Comments on: On Gaza

By: rawi

rawi — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 18:08:16 +0000

These are some remarkable reflections and I wish I had read them earlier. I have often thought about the question of Jewish dissent, but it obviously became a more pressing concern during the last few weeks. It so happens that a (self-identified secular humanist) Jewish friend/classmate of mine posted a note on Facebook to explain why she felt uncomfortable about a lot of the material circulating on Facebook. She was, for example, vexed by the video clip on the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish group in NYC protesting against Israel, because she felt that “focusing on a small group who don’t believe in Israel’s right to exist (because they believe that the true state of Israel can only be established by the Messiah) does a disservice to those Jews who question Israel’s actions without questioning its right to exist.” She also raised the issue of conflating Israel with Judaism, which made me ask: how do non-Jews like myself respect the wish of those Jews who do want Israel to be the Jewish state? While I openly differed from my friend’s admittedly “conflicted” stance on Gaza, I found her questions very thought provoking–all the more so because, having been an occasional student of medieval Jewish history and of Jewish minorities in the non-Western world, I always almost self-righteously assumed that I know better than do most American Jews themselves. But even as I wondered about this problem, it didn’t occur to me to draw the conceptual parallel between this and the way we feel about the media’s take on Muslim activists. A very helpful comparison, I think–though the problem remains unresolved. I suspect we’ll have to think about identity politics more broadly. The Ackerman link is interesting.

By: fathima

fathima — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:32:09 +0000

someone got to this post by doing a google search for “a beautiful sentence about gaza.”
oh god.

By: pandagon.net

pandagon.net — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 16:47:50 +0000

[...] Anyway, my point about the Egyptians was only that, contrary to nearly all mainstream American discourse on the issue, it’s perfectly possible to blame Hamas while simultaneously deploring Israel’s actions in response. And – in my mind more importantly, at least in the short run – to recognize that no matter what the driving forces, the problem now is the incredible level of devastation being wrought on an already oppressed group. Here is a list of several people doing just that, courtesy of Fathima Cader. [...]

By: » Progressive Jews tested by new Gaza war … Talk Islam

» Progressive Jews tested by new Gaza war … Talk Islam — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 22:43:52 +0000

[...] post that provides that doc with some context is at http://run.likethewind.ca/2009/01/gaza/ [...]

By: Alas, a blog » Blog Archive » Links to Israeli and Jewish voices opposing Israelâ€™s attacks on Gaza

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 20:43:34 +0000

[...] Fathima Cader writes: I posted a note on my Facebook profile of a list of Israel and Jewish voices opposing Israelâ€™s attacks on Gaza (Word Doc). It begins, â€œContrary to what popular media in North America claims, there are critical voices in Israel and among American Jews.â€ Though I put it up, I paused before writing that sentence, particularly the bit about American Jews, because of how uncomfortable I feel when people write carelessly about resistance movements among Muslims. I wondered if I was being just as condescending as others are when they take Muslim activists out of context in order to use their comments to bolster their own self-righteousness. [...] [...]

By: fathima

fathima — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:43:38 +0000

sure, go ahead.

By: Ampersand

Ampersand — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:32:53 +0000

If you’d give me permission, I’d like to post it on my blog.

By: adnan.

adnan. — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 01:10:03 +0000

re “looking”, well put.

By: fathima

fathima — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:59:16 +0000

Done. It’s up now as a Word Doc – http://run.likethewind.ca/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/otherisraels.doc
I’ll have it up as a PDF once I figure out how to get the printing program not to kill my links.

By: Ampersand

Ampersand — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:32:02 +0000

Excellent post. I know what you mean — both about wanting to read Jewish voices and not wanting it to be about that, and about avoiding the photos.

I do have one request:

I posted a note on my Facebook profile of a list of Israel and Jewish voices opposing Israelâ€™s attacks on Gaza. [...] Ultimately, I think the links I put up are ones that need to be read, because the papers I read are doing a troublingly good job of not giving them publicity.

I’d like to see the list. Any chance that you’d post it somewhere other than Facebook? I don’t have a Facebook account, so I can’t see it.