Here are two very different paths from Zionism to last week’s (very successful!) fundraiser at the Olive Branch in Carterton. First, Rick Sahar’s story:
Growing up in Detroit as the son of two Holocaust survivors, my parents never spoke about their lives, before or during the Holocaust, so I knew very little about them while growing up. I will explain more about this later…
When I was sixteen years old, I had enough of the tensions I felt at home. I was also fed-up with high school, and for political and social justice reasons, I did not see a future for myself in the USA. My ideal at the time was to work in agriculture, to become a farmer. With that in mind, I convinced my parents to allow me to travel to Israel for the summer of 1971, not telling my parents that if it worked out for me, I was not planning to return for my last year of high school…
I arrived in Israel naive and uninformed. We never discussed Israel at home, I never discussed Israel with my friends. I ended up living there for 10 years. By the end of that time, I had witnessed the apartheid system in action and knew that I really couldn’t live in Israel anymore and had to leave…
Yes, and during that time, I was conscripted into the Israeli army in January 1974 and was trained as a tank gunner. Conscious objectors were treated like criminals at that time, and they still are. I did not go to the army happily as it got in the way of my work and my relationship. And I never held a gun in my hands before. Armed combat was beyond my understanding. I had no glorified view in the least of me being in the Israeli army… and fortunately, I never saw “live action” during any of my time in the Israeli army.
A few short months after the 1973 October “Yom Kippur” war, I was trained and stationed for 1.5 years in the Sinai Peninsula facing the Suez Canal just in case another war would break out, which it didn’t. I was just wanting to do my time, my three years, and get out and go back to my life on the kibbutz, thinking I will be living there for the rest of my life…
When finally back on the kibbutz, I realized that my personal relationships with Palestinian Arabs I had befriended caused issues for some of my comrades living there. They questioned me as to why I would invite “them” to the kibbutz… that baffled me at the time, still not knowing much of the history, how the Zionists drove Palestinians off their land or, or for that matter, how the Zionists had made a pact with Mussolini’s fascist party. The Zionists didn’t hesitate in killing Arab, British and Jews alike if they got in the way of their plans to create a “Jewish” state.
I joined a kibbutz-led left-wing peace movement that was light on policy and offered little solution to the situation, not yet called in Israel an “occupation”. In 1980, during what turned out to be my last reserve duty, I was stationed in the West Bank and called into my commander’s office; he ordered me to go with two other soldiers to arrest a suspected PLO operative at his home and bring him in. Without a moment’s pause, I flatly refused the order, saying that I was there to guard not to arrest on suspicion… I gladly accepted the commander’s punishment knowing that at least I would not be responsible for ruining someone’s life; I was sent to guard the ammunition bunker, around the clock, for the next three weeks. In those weeks, I came to the conclusion that I must never again serve in this army which meant that my time was up in Israel. So I took a year’s leave from the kibbutz and joined my Kiwi girlfriend on her trip back home to visit her mother in Wellington.
What was it like for me to come to Aotearoa/NZ at the end of 1981? It was like finding Paradise. I learned it was soon after a most divisive time in recent history, the Springbok tour and protests… Arriving in Auckland, the next day we went to Aotea Square, I was amazed… no sign of soldiers, armed with rifles, in sight. Instead we saw kappa haka groups and women singing and swinging poi… I actually cried tears of relief to find myself in such a peaceful environment compared to where I had been living, in a fully militarized state.
Both my partner and I took an interest in Buddhism. I chose to study Tibetan Buddhism as it weirdly reminded me of some Jewish orthodox rituals I went to growing up. Through meeting several Tibetan teachers who told me about China’s occupation, their monasteries being destroyed and their own dramatic escapes, I eventually became involved in the advocacy group “Friends of Tibet”… In time, I became the local chairperson, organizing rallies and vigils, mainly in front of the Chinese embassy. There was a Parliamentary lobby group that somewhat supported our demands for a free Tibet. Knowing that the Chinese president was to arrive for a state visit in 1999, we organized a rally outside the Hotel he was to stay at on Grey St. What happened there, in short, was that the NZ police unlawfully broke up our demonstration, forcing us away from the hotel protest site. We got legal advice from Barrister Tony Ellis who supported us in filing a complaint against the police for interfering in our legal right to protest. There was a Parliamentary inquiry that found in our favour, the Pro-Tibet demonstrators. The police then became keen for us to drop our complaint, end the court proceedings, so they offered a public apology and compensation to all who were illegally detained, which the group accepted. When I was asked by one of the local newspapers, why did we decide to file court proceedings against the NZ Police, my answer was “to preserve the legal right of protest in NZ from now, and into the future”. I’m glad I was part of that action as I believe it has secured our right to demonstrate in support of Palestine, on the streets of Wellington, including in front of the Israeli embassy.
What I realized just a few short years after that experience was how I have been avoiding looking into my own family’s history of oppression suffered under Nazism. I was finally ready to find out about my parents’ Holocaust experience that they never spoken about, and started researching it myself. I was unprepared for some of the facts I found out, yet it went on to influence me in ways I did not expect…
I became obsessed; I searched through thousands of pages on the internet and pieced together the chronological life events of both my parents, how they were forced out of their homes to move into ghettos, later into concentration camps, members of their families murdered, just for being Jewish… sound familiar? I also learned about the events that led to them surviving and to arriving to Detroit and meeting there and getting married. A new start for two traumatized people… I realized that they might never have left Poland, with the happy lives they had there, if not for the Nazis’ cruel plan to rid themselves, and the world, of Jews…”Never again” should mean never again for all people.
I joined the Holocaust Centre of NZ (HCNZ) to continue my research and share my findings with other members of the Jewish community and the wider public. I started by presenting my Parents’ survival story first at HCNZ followed by presentations at several high schools/colleges around the country. I even became a board member. Zionists on the HCNZ board started focusing their support on Israel and justifying its military actions instead of fulfilling HCNZ’s mission statement to call out human rights’ violations as they happen. I resigned from the board disenchanted with the breakdown of process and procedure. HCNZ today does not acknowledge that a genocide is being perpetrated against the people of Gaza… For me, a son of Holocaust survivors, it is incredulous that the HCNZ does not acknowledge that a genocide is being perpetrated against the people of Gaza, even though it is recognized by the world’s leading genocide and Holocaust experts/academics and that a genocide is found by the world’s highest courts to be most likely being committed in Gaza.
So with my family history, my growing personal awareness towards human rights and justice for all, learning the historical facts and that Zionism is a fascist movement, it became apparent to me what to do next… to commit my support for Palestinian Rights and Self-determination and do what I can to at least help raise public awareness about this Genocide in addition to Israel’s land theft and illegal occupation from also before 1948. There are still people in Wellington, and around this country and the world, who believe that Hamas started this genocide on Oct 7. Every leaflet I manage to hand out, on the streets of Wellington, I see as a small victory, in assisting to overcome ignorance that will help lead to a free Palestinian state.
Israel has always made false claims they are being threatened by another state in order to attack them… Israel cannot claim the right of self-defense as an occupying force when attacked by an armed group within a territory they illegally occupy. Their claims have no legal standing in international law…
I firmly believe that ending this Genocide and establishing Palestinian statehood are the most significant human rights actions of our time. Many people living in New Zealand took a stand against the Springbok Tour and the apartheid in South Africa. The whole world should be rising up against Israel as they are the present-day Nazis. I don’t say that lightly knowing the huge amount of suffering perpetrated by the Nazis, yet I’m convinced that to be true. If you agree with me, even in part, then this is the moment to dedicate more of your time and effort to raise awareness of the Genocide in Gaza through whatever means you can – attending rallies, sharing your views with friends and family, writing to the government to sanction Israel and expel the ambassador, boycotting all goods manufactured in Israel and also those companies that support the Genocide. We can all become better informed so that we can understand more deeply the significance for us all the way over here in NZ for being much more involved in supporting Palestinian statehood. Every experience I have had in my life has led me to that realization.
I’ve tried to create a picture of how I overcame my lack of knowledge to become involved in Palestinian rights and in supporting a free Palestine… There is real truth behind the words, “nobody is free until Palestine is free”. If only Israelis thought the same, they too would finally become free.
I see this time we are sharing as significant – we all live entitled lives with the ability of some self-determination, to a greater or lesser extent. With understanding that, it is our responsibility to act.
By Rick Sahar
And a very different path, by Marilyn Garson
Kia ora koutou, kia ora i te whānau.
Thank you so much for this lovely reason to get out of the city on a beautiful weekend morning.
Ten years ago, I spent my bright weekend mornings reclining on the terrace of the Al Deirah Hotel in Gaza City with my closest Palestinians colleagues and some of their small children. We had breakfast together, overlooking the beach, on each of the last weekends of my four years in Gaza.
Those were quintessential Gaza mornings. Everyone moved more slowly in the mornings. Scorching salt air; fishing boats put-putting into the lagoon. Table covered with plates of food to share. Now and then, like a magnet our eyes would be drawn to the stretch of beach where an Israeli soldier had killed those four skinny boys while they played, one year earlier. July 16, 2014. That beach reminded us that Gaza lived in the pause between wars, and each hour brought the next war nearer. So we talked more slowly, because our rambling talk suspended the time. Gaza was all those things at once.
Israel’s occupation forces destroyed the Al Deirah Hotel in January, 2024. And now Israel’s forces say they will kill anyone who ventures into that cool, spacious water.
My friends who sat around that table have left Gaza now. They say that a part of them is dying from the news. Their children drag them forward. The baby who napped at our table recently told me that she reads chapter books in English in her new Zealand school.
My colleague Scott returned to Gaza in November, 2023. He was UNRWA’s director for the first 15 months of this nightmare. He saw Israel strike every one of UNRWA’s protected shelters at least once, and kill over 200 of our UNRWA colleagues. Scott has gone grey. We caught up after he left, and we talked about the dislocation of Gaza’s once-familiar landscape. The eye looks for landmarks as if the past could comfort the present. The building where we both worked is now a tangle of concrete and rebar. I have tried to locate my apartment building in video of the wreckage of Al Rashid Road but there aren’t enough streets left to count. Sand has begun to smooth over the rubble.
Little Gaza is the most heavily bombed place on this earth. The obliteration of so much of Gaza’s built environment scarcely hints at the wounds to its society. There is a pervasive sense of absence in the images, where there had been such lively bustle. Because Gazans had been crowded so closely together, Gaza’s city streets felt as intimate as village squares. We drove with a particular rhythm, forever tapping the brakes to nod at someone’s relatives, former neighbours, the parents of children’s school friends. As densely woven as Gaza’s connections had been, that thick is the web of Palestinians’ losses now.
I have not gotten used to it. Waking up each dawn, Gaza is still there until I open my eyes.
Here is something else that I learned and brought home from Gaza: steadfastness is relational. Every night when the electricity was cut, the first sound I heard was the cheering from the street. That defiance overpowered and elevated my frustration.
The foundations of resistance take shape in the space between us, where you encourage me and I am there for you. Since Israel set about shattering Gaza’s soul, since Gaza cracked and split this world, you and I have been fortifying those steadfast foundations.
Let me say clearly, I hate that illegal wall around Gaza because I am a Jew. I don’t give a damn who built the wall. That wall is an insult to the value of life, and I care for the lives being lived behind it. There is no question on which side of that wall a Jew belongs. We know about ghetto walls and we belong with those who rise up and fight to survive within them.
Since I left Gaza, I have worked for a just future for both Palestinians and Jews. Zionism is not allowed to steal Jewishness from the rest of us. It has been my privilege to be, among many others, working at the foundations of a new, liberatory, solidarist Jewishness; be it spiritual or secular. We recognise that the old structure has failed, failed utterly. Jewish institutions that claim to act in our name have twisted themselves into pretzels to invent exceptions to their principles and their mercy and the ethics of our teachings.
Does that sound familiar? I regard the Wairarapa flag-waving as the same kind of foundational act – living allyship steadily, together, keeping it visible and resolute. Enacting solidarity with one eye on the institutions that claim to represent us. Our national institutions have twisted themselves into pretzels to make exceptions to the treaties they have signed in our names. They have made Gaza into a jagged little hole in mercy and humanitarian law and the simple value of human life.
Each time we gather the streets or in front of this indifferent parliament of ours, we are working at the foundations of something better. We work for a world in which fairness and feeding children are not radical beliefs.
We work at these foundations, knowing that others around the world are doing the same thing. We are finding new communities of values.
In the same month that we formed AJV, February 2020, we were invited to join Global Jews for Palestine – GJP. Anti-Zionist Jewish groups from a dozen countries realised that Israel’s imperial project was rolling over us because we were each reacting in isolation. We were each scrambling to invent the wheel in our dozen countries. We worked on the foundations of global Jewish solidarity together for four and a half years online. Then we finally met last year in London. They all told me that I’m shorter in person than I look on Zoom. Now we have member groups in 21 countries, on six continents.
I want to be careful, because I would never say that we found opportunity in disaster. I would never reduce Palestinians’ suffering to our opportunity. Instead, I would say that Gaza broke the way that I understand our world. Now I place that suffering at the heart of my vision of the world we need, and my definition of my task as a friend and ally to Gaza.
Any ally jams her body, mind, speech and privilege like a spanner into the workings of race and violence. She refuses to normalise what should not be normal. She does not let others ignore what the structure is designed to hide.
Jewish solidarity also means embracing some discomfort because we are implicated in the systems that oppress Palestinians. It means listening while Palestinians explain what those systems have meant. As my friend Rick so clearly shows, it means being the walking proof that Jews are not threatened by others’ equal claims in this world. On the contrary, we are all threatened by a world in which genocidal violence can be met with silence and complicity.
But we must do more than protest. It is essential that anti-Zionist Judaism also lays the foundations of new Jewish community; community that does not replicate the harms we are witnessing in Palestine. So many institutions of the Jewish religion have handed themselves over to nationalism. Our future does not lie in asking for the marginal reform of any institution that defends one genocide in the name of another. Global Jews for Palestine has mapped our vision of an ethical and inclusive Jewish community in our global manifesto for collective liberation. It’s online, please sign in support.
The quality and durability of any building relies on its foundations. We are all working at the impatient foundations of a global movement now. Palestine will be free.
So much is needed between now and then, and so many days like today. I want to add my thanks to the organisers of this event, to our hosts and to everyone who is contributing toward the desperate, hourly needs of Gazan Palestinians.
And for everyone who waves those flags week after week? I wish sunshine and gentle breezes for you. For as long as fairness and dignity are radical, I belong with the flag-wavers.
By Marilyn Garson
Rick and Marilyn both want to thank the hosts, organisers, speakers and very generous participants at the Olive Branch in Carterton. Close to $3000 was raised!
Sh'ma Koleinu - Alternative Jewish Voices (NZ) 