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tactical surface, lie the usual liberal such high importance on intricate, sensibilities and anxieties vis-á-vis the college-educated ethical distinctions use of violence; and also that, beneath between a person throwing rocks at the political rationale for utilizing our them and another person standing Jewish privilege, lies an all-too-common nearby, defending the first one’s right to personal fear of giving up one’s privilege, do so. In other words, a soldier’s desire period. Furthermore, regarding our role to avoid the legal troubles associated as a sort of “human shield,” I think this is with shooting a Jewish citizen plays a flat out wrong: it has been my much more significant role in his experience that most soldiers already reluctance to open fire on us than does assume Israeli anarchists throw stones at his impression that Israeli anarchists them alongside Palestinians, or, if not, “don’t deserve it.” I have no doubt that they at least support and facilitate combat soldiers think we deserve it, the stone-throwing, which is bad enough regardless of whether we actually join in their book. Israeli soldiers do not place stone-throwers or just protect them. nonviolently to the violence inflicted on saw fit. After the first couple of years, them, we should admit, embrace, and however, certain key activists began Our anonymous interlocutor traces the The Kibbutzim (Jewish socialist wholeheartedly support Palestinian pressing for a formal resolution in favor prehistory and development of agricultural settlements) serve as a violence against the far greater violence of nonviolence, and this actually became contemporary Israeli anarchism, cautionary tale—should yet another such of Israeli Apartheid. the primary bone of contention in AAtW. touching on the origins of punk and the tale be needed—of anarchists becoming Furthermore, the prevalence of On the surface, the reasons for this animal rights movement in Israel and pawns in authoritarian projects through nonviolence rhetoric in reference to demand were purely practical, and they presenting a critical analysis of the tentative collaborations based on Palestinian resistance contrasts greatly make sense. The first reason is that trajectory of Anarchists Against the Wall. “temporarily” compromising our with the general acceptance among nonviolence enables us to offer a safer He concludes by reflecting on the confrontational and political rejection of radicals, even among the liberal left, of network for less militant activists, as well function of nonviolence rhetoric in the hierarchy. violence from Zapatista communities as mainstream members of the left, who conflict between Israel and Palestine. We Strange as it may sound today, many defending themselves against wish to attend demonstrations in West strongly recommend this interview to secular European Jews at the turn of the paramilitaries—or Naxalites in the Bank villages. This is an important anyone interested in the Israel/Palestine previous century saw a tacit bond forests of India resisting infrastructure function, since prior to the joint struggle conflict or, for that matter, in the between Zionism and anarchism. companies with landmines and many Israelis had not seen the reality of strategic challenges of formulating an Ghettoized and excluded from the automatic rifles—or MEND rebels in the the occupation and the Apartheid Wall anarchist opposition in adverse national ethos of their own countries, Niger Delta fighting Western up close with their own eyes. The conditions. they gravitated towards tendencies corporations by attacking oil wells and nonviolence tagline has contributed that—in their personal lives, if not in the pipelines, killing workers, security considerably to hundreds of Israelis eyes of history—offered opposing guards, and soldiers in the process. It witnessing the brutality of the Israeli magnetic polarities to push back with: makes no sense at all. As some army firsthand, something which AAtW Is there any continuity connecting anarchism, Marxism, and Zionism. Palestinians themselves have asked would have never achieved without Ironically, as documented by anarchist recently, I strongly urge everyone to being perceived as nonviolent. The the contemporary Israeli anarchist writers like Voline in Russia, large parts once and for all get treated for their second reason has to do with our ability movement to currents preceding of the Jewish ghettos perceived Zionism nonviolence obsession wherever as Jewish citizens to prevent soldiers the countercultural surge of the to be the craziest and most utopian of Palestinian resistance is concerned. from using certain types of lethal force, early ’90s? the three. for example live ammunition, by our Now, regarding AAtW’s own tactics, as presence in Palestinian demonstrations, So, in what could be seen as a precursor Jewish citizens and unequal partners in None whatsoever, unfortunately. Then given that soldiers have separate and to the pitfalls of modern identity politics, the joint struggle, nonviolence has again, it might not be that unfortunate. stricter rules of engagement for Jews the ties binding the old anarchists to always been our default setting. Since Throughout the hundred years than they do for Palestinians. Basically, their Jewish identity enabled their the very beginning we have been careful preceding, Israeli anarchists played a some within AAtW felt that if Israeli Umanità Nova, their vision of a new to play a strictly supportive role, never part in some successful endeavors, but participants were to engage actively in humanity, to be folded into and leading or taking initiatives—which is always at a costly price: the subjugation violence against soldiers, it would superseded by Zionism’s vision of a new usually what the vanguardist tendencies of the political to the social, which was gradually erode our ability to use our Jewry, the “Muscle Jew” of Israel, set to latent in political violence end up basically BuberSpeak for attempting to Jewish privilege as a deterrent, until replace the frightened ghetto one. On pushing one towards. Initially, we had build new worlds around the existing eventually we lost it altogether. the ground, one of the forms this decided not to adopt nonviolence as a one, rather than on its smoldering ashes. supersession took was the fast-paced collective guideline, leaving the question These are valid concerns, yet I cannot morph of egalitarian Kibbutzim open for each individual to answer as she help but feel that, not too far below the communities into strategic colonial you. They organized themselves into Palestinian resistance, even in its purest Palestinian society are concerned, for instruments at the hands of a nascent historical societies, cultural associations, tactical form. example, it is largely a question of cold state bent on driving indigenous philosophical discussion circles, and hard cash: 30% of the Palestinian GDP On the Israeli side, Anarchists Against the populations off the land. literary study groups, communicating comes from foreign aid. Naturally, the Wall and the International Solidarity chiefly in Yiddish, a choice oddly various foundations, charities, and In this light, it should come as no surprise Movement have been among the chief reminiscent of that other closed, black- governments funding the hundreds of that in 1994, the first vinyl release of the propagators of the myth of Palestinian clad Jewish milieu with its back turned Palestinian NGOs in the West Bank and first Israeli anarchist hardcore band was nonviolence, knowing full well that to on society—orthodox Hasidic Jews—and Gaza Strip are unanimous in their titled, simply, “Renounce Judaism.” Western audiences—practically our only in stark contrast to the earlier anarchists insistence on nonviolent politics, along audience—the term is understood in a With the establishment of a Jewish state, of the Kibbutzim, who spoke Hebrew. with its accompanying rhetoric. With contextually different and significantly the Labor Zionism anarchists discovered During the ’50s and ’60s, the Freedom Palestinian NGOs pushing this line, narrower way. This is accomplished not that the operation had succeeded and Seekers Association, Israel’s main activists in the West are all too happy to so much by outright lying as by omission, the patient had died; much like their anarchist group, produced a monthly toe it, and facts be damned. by silently taking advantage of contemporaries in the October bilingual publication called Problemen ambiguity, or by clinging to Among Israeli radicals, including AAtW, revolution, the Chinese May 4th alongside several books, and maintained technicalities, real or imagined but you’d be surprised how often everything Movement, and Madero’s Mexican a library of classic anarchist literature insignificant either way: for instance, the boils down to unresolved liberal uprising—and perhaps yesterday’s (again, mostly in Yiddish and Polish) as claim that the shebab slinging rocks are complexes, and a tendency to simplify Occupy movement—their sole reward well as a large hall in central Tel Aviv, not technically part of the protest things for politically correct crowds using was having been forgotten players in drawing hundreds of attendees to non- marches or demonstrations. This claim is banal syllogisms: a) good guys are not birthing the entity that deemed them threatening conferences where anarchy disingenuous. First, because the popular violent, b) Palestinians are the good guys irrelevant. was theorized to death alongside committees

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