With the posting* I’ve been doing about our time in the West Bank, I knew it was only a matter of time before it happened. And as you might imagine, I’ve got a few things to say about being labeled an anti-Semite.
First, let me say that my interest in the question of Israel and the Palestinian people is firmly rooted in my desire to be a better follower of Jesus, and my growing conviction that the Gospel is the announcement of God’s plan to redeem all of Creation. As NT Wright would put it, God has a plan to "put things right." Because of these beliefs I agonize over the way large segments of the Christian church in the west automatically side with Israel on all issues, almost as an involuntary reflex. Israel is given a blank cheque, and as the state of “God’s Chosen People” is assumed to be in the right, regardless of its actions or the consequences thereof. My goal is to seek solutions to the conflict there that are pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, pro-justice, and pro-peace. This is where I’m coming from on this issue.
I also need to state clearly for the record that there are real anti-Semites out there. For reasons that will become clear I no longer think that term is useful, but there are some--bigoted, small-minded people--who hates Jews and everything Jewish. I hate no one, and I am especially fascinated by and attracted to the culture and history of the Jewish people, through whom Jesus came to the world.
Thirdly, it seems I need to say that I believe the Holocaust was real, horrific, and evil beyond words. Understandably it forms a significant part of the individual and communal history, psyche and identity of Jews everywhere, and of the state of Israel.
Here’s where the problem arises: We need to keep going on the issue, to talk further, and as soon as we go beyond what I’ve expressed in the paragraphs above, we are in serious trouble.
Case in point: While we were rooming together in the West Bank earlier this year, my friend Greg Barrett recounted for me an interview he conducted back in 2003 with Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, and author of Never Again and The Deadliest Lies. The interview took place over lunch in an upscale Washington, DC restaurant, and Greg recalls the conversation as initially very pleasant. The atmosphere quickly changed as Greg raised the issue of the lopsided death toll as a result of then recent violence. (Given the timing of the interview and the fact that the Second Intifada was in progress, Greg believes he referenced statistics from the First Intifada. According to Wikipedia "an estimated 1,100 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces and 164 Israelis were killed by Palestinians.")
At that point Foxman erupted.
"You want to talk numbers? You want to talk NUMBERS?!" Other patrons in the restaurant stopped and stared. Foxman went on to reference the millions killed in the Holocaust. Greg waited while Foxman yelled. When he finally paused to take a breath, Greg pointed out that those millions weren't killed by Palestinians.
It must have been quite a scene. Let me reiterate that I am very sympathetic to the work of the Anti-Defamation League, and to the life and work of Abraham Foxman. I suspect that I need to keep repeating that fact, and there will still be those who won't hear me. However, do you see what is happening here?
Here is the thumbnail sketch: I've posted before about the system of economic, social and racial apartheid that is designed, among other reasons, to keep visitors to Israel from ever meeting a Palestinian. The system tries desperately to keep us from seeing both sides of the story. And now we understand the second part of this system. Should you, through your own initiative, meet Palestinians, speak with them, get to know them and their circumstances, get a better understanding of the facts on the ground, well, any criticism you may express is summarily dismissed as anti-Semitism.
(And if you happen to be Jewish and you still have the nerve to criticize Israeli policy, well then you are a “self-hating Jew”, a condition diagnosed by no less than the Israeli Prime Minister himself.)
Because of all this very real and very tragic history, no current criticism can be offered. This perfect, protected, closed system exists, and to even suggest the existence of the system itself is to be labeled an anti-Semite. We all know the saying about absolute power, and so it seems to me we're not doing anyone a favour by granting a group absolute power without any accountability. The unspeakable injustices Jews suffered during the Holocaust make a moral demand on those who stood idly by as it happened, but it does not demand that we turn a blind eye when injustices are perpetrated against Palestinians. The greatest way to respond to the injustices done against Jews is to stand against injustices committed against anyone, anywhere.
It seems to me that if I had issues with some of the policies of, say, the Norwegian government, to pick a random country, I’d just be another guy with an opinion. The same thing would apply to my various criticisms of my own government here in Canada. I don’t hate Canadians, or Norwegians, I simply have opinions about the policies of those governments. But if the country I am criticizing is Israel, well then some will say my views are what they are because I’m an anti-Semite, and I hate Jews, and as a result my opinions are summarily dismissed. This makes no sense to me. Ah, but you say, Israel is not Norway or Canada. Exactly! The only difference in these examples is the tragic history of the Jews, and yet I am the one labeled as a hater of people in one out of those three examples. That is incongruent.
As I've already stated I am very sympathetic to how the haunting memory of the Holocaust has become imprinted in the identity of Jews everywhere. I don't expect that to change. What I am hoping to accomplish here is simply to reopen the issue of blind support for Israel from the western church. If we believe that God is a God of justice, then we must be willing to consider all issues in that light. The alternative is to state clearly that God's concern for justice applies to every people group on the planet except the Palestinians. We simply cannot have it both ways.
Can we have that conversation?
* Here's a list of related posts
The People (Feb. 3)
Dead Dove in the Razor Wire (Feb. 5)
The Pushback (Feb. 6)
The Wall (Feb. 8)
The Refusnik Movement (Feb. 17. See also Stop Smiling and Do Something)
The People of Beit Sahour (Mar. 2)
The Daily Grind (Mar. 11)
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