For the most part, these people are shunned by leftists, for obvious reasons. Yet the rotten, opportunistic and in general inept Israeli left still mostly identifies with one of the more prominent and more progressive-sounding people in this category, Israeli feminist and Mizrahi activist Ortal Ben-Dayan. During the massacre in Gaza, Ben-Dayan did not find the time to right anything against the horrors committed by the Zionist army against Palestinians in Gaza or the West Bank (although she did condemn the murder of 16-year-old Muhammad Abu Khudair, which makes her a great humanist). She did, however, find the time to write a vicious article in right-wing rag Maariv, attacking leftists who protested against the massacre for being Ashkenazi elitist members of a "members-only club" whose "desire to separate themselves from the... masses is stronger than their desire to change society" and who "turn their backs on Israeli society and their faces to the European community... whose approval they desperately need". In other words, under the cover of opposition to the very real oppression of women and of Mizrahim, Ben-Dayan parroted the government and media line with regards to the protesters, rhetoric and all.
It should be said that Ben-Dayan is absolutely right when she accuses the Israeli left of being mostly Asheknazi and elitist, deeply racist, middle-class, full of prejudice and woefully ineffective. And yet the Shavits, the Yeminis, the Hitchenses (that still doesn't look right) and Ben-Dayans always have some valid underlying point when they criticize the left. We live in a world where there is no genuine revolutionary workers' organization, and the left, as a result, is overwhelmingly dominated by petit-bourgeois elements, who bring into the movement all of their classes' prejudices. It is very easy to find faults in the left - I have indulged in that activity every now and then - but when you only condemn from the reactionary crowd and never find the occasion to show solidarity, to commend flawed organizations and individuals for their bravery, to defend them in those instances from attacks from the reactionaries, then you are many things - a provocateur, a useful idiot, and some would say, a traitor - but you're not any sort of leftist or progressive. It should also be said that the vast majority of the Ashkenazim supported Israel's massacre and would stand behind Ben-Dayan's words.
This is not the first time Ben-Dayan joins a reactionary campaign under the guise of opposing racist oppression. She has also been vocal in her support of measures to remove African laborers and asylum seekers from the neighborhoods of southern Tel-Aviv. When the concentration camp Holot was finally closed, she said that she will do anything to physically prevent Africans from returning to southern Tel-Aviv, because the people there are "collapsing under the [white man's?] burden". Which burden? Ben-Dayan probably knows the statistic that says that Africans commit less crimes than the rest of the population. Is the burden simply having African people living near you?
Ben-Dayan often shares stories of rape and sexual assault that are ignored in the media, a very important act. However, she consistently identifies attackers as Eritreans or Sudanese when that is the case. Not so much when Jews commit the same crimes.
There is an important difference between Ben-Dayan and the other people I mentioned: Ben-Dayan is honest. She is not a bought and paid for journalist, who cynically makes money on the backs of those who are out there fighting. She is a real activist and organizer who does many important things. How, then, does she fall into the same pattern as the hired guns?
Simple. Ben-Dayan, while a Mizrahi woman, is also an Israeli Jew. She lives in a country which gives her significant privileges for that fact alone. Her struggles, as a result, remain within the confines of Zionism: there may be Arab women who join them, and she certainly does not personally hate Arabs, but she refuses to break with Zionism and its racist privilege. As a result, her struggles will always eventually be turned against non-Jews, both Palestinians and Africans. This is the way it has always been in this country - we've seen the same most recently during the 2011 movement - and the way it will always be, until Jewish workers break with Zionism and join the Palestinian struggle against all forms of oppression.
In her Maariv article, Ben-Dayan contrasts the elitist left to the right-wing, which "sees itself as an organic and inseparable part of the Israeli public". Leaving aside the fact that Ben-Dayan buys into the false lofty (and, one should say, equally elitist) self-image of the right, her (false) assertion that the chance to discuss "Kahanism's takeover of the Likud and its effect on the Israeli political map" is worth discussion. As we have seen, when it comes right down to it, the difference between the Kahanists, the Likud and Ortal Ben-Dayan remains cosmetic at best. Some say, some do, but all work toward the same goal and end up serving the same masters, despite their best intentions.
Speaking of which...
I've had some experience with anti-Zionists who believe that Palestinians should reject any cooperation, or even conversation, with Israeli anti-Zionist activists. I have no difficulty understanding why, and if you do, try talking to an Israeli leftist yourself sometime. Chances are you will be met with all sorts of hand wringing and equivocation when it comes to Palestinian rights, Jewish racial privilege and even the question of one or two states. Even I, at times, faced the urge to completely write off all possibility of Israeli activists helping the Palestinian struggle in any way. One of the things that helped me come to a better understanding of how these activists should behave is Linah Alsaafin's excellent article, How obsession with "nonviolence" harms the Palestinian cause, especially the part under "Israeli activists should focus on changing their own society":
Israeli activists must work within their own societies and communities... To Palestinians, that would make the difference, not swamping weekly protests that don’t hold much credibility with Palestinians in the first place, and sometimes even outnumbering the Palestinian participants.
Complaints from some Israeli activists of how horrible they are treated and of the persecution they receive at the hands the army can come off as self-indulgent, especially when arrests or injuries of Israelis and internationals are already far more likely to be widely reported anyway than the routine and horrifying abuses suffered by Palestinians on a far larger scale.
Israeli activists sometimes despair about how pointless and ineffective their efforts are in creating more awareness about the realities of the occupation within their own communities but that should only spur them to be more creative in coming up with strategies to confront and challenge their society...
No one is rejecting Israeli anti-Zionists, but simply calling yourself an anti-Zionist, and even coming to protests is not enough. Israeli activists who do so claim, for the most part, to understand the privileges they enjoy due to being white and Jewish in a colonial situation. But it is not always clear that they understand in practice how these privileges continue to manifest themselves in their interactions with Palestinians.
That really hits the nail on the head there, rightfully condemning the vast majority of Israeli leftists who in effect sabotage Palestinian struggles by attempting to drown out more radical Palestinian voices and trying to take the lead, while offering a way for them to really be helpful to the struggle. Recently, however, Alsaafin has changed her position. Of course, changing one's position is completely legitimate - I have done so every now and then - but it is always sad to see someone's positions take a sharp turn for the worse. I have in mind this article, written by Alsaafin and Budour Hassan.
I realize that Alsaafin and Hassan, much like the rest of the world, do not read what I write, and given their article, would not do so even had they been aware of my existence. But I am not addressing this post to them or to pro-Palestinian activists at large. I am writing here because I feel there are some misconceptions in place that I should address.
There are quite a few issues with the Alsaafin-Hassan article, but also, some very good points. Is it true that many Israeli leftists are fakers, attention-seekers and hypocrites? Of course. Probably the great majority. Should Palestinians reject SA-style Truth and Reconciliation? Certainly. Should Palestinians wait for Israelis to come around and support them? Of course not. But this is where the article's great weaknesses come in - the authors never manage to decide which Israeli leftists they are actually talking about, to the extent that they are talking about real people at all. The lack of sources doesn't help, either.
Indeed, despite the article's headline, it does nothing to "expose" Israeli radical leftists, and there is much to expose. With the exception of the Internationalist Socialist League, there is not a single Israeli left group which does not equivocate on the question of Palestinian liberation in some significant way. Second, I would dare anyone to show me a single example of an Israeli radical leftist who said anything like "Leftists are the new Palestinians". Even they are not so lacking in self-awareness. Third, and finally, there is the claim that the police is defending the leftists - a very popular myth among right-wingers - while for the most part cops actively aided the right-wing attackers.
That's where anyone who's been an activist for a while stops hearing Alsaafin and Hassan speaking, and starts hearing some of the people on the other side of the struggle:
It’s fair to say that dear anti-Zionists, your presence isn’t doing anyone any good. The Israeli society hates you, and the Palestinians don’t care about you. Do not go looking for sympathy, (or empathy, whatever you prefer)... Do not fool yourselves into thinking you are allies or partners for “peace” by virtue of a few token Palestinian acquaintances, because the fact of the matter remains glaringly obvious: you are too insignificant to make a difference...
These words could honestly have been written by any member of the government or any Hasbara troll in the world, especially the part later on, when leftists are told to leave Israel and focus on changing European public opinion. And that really is the bottom line. This rhetoric, falsely touted as some grand radicalism, only serves the Zionist government in its efforts to persecute anti-Zionist activists. It is at that point that nationalism comes full circle and starts serving the imperialist oppressor, as it always inevitably does in our epoch of capitalist decay.
But wait, you'll say - maybe this part is only meant for those equivocating, fake anti-Zionists that I've written about elsewhere? Maybe Alsaafin and Hassan realize that some Israeli anti-Zionists were born here and have nowhere to go, and their attitude towards them is different? Well - kinda, but not really:
With all that said, we are still capable of making the distinction between anti-Zionists who are third-generation settlers and anti-Zionist leftists who made Aliya... We also make the distinction between anti-Zionist Israeli settlers who live in Palestine by choice and those who want to leave but cannot afford it... And to be quite honest, we do not care about the Israeli society.
In other words, Alsaafin and Hassan are capable of making the distinction between different kinds of Israelis, but they just don't care to. To quote myself from the AbuKhalil letter, "...how can someone dedicated to Palestinian liberation not be interested in dividing the base of support of the Zionist state? What sort of general of an army would see divisions among the enemy and not be interested in devising ways to take advantage of them? From a pro-Palestinian nationalist perspective, I think this attitude is irresponsible. From an internationalist perspective, I think it’s even worse."
And yet, for all my criticisms, there is one point that I haven't really addressed, and that is the idea that Israeli leftists view themselves as noble martyrs for the relatively mild consequences that their activism has. This is very true, and to separate myself from such people, let me make a few things very clear: all that I do - to the extent that I do anything, which is not much - I do for me. I do not oppose Zionism for the Palestinians. I do not oppose patriarchy for women. I do not oppose homophobia for LGBTQ people. My opposition to the oppression of others has nothing to do with struggling for or on behalf of the oppressed. To the extent that I have friends and family who suffer from these forms of oppression, I fight for them too. But that's the point: it's all for me. I live in a society I hate and I support those struggles whose victory will help undo it.
So there is no need to moralize me on wanting to fight in the name of others, for others, or instead of others, and there is no point in lecturing me on my privilege. Nor is there really any point to tell me to go live somewhere to help the Palestinian struggle, in as much as I want the Palestinian struggle to win so I can truly live here. I was born here, my family's here, my friends are here, and so, I'm staying right here. The only people who have any real ability of kicking me out of here right now are the Zionist government, and they're not having a lot of luck so far.
*"Blogger" seems like a bit much when you blog only had four posts in it, one of them being a translation of another person's work.
And in the end you see that beyond all the ideologies, beyond all the rhetoric, fancy titles and bloated self-images, enemies are enemies, allies are allies, and the rest is meaningless.
And in the end you see that beyond all the ideologies, beyond all the rhetoric, fancy titles and bloated self-images, enemies are enemies, allies are allies, and the rest is meaningless.
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