Israelism
Israel’s cruelty and brutality have continued to escalate with the annihilation of Gaza and its people as they, and the world are being held hostage by the ruling leaders in Israel and the United States. This will go down in history as one of the worst crimes against humanity because the world is screaming STOP! and Israel and the United States will hold on to their white supremacist mindsets for as long as it takes to ensure their short term goals of vengeance, land, and resources are fulfilled.
The weekend before last, I watched Israelism, the documentary by Erin Axelman and Sam Eilertsen that follows two young Jewish Americans, Simone Zimmerman and Eitan through their experiences of being raised to behold Israel as their sacred homeland in which they would find safety and freedom, and through their transitions in young adulthood when they each begin to question why they needed to defend Israel from the Palestinians and inflict such cruelty and suffering among “the people in Israel’s backyard;” who were the real terrorists in region? I was surprised by how much the film shook me since I had already been exposed to quite a bit through historical accounts and through Clarion Alley Mural Project and the acts of censorship and hate graffiti directed at our work in support of the Palestinian right of return and self determination. However, seeing images of Israelis behaving like the white supremacists who marched at the Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 was an eye opener.
Even though we’ve been watching Israel’s culture of violence and punishment on steroids for the past two months, actually seeing it on view and celebrated in daily life leaves me questioning what Judaism even represents anymore, or perhaps what it’s ever meant. I don’t mean that to sound flippant, but it seems like religion is the golden pass to do whatever one wants, or at least for the big three - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. So much suffering can be attributed to these three religions and the crazy power and wealth they wield, which I believe, or rather hope, is actually antithetical to the scriptures. I say ‘hope’ because if power and wealth are what those religions are rooted in, we have found hell. Though, from what we’ve witnessed over the past two months, we’re living in it.
I can’t help but see what Israel has done to the Palestinians as an extension of settler-colonization in the United States and my family’s roots on the land they stole from Indigenous Americans who had been on the land for over ten thousand years. There are many similarities - the use of religion as justification for conquest and control, the outright theft of homes and land from Indigenous people using violence; and the utter disregard for the humanity of innocent lives who have done nothing to deserve such treatment. That culture is so disrespectful, entitled, and ungodly, which is why it’s so violent. It’s shameful, and I am ashamed of being a part of that history.