All language subtitles for Israelism English subs by MMR

The non Jewish community does not understand
our fixation our obsession with Israel.

Good evening, and welcome to the 2018

To the 2016, 2019

Taglit-Birthright Israel Winter mega event

Summer mega event

Right here in Jerusalem

The eternal capital of our people

Is there anyone here from
the United States of America

What's your name, where are you from Buddy
I'm Michael and I'm from Detroit Michigan.”

Everybody knows somebody who is the army

Israeli soldiers they're hot
there are awesome they're strong

They're everything we could all want to be

Ah, my name is Aaron and
I'm from Brooklyn New-York

I came at BirthRight in 2016 I joined the
army 4 months after I finished BirthRight

Missed my flight back to America
and I'm still in the army now.

The first time I've been to the United
States I met so many nice people

Jewish Americans would tell me things like: «
we like you but we don't like Palestinians »

Even though that I'm the
only Palestinian they know.

Of course around that time I would take it personally
but then you come to realize that people do not know

They know nothing about Palestine and Palestinians or
have no idea about what Palestinians are going through.

Coming into Palestine the first time I
remember asking people, what do you think?

Shall I do it? And the response that I always
got was, you know: you're going to be killed.

As a curious young person like what is this thing
that is so horrifying you can't bear to let me see it

Because is that bad?

Found in the depths of my family's house

I found some of my Hebrew Hebrew
text books from elementary school

“Israel shel simkha” “my Israel”

congratulations to Simone Zimmerman
for winning the Israel jubilee contest

February 1998 I was as seven.

I had like a pretty traditional
Jewish upbringing and grew up in L.A.

I went to a Jewish day school
kindergarten through the end of high school

I went to Jewish youth group
Jewish camps I had family in Israel

I lived in Israel in high school
on an exchange program.

Israel was just treated like
a core part of being a Jew

So you did prayers and you did Israel.

[39]

Israel is something that I feel
so passionately about like it's

You know it's my greatest
passion I'm everything Israel.

I became a Jewish educator after
my daughter's started Hebrew school

I started teaching second grade during
the years they did fourth grade also

and just to be able to start
them on this wonderful journey.

I mean, it's, it's, it gets in your blood

And we teach Israel at
the day school very well

We introduce them to the food and to the music into the
culture in addition to the history and the geography.

Figure out which one is the Israeli flag

draw a circle around every time you
see the symbol of the state of Israel

Draw your own symbol
of the state of Israel.

We also celebrated holidays obviously so Hanuka,
Israeli independence... all of it, together.

Can you separate Israel and
Judaism I don't know I can't

Some people I think can to me it's the same
you can't separate it

Israel is Judaism and Judaism is Israel And
that is who I am and that is my identity

And I think every single thing
that I experienced along my life

has melted into that like there was
never, you know, a divide for me.

I grew up in a conservative Jewish
households in Atlanta Georgia

Israel was a central part of
everything we did in school

My elementary and middle school as well as my
high school both had organized trips to Israel

Which was touted as one of the
most important things you could do.

Do you wanna go to Israel too? Yeaaah!

We wanna go, we wanna go

When I've visited Israel the the
first time when I was eight years old

I put a knot in the cartel in
the western wall saying that

One day I hope to live
in Israel and prosper.

Every one of our kids should be going over,

Not for ten days, but for a
minimum of a semester or a year.

Every time I send somebody
over at Israel, they come back

All of a sudden they feel totally different
about who and what they are as Jews.

When I was a teenager and I went to Israel

it was amazing to me
to travel on this place

where Hebrew was a language that I finally
got to speak on the street with people

and were Jewish heroes the
streets are named after them.

We're planting seeds that
eventually are gonna blossom

Does the average congregate understand
that I'm teaching them to become Zionist

Probably not, but it is part
of my madness so to speak.

I learned about Israel as this
great miracle of Jewish history.

For thousands of years we were persecuted and
Israel is the place that you can go to be safe

My grandfather's family made it to Israel

his immediate family were some of
the only ones who escaped the holocaust

Many American Jews of our most people I know
have family or friends living in Israel.

Israel is the insurance policy it's
still today a Jew doesn't have to worry

where is he you gonna go, god forbid

even here no holocaust survivor will
say to you could never happen again.

I was born in Poland in 1940, not
a good place for Jewish to be born

My parents were separated my
father went through a series of camps.

Who knows why I survived and
1.5 million Jewish or so perished

and so Israel became very very significant in
my life even though six thousand miles away

I probably and visited Israel
over a hundred times in my lifetime

you know as we sit now my grand daughter's
there for two weeks in high-school.

I didn't have many friends in Israel growing up and
every time I would visit Israel I felt closer and closer.

The Jewish summer camps would
always bring a big contingency of Israelis

to try to drive Israeli culture within the camp
and connect the American Jews to Israeli culture

So when I was in high school I went
on this Jewish his trip to Israel and

one of the programs we did was called Kadna
where we spent a day pretending to be soldiers

in the Israeli army, we wear army uniforms

and stuff like that was just sort of a normal
part of what our childhoods looked like.

At summer camp in the middle of the
night they would wake us up and take us out

sometime that was that was to pull pranks and other times I
remember doing military games using the command "PAZATSTAS"

sneaking around so anytime the commander
who was one of our counsellors said

PAZATSTAS we would all get on the ground

We made a game out of it simulating being in the military
and sneaking around in having to be a part of that

On youth programs that I participated in in Israel
you could spend a whole week on an Israeli army base

varying army uniforms and going through
a sort of simulation of basic training and

that's where some people you know,
learned to shoot guns for the first time.

It's not just regular military games it's specifically using
Israeli military commands often with Israeli counselors giving them.

When you're young kid that really drills
into you that this is something important

and I wanted to be a part of that.

We often talked about the ways that you could be a good
supporter of the Jewish people one was to join the army

and the other was to go
become an Israel advocate

They were even clubs within
school to work on advocating for Israel

My high school sent a delegation
to the AIPAC conference.

AIPAC the "American Israel
Public Affairs Committee"

They are the people who tell the Congress which
legislation effecting Israel they like and which they don't

“The bond between United States and Israel is unbreakable,
today unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable for ever.”

AIPAC is just a thing that you do

like going to the AIPAC conferences
just sort of seen as a like a

Community event

Here with us today are leaders from across
the pro-Israel community including Abe Foxman

I learned a long time ago there
is no way you can say no to Abe

You know I don't know to what extent one anybody
makes a difference I try to make a difference.

Jewish education is still a major priority already
for the future in certainly relationship to Israel.

If you wanna ask me you had $ 100 millions, how
would you change the future of American Jews?

I would make trips to Israel available
to any Jewish kid who wanted to go

make that experience. We're
doing and now, it's called Birthright.

It is up to you to be our soldiers abroad,
armed with love and knowledge and conviction

ready to sway public
opinion in Israel favor.

Learning about the quotal quote "conflict" as
something that is part of programming as something that

you have to learn how to defend Israel from the lies that other
people are saying you have to be able to tell people the truth.

By the time I've got to college I had
teachers who said to me people hate Israel

people are attacking Israel people
don't know the truth about Israel

and we're the only people who
actually know the truth about Israel.

If You're Jewish college student Hillel is
your central address for Jewish life on campus.

As a freshman I remember walking into Helli

was one of the first places
as I went when I got to campus.

It's a place where you can go for
meals to meet other young Jewish people

Pro-Israel advocacy is a central part of
how they work to engage Jewish young people

I am the director of engagement
and programs throughout Hillel

and this campus happens
to be very pro active for Israel

lot of people are very passionate
a lot of people love Israel

and there's a lot of advocacy here on campus in
lots of different ways, lots of different groups.

How did you become involved
in "Advocacy For Israel"?

I kind of came to the lodge cause I was new
in campus and didn't really know where to go

and I really did find
a lot of friends here.

I came here on and off but then when I'm on the
Birthright trip and kinda got to know the staff

Tommy and Jackie lot better got
to know people at Hellil a lot better

and just got to know Israel a lot
better, I came back and I knew that

I want put a lot more of myself into
helloing the Jews community on campus

and just Israel advocacy in general

On birthright we had Israeli soldiers with us for entire trip
you learn so much and you learn the reason that they serve

it's just a feeling that I don't think any
of us could ever imagine except for Tim

My job is doing Israeli programs on campus and
that relates to Jewish events cultural or political

ah sorry, Israeli events
cultural or political

I would say name a university in
America we probably have a person there

I like to talk about the army a lot, because that's an experience
that I lived through and I have a lot of personal stories

There's a couple of students that be: yeah
I'm I'm thinking about joining the IDF one day

so my first thing is saying
them "are you sure?"

Because it's not an easy decision

that being said it will probably end up being the
most meaningful experience that you ever go through

You gonna tell your
kids stories about it, hum.

One of our former young emissaries
just graduated into the air force

and that's the greatest
gift you can give you know

and we actually have had quite a
few of my former students join the IDF

amazing and it's just amazing, these are kids,
these are just eighteen nineteen year old.

It's like something I dreamed about
doing since I was like seven years

You have like us you
find yourself a purpose

All my friends are so proud of me and they
understand that this is something like I have to do

Almost ten percent of my graduating class at
my Jewish high school joined the Israeli army

and I had many friends from my summer camp and
New Year's group who joined the army as well

Part of becoming part of Israeli
society is to join the military

When I was in high school I told my parents
I don't even need to apply to college

because I'm gonna just join the Israeli
military and make Aliha and live in Israel

I honestly felt for many years that I fit in better
in Israeli society than I do an American society

even before I moved there and I
wanted to defend what I saw as my country

so when I enlisted I was a "Maggist"
which is a heavy machine gunnist

during my basic and advanced training
and then they put me on a light machine gun

We were training for war training
for strategy to conquer hilltops

and conquer open spaces

one week was focused on
urban warfare in close quarters

and that was simulated in
what looks like Arab housing

after this seven months of our training
we were deployed to the West Bank.

Our missions included working
in two different checkpoints

patrolling villages on foot in
full gear in bulletproof vests

we would go into apartment buildings go up to
the roof and make sure that we could be seen

so that we could make our presence felt

we wanted them to know we wanted them to know that
we were watching that was the goal of the mission

we would set up what's called a check-post which is
a checkpoint that is situated at a major intersection

At checkpoints we would
stop people create a traffic jam

check their IDs check their trunks

every day on their way to work
or on their way to visit their family.

To keep them on their toes
essentially, and they, being Palestinians.

Even though Israel was a central
part of everything we did in the school

we never really discussed the Palestinians

it was presented to us that Israel
was basically an empty wasteland

When the Jews arrived there were some Arabs
there they said but it was no organized people

they really treated the land poorly

Yeah there are there are Palestinians and they just
want to kill us all and want us to leave the land.

I just don't think I had any conception of
anything about what it means to be a Palestinian

besides that it means you're a person
who kills Jews or wants to kill Jews.

It was always presented to us
that the Arabs only know terrorism.

Ever since I came back from the States I realize that
the best way to help people understand the reality

imposed on us by the state
of Israel is for them to be there

The one thing that I want to give the rest of my life for is to
help people understand the reality that is going in Palestine

I grew up all of my life in this occupation
I grew up in Bethlehem in Palestine

To be honest I do have my days where I wake up
I look in the mirror and ask what is going on

and and what and I even do today
to change anything in the situation

I remember from the youngest age growing up with my parents always
warning me always telling me not to go out to go on the street,

not to play on the street because
of the soldiers and the settlers

Of course that your first experience
with the soldier is terrorizing

you know especially because
they would invade your house

or your family's house late at night

like they love to work after midnight

My first experience with
the soldiers as a child

was an experience that put fear in me

An American Jewish soldier talking to my
father and yelling at him and shouting at

which, of course, as a child, you
feel very ashamed then insulted

and then my father, because ironically
we are American citizens as well

turned to him in an American accent
and asked him where he was from

and then the soldier he was almost
like shocked by this by this question

because for his mind he wants to say "Israel" and
Jewish people but he's talking to an American now

and he told him "I'm from Chicago"

and then just as this reality that like even as a
child I remember this this this American soldier

who just moved here to be part of
an army to play cowboys and Indians.

Somebody who comes here from New-York or from
Chicago and claiming that this land is theirs

What makes like and eighteen years old American kid,
who was given a ten days trip for free in Palestine

What make them want to
come in and sacrifice his life

Why would a foreigner think
it's okay to have superior rights

to the rights to the indigenous population
because somebody told them it's home

This is our land this is ours
that's what was conveyed to us.

It gutted me that people look at Palestine and
Palestinians from the point of view of the oppressor

not from the point of view of the oppressed

I think what I knew about who was
in Israel before the state was created

is basically there were
some Jews always there

most Jews were in exile
we'd always wanted to go back.

The idea that there were native inhabitants that lived
there was not even part of my frame of reference.

This restaurant makes the most
delicious Houmous and Falafel in town

These families are not from the town of Bethlehem just like my mother's
family they were expelled from the city of Jaffah back in 1948.

I was born to a family of victims
of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine

the ethnic cleansing that was carried
on by the founders of the state of Israel

My mother's family were expelled from the largest
Palestinian city pre-1948 which was the city of Jaffah.

My father was a newborn at that time he was
carried by his family they ended up in Bethlehem

waiting for atrocities to come to an end
so they would be able to go back home

Of course none of those people
were ever allowed back home.

My father's family was
in Jerusalem up until 1948

when the war happened he was shot
by sniper and was killed on the spot

His children actually dragged his body down
and buried him in the courtyard of the house

A few days later when the Jewish
forces took over that neighborhood

they demanded that all the non-Jews
of that neighborhood be evicted

It was the biggest mass exodus percentage-wise
of a people from their land in modern history.

The ethnic cleansing of
Palestine the term “Nakba”

“The Catastrophe”

is the tragedy or catastrophe that hit
almost every single Palestinian family

nearly 750.000 victims.

It's traumatizing in
almost every possible level

Nearly 78% of the land of Palestine became
under the control of the state of Israel.

What else was I told
about Israel, we were told

it was a land without a people for
people without a land and we came back

from the ashes of the holocaust
the state of Israel was birthed

The rights of the people that lived
here does not exist in that narrative

and other than us being an
obstacle the Nakba continues

it started in 1948 and
continues until this day.

In 1967 the state of Israel managed
to complete his control over Palestine

by taking over the territory of the
West Bank and the territory of Gaza.

Ok, here's the good stuff,
more maps of greater Israel.

That was sort of, you know, the whole land, we
were always told that the whole land was ours.

You know, that's sort
of what they teach us.

After the 1967 war Israel put a
very forceful very violent military force

to dominate and control the lives of the
Palestinians that continues until this day.

The intention of Israeli control over the land of
Palestine is complete colonization the territory

Building homes for those
who are born to Jewish families.

And also demolishing the homes of those
were who born from Palestinian families.

Palestinians kicked out of from
their homes confiscated by settlers

You are stealing my house

And if I don't steel it
someone else is gonna steel it

No, no one is allowed to
steal it "ya hami" (my uncle)

A massive movement to confiscate land
to build settlements to expand settlements

Before we were even fully trained we
were deployed to protect settlements

it was all for the security
of this settlements.

Israel filled occupied West Bank with Jewish Israelis living
in different colonies and settlements throughout the region

and those individuals are
subject to Israeli civil law

While you have Palestinians living within the exact
same territory those are subject to Israeli military law

When an American citizen
comes here he has more right

than I would have my entire life.

We are in the quoted quote “West Bank”
we're in the quoted quote “settlements”

This is one of the road blocks that
kind of ensure that cars get checked

to see that no terrorists are coming in.

I lived in America and then I
came back to Israel by myself

at the age of 17 to serve in the army.

And there are elements what I would call the
Jihadist elements that don't accept our presence here

but that's just tough for them

it's a great vision coming to flourish in
our time and is nothing gonna stop us.

From the day you are born you're
living day in day out day in day out

without experiencing a day of freedom.

Palestinians have to
be forced to live in cages

So I'm a Israeli born and raised

As a young Israeli growing up, my
grandparents lived in the center of Jerusalem

“The battle for Jerusalem at least
twenty six people are reported dead.”

People I knew were injured and killed and

from a very young age, I knew
I'm gonna be joining the military

I was never in a Palestinian house till I
barge into one in the middle of the night

One thing that I did routinely was a mission where you
are ordered to take over a Palestinian family's home

and use that house as a military point

no warrant and you don't call in
advance it's a military occupation.

And during my service there were many
moments where I saw myself acting violently

and there were moments of of shame

We can detain any Palestinian just
because he looked at us in the wrong way

that's a system that's based on violence.

Oh, oh, oh, what are you doing?

Security, it's about security... is he
a threat for you? We don't know yet

When I was stationed in the West
Bank one day one of my commanders

came and grabbed me and
one other soldier and said

there is a detainee at
the Khowara checkpoint

and we need to go pick him up and bring him
to the detention center that's in the base

When we got there the Palestinian detainee
who was maximum in his early twenty's

he was sitting on the curb with his hands tied
behind his back with zip ties and blindfolded.

We got to the detention center within the base and right
outside there were about eight soldiers waiting for us.

They saw us come they grabbed
the detainee from our hands

and threw him to the ground while he's still
blindfolded and 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 felt responsible but

my commander wasn't saying
anything so how could I say anything.

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

That's just one of many stories that I
have from my time in the West Bank

It took many years for me to
really count terms with my part in it

only after I got out of the
army did I begin to realize that

the stuff that I did in the day-to-day

just working in checkpoints
patrolling villages

that in and of itself was immoral.

Palestinians in the West-Bank even though their lives are
controlled by the state of Israel from morning noon and night

are not even theoretically citizens
of the country in which they live.

You see in some ways what
non-democracy looks like up close.

When people look at the West-Bank and say is an
apartheid system and it's not just throwing out a word

a Palestinian lives under a different legal
system than an Israeli settler living next door

Anyone who you know sees these facts
on the grounds or speaks to Palestinians

would understand that this a process of
settler's colonization of an apartheid regime.

I remember crossing that checkpoint
into Bethlehem and before this

I've been very much opposed
to ever using the word apartheid

but seeing night and day difference just by crossing
this wall changed that for me in an instant.

Assuming in serving in the Israeli army is obviously one way
of supporting Israel but there's also another modern battle

that is happening on campuses
each and every single day

and you are standing in
front of it, and hum, I mean

the Israeli government and Israeli people thank you for that and
that's why they put me here probably and I thank you for that

hum, there's a lot of PR to be made.

This university thank
god is fairly a-political

but I've heard all over the
place how you universities

are these hot beds of
anti-Semitic and anti-Israel work

I remember very vividly I was sitting in my
dorm-room with a friend of mine we got a phone call

that an anti Israel bill was being introduced
in the student government we bought-in

on the way called our parents
both got sent talking points

and then we went into this
student government meeting

The students senate at the
university of California Berkeley

calling on campus officials
to divest from companies

that supply weapons that Israel uses

in it's occupation of
the Palestinian territories

You are siding with the Palestinians on the
Israeli/Palestinian conflict there's just no question about it.

I just knew it was this
bad thing that I had to fight

It is anti-Semitism: it is!

You're trying to make me feel
marginalized on my own campus.

And I remember all of us going “well, hu,

you shouldn't boycott Israel
because it's applying a double 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're alienating student and I

am devasted by this bill
and 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

You know my aunts and cousins didn't sleep
for weeks while bombs were falling over

heading Gaza. What do
you have to say to that?

If divestment is hostile
then where do we begin

to describe the hostility
of a military occupation?

I was thrown into all these conversations
where people were throwing around

all these words that
I've never heard before

“occupation” “settlements”
“apartheid” “ethnic cleansing”

I just never heard anyone
use any of these terms before.

Thought I knew so much about Israel, but I didn't
really know what anybody who's talking about

when they were talking
about all these things.

I remember coming to Hellil and saying “why aren't
we answering Palestinian students questions”

I would feel really embarrassed by it because
mostly I felt like we weren't doing a good job

refuting their argument. Do we
not have an actual counter argument

besides like rockets double
standard anti-Semitism.

People... people, I... I couldn't
get answer from any body

and that was really disturbing for me.

I mean, there are these people called Palestinians
who think that Israel wields all this power

over the their lives and don't
have rights, don't have water.

What like literally what is this? How how is
this happening? How do I had I respond to it?

People that have a problem with Israel there
is a good chance they're misguided in somewhere

Everyone have the freedom in Israel like you can have
any religion and you can do whatever you want in Israel

but only in Israel in the Middle-East.

A lot of them, like it's lot,
it's a lot of misinformation

some of it comes from misinformation, some of it
comes from ignorance, some of it comes from lies

And it's very hard to deal with that
in any kind of a have a positive way

when they're coming from
such a place of not understanding

what the reality the situation when
they just have this in their in their head

all this misinformation and all these lies

I mean somehow pro-Palestinian
has become pro-social justice.

I wanted to know answers from
within my own community and

nobody could answer those questions for me.

How is it that I am like the best
the Jewish community has to offer

I've been there all the training's all the
programs and I don't know what the occupation is

I don't know what the settlements are

Eventually I got to a point where
I found myself wanting answers

to the questions the
Palestinians students were asking

and so it led me on a process of trying
to go figure those things out for myself.

What is this thing that is so
horrifying you can't bear to let me see it.

The summer after my freshman
year I went to Palestine and

I knowingly crossed
line for the first time.

I don't think I realize the extent to which
what I would come to see on the ground

would really shock me and or horrify me.

So if you look at your maps, we're
standing again right before hum

is going to turn red just so we
hear, where the soldier are standing

So just look behind you
guys this is a block of houses

the people living in all these apartments here
we were not allowed to walk on this main road

So this was, look, like a
red road, a "sterilized" road

and imagine, if you're a family living
here you can't open the front door

of your house and walk out.

I am listening to Palestinian
students talking about

what it was like being
beaten at a checkpoint

and sitting down with a
Palestinian family and and

hearing their story about
being displaced by Israeli settlers

And even when we fix the water wells,
and we try to cultivate the rainwater

to come into the water wells. Even those
things are being attacked by the settlers

Either they to throw stones on them
Or they throw chemicals in them

or they throw dead animals in the wells.

He's saying first he welcomes you.
Thank you very much for coming.

Especially because you're Jewish

The area here is populated
by Palestinian farmers.

Supreme court in Israel ruled that
they are allowed to live in the caves

that are here. They're not
allowed to build anything.

Today the civil administration
and the army came

and demolished some of the tents here

Something is deeply wrong here and it's,
it's breaking my heart.

What we've been told is that
the only way that Jews can be safe

is if Palestinians are not safe.

I guess the more I learn about that

the more I came to see that... as a lie.

So this is the checkpoint that
divides Jerusalem from Bethlehem

Palestinians definitely
cannot drive on this road

So you can see that we're basically driving

with walls on both sides of us right now.

You wanna go to like the major square or where
would you want to go? Well, you head man!

This is my barber

(laughs and Arabic small talk)

As someone who came to see Jerusalem or
Tel-Aviv as places that I should imagine as home

I remember coming into the
West-Bank for the first time

and actually seeing this
place as someone else's home

This is a normal place
where people are just

trying to live their lives.

For me to get to Jerusalem I have
to think of: first of all having the permit

getting to the checkpoint
waiting in lines for the checkpoint

getting to the soldiers at the checkpoint

that soldier might do
anything to me at that point

including sending me back.
And then crossing the checkpoint

and then having to
take public transportation

It's just the fact that I can not
drive as a Palestinian I can not drive

in Jerusalem or anywhere in Israel.

So we drove here today and...

Yeah, if I'm not home by 10pm
and I get caught on other side

Then I can be detained. I
could lose my permit, for good

I could be put in prison. I could be...

beaten up by soldiers

Who knows what will happen to me

Almost any rooftop you stand on in
Bethlehem, you look one way or the other

you will see a settlement built around you.

I started coming here in 2010.
I heard you speak to a group

about anti-semitism and inherited trauma

and started thinking a lot about

what it means to challenge my community

around the deep ingrained traumas

that as that are totally stopping us from

any sort of movement on this issue

My first learning experience was
when I was invited to go to Auschwitz

on a "bearing-witness retreat"

I actually say in Auschwitz, I discovered

one of the main reasons
why this conflict exists today

which is this inherited trauma
that exists in the Jewish community

where the feeling is that, as
Jews, we're always attacked

we've always been attacked will
always be attacked and therefore

the only way to maintain
ourselves is to create

this very suppressive security mechanism

that would prevent this
from happening again

I mean that's what I learned

Yeah that's what I heard.

What is important for
many of the Israeli Jews

and the Jews from around
the world we talked to

is the simple recognition
and acknowledgment of the story

and that story is where

the healing work begins to happen

As an activist, I think for many
activists what keeps us going

is our ability to be able
to look towards the future

I really believe that there is an emerging

awakening within the
American Jewish community

I've had even some American Jews
who come here and they say

we came to Israel and
we left from Palestine

For American Jews coming
here and listening to us

and hearing us and seeing our humanity

and understanding that we
are not just out sitting in bunkers

planning the next attack against Israelis

That we do have a desire to live in peace

and to have our freedom,
and to be walking on our streets

and eating in our restaurants
and we, hum, I mean...

it's crazy that I have to say this that we are
real human beings that just want to survive

and live and like all other
people in this the world.

The moment they see this and
experience this for themselves

it creates something in them,
it shifts something in them

what they do with it when they go
back it becomes their responsibility.

I came home and spoke out I think initially

it was very painful and
shocking for a lot of people

I had friends from high school and from college
who didn't know how to speak to me at the beginning

because these conversations
were forbidden for us growing up.

I've grown up very
much as a product of this

mass mobilization across the community

to ensure that young people

stay engaged in pro-Israel politics

For most people I know
oh who actually took the time

to see with their own
eyes what was happening

It very quickly challenges
everything we've been taught.

It's very painful

because it is so intimately bound up

with the identity of the community

Their have always been Jews who
have spoken out for Palestinian rights

and more and more people are willing

to take off their binders
looking at this reality

saying this is intolerable

I continued to meet more
and more young people like me

who are having similar experiences

and it made me realize that
I was part of a bigger story

of something that was
happening not just to me

but to young people around the country

We decided to bring the crisis of

American Jewish support for Israel

to the doorsteps of Jewish institutions

to force that conversation in public

First of all, all my friends at AIPAC stop talking
to me. I've lost many childhood friends over this

Also many friends have like come
along politically with me over the years

many of my family have also

many of my family also
deeply disagree with me

Every time I protested outside of a Jewish
community event of some kind I have seen a friend

a family friend a parent of a friend
on the other side of the barricade

We are literally talking
about parents and children

Young Jews they go to the Jewish
federations they go to the reform movement

They go to their day schools and they say

You mobilized me to be a soldier for Israel

But I had been completely misled.

We are also in a moment
when there is he possibility of

of some kind of alternative.

I see it hundreds of times and over and over again and those
hundreds speak for thousands and they went to the Jewish camps

and they went to the days schools and
they went to the synagogue's Hebrew schools

They're really really angry at
the way they were educated

and the way that they were indoctrinated

hum, about these issues and justifiably so

The indoctrination is
so severe it's almost hard

to have a conversation about it

It's heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking

Our community right now has
to grapple with our complicity.

And we want to welcome
you, to the Jewish protesting

Jewish opinion is split some Jewish groups

vocally oppose Israel's military policies

“More than a thousand Jewish
activists descended on Washington DC

Sunday to protest AIPAC.”

“So we tell some of our more conservative
brothers and sisters on the inside

that you do not represent
the best of the Jewish

"prophetic tradition and we're here
to bear witness around the world"

It's a new day now, I
think you got a number

of young Jewish brothers and sisters

who are undergoing more spiritual
awakening that are deeply concerned

about the suffering of Palestinians

they come from a people who have been hated
but they don't want to see the cycle of hate

perpetrated even by Jews themselves.

Israel it's been part of my
life since early childhood.

Within the Jewish community
oh there's been a striking change

and Israel's well aware of it

human will and commitment can change things

My name is Tanya it's the first time I'm using my full
real name, to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians

and I never thought in my life I would be
standing with this many Jews for Palestine

I'm a rabbi

As long as Palestinian lives
are treated as disposable

Our house, as a people, is not in order.

Tomorrow we show up, and we march

For the bill sheet of Palestinians

Free, Free Palestine

Free, free, free Palestine

Free, Free Palestine

Free, free, free Palestine

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib:

“I am the only Palestinian
American member of congress now

"how many Palestinians have
to die for their lives to matter?"

Life under apartheid strips
Palestinians of their human dignity

How many more decades to they
need to endure this subjugation

before there is a shift in
this unreasonable status quo

And what would you recommend?

I would recommend freedom!

The real challenge is trying to keep
that moral and spiritual dimensions strong

Cause any time you cut against a grave.
And you're gonna catch hell.

The anti-occupation Jews

are blocking Damascus Gate

End the occupation

Israeli Jews say (Hebrew)

I don't think it's as serious
as it's made up to be, okay?

They're entitled, it's fine, okay!

I don't think they represent much

I think they're a little super naive

I think that this... most of American Jews

even though they have different
views on settlements or occupation

I think that's still a decision
at the end of the day

they're gonna leave
for the Israelis to make

As long as Israel is under threat

and as strong as it is
and as dynamic as it is

it's still under threat from it's neighbors

and a hundred thousand
missiles, we postpone

that philosophical debate to another time

Palestinians are so dehumanized
in the community that it's really hard

for people to figure out
how to even understand

Palestinians legitimate
rights and claims to the land

“Palestinians gathered for
protesting the Israeli Gaza border”

They're demanding the right to return to
lands from which they were forced out in 1948

At least 55 Palestinians died
Monday during mass protests

Israeli troops fired on the demonstrators

Look at the more recent Gaza demonstrations

Ask yourself the question if the
Mexicans stood at the border and march

A million Mexicans or 20.000
Mexicans, what would America do?

You know first they would
try tear gas and this or that

and eventually they would have to shoot.

There are a lot of Jewish young
people who see a Jewish establishment

that is racist that is nationalistic

Israel is in the Middle-East
and not the Midwest

So the neighbors are not
necessarily the Jones or the Smiths

I don't want war, but
it's been imposed on us

So we should do right,
and defeat the terrorists

We don't want to be a part of that

but we are actually building an alternative

I've been involved in this
work for about a decade

I was seen as a face of this
young growing Jewish resistance

to the American Jewish establishment

It made perfect sense to me that
Bernie would hire someone like me

as a Jewish outreach coordinator

Within about 48 hours
of being on the campaign

the attack started rolling in

These old man from the Jewish
establishment came out to say

you know that I was
dangerous that I was a threat

a journalist wrote an article
about me the headline was

“Bernie sanders new Jewish outreach coordinator
is an outspoken critic of Israeli occupation”

The next headline that I found out
about when I walked into work was:

“Abe Foxman calls on Sanders to fire new Jewish
community liaison for quote “anti Israel comments”

“On Thursday the Sander's campaign suspended
it's new national Jewish outreach coordinator

Simone Zimmerman, two
days after she was hired.”

So as far as I'm aware this was Abe Foxman's first
comment in public since his retirement from the ADL

and he came out of
retirement to defend the world

from the great threat of Simone Zimmerman

It hurts me for Jewish kid to stand up
there and say: Justice for the Palestinians

and not saying: Justice for the Israelis

Troubles me, hurts me, me
bothers me, it means we failed

We failed in educating
and explaining etcaetera

When we talk about:
"we're losing the kids"...

Hu... We lost them!

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[651]

We see that many millennials are
becoming desenchanted with Israel and

And, hum, I take a very different
approach on this. I say to them

we need to love Israel even more

It... it means that we, we're the older
generation have much more work to do

This whole communal obsession with
defending Israel has basically worked into

seeing someone like me
as a threat to the community

The word that I used to hear
a lot was “self hating Jew”

Like the only way that a
Jewish person could possibly

care about the humanity of
Palestinians is if you hate yourself

Let's see what I find in here.

You are a self loathing
Jew, go kill yourself

With Jews like you who
needs ignorant racist bigot Arabs

You work against our people... You're an
anti-semitic Jew... You've been working for the enemy

Simone Zimmerman another
member of the lunatic anti-semitic far-left

There's always been this argument of:
"Oh you can't criticize Israel"

Criticizing Israel feeds anti-semitism

Criticizing Israel helps
the enemies of Israel

As more and more American Jews are speaking
out in support of Palestinian freedom

Now they just say instead
we're over anti-semite

We hate all Jewish people or even
worse that we're not Jewish at all.

We are attacked as be
being not really Jewish

if we're not support of Israel

And that's where you start seeing
just a blanket de-legitimization

of an entire sector of
American Jewish society

focusing on this so
called new anti-semitism

And then came the new anti-semitism which
was the anti-semitism relating to Israel

What some have said that Israel
became the Jew of the nations.

In the same way that historically, you know,
whatever was permitted for anybody else

was not permitted for the Jew.
Now Israel was singled out...

So many of the self appointed leaders of our
community have been trying to equate the idea of

supporting Palestinian
rights itself with anti-semitism

This is about anti-Israel, anti-semitic
attitude. Classic new anti-semitism.

The extreme left has a
long history of anti-semitism,

of-of-of-of, of anti-Israel hatred.

How stupid have they been for
all these years, voting for Obama

and other anti-semites like him.

Unwillingness to grapple
with Palestinian suffering

is putting a lot of American Jews in
a really dangerous and sad position

How far will Jewish
Americans go in their effort

to quash pressure on Israel.

You know how far will
people go, it's hard to see.

How far they won't go, is
this is where things are today

Again the pro-Israel's leaders just want
to be in the room with the people in power.

They will do anything to preserve
unconditional support for Israel

Thank you. When I become president.

The days of treating Israel

like a 2nd class citizen

will end on day one

History is not going to judge just kindly

I'd like to say that we were blessed
by heaven with Donald Trump

being elected President
of the Unites States.

We should pray that they
should remain in office

and that he should continue
to do the great things he does.

On behalf of the United States
of America and on behalf of Israel

We're saying like of for fine combination
of what support of Israel at all cost

has led to... disregarding
any lesson of history

disregarding any sort of morality

The great irony of having this be where
we are today within the Jewish community

is that there actually is
resurgent anti-semitism.

The kind that I think my generation

and the generations that have come after
me never thought we'd see in our lifetimes

Hail Trump Hail our
people Hail victory

In the US couple of things have been
happening, number go to Trump or Trumpism.

It's not easy... is he a big got, is
he... I don't think he's a big got.

I think he is what he is. I don't think he's
a racist so I don't think is an anti-semite.

I think that you can call
him all kinds of things…

The community has spent so much
time attacking anyone who criticizes Israel

and their actual threats to our community

That has led our communal
institutions to basically be silent

in the face of rising white nationalism

Jews will not replace us.

Jews will not replace us.

Jews will not replace us.

The way that we talk about anti semitism isn't
about protecting Jews it's about protecting Israel.

How dangerous is that at this
moment with the rise of anti semitism

And often when American politicians
are asked about anti-semitism

they talk about their support for Israel

Support for Israel,
today, is actually replacing

what it means to be a Jew

These people have basically decided that
support for Israel

is more important than the safety of Jews

We're not going to say anything about the
spreading of these anti semitic conspiracy theories

We have seen a tremendous
amount of this use of vile

anti semitic tropes.

The thread talks about a Jewish plot
to enslave people in the United-States

Anti semitic flyers sipped in
Covid-19 conspiracies saying

every single aspect of
the Covid agenda is Jewish

That's the way the Jews work.

They decei... They are deceivers

They plot. They lie

They do whatever they have to do

The gunmen told a SWAT officer that
he wanted all Jews to die

and that they were committing
genocide against his people

It's a profoundly sad moment,
I think it's tipping moment

These anti semitic
nightmares that we all...

like it's all coming to
life, in front of our eyes

I can't help but think about all the
American Jewish organizations

that have spent the last
decade pouring millions of $

into smearing and marginalizing
human rights advocates

Jewish, Palestinian and not,
trying to brand Palestinian protest

as anti-semitic

when there were neo-Nazis

trying to kill us and our synagogues

My parents' and grandparents' generation

grew up in a world in
which Jews were not safe.

They invested so much in the idea

Jews could only be safe through Israel

But our safety and our
security is actually bound up in

the safety and the security of all people

The most powerful
pro-Israel lobby in the country

are now donating money

to republican politicians
who either incited or

continue to support the righters who

stormed the capital on January 6

That's part of a politics of solidarity.

It feels totally morally
coherent and morally urgent

to support freedom
and dignity for all people

in all the places that we live

Palestinians have already
been telling us this for decades.

So guys here is the

the the wall...

but, the world is finally
coming to catch up

For me I would say if
anybody has any influence

on Israeli policy

and I say this with a big if

it is the American Jewish community

The American Jewish
community have the potential

to have the greatest influence

in shifting our reality
outside of this land

For many people around the world when
they see the voice of the Jewish community

rise and protest against this occupation

it will allow other voices to say yes

we could also have a voice in it as well

Now we're doing joint work in
trying to end this occupation

and bringing peace and justice
into this land.

The most inspiring experiences I had

are with Jewish Americans

that come in and take a stand

We're gonna hear tonight
number of personal stories

at some point you guys decided to

call upon break the silence

and I'm interested was
there a particular moment

that lead you to this

In 2008, I, I joined the military

in America we have this concept of
innocent until proven guilty

there is no innocent
Palestinian according to the army

("that's so not true"...)
in occupied territory

"quiet down please!"...
"get out of here... come on, you lie...

that's a lie... she said there's no such"
"It's not a lie"

What we're talking about
is not getting Palestinians

the right that we Israelis...
and that's apartheid.

To go against the grain
is not an easy thing to do

So I did not speak about my
experiences in the occupation

publicly until very recently

I was afraid that I would be demonized

I've seen friends of mine, being demonized

for speaking out about the same things

The first time I ever spoke
publicly about my experiences

I cried the whole time that I was speaking.

It's gotten a little bit easier
to talk about since then

because I have taken the time to process it

But that doesn't mean it's easy any
time I talk about these experiences...

But we can't wait any longer

I've been longing for this Jewish
conversation for seventeen years.

We're here today... hum

to talk about some things that are often

can feel impossible
in the Jewish community

These conversations can happen
we are not risking our Jewish history

you are not closing a door or
to the rest of your Jewish life.

All that we have to risk is our denial...

I can start.

My high school had an Israel studies class

all about when you go to college

and people start telling you about Israel
beeing an apartheid state

this is how you respond

From, like summer camp in my youth movement

one the one of the core tenant of it was
that the Jewish state needed to be built

and just no questioning of what price
we were really willing to pay

or willing to make Palestinian pay

As an Israeli, Palestinian identity itself

is not something I had
to learn that it exists

So slowly, as I

came to learn, the occupation exists

I started learning that
there is another narrative

We're here to talk about the history
that's often referred to as "The Nakba"

750.000 people displaced from their homes

At least 400 villages
undone in their entirety

The colonization is also ongoing

The ongoing Nakba

the continued, not just the
historical, but the continued

but the continued ethnic
cleansing of Palestinians

I have been blessed to witness
the ways that Palestinian society

continues to find ways to thrive

But we can't deny that
there has been catastrophe

and that it's been catastrophic
the scale of loss

We're really here to teach each other but
I think nothing's as important as action

Because we're talking
about ongoing displacement

People might tell you that if
you stand up for Palestinian rights

that you aren't really Jewish,

that you're maybe a self hating Jew

As a rabbi what I see when
I look at the work of solidarity

is a long chain of Jewish history

This chain of people of
ancestors and text and traditions

that are about justice and fighting for it.

Jewish tradition tells us to envision a
world where all people are safe and free

To never stop fighting for that world

So, may you all feel blessed
in a tradition of liberation

and may you be blessed
to know you're not alone...

And let's get to work