New Film Examines American Jews’ Growing Rejection of Israel’s Occupation

this is democracy Now democracynow.org the Warren peace report I'm Amy Goodman six students have sued Harvard University accusing it of becoming a Bastion of rampant anti-jewish hatred and harassment and tolerating intensifying harassment of Jewish students since October 7th this comes as reports of anti-Semitism and islamophobia have soared nationwide but there's been a broader effort to restrict Pro Palestinian speech on college and university campuses and to conflate anti-Semitism with criticism of Israel's occupation and demands for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza the former Harvard president claudin gay was forced to resign earlier this month just weeks after the University of Pennsylvania president Liz McGill stepped down in the wake of congressional hearing on anti-Semitism where they were grilled by lawmakers including the far-right New York Congress member Elise stefanic the lawsuit against Harvard was filed by two law firms including the New York York based kasowitz Benson Tores which filed similar lawsuits against New York University and the University of Pennsylvania The Firm also as ties to the Trump Administration the lawsuit refers to student-led Marches On Harvard's campus in support of Palestinian rights as mobs of pramas students and faculty and singles out a screening at Harvard Divinity School in September of the new documentary israelism which examines the relationship between Jews in the United States and the state of Israel and the dissolution as they begin to question Israel's occupation of Palestine in a minute we'll speak with one of the film's directors and one of the main subjects this is the film's trailer some American Jews who come here say we came to Israel and we left from Palestine the non-jewish community does not understand our obsession with Israel I went to a Jewish Day School summer camp organized trips to Israel you want to go to Israel too yeah we want to go we want to go Israeli soldiers they're hot they're awesome they're strong we actually have had quite a few of our former students join the IDF these are kids these are 18 19y old amazing I told my parents I don't even need to apply to college I'm going to just join the Israeli military 10% of my graduating class joined the Israeli Army we were deployed to the West Bank I don't think I realize the extent to which what I would come to see on the ground would really Shock Me and horrify me when people look at the West Bank today and say this is an apartheid system it's not just throwing out a word Palestinians live in day in day out without experiencing a day of Freedom you see what non-democracy looks like what we've been told is that the only way that Jews can be safe is if Palestinians are not safe the more I learned about that the more I came to see that as a lie within the Jewish Community oh there's been a striking change they're really angry at the way they were indoctrinated justifiably so when we talk about we're losing the kids we're not we lost them I think they're a little super naive anytime you cut Against the Grain you're going to catch hell you are a self-loathing Jew go kill yourself an anti-semitic Jew the way that we talk about anti-Semitism isn't about protecting Jews it's about protecting Israel how dangerous is that they will do anything to preserve unconditional support for Israel the great irony is that there actually is resurgent anti-Semitism Jews will not replace [Music] US history is not going to judge us kindly that's the trailer for the documentary israelism for more we're joined in Toronto by Aaron axelman co-director of israelism the film's now on a 40 City screening tour in Canada and the United States here in New York we're joined by Simone Zimmerman Jewish American activist co-founder if not now one of the main protagonists of israelism we welcome you both to democracy Now Erin let's begin with you why did you make this film yeah this film is really based off my story it's based off a story of young American Jews learning a uh idealized and sanitized version of Israeli history and really falling in love with that history but come coming but upon coming into contact with Palestinians and Palestinian narratives having quite the roote Awakening upon learning about the horrific oppression of the Palestinian people so upon learning about the Noba and the occupation as a young person I wanted to do all I could in whatever way big or small to help change my own Jewish Community as well as to end the horrific oppression of the Palestinian people and I began trying to come into contact with more more people who had my who had similar experiences and I began to realize that my own story was part of a much larger generational change as hundreds of thousands of young American Jews begin to realize that to live out our Jewish values to the best of our ability we must fight for the freedom and equality of Palestinians while also fighting against anti-Semitism talk about the organizations that you Chronicle um that you sort of depict in this film those that are challenging uh the state of Israel and those that are supporting it that the other groups are taking on definitely we really uh Simone is the main character and protagonist in the film and we really try to tell a generational story and I'm telling my own story through Simone in many ways um we really Chronicle a variety of progressive Jewish groups uh including if not now Jewish voice for peace J Street and many others and then we also on the right document a lot of pro-israel groups we have Abe foxman as one of the main characters in the film uh the director merus and former head of the Anti-Defamation League we talk extensively about about Birthright in APAC and other groups that have tried to keep the status quo of unconditional support for Israel alive and well so let's bring uh Simone Zimmerman into this conversation why don't you tell us about your upbringing Simone uh talk about your allegiance to the state of Israel how it was instilled with you and then talk about your transformation absolutely I grew up in a Jewish Community where you know the Holocaust was a a formative part of my upbringing and I saw the defending the state of Israel as a core part of what it meant to keep the Jewish people safe it was a core Jewish commitment for me so much so that when I actually met anti-zionist Jews anti-zionist Israelis uh people who were fighting occupation and apartheid when I was a college student at UC Berkeley I couldn't even believe that those people existed they were an anomaly to me uh and the more I met those students and more importantly met Palestinian students learned about their lives about you know what it means for from the moment that you're born to live under a system that deems you lesser less worthy that you have to live under occupation and oppression and dispossession just because of who you are and where you were born I I very quickly ran out of of answers that felt moral and and logical to me to answer the hard questions that I was hearing from these students about how I could justify the oppression that lived under Simone I wanted to go to that moment at UC Berkeley you're a graduate of the University of California Berkeley a clip from israelism which features you in 2010 there when the student Senate failed to override a veto of a bill calling on campus officials to divest from companies that Supply weapons that Israel uses in the occupation of the Palestinian territories 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 devil 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 spell I I'm a human being 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 Zimmerman if you can talk about that moment at UC Berkeley what exactly was happening and how you decided to explore further the kind of questioning that actually also came out of your Jewish Education absolutely well you know first I want to say it's it's striking to have this conversation right now as you know the Israeli military has destroyed all the universities in GA Gaza right now and for me I remember when I was in that campus debate the the way that um this narrative about Jewish students being unsafe on campus is actually I think a deep conflation between being unsafe and being uncomfortable I was deeply uncomfortable I did not know about the realities that Palestinians lived under I was systematically denied in education about that reality and and to this day we see pro-israel organizations working to do everything they can to to change the topic away from Palestinian suffering onto Jewish discomfort you know what occupation and aparte are deeply uncomfortable we should all be uncomfortable and outraged by what's happening in Gaza right now and again as I already said The more I listened to Palestinian students testify about their realities the more it was undeniable to me that I I was missing a huge part of the story and I had to go find out more Ain axelman I wanted you to introduce us to etan an American who decides not to go to college first but to serve in the IDF um we're about to play a clip of him from our hands and threw him to the ground while he's still blindfolded in 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 grab him from me and they start beating him I I felt responsible but my commander wasn't saying anything so how could I say anything the 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 so that was Eton it reminds me of our previous guest uh maab abua describing being beaten by the IDF well he Aon came to serve in Israel in the IDF tell us more about him and his transformation yeah many American Jews are told that to defend the Jewish people and to be a good Jewish person one of the best things you can do is to join the Israeli military or support the Israeli military in the film we extensively interview a hill Educators and an Israel fellow at the U University of Connecticut and they openly brag about how many kids they've gotten to serve in the Israeli military um and that is deeply tragic and I've had friends American Jewish friends who have also served and they join as young people as 18-year-olds thinking that they're doing a great thing by defending the Jewish people and then many of them are sent to the occupied West Bank and they quickly realize that they are actually a cog in a system of apartheid A system that places you in a different legal system based upon the race you were born into and so many American Jews and some Israelis as well when they actually realize that this is what they're doing they're not defending the Jewish people they're actually defending a settlement expansionist program in the West Bank that is very literally a system of apthe uh it is devastating and it is heartbreaking obviously they're not the greatest victims the greatest victims of course are the pales Ians who have to face that apartheid um but it's inspiring to see U members uh of breaking the silence both Israelis and Americans speak out and say we thought we were joining to do something and we found out that we were actually again a a part of this apartheid system and they're going to do everything they can to end the system of occupation and apartheid and so we really wanted to include someone like him U because it's a common story and it's also the story of many of my friends uh who were served in the Israeli military realized that they were part of a system of apar are now doing all they can to end that system and Simone Zimmerman um you didn't serve in the IDF but you did go to Israel in the occupied territories you also for a moment what was it for two days became the Outreach coordinator for the Bernie Sanders campaign before a campaign was waged against you talk about your trajectory going to the occupied territories coming back founding if not now um yeah I I went you know I had grown up spending time in Israel I felt deeply connected to the place I thought I knew I thought I knew Israel um but the way that the apartheid system is actually built is such that Israeli Jews don't actually have to see the reality that Palestinians live under they can drive on roads you know they can drive on the side of the wall where they don't have to see what is on the other side the the daily Horrors and brutality and deep denial of of dignity and freedom that Palestinians live under and once I saw those realities with my own eyes once I met people who had been evicted from their homes who were denied basic freedom of movement um people just like me who want to live in in Freedom and safety who whose every piece of their lives have been uh destroyed and constricted by a system of Jewish Supremacy I couldn't unsee those things and again as Aaron has already spoke about this is a a story that thousands of Jewish people around the world have have encountered um and we know that it's so deeply contrary to our values as Jewish people to support this disgusting oppression and denial of of Freedom From Another people and I've I've been part of this generation that includes you know if not now and Jewish voice for peace and and many other groups that are taking on an outdated establishment that wants to enforce a pro-israel Orthodoxy and will do everything they can to attack and marginalize and silence anybody who desend from that Viewpoint you mentioned at the beginning of this uh segment the the lawsuit going on at Harvard University I I can't help but bring up right now the attacks that we've seen over the weekend on Derek penslar the director of uh a Jewish studies Center at Harvard University a world-renowned Jewish studies scholar and he has been attacked for being named to an anti-Semitism Task Force at Harvard just because he criticizes the Israeli government so we're seeing how far this establishment is willing to go to attack and marginalize anybody who doesn't tow that very strict and narrow Orthodoxy and and increasingly anybody who doesn't defend this this government's genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip and it's it's absurd but it's also deeply dangerous and offensive to those of us who are acting out of a deep place of intellectual Integrity of Jewish values of a commitment to Justice who want to build a world of genuine safety and freedom and dignity for Jewish people and for Palestinians and that Old Guard is more and more desperate to keep any of us out of out of public life and political life and certainly not to be legitimized as a legitimate Jewish voice finally Ain axelman you're in Canada um Simone is here in New York you're starting yet another tour of the film um as Simone mentioned um israelism is mentioned in the Harvard lawsuit equating anti-Semitism with um anti-zionism or criticism of the Israeli State your final thoughts as you the two of you travel both countries totally you know it's it's ironic you know there was four attempted cancellations uh of screenings that we had in the fall and on all of those screenings uh it was actually Jewish groups Jewish student groups or Jewish faculty who were bringing us to the venue or university so it's very ironic that under the guise of protecting Jewish students or fighting anti-Semitism administrators or venues are trying to cancel a film brought by Jewish people made by Jewish people about Jewish people and it just shows how confused this moment is and how all criticism of Israel even if it's being made by Jews is often considered anti-semitic and which is totally absurd and and really makes it much more difficult to fight real anti-Semitism and as we're about to do this screening this screening tour we're sure we're sure there's going to be quite a few attempted cancellations we just found out that Barnard's president uh is attempting to unilaterally cancel a screening of israelism uh in February we're working with the fact faculty and we will make the screening happen and we will fight all attempts to cancel our screenings and we'll also be part of the movement to fight back against attempted censorship of any pro Palestinian or Progressive Jewish voices Erin axelman co-director of israelism and Simone Zimmerman Jewish American activist co-founder of if not now

Channel: Democracy Now!

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Length: 19min 30sec (1170 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 22 2024