Published by Americans for The Link Understanding, Inc.

Volume 48, Issue 4 Link Archives: www.ameu.org September-October 2015

A Special Kind of Exile By Alice Rothchild, M.D.

I once heard a speaker refer to those who engage in critical activ- ism on /Palestine as entering a “special kind of exile.” I started my life in a very traditional American Jewish place, but faced with the activism of the 1960s, Israel’s increasingly belligerent occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem, multiple hard- to-defend wars, and a growing awareness of “cross sectional” issues around racism, police brutality, militarism, and U.S. for- eign policy, I was forced to re-examine much that my family once held dear and to face the consequences of my actions. As an increasingly secular person, I also began to scrutinize the meaning of my Jewishness, the uncomfortable consequences of Zionism, and my per- sonal responsibilities in a world rife with contradiction, fear, and conflict. So how did that all happen and where am I now?

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AMEU Board (Continued from Page 1) of Directors About This A Special Kind of Exile

Jane Adas (Vice President) Issue By Alice Rothchild Elizabeth D. Barlow Edward Dillon I first heard Dr. Rothchild The Jewish Story Rod Driver speak earlier this year at a confer- I was once on track to be a nice Jew- ence in Washington D.C. co- John Goelet ish girl, growing up in the small New sponsored by the Washington Re- David Grimland port on Middle East Affairs England town of Sharon, Massachusetts, Richard Hobson (Treasurer) (WRMEA) and the Institute for with liberal minded parents who fled the Anne R. Joyce Research: Middle Eastern Policy narrow confines of shetl Brooklyn for the Kendall Landis (IRmep). dreams of 1950s exurbia, a sparkling lake, and a moderately out-of-tune Robert L. Norberg (President) The subject of the conference though touchingly aspirational civic or- Hon. Edward L. Peck was “The Israel Lobby: Is it Good for the U.S.? Is it Good for Israel?” chestra. I played the cymbals, perhaps a Donald L. Snook The day-long event was well at- warning of crashes to come. When I look James M. Wall tended and offered an impressive back at that pre-Betty Friedan life, we

list of speakers, including the Is- were living the immigrant-assimilationist AMEU National raeli columnist Gideon Levy. American dream in all its glory and con- Council But the speaker I was moved to tradiction. We cheered at the Fourth of William R. Chandler invite to write for The Link was Al- July parade with its shiny red fire trucks Kathleen Christison ice Rothchild, a physician from and balding World War II veterans Paul Findley Boston. At a time of growing dis- marching in step down Main Street, and Moorhead Kennedy trust and racial divisions in the at the same time we were an intensely Ann Kerr Middle East, and elsewhere, hers is insular family. a personal journey of outreach and Nancy Lapp of healing. I had a solid dosing of Hebrew George E. Mendenhall school three days a week and services at Mary Norton All of the photographs in the article are courtesy of the Temple Israel Saturday mornings, ate my Don W. Wagner share of gefilte fish and flanken in my author. grandparents’ tiny Brooklyn apartment, Executive Director On page 13, we note the pass- and pushed countless quarters into blue John F. Mahoney ing of Hugh D. Auchincloss, Jr., a and white tsadakah boxes, buying a former AMEU Board member and, small forest of trees in Israel by the time at the time of his death, a member every friend and cousin had completed AMEU (ISSN 0024-4007) grants of our National Council. his Bar Mitzvah. There were lots of rela- permission to reproduce material On pages 14 and 15, we offer a tions, but we were one of the few fami- from The Link in part or in whole. AMEU must be credited and one select list of books and videos, lies who escaped New York City. My copy forwarded to our office: available through AMEU, that mother, Sylvia Rosner Rothchild, was complement our feature article. A one of twenty grandchildren of Josef 475 Riverside Drive, Room full listing of our books and videos 245, New York, New York Neuberger, an orthodox Jew with a is available on our website: 10115-0245. bushy red beard and a reputation as the www.ameu.org. Other Contact Information: family’s loving but fierce patriarch. He hailed from a shetl in the sometimes Tel.: 212-870-2053 Fax: 212-870-2050 John F. Mahoney Austrian, sometimes Romanian, lately E-mail: [email protected] Executive Director Ukranian area of Vizhnitsa and, like many immigrants, made his way to a Website at www.ameu.org. hardscrabble life in the tenements of Wil- The Link Page 3 liamsburg. “World Peace” was considered to be moderately peculiar. In college I met upper class, private school My parents grew up a few blocks from each girls who wanted to touch me, gushing, “I’ve never other, met at night school at Brooklyn College met a Jew before.” (Rosner sat next to Rothchild), and were both rebels in their outward rejection of As the good, oldest daughter, speaking Yiddish as our I followed my mother’s lead mamaloshen and maintaining when it came to politics. The an Orthodox kosher home, and founding of Israel was a pre- in their eagerness to embrace a cious miracle, a haven for Jews modern American life with after the Holocaust, a country mowed lawns, a love of that was to be “a light unto the Mahler, and occasional goy- nations.” As a teenager I was ishe friends. My mother read in love with the kibbutz move- Women’s Day, a guide to be- ment and Israeli dancing. I ing a good housewife, and prayed unambivalently at my along with chicken and challah Bat Mitzvah, singing of my on Shabbos, made orange jello love of Zion, and reveled in a molds with grated carrots lay- family pilgrimage to the magi- ered at the top, a distinctly cal land of Israel when I was post-war dessert, the bland fourteen. My teenage diary happy taste of the 50s. packed with graying post- cards spoke of a “young hope- At the same time, my par- ful…promised land” where ents managed to let me know “everyone has the right of way that we were different, that we and maintains it.” I described were from a distinct and en- “former Arab homes” in Jaffa, dangered tribe. I marvel at that and took note of Bedouins and inherited sense of being at backward Arab villages, wrote odds with American culture of “, dressed in long and society, of feeling so Jew- black robes and dirty head- ish in a non-Jewish world despite Bat Mitzvah party with my sister Judith, dresses….,” and lumped my de- rising economics and acceptability. 1963. scriptions of Arabs and Oriental I learned early that I was an out- Jews as “fat, unsanitary looking sider in the dominant American culture, that stories women.” That was the narrative of my youth. keep our history and culture alive and also create the learned truths about that history. I have also I had a little taste of anti-Semitism around a come to understand in my own journey that people Christmas tree crisis that erupted in my public survive by telling their stories and that the victors in school where the growing numbers of upwardly history most often create the prevailing and ac- mobile Jews moving into the town from Jewish cepted narrative. ghettos in Dorchester and Brooklyn were accused of destroying Christmas at a very public and very ap- And I was deeply enmeshed in that Jewish palling town meeting. Because my mother wrote an story; there was my unlikely love of gefilte fish and early book on the Shoa, Voices from the Holocaust, my real talent for making matzoh balls, as well as and the wife of our rabbi and my Hebrew school the level of guilt and responsibility I felt for the principal were both slightly damaged (but we gen- world’s disasters. In sixth grade each student was tly forgave them) survivors, I also developed a asked to draw a picture of what he or she really youthful obsession with the Nazi Holocaust in par- wanted. I do not recall what my fellow classmates ticular and injustice in general. yearned for, but I do recall that my desire for The Link Page 4

While my mother was eager to break out of her I think that sense of our “specialness,” where the Orthodox familial prohibitions, her short stories of fear of extermination intersected with religious belief suburban life in the 1950s and 1960s often struggled and the perceived mark of permanent victimhood, is with the hard edge of anti-Semitism and the insensi- where my Jewishness merged with my mother’s per- tivities of her Christian neighbors who could not dis- sonal terrors. Our particular place in the world, our tinguish a Rosenthal from a Schwartz. I suspect role as the “chosen people,” meant that not only these life experiences, coming on the heels of the de- were we singled out for persecution, but we had spe- pression, World War II, and the Nazi Holocaust, cial responsibilities, that the admonition to make the marked her for life. I also inherited and bore the im- world a better place was actually a very personal call print of those difficult times. This same mother sup- to action necessary for our very survival. Needless ported the METCO programs, (Metropolitan Council to say, the Arab/Israeli War in 1967 was a time of for Educational Opportunity), bringing African- communal apprehension and understood to be an American children to our very white educational existential threat to a country we loved without system, and offered her expertise to teach in Boston’s much in the way of the critical thinking we reserved largely segregated schools. for the rest of the world. As a teenager, I was lulled into the liberalism of I think back to my mother’s stubborn insistence Adlai Stevenson and John F. Kennedy, but I discov- that the Jewish pioneers in the early 20th century ered there were harsh limits. When I came home bought much of the land in historic Palestine from with an African-American boyfriend, my modern, the local Arabs; she fervently believed that Jews are liberal, pro-civil rights, tolerant mother warned me inherently decent, we do not massacre or steal or that if I married a non-Jew, then “Hitler’s dream rape; we do not take what is not rightfully ours; we would come true.” She begged me to understand do not share our victimhood. This is a painful my- what I would lose, never considering what he also thology to give up. As I discovered later, introspec- might lose should he marry me. She cried and threat- tion involves a searingly honest evaluation of history ened to sit shiva, mourning my “death,” banishing in all its voices, a recognition of the behavior and me from the family forever. This was a powerful policies of the pioneers and fighters who created the message to a budding 19-year-old exploring her own State of Israel, an examination of the foundations of identities and passions; the threat of permanent ex- modern political Zionism; and ultimately a willing- pulsion from the enfolding arms of my childhood. In ness to express regret and apology. This is not an a painful and tumultuous evening, my mother easy journey. morphed from ally to threat and I saw excommuni- As a solid member of the tribe, I went off to col- cation as a real possibility. Little did I know what lay lege in the late 1960s and found myself at Bryn ahead. Mawr, an elite, upper-class, waspy women’s college, This is quite a heritage, a potent mix of trauma, where Jews (and blacks) were exotic and rare at that memory, tribalism, and assimilation. As a family, time. Despite the occasional high holidays and a me- we prided ourselves on our differentness and our andering Jewish discussion group with mostly long- ability to survive against the odds of anti-Semitism, haired, left-wing men from Haverford, my relation- pogroms, near annihilation, and the sweatshops and ship to my Jewish identity sank to the bottom of my poverty of the lower East Side of New York City. At list of adolescent priorities. I threw myself into aca- the same time we were thriving in multicultural, up- demics and near-death premed courses; opposition wardly mobile suburbia. Simultaneously, in a to the War was the main topic of political strange, unconscious way, I knew, like Jews every- conversation. I began to examine feminism and a where, that we were potentially all victims, we were host of other “isms” swirling on campus and to bus in some way all survivors, and the world was an un- down to marches on the Mall and parks of Washing- forgiving place; the threat of another Holocaust ton, DC. During college and then medical school, my lurked behind every international crisis, every un- sense of who I was began to unravel, and I became kind word. increasingly aware of my internal boundaries; I be- gan to understand that I didn’t even know what I The Link Page 5 didn’t know. and to hear and feel our enormous human common- alities; the common language of denial, despair, en- durance, and recovery. I started to realize that the The Other “troubles” in Israel did not start in 1967 with the Six Day War and the occupation of East Jerusalem, the The grandfather of one of my college friends had Golan, West Bank and Gaza. I began to recognize been an Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and as she the importance of revisiting the events of 1948, the shared her family inheritance with me, I still remem- year I was born and the State of Israel was founded; ber my indignant arguments with her, my utter dis- to hold both the story of my own people and the sto- dain for Abdul Nasser, and my dismissal of pan- ries of the people who were killed, dispossessed, and Arab nationalism. Gradually I realized that I had displaced partly as a consequence of my own peo- never actually met an Arab, a shocking admission for ple’s tragedy, in my head and in my heart simultane- someone with such firmly held liberal beliefs. I rec- ously. My mother told me once that she was proud ognized that I had grown up distrusting and hating of my activism, but I was taking it further than she an entire group of people and I really knew nothing could bear to go, but I think that is what daughters about them. are for. Each generation has a task and this one Between deliver- seemed increasingly ing babies and raising mine. two children, I read When the cognitive everything I could dissonance was no find on colonialism, longer tolerable, I imperialism, U.S. his- sought out a group of tory, and gradually similarly agonized, developed an uncom- politically left Jews of fortable disconnect various stripes from between my child- the Boston Work- hood love of a magi- men’s Circle, New cal, mythical Israel Jewish Agenda, and and my adult analysis Kahal Braira. We of how the world ac- started a Jewish/ tually works. Things Palestinian dialogue got even more com- group that provided plicated after 1967 as I us with a powerful became increasingly education on the re- Author at Women’s Center in Rafah Refugee Camp. though vaguely aware of alities in the region. This the Israeli occupation. But I did what many Jews led to the formation of a number of activist grass- did; why ruin a family dinner or a longtime friend- roots organizations (Visions of Peace with Justice in ship by bringing up something that only ends with Israel/Palestine, American Jews for a Just Peace, everyone yelling at each other? Jewish Voice for Peace) and a desire to develop edu- In the mid 1990s, fortified with a growing under- cational events to share what we had learned. As we organized speakers and events, we were fairly im- standing of colonialism, racism, immigration, mediately blacklisted in our own Jewish communi- Islamophobia, and increasingly disenchanted with ties. the version of Israeli history I had learned in Hebrew school, I began an active search for the stories that I We soon realized that a number of us were phy- had missed. I began to listen to dissenting Israeli sicians (this being a group of Jews after all), and Jews, , and other Arabs in the Boston based on the experience of medical support work in area. I began to make invisible people visible to me, El Salvador a few decades earlier, we developed the to confront the trauma and fear that I had inherited, idea of examining the conflict through the lens of The Link Page 6 health care and human rights. Someone might not that started long before 1948 was actually continuing be able to deal with the politics, but everyone would unabated, disguised in the language of the endless, agree that a pregnant woman should not deliver at a stillborn “peace process,” Jewish exceptionalism, wa- checkpoint and a child should have enough to eat. ter, security, and the racist demonization of Palestini- ans. That led to a health and human rights project, taking annual delegations to Israel and the occupied This growing understanding led me to fully em- territories, working with Physicians for Human brace the international call for boycott, divestment, Rights - Israel, Palestinian Medical Relief Society, and sanctions against Israeli policies as the most Gaza Community Mental Health Program, and a creative, powerful, nonviolent work that I could sup- growing number of civil society and activist organi- port. zations on both sides of the Green Line. We saw pa- Although Palestinians have a little known history tients in clinics, lectured at Al Quds medical school, of non-military resistance tactics dating back to the stayed in refugee camps, marched in solidarity with 1920s, in 2005 more than 170 Palestinian civil society nonviolent activists in Bil’in, visited destroyed and institutions issued a call to end the occupation of unrecognized villages in Israel, and developed pow- land seized by Israel in 1967 and dismantle the sepa- erful human relationships with Jewish Israelis and ration wall, to recognize the fundamental rights of Palestinians. the Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality, and Our last delegation was June 2014, and my most to respect, protect, and promote the right of return of recent visit to the region was in March/April 2015 Palestinian refugees. with Washington Physicians for Social Responsibil- This call is based on international law and princi- ity. As a Jewish person with a country “speaking in ples of human rights and is explicitly against all my name” and as a U.S. citizen paying taxes that forms of racism, including specifically anti-Semitism. funded the occupation and siege, I felt my most com- Many BDS activists are Jewish; several small Israeli pelling responsibility was to bring these stories organizations support the call (for instance Boycott home. from Within, Who Profits, and Anarchists Against I worked with U.S. activists and members of the the Wall), but the movement is universal. The issue Israeli left who were focused on civil, human, and is about resolving longstanding, intractable injus- political rights for Palestinians in Israel and the occu- tices. In April 2010, Americans for Peace now came pied territories as the fundamental basis for a viable, out against BDS, but supported socially responsible secure Israeli state. I watched the “left” in post-Oslo investing, the avoidance of companies involved with Israel shrink to desperately small numbers and I ob- the settlements and settlement products. Liberal Zi- served Palestinian civil society coalescing around a onist Israeli groups have also supported the boycott commitment to nonviolent resistance to oppression. of settlement products, and major governmental in- stitutions and multinational companies have seen fit I began to understand as the Jewish settlements to pull out of the occupied territories without actu- exploded in the West Bank and East Jerusalem with ally mentioning the word “boycott.” increasingly restrictive bypass roads, checkpoints, permits, and the snaking separation wall, and as the In 2010, more than 50 Israeli performers refused Israeli government declared the Jordan Valley a to perform in a new theatre in the Jewish settlement closed military zone, that the government of Israel of Ariel. They were supported by artists like Theo- (like all governments) was not going to give up dore Bikel and Pete Seeger. BDS can be targeted at power voluntarily. Israel’s occupation or at institutions/corporations that profit from the oppression of Palestinians. The I watched with growing horror the racist, right- cultural boycott has also been incredibly successful. wing swing of successive Israeli governments and It challenges Israeli performers, who are funded by the unleashed racism and aggression of Jewish set- the government and act as goodwill ambassadors, as tlers towards their Palestinian neighbors. It became well as international performers, to acknowledge increasingly clear to me that the expulsion, dispos- that Israel is practicing (according to luminaries from session, and war against the indigenous Palestinians

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Jimmy Carter to Bishop Tutu), a form of apartheid. Treasury notes. The U.S. borrows money More recently, BDS campaigns have led to major to give to Israel and to pay the interest; multinational companies like Veolia and G4S to suffer this costs U.S. taxpayers more than $100 multimillion dollar losses related to their work in the occu- million every year. pied territories, TIAA-CREF Financial Services pulled ▲ Unlike other countries, Israel is allowed to Caterpillar from their socially responsible portfolio, many use U.S. military aid to purchase material campuses have engaged in active divestment campaigns, made by Israeli rather than U.S. compa- and churches from the Presbyterians to the United Church of Christ have supported divestment proposals. In 2014, nies. The U.S. government also gives ap- direct foreign investment in Israel dropped 50 percent, proximately $1.6 billion per year to Egypt according to a U.N. study. and Jordan in aid packages that are de- pendent on maintaining peace treaties with Israel and have no stipulations re- Why Israel? garding justice for Palestinians. ▲ The U.S. also provides more than $400 mil- Many critics state that BDS is anti-Semitic and lion to the Palestinian Authority each year say to me, “Why Israel?” First it is important to dis- which largely goes to rebuild infrastruc- tinguish criticism of Jews as Jews, which is anti- ture destroyed by Israeli attacks and to Semitism, from criticism of the policies of the Israeli support a floundering economy that is government. In the world of terrible oppressive constricted by occupation. countries, there are obviously lots of worse offend- ers, but I would suggest that there is no other injus- Thus Israel receives more U.S. aid than any other tice so critically supported by our tax dollars. country, although Israelis make up only 0.1% of the Twenty percent of all U.S. foreign aid goes to Israel, world’s population. This computes to 7,000 times plus we provide tremendous political and military more U.S. foreign aid per capita than other folks, al- support, accord Israel special status, and insist that though Israel falls under the more affluent nations of the international community treat Israel as if were a the world. normal, progressive Western democracy. This When I look at the history of the Israel/Palestine makes the operations of the Israeli state far more ac- conflict, it is clear that politicians on all sides have countable to the international community that sup- failed us. The conflict is getting worse and many ar- ports it. gue that we need a dramatic reframing of what it If you don’t believe me, a nonprofit organization, means to work for a just and peaceful resolution. If Americans Knew, examined the Israel/Palestine Like any powerful government, the Israeli govern- conflict and foreign policy reports. According to the ment will not give up dominance voluntarily and the Congressional Research Service: U.S. government has been unwilling to contain Is- raeli military aggression and suppression of the Pal- ▲ The amount of official U.S. aid to Israel estinian population. since its founding in 1948 exceeds $115 billion and in the past few decades it has If we look at this struggle in its broadest sense, been on the order of $3 billion per year, in the billions we spend on military aid could have had 2013, this amounted to over $8.5 million such a positive impact at home if money were avail- every single day for a country with a able for our failing schools, inequitable health care population of 8.2 million people. system, inadequate housing, crumbling roads, bridges, and infrastructure, etc. The politics of ra- ▲ Unlike other countries, Israel receives all cism and police aggression goes way beyond East of its aid money at the start of each year, Jerusalem or the occupied territories. Activists are rather than in quarterly installments, thus drawing parallels from Palestine to Ferguson, the they start earning interest on the money lost young men in East Jerusalem to inner city youth immediately, interest paid by the U.S. in our major cities. Our police are being trained in since Israel invests these funds in U.S. Israel, crowd control has been militarized, local po- The Link Page 8 lice departments now have the excess tanks the Pen- And that is the crux of the issue for activist Jews: tagon can no longer use and the training and weap- do we align ourselves, even after the centuries of anti onry that has been used against a militarily occupied -Semitism and the Nazi Holocaust, with what has population thousands of miles away. Civil liberties basically been one of the last settler colonial states experts document massive spying on civilian popu- established in the twentieth century? Can we sup- lations, not just in the West Bank and Gaza but on port Zionism as a national movement when it is every citizen in the US. The drones have come home. grounded in racism and ongoing subjugation and Additionally, repeated military incursions have led ethnic cleansing? And if you are not worried about to environmental devastation and contamination not Palestinians, is behaving in this manner good for only in Gaza and the West Bank, but also in Iraq and Jews or has it been deeply corruptive to the values Afghanistan where there are reports of rising cancer and political stands that we value and want to de- deaths and birth de- fend for the next genera- fects. This is a global tion? Like I said, not an issue. easy journey. If we fast forward In the Jewish commu- to today, my under- nity, there are enormous standing of Israel is conflicts over Israel, very different from many family fights and my early upbringing. I friendships destroyed, as am not only concerned well as enormous under- with the ongoing oc- lying contradictions. In cupation of the West my own family, the edu- Bank and East Jerusa- cated, liberal wife of a lem and the siege of cousin sent a Jewish Gaza, the second class New Years email that citizenship of Pales- said: “Peace will come tinians with Israeli when Palestinian moth- citizenship, and the ers love their children as Visiting with family of Palestinian physician, longstanding unre- much as Jewish mothers.” 2015, in Sarta, West Bank. solved issue of Palestin- Where do I begin? Jews are ian refugees. I also have traditionally progressive and a much deeper understanding of Zionism as a politi- have had a leadership role in labor struggles, civil cal movement, the realities of Zionism for Jews and rights, women’s rights, gay rights, but many of us Palestinians, the war in 1948, and the consequences (particularly when you talk to people under 35) feel of establishing a state where Jews are privileged over that we are being asked to suspend our love of jus- everyone else and where there has been a steady ex- tice, democracy, tolerance, fighting for the op- pansion of borders and increasing militarization of pressed, etc. when it comes to Israel/Palestine. Israeli society. Additionally, we see very right wing forces such I worry about the cost of all this to Jewish Israelis as Campus Watch, StandWithUs, CAMERA and Jews in the Diaspora as well Palestinians. I have (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting), come to the painful conclusion that Zionism itself is AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee), the foundation of this more than century-old strug- the David Project, and others aligned with the Chris- gle. Zionism as a political movement evolved with tian Right, lobbying congress to support the most much controversy and full awareness that creating a right-wing governments in Israel, (our own little U.S. Jewish state with a Jewish majority and Jewish privi- branches of Likud), and muzzling dissent and toler- lege involved removing the indigenous Palestinians ance in our communities. one way or another. As a person who deeply values democracy, toler- The Link Page 9 ance, standing up for the oppressed, I see Jewish about what happened in 1948.” power in the twenty-first century is mostly about the That same year, I asked to give a similar presen- misuse of power and nothing about being Jewish. tation to my own department, other faculty gave talks on their various medical missions and experi- In the Trenches ences around the world, I wanted my time as well. In an earlier discussion with my department chief

about visiting colleagues in Israel, he (an ardent Zi- So what is it like in the trenches for me and onist who led delegations to Israel, especially fo- how has the muzzling and the right-wing dominant cused on their emergency medicine and response to paradigm affected my work? terrorist attacks), had said to me, “You are a danger As a physician since 1978, I have been on the staff to the Jewish people.” (Who knew?) Needless to say, of Beth Israel Hospital which morphed into Beth Is- my efforts to give a departmental presentation were rael Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, and from unsuccessful until five years later when he left the 2004 to 2013 held the academic position of Assistant department. I applied to the new acting chief, was Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproduc- accepted, and when my impending grand rounds tive Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Harvard Univer- was announced, the department received 100 emails sity. I gave grand rounds and other lectures at a protesting my appearance. I was asked to remove number of Harvard medical institutions on a host of the word “occupation” from the title (ultimately the topics ranging from quality improvement to sexual presentation was titled: “Healthcare in the West education for adolescents. I consider myself a re- Bank and Gaza: Examining the impact of war on a spected member of the faculty and worked as an ob- civilian population, a personal journey”), and stetrician-gynecologist in a group practice for several warned to stay away from politics. The room was decades. My patients ranged from pregnant teenag- packed, I talked, and we all successfully lived ers to ardent menopausal feminists, orthodox Jewish through the experience. women and modest Muslims ladies all searching for Fast forward, I published Broken Promises, Bro- a female physician. ken Dreams Stories of Jewish and Palestinian After returning from my first health and human Trauma and Resistance in 2007, second edition in rights delegation to Israel/Palestine in 2004, I was 2010, On the Brink: Israel and Palestine on the Eve of invited to give a grand rounds presentation to the the 2014 Gaza Invasion in 2014, and released a docu- internal medicine department on the health impacts mentary film, Voices Across the Divide, in 2013. of occupation at a sister hospital in Cambridge. This With my increasing involvement in the issues and was my maiden voyage into the academic world and with books and film to share, I began a second ca- Middle East politics. I arrived, Power Point, notes, reer, traveling the country, doing book readings, film and anxiety in hand and found that a colleague of screenings and analytic presentations. This gave me mine who was not from this hospital was busy plac- a unique opportunity to experience what is happen- ing a leaflet on every seat in the auditorium with ing “out there” and how an activist type like me is gory pictures of dead Israelis killed by Palestinian received in a variety of different communities. While terrorists. To the arriving physicians, it appeared that my comments are often well received, I have also this was my leaflet. Who sent him? Who made the experienced my share of resistance. flyer? Undeterred, but also unclear how to handle All of these anecdotes cover 2013-2015; I will start this, I gave my presentation. During the Q&A my with a few academic settings: colleague immediately took the floor, harangued me for ten minutes on my facts and on my “lack of com- As part of a week of Human Rights Awareness passion” for Jews. The head of medicine was as in- and Activism programming, the U.S. Foreign Policy timidated as I, but this was only the beginning of my Activist Cooperative and the Society for Ethics, introduction to the wild world of silencing and bul- Peace, and Global Affairs of American University in lying. My colleague then repeatedly called me, ask- D.C. organized a screening of Voices Across the Di- ing to have a cup of coffee so that we could “talk vide. At the film showing, a particularly interesting The Link Page 10 conversation focused around the issue of campus At the University of Maryland, in an Arab media control of Israel messaging; there is apparently a class, one Jewish student who was unhappy with my strong Israel studies program that includes student presentation spoke of being “very disappointed” trips to Israel. The views of the program are very with the professor, accused me of “hate speech,” mainstream and not particularly controversial. and stated that if students only heard me speak they However, students who focus on human rights is- would have a very one-sided view of the conflict. sues, opposition to the Israeli occupation, or support He talked about how Hamas is “really the problem” of the boycott, divestment, sanction movement, find and felt offended “as a member of Hillel.” The pro- themselves marginalized and accused of bias. Stu- fessor talked about the difference between hate dents described a polarization on campus with little speech and free speech, her openness to “dual narra- civil discourse between “the sides.” Two professors tives,” and her willingness to bring in a “pro-Israel” at American University were included on the re- speaker. I reflected on my discomfort with that defi- cently publicized list of professors “dangerous to Is- nition of “pro-Israel,” i.e., being in agreement with rael” (despite their lack of outspoken behavior on the the Israeli government. I pointed out that millions of topic) and one untenured faculty member talked dollars are being spent on Israeli messaging and about being warned to limit his critical comments propaganda, and I noted that I was sharing the reali- about Israel as it could endanger his future career. ties on the ground as I saw them. I also noted that We discussed this new McCarthyism where critical the issue of “balance” is only brought up if someone analysis of Israel and occupation/siege can threaten doesn’t like the message; the occupation is really op- the careers, tenure, and free speech pressive, Gazans are actually liv- rights of faculty and students who ing in the midst of a massive hu- do not “stand with Israel.” manitarian catastrophe largely caused by three Israeli assaults and At a John Carroll University a brutal siege; Israeli society is political science class in Ohio, moving to the right and becoming "Peacemaking in the Palestine Is- increasingly racist and militarized. rael Conflict," there were com- Did anyone ask for the voice of a plaints from the local Hillel stating Palestinian dispossessed from that Jewish students did not “feel Haifa when telling the heroic story safe” having me on campus and of the founding of the Israeli state? some major faculty meeting was As I reflected on this interchange, I held to discuss my upcoming realized that while the dual narra- event. Fortunately, the professor tive approach can be very power- was supported by the university ful, it is also important to avoid administration. Nonetheless, 100 confusing an honest examination students packed the class, includ- of history and narrative with bow- ing many from Hillel. The Hillel ing to a nationalistic mythos, as if contingent was mostly silent dur- both are equivalent serious histori- ing my talk, although some ap- cal research. proached me individually afterwards. Author speaking at the Wash- ington, D.C. Press Conference

The most disturbing interaction was on the Israeli lobby. At Suffolk University in Boston, in a with the Israeli shalicha, (ambassador, class on Diversity and Human Need, hired by Jewish institutions to represent Israel and to one Jewish student in the class spoke about how she shape the conversation about Israel in temples, Hil- was sympathetic to Nakba history, but felt lels, community groups, etc.). She aggressively at- “threatened” by my film. We discussed why hearing tacked me as a “liar,” chastised me for “doing a great another narrative that challenges our own provokes disservice,” and refused to “agree to disagree.” Loud fear rather than curiosity or perhaps reflection and bullying seemed to be her main strategy and the stu- shame. dents watched closely. At the University of Virginia alumni book club, The Link Page 11 several alumni complained about my impending feel I am up against the widespread “McCarthyism” book reading, went all the way to the president in in the mainstream Jewish community. protest, and threatened to withhold funds if I was At a reform temple in Ithaca, NY, I found that allowed to speak. when announcements were placed in the temple At Evergreen College in Olympia, WA, students newsletter, if the speaker was left-leaning on Israel/ talked about feeling “unsafe” on campus, being Palestine, there was a disclaimer that stated that the afraid to identify publically as Jews, feeling hostility speaker does not represent the temple community, from other students at this liberal, social-justice fo- thus setting the normative opinion. cused college. I explained that on campuses in the In an Erez Israel class at a Bethesda Maryland U.S. there are well-funded groups focused on con- reconstructionist synagogue, I noted that all the trolling “Israel messaging,” and often provoking this maps for the course and in the temple labeled sense of insecurity. I noted the frequent use of the “Israel” were actually the one state “Greater Israel.” word “unsafe” which is part of StandWithUs lan- When one of the older men took issue with my com- guage and AIPAC’s claim of rampant anti-Semitism ment, “the victors write history,” he said “We are not [read criticism of Israel and Zionism] on campus, de- the victors, we lost six million times.” I could feel rived from a misuse of the federal statute Title IX this sense that many in the class could not move be- language on creating “safe” environments for yond living in the Holocaust, living with a perma- women and prohibiting sex discrimination in educa- nent victimhood as well as a lack of understanding tional institutions. I wondered if students are confus- and sympathy for “Arabs,” thus the dominant narra- ing anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel and ques- tive became a blinder to seeing a co-victim’s reality. tioned whether Muslim or Arab students feel “safe” on campus. In an orthodox synagogue in the D.C. area, my film screening for a men’s club, which was organized I found similar issues in churches and temples. by an orthodox human rights lawyer and Hebrew At a church in the D.C. suburbs, which shares a school teacher, was summarily cancelled by the building with a temple with which it has a long- rabbi. standing positive relationship, I was told that if the church showed my film in their shared building, the Moving out into the Jewish community, the Sac- rabbi threatened to dissolve their relationship. The ramento California Jewish Federation newspaper, church rented a hall and the documentary was The Jewish Voice, refused to post an announcement shown. for my film as they deemed it an “anti-Israel event.” A few years earlier they had refused to an- At a Congregational church in Burlington, VT, nounce my book reading, also claiming it was “anti- the local progressive-on-other-things rabbi pressured Israel.” the pastor who is sympathetic to Palestinians. While they also have a longstanding relationship working In a vibrant Jewish community at the Beachwood on many social justice issues, the rabbi’s main mes- Library in Ohio, I encountered a very conflicted au- sage was one of profound disappointment (of the we dience, many unaware of the millions of dollars be- have worked together on so many issues, I thought I ing spent on Israeli hasbara, the very aggressive con- could trust you, and now you are showing this anti- trol of “Israel messaging,” and the intense muzzling Semitic, one-sided Israel-hating film of this self- in the Jewish community and on campuses. One hating Jew variety). He complained that I am biased, woman noted that we can have this kind of open have no understanding of the existential threat to conversation “anywhere in the U.S.” but in Arab Israel; he talked about BDS as delegitimizing, hinder- countries we would be censored, arrested, “sold into ing dialogue, etc. The pastor shared his feelings with sex slavery.” I pointed out that actually I cannot have me and his pain at this very troubled response from this conversation in most temples, Hillels, and Jew- a friend and fellow religious leader. ish community centers and that rabbis routinely can- cel my appearances. She pointed out that the poster As expected, temples are the most challenging for my talk earlier in the day was offensive: it had venue for me to get in to and present. This is where I the word “CONFLICT” in large letters and a picture The Link Page 12 of the separation wall, so “it says what side you are events to go to, a fiscal sponsor pulled out, and I was on.” I pointed out to her that, problematically, there advised by supporters not to mention BDS in my ac- is an actual conflict and the separation wall is an is- ceptance speech. Organizers were worried about sue and an important symbol of the occupation. protesters who thankfully did not materialize, but There was clearly a low bar for feeling threatened. the anxiety was there. The most disturbing moment for me came at the end when an older woman walked up to the women sell- ing my books and announced, these “should be Who Am I? burned.” A gentleman behind her retorted, “That’s what they did in Nazi Germany.” As an activist, I now relate to many communities: the more mainstream Jewish organizations look at I will never forget leaving New York City after a me as the classic “self-hating Jew” because I value book tour and spotting a large billboard plastered Palestinian life and aspirations as much as Jewish life across a building: New York Times Against Israel, and aspirations. Also because I see the increasing All rant, All slant, Stop the Bias. This was spon- right wing, racist policies of the State of Israel backed sored by the ferociously well funded and ironically by the U.S. as the fulcrum where real change must misnamed Committee for Accuracy in Middle East come and this involves challenging the basic as- Reporting in America. sumptions of political Zionism and Jewish majority As you can see, silencing is both active and also rule. occurs through more subtle framing and language, The activist Jewish communities and younger so what are the assumptions and why does this hap- Jews welcome my insights and join me in a call for pen? A leader in the Ithaca Jewish community chal- democratic values and respect for international law, lenged me on my maps of historic Palestine, espe- with the acknowledgement that Palestinians are now cially who owned what/when. She said Arabs were the oppressed people in this international equation “migrants” to the area and noted earnestly that the (along with Mizrachi Jews and African asylum seek- last independent indigenous nation in the area were ers, but that is another story). Jews 2000 years ago with the implication, of course, that this conferred Jews special rights in the 21st cen- The good liberal Jews in the middle, the ones tury. She referred me to a right wing blog for more who are holding on to the idea that Israel can be Jew- “accurate” information. ish and democratic and are not yet willing to face the deep contradictions within Zionist society, continue At World Fellowship, a progressive family sum- to squirm and support the human and civil rights mer retreat in New Hampshire, a woman in the au- movements within the U.S. and Israel without facing dience told me of her child attending a public school what I see as the core issue, Jewish privilege and its in New York City where they were studying indige- consequences. nous peoples and as an example the teacher stated that the Jews were the indigenous people in Israel Christian groups and particularly African- and they were being treated badly by the Palestini- Americans increasingly welcome “a Jew we can talk ans. Her daughter piped up that she thought it was to” as many find themselves aggressively challenged really the other way around. The girl was sent out of by their Jewish friends and rabbis when they raise class to the principal's office, her parents were called, the kinds of serious and contradictory concerns out- and there was a stern warning about such talk. When lined here. the mother agreed with her daughter, the principal Muslim friends are relieved to find a Jew post explained that that version of history was not al- 9/11 who embraces people not as stereotypes, but as lowed in New York City public schools. fellow human beings with complicated and often When a peace group in a suburb of Boston of- traumatic life stories trying to move forward in a fered me a Social Justice Award for world that is so violently Islamophobic. “her resolute efforts to ease the tensions between Is- I see world powers attempting to impose “our” rael and Palestine…” local politicians found other version of “democracy” at the end of a gun, playing The Link Page 13 factions against each other with multiple proxy wars, come to understand that it is critical to separate Juda- dangerously arming an entire region which is spiral- ism the religion from Zionism the national political ing into catastrophe. Think Syria, Yemen, Libya, Af- movement; Zionism has hijacked Judaism. I would ghanistan, Iraq…it is a long list of failed policies. advocate defining a Jew as someone grounded in How different the world would be if the U.S. and religion or culture and history, a set of ethics, a sense other international players had called for a nuclear of peoplehood; all definitions equally compelling. free Middle East that included Israel as well as Iran. While Jewish Israelis have long looked down Or for that matter, if post 9/11 the U.S. had gone to upon the Diaspora as not “real Jews” with “no right the International Court against Al Qaeda with the to criticize, you don’t live here,” Diaspora Jews are support of nations all over the world, and held a trial reclaiming our legitimacy and our voices as Jews. We rather than plunging our young soldiers into wars are distinguishing the racist ideology of anti- that have only made us more enemies and created Semitism from thoughtful moral criticism of the poli- generations of young people with PTSD and brain cies of the country, Israel. Thus the treatment of and injuries, not to mention the devastating impact on solidarity with Palestinians has now become the civil the people and environments we were supposedly rights issue of the day for modern younger Jews who saving. will be here long after the older post-Holocaust gen- Arabs are often blamed for the current state of eration has moved on and no longer shapes the affairs. While they have historically been plagued by boundaries of intelligent discourse and definitions of their own tribal issues and battles for power between normalcy. various powerful families as well as political move- Mostly what I see is that Diaspora Jews are start- ments, they mostly suffer from the consequences of ing to own the Nakba as part of our story. I believe post-war imperial powers dividing up the Middle that after centuries of powerlessness, how we as a East, empowering minority groups to govern over community handle our new position of power and majorities, and creating longstanding enmities. They privilege is critical to the survival of an ethical Jew- also suffer from corrupt, oppressive dictators often ish tradition as well as a just resolution to a more funded by the U.S. and from proxy wars fought be- than century-old struggle in historic Palestine that is tween major powers and paramilitary groups. And being fought in our name. then of course there are the decades of Israeli occu- pation and siege and second class citizenship. Perhaps that is what nice Jewish ladies are now called to do and that is certainly the example I want I believe that resolution of this conflict is central for my daughters. ■ to the resolution of many of the tragedies that have engulfed the Middle East. I would urge us to start with ourselves. I have

In Appreciation: Hugh Auchincloss, 1927-2015

He was the stepbrother of Jacqueline Bouvier, From 1978 to 2006, Hugh served as a member of and later a close confidant of John F. Kennedy. In A.M.E.U.’s Board of Directors, and from 2006 to the 1961, President Kennedy appointed him a member of present, he was a member of our National Council. the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. For 37 years he publicly—and proudly —supported our efforts to create here in our country a deeper un- A graduate of Yale (1950) and the Naval War derstanding of the history, culture and current College (1996), Hugh Auchincloss served in the Ma- events in the Middle East. rine Corps as a staff-sergeant in counter-intelligence. In the latter part of his life he supported environ- Hugh Auchincloss died this past June at the mental causes and fostered an abiding interest in the age of 87. To his family we extend our condo- Middle East. lences—and share their loss.—John F. Mahoney The Link Page 14 Recommended Books for This Issue’s Feature Article

AMEU Prices Include postage. Check box and see Order Form on page 15

The Ethnic Cleansing Against Our Better of Palestine Judgment By Ilan Pappe By Alison Weir

Groundbreaking re- How the U.S. was used search into the events to create Israel. of 1948. Paper, 2014, 240 pp. Paper, 2007, 320 pp. AMEU price: $15.00 AMEU price: $15.00 The Colonization of Palestine An Israeli in Palestine By Jamil A. Fayez, M.D. By Jeff Halper 450 villages and towns that Israel destroyed or Author was nominated depopulated, recorded in 2006 for the Nobel here by name, location, Peace Prize. population, and size. (Updated 3rd edition. ) Paper, 2008, 338 pp. Paper, 56 pp., 2015 AMEU price: $17.00 AMEU price: $8.00.

Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews 3-volume work by British Foreign Correspondent Alan Hart

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Vol. 1: The dangers in the West’s unconditional support of Zionism. Vol. 2: What happened in 1948. Vol. 3: The 1967 war to the present.

AMEU Price: $15.00 per volume; $40 for the 3-volume set. The Link Page 15 AMEU’s Video Selections

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Arna’s Children, 2004 DVD, 85 minutes. Story of the Jenin Freedom Theater. “A rare and poignant window into the lives and deaths of a lost generation of Palestinians.” — Molly Moore, The Washing- ton Post. AMEU: $20.00

5 Broken Cameras, 2008, DVD, 90-minutes, Peaceful resistance in the West Bank via video cam- eras. AMEU: 20.00.

Trip’ol’ii Productions, Occupation 101, 2007, DVD, 90 minutes, Excellent history of the seizure of Palestinian lands from 1948 to the present. AMEU: $10.00.

Palestinian Costumes and Embroidery: A Precious Legacy, 2008, 38 minutes. Rare collection of Palestinian dresses modeled against the background of Palestinian music, with commentary tracing the designs back to Canaanite times. AMEU: $25.00.

The Stones Cry Out: The Story of the Palestinian Christians, 2013, DVD, 56 minutes, The Pales- tinian Catastrophe through the eyes of Palestinian Christians. AMEU: $15.00.

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