– In New York, many American Jews support Palestine
The conflict with Hamas is fracturing the largest Jewish community outside Israel. Many of them are turning their backs on the Jewish state and demanding a ceasefire in Gaza.
Alexis Buisson New York
Published: 12/25/2023, 7:43 p.m.
Thousands of Jewish protesters gathered in front of Grand Central in New York to demand a ceasefire in Gaza.
AFP
“I was called a traitor. My cousins said I wasn’t a real Jew. It’s very hard.” These days, relations between Cara Levine and her family are not in good shape. And for good reason: this New Yorker, employed in the associative sector, does not hide her hostility towards the response of the Hebrew State to the Hamas attack of October 7.
At 25, she is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), an association of progressive American Jews who campaign for the recognition of the rights of Palestinians in the face of what they call “oppression” by Israel. Over the past two months, the group has carried out several “coups”: historic blockade of Grand Central, New York’s major train station, by thousands of people during rush hour, demonstration at the foot of the Statue of Liberty, occupation of a Congressional building in Washington and highways and bridges in eight cities during Hanukkah in December…
“I was called a traitor. My cousins said I wasn’t a real Jew. It’s very hard.”
Cara Levine, activist for the recognition of Palestinian rights
At the end of November, Cara was one of 1,500 demonstrators who interrupted traffic on the Manhattan Bridge, a major link between Brooklyn and Manhattan, to demand a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip. “In addition to having contributed to amplifying calls for an end to the bombings, a condition for saving lives, we show that there is a Jewish community which wants to build an identity not linked to Israel,” welcomes the activist, who joined the group in 2019. Certainly, our interactions with other Jews are sometimes difficult, but we draw strength from our movement.
A majority of young people
In New York, home to the largest Jewish community outside of Israel, with more than a million members, the presence of JVP in pro-Palestinian processions is as visible as it is controversial. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an association fighting anti-Semitism in the United States, considers the organization founded in the 1990s around the economic boycott of the Jewish state as an “anti-Israel and radical anti-Zionist” group. ”, which does not “represent the majority of the community”.
People gathered to protest the ban on the groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) at Columbia University on November 20, 2023 in New York.
AFP
Granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, from a “Zionist” family, Cara Levine espoused pro-Palestinian positions during her university years by informing herself about the situation in the Middle East and familiarizing with Arab culture. A “transformation” which put her at odds with those close to her. “It’s very difficult for me to see them buy into the narrative that Jews will only be safe with the State of Israel. In reality, this security will only be ensured if everyone is protected, she says. Growing up, I was told that we must defend Israel at all costs, but for my part, I draw my activism from the history of my grandparents and the Holocaust, which teaches that the Jewish people must defend the oppressed everywhere.”
She is not the only one to share this point of view. According to a 2021 Pew Institute survey, American Jews aged 18-29 are less “emotionally attached to Israel” than previous generations. And only 35% of them consider that “taking care” of the country is “essential” to their identity – compared to 52% of those over 65, marked by the Shoah. “Many young American Jews attended community schools as children, but once they get to college, they are exposed to different points of view and realize that what they have been told their entire life on Israel is not true. They experience it as a betrayal,” analyzes Ken Stern, author of a book on the impact of the conflict in the Middle East on higher education in the United States.
“New York’s major Jewish institutions, like the Anti-Defamation League, can’t say they represent all of us,” says Tal Frieden, a 26-year-old pro-Palestinian activist who lives in Crown Heights, one of the Jewish neighborhoods Historic Brooklyn. If they continue to make Zionism the center of Jewish identity, they will lose hold of an entire generation that wants to build a different community.”
JVP is not just a youth movement. At 81, retiree Rosalind Petchesky says she is proud to have been arrested by the police during the occupation of Grand Central Station at the end of October. She had taken on board around forty seniors, some in wheelchairs or walking with the help of canes, to participate in the operation. “I no longer have to go to work or watch young children. In short, I have power and I must use it,” she says. In the immediate future, she is campaigning for a ceasefire. And after? She is careful not to take a position. “It is up to the Palestinians to determine their future.”
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2023-12-25 18:43:14
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