Buoyant blog of septuagenarian Kanadian poet and haikuist Chris Faiers/cricket. People's Poetry in the tradition of Milton Acorn, haiku/haibun, progressive politikal rants, engaged Buddhism and meditation, revitalizing of Callaghan's Rapids Conservation Area, memories of ZenRiver Gardens and annual Purdy Country LitFests (PurdyFests), events literary and politikal, and pics, amid swirling currents of earth magick and shamanism. Read in 119 countries last week - 12,597 readers Feb./25
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Tuesday, 3 December 2024
new book: Jewish Not Zionist (Marilyn Garson)
from Judy Haiven's blog Another ruined dinner party
My friend, author Marilyn Garson, just published her new book Jewish Not Zionist. The book is brilliant, luminous and revealing. Garson, who grew up Jewish in Halifax Nova Scotia, Canada, writes, “My Zionist upbringing was quietly based on the myth that we would be exceptionally wise and look: we are not.”
This is precisely what "official Jews" do not like to hear. They do not want to hear they are not exceptional.
Garson's new book
Garson points out,
“We had emerged from genocide. I suspect that any community would respond as we have responded to four generations of hot-wiring religion to power; of militarisation, structural violence and racism; of enacting such heady radicalisation with impunity. The problem is not that we are in any way worse, but that we are just like any other people so conditioned.”
“What will I believe: everything I’ve ever been told or the world in front of my eyes?”
MARILYN GARSON, WRITER AND ACTIVIST
Garson left for Toronto, and then travelled the world in her early 20s. More recently, she worked for four years for a human rights and employment agency in Gaza. Even years before the current genocide, what she was told by Israel and what was the reality for millions in Gaza were very different things. Garson noted she had to unlearn zionism, “What will I believe: everything I’ve ever been told or the world in front of my eyes?”
Garson has lived in New Zealand for half her life. She is a co-founder of New Zealand’s Alternative Jewish Voices that calls for justice in a pluralist, anti-racist Jewish voice. AJV is affiliated Global Jews for Palestine, an alliance of anti-Zionist Jewish activist groups based in a wide range of countries. In Independent Jewish Voices Canada-- to which I belong -- is also a member of Global Jews for Palestine.
One line in the book she wrote deserves a column on its own. And this is it: “Palestinians are my equals.”
I was shocked by its simplicity and its truth. The whole reason that Israel has been able to kill 45,000 (at least) Gazans, with just about total impunity, is because to Israel and to Jewish Israelis, politicians and the powerful --Palestinians are not human beings. To diasporic Jews who still support Israel and born-again Christians who insist they love Israel -- Palestinians are not human beings. Not really.
Clearly to the pro-Israel lobby, to many Canadian synagogue members who avert their gaze, to anyone who is affiliated to the “Jewish federation”, who are the “official Jews,” none of the above has happened in Gaza. Israel is merely rooting out the Hamas operatives; 43,000 have not died, nor have more than 10 children a day lost one or both legs to amputation
The response of Canada’s “official” Jews is to deny, to insist on their privilege, to raise the spectre of antisemitism, to dissemble, to get Israel’s critics disciplined or fired at work, and to undermine their careers. To name just a handful, read about Birju Dattani here, Dr Yipeng Ge here, and NS-NDP who removed candidate Tammy Jakeman here. All had their careers upended by the "official Jews" who are trying to muzzle anything negative said or written about Israel. They initiate legal cases against people, and behind closed doors, the official Jews convince universities and even governments to simply not hire people-- like Birju Dattani -- already offered the job. The ""official Jews" do this in two ways.
First, known pro-Israel columnists and contributors have regular gigs in the media. One example is The Toronto Star features Michael Levitt as a monthly contributor. Levitt is a former Liberal MP, and now is the CEO of Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, a group that rabidly touts Israel at every opportunity. His point of view and his interest in soft-pedalling every murderous thing Israel does is evident in his columns.
Second: Israel's supporters must attack, denigrate, silence, discipline, fire anyone, even prominent individuals who criticize Israel. The list is too long to reprint here. But I cannot remember one anti-colonial struggle in the last 40 years in which every western country lined up to ignore a genocide.
The idea that acknowledging “Palestinians are my equals” is so far-fetched. If they were our equals, would Biden and Harris just have sent $680 million in weapons to Israel last week to kill more and more Palestinians. One hundred people in Gaza were massacred by Israel missiles on Sunday alone. The UK has sent components for F-35 fighter aircraft; one British manufacturer sent two shipments of ejector seats for the F-35s in mid-October. Between 2019 and 2023, Israel was the 15th largest importer of arms globally. The biggest arms exporters to Israel were the United States, Germany, the UK, France and Spain.
On the other hand, 124 countries including Canada have signed the Rome Statute, which means the 124 have the legal obligation to arrest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Min. of Defence Yoav Gallant if those two Israeli politicians step foot in those countries. That’s a little something to celebrate.
Photo at the top: Palestinian teacher Israa Abu Mustafa took the initiative to set up a classroom in a tent on the ruins of her destroyed home with the aim of teaching children as the new school year began, Sept. 12, 2024. (credit: Saher Alghorra—ZUMA Press)
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