(Crowd cheering, clapping)
La la la la la
la la la la la la
La la la la la
la la la la la
La la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la
(Cheer and clap)
ABE FOXMAN: The non-Jewish
community does not understand
our fixation, our
obsession with Israel.
HOST 1: Good evening
and welcome to 2018!
To the 2016!
2019!
Taglit-Birthright Israel
winter mega event!
Summer mega event!
Right here in Jerusalem!
The eternal power of our people.
(Cheer together)
HOST 2: Is there anyone here
from the United
States of America?
(Cheer together)
HOST 1: What's your name?
Where you from, brother?
I'm Michael and I'm
from Detroit, Michigan!
SIMONE: Everybody knows
somebody who was in the army.
Israeli soldiers, they're
hot, they're awesome,
they're strong,
they're everything we
could all want to be.
Um, my name is Israel Han,
I'm from Brooklyn, New York.
I came around
Birthright in 2016.
I joined the army four months
after I finished Birthright,
ditched my flight
back to America,
and I'm still in the army now!
Yeah! Army Israel high!
Wonderful words.
That's beautiful.
Israel!
(Cheer together)
BAHA: The first time I've
been to the United States,
I met so many nice people
Jewish Americans
would tell me things like,
"We like you, but we
don't like Palestinians",
even though that I'm the
only Palestinian they know.
Of course around that time,
I would take it personally,
but then you come to realize
that people do not know.
They know nothin' about
Palestine and Palestinians
or have no idea about what
Palestinians are goin' through.
(Sobs)
(Fires)
(g*nshots)
WOMAN 1: Coming into
Palestine for the first time,
I remember asking
people, "What do you think?
Should I do it?"
And the response that I
always got was you know,
"You're gonna be k*lled."
WOMAN 1: As a curious young
person like, "What is this thing
that is so horrifying
that you can't bear
to let me see it?"
(Thump)
WOMAN 1: Like, "Is it that bad?"
(Indistinct chatter,
laughter in distance)
Found in the depths
of my family's house.
I found some of my
Hebrew... Hebrew textbooks
from elementary school.
(Speaks Hebrew) My Israel.
Congratulations to
Simone Zimmerman
for winning the
Israel Jubilee Contest.
February, 1998. I was seven.
I had like a pretty
traditional Jewish upbringing.
I grew up in LA.
I went to a Jewish day school,
kindergarten through
the end of high school.
I went to Jewish youth
group, Jewish camp.
(Indistinct chatter)
SIMONE: I have family in Israel.
I lived in Israel in high school
on an exchange program.
(Indistinct chatter)
SIMONE: Israel was just treated
like a core part of being a Jew.
So, you did prayers
and you did Israel.
JACQUI: Israel's something
that I feel so passionately about.
Like it's you know, it's...
it's my greatest passion.
Um, everything Israel.
I became a Jewish educator
after my daughter
started Hebrew school.
I started teaching second grade.
During the years, I
did fourth grade also.
And just to be
able to start them
on this wonderful journey.
I mean if... if you b...
it gets in your blood.
And we teach Israel at
the day school very well.
We introduce them to the food,
and to the music,
and to the culture,
in addition to the history
and the geography.
Figure out which
one is the Israeli flag.
Draw a circle around every
time you see the symbol
of the state of Israel.
Draw your own symbol
of the state of Israel.
We also celebrated
holidays obviously.
So, Hanukkah,
Israeli independence,
all of it together.
Can you separate Israel
and... and Judaism?
I don't know. I can't.
You know, some
people I think can.
To me, it's the same.
Yeah, you can't separate it.
Israel is Judaism
and Judaism is Israel.
Um, and that is who I
am, and that is my identity,
and I think every single thing
that I experienced along my life
has melded into that.
Like there was never
you know, a divide for me.
EITAN: I grew up in a
conservative Jewish household
in Atlanta, Georgia.
Israel was a central part of
everything we did in school.
My elementary and middle
school, as well as my high school,
both had organized
trips to Israel
which was touted as
one of the most important
things you could do.
(Camera clicks)
TEACHER: Do you
wanna go to Israel, too?
(Together) Yeah!
(Chanting) We wanna
go! We wanna go!
We wanna go! We wanna go!
We wanna go! We wanna go!
We wanna go! We wanna go!
EITAN: When I visited
Israel for the first time,
when I was eight years
old, I put a note in the Kotel,
in the Western Wall, saying
that one day I hope to
live in Israel and prosper.
RABBI BENNETT: Every one
of our kids should be going over,
not for ten days
but for a minimum of
a semester or a year.
Every time I send
somebody over to Israel,
they come back all of a
sudden, they feel totally different
about who and what
they are as Jews.
When I was a teenager
and I went to Israel,
it was amazing to me
to travel in this place
where Hebrew was a language
that I finally got to speak
on the street with people,
and where Jewish Heroes,
the streets were
named after them.
RABBI BENNETT:
We're planting seeds
that eventually a...
are gonna blossom.
Does the average
congregant understand
that I'm teaching them
to become Zionists?
Probably not, but it
is part of my madness,
so to speak.
SIMONE: I learned about Israel
as this great miracle
of Jewish history.
For thousands of years,
we were persecuted
and Israel is the place
that you can go to be safe.
My grandfather's
family made it to Israel.
His immediate family
were some of the only ones
who escaped the Holocaust.
Many American Jews, if
not most people I know,
have family or friends
that live in Israel.
ABE: Israel is the
insurance policy.
It's still... today a Jew
doesn't have to worry
where is he gonna
go, God forbid.
Even here.
No holocaust
survivor will say to you,
"It could never happen again."
Uh, I was born in Poland, 1940,
uh, not a good place for
a Jewish kid to be born.
(Indistinct chanting)
ABE: My parents were separated.
My father went through
a series of camps.
Who knows why I survived
and a million and a half
Jewish children perished?
And so, Israel became
very, very significant in my life
even though 6,000 miles away.
I probably visited Israel
over 100 times in my lifetime.
Um, you know, as we sit now,
my granddaughter
is there for two weeks
and they're in high school.
EITAN: I did have many
friends in Israel growing up
and every time I
would visit Israel,
I felt closer and closer.
(Indistinct chatter,
laughter in background)
EITAN: The Jewish summer
camps would always bring
a big contingency of Israelis
to try to drive Israeli
culture within the camp
and connect the American
Jews to Israeli culture.
SIMONE: So, when
I was in high school,
I went on this Jewish
youth trip to Israel
and one of the programs
we did was called "Gadna",
where we spent a day
pretending to be soldiers
in the Israeli army.
We wore army uniforms
and stuff like that was
just sort of a normal part
of what our
childhood looked like.
(Laughs)
(Fire crackling)
EITAN: At summer camp,
in the middle of the night,
they would wake us
up and take us out.
Sometimes that
was to pull pranks,
and other times I remember
doing military games,
using the command
"pazatza", "sneaking around".
So, anytime the commander,
who was one of our counselors,
said "pazatza", we would
all get on the ground,
and they made a game out of it,
simulating being
in the military,
and sneaking around, and
having to be a part of that.
SIMONE: On youth
programs that I participated in
in Israel,
you could spend a whole
week on an Israeli army base,
wearing army uniforms
and going through
a sort of simulation
of basic training,
and that's where
some people you know,
learned to sh**t
g*ns for the first time.
(Fires)
EITAN: It's not just
regular military games,
it's specifically using
Israeli military commands,
often with Israeli
counselors giving them.
When you're a young kid
that really drills it into you
that this is something important
and I wanted to
be a part of that.
SIMONE: We often talked
about the ways that you could be
a good supporter
of the Jewish people.
One was to join the army.
And the other was to go
become an Israel advocate.
(Indistinct chatter)
EITAN: There were
even clubs within school
to work on
advocating for Israel.
My high school sent a delegation
to the AIPAC Conference.
NEWS ANCHOR 1: AIPAC, the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee,
they're the people
who tell the Congress
which legislation
affecting Israel they like
and which they don't.
The bond between the
United States and Israel
is unbreakable today,
unbreakable tomorrow,
unbreakable forever.
(Applause)
AIPAC is just the
thing that you do.
Like going to the
AIPAC Conference
is just sort of seen as
like a community event.
Here with us today are leaders
from across the
pro-Israel community,
including Abe Foxman.
(Applause)
JOE BIDEN: I learned a time ago,
there is no way you
can say "no" to Abe.
(Audience chuckling)
You know, I don't know
to what extent one...
Anybody makes a difference.
I try to make a difference.
Jewish education
is still a major priority
for the future
and certainly
relationship to Israel.
If you wanna ask me
"You got $100 million,
how would you change the
future of American Jews?"
I would make trips
to Israel available
to any Jewish kid
who wanted to go.
Make that experience.
They're doing it now,
it's called "Birthright".
(Cheer together)
It is up to you to be
our soldiers abroad,
armed with love, and
knowledge, and conviction,
ready to sway public
opinion in Israel favor.
SIMONE: Learning about the
quote, unquote, "conflict" is something
that is part of programming
as something that
where you have to learn
how to defend
Israel from the lies
that other people are saying
and you have to be able
to tell people the truth.
(Indistinct chatter)
SIMONE: By the time I
got to college, I had teachers
who said to me,
"People hate Israel,
people are attacking Israel,
people don't know
the truth about Israel,
and we're the only people
who actually know the truth
about Israel."
If you're a Jewish
college student,
Hillel is your central address
for Jewish life on campus.
As a freshman, I
remember, walking into Hillel
was one of the first places I
went when I got to campus.
It's a place where
you can go for meals,
to meet other
young Jewish people.
Pro-Israel advocacy
is a central part
of how they work to
engage Jewish young people.
JACQUI: I'm the director of
engagement and programs
here at Hillel
and this campus happens
to be very proactive for Israel.
A lot of people are
very passionate,
a lot of people love Israel,
and there's a lot of
advocacy here on campus,
and lots of different ways,
lots of different groups.
How did you become
involved in advocacy for Israel?
I kinda came to Hillel just
cause I was new in campus,
I didn't really
know where to go,
and I really did find
a lot of friends here.
I came here on and off,
but then when I went
on the Birthright trip
and kinda got to know the
staff, Tom and Jacqui, a lot better,
got to know people
at Hillel a lot better,
and just got to know
Israel a lot better,
I came back and I
knew that I wanted to put
a lot more of
myself into Hillel,
the Jewish community on campus,
and just Israel
advocacy in general.
On Birthright, we had
Israeli soldiers with us
throughout the entire trip.
You learn so much
and you learn the
reason that they serve.
It's just a feeling
that I don't think any of
us could ever imagine,
except for...
TOM: My job is doing
Israeli program on campus
and that relates to
uh, Jewish events,
cultural or political.
Uh, sorry, Israeli events
uh, uh, cultural or political.
I would say name a
university in America,
we probably have a person there.
I like to talk about
the army a lot,
because that's an
experience that I lived through
and I have a lot
of personal stories.
There are a couple
of students who say,
"Yeah, I'm... I'm thinking about
joining uh, the IDF one day."
So, my first thing is
saying them, "Are you sure?
Because uh, it's
not an easy dec...
It's not an easy decision.
That bein' said, it
will probably end up
being the most
meaningful experience
That you ever go through.
You're gonna tell your
kids stories about it."
Uh, yeah.
JACQUI: One of our
former young emissaries
just graduated
into the air force
and that's the greatest
gift you can give, you know?
And we actually
have had quite a few
of our former
students join the IDF.
Amazing. I mean just amazing.
It's... and these are kids.
These are 18, 19-year-old.
STUDENT 1: It's like something
I've dreamed about doing
since I was seven years old.
You have like a s... you
find your sense of purpose.
All my friends
are so proud of me
and they understand
that this is something
that like I have to do.
SIMONE: Almost ten
percent of my graduating class,
at my Jewish high school,
joined the Israeli army
and I had many friends
from my summer camp
and youth group who
joined the army as well.
EITAN: Part of becoming
part of Israeli society
is to join the military.
When my... I was in high
school, I told my parents
I don't even need
to apply to college,
because I'm gonna just
join the Israeli military,
and make Aliyah,
and live in Israel.
I honestly have
felt for many years
that I fit in better
in Israeli society
than I do in American society,
even before I moved there.
And I wanted to defend
what I saw as my country.
So, when I enlisted,
I was a MAGist,
which is a
heavy-machine gunnist,
during my basic and
advanced training,
and then they put me
on a light machine g*n.
We were training for w*r,
training for strategy
to conquer hilltops
and conquer open spaces.
One week was focused
on urban warfare
in close quarters
and that was simulated in
what looked like Arab housing.
After the seven
months of our training,
we were deployed
to the West Bank.
(Birds chirping in background)
EITAN: Our missions included
working in two different checkpoints,
patrolling villages
on foot in full gear
and bulletproof vests.
We would go into
apartment buildings,
go up to the roof,
and make sure that
we could be seen,
so that we could
make our presence felt.
We wanted them to know
that we were watching.
That was the goal
of the mission.
We would set up what's
called a "check post",
which is a checkpoint
that is situated uh,
at a major intersection.
(Indistinct speech)
EITAN: At checkpoints,
we would stop people,
create a traffic jam,
check their IDs,
check their trunk,
every day on their way to work
or on their way
to visit their family,
to keep them on
their toes essentially.
(Indistinct speech)
EITAN: And they
being Palestinians.
Even though Israel
was a central part
of everything we
did in the school,
we never really
discussed the Palestinians.
It was presented to us
that Israel was basically
an empty wasteland
when the Jews arrived.
"There were some
Arabs there," they said,
"but there was no
organized people.
They had really
treated the land poorly.
Yeah, there are...
there are Palestinians,
and they just
want to k*ll us all,
and want us to leave the land."
SIMONE: I... I just don't
think I had any conception
of anything about what it
means to be a Palestinian
besides that it means
that you're a person
who kills Jews or
wants to k*ll Jews.
EITAN: It was
always presented to us
that the Arabs
only know terrorism.
BAHA: Ever since I
came back from the states,
I... I realized that the best
way to help people understand
the reality imposes on
us by the state of Israel
is for them to be there.
The one thing that I want
to give the rest of my life for
is to help people understand
the reality that is goin' on
in Palestine.
SAMI: I grew up all of
my life in this occupation.
I grew up in
Bethlehem, in Palestine.
To be honest, I do have my days
where I wake up
and look in the mirror,
and ask, "What is going on
and... and what can I even do today
to change anything
in the situation?"
I remember from the
youngest age growing up
with my parents
always warning me,
always telling me not to go
out, not to go on the street,
not to play on the street
because of the
soldiers and the settlers.
Of course like
your first experience
with a soldier is
terrorizing you know,
especially because they
would invade your house
or your family's
house late at night,
like after they left to
work, after midnight.
My first experience with...
with soldiers as a child
was an experience
that put fear uh, in me.
(Indistinct chatter
in background)
An American Jewish
soldier talking to my father,
and yelling at him,
and shouting at him,
which of course
as a child you feel...
- Yeah.
- Very ashamed and insulted.
And then my father,
because ironically we are
American citizens as well,
turned to him in an
American accent,
then asked him
where he was from.
And then the soldier
was almost like shocked
by this... by this question uh,
because for his mind you know,
he wants to say Israeli
and Jewish people,
but he's talking to
an American now.
And he told him
like, "From Chicago."
And... and just this reality
that like even as a child
I remember this... this
um, this American soldier
who just moved here
to be part of an army
to play cowboys and Indians.
Somebody who comes here
from New York or from Chicago
and claiming that
this land is theirs.
What makes like an 18
years old American kid
who was given ten days'
trip for free in Palestine,
what make them want to
come in and sacrifice his life?
Why would a
foreigner think it's okay
to have superior rights
to the rights of the
indigenous population?
Because somebody's
told them it's home.
This is our land. This is ours.
That's what was conveyed to us.
BAHA: It's got to teach me that
people look at Palestine
and Palestinians
from the point of
view of the oppressor,
not from the point of
view of the oppressed.
(Indistinct yelling)
I think what I knew
about who was in Israel
before the state was
created is basically
there were some
Jews always there,
most Jews were in exile,
we'd always yearn to go back.
The idea that there
were native inhabitants
that lived there was not even
part of my frame of reference.
(Indistinct chatter
in background)
Alright there.
(Conversation in Arabic)
BAHA: This restaurant makes
the most delicious hummus
and falafel in town.
The family is not from
the town of Bethlehem.
Just like my mother's
family, they were expelled
from the city of
Jaffa back in 1948.
I was born to a
family of victims
of the ethnic
cleansing of Palestine.
The ethnic cleansing
that was carried out
by the founders of
the state of Israel.
My mother's family were expelled
from the largest
Palestinian city pre-1948,
which was the city of Jaffa.
My father was a
newborn at that time.
He was carried by his family.
They ended up in Bethlehem,
waiting for the atrocities
to come to an end,
so they would be
able to go back home.
Of course none of those people
were ever allowed back home.
SAMI: My father's family
was in Jerusalem up until 1948.
When the w*r happened,
he was shot by a sn*per
and was k*lled on the spot.
Uh, his children actually
dragged his body down
and buried it in the
courtyard of the house.
A few days later,
when the Jewish forces took
over that neighborhood uh,
they demanded
that all the non-Jews
of that neighborhood be evicted.
It was the biggest mass
exodus percentagewise
of a people from their
land in modern history.
BAHA: The ethnic
cleansing of Palestine,
the term "Nakba",
the catastrophe,
is the tragedy or catastrophe
that hit almost every
single Palestinian family,
nearly 750,000 victims.
It's traumatizing in
almost every possible level.
Nearly 78% of the
land of Palestine
became under the
control of the state of Israel.
SIMONE: What else
was I told about Israel?
We were told it was a
land without a people
for people without a
land, and we came back.
From the ashes of the Holocaust,
the state of Israel was birthed.
SAMI: The rights of the
people that lived here
does not exist
in that narrative,
and other than us
being an obstacle,
the Nakba continues.
It started in 1948 and
continues until this day.
BAHA: In 1967,
the state of Israel
managed to complete
its control over Palestine
by takin' over the
territory of the West Bank
and the territory of Gaza.
SIMONE: Okay,
here's the good stuff.
More maps of Greater Israel.
That's just sort of you
know, the whole land.
We're always taught that
the whole land was ours.
I mean you know, that's
sort of what they teach you.
SAMI: After the 1967 w*r,
Israel put a very forceful,
very violent military
force to dominate
and control the lives
of the Palestinians
that continues until this day.
(Indistinct conversation)
BAHA: The intention of Israeli
control over the land of Palestine
is complete colonization
of the territory.
Building homes for those
who are born to Jewish families
and also demolishing
the homes of those
who were born for
Palestinian families.
(Firing)
SAMI: Palestinians
kicked out from their homes
confiscated by settlers.
WOMAN 2: You are
stealing my house!
And if I don't steal it,
someone else is gonna steal it.
WOMAN 2: No! No
one's allowed to steal it!
SAMI: A massive
movement to confiscate land,
to build settlements,
to expand settlements.
Before we were
even fully trained,
we were deployed
to protect settlements.
It was all for the security
of the settlements.
BAHA: Israel filled occupied
West Bank with Jewish Israelis
living in different
colonies and settlements
throughout the region.
And those individuals
are subject to
Israeli civil law.
While you have
Palestinians living within...
Within the exact same territory,
that are subject to
an Israeli military law.
When an American
citizen comes here,
he has more rights than I
would have my entire life.
(Car engine whirring)
We are in the quote,
unquote "West Bank".
We're in the quote,
unquote "settlements".
This is one of the
roadblocks that kind of ensure
that the cars get checked
to see that no
t*rrorists are coming in.
I lived in America
and then I came back to
Israel by myself at the age of 17
to serve in the army.
And there are elements
what I would call
"the jihadist elements"
that don't accept
our presence here,
but they'll... it's
just tough for them.
It's a great vision coming
to fruition in our time
and there's nothing
gonna stop us.
(Indistinct chatter)
BAHA: From the day you are born,
you live in day in
day out, day in day out
without experiencing
a day of freedom.
Palestinians have to
be forced to live in cages.
So, I um, I'm Israeli
born and raised.
As a young Israeli growing up,
my grandparents lived
in the center of Jerusalem.
NEWS ANCHOR 2:
The battle for Jerusalem,
at least 26 people
are reported dead.
ANVER: People I knew
were injured and k*lled,
And from a very young age,
I knew I'm gonna
be joining the military.
I was never in a
Palestinian house
till I barge into one in
the middle of the night.
(Bang)
(Conversation in Arabic)
ANVER: One of the
things that I did routinely
was a mission
where you are ordered
to take over a
Palestinian family's home
and use that house
as a military point.
No warrant, you
don't call in advance,
it's a military occupation.
And during my service,
there were many moments
where I saw myself
acting violently,
and there were moments
of um, of... of shame.
We can detain any Palestinian
just because he looked
at us in the wrong way.
That's a system that's
based on violence.
MAN 3: Oh, oh, oh,
what are you doing?
(Overlapping conversation)
There's a security
matter, you know?
Security. It's about security.
MAN 3: Did he say "security"?
I don't know. We'll see.
MAN 3: This is a threat for you?
SOLDIER 1: I don't know yet.
(Truck whirs)
(Overlapping conversation)
(Truck whooshes)
EITAN: When I was
stationed in the West Bank,
one day one of my
commanders, came,
grabbed me and
one other soldier,
and said there is a detainee
at the Huwara checkpoint
and we need to go pick
him up, and bring him
to the detention
center that's in the base.
When we got there,
the Palestinian detainee,
who was maximum
in his early 20s,
was sitting on the
curb with his hands tied
behind his back
with the zip ties,
and blindfolded.
We got to the detention
center within the base
and right outside, there
were about eight soldiers
waiting for us.
They saw us come,
they grabbed the
detainee from our hands,
and threw him to the ground
while he's still blindfolded
and hands tied behind his back,
and they started kicking
him for a good few minutes.
I was responsible for
this man's well-being.
I was responsible to bring
him from the checkpoint
to the detention Center.
That was my job.
And right outside the
fence of the detention center,
they grabbed him from me
and they start beating him.
I... (Scoffs)
I felt responsible,
but my commander
wasn't saying anything,
so how could I say anything?
The entire time that
this was happening,
a military police officer was
standing just inside the fence,
watching and
smoking a cigarette.
As soon as these guys
were done kicking
this Palestinian man,
the military police officer
tossed his cigarette,
he came, brought him
inside the detention center.
And I didn't even speak
up. I didn't speak up.
And that's just one
of many stories uh,
that I have from my
time in the West Bank.
It took many years for
me to really come to terms
with my part in it.
Only after I got out of the
army did I begin to realize
that the stuff that I
did in the day-to-day,
just working in checkpoints,
patrolling villages,
that in and of
itself was immoral.
PETER: Palestinians
in the West Bank,
even though their
lives are controlled
by the state of Israel, from
morning, noon, and night,
are not even theoretically
citizens of the country
in which they live.
(Indistinct yelling)
PETER: You see in some ways
what non-democracy looks like
up close.
(Camera clicks)
When people look at
the West Bank today
and say, "This isn't
apartheid system,"
it's not just
throwing out a word.
A Palestinian lives under
a different legal system
than an Israeli
settler livin' next door.
(Banging)
Anyone who you know, sees
these facts on the grounds
or speaks to Palestinians
would understand
that this is a process
of settler colonization
of an apartheid regime.
I remember crossing that
checkpoint into Bethlehem,
and before this I had
been very much opposed
to ever using the
word "apartheid",
but seeing the sort of
night and day difference
just by crossing this
wall, changed that for me
in an instant.
Serving in... serving
in the Israeli army
is obviously one way
of supporting Israel,
but there's also
another modern battle
that is happening on campuses
each and every single day,
and you are standing
in the front of it,
and um, I mean
the Israeli government,
the Israeli people
thank you for that,
and that's why they
put me here probably.
- (Students chuckling)
- And I thank you for that. So...
JACQUI: We need PR like you.
Uh, there's a lot
of PR to be made.
JACQUI: This university,
thank God, is fairly apolitical,
but I've heard
all over the place
how universities
are these hotbeds
of anti-Semitic
and anti-Israel work.
I remember very vividly I
was sitting in my dorm room
with a friend of mine.
We got a phone call
that an anti-Israel bill
was being introduced in
the student government.
We bolt in.
On the way, called our parents.
Both got sent talkin' points.
And then we went into this
student government meeting.
(Indistinct chatter)
HOST 2: Hi, everyone, so,
we're gonna let our meeting...
(Indistinct speech)
push at the back.
MAN 4: Hey, everybody,
please take your seats.
NEWS ANCHOR 3: The Student
Senate at the University of California,
Berkeley, calling
on campus officials
to divest from companies
that supply weapons
that Israel uses
in its occupation
of the Palestinian territories.
You are siding
with the Palestinians
on the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
There's just no
question about it.
I just knew it
was this bad thing
that I had to fight.
It is anti-Semitism, it is.
You are trying to make
me feel marginalized
on my own campus.
And I remember all
of us going, "Well, uh,
you shouldn't boycott
Israel, because uh,
it's applying a double standard
and you shouldn't
boycott Israel,
because it's unfair
to single out Israel."
Please I beg of you.
I beg you please
to have compassion
and to remember that
we are alienating students,
and I am devastated
by this bill.
I am a human being.
SIMONE: I still remember you
have these Palestinian students
who get up and said you
know, "Jewish students,
you are crying
about feeling silenced
and marginalized.
You know, my aunts and
cousins didn't sleep for weeks
while bombs were
falling overhead in Gaza.
What do you have
to say to that?"
If divestment is hostile
then... then where do we begin
to describe the hostility
of a military occupation?
SIMONE: I was thrown
into all these conversations
where people were throwing
around all these words
that I'd never heard before.
Occupation, settlements,
apartheid, ethnic cleansing.
I just never heard anyone
use any of these terms before.
I thought I knew so
much about Israel,
but I didn't really know what
anybody was talking about
when they were talking
about all these things.
I remember coming
to Hillel and saying,
"Why aren't we answering
Palestinian
students' questions?"
I felt really embarrassed
by it, because mostly I felt
like we weren't doing a good
job refuting their arguments.
Do we not have an actual
counter argument besides
like, rockets, double
standard, anti-Semitism?
I... people... people... I...
I couldn't get an
answer from anybody
and that was really
disturbing for me.
I mean there are these
people called "Palestinians"
who think that Israel wields
all this power over their lives
and don't have rights,
don't have water.
What... like
literally what is this?
How is this happening?
How do I... how
do I respond to it?
People that have a
problem with Israel,
there's a good chance
they're misguided
somewhere or another.
Everyone have the
freedom in Israel.
Like you can have
any religion and...
You could do whatever
you want in Israel,
but only in Israel
in the Middle East.
A lot of mi...
like it's a lot of...
It's a lot of misinformation.
JACQUI: Some of it
comes from misinformation,
some of it comes from ignorance,
some of it comes from lies.
And it's very hard
to deal with that
in any kind of a...
of a positive way
when they're coming
from such a place
of not understanding
what the reality
of the situation
when they just have this
in their... in their head,
all this misinformation
and all these lies.
I mean somehow pro-Palestinian
has become pro-social justice.
SIMONE: I wanted to know answers
from within my own community
and nobody could answer
those questions for me.
How is it that I
am like the best
the Jewish
community has to offer.
I've been through
all the trainings,
all the programs,
and I don't know
what the occupation is.
I... I don't know what
the settlements are.
Eventually, it got to a
point where I found myself
wanting answers to the questions
the Palestinian
students were asking.
And so, it led me
on a process of trying
to go figure those
things out for myself.
What is this thing
that is so horrifying
that you can't
bear to let me see?
The summer after
my freshman year,
I went to Palestine
and I knowingly crossed
line for the first time.
(Wind blowing)
Here, to your right,
so that you can
see the settlements.
Settlement...
SIMONE: I don't think I
realized the extent to which
what I would come
to see on the ground
would really shock
me and horrify me.
So, if you look at your maps um,
we're standing
again right before um,
is going to turn
red just over here
where the soldiers are standing.
Um, so, just look
behind you, guys.
This is a... a block of houses.
The people living in all
these apartments here
were not allowed to
walk on this main road.
So, this was what?
Like a... a red road,
a sterilized road,
and imagine if your
family living here,
you can't open the front door
of your house and walk out.
I'm listening to
Palestinian students
talking about what it was like
being beaten at a checkpoint,
and sitting down with
a Palestinian family,
and hearing their story
about being displaced
by Israeli settlers.
(Speaks Arabic)
And even when we
fix the water wells,
and... and we try to
cultivate the rain water
to come into the water wells,
even those things are
being attacked by the settlers.
Either they sto...
throw stones in them
or they throw chemicals in them
or they throw dead
animals in the wells.
So, he's saying, first,
he welcomes you,
and says you know, thank
you very much for coming,
especially because
you're Jewish.
The area here is populated
by Palestinian farmers.
Supreme Court in Israel
ruled that they are allowed
to live in the
caves that are here.
They're not allowed
to build anything.
Today, the civil administration
and the army came,
and demolished
some of the tents here.
SIMONE: Something
is deeply wrong here
and it's... it's
breaking my heart.
SIMONE: What we've
been told is that the only way
that Jews can be safe is
if Palestinians are not safe,
and I guess the more
I learned about that,
the more I came
to see that as a lie.
SIMONE: So, this is the
checkpoint that divides
uh, Jerusalem from Bethlehem.
Palestinians definitely
cannot drive on this road.
So, you can see that
we're basically driving
with walls on both
sides of us right now.
(Vehicles whooshing
in background)
SIMONE: Sami.
(Chuckles)
You wanna go to like
the major square or...
Or where do you want to go?
We're in your hood, man.
(Vehicle whirring in background)
SAMI: This is...
this is my barber.
(Conversation in Arabic)
(Sami chuckles)
SIMONE: As someone who
came to see Jerusalem or Tel Aviv
is places that I should
imagine as home.
I remember coming
into the West Bank
for the first time
and actually seeing this
place as someone else's home.
This is a normal place
where people are just trying
to live their lives.
For me, to get to
Jerusalem, I have to think of
first of all having the permit,
getting to the checkpoint,
waiting in lines
for the checkpoint,
getting to the soldiers
at the checkpoint.
The soldiers might do
anything to me at that point,
including sending me back.
And then crossing the checkpoint
and then having to take
public transportation.
I... just the fact
that I cannot drive.
SIMONE: Right. You can't d...
As a Palestinian, I
cannot drive in Jerusalem
or anywhere in Israel.
SIMONE: Right. So, we
drove here today and...
- SAMI: Yeah.
- Yes.
SAMI: And if I'm not
home by 10:00 p.m.
and I get caught
on the other side,
then I could be detained, I
could lose my permit for good,
I could be put in prison.
I could be beaten
up by soldiers.
Who knows what
will happen to me?
Almost any rooftop you
stand on in Bethlehem,
you look one way or the other,
you will see a settlement
built around you.
SIMONE: I started
coming here in 2010.
I heard you speak to a group
about anti-Semitism and...
And inherited trauma,
and started thinking a
lot about what it means
to challenge my community
around the deep ingrained traumas
that are totally stopping us
from any sort of movement
on this issue.
SAMI: My first learning
experience was uh,
when I was invited
to go to Auschwitz
on a Bearing Witness retreat.
I actually say in
Auschwitz I discovered
one of the main reasons
why this conflict exists today,
which is this inherited trauma
that exists in the
Jewish community
where the feeling is that as
Jews we're always attacked,
we've always been attacked,
we'll always be attacked,
and therefore the only
way to maintain our self
is to create this very...
(Fires)
SAMI: Suppressive
security mechanism
that would prevent this
from happening again.
I mean that's what I learned.
Yeah, that...
that's what I heard.
What... what is important
for many of the Israeli Jews
and the Jews from
around the world
we talked to is is
the simple recognition
and acknowledgment of the story.
SIMONE: Right.
SAMI: And that story
is where the healing
work begins to happen.
SAMI: As an activist I
think for many activists
what keeps us
going is our ability
to be able to look
towards the future.
I... I really believe that there
is an emerging awakening
within the American
Jewish community.
I've had even some
American Jews who come here
and they say, "We came to
Israel and we left from Palestine."
For American Jews, coming
here and listening to us,
and hearing us, and
seeing our humanity,
and understanding that we
are not just out sitting in bunkers,
planning the next
attack against Israelis,
that we do have a
desire to live in peace,
and to have our freedom,
and to... to walk in our streets,
and to eat in our restaurants,
and like we... I mean it's crazy
that I have to say this that
we are real human beings
that just want to
survive and live, and...
Like all other
people in this world.
The moment they see
this and experience this
for themselves,
it creates something, it
shifts something in them.
What they do with it
when they go back,
it becomes their responsibility.
SIMONE: I came
home and spoke out.
And I think initially
it was very painful
and shocking
for a lot of people.
- How's it going?
- MAN 5: Good. How are you?
SIMONE: I had friends from
high school and from college
who didn't know how to
speak to me at the beginning,
because these conversations
were forbidden for us
growing up.
(Indistinct chatter)
SIMONE: I've grown up
very much as a product
of this mass mobilization
across the community
to ensure that young
people stay engaged
in pro-Israel politics.
(Indistinct chatter)
SIMONE: For most people I
know who actually took the time
to see with their own
eyes what was happening,
it very quickly challenges
everything we've been taught.
It's very painful, because
it is so intimately bound up
with the identity
of the community.
There have always been Jews
who have spoken out
for Palestinian rights,
and more and more
people are willing
to take off their blinders,
looking at this reality,
saying, "This is intolerable."
(Sings in Hebrew)
(Indistinct chatter)
I continued to meet more
and more young people like me
who were having
similar experiences.
- (Laughs)
- Nice to meet you.
Yeah.
And it made me realize
that I was part
of a bigger story
of something that was
happening not just to me
but to young people
around the country.
We decided to bring the crisis
of American Jewish support
for Israel to the doorsteps
of Jewish institutions
to force that
conversation in public.
(Sing together in Hebrew)
SIMONE: Uh, first of all,
all my friends at AIPAC
stopped talkin' to me.
I've lost many childhood
friends over this.
Also, many friends have like
come along politically with me
over the years.
Many in my family have
also... many in my family also
deeply disagree with me.
(Crowd singing in Hebrew)
SIMONE: Every time
I protested outside
of a Jewish communal
event of some kind,
I have seen a
friend, a family friend,
a parent of a friend
on the other side
of the barricade.
We're literally talking
about parents and children.
(Crowd singing in Hebrew)
Young Jews, they go to
the Jewish federations,
they go to the reform movement,
they go to their day schools,
and they say, "You mobilized
me to be a... a soldier for Israel,
but I had been
completely misled."
(Crowd singing in Hebrew)
We are also in a moment
when there is the possibility
of... of some
kind of alternative.
JEREMY: I see it hundreds
of times over and over again,
and those hundreds
speak for thousands,
and they went to
the Jewish camps,
and they went to
the day schools,
and they went to the
synagogue, Hebrew schools.
They're really, really angry
at the way they were educated
and the way that
they were indoctrinated
uh, about these
issues and justifiably so.
SIMONE: The
indoctrination is so severe,
it's almost hard to have
a conversation about it.
It's heartbreaking.
It is heartbreaking.
Our community right
now has to grapple
with our complicity.
And we want to welcome
you to the Jewish rejection.
(Cheer together)
NEWS ANCHOR 4:
Jewish opinion is split.
NEWS ANCHOR 5: Some
Jewish groups vocally oppose
Israel's military policies.
NEWS ANCHOR 6: More than 1,000 Jewish
activists descended on Washington DC,
Sunday, to protest AIPAC.
DR. CORNEL: So, we tell some
of our more conservative brothers
and sisters on the inside
that you do not represent
the best of the Jewish
prophetic tradition,
and we hear them...
(Overlapping speech)
(Cheer together)
DR. CORNEL: It's a new day now
when you got a number of
young Jewish brothers and sisters
who are undergoing moral
and spiritual awakening,
they're deeply concerned about
the suffering of Palestinians,
and they come from a
people who have been hated,
but they don't want to see
the cycle of hate perpetrated
even by Jews themselves.
Israel, it's been
part of my life
since early childhood.
Within the Jewish community,
oh, there's been
a striking change
and Israel's well aware of it.
Human will and commitment
can change things.
My name is Talia.
This is the first time I'm
using my full real name
um, to stand in solidarity
with Palestinians and...
(Cheers, applaud together)
I never thought in my life
that I would be standing
with this many
Jews for Palestine.
I'm a rabbi.
As long as Palestinian lives
are treated as disposable,
our house as a
people is not in order.
(Cheers, applaud together)
PROTESTOR: Tomorrow
we show up and we march
following the leadership
of Palestinians.
(Crowd cheering, applauding)
CROWD MEMBERS: (Together)
Free, free Palestine
CROWD MEMBER 1:
Free, free, free Palestine
CROWD MEMBERS: (Together)
Free, free, free Palestine
CROWD MEMBER 1:
Free, free Palestine
CROWD MEMBERS: (Together)
Free, free Palestine
CROWD MEMBER 1:
Free, free, free Palestine
CROWD MEMBERS: (Together)
Free, free, free Palestine
MAN 6: Congresswoman
Rashida Talib.
I am the only
Palestinian-American member
of Congress now.
How many
Palestinians have to die
for their lives to matter?
Life under apartheid
strips Palestinians
of their human dignity.
How many more
decades do they need
to endure this subjugation
before there is a shift
in this unreasonable status quo?
NEWS ANCHOR 7: And
what would you recommend?
I would recommend freedom.
CROWD MEMBERS: (Together)
Free, free, free Palestine
Free, free, free Palestine
The real challenge
is tryin' to keep
that moral and spiritual
dimension strong.
CROWD MEMBERS: (Together)
Free, free, free Palestine
Because anytime you
cut against the grain,
you're gonna catch hell.
Free, free Palestine!
(Protestors yelling)
(Sing together in Hebrew)
NEWS ANCHOR 8: Anti-occupation
Jews are blocking Damascus Gate.
CROWD: (Together)
(Indistinct speech) ...Jews say!
Anti-occupation!
Israeli Jews say!
(Speaking Hebrew)
(Yelling)
Let me go!
(Indistinct yelling)
I... I don't think
it's as serious
as it's made up to be.
Okay, they're...
they're entitled,
it's fine, okay.
I don't think they
represent much.
I think they're a
little super nave.
Uh, I think that this...
most American Jews
even though they
have different views
on settlements or occupation,
I think that's still a decision,
at the end of the day,
they're gonna leave
for the Israelis to make.
As long as Israel
is under threat,
and as strong as it is,
and as dynamic as it is,
it's still under threat
from its neighbors
and 100,000
missiles, we postpone
that philosophical
debate to another time.
(Explosions)
SIMONE: Palestinians are so
dehumanized in the community
that it's really hard
for people to figure out
how to even understand
Palestinians' legitimate rights
and claims to the land.
NEWS ANCHOR 9:
Palestinians gathered for protest
at the Israeli Gaza border.
NEWS ANCHOR 10: They're
demanding the right to return to lands
from which they were
forced out in 1948.
NEWS ANCHOR 11: At least 55 Palestinians
died, Monday, during mass protests.
Israeli troops fired
on the demonstrators.
ABE: Look at the more
recent Gaza demonstrations.
Ask yourself the question,
"If the Mexicans stood at
the border and marched,
1 million Mexicans
or 20,000 Mexicans,
what would America do?"
You know, first, they
would try tear gas,
and then it was not...
and... and eventually
would have to sh**t.
SIMONE: There are a
lot of Jewish young people
who see a Jewish
establishment that is r*cist,
that is nationalistic.
SIMONE: We don't
want to be a part of that,
but we are actually
building an alternative.
SIMONE: I've been involved
in this work for about a decade.
I was seen as a face
of this young growing
Jewish resistance
to the American
Jewish establishment.
It made perfect sense to me
that Bernie would
hire someone like me
as a Jewish
outreach coordinator.
Within about 48 hours
of being on the campaign,
the attacks started rolling in.
These old men from
the Jewish establishment
came out to say you
know, that I was dangerous,
that I was a threat.
A journalist wrote
an article about me.
The headline was
"Bernie Sanders' new
Jewish outreach coordinator
is an outspoken critic
of Israeli occupation."
The next headline
that I found out about
when I walked into work was
"Abe Foxman calls on Sanders
to fire new Jewish
community liaison
for, quote,
anti-Israel' comments."
NEWS ANCHOR 12: On Thursday,
the Sanders campaign suspended
its new national Jewish
outreach coordinator,
Simone Zimmerman, two
days after she was hired.
SIMONE: So, as far as I'm aware
this was Abe Foxman's
first comment in public
since his retirement
from the ADL
and uh, he came
out of retirement
to defend the world
from the great threat
of Simone Zimmerman.
It hurts me for a Jewish
kid to stand up there
and say, "Justice
for the Palestinians
and not saying,
"Justice for the Israelis".
Uh, it troubles me,
hurts me, bothers me.
It means we failed.
We failed in educating
and explaining, et cetera.
CROWD: (Together) Palestine
Free, free Palestine
ABE: When we talk
about we're losing the kids,
uh, we're not
lo... we lost them.
NEWS ANCHOR 13: Birthright
participants staged a protest walkout.
Five of us will be leaving to
learn about the occupation
um, from the perspectives
of Palestinians
and IDF soldiers.
Thank you, thank you very much.
You cannot be a
tyrant on this bus.
MAN 7: No, no, listen.
We're seeing that
many millennials
are becoming disen...
disenchanted with Israel
and um, I take a very
different approach on this.
I say to them, "We need
to love Israel even more."
PROTESTORS: (Together)
Boycott Birthright that's our plan!
No free trips on stolen land!
Boycott Birthright
that's our plan!
No free trips on stolen land!
It... it means that we, who
are the older generation,
have much more work to do.
SIMONE: This whole communal
obsession with defending Israel
has basically warped into
seeing someone like me
as a threat to the community.
The word that I
used to hear a lot
was "self-hating Jew".
Like the only way
that a Jewish person
could possibly care about
the humanity of Palestinians
is if you hate yourself.
Let's see what I find in here.
"You are a self-loathing
Jew. Go k*ll yourself."
"With Jews like you, who needs
ignorant r*cist bigot Arabs?"
"You work against our people,
you're an anti-Semitic Jew,
you've been working
for the enemy."
"Simone Zimmerman,
another member of the
lunatic anti-Semitic far left."
LARA: There's always
been this argument of
"Oh, you can't criticize Israel.
Criticizing Israel
feeds anti-Semitism
Criticizing Israel helps
the enemies of Israel."
SIMONE: As more and more
American Jews are speaking out
in support of
Palestinian freedom,
now they just say instead,
"We're... oh, we're anti-Semites.
We hate all Jewish people."
Or even worse that
we're not Jewish at all.
LARA: We are attacked
as being not really Jewish
if we are not
supportive of Israel,
and that's where
you start seeing
just the blanket
delegitimization
of an entire sector of
American Jewish society
focusing on this so-called
new anti-Semitism.
And then came the
new anti-Semitism
which was the anti-Semitism
relating to Israel,
what... what some have said
that Israel became the
Jew of the nations uh,
in the same way that
historically uh, you know,
the... whatever was
permitted for everybody else
was not permitted for the Jew.
Now, Israel was singled out...
SIMONE: So many of
the self-appointed leaders
of our community have
been trying to equate
the idea of supporting
Palestinian rights itself
with anti-Semitism.
This is about anti-Israel,
anti-Semitic attitude.
Classic new anti-Semitism.
The extreme left
has a long history
of anti-Semitism of...
of anti-Israel hatred.
How stupid have they
been through all these years
voting for Obama and
other anti-Semites like him.
(Applause)
SIMONE: Unwillingness to
grapple with Palestinian suffering
is putting a lot
of American Jews
in a really dangerous
and sad position.
(Applause)
LARA: How far will
Jewish Americans go
in the effort to quash
pressure on Israel?
You know, how
far will people go?
It's hard to see
how far they won't go
if this is where
things are today.
(Cheers, applaud together)
SIMONE: At the end of the day,
pro-Israel leaders
want to be in the room
with the people in power.
(Cheers, applaud together)
SIMONE: They will
do anything to preserve
unconditional
support for Israel.
(Cheers, applaud together)
DONALD: Thank you.
When I become president,
the days of treating Israel
like a second-class
citizen will end on day one.
(Cheers, applaud together)
SIMONE: History is not
going to judge us kindly.
I'd like to say that we
were blessed by heaven
with Donald Trump bein' elected
president of the United States.
We should pray that they
should remain in office
and that he should continue
to do the great things he does
on behalf of the United
States of America
and on behalf of Israel.
SIMONE: We're seeing
like a horrifying culmination
of what support of Israel
at all costs has led to,
disregarding any
lesson of history,
disregarding any
sort of morality.
The great irony of having
this be where we are today
within the Jewish community
is that there actually is
resurgent anti-Semitism,
the kind that I
think my generation
and the generations
that have come after me
never thought we'd
see in our lifetimes.
Hail Trump! Hail our
people! Hail victory!
(Cheers, applaud together)
ABE: In the US, a couple of
things have been happening
and then we'll... we'll
go to Trump or Trumpism.
It's not a question,
"Is he a bigot or isn't?"
I don't think he's a bigot.
I think he is what he is.
I don't think he's a r*cist,
I don't think he's
an anti-Semite.
I think that you can call
him all kinds of things.
SIMONE: The community has
spent so much time attacking
anyone who criticizes Israel
when they're actual
threats to our community.
That's led our
communal institutions
to basically be silent
in the face of rising
white nationalism.
Jews will not replace us!
Jews will not replace us!
Jews will not replace us!
SARAH: The way that
we talk about anti-Semitism
isn't about protecting Jews,
it's about protecting Israel.
How dangerous is
that at this moment
with the rise of anti-Semitism?
SIMONE: And often
when American politicians
are asked about anti-Semitism,
they talk about their
support for Israel.
Support for Israel today
is actually replacing
what it means to be a Jew.
These people have
basically decided
that support for Israel
is more important
than the safety of Jews.
We're not gonna say
anything about the spreading
of these anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories.
We have seen a
tremendous amount of this
use of vile anti-Semitic tropes.
NEWS REPORTER: The
thread talks about a Jewish plot
to enslave people
in the United States.
NEWS ANCHOR 14: Anti-Semitic
flyers steeped in COVID-19 conspiracies
saying every single aspect of
the COVID agenda is Jewish.
That's the way the Jews work.
They're dec...
they are deceivers.
They plot, they lie.
They do whatever
they have to do.
(g*nshots)
NEWS ANCHOR 15: The g*nman told a
SWAT officer that he wanted all Jews to die
and that they were
committing genocide
against his people.
SIMONE: It's a
profoundly sad moment
and I think it's a
tipping moment.
These anti-Semitic
nightmares that we all...
Like it's all coming to
life in front of our eyes.
I can't help but think
about all the American
Jewish organizations
that have spent the last
decade pouring millions of dollars
into smearing and marginalizing
human rights advocates,
Jewish, Palestinian and not,
trying to brand
Palestinian protest
as anti-Semitic
when there were
neo-Nazis trying to k*ll us
in our synagogues.
SIMONE: My parents' and
grandparents' generation
grew up in a world in
which Jews were not safe.
(Protestors yelling)
SIMONE: They invested
so much in the idea
that Jews could only
be safe through Israel,
but our safety and our security
is actually bound up in
the safety and the security
of all people.
NEWS ANCHOR 16: The most
powerful pro-Israel lobby in the country
are now donating money
to Republican politicians
who either incited or
continue to support the rioters
who stormed The
Capitol on January 6th.
SIMONE: That's part
of a politics of solidarity,
and it feels totally
morally coherent,
and morally urgent, to
support freedom and dignity
for all people in all
the places that we live.
Palestinians have
already been telling us this
for decades.
MAN 8: So, guys,
here's the... the wall.
SIMONE: But the world is
finally coming to catch up.
(Indistinct speech)
For me, I would say if
anybody has any influence
on Israeli policy,
and I say this with a big if,
it is the American
Jewish community.
The American Jewish
community have the potential
to have the greatest
influence in shifting our reality
outside of this land.
For many people around the
world when they see the voice
of the Jewish community rise
and protest against
this occupation,
it will allow other
voices to say, "Yes,
we could also have
a voice in it as well."
Now, we're doing joint work
in trying to end
this occupation,
and bringing peace
and justice into this land.
BAHA: The most
inspiring experiences I had
are with Jewish Americans
that come in and take a stand.
HOST 3: We're gonna hear
tonight a number of personal stories.
At some point, you
guys decided to,
quote, unquote,
"break" the silence
and I'm interested was
there a particular moment
that led you to this.
WOMAN 3: In 2008,
I... I joined the military.
In America,
we have this concept of
innocent until proven guilty.
There is no innocent Palestinian
according to the army...
AUDIENCE MEMBER
1: That's so not true.
In occupied territory.
AUDIENCE MEMBER
2: Quiet down please.
AUDIENCE MEMBER
1: Get out of here.
I mean come on,
you're lying. That's a lie.
AUDIENCE MEMBER 1:
She said there's no innocent...
AUDIENCE MEMBER
2: It's not a lie.
What we're talking about
is not giving Palestinians
the right that we
of Israelis have
and that's apartheid.
To go against the grain
is not an easy thing to do.
EITAN: So, I did not
speak about my experiences
in the occupation
publicly until very recently.
I was afraid that I
would be demonized
I've seen friends of mine be
demonized for speaking out
about the same things.
The first time I
ever spoke publicly
about my experiences,
I cried the whole time
that I was speaking.
It's gotten a little bit easier
to talk about since then,
because I have taken
the time to process it,
but that doesn't mean it's easy
anytime I talk about
these experiences.
But we can't wait any longer.
SIMONE: I've been longing
for this Jewish conversation
for 17 years.
(Group members laughing)
We're here today um,
to talk about some things
that are often...
can feel impossible
in the Jewish community.
These conversations can happen.
We are not risking
our Jewish history,
you are not closing a door
to the rest of your Jewish life.
All that we have
to risk is our denial.
GROUP MEMBER 1: I can start.
My high school had
an Israel studies class
all about when
you get to college
and people start telling you
about Israel being
an apartheid state,
this is how you respond.
From uh, like summer camp
and my youth movement,
one of the core tenets of it
was the Jewish state
needed to be built.
Hmm.
And just no
questioning of what price
we were really
willing to pay uh,
or willing to make
Palestinians pay.
As an Israeli... the
Palestinian identity itself
is not something I had
to... to learn that it exists.
Right.
So, slowly as I came to learn
that the occupation exists,
I started learning that
there is another narrative.
We're here to talk
about the history
that's often referred
to as "the Nakba".
750,000 people
displaced from their homes.
At least 400 villages
undone in their entirety.
The colonization
is also ongoing.
The ongoing Nakba,
the continued...
Not just the historical
but the continued ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians.
I have been blessed
to witness the ways
that Palestinian society
continue to find ways to thrive,
but we can't deny that
there has been catastrophe,
that it's been catastrophic,
the scale of loss.
We're really here
to teach each other,
but I think nothing's
as important as action,
because we are talking
about ongoing displacement.
People might tell you
that if you stand up
for Palestinian rights
that you aren't really Jewish,
that you're maybe
a self-hating Jew.
As a rabbi, what I see
when I look at the
work of solidarity
is a long chain
of Jewish history.
This chain of
people, of ancestors,
and texts, and traditions
that are about justice
and fighting for it.
Jewish tradition tells
us to envision a world
where all people
are safe and free,
to never stop
fighting for that world.
So, may you all feel blessed
in a tradition of liberation,
and may you be blessed
to know you're not alone,
and let's get to work.
(Fingers snapping)
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Light is returning
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Light is returning
Even though this
is the darkest hour
No one can hold
Back the dawn
Back the dawn
Back the dawn
Back the dawn
We Jews, we're not
meant to be occupiers.
We have been occupied already.
I mean we've always
been segregated
and discriminated against.
It's just so distressing to
me to see the checkpoints,
and the special roads,
and the special water.
Why? That's...
It's... it's a shender.
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Israelism (2023)
Moderators: Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters, Maskath3, GabrielAlejo2341, sidolanters