Like most Jewish kids in postwar America, Starhawk grew up believing that Israel was the salvation of the Jewish people. She collected pennnies to plant trees in the Holy Land, learned Israeli folk songs and Israeli dances, and dreamed of going to Israel. At 15 she finally attended a Zionist program in Israel.

Star believes that she was raised with a compelling story — that Jews were kicked around for 2,000 years, almost exterminated in the Holocaust, and out of those ashes, finally got their own land again. “And by God,” she adds, “nobody’s going to take an inch of it away from us.” This is a persuasive story for many people, according to Starhawk. But unfortunately, the Palestinians aren’t in it.

For Starhawk, as for many American Jews of her age, it was painful to face the injustice that Israel was carrying out against the Palestinian people. Star senses that much of this injustice stems on a deep psychological level from an inability to see the Palestinian people as people — with their own humanity, their own rights, their own desires and flaws. Denying Palestinians that full range of humanity — and acknowledging that their ranks include the good, the bad, the vicious, the kind, the compassionate — is at the root of the unjust treatment they receive. Seeing every Palestinian as a suicide bomber who wants to kill an Israeli will not resolve this conflict. Nor will denying the existence of the Palestinians.

Starhawk hopes that another compelling narrative will begin to take the place of the one that she grew up with. This is a tale that’s very familiar to readers of Tikkun. It’s the story that Judaism stands for justice, for the regneration of the world, for tikkun olam. This, too, is a powerful story. And Star believes that if we can call people back to that story — as painful as it is to face the truth of what Israel has done to Palestine — then we can actually stop this injustice.

Star sees hopeful signs of such a change. She points to Abdullah Abu Rahma as an example, a man who Starhawk describes as the Palestinian Martin Luther King, Jr. Abu Rahma was the coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements for the last six years until he was imprisoned by the Israelis and given administrative detention for six months with no charges. As most of you know, the Israelis can lock up any Palestinian for six months with or without reason and extend that detention for a further six months without charging the person with any crime. Like Martin Luther King before him, Abdullah Abu Rahma used non-violent disobedience to impede the building of the wall. As Jonathan Pollack writes

Every Friday, for the past five years, Abdullah Abu Rahmah has led men, women and children from Bil’in, carrying signs and Palestinian flags, along with their Israeli and international supporters, in civil disobedience and protest marches against the seizure of sixty percent of the village’s land for Israel’s construction of its wall and settlements. Bil’in has become a symbol of civilian resistance to Israel’s occupation for Palestinians and international grassroots.

Abu Rahma recently wrote from jail that he was heartened by the great connections being made between Palestinian and Israeli activists, the brotherhood they had created by working and struggling together on the side of justice. Star adds that Israeli activists speak in the same glowing terms.

This solidarity also extends to international peacekeepers as well, especially the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Starhawk has been involved in this effort herself, beginning in 2002 and 2003 when she occupied Palestinian homes that were about to be destroyed. Star has also supported other international activists who attempted to stop the expansion of Israeli settlements. She went to Gaza in 2003 as a part of the support team for those who were with Rachel Corrie when she was killed by a bulldozer about to demolish a Palestinian house. And she returned to Gaza as a part of the International Solidarity Movement to support the group around Tom Hurndall, a British ISM activist — who Star had actually trained in non-violent direct action — a man who was murdered by an Israeli sniper as he attempted to protect some Palestinian children in the path of their gunfire.

Unfortunately for Star, support of the ISM has led to refusal by the Israeli authorities to allow her to enter Israel. Even with letters of invitation to visit an eco-kibbutzim, she was refused entry and deported back to the U.S. Tongue-in cheek, she says she

thought about demanding [her] pennies back for all those trees, since [she seems to] belong to a select club of Jews who are not allowed into Israel.*

*This is at the beginning of the next segment (3) of my interview with Starhawk.