See Something, Say Something
This US surveillance motto from 9-11 times feels relevant in this moment.
Organizations To Support
In the past, after natural disasters and US mass and/or police shootings, I shared resources, and for this man made disaster, I do the same. These orgs support Palestinians and Israelis still in precarious situations, those grieving, and those organizing and working towards a ceasefire and peace. I’ve done my best to identify organizations that 1) are not funded by terrorist organizations, 2) are not funded by the Israeli government and/or military, 3) do not support terrorist actions, and 4) do not support Israeli Government occupation and settler programs/approach to Palestine.
Alliance for Middle East Peace: “ALLMEP is a coalition of over 170 organizations—and tens of thousands of Palestinians and Israelis—building people-to-people cooperation, coexistence, equality, shared society, mutual understanding, and peace among their communities.”
American Friends of the Parents Circle-Families Forum: “The Parents Circle – Families Forum is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization made up of more than 700 bereaved families. Their common bond is that they have lost a close family member to the conflict. But instead of choosing revenge, they have chosen a path of reconciliation.”
American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC): “We act whenever and wherever we are needed, propelled by our Jewish values and our commitment to mutual responsibility.”
Gisha: “Gisha is an Israeli not-for-profit organization, founded in 2005, whose goal is to protect the freedom of movement of Palestinians, especially Gaza residents. Gisha promotes rights guaranteed by international and Israeli law.”
IfNotNow: “We are IfNotNow, a movement of American Jews organizing our community for equality, justice, and a thriving future for all: our neighbors, ourselves, Palestinians, and Israelis. We are Jews of all ages, with ancestors from across the world and Jewish backgrounds as diverse as the ways we practice our Judaism. Our elders taught us that because of our history, we must oppose oppression everywhere — whether it preys upon us or others. It is up to us to keep their wisdom alive. Today, as we hold onto our stories of genocide and expulsion, we must understand them as connected to the historic and ongoing oppression of other peoples.”
Jewish Voice for Peace: “We envision a world where all people — from the U.S. to Palestine — live in freedom, justice, equality, and dignity.”
Leket Israel: “Leket Israel, the National Food Bank, is the leading food rescue organization in Israel. Unique among all other organizations that serve the poor in Israel and food banks worldwide, Leket Israel’s sole focus is rescuing healthy, surplus food and delivering it to those in need through partner nonprofit organizations.”
Medical Aid for Palestine: “Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) works in partnership with Palestinian communities to uphold their rights to health and dignity. We do this by developing effective, sustainable and locally-led healthcare services, providing medical aid during emergencies, and campaigning to break down the barriers to Palestinian health and healthcare today and for the future.“
Palestine Children’s Relief Fund (PCRF): “Our Mission is to provide medical and humanitarian relief collectively and individually to Arab children throughout the Levant, regardless of their nationality, politics or religion.”
When I was growing up, I understood the phrase Never Again as a call against another Holocaust - against another genocide. How sobering to learn as I got older that genocide and ethnic cleansing had indeed happened again, again, and again in my lifetime, and continues today - in Gaza, in China for the Uyghurs, in Myanmar for the Rohingya, and in the last few months and weeks, growing worry for Armenians in Azerbaijan. I knew about Cambodia, Rwanda, Darfur, the Bosnian Muslims, Yazidis, Uyghurs, and Rohingya in my lifetime, but when I went to the internet to confirm, I found many more, in that same period, that I didn’t know about. Never Again is aspirational. In almost all these examples, when the world paid attention (if it did), it was already too late, so Never Again, but for whom?
Stage four of genocide, which most of us know because of Holocaust education, is dehumanization (certain folks want to ban this history and education). Once we aren’t human, once we are animals and savages, then it doesn’t matter what happens to us or what they do to us via force, policy, media, culture and propaganda - including the remaining horrifying stages, and that’s where we are in Gaza. Conflating an entire people (or religion or race or ethnicity) with terrorists, makes it easier not to care or lose sleep over the innocent millions your government and your tax dollars starve, forcibly move, torture and murder in your name…in our names.
Hamas is horrible and does/did unforgivable things, and they continue to keep Israelis and other innocent civilians as hostages and living in fear.
For all those who say that Israel is not Hamas. I agree.
Israel is a nation, part of a community of nations, and the only Democracy in the Middle East. We expect more of the community of nations, and even more from Democracies. I expect, I demand, more of a Democracy than I do of a terrorist organization. It is why I rail against the US and India, two nations of my identity, when they break those constructs in small, large, and terrifying ways. It should not be controversial to expect, to demand, a fellow Democracy protect civil and human rights, secure democracy, and refrain from occupation, genocide, war crimes, and more. Successive governments of Israel have moved through many of the stages of genocide with almost near impugnity. And successive US administrations have been a part of this. It is a function of how power corrupts, once it is collected, then hoarded, then leveraged against others, that this has happened. That a state founded to protect an entire community - after a genocide that the world looked away from and allowed to happen - does the same to others.
“As a Jew and an American who has gone through the complex, painful, and transforming process of facing the injustice against Palestinians committed in my name and with my tax dollars, I have had to change my self-concept. I have had to deprogram myself from the idea that Jews continued to be victims when, in some cases, we had become perpetrators.
This shift in perception would have been unbearable for my parents. The idea that Jewish soldiers could march into villages and commit atrocities was incomprehensible. Yet, for 75 years, Palestinians have been murdered, incarcerated, and displaced with escalating violence by Israeli soldiers, and more recently by settlers …The most difficult challenge in our lives is to face our contributions to the systems that reproduce inequality and consequential cycles of violence. Every person has to face their own complicities, and we start this by listening to whoever is suffering. Even if it is by our own hand. It is this transcendence that can lead us all to a better place.” - Sarah Schulman: Explanations are Not Excuses
Centuries of antisemitism, hatred and expulsion of Jewish people is both past and prologue. We have seen massive upticks in anti-semitic rhetoric and violence in the US and around the world. Since 9-11 massive upticks in Anti-Arab, Anti-Muslim rhetoric and violence around the world. And both are spiking again in the past 10 days. Politicians, Media, Entertainers, Athletes, and Governments will continue to divide us with their all or nothing statements, with their ignorance, stoking our fears to make us go to our separate corners and turn against each other. They will make us think that it is a zero-sum game, only some of us can be safe, and the others can be dismissed, dehumanized and forgotten when they are wiped out. That playbook has sadly worked for millenia. We must break the cycle.
Suggested Articles and Newsletters
Raz Segal: A Textbook Case of Genocide
Israel-Palestine Historical Guide (Balfour to present)
Council on Foreign Relations: What is Hamas?
Hmm That’s Interesting: To Bear Witness
Sarah Schulman: Explanations are Not Excuses
Books
Ari Shavit: My Promised Land: Triumph and Tragedy of Israel