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

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;

“we write, therefore we are…”

“We’re working with people struggling to make a living, who perceive culture as a luxury- but through books, film, photography, all culture, we raise issues of gender, identity, relations between the Jews and Arabs and between men and women, and we can share our values and empower our community”

Working in a place where a range of Jewishly inspired social justice and community development organisations work, I am lucky that often there are some pretty incredible people coming through the doors. I am also lucky to be surrounded by progressive thinking and outward looking Jews and non-Jews, when so often in my experience of the community from which I come, we are only concerned with our own community. Where I work there are organisations working to address global poverty, advocate for human rights, foster peaceful coexistence, and mobilize volunteers – and all inspired by Jewish values and historical experience – though not all staffed by only Jews.

Just last week, Osnat Bar-Or and Sameye Sharqawi from Al-Bir (The Well) came to speak at a special morning briefing co-hosted by New Israel Fund UK & the UK Task Force on issues facing Arab Citizens of Israel. Al-Bir is a women led grassroots cultural centre working in Wadi Ara (Ara Wally), where a large Arab community lives, within Israel.

I was struck by so much of what I heard that morning, and the inspiring and creative ways these women are empowering other women and tackling issues of discrimination (linked with gender and nationality).

I was also particularly moved by Sameye’s sharing of the complex relaity faced by Palestinian women within their own communities and within Israeli society more widely. She spoke of the process the women who founded Al-Bir went through to identify their situation, begin to feel confident to address it and articulating this to share with others. Sameye held up some of the Al-Bir’s promotional material, and helped her audience understand the power of a group of women taking their story out into the world – for them they were reaffirming their very existence and demanding recognition by writing, in Sameye’s words “We write, so now we exist!”

It was the place of language and culture that I found interesting throughout the content of what Sameye and Osnat shared, and also the experience. Sameye, a Palestinan Arab citizen of Israel, was speaking in Hebrew, so that Osnat, a Jewish-Israeli could translate into English for the group listening. I couldn’t help but think of recent attempts by some Israeli lawmakers to remove Arabic as an official language of the state of Israel. More than being reminded of this, it was a very odd experience understanding some of the Hebrew, hearing Sameye get frsutrated at times that the Hebrew didn’t quite capture the Arabic she was translating from in her head – all whilst witnessing these two colleagues and friends laugh and get animated as they shared their story of how culture can liberate and educate.

There were some particular examples that I think illustrate the power of their story in its context and through the lens I was experiencing and hearing it.

Sameye was discussing the impact of the ’48 war and subsequent loos of livelihood that many Arab men experienced. Sameye talked of some Arab farmers losing their land and then struggling to find work on land they used to own. Sameye also highlighted the impact this had in the domestic life of Arab familes. “Of course there were heirachies, but most of the time men and women worked their land together, ran a home togetehr, and made decisions about the family together. This all changed with the shifting circumstances following ’48, and the lack of self-confidence (I heard the familar hebrew term bitachon) also led to frustration being targeted from the men towards the women and children”

As I was listening I was thinking how that word bitachon is used in Hebrew for security and confidence. In my experiences in Israel, it was almost always about security- the security situation during the intifada, the security guards at restaurants (and the 1 shekel added for each person on any bill) and the security of the Jewish people in their homeland. It was only after hearing it in this context that I considered how intrinsic the link is between the two meanings of this word and the situation between Jews and Arabs in Israel and how they often use its different meanings. Only when the situation allows Israel’s 20% Arab population to have confidence in themselves, their opportunities and their equality in the State, will they be part of a society in which Israel’s Jews will fill secure that, at least on a domestic front, the very nature of the state is on solid ground.

Sameye & Osnat shared an example of how language can be a barrier to inclusion within Arab society too. As the role of mother and parent is not a controversial place to start when seeking to involve women more in the public sphere, a large part of Al-Bir’s work is around parents committees in Arab schools. However, in most cases they’re not called ‘parents’ committees’ but ‘fathers’ committees’. Thankfully women involved with Al-Bir have successfully changed these, and where there have been no parent committees, established them so local families can be more involved in communal life and their children’s education.

Samaye and Osnat went on to discuss the challenge of being agents of change within traditional communities, wanting to maintain positive relationships with the community whilst pushing it to move beyond it’s comfort zone. I had to stop myself from chuckling as Samaye used the term parve when insisting this didn’t mean they were bland in their approach. Growing up in Jewish environments the word parev was used to indicate food items that were neither milky or meaty (as traditionally Jews don’t mix meat and milk). It was just so odd that this word I associate with Jewish custom was being used to describe how these pioneering women didn’t want to rock the boat but did want to move it along!

This balancing of tradition with modernity, and managing the tension between basing yourself in a community but challenging some of its assumed foundations, is one I can relate to in the work I do and in where I place myself within my Jewish community. There were other similarities I was noticing between the use of language and narrative in the work of Al-Bir and the story being shared with the way I had experience being developed Jewishly as a ‘person of the book’.

In a different way to the personal resonance I felt with Osnat and Sameye, there are ways in which the collective experience of Israel’s Arab population resonates with being a minority in Britain.

In keeping with Al-Bir’s use of culture this can best be expressed through narrative;

The kids across from us are whispering, laughing, repeating the names of our villages and deliberately mispronouncing them. They’re laughing at our names, and we don’t do anything about it. To take part in the general hilarity would be ridiculous, so I keep quiet. They start singing something that sounds familiar, but instead of “The Jew is dead” – the way we sing it – they sing “Mohammed is dead.” They sing loudly, and some of their classmates join in. I press the STOP button. The hell with Adel, I’m getting off. I pick up my bag, controlling myself, holding back my tears.

Once I get off, Adel decides to get off too. I see him only after I’m on the sidewalk. One of the students opens a window and spits. He misses us.

– from Dancing Arabs by Sayed Kashua

How many Jewish school kids in Britain have faced similar tormenting to this fictional portrayal? My favourite growing up was the occasional fake sneeze ‘Aaaa…Jew!’ as me and my school friends walked past pupils from other schools on buses.

Sameye and Osnat work with art and culture to educate and liberate. As I sat listening to their stories, and getting lost in the translation, I was left wondering how rich Arab and Jewish culture each are in their own right, yet how many similarities and interesting contrasts there are. I was also left feeling both hopeful and anxious – recognising that it is possible to draw greater understanding of each other and inspiration through culture and narrative, yet reflecting that so often we are lacking enough bitachon in how our own story is unfolding to really appreciate the narrative of others.

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For some on-theme comic relief also from Sayed Kashua, check this clip out

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More on Al-Bir (the Well)

Al-Bir nurtures and presents the voices and activities of Arab women withinIsrael, and broadens the spectrum of activity and influence of women within the community and society at large. Al-Bir is a unique model of a cultural community centre that strengthens an underserved community and brings change to Arab society, where it is not common for women to be active in the public sphere. The Al-Bir centre’s main activities are a project on motherhood, art and sustainability community projects and cultural activities including films, lectures, exhibitions and workshops.

Al-Bir has been active for eight years and is run by professional women (six Arab and one Jewish) who are driven by a sense of responsibility toward the community and an aspiration to make change through dialogue within the existing reality. Their goal is to influence society toward justice and away from fanaticism in all its forms.

For links to the Sikkuy Report (‘The Equality Index of Jewish and Arab Citizens in Israel’ ) and other statistics and anaylsis on the situation faced by Israel’s Arab population, see the UK Task Force key facts section.