narrative of democracy does not compliment the club; it competes with it.

A RACIAL OR POLITICAL CONFLICT?
Zionists, as well as dominant US media project, the conflict as Jews vs. Palestinians. But what does it mean when Jews turn on Jews? The conflict is not merely racial, but political.

We have seen this before. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) was supposedly fighting in an ethnic conflict between Serbs and Albanians, yet the KLA killed hundreds of dissenting Albanians. The NAZI’s were built on a hatred and oppression of non-Aryans and particularly Jews, yet the NAZI’s also killed communists and Whites who protected Jews. We are told that the Cold War was a battle between the US and Russia, yet in the name of fighting the Russians the US also turned on Amercan liberals and leftists.

Ironically, the person who told me that I deserved to die called me a fascist. This person along with others who reacted violently use the threat of physical force in attempt to quell the voicing of political dissent. I believe the accusation of “fascist” is over used, but it’s important to remember what fascism and the NAZI’s really stand for. The fascists in Germany used a racial scapegoat to unify a race and under the guise of a race-war slipped in a political ideology. How is this different from the conservative and reactionary elements of the Zionist movement?

We must recognize the importantance of race and nationalism because many people are motivated by them. Yet, there is a politics behind race unity. The politics behind the race is the politics of the Club. The Club is strong enough to give the impression that we have a racialized, us/them problem. Yet when people within the club dissent, we see it is not racial unity but a political unity within a race unity.

People who are recognized to belong to the club will have many priviledges. For example, I was invited to join the club when I yelled at Sharon. Some said, “look inside yourself. This is the right place for you.” I doubt a Palestinian would have gotten such an invitation if s/he had commited the same act.

On the other hand, traiters to the club may be treated like the enemy. I got a glimpse of this when people threatened to kill me and attempted to assault me based on four words that I yelled. Palestinians feel the effects of living outside the Club everyday.

I am sure that many Jews will take offense to this article. I am not intenting to bash all Jews, but call attention to the problems of a Zionist politics and practice. There are many ways to be Jewish, and even Zionist, without assuming racial and ethnic superiority. As an anti-fascist, as an Anarchist, and as a Jew, I will not participate