As a pro-Palestinian Jew, I feel alienated from my community

 

More than 100 days into the siege on Gaza, Israeli officials continue to justify the violence through rampant dehumanization

As a pro-Palestinian Jew in Canada, the past 100-plus days have felt like screaming into a void. After Hamas brutally slaughtered 1,200 innocent Israelis on October 7, I have watched in horror as the Israeli military has carried out months of indiscriminate reprisal attacks against the 2.3 million people of Gaza.

It is taboo in our community to show any empathy for Palestinians, to ever mention their suffering in the same breath as ours. My support for a permanent ceasefire, even if it would save the hostages, has left me feeling alienated.

At the same time, due to unresolved issues of antisemitism, I feel unable to attend Palestinian solidarity demonstrations and marches. I feel cast adrift from family and friends that no longer understand me, yet I cannot set an anchor ashore.

I am tired of watching countless people die in a pointless, decades-long eternity war. I am tired of fellow Jews getting angry that I mourn dead Palestinians. But most of all, I am sick and tired of those who say with faux-sympathy “I understand it’s upsetting, but these deaths are necessary for peace.”

What a sickening perversion of Jewish culture, to try and justify mass death as the road to peace, and not the end of all things. As a Jew, I was raised to value life, not dismiss it with such little emotion. How could I ever tell my Palestinian friends that their suffering is “necessary”?  (more...)

As a pro-Palestinian Jew, I feel alienated from my community