GUEST COLUMN
BY ANNA LIPPMAN
NOT IN OUR NAME
As far back as I can remember, I’ve always known I was Jewish. Being Jewish often meant being different—telling my neighbours I keep kosher or explaining to my classmates why I can’t play on Saturdays. Being Jewish means I have a rich culture complete with songs, dances, another language, and way more holidays than most people. But particularly as the granddaughter of an Auschwitz survivor, being Jewish has always meant living in constant fear of antisemitism. It also meant unwavering support for Israel as the answer to this fear.
The intense support that Israel receives from North America, and the United States in particular, is so strong that Israel could not survive without it. Unlike the critique we’ve seen around the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, criticism of Israel or its genocidal policies are swiftly met with sanctions. These punitive sanctions are often done in the name of preventing antisemitism and are designed to silence those who speak out for Palestinian rights. But this accusation of antisemitism conflates the state of Israel and its policies with the entirety of the Jewish people.
The accusation of antisemitism conflates the state of Israel and its policies with the entirety of the Jewish people.
Critiquing or even condemning Israel has very little to do with antisemitism. In fact, through groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and If Not Now, it is Jewish people themselves who are among the loudest voices against the atrocities being committed by Israel. As the children and grandchildren of Holocaust survivors, many Jewish activists see the way our historical trauma is being weaponized to garner support for the genocide of another people. Jewish people all over the world are standing up to say, “not in our name,” meaning that never again means never again for anyone; we refuse to allow Palestinian genocide to occur on our behalf.
As Israel’s genocide of Gazans continues, more and more Westerners are opening their eyes to the extreme injustice faced by Palestinians and how Israel is perpetrating ethnic cleansing through its project of settler-colonialism. Since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, or what Palestinians refer to as The Nakba—Arabic for “the catastrophe”— Zionists have sought to bring Jews from all over the world to settle in Israel and dispossess Palestinians of their lands and homes. The Jewish National Fund, an international organization founded in 1901 that fundraises from Jewish communities around the world to buy land for Israel, touted the state as “a land without a people, for a people without a land.” This alluring slogan completely erases the existence of Palestinians and encourages Jews from around the world to settle in Israel.
This current attack on Gaza is merely an extension of Israel’s longstanding treatment of Palestinians.
Even before the brutal bombing campaign on Gaza began on Oct. 7, Gaza was considered the world’s largest open air prison, with little access to basic necessities or the ability to travel freely. Palestinians living in the West Bank have experienced decades of harassment and expulsion at the hand of Israeli settlers, and these interactions have only increased and become more deadly. This current attack on Gaza is merely an extension of Israel’s longstanding treatment of Palestinians.
Israel’s project of ethnic cleansing is supposedly meant to protect me against antisemitism. But settler-colonialism has never led to Jewish safety, not here in North America, or in Israel, where bomb shelters and emergency infrastructure like the Iron Dome shows the fragility of this oppressive system that could come under attack at any moment. Combating antisemitism by adopting the same strategies of European imperialism to oppress Palestinians not only fails to challenge discourses that lead to antisemitism and hate, but it also robs Jewish people of our own humanity. To legitimize the current actions of Israel, or its actions of the past 75 years, requires the dehumanizing of Palestinians.
The humanity of the Jewish people does not come from building settlements over the graves of Palestinians.
My safety as a Jewish woman can never come at the expense of someone else’s. Indeed, my desire for a world free of antisemitism is intertwined with my dream of a world free of all forms of oppression and racism. The humanity of the Jewish people does not come from building settlements over the graves of Palestinians, but through fighting for a world where all people have safety, dignity, and freedom.
Anna Lippman is a third-generation Ashkenzi Jewish settler on Turtle Island (North America). She is a PhD student in sociology at York University looking at identity formation and social movements. Anna organizes with several groups in Toronto including Showing Up for Racial Justice and Independent Jewish Voices.