[Peace-discuss] Speaker last night

[David Green]

Last night a young woman named Bekah Wolf, a Jewish-American married to a Palestinian and living in a village of 18,000 on the West Bank in occupied Palestine, spoke to about 50 students on campus, sponsored by Students for Justice in Palestine.

She described the daily harassment of villagers, especially children, by Israeli soldiers who patrol the town. I won't go into detail, because that's not my point for writing this. She said that she's been to many funerals that result from this harassment.

We all have issues, not the same issues, that get to the heart of anger and rage, and more power (I guess) to those who always keep their cool, which doesn't include me. But when I hear Jewish students dispassionately inventing reasons why maybe the Israelis are justified in their behavior, that's what gets me. Yes, at a different emotional level than Kiwane's death, I admit it, for whatever personal reasons, and having to do with my own race and background. Obviously, the social injustice is just as egregious in both cases, and the anger is as justified.

I wish I had said to these Jewish women: Do you make excuses for a rapist? Do you try to think up reasons why he rapes in self-defense? What we've all learned not to tolerate or excuse for one second, we will rationalize under different circumstances, when the state, our state, does it to those other people, for economic rather than "hateful" or "patholological" reasons.

A lot of people who would never rationalize rape or lynching or gay-bashing support will dispassionately rationalize the policies that result in war and occupation. Feminists (or anyone else) don't have to explain the whole history of gender relations in order to oppose rape, but this woman has to explain the history of Israel/Palestine in order to oppose Israeli war crimes, as if these students are serious about understanding this.

It's always convenient to say that there are two sides to every story, and it keeps the "mediators" busy. I have my doubts.

DG


      
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