Palestine
My family background
As the daughter of Holocaust survivors, I feel a special obligation to speak out about the injustices perpetrated in Palestine/Israel. My father, growing up Jewish in Germany, endured beatings at school on account of the armband with a yellow Star of David he was forced to wear at all times. He and his parents were able to escape to the US in 1939, leaving behind their money and possessions. Their passports (pictured) are stamped with J for Jude (Jew), with swastikas and the insignia for the Third Reich. Their middle names were not Sara or Israel - all passports for Jewish women and girls show the middle name Sara, and all Jewish boys and men were assigned the middle name Israel. My father’s aunt, uncle, and cousin fled to Brazil. My great-grandparents and the rest of our family did not leave, and they were killed. I grew up in a secular Jewish family, and was taught that the state of Israel would protect Jews from such an experience again in the future.
Why Palestine?
Many people ask me why, among all the many injustices in the world, I focus on the plight of Palestine. Foremost among many reasons is that I once shared the widespread view that Israel was a shining beacon of freedom and democracy, and that it was essential for the protection of Jews worldwide. None of these things is true. Every single day, Israel denies millions of people basic rights through forced displacement, collective punishment, administrative detention, theft of land, destruction of homes and property, the burning of olive trees, the killing of journalists, medics and other civilians, night raids in family homes, and discriminatory laws. I feel a special obligation to speak out about the injustices perpetrated in my name, and in the name of Jews worldwide. My Jewish values lead me to condemn all forms of antisemitism, xenophobia, and racism, and to struggle to create a more just world.
Why do I use the name Palestine?
Palestine has been the name of a region for two millennia, long before the country of Israel was established there. Early Zionists encouraged immigration to Palestine, as can be seen on this tourism poster designed by a Jewish artist in the 1930s. While some people think of Palestine as the name of a potential Palestinian state, or as the name of Palestinian (occupied) territory, I use the term in a non-governmental sense - a name that refers to the land from the river to the sea, and all the people who live there, of all faiths, who deserve to live with freedom, dignity, and safety.
“Oftentimes Americans think that Israel and Palestine are two neighboring countries that live next to each other and they are at war. But the fact of the matter is Palestinian cities exist all over the country. And it’s just one country, it’s just one infrastructure, and Israel is literally on top of Palestine. It was established on top of our villages in the late ʼ40s.”
—Mohammed El-Kurd
Contributions
In this 2021 episode of the podcast Olive Branch I was interviewed by Dr. Anwar Mhajne, and spoke about my own learning journey as a Jewish person. We discuss the importance of generational trauma and letting go of myths.
Combatants for Peace is a bi-national group of Palestinians and Israelis working together through nonviolent means to end the occupation and to promote peace. I serve on the Academic Council for American Friends of Combatants for Peace.
In this opinion column, Wallis Reid and I write about the central cause of strife in Israel/Palestine: Israel, in order to create and expand a Jewish state, has been driving Palestinians out of homes they have lived in for centuries. Palestinians, for their part, have been resisting this dispossession from their ancestral lands. Israel’s first prime minister David Ben Gurion said, 10 years before the founding of Israel, “we are the aggressors and they defend themselves… The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down.”
I was featured in a newspaper article about the changing views toward the Palestinian cause as the result of social media and the rising racial justice movement in the US
“A seismic shift: Palestinian activists say social media, BLM are boosting their cause” Hannan Adely, 2021 newspaper feature
An unpublished essay reflecting on my family history and the history of Palestinians:
“Germany offers me the opportunity to claim German citizenship because that country expelled my father. The children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren of Palestinians who were born in what is now the state of Israel should also be able to go home.”
With Lilly Padía, Haneen Abu Ayash, and Jan Valle
Electronic poster on the film Defying My Disability, with clips from the film and from the filmmaker Ramzi Maqdisi
Link to published paper in the journal Spectator, Stories of dual isolation and confinement: disability under occupation in Palestine
“ I am a Jew. With the utmost respect to my people, to my history, to my tradition. I will tell you that ruling and humiliating and occupying millions and millions of people for so many years without any democratic right is not Jewish, period. No two ways about it. And being against it is not antisemitism.”
— Rami Elhanan