Body on the Line

and you are so much more than all that, marcy!
i’m proud to know you and proud to work with you.
-Rania

Are you saying that Israel should be destroyed like hamas?

Or are you saying it should no longer be a state and that a new one should be created under Arab or Palestinian control?

If one believes that Israel must be a Jewish state, then, yes, I think it must cease to exist. I’m not saying that Jews who are willing to live peacefully with Palestinians must leave, but I am saying that Palestinians must be able to return to their homes and a new secular government that is by, for, and of ALL the people must be put in the place. Palestinians have been homeless and stateless for 59 years. They deserve to go home and the racist, colonialist state needs to be dissolved.

I recently chanced upon your blog and enjoy your perspective on things. Thank-you.

I enjoy your blog and sympathise with you for having to endure the frankly moronic attacks that come with the territory. I am going through this myself. It is apparently now the case that to question Zionism is ipso facto racism. And so does a new totalitarianism gain ground on the campus. I despair. Bon courage, Marcy!

What a great site for me to “trip upon.” I noted the name and was instantly interested given the internention and accompaniment type work i’ve been doing. Thanks for your good work, and thanks for having the site. Your banner photo looks so familiar. Is it from the wall mural in the Ibdaa center in Dheisheh?
Sher

Thank you for promoting this issue with such dedication. Your work is important, sincerely inspiring, and an antidote for discouragement. The Zionist lobby is a strong contender for the most deleterious element in American politics. As a Boise resident myself, I am proud that you were a professor here.

I know that many consider Zionism to be a kind of racism, but I think that fundamentally it is better characterized as a kind of chauvinistic nationalism. Any kind of nationalism has elements of, or at least the potential for, racism, because it elevates the welfare of one group above all others. It becomes chauvinistic when one’s dedication to the nation becomes excessive. When is that dedication excessive? The line has clearly been crossed when hundreds of thousands of people are displaced, and millions of their descendants are oppressed for the benefit of another group.

When talking about nationalism, a “nation” ignores national boundaries. It can be a political state, but it can be the Queer Nation, or the Nation of Islam…or Jews, wherever they might live around the globe.

One of reasons Zionism finds allies in the USA is of course the special place of biblical Israel in the Christians’ beliefs, but another very deep source of affinity is Americans’ own strong nationalistic tendencies. This makes them tend to align with nationalist movements. This is understood very well by Zionist organizations, and I think it is at the heart of their attempts to quash the use of the terms “Palestinians” and “Palestine” in relation to the Occupied Territories and their inhabitants. It is crafty equivocation by Zionists to use one definition of “nation”–as a synonym for “state”–when it is expedient, and another definition–meaning a group of people united by descent, history, language, culture, or religion–at other times.

Forgive me if I am merely rehashing ideas that are already embedded in your blog.