Pursuing what?

A Jewish service organisation, Pursue, finds itself embroiled in a ‘controversy’ over a planned service learning trip to Israel, that may or may not involve meeting with Palestinians and addressing the conflict and occupation.

I am fortunate to be involved in building Siach, a network of Jewish social justice and environmental organisations and activists. As well as building connections and fostering collaboration, we are hoping to stimulate conversations on some of the significant issues within the Jewish social justice world, and consider the role Jews, who identify strongly with the elements of our tradition that push us to seek a fairer and more sustainable world, can have in the shaping of Jewish identity.

At our first conference in May this year we had a very honest, challenging yet constructive conversation about the place of Israel within Jewish social justice. Everything people shared was treated as their own views and not those of any organisation or community they are associated with. I hope that the same goes for the feelings expressed here.

I struggled to articulate at Siach a view that at the heart of being Jewish and the Jewish imperative to fight for social justice is a sense of being the other and a sensitivity to otherness (For those interested in more see Jewishness & Otherness, the rest are saved from an even longer piece!).

But all this concern for otherness does not exist in a vacuum – it comes from more than 3000 years of rich history and culture, a culture in which Israel plays a significant part. To draw inspiration from this culture in working for social justice, yet not identifying with the society from which it came is somewhat anti-social. It’s almost like feeling that you care about others, and wish to fight for their rights and opportunities, because of your understanding of being Jewish – but don’t wish to understand or engage with some fellow Jews that don’t agree with a worldview that ostensibly is based on social justice values connected with Judaism.

Of course with American, and to some extent Diaspora Jewry more generally, this isn’t just about the conflict with the Palestinians and the policies of a state. For some there is this strong dissatisfaction with the notion that Israel is central, or even necessary, to Jewish life and Jewish identity.

Personally I think some individuals can live very fulfilled Jewish lives without a connection to, or understanding of, Israel. Certainly Israel does not need to be considered the central Jewish community.

Nevertheless, it surely deserves to be considered a Jewish community, and like my own in Britain, or the one I am visiting now in Australia, or others I have spent time with in Hungary and Belgium, or those from Turkey and Latin America, don’t they deserve respect that they offer something unique and important to the ongoing creativity and challenges of the Jewish people?

Even more so in the case of Israel – if you believe Jewish values and way of life has the ability to build communities and societies that are equitable and environmentally responsible. What better opportunity than a nation state of the Jews to have those values applied on a huge scale?

Moreover, whilst individual Jews can create meaningful Jewish lives without any focus on Israel, Jewish communities, and Jewish organisations with a basis in Torah, simply can not ignore the place of Israel both literally and the place Israel has had in our history and culture.

Judaism can not be separated from Israel – not the state or a particular government but the idea of Israel. The idea of struggling with God or a higher purpose (Yisra-El); the notion for us as individuals, of going, Lech lecha, for yourself and to yourself by challenging the spiritual and physical place in which you are brought up; the concept for us as a people, of aspiring to reach a destination in which we are free, not just from bondage but from submissively following the dominant culture of the time, whether that be Egyptian, Hellenist, or American. By offering a particular identity grounded in values connected to the universal, the idea of Israel also undermines the current false dichotomy of globalisation, which suggests you can either be a global citizen only or a selfish consumer.

Of course, for those of us inspired by Judaism to pursue social justice, the current situation in Israel poses huge challenges. It is worth highlighting that the overly used line from which the organisation in the middle of this current ‘controversy’ take their name, is found in a conditional sentence that maybe sentences us all to a shared fate and judgement;

Tzedek, Tzedek, tirdoff….

“Justice, Justice, shall you pursue so that you may thrive and occupy the land which the Lord your God is giving you” (Deuteronomy 16:20)

Elsewhere the Torah tells us that if we defile the land, which I am interpreting as failing to pursue justice rather than some of the questionable morality found around that part of Leviticus, the the land will vomit, or spit, us out Leviticus 18:28).

Clearly there is a warning about the type of society Israel should be striving to create, yet here I also read another warning to those pursuing social justice inspired by Torah and Judaism; If they forget how intrinsically linked their heritage is with the land, people and idea of Israel, they too will find themselves thrown from the ground on which their identity is built. Collectively Jewish communities will find one of the foundations on which they stand removed, and I’m not sure that the rest will not crumble.

Ultimately social justice and cohesion will come when the plurality of truth and narrative in the world is acknowledged, and appreciating the otherness within ourselves and between groups can not just be tolerated but celebrated.

There will hopefully be a settlement to the settlements and the conflict, but true peace will only come when Israelis and Palestinians can acknowledge the narrative of the other without diminishing the power of their own story.

If those of us who passionately seek the realisation of this peace can not also reconcile the plurality of perspectives within ourselves as a Jewish people, then I do not feel we are constructively adding to any resolution of conflict, including that which that has so accentuated our divisions.

What are we pursuing if it is not peace for ourselves, our families and our communities (shalom bayit); peace for Israel (ose shalom v’al kol yisrael); and as they say in the Progressive and Sheva versions, peace for all humanity – ose shalom v’al kol bnei adam… od ya’avo shalom aleinu v’al kulam

Jewishness and Otherness

I feel in my work in the Jewish community, and even during geeky conversations with friends, I have often struggled to articulate my view that at the heart of being Jewish and the Jewish imperative to fight for social justice, is a sense of being the other and a sensitivity to otherness.

Some parts of Jewish tradition I most connect with, and I think explain this, are Parshat Lech Lecha, the Exodus, and the story of how Israel gets his and our name.

Midrash teaches us thar Avram was a questioning soul who after asking if many other phenomena are all powerful gets a sense there is another explanation, develops an iconoclastic streak smashing holes in the unethical teachings of his upbringing, and begins his journey to becoming Abraham ha-ivri – a man in touch with the divine who is also from the other side (ha-ivri). Abraham then begins to challenge the ways of others whilst always opening his tent to encounters with them.

Within all the weirdness and wonder of the Exodus story – the role of the midwives, the saving of those who kept their Hebrew names, the power and frailty of faith – the enduring message for our people has been the conditioning of being strangers, which makes our sovereignty conditional on treating the stranger as one of our own.

Way way back many centuries ago, Jacob was anything but a fine example of a family man. After deceiving his brother of his birthright and showing favouritism towards one wife and son, Jacob builds the tribe that eventually becomes the people originally known as his children – Bnei Yisrael – except he first needs to get that name.

In anticipation of meeting his brother Esau, whom he still fears seeks to kill him, Jacob has a vision or dream, in which he wrestles with an angel (some say God). Yisra-El literally means to struggle with El (a name for God in the Torah). It can also mean wrestling and struggling with the beyond, the above, the transcendental, or simply that which is outside your realm of immediate experience and comprehension.

It is by understanding our inner otherness (being ha-Ivri) that we can ensure we always welcome the stranger and fight for their equality. By wrestling with that which is beyond or above us, we can be children of Yisrael that seek to make our forefathers and four mothers proud of how we pursue a fairer and more sustainable world.

The spirit of Rosa parks in the west bank causes unease on a flight from Qatar

As I transferred planes with Qatar airways on route to Melbourne. I hadn’t finished my article on Palestinian “Freedom riders” and took it out to read as I was surrounded by people speaking Arabic. I assumed that we’d have very different perspectives on the actions taken by these Palestinians, the context of segregated roads and public transport, and the points expressed in the article.

Of course I didn’t get the chance to see if those assumptions were true. I didn’t really feel up to a tricky conversation in broken english and got distracted by 6 episodes of Glee, the rise of planet of the apes and some fidgety sleeping.

One assumption I got wrong was that Qatar airways, to my pleasant surprise, did indeed serve booze and plenty of non practicing Muslims joined me in enjoying it 🙂

So what’s my point? I had a mixed reaction to the piece on ‘freedom riders’ and I felt mixed about making assumptions about perspectives on the conflict based on being Jewish or Arab.

I’d spent the first leg of my flight choking up watching ‘the help’ and felt unsettled with the allusion to civil rights and racism in 50s and 60s USA. I felt like writing one of those ZF responses highlighting the security context for the segregation and that Israel does not have these policies based on racism, that Israel is a vibrant democracy etc. etc.

Even ignoring recent attacks on Israeli democracy that throw that line of argument into doubt, I had to check myself. In the article one ‘settler’ says something to the affect of ‘whilst these Palestinians may have had good intentions, others might board the buses to perpetrate suicide bombings’.

Isn’t it racist to tar a whole group of people based on the (admittedly horrific) actions of a few within it? Isn’t it racist to enact policy and law targeting a whole population based on this dehumanising lumping together of all under one label?

(Isn’t it prejudiced to lump all Israelis living beyond the green line under the banner ‘settler’ with it’s implied notions of ultra religious Zionism? although I’m someone who advocates withdrawing from most of west bank/Judea & Samaria – I can distinguish between the hill top youth, those who resettled in Gush Etzioni after massacres drove people out pre-state, and those drawn to areas most likely to be part of post-2 state israel by left and right wing governments)

Back to the ‘freedom riders’ – I believe the Israeli government is doing these things based mainly on fear and to protect lives, and with some justification after seeing hundreds of civilians killed on terror attacks on buses. The events in Eilat earlier this year remind us that there is still a threat. Although, I do also feel there’s an element of desperately trying to placate settlers in continuing the stranglehold on the west bank and establishing facts on the ground.

The coverage of the ‘freedom riders’ attempts to evoke a lazy comparison, as are those who try the same with apartheid. For those ordinary Palestinians who have their freedom of movement restricted because protecting the lives of settlers is more important than upholding the rights of Palestinians, does it really matter?

Israel eventually pulled out of Lebanon and Gaza after leaders and the public agreed that continuing the status quo and risking Israeli soldiers and civilians wasn’t worth it for the sake of maintaining settlements – is it too much to hope that even if based on security principles, the de facto denial of rights to millions of Palestinians is too big a price to pay in the current situation?

It may be a lazy comparison, but perhaps non violent direct action invoking the spirit of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr will force the Israeli government to reconsider how this looks. It might also just show the Palestinians that these tactics work a lot better than terror.

(slightly naive and confused jet lagged thoughts x)

obviously a slanted take on events, but this video raises troubling issues nonetheless;