Minnesotans detained in and deported from Israel return home and speak out
Israeli security forces refused entry to three U.S. solidarity activists for attempting to participate in a human rights delegation. They were treated as criminals, while their only goal was to learn about the reality of life for the Palestinian people. Sarah Martin, member of Women Against Military Madness, and Katrina Plotz, of the Anti-War Committee, refused voluntary deportation, and the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv informed us that they were forcibly deported Sunday evening. The third traveler, Karen Sullivan also of the Anti-War Committee, was already deported and returned home to Minneapolis on Sunday.
Sarah and Katrina are expected to return home on a flight arriving at 12:37pm. A press conference with them, their families and supporters, will happen at 1pm in the baggage claim area of the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport (Lindbergh Terminal).For more information contact:
Jess Sundin at 612.272.2209
Meredith Aby at 612.819.3149
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http://www.antiwarcommittee.org
Thousands of people have been denied entry by Israel, especially those who wish to see the Palestinian Territories. Not only international solidarity activists, but millions of Palestinian refugees living all over the world are prevented from returning to their homeland. Israel's policy of denying entry to people who support the Palestinian struggle and want to report on the situation, is one aspect of a campaign to isolate the Palestinian people from the world. This campaign includes hundreds military checkpoints inside the Palestinian Territories, blocking humanitarian shipments into the Gaza Strip, and the building of a massive Apartheid Wall. Palestinians experience repression every day.
Precisely because the official Israeli view receives much more widespread coverage in the U.S. media than does the impact of these policies on the lives of Palestinians, it is important that people like Sarah, Katrina and Karen be able to go and report the situation accurately, and show the Palestinian people that the world has not completely abandoned them.
In spite of its special relationship with the U.S., the Israeli government showed no regard for the rights of American visitors, whose only crime was to express solidarity with the people of occupied Palestine. Karen reported that she was escorted onto her departing flight by an armed Israeli guard, and that she was interrogated upon re-entering the U.S. The AWC secured council for Sarah and Katrina, but they didn’t have access to speak to their lawyer and exercise their full right to appeal their deportation. Advocates for human rights should not be treated like criminals.
Their case resulted in an outpouring of support from across the country. This will be their first public statements in the United State since their unjust detention on Saturday, August 1.
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I was not bothered when crossing into Israel
I went on a tour of Israel and the West Bank (Bethlehem) and I was never bothered or treated badly by anyone, but I have no group affiliations. I do know that several Israeli soldiers were injured by rocks thrown at them by American anti-war activists. One had to be discharged from the army because of his injuries. There were other incidents reported in the Israeli press while I was there as well.
I think what has happened here is that a small group of people have really hurt the image of the anti-war movement in Israel. By advocating peace while a few of our members engage in violence (the minority gets all the press coverage), we look like hipocrites in Israel. The movement needs to improve its image in Israel if it wants to be welcome.
Daniel is probably lying.
Daniel is probably lying. There are no cases of American peace activists who throw rocks at Israeli policemen. It's the Israeli police, and soldiers, which answers to peaceful demonstrations with violence and brutality, and there is the case of one American peace activist who was shot by them and seriously wounded, Tristan Anderson. The police has also killed some Palestinian demonstrators. It's funny that Daniel didn't mention them. Given that, it's quite disingenous to speak of Israeli soldiers injured by rocks, even if in some cases some Palestinian youth throwed rocks. One more thing, Danniel certainly doesn't belong to any peace movement. He's here to make propaganda for Israel. He does it so badly that this is clear. There is no excuse to deport the three women.
Troll delete
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Again, people--make an argument if you want to disagree. Neither anti-Semitic slurs nor "anyone who criticizes Israel is a terrorist" are arguments, and we will remove both.
Israeli quick-response
These troll comments are probably from the new Israeli internet quick-response disinformation team.
"The Foreign Ministry unveiled a new plan this week: Paying talkbackers to post pro-Israel responses on websites worldwide. A total of NIS 600,000 (roughly $150,000) will be earmarked to the establishment of an “Internet warfare” squad."
Israelis treat Americans with utter contempt - spying on and publically sneering at us while taking our money and military technology, laughing up their sleeves as American politicians kowtow to the Israel lobby and send American soldiers to fight Israel's wars. They even get to arrest and manhandle American anti-war protestors, then use American money to pay Israeli bloggers to spam their website.
We've got to ban the Lobby, jail more Israeli spies and end the parasitic relationship.
rocks were thrown when Tristan was injured
Just to correct some misinformation spread here, Tristian Anderson, the American who was sadly injured a few months ago was not shot, but was accidently hit in the head from hunderds of meters away by an unaimed tear gas canister as this article from the New York Times describes it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/21/world/middleeast/21westbank.html?_r=1
This article also states that the Palestinians throw tear gas of their own at Israelis, along with rocks and iron bars.
This article in the Guardian has the vicitms own friends admiting rocks wer being thrown.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/mar/23/tristan-anderson-israel-protest
” Jonathan Pollack, an Israeli activist who was at the demonstration, … said as is often the case, there had been some stone-throwing at the protest”
This article in the Independent has the injured man’s friends admitting rocks were being thrown all day long the day this guy got injured so the demonstrators can hardly be called non-violent.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/fighting-for-life-am...
Anyways Tristian has been in an Israeli hospital for many months now and seems to be recovering from his injury.
Thanks for giving me the right to add my opinion.
You forget to speak abut the
You forget to speak abut the Palestinian who were killed in peaceful demonstrations. As far as I know there were some occasions when youth throw rocks, but this is no threat to the Israeli soldiers and the organizers of those demonstrations try to keep them peaceful and to stop those youths. This must be difficult when the Israeli army starts shooting and resorting to violence against the demonstrations. Tristan Anderson may recover partially from the severe wounds, if they weren't so serious he wouldn't still be in a hospital. Some British peace activists were killed, also Rachel Corrie, not to speak of all the Palestinians who have been killed in such situations.
The second intifada begun with a killing spree of the Israeli police/army. People were killed by Israeli snipers who were hundreds of meters away from them and under no threat. Others were practically executed while flighting. So, this seems to be common practice of the Israeli armed forces against the Palestinians.
I have seen videos of those demonstrations and yes, they can be called peaceful but for the brutality of the Israeli armed forces.
"movement needs to improve its image"
Yeah,Daniel a state such as Israel that sanctions torture, extra judicial execution,arrest without trial,home demolitions,deportation,land theft, ect....,against it's Non Jewish subjects should be treated with kid gloves.SANCTIONS brought down the other Apartheid regime in South Africa.That is where the discussion should be.
A line of argument that's not okay
It's not okay to minimize the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. (And doing that also minimizes the queer, Roma, disabled and left experience of the Holocaust.) The editorial collective sometimes encounters comments (like the one we just debated and decided we needed to remove) that say that the Palestinian experience is worse than the Holocaust. This kind of comparison of infinities doesn't get us anywhere. It's grotesque and immoral and can only cause pain.
If you're doing it in good faith, please stop; you don't need to minimize anti-Semitism to prove that the Palestinians are suffering terribly and unjustly under Israeli rule. If you're doing it on purpose to hurt Jewish readers, that's disgusting. If you're trolling in order to widen divisions in the left and divide anti-Zionist Jews from other supporters of Palestine, to hell with you.
Oh - and I am not being paid
I am not some Israeli governemnt paid commentor. I am from San Diego, California, I went to Torrey Pines High School, and the University of California, Santa Barbara. I am sure if you really want to verify my identity, you can think of some question about San Diego that no Israeli could figure out, or something about U.S. culture that someone there would not know.
Oh - and I am not being paid
As stated in posts above, Tristan Anderson was injured at a rally where Palestinians were using violence against Israeli soliders. I am aware that Israel commits violent acts as well, much like I am aware that Palestianins have conducted suicide bombings that kill Israeli civilians. The idea of being anti-war, is that you end violence between two sides that are using violence.
That said, no anti-war Americans should be at a violent rally. Perhaps the Israelis were wrong or lying and there are no Americans who have ever participated in the stone throwing. They should even be near by, the image of the anti-war movement has been hurt in Israel because of it. It looks like Israel will now ban foreign government funding of political NGOs because of this. Was that worth having foreign activitsts at violent demonstrations, even if they were non-violent?
By the way, I very much believe in peace and not war. That is why it saddens me to see what is happening. I am not defending Israel's deportation of these women, I am simply explaining why this is happening. I am letting you know how American anti-war activists are now perceiving in Israel, the mistakes that allowed this to happen, and the consequences that non-government organizations, particularily pro-peace organizations, are now going to experience. If I did not want these organizations to succeed, why would I try help them do beter? If I really wanted to see endless war, I would be thrilled that these guys were going to lose funding and say how they had done nothing wrong, they should continue as they had. That would cause them to continue making the same mistakes and damage there image more, make the peace movement less popular, and cause war to be more likely. If I am pro-war, why am I trying to help the peace movement?
the fundamental question here
the fundamental question here is not the facts of the attack on tristan or any other individual incident, nor you personally, dubious as your facts may be. the fundamental question and the reason you're doing the work of governments, paid for it or not, is this:
why do you cede the territory for governments to use organized violence (as we all do by not stopping them), but harangue real people for committing individual acts of it in the name of stopping government violence?
the idea of being anti-war is not "that you end violence between two sides that are using violence". the idea of being anti-war is to end war. this should be obvious. apparently to most pacifists it is not.
thank you,
h
you are being disinjenuous
I was not even the person who posted the stuff about Tristen. I am not doing to work of a government. I was very clear with what I support and what I want, and you are trying to apply some label to me that does no apply.
I was examining the reason behind the decline in the popularity of the pro-peace NGOs in Israel. I am a supporter of seeds of peace, and the idea tha they will no longer be able to receive foreign government funding upsets me. My point that peace activists should not be at demonstrations that use violence. The point of being anti-war is to be against violence.
Throwing rocks and metal bars for peace is like f*cking for virginity.
The point is not Tristen or the Israeli tear gas canister that hit him, the point is achieving peace. The way not to achieve peace is to destroy the image on the antiwar movement in Israel. This is just good PR.
Press freedom in Isreal
Isreal likes to portray itself as a westernised democratic state but it isn't. The Jewish nature of the state is by definition a racist exclusive policy. The treatment of Arabs in Isreal is now more apartheid than the old South Africa.
In late May 2004, Lieberman proposed a plan in which the populations and territories of Israeli Jews and Arabs, including some Israeli Arabs, would be "separated." According to the plan, also known as the "Populated-Area Exchange Plan," Israeli Arab towns adjacent to Palestinian Authority areas would be transferred to Palestinian Authority, and only those Arab Israelis who migrated from the area to within Israel's new borders and pledged loyalty to Israel would be allowed to remain Israeli citizens.
This is very similar to Milosovic in Serbia and this man is the Foreign Minister.
Sanctions should be imposed immediately and not the continued subsidy by the American people of this regime. Imagine if the US insisted on everybody agreeing that the state should follow a route laid down by some particular religious view. and if you didnt agree you should be sent to Mexico.
The US is a proper democracy if a bit flawed, Isreal is a theocratic militarist regime with nuclear weapons and discriminates against its own citizens. Are we going to continue supporting the unsupportable?
You forgot to mention a few things
Palestinians and Arabs have said they would conquer Israel and not a single person would survive. In more recent times, Hamas and Iranian leads have made similar statements. I support neither of thse, but I do think by focusing on Israel and avoiding the other side you simply make yourself look unfair. Given that you come from a culture that historically persecuted Jews, it does not make you look very good. Certainly you don't see the Chinese, Indians, or any non-Christian / non-Muslim people making these types of one sided anti-Israel statements. It appears that you have religoius / cultural bagage.
A Jewish state is not un-Democratic
England defines itself as a Christian state under the Church of England. Ireland, Spain, and Denmark define themsevels as Christian states as well. Turkey, which is also considered a democracy, defines itself as Muslim.
It is not unusual for states to have a religious identitiy, including democratic states. Israel is not different in this regard in defining itself as a Jewish state. The Palestinian Authrotiy defines itself as a Muslim organization, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia define themselves as Muslim, though none are democratic. The difference between dictatorship and democracy is not about religion, it is about having multiple parties, an elected government, voting, and a government that is not affraid to have its people become educated. Israel has all of that. The college graduation rate is similar to America, its has multiple political parties, and it has elections.
Re: The treatment of Arabs in Isreal is now more apartheid ..."
It was previously said that "The treatment of Arabs in Isreal is now more apartheid than the old South Africa."
Do you know what apartheid was? This is an extremley distored statement. It was illegal in South Afirca for Whites to mary Blacks. It was illegal to educate Blacks. It was illegal for Blacks to vote. Blacks had no right to self determinations or to run their own affairs. Blacks had no access to the legal system.
- There are Isrealis who have married Palestinians, there is no law against it.
- Palestinians not only have their ownuniversities that award PhDs, many have gone to Israeli Universities.
- Palestinians citizens of Israel vote in Israeli elections, Palestinians citizens in the Palestinian Authority vote in Palestinian elections. Palestinians have their own educational, medical, cultural, legal, and security institutions. Palestinains living in Israel use the Israeli facilities, but so do Irish living in the United States.
- Palestinians have access to their own and the Israeli legal system.
Why don't you go actually read about what Aparteid was rather than using a word that you don't understand? You complain that Israel is a Jewish state and call it names, but not that European states are Christian or that Middle Eastern states are Muslim. It just sounds like you don't like Jews. Given that the Chirsitian Bible say that Jews are hated by god, it is not suprising that you feel this way.
However, if you are going to come at this from an anti-semetic view, don't try to hide behind moral language. No one in Israel is fooled, in fact, that is exactly why they have nuclear weapons. It is for theological reasons, but it isn't because of Jewish theological resons, it is because of Christian theology and history. That is the real religious extremism that has shaped Israel's policy. The first Israeli nuclear weapon had the words "Never Again" written on it. That was in reference to the genocide of Jews by Christians. In Israel, the Nazis are viewed as influenced by Christianity. You can't go to a bookstore in Israel without seeing a book showing how the Nazis used Chrisitan ideas. So don't exhibit hatred of Israel or Judaism and pretend that you are somehow morally superior. You are why Jews decided that they needed to go back to having their own state. If you really cared about the Palestinians, you would change your attitude, because it is hatred that has caused and continues to cause Jews to move to Israel. Without Christian hatred of Jews, there would be no Palestinian suffering.
Show Me
Show me where the Christian Bible says God hates Jews. Sure would like to read that lie.
Re: Show me where the Christian Bible says God hates Jews. Sur
"Re: Show me where the Christian Bible says God hates Jews. Sure would like to read that lie."
Here you go. Perhaps you should have used Google before calling me a liar?
Romans 11:28 - there are various translations from Greek, here is one that is more historically acurate.
ICB Translation: The Jews refuse to accept the Good News, so they are God's enemies.
Now that we have established that I am not lying, and you have not read the entire Christian Bible, let me make a few more comments. There has been an attempt in more modern translations to soften statements like this from the Greek text because there is an understanding that it has led to horrible and immoral acts. That said, the idea that the Christian Bible does not contain anti-semitism does not make sense. If that is the case, why would Jews have been the only minority group singled out for such persection by Christians? Why would Pope John Paul have felt the need to appologise for Christian acts against Jews? Other Christian leaders have aknowledged and apologized for anti-semitism in Christianity. Where is this coming from if not from the Chrisitan Bible?
Daniel, You are really very
Daniel, You are really very disingenuous. You say that because of violence Israel is going to put restrictions on the work of NGOs. The reason why Israel is planing to do this is simply because they don't like the information that those groups spread. You clearly support Israel's oppression of the Palestinians. You clearly don't belong to any peace group and you don't identify with their aims. None of those groups which may suffer from restrictions have been involved in violence, contrary to what you say.
The information about Tristan Anderson, as everything else you try to suggest, is quite misleading.
Have you actually been to Israel or Palestine?
You made a lot of acusations about me. I'll respond and assume you really want to know where I am coming from.
First off, I did not post the stuff about Tristen Anderson, I just commented on what someone else did.
Second, "You say that because of violence Israel is going to put restrictions on the work of NGOs." I do think that a steady stream of inicidnets in the news over the last ten years has had an effect. The article that was posted is not an issolated incidnet. If you went to Israel in 2000, there was a very strong support for most of the NGOs. There has been a huge change, and it is important to understand why and not repeat the same mistakes.
Third, "The reason why Israel is planing to do this is simply because they don't like the information that those groups spread." I don't think so, several Israeli soldiers are currently being investigated or prosecuted for violating military regulations. There is a huge amount of criticism allowed in Israel. I think one NGO made a mistake by publishing statements that soldiers said they heard of from other soldiers. Several storeis were followed up by the IDF military prosecutor, and they could not find any soldier who personally witnessed events that were presented in an NGO report as facts. This, like NGO affiliated activits, though not the people who run them, being present at rallies were even low level violence is used does hurt their image. In Israel, everyone has to serve in the army. Any Israeli who sees someone throwing rocks at a soldier thinks of their child being in that spot. This is probably the worst thing that has happened to the NGOs. Think about how you would feel if your children were required to be in the army, and someone was throwing rocks at soldiers who were required to guard a border? How would you feel? This really does hit home in Israel.
Fourth, "You clearly support Israel's oppression of the Palestinians." I don't want to see anyone killed or opressed. What innocent Palestinians and Israelis have to go through is heart breaking. Most people in this conflict were simply born into it. It has been going on for over one hundred years, and the decisions that led to it were made by people who are long dead.
Fifth "You clearly don't belong to any peace group and you don't identify with their aims. None of those groups which may suffer from restrictions have been involved in violence, contrary to what you say." Someone else already posted articles showing that peace group members were present at a rally were violence was used. Go back and read the articles. I very clearly said that I supported peace. No one else here mentioned a group they were affilitated with, but I will tell you, though my support has mainly been to donate money. To be involved on the ground, you really have to speak both Hebrew and Arabic, and I speak neither. The main group that I have supported is called "Seeds of Peace." I have been donating money to them found a little under ten years.
Sixth, "The information about Tristan Anderson, as everything else you try to suggest, is quite misleading." I didn't post the information about Tristan Anderson. This is how I see things having been to Israel and Palestine and talked with people there. How have you formed you opinions.
M., I am not sure where you are coming from. Do you want to see a peace treaty between Israel and Palestine? Do you think that will happen without the support of the electorate on both sides? I agree that most of the NGOs that would lose funding did not support the violence, at least not at the organizational level. Certainly I am not pleased that Seeds of Peace, which I support, would likely lose foreign government funding. I think that is a real tragedy. However, to say that this is coming out of no where and there isn't a reason is to say that there isn't a problem with what the NGOs are doing. I can solve all of their problems with two requirements:
1.) Any one who is brought to demonstrate using NGO money must pay a deposit for a part of this trip before coming. They must agree not to stay at a rally where any demonstrators engage in any kind of violence, if it starts, they have to leave. Breaking this clause will result in a forfit of the deposit. That would fix the main problem.
2.) Don't use any second hand accounts when writing a report. If someone says that someone told them something, get the sources name. If you keep getting refered to someone else, and can't find a direct witness, don't add it to the report. If you publish rumors as fact, you simply lose credibility.
Any one who isn't following that is hurting the cause they are trying to support.
Do the right thing
Anytime we tried to enter countries such as these it is important that we do the right things before going. There are some people who are denied visas for entry into other countries because of their affiliations. I hope that these ladies will be able to return. casino en ligne
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Please use language with some precision--it is the Israeli state and the Israeli military who supress the Palestinians. We won't accept anything on the lines of "the Jews do this" or any insults to Judaism as a religion...because [drumroll] that's anti-semitism. This does nothing but weaken the pro-Palestianian movement and hurt
anti-ZionistJews.[Edited by me to add that it's been pointed out below that "this does nothing but" gives the impression to some readers that anti-Semitism would be okay against people who are anti-Palestine, which would be of course both ridiculous and loathesome. I apologize for this turn of phrase and will not use it again. I've chosen not to remove the phrase in order to leave an accurate record but as you see, I've struck it through.]
not about language
It seems like a lot of people in the anti-war movement really are anti-semetic. It isn't just a mater of language. Look how many coments have had to be removed.
disgusted by the comments on this thread
Re "This does nothing but weaken the pro-Palestianian movement and hurt anti-Zionist Jews."
So you don't have a problem with anti-semitism against Jews who are either indifferent to or support their national liberation movement? You are against religious hatred when it hurts your cause, otherwise it is o.k.?
When I read the crazy anti-semitic posters on this thread, I just wrote them off as nuts. However, from now on I am going to take everything I hear from the pro-Palestinian movement with a grain of salt. If this is the attitude of the people who run these organizations, I don't want to be involved, even the Palestinians have been treated unfairly. I just feel uncomftorable with that attitude that "it is only bad to be racist because it hurts our cause and alientates the people on our side."
I'm sorry, that is just disgusting. I'm sure you will come back and say you did not mean it that way, but you posted it twice. You obviously did.
Why, of course...
That's the natural reading, isn't it? It makes total sense. Obviously. I actively moderate a post by night and by day while I still have, you know, a job and other responsibilities (and it's one among many that Indymedia has worked to moderate) where some incredibly hurtful anti-semitic garbage (some of which you probably didn't even see because it was zapped right away) gets posted because I'm totally down with hurting Jewish people if they disagree with me about Palestine. My distaste for anti-Semitic postings is actually how I express my anti-Semitism.
And the fact that I'm trying to foreground the diversity of opinion within Judaism--precisely because left anti-Semites want to hide this fact--is itself a sign of my anti-Semitism and my willingness to hurt people who disagree with me by insulting their cultural and religious background.
And seriously--you're going to stop supporting the Palestinians "even if they've been treated unfairly" because of the turn of phrase used by a random stranger on the internet? Forgive me, but your commitment doesn't seem to run very deep. Forgive me even further--I suspect that you're just trolling and don't actually support the Palestinians at all.
Buddy, I was all set to say "yeah, that was an unfortunate turn of phrase, I was trying to re-emphasize the diversity of opinion within Judaism while hastily killing spam on my lunch hour; I won't use that phrase again" until I read the rest of your comment. I'll still rephrase my comments in the future and add an editorial note on my comment above for the rest of the readership, but I think you'll find a new way to decide that pro-Palestinian folks are just terrible, terrible people.
I was going to leave it at that, but then I thought about how harmful disingenous attacks on supporters of Palestine really are. So let's take a closer look at what I really wrote, just so that other readers don't need to scroll up. If we're going to do a close reading, let's do a close reading! Ready?
First: It's not okay to minimize the Jewish experience of the Holocaust. (And doing that also minimizes the queer, Roma, disabled and left experience of the Holocaust.) The editorial collective sometimes encounters comments (like the one we just debated and decided we needed to remove) that say that the Palestinian experience is worse than the Holocaust. This kind of comparison of infinities doesn't get us anywhere. It's grotesque and immoral and can only cause pain.
If you're doing it in good faith, please stop; you don't need to minimize anti-Semitism to prove that the Palestinians are suffering terribly and unjustly under Israeli rule. If you're doing it on purpose to hurt Jewish readers, that's disgusting. If you're trolling in order to widen divisions in the left and divide anti-Zionist Jews from other supporters of Palestine, to hell with you.
Second: Please use language with some precision--it is the Israeli state and the Israeli military who supress the Palestinians. We won't accept anything on the lines of "the Jews do this" or any insults to Judaism as a religion...because [drumroll] that's anti-semitism. This does nothing but weaken the pro-Palestianian movement and hurt anti-Zionist Jews.
Now, I admit that I did phrase these comments poorly and I do apologize for that and won't do it again. My goal was in the first instance to foreground the trolling that so often (ahem) happens here when pro-Israeli commenters try to split the left. In the second instance, I wanted to foreground the existence of anti-Zionist Jews, something routinely denied by anti-Semites. I also wanted to state clearly that people who claim to want to support Palestine really weaken their cause through anti-Semitism.
You're right that the emphasis in those paragraphs is on the existence of anti-Zionist Jews and my desire to be an ally when they are faced with anti-Semitic attacks. I think that does wrongly de-emphasize a more general opposition to anti-Semitism; in that you're correct. But I'm not sure how a paragraph which says "if you're doing it on purpose to hurt Jewish readers, that's disgusting" or one which very clearly strives to distinguish the politicies of the Israeli military and the Israeli state from Jewish citizens as people add up to "I only care about anti-Semitism when it's practised against people I agree with".
I think you missed and confirmed the point
I think you missed the point and unintentionally confirmed what you were accused of. Here is some background from wikipedia, "[P]roponents [of Zionism] regard its aim as self-determination for the Jewish people." Many Zionists did not even want a Jewish national home in Judaeh (which means land of the Jews) or biblical Israel (which is Northern Israel today).
The vast majority of people who are involved in, and donate money to, the Israeli/Palestinian peace movement are not anti-Zionists. The term today mainly reffers to ultra-Orthodox Jews who reject the non-Theocratic idea of a Jewish state embraced by secular zionists.
Many people, and certainly the vast majority of Israelis, would view your comment as anti-semetic because it would imply they are not a people with a unique language and culture that deserve self determination like all other peoples. The vast majority of Israelis know no life other than in Israel and are intensley patriotoic. Here is something I pulled this from wikipedia, "...antisemitism is involved when the belief is articulated that of all the peoples on the globe (including the Palestinians), only the Jews should not have the right to self-determination in a land of their own. Or, to quote noted human rights lawyer David Matas: One form of antisemitism denies access of Jews to goods and services because they are Jewish. Another form of antisemitism denies the right of the Jewish people to exist as a people because they are Jewish. Antizionists [outside of Israel and Judaism] distinguish between the two, claiming the first is antisemitism, but the second is not. To the antizionist, the Jew can exist as an individual as long as Jews do not exist as a people."
So you probably should remove anti-Zionism from your boiler plate because "'anti-Zionism' cannot be seen as a single phenomenon. By using that term you step into an emotionally charged religious debate within Judaism where you can not possibly win if you didn't even know you stepped into it. You would be beter off saying something like "many Jews support and have fought for Palestinians right /self determination / peace / diginitiy / a homeland of there own."
You got it, my mistake
Oh no, I take that back, you got it, I missed part of your explanation.
Although I think you are
Although I think you are using terms you might not be totally familiar with. Zionism, and anti-Zionism may not mean what you think it means, you make wish to look it up on wikipedia. Nobel Lauderate and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhack Rabin was very pro-Palestine, but he was also a Zionist, so was Clinton and so is Obama. Zionism just means the idea that Jews should get self determination like other nations of the world. Jewish anti-Zionists are opposed to the non-religious nature of Israel. People like Noam Chomski are refered to as anti-Israel within Israel and Jewish communities, not anti-Zionist. It is like saying Osama Bin-Landen is anti-Federalism and not anti-American. Your new boiler plate works.
American Support for the Palestinians
I do think most American support of the Palestinians is fairly shallow, you just have to take what support you can. Only 5% of Americans want our government to support them, while about 50% want the government to support Israel, that is 10-1. This is an improvement for the Palestinians who usually get much less support, and the poll was taken after the December 2008 war.
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/06/15/1005902/poll-american-voters-supo...
In any political cause where people aren't directly affected, their support is not going to run very deep. You see many people protest about Darfur, Israel, Gaza, and Iraq. How many of them actually travel to any of these places? I would say close to none, which probably only slightly less than the number who give money. The vast majority of NGOs, including Seeds of Peace, would not survive without government funding.
Oh, I take part of that back
There is one exception to that, but you could say religion touches people in the personal lives. Both American Christians and Jews are estimated to give over a billion dollars a year to Israeli Universities and Hospitals. However, this is actually quite a small number. Americans, including Jewish Americans, donate the vast majority of their dollars to local institutions that they have had a personal connection to.
Speaking of Universities, and lack of support for the Palestinians. Hanan Asrawi gave a speach at UCSB ten years ago or so where she slipped in response to a hard question and said something at least midly anti-semetic, something along the lines of [they] are worse than Hamas members blowing up school buses. Lots of walk outs, even among people who had previosuly voiced support for the Palestians.
While most people try to avoid acknowledging it, especially the Palestinian Christians who are emigrating, it has become a religious conflict and maybe it always has been. So you don't have to look far, even outside the arabic press and news, for Palestinians and their supporters making anti-Semitic statements, and that turns off the vast majority of people in our society.
Think of it this way, the conflict in Darfur has killed many more people in the last year than the last one hundred years of the Arab-Israeli conflict, many of whom were Chrisitans. Not many protests over Darfur compared to Israel. I have heard even from Palestinians who think that people only care about them because they are in a war with Jews, and a lot of this is probably motivated by anti-semitism. Not all of it, there are people who are commited to stopping the genocides in Darfur, Sri-Lanka, and other places. However, the conflict in Israel gets disproportionate attention because of the Jewish factor - and from the deleted comments it is clear a lot of this comes from anti-Semitism. The vast, vast, majority of Americans frown on this type of thing, and that is probably why support for the Palestinians remains so small compaired to for the Israelis. The very people who are interested in supporting the Palestinians for anti-Semitic reasons cause the greatest support for Israel. I personally knew one Jewish member of our pro-peace group that immigrated to Israel after college because of the anti-Semitism he experienced from pro-Palestinains on campus, and I have heard of many more cases.
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