Chase Carter
State of Exception
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For there is a link to be made between what happened to the Jews in World War II and the catastrophe of the Palestinian people, but it cannot be made only rhetorically, or as an argument to demolish or diminish the true content both of the Holocaust and of 1948. Neither is equal to the other; similarly, neither one nor the other must be minimized. There is suffering and injustice enough for everyone. But unless the connection is made by which the Jewish tragedy is seen to have led directly to the Palestinian catastrophe, by let us call it “necessity� (rather than pure will), we cannot coexist as two communities of detached and uncommunicatingly separate suffering.
– Edward Said
State of Exception An Artist Publication by Chase Carter
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Preface This book seeks to bring about a dialogue related to the connections and conflations between Palestinian- and Jewish-American personal and collective identity, memory, and politics. This is not a sociological, or anthropological survey. This is not meant as a comprehensive representation of opinions. It is merely an attempt to magnify a few voices in the crowd. It is also an attempt to demonstrate that, within each group, there is no unanimous agreement. As Judith Butler recently stated during one of her lectures, “There is no Jewish consensus on Israel. There is no Jewish dinner table that has consensus on Israel.� It is also essential to remember that these identities do not equate with one another, however both share commonalities: the experiences of diaspora, the memories of persecution and exile, and of course Israel the land of Palestine.
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Pre-1947
Pre-1947 refers to the British Mandate of Palestine, before the establishment of Israel.
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What comes to mind when you think of Israel?
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Adam: A lot of things come to mind. I mean, oppression is really the overarching theme whenever I think of Israel, because as a Palestinian in America, anytime the topic of Israel comes up, it’s almost always as a story that ultimately means more oppression for Palestinian people. It was actually not until recently, when I started doing start-ups and working in entrepreneurship, and Israel has a pretty decent entrepreneurial community, that I ever saw Israel in a non-political sense, because other than that it’s the people that are stealing land and creating this ridiculously effective propaganda machine against my family, my people, and the way I grew up. I want to not say the word evil, because it paints a black-and-white picture of someone, but the word does come to mind. I think it’s an important distinction that when I say Israel – and this is something I’ve come across within my life where you get called anti-Semitic and all these things – so when I say I’m against Israel, I’m against all of these things, it means that you’re against the Israeli government and Israeli policies. It’s not even that you’re against the people, unless they support those policies. Jewish, non-Jewish, if you support the policies of Israel, you are a part of this machine that I think has to be reformed, not only for the Palestinian culture but for the Israeli culture itself. Ron: Of Israel? Oh many things. The homeland of the Jews. Conflict. Having been to Israel, it has left a different impression on me than before. It was actually really nice to go there. It was really interesting. Although, I didn’t know who the Palestinians were, everyone else did. They all knew who they were. Anwar: I’m gonna say, y’know, a lot of good things believe it or not. Y’know they have born a lot of technology and foresight and development to the country. But at the same time, I would say that the first thing that comes to my mind is that they have built a country on the back of other peoples’ lands and resources and its wrong. It should be corrected in one way or another.
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Anna: The conflicts are the defining thing of Israel to me. I don’t really think about the people. I mean, I think about the people, but only in terms of the conflict. If I probe deeper, I start thinking about how I have family there. How I have family that have traveled there, how many friends I have who have traveled there, and how they all tell me I have to go. But, the first thing that comes to mind is conflict. Yasmine: Oh god. I just think, I don’t know. The oppressor. Yeah, I guess I would say that. I think of those tense moments when someone says they’re Israeli and I say I’m Palestinian, and it’s that ‘uhh...’ reaction, when we’re both faced with that moment. Roxanne: I think about the beauty of the country, the progress they’ve created in the sixty years they’ve been around. I think about how every cornerstone is paved with the blood of a young Jewish person, from wars when they first started out – attacked by so many different countries, during their growth process. I think about the universities and the tremendous advancements they’ve made in medicine, in technology - the country they’ve developed. Ahmed: A prejudiced country. A fascist country. They take the land of our people. It is not their land. They want no peace. They want no peace. Chase: I think about the flag of Israel – the Star of David, with the blue and white colors. I think about the desert, and camels, and imagery I’ve seen through tourism sites. I also think about Tel Aviv, and the white modernist houses and apartments. Then, I think about the conflict. I think about how I’ve been told how different Israelis’ lives are than my own – in regards to the danger they feel every day. I also think about how conservative it is there, and how things are moving toward the right wing. I also think about how it’s supposed to be the Jewish homeland.
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What comes to mind when you think of Palestine?
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Ron: Well, again, conflict. The idea that there is a group of people who are the Palestinians, who consider themselves having a rightful interest in a particular region of land. I really don’t know that much about Palestine. I know that’s what it was called before it became Israel. That’s about it. Anwar: I’m Palestinian, so what comes to mind is the lovely people that I’ve met – really nice people. Olive trees come to mind. Kunafa, which is a Palestinian sweet from Jerusalem comes to mind. The place that my father’s from, and my father’s father, and his father. And, our lands that I love and hope to live out a latter of a part of my life in happiness, hopefully, in no occupation. Anna: Similarly. I think of conflict. I can’t think of Palestine as concretely as Israel, because all the images I see of Palestine are of destruction, of Gaza or the other cities. And so, it doesn’t really seem like a tangible place to me, because it’s defined by conflict and destruction. Yasmine: Some sad shit. My dad. Family. People dying. But then, I think of political Palestine and then cultural Palestine. I think of Palestinian and Arab culture and how they’ve been an oppressor to other Arabs - specifically, to my mom’s people from Morocco. So, I also think of the negative side of Palestinians and how I don’t even have a good relationship with that side of my family. But, I also think of a solidarity with them and the political issue, because I am Palestinian. Roxanne: I think of oppression, of ghettoism. I think that these are a people who are controlled by a government they have no say in, and nothing really to do about what’s happening to them. I think that they, the people themselves, have no political voice. I think that they’re being terribly persecuted. I think it’s wrong what’s being done to these people.
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Ahmed: Palestinian people, you know, they lost their country. They want to live like any human being, any people who want their own country. And, they don’t ask for much, from the Israelis. Israelis don’t want to give them nothing. They want to take the whole thing. They try to make peace. But, Israel, they want no peace. Chase: Well, in regards to landscape and imagery, I think about similar things – the desert, white and beige homes. But, I think about how all those things are destroyed, or in disrepair, or don’t have clean water or proper electricity, or things like that. That it’s this place that in all respects should be the same as Israel, because it’s the same land, but it’s in disrepair. I also think about the activism that’s going on – both nonviolent and violent. I think about the Arab people that live there, and yeah, that’s it. Adam: Good food! I mean it comes at the opposite of all of these issues. Unfortunately, in my lifetime, these two ideas come hand-in-hand. Most of the time, the Palestinian side of the issue have been the victims or the demonized. You know, you have terrible crimes of suicide bombings and all these things, but people don’t look at the bigger context of those issues. So, for me, it starts off being the culture, the food, the family, going to a wedding and seeing all these things. But, by and large it really means this greater struggle that every Palestinian inherits, because we’re a people that are spread across the entire world now. You know, there’s a lot of analogies between what the Jewish people claim 150 years ago and what the Palestinians are experiencing right now. Being Palestinian, the thought of Palestine is an oppressive burden, where you somehow have to maintain your culture in a place where your people are demonized for a place where your people are oppressed, and its kind of a sad series of circumstances. But, first thing’s food, and that’s always happy.
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Have you ever been to, or lived in Palestine? Israel
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Anwar: Yes, I’ve been to Palestine at least fifteen times. I went to school there when I was 11 and 12 at a Quaker school in Ramallah called Friends Boys’ School. I’ve traveled good parts of Israel and good parts of Palestine and I love it all. I just wish there was piece. Anna: No, I haven’t, but I’m going on Birthright this January. Yasmine: No. Roxanne: I have been to Israel. I have been to Palestine, maybe thirty years ago. I was there in Israel and Palestine as guests of the Tel Aviv University Theatre Department, and we went through some of the Bedouin areas. We went through some of the villages that are probably the same today thirty years later than they were at that time. There was terrible poverty and neglect, and you saw children who should’ve been in school, playing in the streets, filthy dirty. And, it broke your heart. Going through on the bus, they told us we had to be very careful, and there were certain places we could not go. Ahmed: I was born there – August 10, 1949. I left Palestine in 1972, and I’ve been back twice since then. The first time I went back was in 1998. It was bad when I went back. They had no jobs, people were struggling. They got no land to live in, too many people, but not much space. I’ve also been to Israel – it was beautiful. I just went through - from the Tel Aviv airport to Gaza. I just saw along the road going to Gaza. They built it nice, they built it beautiful. Clean, very nice. Chase: No, I haven’t, but I am planning on going to both Israel and Palestine this January. Adam: One time. I went to Palestine after I graduated college in 2011. I went for three weeks. So that was the only time I was ever there. Ron: Well I’ve never lived there. I’ve been twice to Israel. I’ve never been to Palestine. Although when you drive in Israel, I believe you pass through Palestine.
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Do you have any relatives that live in Palestine? Israel
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Anna: I have a few distant cousins that live in Israel. Yasmine: Yes, I have two half-sisters that live in Gaza. I probably have more family, but I don’t know who or where exactly. Roxanne: No relatives that live there, no. Ahmed: My house is still there, which is where one of my daughters Aneesa lives. I still have twenty relatives there, in Gaza. Some of them also live in Saudi Arabia, in Lebanon, in Syria, all over. Chase: No, I don’t. Adam: Tons. Our village is still really close. I don’t know how true that is across the world. But, the people in New Jersey and especially the people from my village, our connection with the people who live over there is very close. Everyone goes back once in every five years at least. This is what my dad does. We send money there. We try to support each other. The communication is back and forth. My step-mom has siblings that live over there, and across the United States as well. So, yes, I have family there. Ron: Well, we have our Israeli relatives who originated in Israel – came to Palestine before it became a country [pre-1948]. And, they are kibbutzniks. I’ve met some of them, though the ones I’ve met are quite elderly. They are contemporaries of my parents, so they are in their 70s and 80s. And, I met their mother, who was my great-aunt, and she came to my Bar Mitzvah. So, I knew her a little bit. They all originate from my grandfather’s side of the family, as do more recent immigrants to Israel, who have moved there in the last 30 years – French cousins who have moved to Israel. They were extremely observant, in France when they were there, and now that they are in Israel. Even though the parents didn’t move, the children, who are my contemporaries, moved to Israel for religious purposes. Specifically, to be able to pray at the Western Wall, and to be able to study the Talmud and Torah, and to be very,
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very pious Jews. I don’t know how they make a living at all, but they live in Israel to be Jewish, on all levels. But, they certainly don’t recognize my approach to Judaism. Anwar: Yes, I have cousins and aunts, and my last uncle has traveled back and forth, and I have a lot of dear friends that live in Palestine. Some of my in-laws live in Palestine, who I love dearly. Yes, I do have quite a bit of family who live there, in Palestine. I do know a lot of Israelis who travel back and forth.
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1947
These borders refer to the 1947 UN Partition Plan to divide Palestine into two lands, one for Jews and one for Arabs, with Jerusalem operating under international governance. This partition plan was never implemented due to its rejection by Arab leaders.
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Palestine is a land for a people
Attributed to many Christian and Jewish Zionists during the late 19th Century, but most famously to Anthony Ashley-Cooper, Israel Zangwill, and William Eugene Blackstone.
without a people, without a land.
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Are Israel and Palestine important to you?
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Yasmine: Yes. It’s important to me as a person who’s Arabic, who’s Palestinian, as a person whose father’s pained everyday by what’s happening over there. So, it’s extremely important to me to be politically aware of what’s happening there, but it’s also frustrating because there’s nothing I can do. Roxanne: Yes. Israel is important to me because I lived through the Second World War, I lived through the Holocaust, fortunately in America. But, being informed through the news and media, we knew what was going on, and when the people were dispersed from the camp, they had nowhere to go. They didn’t want to go back to the cities and countries where they were persecuted, and they needed a place to go. So, yes, Israel is important to me because I’m a Jew. And, knowing what the Jews have been through – persecution for so many years – it was important for them to have a state to go to, and have a place to call home. They had no homes. Since the dispersion of the Jews from Israel thousands of years ago, they’ve really had no homes. They’ve been persecuted in every country they’ve lived in, and constantly pushed out. So, yes, Israel is important to me for those reasons. Palestine is important to me because these people have a right to survive. Because the Arabs that live there are also persecuted at this time, and its important for them to have a home as well. A lot of them have been expelled from their own countries of origin – from Jordan, some from Syria, from different parts of the Middle East. Ahmed: Important to me?! Because it is my country. It’s my home, I was born there, grew up there. Chase: Yeah, they’re really important to me. They’ve become more important over the last six months or so, since this summer of violence in Gaza. For most of my life, it was supposed to be important to me, where it was supposed to be a place I wanted to go visit. A place where Jews would be happy to live. I was never really interested in Israel. I wasn’t very religious, and so it never seemed that appeal-
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ing to me. But, as I’ve gotten older, I’m really interested in politics of all sorts, and so Israel, politically, because of the conflicts there, has become really important to me. It’s really important to me because as a Jewish person, whether I like it or not, I’m connected to Israel. And so, I’m kind of embracing that. I’m obviously not embracing the identity of feeling Israeli or something, but embracing that people are going to connect me to Israel, and so how am I going to represent my own views on Israel, and how am I going to represent my Judaism differently than Israel represents Jewishness. But, Palestine is important to me for a lot of the same reasons. While I’m interested in politics and human rights and things like that, I guess I focus more on the Palestinian issue nowadays because I feel that in one way or another, while I’m not actually in any way connected to the people who commit violence against Palestinians – Israelis and the Israeli army – I am connected to them in that they represent my culture. I don’t feel that all Jews have the responsibility towards Palestinian people, towards Israel. If you want nothing to do with it, that’s fine, but I feel because I’m Jewish I do have a responsibility to care about Israel and care about Palestine. In the same way that I feel, as a human being, I have a responsibility to care about all human beings. Adam: Quite. Very important. Why is it important? I mean, as a human being I think it’s this grave human injustice that has occurred. As a Palestinian, it’s my heritage, where the customs I grew up with originated, and it seems to be a threatened culture that who knows how long it will last if the state of things continue on this way. So it’s very important, not just personally for my identity and for Palestinians’ identity, but I think it’s also a grave civil rights abuse, human rights abuse that all people should be concerned with. Ron: Well, Israel’s important to me as a place for Jewish people to be able to live, more as an idea. For me, it’s not an important destination as far as a place to live, for me personally, but I recognize as a Jewish homeland it
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I am a third generation Jewish-American. My paternal grandfather’s parents, Helen and David, immigrated to the US from Poland in 1929. They were not religious, but Dave came from a very observant family who was resistant to the idea of leaving Poland. Helen and Dave arrived in the US in the early 1930s, raised my grandfather in Brooklyn, and watched nervously from afar as their family experienced increased antisemitism. Some of my relatives who did not immigrate before the war perished in the Holocaust. Starting when I was young, my father loved to tell me the story of one of the few relatives who survived, his greataunt Anna. Anna was sent to a camp where she and others were gathered together and were told that they would be killed the next day. That next day, she was transferred to Auschwitz. At the next camp, they made the same threat. Amazingly enough, the following day was liberation. After the war, she aided in the Red Cross for some time to help refugees. During this time, she arranged passage to New York. Prior to the war, Anna’s fiancé, Hymie, had emigrated from Poland to New York and Anna had planned to follow soon after. They lost contact during the war, but Hymie kept his faith that Anna would return. Hymie was unsure of Anna’s status and he went to the port everyday to wait for her to come in. He had no way to know what had happened to her, that she had been taken to a camp, but he continued to check for her. Finally, one day, she arrived and he was there waiting and they were reunited. Soon they married and lived the rest of their lives together.
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provides a little possibility of sanctuary for Jews, not in a religious sense, but the idea that you have a place where you can go and achieve instant citizenship. In regards to Palestine, I believe all people deserve to have a home. I don’t know much about the conflict in regards to Palestinians and their interest in Palestine. So it has importance to me, because it’s sad that there’s so much fighting in that region, but I don’t know if it has anything to do with the actual territory, as much as it has to do with harder to define problems. Anwar: Well, Israel and Palestine are both important to me. The reason is that’s where my parents come from and my grandparents. That’s where my history comes. Though, I’ve been born and raised in the United States, which is a country that I love and feel just as strong about. I feel my attachment to Palestine, or Israel, or whatever you’d like to call it, is very strong. I feel that one day, I’d like to retire there and enjoy my life there – just feel comfortable in my skin there. Anna: I feel like I’m told they’re supposed to be important to me. Jews and Americans in general are encouraged to give a lot of attention to that conflict in particular. I also give it attention because you’re studying it, because so many friends and family have been to Israel. They’re also important generally to me because I’m concerned with human rights. Obviously, there are violations going on there. Personally, when I think about myself, my main concern is not this conflict, but it’s important to me like a lot of other issues are. It’s been growing in importance for me for a few reasons. I’ve encountered more antisemitism in the past year than I ever have before. I grew up in a very Jewish area, and while I was aware antisemitism existed in the world, I never came face to face with it until this past year when I was abroad [in the UK]. So, I feel a stronger kinship to Jews than I used to. And then, for that reason, and because a lot of Jewish discussions revolve around Israel, it’s taken on more importance.
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There were no such When was there Palestinian people state? It was not as Palestinian people in itself as a Palestinian and threw them out away from them.
Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel, 1969-1974
thing as Palestinians. an independent with a Palestinian though there was a Palestine considering people and we came and took their country They did not exist.
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How do you feel your identity (cultural, ethnic, religious, or national) Israel affects your relationship to Palestine?
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Roxanne: I think that because I grew up at the time that I did – in the 40s, particularly – I was very young and very impressionable. What was happening to the Jewish population in Europe was on everyone’s tongue. People were talking about it constantly, and there was a great fear that it could come here. They used to have Nazi-bund meetings in the United States, and people were afraid at that time that we could also be persecuted, as Jews, like the European Jews were. There was a lot of antisemitism I experienced growing up. So, Israel is important to me because I’m from a generation of people that lived through the Holocaust. Who had friends whose families were murdered, whole families just slaughtered for no reason – just because they were Jews. I don’t agree with all the politics that go on in Israel, but then, I’m an American and I don’t live there. It’s hard for me to speak as an Israeli citizen might speak, because they have a different point of view than I do as an American. As an American, I see that they break the rules of humanitarianism, and that affects me. I would like to see things changed there. Ahmed: I still have family over there. I still have cousins. My people are over there. It’s nothing changed. I am American. I love the United States, but I still have a lot of feelings for my country. Nothing’s changed for me since moving to America and becoming an American. Chase: Well, I answered this a bit already, but essentially because I’m Jewish, I grew up with a lot of education about Israel. To be honest, it was all really superficial. I never really learned anything about the Knesset, or the Prime Ministers, or even the wars. Just that Israel was a wonderful place, it was beautiful, it was prosperous, it had amazing advancements, it was democratic, and that we should support it because antisemitism will never go away. Because antisemitism will never go away, there’s this fear that it’s a constant form of racism that just goes up and down in history. And so, Israel is a safe place for Jews and it’s a place where Jews can be Jews
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without being judged. And, that’s a really cool thing. I’ve never been to Israel, but even imagining Israel, I don’t think I would ever want to live there, but I often do like living in places where there are lots of Jewish people. It makes me more comfortable. And so, I can understand the connection to Israel that Jews have. But, on the other hand, Israel, due to both Jews, non-Jews, people who love Jews, and anti-Semites, Israel represents all Jews, and therefore represents me. I would like to, in a way, deny that representation. The Israeli government, first and foremost, only really represents its government. Second, it represents Israeli people, not all Israeli people, but some Israeli people. And, it represents people who donate to Israel, including Jewish people, Evangelical Christians, and our government – the US. So that’s how my cultural identity relates to Israel. I have to say that if I wasn’t Jewish I wouldn’t care about Israel and Palestine as much. If I weren’t Jewish, but still American, I still think I would have some sort of responsibility around the issue because the Israel’s actions cannot continue if the US stops its support for it. I mean, country after country is condemning Israel’s actions, but the US chooses not to. So, as an American, I would like to be involved in changing the US opinion of Israel’s actions. In regards to Palestine, well, I guess I’ve answered that already. My relationship to Israel through my culture and my national identity affects my relationship to Palestine, for all those reasons. That I feel I’m responsible, not responsible for what’s happening in Palestine, but if I choose to ignore it, I’m responsible for it continuing. Adam: Well I definitely side more with Palestinian causes than I do with Israeli causes. I’d like to think it’s because I’m a passionate human being that cares about human rights. Whenever I talk to people about Palestinian-Israeli issues, I always go along and say, ‘y’know what we’re going to have differing opinions, we’re going to think that one side deserves more than the other, but let’s just start off with the basic fact that people should stop murdering other people.’ And, when you have 1,200 people die in
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My dad was born in 1949 in Gaza. My dad always described Gaza as a paradise. He would say, “Yasmine, you wake up in the morning, you drink a cup of tea, you sit on your porch and relax, you go to the beach, you catch fish, it is beautiful, but Yasmine, here in America life is work.” My dad as a child would go to the beach everyday, and when he came here when we were young he would take us to the pool or the beach at least once a week, he loved the sun, the sand, the freedom. Around the age of 18, my dad left Gaza for Beirut to study at the university there, and majored in Geography. I am not sure at what age my dad left for America exactly, because, to be honest, I do not know much about my father. Everything I know about him is stories that his sister told her kids, who told my mother because she speaks to them. However I do know my dad left for America because his sister lived there; he moved for the same American rhetoric “the land of opportunity.” That was the last time my dad lived in the Middle East, and specifically he hasn’t been to Gaza since he was 18. I am not entirely sure about how my dad felt about America upon initially moving to it, but most importantly I do know how my dad feels about America now. He hates it, plain and simple. He is absolutely miserable. Gaza was his dream, his paradise that has forever been ingrained into his memory as the place he left it in 1966, the place where he grew, the place he loved. I believe my dad hates America for multiple reasons - work, family, quality of life. In the Middle East, a lot of the work environment is less stressful than a lot of jobs in America. My dad owns a grocery
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a weekend because of rocket attacks and school’s being shut down and energy being stopped, you start to feel with the Palestinians more. So, I definitely side more with that side of the issue, but also my national identity really comes to play in America. When I’m talking about the issue, I really feel like I have to be an expert for somebody to believe me, or they’ll just assume that anything I’m saying is just because I’m Palestinian. So, for me, the bat for activism is so much higher because I’m not even trusted, or my opinion isn’t taken for what it is. I’m okay with that. I think everybody’s opinions should be criticized heavily, but my opinions are definitely more than the next guy’s are, which I’m fine with because I know my stuff, so I’m fine with answering any question anybody might have. Ron: I don’t think of a relationship to Palestine in regards to an immediate identity of mine. I don’t think of it as a destination. In regards to national identity, I don’t have the same interest that the US has in protecting Israel on a national level, because of interest in oil [in the Middle East]. I think it’s not a good reason, but I guess if we need a reason, and that’s the only one the US can stand behind, then I guess we have to live with that. I approach Judaism from a cultural standpoint. So, that’s my cultural stance in regards to the desire to see an Israel exist. To me, I think the idea of the Diaspora is that by virtue of being Jewish, not necessarily through deity, we are actually on the outposts. We are actually intended to be where we are, that we shouldn’t be in Israel. That we are bringing Israel elsewhere and the idea of Jewishness and Jewish ideology and Jewish charity and tzedakah and all of that. And bring that to other parts of the globe, and when we travel to other parts of the globe, that aren’t Israel, we seek it out and identify with it. My mother, every time she would go traveling, no matter where it was, would open the phone book to see if there was a temple. She was always interested. She would look up all the Jewish names in the phone book, just to identify. I think that’s an important thing – the concept of Jewish geography. We like to know. Ask my
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in one of the most dangerous streets in America, Tamarind Ave [West Palm Beach, Florida], where he has seen the worst of the worst of people. His perception of Americans has been created out of his negative experiences working there. Also, my dad explains his father as being one of the most important people in Gaza. People would come to his father for advice, help, conversation, fun. He explains his house as being a place where everyone could gather to drink some tea, and actually experience life. Nothing compared to how life is experienced here. Which brings me to quality. Over all, I believe that my dad values quality of life much more in Gaza than anything compared to the quality of life in America. People are weak here, cruel and ready to take your money at any moment. In Gaza, my dad was surrounded by people he trusted, loved, and cared for. The thing is though, I am not entirely sure if my dad sees Gaza in the condition that it stands today. He has somehow created his own depiction of Gaza as if it is frozen in time from when he had left it. I believe that my father has created some deeply ingrained hatred towards himself and everyone around him for the life he has to experience now, or the fact that he is not experiencing life whatsoever and has not experienced life since he’s come to the US. The only way he acknowledges the state of Palestine today is by hating everything around him. I don’t intend this to be me speaking ill of my father, he still is a hard working man who has provided me financial support my entire life, even with his emotional state, but his emotional state has affected us as a family. My dad certainly feels extremely strong towards Gaza, but has never made any attempt to return to
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children: anytime we talk about someone who has done something, “oh, you know they were Jewish!” It comes up all the time. It’s like the NAACP, started [in part] by Jewish people, because we feel the importance of that - not to be righteous or to be praised for doing something, but to do something because it’s the right thing to do. Israel is not conceptually a place, but as it’s been posed to me by rabbis and texts, it’s the people. The people is what Israel is. We are the people, and therefore we make up what Israel is. We are Israel. We are the ambassadors. We are the people who are in our various outposts, bringing that kind of ideology of what Judaism is to people. To me, that’s more important than just being in a tiny spot of land. First of all, it couldn’t accommodate us all. If we all moved there, “Hey, we’re all here! Oh…boy these rooms are small.” We’d just be crowded there. The [Jewish] ideology, you feel it when you’re there. You hear about Palestinian schools that are started by Jews, and all sorts of outreach by progressive Jews to support Palestinian- and Jewish-Israeli dialogue, resolutions, and things like that. The fundamentalists don’t generally do so well in the outposts, because they’re so darn strident. We know how to take things with a grain of salt. Anwar: Like I said I was born and raised in America, so when you live in America, you’re used to all the freedom and liberties America gives you – which is more than what most countries around the globe – so indeed you might say I’m spoiled in that matter, or that’s the way it should be. So, when you travel to Palestine, the first place you stop off is Ben-Gurion Airport, which is Israeli territory, and you start feeling the discrimination and racism of being a Palestinian right at the door, right at the gate, right in the plane. The effect is that you don’t get used to it. You learn how to live with it, or around it, but you just don’t get used to being occupied. It’s not a good feeling. I don’t think the Israelis would like it either if they were occupied. I think they would rebel and do something about it as well. Yet, being Palestinian in the Occupied – in Palestine, I don’t
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the Middle East or Gaza in general, or even visit, even though he hates America. I am not sure entirely why, maybe its fear, the fear of seeing the truth of what has actually happened to your people, your state, the place you last saw your parents, where they died. Maybe he uses America as a shield to protect himself from the actual horrors of Gaza, but that simultaneously makes him hate himself and everything else because he cannot come to physical terms with Gaza, if he was to return from the place he has created in his mind. It is easy to sit inside a country to criticize its policies, to contribute to lack of change of your environment and be apart of the cycle of irrational hate, and that’s what he has done, what many defeated people have done. He’s hidden himself from the place that hurts him the most.
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like to call them the Occupied Territories, because it’s Palestine. Anna: I was raised Jewish, I had a bat mitzvah, and I was confirmed in the Jewish faith. For most of my life, I did not associate my Judaism with Israel, at all. When I had my bat mitzvah, they told me I was now eligible for a trip to Israel and encouraged me to go. To me, Judaism was much more of a cultural and learning experience than it was related specifically to Israel. I am not as well acquainted as I should be for someone that went to Hebrew school for so long, but Judaism tends to promote certain tenets, and I feel there’s a disassociation between those tenets and Israel’s policies towards Palestine. Yasmine: I think that, one, it gets kind of annoying because when people hear me say I’m pro-Palestine, it is only based off me being Palestinian. There is no sort of rationality to me being pro-Palestine, which is super frustrating. Clearly, I agree with Palestine on the political issues. So, I think it’s completely bullshit that my nationality has been infused with my attitude towards it. I like to think that I’m a more rational person that can separate themselves from their nationality and their identity, which I have been doing my entire life while being also American. With Israel, it’s a threat to my people - the death of my people. So that’s how it affects my relationship to Israel.
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1967
These borders refer to the Green Line set during the 1949 Armistice Agreements, following what is referred to as either the War of Independence, or the Nakba (Arabic for “Catastrophe�). These were the borders between 1949 and 1967.
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What are your thoughts on Birthright?
According to its website, Taglit-Birthright Israel “provides a gift of peer group, educational trips to Israel for Jewish young adults ages 18 to 26. Taglit-Birthright Israel’s founders created this program to send young Jewish adults from all over the world to Israel as a gift in order to diminish the growing division between Israel and Jewish communities around the world; to strengthen the sense of solidarity between Israeli youth and Jewish communities throughout the world; and to promote the idea of a trip to Israel for all Diaspora Jews as a critical part of Jewish life outside of Israel.” More information can be found at www.birthrightisrael.com.
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Ahmed: It’s a problem. The Israelis think they are God’s chosen people. Everybody else is no good. They are the only people close to God. The rest is bullshit. It’s different than Islam. Islam believes in everybody. We believe in Moses, we believe in Jesus Christ, we believe in everybody. But Israelis don’t believe nobody except Moses. They are very serious with religion. They don’t like anybody. But, I feel bad about Birthright. The Jewish come from all over. See, Europe in the 1900s, they wanted to get rid of the Jewish, that’s why they gave them Palestine, to get rid of them. To keep them over there, and to control the Arabs. To help them fight the Arabs and keep them weak. Chase: It’s basically a propaganda tour of Israel for young Jews that are pretty impressionable. I think that it was created in the last twenty years because the generation after the generation that went through the Holocaust, and one generations after that generation – the grandchildren of the people who went through the Holocaust – aren’t as religious, aren’t as connected to antisemitism, and aren’t as connected to Israel. I wouldn’t say most Jews, but a lot of us young Jews see Israel as it is now – haven’t seen it form and grow. We haven’t seen a world without Israel, where Jews were being persecuted and had nowhere to go. So, I think Birthright is a propaganda tour to foster connection between Jews and Israel. And, it’s also a program to match-make young Jews, so y’know, they can continue the bloodline and raise more Jewish children. I have yet to go on it, but I’m curious to know how educational it actually is. Because, I’ve seen a lot of my friends from high school that have gone on it, and what they have to come back and tell me never has anything to do with the history, never. It has to do with how much fun they had, who they hooked up with, how many parties they went to in Tel Aviv, and how much they drank. And, secondary, yes, a lot of people have come back more religious. But, it’s never really about Israel, it’s never about the history, it’s never really about a kind of authentic connection. I think it’s really constructed, what people come back with. I also think it’s really unfair
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that Jews have a right to this free trip and Palestinians don’t. The problem is Palestinians don’t have a right to return to their own land, but American Jews who have never had one family member live in Israel can suddenly go there for free, be accepted and welcomed, and get citizenship without any effort. So, I think that’s really unfair and Birthright just perpetuates that it is our right as Jews. Nevertheless, I’m going on Birthright. I’m going on Birthright as a part of research. I can educate myself only so much about the issues, without actually going to the region. I feel that in order to gain a fuller understanding, I should live there, but the next best thing is to visit. But, to be honest, even if I wasn’t doing research on Israel, I would probably still go on Birthright. It’s free, and I think that if I weren’t going on the trip, somebody would be going on the trip in my place. I think I’m strong-willed enough, and strong in my opinions enough, that I won’t be brainwashed. I’m also only going with the intention to extend my stay and also travel to Palestine, and to see that perspective. Because I would feel very guilty if I did not do that. Y’know, so I’m using Israel’s private conservative funding to actually be able to go to Israel and go to Palestine, and get both perspectives, which is not what they want. Adam: It’s disgusting. I hate that program so much. The idea behind it is nice. It’s one more Lego piece in this giant house of propaganda. It’s telling people who haven’t been there that they have a right to be there. When I went over there, I got questioned before being able to enter the country, for like an hour. I got guns pointed at my face when I’m trying to go, not where y’know 3,000 years ago someone may have lived, but to where my grandfather was born and where we have a house and my family lives there. So, the idea that it’s so hard for me to get to where my family is, and it’s like a Spring Break for people to go over there. It’s like, ‘oh yeah, y’know I’m Jewish, so I have a birth right to be there.’ Just those two words are so appalling. It’s a huge slap in the face to the Palestinian people.
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Ron: Well, I kind of equate it to almost like a time-share kind of thing. The idea that you’re going to go to Israel, and you’re going to have a very big sales pitch. You’re gonna have a sales pitch on multiple levels. It’s supported by Jews in the US, who fund most of Israel’s existence, as I understand to be the case, and by Israelis. And, the reason they want you to go is to identify with Israel. But, I think it’s a good thing. I think it’s a good thing to go and see Israel. I think it’s an important place for all people to go. It’s interesting. When I made my presentations [during a business trip to Israel], I was in a room of 400 people, and it was the first time I was in a room with 400 Jewish people and I wasn’t praying, or doing some sort of social action thing. I’m serious. It’s very unusual. And, to have that commonality with people, it’s nice, it’s comforting. For lack of a better reference, it’s a little bit like going to New York – going to Brooklyn or going to where there’s a high concentration of Jewish people. But, I think the Birthright thing is good, but I also think it’s going to be a bit of a head-trip for my daughters, Anna and Sara. They can play on you a lot. “You’re single, you’re Jewish, and you should marry a Jewish boy and get married right away!” I’m serious. This is a very strident thing, and that’s why I refer to it like a time-share. Time-shares are like the joke y’know what I mean. You go to a time-share, and people get a free weekend in Palm Springs, and they end up buying a time-share – they’d never thought they’d buy a time-share! You’re going to go to Israel and y’know. When I was in Israel, people would talk about people getting religious. People who never thought they would get religious, “go to Israel!” Whatever their religion, they would just get religious when they were there. All of a sudden they would discover their religion. Well, that didn’t happen to me. A friend of mine was walking me around different really holy parts of Jerusalem, for Jews or Christians or Muslims, and he’s like “this is really important” and I’m like, “I have to tell you, I don’t know what it is, I don’t know what it’s referencing, and I’m not going to remember it, so don’t tell me too many of the details.” It’s more of a concept than a site to me. But, I do think Birthright is a good thing. I think it’s
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important to go with your peers, with people of your age. I think that you will get a very biased point of view, and it will be good for you to get that biased point of view. I think it’s a valuable opportunity. But maybe I’ll have a different opinion after speaking with someone after they come back from it, because I’ve never directly spoken to anyone that has been on it. Right now, there are a lot of conflicts going on in Israel – but there has been for a long time – so you’re always wondering what kind of risk are you at of being in harm’s way. This is one aspect of it that I do not take lightly. Anwar: Truthfully, if the government wants to pay for that trip, I have no problem with that, but not on the backs of the lands of the Palestinian people. I don’t mind living next to Jews, as long as they behave like citizens of the world. There’s not a problem with that. And, y’know that they reimburse the people that they’ve taken their property and livelihoods from. They need to be reimbursed at whatever expense, in my opinion. I mean they are a rich and powerful nation. It’s time they start paying back the people that they built the wealth on. It would be really nice to have a country and a house and property given to me, starting from there, starting my life from there. Anna: [Big Sigh.] I’m very mixed about going. On one hand, I recognize fully that it’s a tool for propaganda, or even not necessarily that strong of a word, but I know it’s trying to influence how I think about the political situation, but it’s also an incredible opportunity that I’ve decided to take advantage of. It’s uncomfortable and weird to have something literally called Birthright, because I don’t think I have any right to Israel as an American from LA. The name is very strange, but travel is expensive and I’d really like to see Israel, so this is how I’m going to do it. I don’t think it’s possible, politically and financially, for Palestinians to have the equivalent kind of trip. Though, it would be the most instructive to have both groups go together on the same trip, but since that’s not the political agenda of the organizers, they’re not going to do that.
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Yasmine: Where’s my Birthright? It’s as simple as that. Where’s my Birthright?! It’s fucking ridiculous. I don’t agree with Birthright clearly. It’s completely unfair. It’s completely manipulative. It brainwashes people if you don’t go in there already knowing your stance. If you’re not socially and politically aware, if you don’t critique things, then you’re totally going to align yourself with Israel’s political views. It’s so money-oriented. It just encourages people in America to fund Israel further, and attack the Palestinian people. So, fuck Birthright. Honestly. Sorry... Roxanne: I think it’s a wonderful thing. I only know that it is an opportunity for any and all young Jews to go to this country, to see this wonderful country that these people have built up in sixty years. Also, to see the antiquities, the ancient roads, the digs, to see all the things you learned about as a child – regardless of your religion – in your Sunday School. All the different ethnicities, religious differences. You see the twelve steps of Christ, the ancient Jewish antiquities, and the Muslim antiquities. It’s an amazing place, it’s an amazing country, because it has everything there for every [Abrahamic] religion. I think that it’s wonderful that the Israelis have kept Jerusalem and all of the sites open to all people. I think Birthright is an amazing thing, for all young people of Jewish ethnicity.
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Would you go on Birthright if it were offered to you?
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Chase: Yes, with the intention, like I said earlier, of visiting Palestine too. Adam: Of course I would. I don’t fault the people who go on Birthright for going on Birthright. At the very least, it’s a free vacation. Even if you don’t identify with it, you’re going to a wonderful place where history is just everywhere. It’s beautiful, there’s so much culture there to be had. The people who go there are not the problem. It’s the organization that created it and what they’re trying to do. Everything that’s set up is meant to try and erase the idea of the Palestinian people having a right to be there. A lot of people will go and try to defend the Israeli culture at large, when they say like, ‘oh, this is Israeli government policies not people, you have to draw a distinction.’ And, in general, I agree with that statement. You have to always remember government does not equal public opinion. But, unlike in America, something that really should be looked into is that everybody has to be in the military for three years, or two years if you’re a woman, which means that you are indoctrinated a the age of eighteen to fight in the Israeli Defense Force, an organization that is charged with defense by the title, and by and large that defense is against Palestinians. So, you’re taught to see Palestinians as the enemy. Is it the people’s fault? No. I feel Birthright is the same place where those types of things come into play. It’s indoctrinating the people to make Palestinian identity irrelevant or demonized. Ron: Well, this thing, this program, didn’t exist when I was in high school. I probably would have gone, because at one point I thought about being a rabbi. That was probably a very short-lived thought. I was a little embarrassed to go to Israel and inform people that I had gone 48 or 49 years without actually ever going there. Anwar: Of course, absolutely. Why wouldn’t I? Anna: Yes.
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Yasmine: Yeah I’d go on Birthright! Except, it’d be no fun though on the Palestinian side, right. It would be like a very scary Birthright. It’s so sad that Palestinians can’t even do Birthright. There’s no sort of funding for it. It just doesn’t make sense. It’s not a real thing. Like, ‘we’re gonna bring you here because you connect to this land’? That makes no sense. People connect to the land without it even being physical most of the time, like when people who have migrated to a certain country connect to their homeland. It’s just this fabricated thing. Roxanne: Absolutely. Ahmed: I would go right away. I would leave everything and go. No question. I would pack up and leave. I wouldn’t even pack up. I would go immediately – same day!
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What relationship do your relatives have with Palestine? Israel
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Adam: A strange one. I mean, it’s the same thing like me. My father was born in America, but we still feel very close culturally, physically. We’ve gone to weddings over there. It’s still a place where we culturally call home, even though we don’t live there personally. Every child that dies feels like it’s one of our own children that have died. Every attack on a house, every bulldozed home, every evacuation. My cousin was taken out of his house the day before what is equivalent to the SAT. He wanted to do computer science and all this stuff, but he was taken out of his home the night before at like 2am for questioning – and he didn’t do anything – and did poorly on his exams because of that whole ordeal. Not poorly enough that it affected his trajectory, but bad enough where it was like very disappointing to him, where his morale was shot. That’s the relationship that it is. You have morale hit after morale hit, and you can do nothing but hope that things get better. It’s a hope that comes out of a desire to continue to exist, not a hope for any reason. There’s nothing going on that brings hope on a day-to-day basis. Ron: I feel that they [my children] feel distanced from it. I think my parents felt very connected to it, having visited. Again, visiting is very different. Before that, it’s kind of only a concept. But, I feel my children feel distanced from it, because it’s so far. When cultural things stand out, you go, “oh wow, they do the same things we do at home.” It becomes really evident. My impression of Judaism is that it’s been swinging more to the conservative over the last 30 years, since I was your age. I think my children are distanced from it quite heavily. They are somewhat suspicious of it, and questioning of it, and leery of it. It’s very hard to see that kind of chaos going on, in a part of the world where you have no experience. So, it makes one wonder, why - why all that’s going on? And, why we can’t find a solution for it. We all face that problem. Anwar: My relatives are all associated with Palestine. They all feel it deep in their hearts. Maybe if we had our
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freedoms, we’d be allowed to do something else, but the tightening grip of the Israelis on us have made us a stronger people, have made us a people more proud than ever to be Palestine and more determined to push for our liberties and our freedoms. I believe their behavior has had a reverse effect. Even if there’s just one of us left, we’re going to continue the struggle against this apartheid, abusive behavior. And one day, with the will of God and the good people of the world, there will be peace and freedom between the Israelis and Palestinians. After all, we do have a lot in common, and it shouldn’t be that hard if we can get rid of the people who are pushing this in the wrong direction. If we can just get rid of them, and send them back to the European countries that they came from, the rest of the people no doubt will get along. Anna: My father has been to Israel, I think, twice, and has really enjoyed his time there. I think he went to Israel in his 50s or late 40s, and was very excited to get there, and has encouraged me to go. My mother I don’t think has any real interest in Israel. I’m sure if she was offered Birthright, she would go, but there are a lot of places in the world she’d be interested in going. My sister will be joining me on Birthright. It’s important that we both go together, and have that experience together. Yasmine: I would say that all my relatives hate Israel. My dad thinks that Palestinian people really need to separate themselves from religion when it comes to politics. That’s something he will say, but he really hates Israelis, he really hates Jewish people. It’s an instinctual feeling for him. He understands the politics of it as well, but he would never be a part of any sort of social change. I think that’s a huge issue that the Arab population has. They’re just not making the situation better. They’ll just hate Jewish people for the rest of their lives. For most of my dad’s life, he doesn’t critique Israel’s policy, or even know that in depth what’s happening politically when that’s something he’s really emotionally involved in. My mom was actually talking to me the other day - this is funny - on how
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Palestinian and Jewish people are like the same fucking thing - they both hate each other. And, how the Jews are actually better than the Palestinians because she fucking loves her doctor. But, no, they all hate Israel and Jews. Roxanne: As far as my parents are concerned, they’re from a generation even different from my generation. To them, Israel was everything, and today, I don’t think they would be sympathetic to the Palestinians. I think today they would be very much influenced by the rhetoric that comes out of Israel, in the news, and they would be very pro-Israel. To them, I think, the Arabs are the enemy. It would be a totally different mindset that my parents would have if they were alive today. My grandson, who is of a completely different generation, has a more open and honest political view of the situation in Israel today. And, I’ve learned a lot from him. He’s twenty-one. It’s a far different opinion and a far different viewpoint. And, I’m very grateful from the knowledge that I have gained from him. I think that it’s the youth of today that will help the future of the Palestinians and the Israelis. I’m hoping that will be what will happen – with the moderates of Israel, Palestinian, and the United States’ influence will all come together to find peace there for these people. My daughter Wendy – I don’t think she has any association at all with Israel. I don’t think she understands the political views or is even interested. To her, it’s a country across the world. You find within different families many different points of view or points of interest. I’m very happy that my grandson is interested, politically, with what is going on. I’m glad that he is a humanitarian, and he cares about the world and what is happening in it. My husband has a completely different point of view. He’s like my parents. To him, Israel is everything. He believes that Israel can do no wrong – that it’s a perfect child. But, he’s also not informed, and he doesn’t read about it, and he has these beliefs. And he tells me I’m anti-Israel and anti-Jew. And, that’s not true. I’m very pro-Israel. I want to see Israel survive. So, in our family, we’re a potpourri of opinions.
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Ahmed: They still feel that it is there home. They are American, but they still have a relationship to Gaza. They live over here. They can’t go back, because that’s a problem, because their home is gone. And, the relatives in Palestine, it’s bad, very bad, very bad. They have nothing over there. They have no food, no water, no medical supply. It’s different in Gaza than the West Bank. They’re surrounded. The West Bank has more things going for them than Gaza. In the Gaza Strip, they got nothing. And they can’t go anywhere, because no country will accept them. Chase: I guess I’ll talk about my grandparents, who raised me. My grandfather, I don’t talk about politics as much with him because he doesn’t listen and he doesn’t want to hear your opinion on it. He is extremely proIsrael. He think all Arabs, whether they’re Palestinian or Jordanian or Lebanese or Moroccan or even if you’re an Iranian Muslim, who’s not even Arabic, that they’re trying to “drive the Jews into the sea.” That they’re all trying to kill Jews, and therefore, while he wouldn’t say it, that if we have to, we kill them first to defend ourselves. And so, he thinks Israel has a right to exist, of course, and has a right to exist as it does, which not in his eyes, but in my eyes is a violent oppressor of Palestine and Palestinians. So he’s an unapologetic and fervent supporter of Israel. And I have to say that while he’s not nearly as progressive as I am or my grandmother is, he’s essentially pretty liberal on nearly everything. He hates conservative politics, except on this issue. My grandmother is much easier to talk to about these things. A lot of my interest in Jewish identity and its relation to Israel comes from arguing with my mother all the time about Israel, because I believe she is not only intelligent enough, but empathetic enough and open enough to really learn from other people in discussions, in arguments, and really hear the other side. Over the last couple years, we’ve had really heated arguments, I mean real arguments that turn into yelling, over Israel. Basically, she supports Israel, which I think comes from her
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generation. She grew up during the Holocaust, around a lot of antisemitism, and in a culture that only gave her proIsraeli rhetoric, and so I can’t blame her. Essentially, she is very sympathetic, very empathetic, about Palestinian rights, about Palestinian lives. But, I think she has a hard time seeing that Jews can be the oppressor, because we never really have been until the state of Israel. And so, I think she has a hard time seeing that what Israel does is not self-defense. She will always support Israel, but can also critique Israel. But, she still continues to have stereotypes about Arabs and Palestinians. But, I feel my mom is more open to education around the issues and I feel the more we talk, the more educated she becomes about the issues, and the more aware she becomes.
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Present (2016)
These borders refer to the annexation of Israeli land through the settlement of the West Bank. Since the beginning of the 21st century, a physical border has been created through the construction of the Separation Barrier, or Apartheid Wall.
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Pre-1947
Pre-1947 refers to the British Mandate of Palestine, before the establishment of Israel.
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1860: 1882-1903: 1897: 1901: 1904-1914: 1914-1918: 1916-1918: 1917: 1918: 1919-1923: 1924-1929: 1929: 1929-1939: 1933: 1933-1948: 1936-1939: 1939-1945: 1947: 1948: 1948-1949: 1956: 1960-1962: 1967 1972: 1973: 1974: 1979:
First Zionist Jewish settlement is built in Palestine, near Jerusalem. First Aliyah. An estimated 30,000 Jews migrate to Palestine. The First Zionist Congress meets in Basel, and establishes World Zionist Organization. Jewish settlers build Tel Aviv, near the populous Palestinian city of Jaffa. Second Aliyah. An estimated 40,000 Jews migrate to Palestine. Mainly from Russia, they flee due to rising antisemitism. WWI. First Arab Revolt. Balfour Declaration, affirming British support for Israel as a homeland for the Jewish people. End of WWI. The Ottoman Empire dissolves. Third Aliyah. An estimated 40,000 Jews migrate to Palestine Fourth Aliyah. An estimated 40,000 Jews migrate to Palestine. Mainly from Poland and Hungary, they flee due to rising antisemitism. Palestinian Riots in Jerusalem. Fifth Aliyah. An estimated 250,000 Jews migrate to Palestine, due to the rise of Nazism in Germany. Hitler is elected Chancellor of Germany. Aliyah Bet (Illegal Migration). An estimated 110,000 Jews migrate to Palestine illegally. Great Arab Revolt. WWII and the Holocaust. An estimated 6,000,000 Jews (two-thirds of the European Jewish population) are killed, and an innumerable amount of Jews in Europe are displaced. UN Partition Plan, proposing two states, one for the Jews and one for the Palestinians. This plan gives approximately 55% of land to the Jews, and 45% to the Palestinians. Establishment of Israel. The Nakba (Catastrophe). First Arab-Israeli War. Israel wins. Sinai Campaign. Eichmann Trial and Execution in Jerusalem. The Six-Day War. Results in a huge acquisition of land for Israel. Munich Olympic Massacre. 11 Israeli athletes are kidnapped and murdered by a Palestinian terrorist organization. Yom Kippur War. Legitimization of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) by UN. Egypt-Israeli-US Peace Agreement (Anwar Sadat, Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter) resulting in Israel’s withdrawal from Sinai.
1982: 1987-1991: 1988: 1993: 1994: 1995: 1999: 2000-2005: 2002: 2005: 2005: 2006: 2006:
First Lebanon War First Intifada against Israeli occupation. PLO officially declares the Palestinian state. Oslo Accords (Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat, and Bill Clinton). Israeli-Jordan Peace Agreement Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, is assassinated by an Israeli right-wing ultra-nationalist. Taglit-Birthright Israel is initiated. Second Intifada, which is much more violent than the first. Construction begins on the Israeli West Bank Barrier, aka the Wall. Mahmoud Abbas, leader of Fatah, is elected President of Palestine over Mustafa Barghouti, an independent. “Disengagement” from Occupied Territories Hamas is democratically elected, gaining more votes than Fatah for the first time. Second Lebanon War
2008-2009: Operation Cast Lead. Over three weeks, 13 Israelis (10 soldiers, 4 via friendly fire and 3 civilians) are killed, and 518 injured. 1,417 Palestinians are killed, 5,303 are injured, and 120 are captured. 4,000 homes are destroyed, and over 50,800 Gaza residents are displaced.
2011:
2012:
2012:
2014:
Israel’s Iron Dome Air Defense System is operational. It defends Israel from up to 90% of missiles from Gaza.
Operation Pillar of Defense. Over 8 days, 6 Israelis (4 soldiers and 2 civilians) are killed, and 239 are wounded. 103 Palestinians are killed, and 970 are wounded.
The UN partially recognizes Palestine.
Operation Protective Edge. Over 7 weeks, 66 Israeli soldiers are killed, 6 civilians are killed, and 87 civilians are wounded. 2,189 Palestinians (513 children, 269 women) are killed. 11,100 Palestinians are wounded. 250 Palestinians are captured. Over 17,000 homes are destroyed, leaving more than 500,000 Gazans displaced.
The camp as a space of exception is a paradox... In so far as the state of exception is “willed,” it inaugurates a new juridico-political paradigm in which the norm becomes indistinguishable from the exception. The camp is thus the structure in which the state of exception - on whose possible decision sovereign power is founded - is realized normally.
– Giorgio Agamben
Chase Carter
State of Exception
STATE OF EXCEPTION