Last Wednesday, eight Jewish Canadian and Israeli women occupied the Israeli consulate in Toronto to protest the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. They were arrested and held for an hour (rather reluctantly on the part of the cops, I’m told) and then released without charges.
Today I found out that they’d taped it (one of the women is a filmmaker) and posted it to YouTube:
I’ve been protesting outside of that consulate for years now, though not as often recently because of my schedule. A lot of these women have been fighting even longer, through massacres and ceasefires and intifadas and periods of peace that weren’t really peaceful. But there’s something about this particular action that I find particularly compelling—its spontaneity, its creativity, the simple and effective statement that it makes—and apparently I’m not the only one, because they’ve received messages of support from all over the world.
I often feel like I’m repeating myself, saying: “I’m a Jewish woman. I don’t agree with what Israel is doing to the people of Palestine.” I forget sometimes that it’s still in some ways a necessary and even radical statement to make, to draw the line between Jew and Zionist (and Israeli and Zionist), to draw the line between ethnic identity and human solidarity and community. To state explicitly that Palestine, and other struggles, is a feminist issue.
And I salute these women for reminding me of that.
Thank you for posting this. It is important, I think, to draw the distinction between people and government. Criticizing Israel is not anti-semitic, it is simply a necessary humanitarian action.
Thank you. I wish more people thought the same way.
Way to go! I too am anti-Israel, though not anti-Semetic