zionism_unsettled_scan

II
5 . A Jewish Theology
of Liberation
Jewish tradition teaches that peace and reconciliation
can only be achieved after a process of
repentance. And we can only repent after an
honest accounting of our responsibility in the
wronging of others. While it is true that none of
the Jews present tonight were actively involved
in the dispossession of Palestinians from their
homes in 1948, it is also true that if we deny or
remain silent about the truth of these events, pust
and present, we remain complicit in this crime. In
the words of Rabbi Abraham Hesche!, "In a irce
society some are guilty, but all are responsible."
"
ii
,I
'I
ji
Ifwe deny or
remain silent
about the truth of
these euents, past
and present, we
remain complicit
in this crime,
Rabbi Brant Rosen serves a Reconstructionist
1 congregation in Evanston, illinois, and
is co-chair of the Rabbinical Council of
Jewish Voice for Peace. In his recent book,
Wrestling in the Daylight: A Rabbi's Path to Palestinian
Solidarity, Rosen recounts If a powerful and sacred
experience."Jews and Palestinians met together in
his home on May 14, 2009, the 61st anniversary
of the Israeli declaration of independence. Their
purpose was to remember the Nakba (Catastrophe),
the displacement and dispossession from their land
of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians before and
after the creation of the state of Israel.
Similar commemorative events took place on
the same night in four US cities, initiated by a new
group, Rabbis Remembering the Nakba, who "believe
it is crucial that the Jewish community find a
way to honestly face the palnful truth of this eventand
in particular, Israel's role in it." These events
took place just as Israel was talking of banning the
commemoration of the Nakba in Israel. In 2011 the
Knesset enacted a law cutting off funds to organizatios
and institutions where the Nakba, the Palestinian
day of mowning, is commemorated.
The following statement was read to the groups
assembled in each of the four cities:
Our gatherings this evening bring together Jews
and Palestinians in this act of remembrance.
This coming together is an essential, courageous
choice. To choose to face this painful past together
is to begin to give shape to a vision of the future
where refugees go horne, when the OCCllPCltioll
is ended, when walls are tom down, and where
reconciliation is underWay.2
Here we have a rabbi, thoroughly immersed in
the Zionist tradition and a veteran of Israeli kibbutz
life, who comes to see the day of birth of the state of
Israel as a day of memory, soul-searching, and repelltance.
It's a modem-day conversion story of a modest
yet courageous rabbi wrestling with God aboLit the
meaning of Zionism in light of what he calls"thc
tragic sto!), of Jewish political nationalism.'"
The story began with Rosen's reaction to Operution
Cast Lead, Israel's 22-day war on Gaza in 2008-
2009. On December 28, 2008, he ended his blog post
with these words:
So, no more rationalizations. What Israel hus been
doing to the people of Gaza is an outrage. It has
brought neither safety nor security to the people
I
ABOUT THIS SECTION
This section is a condensed
and edited version of an
essay by Rabbi Brant Rosen
entitled "Rising to the Challenge:
A Jewish Theology of
Liberation" in Wagner and
Davis, eds., Zionism and the
Quest for Justice in the Holy
Land. The author is a Reeon·
structionist rabbi, Co-chair
of the Rabbinical Council of
Jewish Voice for Peace, and
author of Wrestling in the
Daylight: a Rabbi's Path to
Palestinian Solidarity, 2012.
Rabbis Remembering the Nakba ... are united in
our common conviction that we cannot view Yom
Ha'atzmaut [Israeli Independence Day]-or what
is for Palestinians the Nakba-as an occasion for
celebration. Guided by the values of Jewish tradition,
we believe that this day is more appropriatelyan
occasion for zikaron (memory), cheshbon
nefesh (soul searching), and teshuvah (repentance).
These spiritual values compel us to .acknowledge
the following: that Israel's founding is inextricably
bound up with the dispossession of hundreds of
thousands of indigenous inhabitants of the land,
that a moment so many Jews consider to be the
occasion of national liberation is the occasion of
tragedy and exile for another people, and that the
violence begun in 1948 continues to this day. This
is the truth of our common history-it cannot be
denied, ignored, or wished away.
January 9, 2009. A Palestinian woman and her child walk in
front of the rubble of a building following an Israeli airstrike
in the Rafah refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, during Operation
Cast lead.
32
ZIONISM UNSETTLED