Lisa Albrecht: Its Not Hateful to Criticize the Israeli Government St Paul Pioneer Press

It's not hateful to criticize the Israeli government
By Lisa Albrecht

Updated: 01/07/2009 05:40:31 PM CST


As a Jew and citizen of the U.S., I am outraged, sick to my stomach, and aching in my heart. First, I say that it is not anti-American to criticize the U.S. government, just as it does not signify Jew-hatred to criticize the Israeli government.

Second, I say that there is not one monolithic Jewish community or voice in the world, the U.S., or Minnesota, though mainstream Jewish organizations that are pro-Israel get the most media coverage.

There are many Jews all over the world who do not unequivocally support Israeli government policy. I am a member of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network; we support a free Palestine that can determine its own future and an end to Israeli apartheid of Palestine. We stand in opposition to the ideology of Zionism, which has resulted in Israeli government policy to try to remove all Palestinians from Israel. By being a Zionist state, Israel legally privileges Jews over Arabs. Over the past 12 days, you have seen this ideology dramatically in action — an air and ground war that has killed more than 650 people in Gaza, and injured more than 3,000 Palestinians. Shifa Hospital in Gaza reports that the majority of the injured and killed have been Gazan families, not armed Hamas soldiers.

The Israeli government says that it is acting to end Hamas' rule in Gaza. Remember, both the U.S. and Israel supported democratic elections in Palestine, and Hamas was democratically elected. When countries negotiate for peace, they


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do not get to tell the other side who can sit at the table.
Israel says it has attacked Gaza because Hamas soldiers have shot thousands of rockets at Israel. I do not condone this bombing, but let me ask you, what would you do if you were part of a population of over 1.5 million people in one of the most densely populated places in the world? Your borders have been closed by Israel for 18 months. You do not have access to enough food for your family, or medical care, electricity, water or gasoline. You have no income, live under constant curfew, and your olive and vegetable fields have been destroyed by Israel. When a people are treated inhumanely and violently, it is no surprise that they fight back. No wonder that the Israeli government will not allow foreign journalists into Gaza to report on its destruction.

Again, the Israeli government justifies the war because of the thousands of rockets fired by Hamas into Israel. However, since September 2000, here is some startling data that we do not read about:


1,062 Israelis killed AND 4,876 Palestinians killed;

123 Israeli children killed AND 1,050 Palestinian children killed;

8,341 Israelis injured AND 33,034 Palestinians injured;

One Israeli political prisoner held AND 10,756 Palestinian political prisoners held;

And for us in the U.S., perhaps the most important number, during fiscal year 2007, the U.S. government gave $6.8 million a day to Israel (and less than $300,000 to Palestine). (My source for these numbers is the Web site ifamericansknew.org.)
I was in Gaza in December, 1990, with a women's peace brigade 15 days before the first Gulf War started. I met with Palestinian peace activists, mothers, daycare workers, teachers and doctors. The poverty was dramatic. Children played in crowded alleys as open sewage ran between their legs. The people wanted peace, and did not hate Jews. And I thought that the conditions I witnessed then were horrendous. I also visited Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial museum; when I saw the photos of the Jews in the Warsaw ghetto, I started to shake. They looked like the Palestinians I had just visited in Gaza.

Israeli government policy gives me, an American Jew, the right to "return" to Israel and get immediate citizenship, even though it is not my homeland. However, Palestinian families who have lived on the land for generations, and were removed in 1948, have no right of return. Nor do they have any recourse when the wall put up by the Israeli government separates them from work, family, access to water and highways, and even divides Palestinian villages themselves.

The Jan. 5 headline in Haaretz, the largest Israeli newspaper, quotes foreign minister Tzipi Livni, saying "Israel will no longer show restraint when attacked." This is the person who is hoping to be the next prime minister of Israel in elections happening in a month. If 18 months of total lockdown of Gaza was showing restraint, what in God's name is going to happen to the innocent people of Gaza?

What must we do? We must demand that our elected officials call for an immediate ceasefire and an opening of Gaza's borders. I do not believe that using violence will end this crisis. History has shown us that there are successful nonviolent ways to work for justice. In the 1980s across the globe, individuals, colleges, entire cities and states, and businesses stopped buying anything made in South Africa, and governments that had invested in South African bonds got rid of them. Working with black South African leaders, the world ended apartheid.

We must challenge the Israeli government by hitting them where it hurts — financially. We must call on Gov. Tim Pawlenty to cut our trade and investment ties with Israel. We must support the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee. Read labels when you shop. Find out where your retirement money is invested. Hold Israel responsible for its violations of international law and Palestinian rights, and hold our elected officials responsible.

Do not let mainstream Jews and their organizations call you "Jew-haters." Have courage and speak out. Do not be silent about Gaza. Salaam/shalom.

Lisa Albrecht is an activist educator and writer. She is associate professor and Morse-Minnesota Alumni Association Distinguished Professor of Teaching in the School of Social Work of the University of Minnesota. The views expressed here are her own. Her e-mail address is lalbrech@umn.edu.