The Jewish population of New York State is divided, with a significant portion adopting an overtly anti-Zionist stance that, in reality, echoes essential elements of Palestinian propaganda. Harold Hyman went to meet activists from Jewish Voice for Peace, an important association which brings together a large number of American Jews who denounce the State of Israel. Narrative.
Americans on the East Coast are passionate about the conflict between Israel and Hamas. In New York City, and even more so in the Hudson Valley which runs from the city to Saratoga, 300 km to the north, all eyes are on this war, and expressions of solidarity for the camp Palestinians clearly win. Curiously, it is in the districts where there are the most middle- or upper-class Jews that this pro-Palestinian sentiment is most visible. A Jewish organization protesting anti-Zionism, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), is very present here. She places her posters and leaflets in all strategic locations: bookstores, tea rooms, cafes and restaurants, boutiques, art galleries, pharmacies, hardware stores, electrical poles… Sociologically, this Hudson Valley is like a new Brooklyn and becomes more and more bohemian. Very little Muslim or Arab presence. A constant Jewish minority, and a majority of Anglo-Dutch (the first colonization strain), Irish-Americans, Italian-Americans, and here and there Hispanics and African-Americans. This is not a region that sends MAGA Republicans to the United States Congress.
It was on March 16 that I had the opportunity to meet members of the Jewish Voice for Peace of the Hudson Valley, the local chapter of the organization. JVP presents itself as “the largest progressive anti-Zionist Jewish organization in the world”. She calls herself popular, multiracial, interclass, intergenerational. “If you seek a political home for left-wing Jews in this perilous time, if you want a justice-oriented Jewish community, if you seek to turn your outrage and grief into concrete, strategic action: Join us! ». These few lines, which appear on the section’s official website, perfectly reflect the atmosphere of the Hudson Valley branch. I met its members in the village of Saugerties, 15 km from Woodstock, the famous place near where Bob Dylan lives and the site of the mega rock concert (which actually took place 80 km away).
Also read: Columbia, Sciences-Po: students, the useful idiots of Hamas
A poster in front of the Saugerties village bookstore invites passers-by to come and watch the 2013 documentary film Voices Across the Divide, by Alice Rothchild, an American Jew, which presents portraits of Palestinians in exile. Curious, I go to the projection room of the municipal library. Around forty spectators, the majority of whom are retirees, with a few young people. A handful of keffiyeh. The documentary in question, dedicated to Palestinians, or their children, who had fled what would become the State of Israel in 1948, was touching. We see real people in 2013, who had to take a few suitcases and wait with cousins or in hotels in Jordan. Refugees who remember their mothers who sold their jewelry to survive in the early days; men, very young then, who had fled with their parents and who, at the time, had found it amusing, without understanding anything. Children raised in Jordan, who came to study in the United States or Canada, only to stay there and discover that no one around them knew about the Nakba, or even the existence of Palestinian Arabs except as terrorists.
The American prism dominates their vision of the Middle East.
The one-hour film features these people, their memories, their family photos. Their experiences are touching and infinitely sad. Yet the film also presents an account of the wars of 1948 and 1967 that is taken directly from educational materials provided by Palestinian nationalists: “In 1948 Jews made up only a third of the population and owned only 7% of the land. The UN partition plan offered them 55%, and at the end of the war they owned 78%..
What does the inclusion of this sequence mean? That the Jews should have been satisfied with 7%, that 55% was already very generous? Then, that no kibbutz was attacked, that there was no expulsion of Jewish settlers in the other direction, from Hebron and East Jerusalem? Why thus silence the fact that several Arab armies attacked at the same time, against a skeletal Jewish army that was underarmed and without international allies? Why ignore the fact that the only real Arab success was that of the Jordanian Arab Legion, with its British elements? Nothing is false in this historical sequence, but the omissions are extremely misleading.
However, the documentary reveals certain historical points that deserve the viewer’s full attention. First, a complete lack of logic among Arab leaders, who in some places wanted Arab villagers to stay and fight, but in other places wanted the Palestinian militias to withdraw. Ultimately, many Palestinian civilians left to avoid being caught in the crossfire. Subsequently, the Israeli state did not allow any of those who had fled to return to their homes. The legal explanation of this harsh reality is not made, the viewer must simply say to himself: it was the iniquitous Israeli law. I expect a rough explanation, but this is a film of memories, not a historical documentary.
Also read: Story of an incognito escapade at Sciences-Po Paris
After the film, I participate in a discussion among the spectators, led by the steering committee at the local café. Many of these spectators begin with a similar speech: “I come from a Jewish family, we never really cared about the Palestinians, but now I feel a strong emotion about their plight”. When I point out to them that the Palestinians filmed were practically all Christians, they ask me, without any aggression, ” How do you know? » I am therefore obliged to draw their attention to the fact that the majority of speakers wear the cross or celebrate Christmas. Although a small number say or reveal nothing about their religion, there is not a single woman in a headscarf and barely two or three Koranic first names. The members of the local branch of JVP are not narrow-minded and are open to questioning. “So the documentary is biased? Is it possible ? » they wonder aloud. This is the first time they are aware of this possibility. Are their certainties shaken? Not at all.
Another of their certainties: Benjamin Netanyahu is an arch-criminal. I point out to them that his government coalition includes many people who share his opinion and that some are even more intransigent than him. That Netanyahu has never hidden his refusal of a two-state solution. That we could blame him for his alleged turpitudes, but not for any ideological imposture. To which they seem to acquiesce. An Israeli-American man who immigrated to Saugerties as a teenager but who has maintained ties to Israel is the most open and understanding.
I add that the Israelis of the center and center-left do not want to spare Hamas, and demand – just like Netanyahu – the return of the hostages without renouncing to disarm Hamas by brute force. That Hamas does not want to stop, continues to shoot incessantly, and attacks where it can. That Hezbollah, much more powerful than Hamas, threatens to get involved in this story. And finally, that Hamas promised to repeat October 7, and does not recognize any barbaric exactions, accusing the IDF of having tormented the Israeli civilians at fault for having let Hamas invade! There, no one contradicts me.
Also read: The difficult victory of words
The JVPs listen to all my remarks with a polite, smiling, and even receptive air. My journalistic knowledge of Israel and the current situation inspires them with a certain respect. But they can’t change their minds in a quarter of an hour. They explain to me their past as political activists, and I understand that, for them, the Gazans resemble the Vietnamese who resisted American power, or the Iraqis crushed by Uncle Sam’s army. The American prism dominates their vision of the Middle East. The idea that Israelis are experiencing an existential crisis is overshadowed by their sincere feelings as Americans disconnected from the perilous reality. I wonder if the Saugerties JVPs kept the same outlook after the Iranian air attack. Maybe I’ll go see them again on my next trip to see if they’ve changed their point of view.
