This is the second post from Mike Godbe, who is on a Birthright tour of Israel (the first is here). Mike is a 2009 graduate of Vassar College, who has been working with Peace Action West in Oakland, CA. He has a thoughtful take on the way that young Jews like himself are introduced to the history and issues of Israel / Palestine on these tours, that are provided free to any first time Jewish visitors to Israel who are aged between 18 and 26. [Originally posted under Dave Belden’s name, now under Mike’s so all his posts can be accessed together.]
Thursday March 11th, 2010.
We began the day with a wonderful hike down the cliffy mountainside of the Arbel. We explored a stunning centuries-old castle built into the hillside and avoided some cows as we made our way down to the bus with the Sea of Galilee barely visible in the distance through the haze.
Next we visited a Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu, a large and unique kibbutz that was founded in 1939. While many of Israel’s kibbutz’s have strayed from their hard-line socialist and agricultural ideals over the years, Sde Eliyahu remains completely cooperative with every member getting equal pay, and completely agricultural . . . and organic too. They have a whole host of organic solutions to common problems faced by large agricultural productions ranging from owls to donkeys to rotational planting. I almost ate too many of their delicious dates before a new friend reminded me of the undesirable effect that eating too many dates can have.
We then visited our guide Danny’s kibbutz for a different kibbutz experience. Danny’s kibbutz decided to privatize 9 years ago, so while there is still a strong sense of community facilitated by a kibbutz school for the youngsters and many planned community events, members are financially independent and much more responsible for themselves. While the sense of community was generally appreciated and revered throughout the group, the kibbutz lifestyle in total was not something that appealed to anyone in the group very strongly as far as I could tell.
As the sun set, we took a relatively long bus ride to Jerusalem and eventually landed at the Park Hotel. We ate some dinner and then with almost no warning found ourselves being implored to swab our inner cheeks and sign up to be a potential bone marrow donor for Leukemia patients until we are 60 years old. It’s certainly a good cause and I have no problem with it, but the whole completely-without-warning nature of the thing made the experience almost comically jarring for me. However, many in our group did sign up to be potential donors, so all awkwardness aside, something good was accomplished.
After the Gift of Life people were done with us, we got to hear from two young Israeli friends (Americans who made Aliyah) of one of the three staff members. This was not on the schedule or planned through Birthright, but was set up informally through the staff. Both of them happen to work for the army’s relatively small spokespersons unit. As one of them put it, “if something in the news makes Israel look good, I probably had something to do with it.” One of them described the job of the spokesperson’s bureau as “representing the positive side of Israel’s army,” and one example she gave was countering the Goldstone report, which according to her says that Israelis “are barbarians” (The Goldstone report is the UN report released this past summer that accuses Israel, as well as Hamas, of committing war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in late 2008 / early 2009 – during which over 1400 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and 13 Israelis were killed. It was chaired by Richard Goldstone, a self proclaimed Zionist, who also oversaw international war crimes trials after the horrors of Rwanda and Bosnia. Israel dismisses the report as biased and claims that it is deeply flawed, though to my knowledge Israel has never actually specified the ways that the report is flawed).
By the time our two IDF spokespeople finished their stories, it was late and the group was fairly exhausted, and as a result didn’t have too many questions. I spoke with one of them for about fifteen minutes after the presentation about the IDF’s official justification for the demolition of Palestinian homes. As an IDF spokesperson, he only has to respond to questions regarding decisions made by the IDF, and as house demolition decisions are usually made by an Israeli civil authority, he rarely has to speak to this issue. Furthermore, according to him, demolitions in East Jerusalem, as opposed to the West Bank, are carried out by municipal police and not the IDF. He was quick to say that personally, he did not agree with the policy of demolishing Palestinian homes whether based on permit issues or security threats (He never directly answered me when I asked how the IDF could claim the demolition of a home in the name of security), though he was then quick to turn around and defend the IDF, saying that usually the homes that are demolished belong to terrorists. He then also added, regarding the Rachel Corrie case currently unfolding in Israel, that due to the design of the Israeli modified D-9 Caterpillar bulldozers, the driver could not have seen Rachel in his path and that her death was an accident (Rachel Corrie was an American who was killed by an Israeli bulldozer seven years ago in the Gaza strip while protesting the demolition of a Palestinian home; her parents are currently in Israel seeking justice through the Israeli courts).
Hi Mike I love your thoughtful journal via Tikkun Keep us posted!
So the Caterpillar Corporation of America modified the design of the D-9 specifically for the IDF, so the driver would have 0% forward visibility. As cynical as I am, I am still amazed at the efforts people will make to suppress the truth. How many D-9s “accidentally” crushed members of the IDF? I would love to go to Washington and walk into AIPAC with a picture of Rachael Corrie and say nothing. Mike, when you ask questions that people don’t want to answer, you are speaking for me. Thanks. Comfort the afflicted and afflict the powerful. I only wish I could do more.
Regardless of CAT design, it did not seem like anyone in a position of responsibility in Israel was too sorry that Rachel was crushed by it, which makes the whole denial of intention rather suspect, and the absence of compassion truly incriminating in terms of the inhumanity accusations against Israel. Still, try to stand between the US Cavalry and the Lakota of Wounded Knee, and you would have gotten mowed down too.
“Twenty-five years ago, in the spring of 1973, hundreds of Indian people and their supporters went to the village of Wounded Knee on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota. They intended make a powerful statement demanding an end to the murderous attacks by police and government agents, and demanding that the U.S. government honor its treaties granting Native people land and self-government.
The day after they arrived at Wounded Knee, they found themselves surrounded by an army of over 300 government forces–including agents of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), U.S. Marshals, Justice Department and various local and state police.
The Indians refused to back down. They used weapons to defend themselves and held off the government forces for 71 days of siege.
The courage and militancy of the fighters at Wounded Knee grabbed the attention of people all over the world–and helped build powerful support for the struggle of Native peoples against the injustices of this system.
War, Broken Treaties and
the Massacre at Wounded Knee
The Lakota people (also known as the Sioux) had long hunted the northern plains, when European-American soldiers and settlers invaded these lands. The Lakota people and their Arapaho and Cheyenne allies fought back. Under the leadership of Red Cloud, they defeated the U.S. cavalry by 1868 in the Boseman Trail war. The U.S. government was forced to sign the Fort Laramie Treaty recognizing the right of the Lakota people to forever rule a large stretch of land surrounding the Black Hills–between the Missouri and North Platte rivers.
This treaty was quickly broken. Gold was discovered in the Black Hills. General George Custer’s cavalry was sent in to protect the prospectors who invaded Indian lands. Meanwhile, Euro-Americans systematically wiped out the buffalo–and destroyed the basis for traditional Lakota life. War broke out again in 1876 and the Northern Plains Indians were ultimately defeated–though not before killing Custer and his cavalry at Little Big Horn. The two great war leaders of the Lakota–Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull–were assassinated.
Then on December 29, 1890 at a place called Wounded Knee, U.S. soldiers brutally massacred 300 Sioux people of Big Foot’s band trying to flee to safety through the winter cold.
That same year, the last of the Lakota people were forced into concentration camps called “reservations.”” http://rwor.org/a/v19/950-59/952/wound.htm
Maybe no accident Israel and the US are allies? Still, in all the world, find one without sin, and they’ll hang him on a cross. We need a New Vision for ourselves, people. These ways are Bad Old Days.
I saw that video, but as an american I can say with absolute certainty that bitch knew she should’ve got out the way. You can only be a peace activist so far, even Ghandi knew when to bow out of a fight than succeed to a greater battle
and as a cheyenne native american, the best advice I could give would be to learn as much as you can from mistakes and take best not to get caught in the errors of the elders, as might become the case with the Navajo’s prophecy of the 1st Woman leader as bearer of rotten fruit which would grow up and destroy them, although I suppose that could happen