Guest Opinion: Not in my name

By Roberta Lexier on November 22, 2023.

Each spring, at the Passover Seder, Jews recount the story of our ancestors’ escape from slavery and oppression in Egypt; we tell of our subjugation, our deliverance and the ongoing struggle for freedom. We recall the pain, the terror and the deep, generational trauma of injustice.

In my family, the Seder offers an annual opportunity to remember “our (siblings) around the world who still suffer from persecution” and acknowledge that “our redemption is bound up with the deliverance from bondage of people everywhere.”

“Next year in Jerusalem,” we pray. “Next year may all be free.”

It is shocking, then, to hear community members – family members – gleefully support Israel’s brutal (and illegal) treatment of the Palestinian people in the occupied territories. “I hope,” one stated following the devastating Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, “that they bomb every last one of them into the sea.”

Not only does this promote genocide, hardly different than attempts to exterminate Jews (and many others) during the Second World War, but it directly contradicts the teachings we repeat each spring.

“You shall not oppress a stranger,” we are told, “for you know the feelings of the stranger … When strangers reside within your land, you shall not wrong them … You shall love them as yourself.”

Until the Holocaust, Zionism – the belief in an independent Jewish state in Palestine – was highly contested. Its most enthusiastic backers were Europeans, who wanted to rid their country of Jews. Many, such as the socialist Jewish Labour Bund, rejected its nationalism and segregation and encouraged Jews to fight for justice and equality where they already lived.

But, following the mass murder of approximately six million, including a significant proportion of Bundists from Eastern Europe, the debate appeared settled; Jews could only be safe from such persecution if they had their own state.

Western powers, animated by a mixture of guilt over the Holocaust, a refusal to grapple with the consequences of British colonialism, the desire for geopolitical influence over the region and an influential Christian millennialism that depends upon Jews returning to Israel to trigger the second coming of Christ, happily handed over the territory.

Never mind the million or so Palestinians who lived there. They had no say, no voice.

Three-quarters were expelled or fled due to the fear of expulsion. Many went to the Gaza Strip, ruled by Egypt until it was conquered by Israel in 1967, and the West Bank, which Israel captured from Jordan in the same war, while others languished in refugee camps in Syria and Lebanon.

Those under Israeli rule were stripped of their humanity, denied the right to security, safety and self-determination, and forced to live in “open-air prison(s),” as mainstream human rights organizations have described Gaza in recent years, with few economic, political, social, or cultural opportunities. They face a constant threat of violence, perpetrated by the state and state-sanctioned settlers.

Not unlike my Jewish ancestors in Egypt.

And like my ancestors in Egypt, like decolonization efforts, like Ukrainian opposition to Russian imperialism, like all victims of subjugation, resistance is inevitable. Often violent. Always expected.

Israel’s response to Palestinian defiance, violent or not, has always been further violence and destruction. In blatant violation of international law, the state is perpetrating collective punishment against the Palestinian people for the actions of a small number of Hamas militants. They are bombing refugee camps and hospitals, killing indiscriminately, regardless of the civilian cost.

At the time of writing, one in every 200 Gazans has died, the equivalent of nearly 200,000 Canadians.

It is not surprising, given the decades-long campaign to claim all criticisms of Israel as inherently anti-Semitic, that hatred of Jews is also on the rise.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism, which pro-Israel groups have hailed as the only definition that matters, opposes “[h]olding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel,” but it also warns against criticizing Israel as a “racist endeavor” or “[a]pplying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

I, personally, expect nations that proclaim themselves to be democratic to respect international law and human rights, including in the territories they illegally occupy, and respond to valid and legitimate concerns, but Israel apparently gets a pass.

And, because I am a Jew, I am made complicit.

However, my Judaism rejects oppression. It teaches that our freedom is bound up with the freedom of all people, including Palestinians in the occupied territories and around the world.

Until all are free, none are free.

As we were freed from Egypt, I pray that “one day in the near future, all who are persecuted will also be saved.”

So, while the conflict is complex, my response is simple: No genocide in my name.

Dr. Roberta Lexier is an associate professor at Mount Royal University. Her research and teaching focus on social movements and left politics in Canada.

26
-25