“The earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them, because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light falls, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us, and the light goes out.” (James Baldwin, Nothing Personal, 1962.)
The light seems to have gone out for Israel. How can they recover from this hateful, cruel- beyond-belief course that they are on? They have now dispossessed 40,000 Palestinians from their homes in Jenin & Tulkarem Refugee Camps in the West Bank, and told them they cannot return. They have indicated they will use their “learnings” from the Gaza onslaught in the West Bank, and it is clear that the current government of Israel has no commitment to a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, nor to a future where Palestinians of the Gaza Strip will be in charge of their own destiny. And now once again, all aid to Gaza has been shut off, and it appears the fragile ceasefire will not be extended to the 2nd phase, which was to involve the departure of all Israeli troops from Gaza and negotiations for a permanent peace. Netanhayu has made clear his government does not intend to enter the 2nd phase.
I see Zionist Israel as doomed. And when in fact that society collapses, Jewish Israelis, like many Germans after the Holocaust, will say, “Oh but we didn’t know!” Regardless of the widespread censorship in Israel of news respecting the Gaza genocide, with social media so ubiquitous, how can Israelis not know what is happening a few miles away, live-streamed to the world by computer, phone, I-pad, TV screen? Of eyewitness reports of political prisoners raped and tortured in Israeli prisons, followed by masses of Israelis loudly protesting in favour of prison guards’ right to rape and torture? Or of 40,000 people, already displaced and living in West Bank Refugee Camps, now once again homeless and searching for somewhere to live? You can look away from the horror, but how can you not know?
The soul-destroying aspect for Israelis is tragic. Indifference to the suffering of the “other” and a thirst for vengeance piled on top of historic pain and fear. So many states have helped create this epic disaster by not holding Israel accountable, by using Israel as their belligerent bulldog in an oil-rich and “different” culture, by using Israel to destabilize so they could sell arms and take, take, take.
I am so ashamed of our greedy and ignorant Western culture. Our institutionalized racism, our callous dismissal of lives accorded less value than ours. Our seeming inability to grow past our small-minded tribalism, our white privilege. Our staggering ability to distract ourselves from feeling the pain of the suffering on this planet, and from doing something about it.
We so badly need healing. We need different stories, stories that show peoples’ reality rather than the slick and polished hasbara (Israeli propaganda) that has been swallowed whole by unsuspecting consumers of “the news”.
And yet … the Netflix series, Mo, is truly a breath of fresh air, telling it like it is for Palestinians. Here we are in the West, where a courageous truth-telling writer like Yves Engler gets charged with harrassment (February 20th) for criticizing rabid anti-Palestinian social media influencer Dahlia Kurtz, and spends 5 days in jail for refusing to be silenced about his own case. And yet, Netflix shows a gutsy series highly critical of the Israeli occupation, and unflinching in its portrayal of life for dispossessed Palestinians, of what it’s like to be an asylum seeker in Texas for 22 years – to have no state, to be unable to see your family in Israel-Palestine because you have no papers, and much, much more. How did they get past the censors? Mo, starring and directed by Palestinian Mohammed Amer, is funny and deeply poignant at the same time. In real life, Mo also does standup, and he, like all good standup comics, is able to make mock of life’s absurdities. He is a powerful social critic, his material based on his lived life, his strength rooted in his tight connection to his culture and to the community he grew up with in the Houston barrios – Black and Hispanic people also accustomed to being marginalized, trying to eke out a living however they can. The show also interrogates conventional views of masculinity; Mo is a man not afraid to cry, to defer to his mother, to fully express his emotions and name his fear. How refreshing for all of us! The tv show Mo shows how we can still hold onto one another, how we can keep a light shining despite seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Check it out.
Correction from last week: to reach VFHL go to their website: voicesfromtheholyland.org.
(I mistakenly gave their email address as the link.)
