At 50 We Dare Not Give Up

We seem to be at an intersection of incompetence and invidiousness as we draw closer to the fiftieth anniversary of the Occupation. We are almost to the point that both right and left agree that the term "occupation" should no longer be used. On the right, the argument is either for stasis—building out the settlements and expanding the area controlled by settlers; pressing the Palestinians economically and geographically until they leave or surrender—or, legally annex the territory and bestow limited rights upon the Palestinians. On the left, the call is now for recognizing the de facto annexation and granting full political rights to the Palestinian residents.

Mourners at the funeral of 50-year-old Aviram Reuven who was killed in a stabbing attack by a Palestinian man in 2015.

The political powers in Israel and Palestine are in a state of constant strategic dithering—one step forward and two steps back. Yet, lest we fall into the false equivalency of occupier and occupied, it must be stated that this stasis is the result of a strategy of many decades on the part of the Israeli government to deprive the Palestinians in the territories of the resources for economic sustainability or the room for civic institutions. The security apparatus which controls the movement of the Palestinians on a daily basis raises the price of resistance so high that it seems futile, resulting in only sporadic but heroic acts of nonviolent resistance.

The cycle of armed belligerence which scales up or down but almost never dies out, is a result of the logic of violence. The combatants and their institutions on both sides are convinced that the other side only understands violence, and if we hit them hard enough this time, they will stop.

The gross incompetence and moral turpitude of the Trump administration does not offer any hope. The nomination of David Friedman (a de facto spokesperson for the most right-wing of settlers, who denies that there is an occupation, and has characterized J Street as "worse than kapos") as U.S. Ambassador to Israel reinforces one's conviction that Trumpian diplomacy is of the "throw more gas on a fire" variety. We can no longer even fool ourselves into thinking that the U.S. might pressure the parties to come to a deal. We are at another in a long series of crisis moments.

A Palestinian protestor tries to break a portion of the separation wall in Abu Dis in October 2015.

The American Jewish community, however, should not be silent. We must demand from the institutional Jewish community that they withdraw support from the Occupation and its daily toll on human life. This demand might be translated into a number of different demands. We must demand that our educational institutions (from day schools through Hillels and summer camps) should stop all educational programs to Israel (exchange programs, semester in Israel programs, tour programs, summer programs) which accept the reality of the Occupation as a neutral activity. This means either cancelling that day trip to Ofrah, or accompanying it with a speaker from Breaking the Silence, or Machsom Watch, or another human rights or anti-occupation NGO. All Israeli education must include a "dual narrative" type program which presents the Palestinian narrative of the past century and a half side by side with the Zionist narrative. The Jewish Federation of North American and the boards of Rabbis in cities nationwide should abide by the same guidance when they sponsor visits to Israel for politicians or donors.

AIPAC spends a large amount of money literally wining and dining rabbinic students so that they will accept the Leffell Israel Fellowship, which includes a free trip to Israel and a free trip to the AIPAC policy conference. We should encourage our students not to apply for the fellowship for an organization who gave a platform and an 18,000-strong standing ovation to candidate Trump—legitimizing his racist, xenophobic, misogynistic views to the "pro-Israel" community. Our rabbinic schools, and graduate schools of Jewish education...