American Anti-Zionis and Israeli Protest War

As I arrived at the overpass, to my dismay, there was noboby there. I had hoped at least a few would have heeded the call of peace activist groups to protest today on overpasses and whereever. Sigh... Oh well. Sometimes you just have to go it alone!

As I unfurled my banner, attaching it to the rails of the overpass highway, one of my neighbors who I know already from past "debates" is a Zionist ally and apologist, and who works for CalTrans (very square, the type who wears a plastic pen protector in his shirt pocket), was walking by and we greeted each other in a friendly manner. He read what my banner said and told me "you can't hang this here" and I replied "I'm doing it!" as he hurried on.

Once attached with some wire, I stood in the chilly morning sun watching all the motorists make their way to work. At some points people switched lanes to get in line as if in a parade below me to carefully read the sign. How rewarding! Some honked, some waved, and one guy gave me the finger! I just hoped there would be no car crash below me. That would make me feel guilty.

Suddenly a very nice woman came up with a big piece of paper. I was really happy to have some company. Her name was Sharon. I told her what my banner said (NO US AID TO APARTHEID ISRAEL) and she didn't blink.

She asked me if I had a magic marker with me. Sometimes I do (I suppose all guerrilla activists should have one at all times!) so I emptied the contents of my purse (the only way to find anything in it), and alas I could find none. But I suggested she use some tubes of my lipstick. "PERFECT!" She said, since she wanted to write "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" on her sign. It would be bloody RED.

So she made her sign and held it up together for about a half hour.

As we got to talking, I mentioned I thought that perhaps the epicenter for the anti-war on Iraq movement might be here in Northern California since President Bush mentioned this area specifically in his speech with regards to the anti-war movement. She wondered out loud about New York. I said that perhaps New York might be too conflicted because 9/11 happened there, and added that also many right-wing Zionist Jews no doubt live there, so maybe they are not as anti-war as we are here.

That's when she revealed kindly that she was in fact Israeli! Wow! It seemed like divine intervention for she and I to be holding this sign together. Here I am, a staunch anti-Zionism activist, and here she is, an Israeli holding a sign, and together we are really glad to have each other's company!

I told her about my vision that Israel should be transformed into a true democracy with equal rights for all including all the Palestinian refugees, and she could agree in spirit, but admitted to a fear of bloodshed.

I told her that no matter what, there is probably going to be some bloodshed, so it is better to have bloodshed for the right reasons, such as equal rights for all, rather than for the wrong reasons, which is any kind of racial/religious supremacism resulting in ethnic cleansing, which is what is happening now.

She admitted that she has alot of mixed, confused feelings about Israel and Zionism, and I told her that I can certainly understand that.

She mentioned the fact that Jews were turned away from many places when the Nazis were in control of Germany, and I told her that I realize that it was totally wrong for that to have happened and how it may have seemed like a great idea to have a Jewish state at that time, but that things do change and ethnic cleansing of any kind can never be justified. I also pointed out how the UN conditioned the state of Israel on not harming or discriminating against the indigenous people there already and how that was ignored. And I pointed out how now Israel and US neocon Zionists are now trying to destroy the UN's credibility altogether.

Emphatically, we must realize that no matter how horrible it was that Jews were turned away from many places in their time of need, it still does not justifiy the ethnic cleansing and persecution of the Palestinians, who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, which is the case with the Jews in Germany. Ethnic cleansing can absolutely NEVER be justified, no matter who does it to whom. She agreed with that, of course. Really, come on now... how can anybody who is not a flat-out racist disagree with that?

She told me that she thought my idea of a true democracy for all, including the Palestinian refugees, in Israel is perhaps too "Utopian", yet I think that this is not like in the Bible where it says that in heaven something like "the lambs shall lie with the lions in peace". No,no, no, we are talking about HUMAN BEINGS being able to live together as equals in peace. I reminded her that Oakland is the most diversified city in America, and probably the world. I live in peace with my neighbors in my condo who are white, black, Asian, Christian, Jewish, Hispanic, straight, gay, what have you, and we sometimes have our differences but we live together peacefully! Even one of my Jewish neighbors in my condo came to the Anti-Zionsim rally we had in front of Congresswoman Barbara Lee's office as a bystander, I went over to him and said "I like YOU, but I don't like the racist nature of Israel and Zionsim" and he seemed to be so happy that I said that as we shook hands and smiled at each other.

My new friend Sharon seemed a bit too focussed on fear, fear of the festering hatred on both sides. I told her I really believe that Palestinians will be so happy to be treated as equals and have equal rights and to be able to return to their ancestral homeland, maybe not to the exact spot they once lived on but at least somewhere near it, that they would just feel immense gratitude. They would feel such gratitude that they would not want to jeopardize that with any malicious act of hate. I sincerely believe that this is completely true and that there would absolutely be no more suicide bombers. I am completely, absolutley, 100%, confident of that. Because then the Palestinians would have something to live for! A future with equal rights and human dignity, which we all crave! We are all part of the same human family. We can enjoy peace, but only when there is equal rights and all abide by The Golden Rule.

So I was very happy myself to have shared the experience of protesting the looming war with Iraq with a Jewish Israeli.

And she was happy to share the experience with me too, as she wrote me a very nice e-mail later on.

It's not a Utopian idea to believe that we can all live together in peace. People do it everyday in my condo building. We may not agree on everything, but we are not being violent at all towards one another.