Losing Focus: Peace and Justice Movement in Britain at Crossroads

By Ramzy Baroud

Growing up in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, it was a very
familiar encounter: Israeli soldiers storming our house accompanied by
shouts of terror and a barrage of insults. Such recollections make me
shudder to this day.

Just the mere summoning of those memories of my childhood in the Nuseirat
refugee camp haunting me not only in childhood but in my adulthood as well,
shall most likely accompany me for the rest of my life - almost
instantaneously forcing me to relive my mother’s agonizing cries, my
father’s pleas for the welfare of his children, my brothers and I clutching
to each other as the soldiers try to break us a part, the physical
degradation, the verbal abuse, then the utter silence when the soldiers
finally leave, the sounds of the engines fading away into the camp’s
darkened roads, followed by far away screams from some other family in some
other place, as the tragic scenario faithfully repeats itself.

My family’s house was positioned in a location that was simply a nightmare,
since it stood at the helm of the camp’s main square, often referred to as
Red Square by locals, remembering the many Palestinians killed in and around
it while protesting the occupation during the uprising or Intifada of 1987.
Israeli soldiers began their nightly hunts for terrorists, i.e. stone
throwing kids, from that central point. My house was often the first in the
soldiers’ route:  it was there where they initiated their formidable
mission. As horrifying as it was, it was a most predictable routine: we
would turn all lights off in anticipation, my parents would take their
positions to open the door as quickly as possible once the loud banging at
the door commenced; once the Israeli jeeps’ engines were turned off, it was
the matter of a few seconds before it all began: a fury of pounding at the
door; “who is it?” my dad would ask, as if he suspected anyone else but the
tormenting soldiers: their reply was always the same, always as confident as
it was terrifying; “Yahoud”, they would reply.

I grew up making the association between “Yahoud”, the Arabic word for
“Jews”, and the horror my family and had experienced. When my cousin Wael
was shot dead in his teenage years, while on his way to study with me- it
was the “Yahoud” who killed him. When my childhood friend Raed Munis was
shot repeatedly as he dug a grave for a neighbor of ours, shot just an hour
earlier, he was killed by the “Yahoud”. When my mother was struck in the
chest repeatedly by the butt of an Israeli soldier’s machine gun, a beating
that led to her untimely death 50 days later, that too was carried out by
the “Yahoud”.

Palestinians in the Occupied Territories ascribe all of these practices to
the “Yahoud”, simply because this is how Israel wishes to define itself, a
Jewish state. As a child, in my many many terrifying encounters with the
army, this is, without exception, how they chose to address themselves. 
Thus, every inch of land that was stolen from Palestinians in the last 40
years of occupation was done in the name of the “Yahoud” and their security;
every settlement erected on a poor Palestinian farmer’s orchard, every life
that was taken, every brick of every wall that was built and continues to be
constructed over confiscated Palestinian land in defiance of international
law was also done in the name of the “Yahoud”. Palestinians, thus - most
Arabs and Muslims and others as well - hold the “Yahoud” responsible for
their plight, not out of their ingrained and inherent anti-Semitism, as some
so shrewdly or naively choose to believe, but because on the basis of its
Jewishness Israel excused all of its inexcusable actions. If someone is to
blame for this, it is Israel, not its detractors. It’s as simple as that.

But, of course, it’s not always as simple as that. When I moved to the US, I
realized, correctly that the term “Yahoud” is not befitting, for the old
connotations of the name cannot be accepted in Western societies where Jews
have historically been a recurring victim, and where a large number of
activists and fellow writers, of which many became close friends of mine are
also Jewish. A distinction between a Jew and a Zionist was indeed an
imperative, though not always easy, for Israel extorts much needed
financial, political, moral and other forms of support relying primarily on
Jewish constituents in North America and Western Europe. Many of the latter
demonstrate their allegiance to Israel in more ways than one can recall.
Unfortunately, in the minds of many, being Jewish requires one to
unquestionably support the “Jewish State”. Most publications that define
themselves as Jewish in the Western hemisphere seem more absorbed by Israeli
politics, Israel’s security, and so forth, than engaged in their own
political and cultural realms. The relationship has in fact become so
blurred that it’s becoming nearly impossible and most confounding to set
apart the anti-occupation activist from the anti-Zionist from the
anti-Semitic. Naturally Israel and its supporters embrace, if not contribute
to this confusion in most underhanded ways: labeling at a whim whomever is
critical of the Israeli occupation, be it a respected Harvard Professor or a
former President as anti-Semitic. Israel’s crowd hurl such designations so
very often that many people prefer to steer clear from the whole matter,
failing to take a moral stance on an issue that has for long irked the
conscience of humanity and has contributed to global instability in
countless ways.

However, instead of confronting the Zionist scheme that has brought such
untold harm to the image of one of the greatest and oldest monotheistic
faiths by holding Israel and its associates to account, there is a growing
an alarming trend where members of the peace and justice movement have
themselves fallen into the ominous trap: engaging in most ruinous and
consuming scuffles, isolating members and entire groups for allegedly being
anti-Semitic. While taking a moral stance against racism in all of its forms
is a requisite to for any genuine peace and justice activist, the intense
debate in some instances is reaching such grievous points that is
threatening to tear apart the peace and justice movement.

A most notable example is the quarrel in the United Kingdom between members
of Jews against Zionism and those of Deir Yassin Remembered; the former,
accusing members of the latter of anti-Semitism, is endorsing a motion at an
upcoming conference of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign that would
ostracize the Deir Yassin group from the peace and justice movement. Members
of both groups have spoken out strongly against the maltreatment of
Palestinians in the past and both have a lot to offer PSC and its various
activities. However, the motion, but the entire episode is a continuation of
an alarming trend that began in the US several years ago, and has consumed
activists, distracting them from the real fight. Moreover, it is dangerously
compromising constructive dialogue and freedom of speech, the lack thereof
has historically sidelined the pro Palestinian voice for decades. If members
of both groups are unable to work jointly and sort out their differences
through dialogue, then they should refrain from taking their fights to the
public, as has been the case in Britain, in ways that are demoralizing the
entire movement. It also ought to be noted that as far as Israel is
concerned, any criticism of its occupation of the West Bank, no matter how
polite or subtle, is an unforgivable form of anti-Semitism; thus there is no
need for any member of the peace and justice movement to exasperate the
Israeli witch hunt. Indeed, Israel is more than capable of prolonging such
campaigns on its own.

There are many Palestinian children who are still huddling inside their
homes in fear of the encroaching tanks and the hordes of unforgiving
soldiers, who continue to commit untold atrocities in the name of the
“Jewish State”; it’s those depraved individuals and the government that has
assigned them to their vile mission, who deserve to be isolated and labeled;
it’s Israel who must be held to account, by Jewish and non Jewish
individuals and groups alike, to end its exploitation of the Jewish people
and their religion.

I believe that the action of a true peace and justice activist must stem
from concern for humanity, not from racism and prejudice; however, to
suppress freedom of expression, settle personal grievances at the expense of
a most colorful and ideologically diverse movement, thus the honorable cause
it stands for, is to do an immense disservice to all of us concerned with
bringing to a halt a most bloody and raging conflict in the Middle East

According to the World Food Program (WFP) forty-six percent of Palestinians
in the Occupied Territories are food insecure; the Israeli wall is snaking
around the West Bank at an astonishing speed; human rights violations are
committed against vulnerable Palestinians with impunity in broad day light
with tacit or explicit support from various Western countries led by the
United States; there is no time to be wasted: all energies must be channeled
in so prudent a way to stop Israel’s inhumane treatment of the Palestinians
and end the occupation. I plead to all of you, to work for peace, to redress
injustice or at least to do nothing that would jeopardize the work of the
peace and justice movement, neither in Britain, nor anywhere else.

-Ramzy Baroud’s latest book: The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronology
of a People’s Struggle (Pluto Press, London) is now available at Amazon.com.