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Voices of Peace Lisa Santer is a Quaker and works with the National Coalition Building Institute, a non-profit , international leadership training program that uses methods of reducing conflict as an organizing principle. A Few Reflections on the History of Jewish
Oppression
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"I think it's critical for us to see the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a larger context. Doing that helps me to see the humanity on both sides, as well as to see the hoofprints of oppression on their actions. " -- Lisa Santer
Last year, when planning the UN conference against racism,
xenophobia, and related intolerance, planners specifically decided to exclude anti-Semitism
(better named Jewish oppression since Arabs are Semites too). At the conference,
people wore armbands that said Zionism is racism. There were threats and verbal and
physical attacks against Jews (including a woman I love and respect) at the conference.
For their safety, Jews were advised to remove items which identified them as Jews.
After days of hearing about many, many places and kinds of racism, the final document
of the NGO conference named Israel--and only Israel--as racist. To many, including
me, who believe that Israel's policies are racist, that singling out feels anti-Jewish
and unacceptable.
Zionism was started as a Jewish liberation movement
in Europe in the late 19th century, amidst the pogroms. The idea was for Jews to
have a homeland where they wouldn't be persecuted or forced out. Britain offered
them two scraps of land then under British control: part of Uganda and part of what
was then called Palestine. Historical connections and other considerations led to
choosing part of Palestine. During the British mandate, there were joint efforts
of Jews and Palestinians, including labor movements. The Brits used an old favorite
strategy, divide and conquer, quite successfully. At one point, they dropped leaflets
on both Israeli and Palestinian areas with lies about the other side.
An early big influx of Jews to Israel was of Holocaust
survivors. People who had been in death camps with forced labor, starvation, rape,
and unimaginable barbarism. People who had lost their family members and avoided
the death camps by doing things like skiing over mountain ranges in winter, alone
or hiding in forests, trapping rabbits and such for food, alone. Try to imagine what
it means for a country to be founded by people who have been that deeply terrorized.
How could they think rationally? Imagine how hard it would be to communicate trust,
hope, or even love to your children after you and your people had been through that.
Yet, many have.
It's true that in the founding of Israel, people were forced out of their homes.
It's true that Israel has done many terrible things to the Palestinians. It's also
true that Jewish oppression is alive and well; that Europe is again, or still, looking
unsafe for Jews. Those things make it desperately important to many Jews that Israel
continue to exist. Singling out Israel and the oppression of Palestinians makes it
harder for Jews to wrestle with what Israel's doing wrong, in public or even in private.
Making Jews more scared makes it harder for them to think straight, to listen to
others, to think well about Palestinians.
It seems to bear repeating that Israelis, Palestinians, Americans, and Germans
are all good people. Our leaders are good people, too. Good people sometimes do very
bad things.
One of my hopes is that we all can make it easier for
Jews to act in concert with their faith and proud tradition of social justice. Part
of our tradition is to listen--to the light and to each other, and I think that offers
something profound here. We can do it in the course of our ordinary days. A woman
suggested that teams of Jews go to vigils and demonstrations with a sign that said,
"I love Israel. What do you think would end the killing?" I love this idea,
not just for Jews, and plan to do it in Philly as soon as I can get other folks to
join me. I'm also planning to ask folks at my Quaker congregation's next potluck
if they'd like to have one table where we talk about how we're feeling about the
conflict.
Finally, I'd like to repeat that there is enormous diversity
in the opinion of Jews in the US about Israel, and tremendous fear in many about
voicing it. Talking about "the Jewish community" as if it were monolithic
causes pain for them and despair for the rest of us.
That's enough for now. If anyone would like to write or speak with me more, or join
me at a vigil, please let me know.
Lisa Santer Monthly Meeting of Friends of Philadelphia (Arch St.)
USA National Coalition Building Institute Philadelphia (www.ncbi.org)
lisasanter@aol.com