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The non Jewish community does not understand our fixation our obsession with Israel.

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Good evening, and welcome to the 2018

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To the 2016, 2019  

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Taglit-Birthright Israel Winter mega event

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Summer mega event

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Right here in Jerusalem

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The eternal capital of our people

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Is there anyone here from the United States of America

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 What’s your name, where are you from Buddy
I’m Michael and I’m from Detroit Michigan.”

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Everybody knows somebody who is the army

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Israeli soldiers they’re hot there are awesome they're strong

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They’re everything we could all want to be

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Ah, my name is Aaron and I’m from Brooklyn New-York

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I came at BirthRight in 2016  I  joined the army 4 months after I finished BirthRight

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 Missed my flight back to America and I’m still in the army now.

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The first time I've been to the United States I met so many nice people


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Jewish Americans would tell me things like : « we like you but we don't like Palestinians »

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Even though that I'm the only Palestinian they know.

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Of course around that time I would take it personally but then you come to realize that people do not know

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They know nothing about Palestine and Palestinians or have no idea about what Palestinians are going through.

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Coming into Palestine the first time I remember asking people, what do you think ?

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Shall I do it ? And the response that I always got was, you know : you're going to be killed.

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As a curious young person like what is this thing that is so horrifying you can’t bear to let me see it

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Because is that bad ?

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Found in the depths of my family's house 

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I found some of my Hebrew Hebrew text books from elementary school

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“Israel shel simkha” “my Israel” 

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congratulations to Simone Zimmerman for winning the Israel jubilee contest

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 February 1998 I was as seven.

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I had like a pretty traditional jewish upbringing and grew up in L.A.

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I went to a jewish day school kindergarten through the end of high school

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I went to Jewish youth group jewish camps I had family in Israel

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I lived in Israel in high school on an exchange program.

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Israel was just treated like a core part of being a Jew

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So you did prayers and you did Israel.

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[39]

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Israel is something that I feel so passionately about like it's

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You know it's my greatest passion I’m everything Israel.

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I became a Jewish educator after my daughter's started Hebrew school


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I started teaching second grade during the years they did fourth grade also

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and just to be able to start them on this wonderful journey.

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I mean, it’s, it’s, it gets in your blood 

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And we teach Israel at the day school very well

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We introduce them to the food and to the music into the culture in addition to the history and the geography.

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Figure out which one is the Israeli flag

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draw a circle around every time you see the symbol of the state of Israel

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Draw your own symbol of the state of Israel.

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We also celebrated holidays obviously so Hanuka, Israeli independence...all of it, together.

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Can you separate Israel and Judaism I don't know I can't


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Some people I think can to me it's the same
you can't separate it

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Israel is Judaism and Judaism is Israel
And  that is who I am and that is my identity

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And I think every single thing that I experienced along my life 


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has melted into that like there was never, you know, a divide for me.

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I grew up in a conservative jewish households in Atlanta Georgia

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Israel was a central part of everything we did in school 

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My elementary and middle school as well as my high school both had organized trips to Israel

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 Which was touted as one of the most important things you could do.

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Do you wanna go to Israel too? Yeaaah !

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We wanna go, we wanna go

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When I've visited Israel the the first time when I was eight years old


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I put a knot in the cartel in the western wall saying that 


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One day I hope to live in Israel and prosper.

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Every one of our kids should be going over,

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Not for ten days, but for a minimum of a semester or a year.

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Every time I send somebody over at Israel, they come back

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All of a sudden they feel totally different about who and what they are as Jews. 

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when I was a teenager and I went to Israel

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it was amazing to me to travel on this place

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where Hebrew was a language that I finally got to speak on the street with people

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and were Jewish heroes the streets are named after them.

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We’re planting seeds that eventually are gonna blossom

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Does the average congregate understand that I'm teaching them to become Zionist

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Probably not, but it is part of my madness so to speak.

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I learned about Israel as this great miracle of jewish history.

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For thousands of years we were persecuted and Israel is the place that you can go to be safe

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My grandfather's family made it to Israel

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his immediate family were some of the only ones who escaped the holocaust

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Many American Jews of our most people I know have family or friends living in Israel .

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Israel is the insurance policy it's still today a Jew doesn't have to worry 

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where is he you gonna go, god forbid 

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even here no holocaust survivor will say to you could never happen again.

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I was born in Poland in 1940, not a good place for Jewish to be born

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My parents were separated my father  went through a series of camps.

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who knows why I survived and 1.5 million Jewish or so perished

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and so Israel became very very significant in my life even though six thousand miles away 

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I probably and visited Israel over a hundred times in my lifetime

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you know as we sit now my grand daughter's there for two weeks in high-school.

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I didn't have many friends in Israel growing up  and every time I would visit Israel  I felt closer and closer.

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The Jewish summer camps would always bring a big contingency of Israelis

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to try to drive Israeli culture within the camp and connect the American Jews to Israeli culture

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So when I was in high school I went on this Jewish his trip to Israel and

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one of the programs we did was called Kadna where we spent a day pretending to be soldiers

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in the Israeli army, we wear army uniforms

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and stuff like that was just sort of a normal part of what our childhoods looked like.

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At summer camp in the middle of the night they would wake us up and take us out 

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sometime that was that was to pull pranks and other times I remember doing military games using the command "PAZATSTAS"

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sneaking around so anytime the commander who was one of our counsellors said

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PAZATSTAS we would all get on the ground

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We made a game out of it simulating being in the military and sneaking around in having to be a part of that

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On youth programs that I participated in in Israel you could spend a whole week on an Israeli army base

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varying army uniforms and going through a sort of simulation of basic training and

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that's where some people you know, learned to shoot guns for the first time.

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It's not just regular military games it's specifically using Israeli military commands often with Israeli counselors giving them.

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When you're young kid that really drills into you that this is something important

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and I wanted to be a part of that.

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We often talked about the ways that you could be a good supporter of the Jewish people one was to join the army

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and the other was to go become an Israel advocate

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They were even clubs within school to work on advocating for Israel

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My high school sent a delegation to the AIPAC conference.

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AIPAC the "American Israel Public Affairs Committee"

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They are the people who tell the Congress which legislation effecting Israel they like and which they don't

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“The bond between United States and Israel is unbreakable, today unbreakable tomorrow, unbreakable for ever.”

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AIPAC is just a thing that you do

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 like going to the AIPAC conferences just sort of seen as a like a

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Community event

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Here with us today are leaders from across the pro-Israel community including Abe Foxman

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I learned a long time ago there is no way you can say no to Abe

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You know I don't know to what extent one anybody makes a difference I try to make a difference.

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Jewish education is still a major priority already for the future in certainly relationship to Israel .

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if you wanna ask me you had $ 100 millions, how would you change the future of American Jews ?

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I would make trips to Israel available to any Jewish kid who wanted to go

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make that experience. We're doing and now, it's called Birthright.

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It is up to you to be our soldiers abroad, armed with love and knowledge and conviction

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ready to sway public opinion in Israel favor.

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Learning about the quotal quote "conflict" as something that is part of programming as something that

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you have to learn how to defend Israel from the lies that other people are saying you have to be able to tell people the truth.

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By the time I've got to college I had teachers who said to me people hate Israel

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people are attacking Israel people don't know the truth about Israel

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 and we’re the only people who actually know the truth about Israel.

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If  You're jewish college student Hillel is your central address  for Jewish life on campus.

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As a freshman I remember walking into Helli

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 was one of the first places as I went when I got to campus.

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 It's a place where you can go for meals to meet other young Jewish people 

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Pro-Israel advocacy is a central part of how they work to engage Jewish young people

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I am the director of engagement and programs throughout Hillel

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and this campus happens to be very pro active for Israel 

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lot of people are very passionate a lot of people love Israel

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and there's a lot of advocacy here on campus in lots of different ways, lots of different groups.

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How did you become involved in "Advocacy For Israel" ?

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I kind of came to the lodge cause I was new in campus and didn’t really know where to go

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 and i really did find a lot of friends here. 

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I came here on and off but then when I’m on the Birthright trip
 and kinda got to know the staff

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Tommy and Jackie lot better got to know people at Hellil a lot better

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and just got to know Israel a lot better, I came back and I knew that

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I want put a lot more of myself into helloing the Jews community on campus 

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and just Israel advocacy in general

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On birthright we had Israeli soldiers with us for entire trip you learn so much and you learn the reason that they serve 

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it’s just a feeling that I don't think any of us could ever imagine except for Tim

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My job is doing Israeli programs on campus and that relates to Jewish events cultural or political

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ah sorry, Israeli events cultural or political

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I would say name a university in America we probably have a person there

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I like to talk about the army a lot, because that's an experience that I lived through and I have a lot of personal stories

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There’s a couple of students that be :  yeah I'm I'm thinking about joining the IDF one day

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 so my first thing is saying them “are you sure ?"

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because it's not an easy decision

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that being said it will probably end up being the most meaningful experience that you ever go through

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You gonna tell your kids stories about it, hum.

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One of our former young emissaries just graduated into the air force

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and that's the greatest gift you can give you know

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and we actually have had quite a few of my former students join the IDF

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amazing and it’s just amazing, these are kids, these are just eighteen nineteen year old.

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It’s like something I dreamed about doing since I was like seven years

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You have like us you find yourself a purpose

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All my friends are so proud of me and they understand that this is something like I have to do

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Almost ten percent of my graduating class at my jewish high school joined the Israeli army

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and I had many friends from my summer camp and New Year's group who joined the army as well

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Part of becoming part of Israeli society is to join the military

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When i was in high school I told my parents I don't even need to apply to college

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because I'm gonna just join the Israeli military and make Aliha  and live in Israel

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I honestly felt for many years that I fit in better in Israeli society than I do an American society

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even before I moved there and I wanted to defend what I saw as my country

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so when I enlisted I was a "Maggist" which is a heavy machine gunnist

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during my basic and advanced training and then they put me on a light machine gun

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We were training for war training for strategy to conquer hilltops

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and conquer open spaces

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one week was focused on urban warfare in close quarters

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and that was simulated in what looks like Arab housing

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after this seven months of our training we were deployed to the West Bank.

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Our missions included working in two different checkpoints 

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patrolling villages on foot in full gear in bulletproof vests 

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we would go into apartment buildings go up to the roof and make sure that we could be seen

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so that we could make our presence felt

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 we wanted them to know we wanted them to know that we were watching that was the goal of the mission

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we would set up what’s called a check-post which is a checkpoint that is situated at a major intersection

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At checkpoints we would stop people create a traffic jam

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check their IDs check their trunks 

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every day on their way to work or on their way to visit their family.

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To keep them on their toes essentially, and they, being Palestinians.

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Even though Israel was a central part of everything we did in the school

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 we never really discussed the Palestinians

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 it was presented to us that Israel was basically an empty wasteland

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When the Jews arrived there were some Arabs there they said but it was no organized people

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they really treated the land poorly

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Yeah there are there are Palestinians and they just want to kill us all and want us to leave the land.

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I just don't think I had any conception of anything about what it means to be a Palestinian

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besides that it means you’re a person who kills Jews or wants to kill Jews.

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It was always presented to us that the Arabs only know terrorism.

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Ever since I came back from the States I realize that the best way to help people understand the reality

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imposed on us by the state of Israel is for them to be there

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The one thing that I want to give the rest of my life for is to help people understand the reality that is going in Palestine

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I grew up all of my life in this occupation I grew up in Bethlehem in Palestine

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To be honest I do have my days where I wake up I look in the mirror and ask what is going on

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and and what and I even do today to change anything in the situation

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 I remember from the youngest age growing up with my parents always warning me always telling me not to go out to go on the street,

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not to play on the street because of the soldiers and the settlers

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Of course that your first experience with the soldier is terrorizing

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you know especially because they would invade your house

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 or your family's house late at night

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like they love to work after midnight

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My first experience with the soldiers as a child

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was an experience that put fear in me

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An American Jewish soldier talking to my father and yelling at him and shouting at

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which, of course, as a child, you feel very ashamed then insulted

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and then my father, because ironically we are American citizens as well

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turned to him  in an American accent and asked him where he was from 

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and then the soldier he was almost like shocked by this by this question

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because for his mind he wants to say "Israel" and Jewish people but he's talking to an American now

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and he told him "I’m from Chicago"

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and then just as this reality that like even as a child I remember this this this American soldier

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who just moved here to be part of an army to play cowboys and Indians.

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Somebody who comes here from New-York or from Chicago and claiming that this land is theirs

224
00:23:59,297 --> 00:24:07,100
What makes like and eighteen years old American kid, who was given a ten days trip for free in Palestine

225
00:24:07,700 --> 00:24:10,500
 What make them want to come in and sacrifice his life

226
00:24:11,500 --> 00:24:16,000
 Why would a foreigner think it's okay to have superior rights

227
00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:22,500
to the rights to the indigenous population because somebody told them it's home

228
00:24:23,628 --> 00:24:28,628
This is our land this is ours that's what was conveyed to us.

229
00:24:34,016 --> 00:24:40,750
It gutted me that people look at Palestine and Palestinians from the point of view of the oppressor

230
00:24:42,542 --> 00:24:44,542
not from the point of view of the oppressed

231
00:24:47,527 --> 00:24:51,050
I think what I knew about who was in Israel before the state was created

232
00:24:51,277 --> 00:24:55,027
is basically there were some Jews always there

233
00:24:56,527 --> 00:24:59,527
most Jews were in exile we’d always wanted to go back.

234
00:25:04,199 --> 00:25:10,199
The idea that there were native inhabitants that lived there was not even part of my frame of reference.

235
00:25:52,761 --> 00:25:58,761
This restaurant makes the most delicious Houmous and Falafel in town

236
00:26:01,500 --> 00:26:07,500
These families are not from the town of Bethlehem just like my mother's family they were expelled from the city of Jaffah back in 1948.

237
00:26:11,499 --> 00:26:17,499
I was born to a family of victims of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine 

238
00:26:20,237 --> 00:26:24,000
the ethnic cleansing that was carried on by the founders of the state of Israel 

239
00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:32,237
My mother's family were expelled from the largest Palestinian city pre-1948 which was the city of Jaffah.

240
00:26:35,765 --> 00:26:41,000
 My father was a newborn at that time he was carried by his family they ended up in Bethlehem

241
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:46,250
waiting for atrocities to come to an end so they would be able to go back home

242
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:52,476
 Of course none of those people were ever allowed back home.

243
00:26:55,802 --> 00:26:58,802
My father's family was in Jerusalem up until 1948

244
00:27:01,341 --> 00:27:05,041
when the war happened he was shot by sniper and was killed on the spot

245
00:27:07,541 --> 00:27:10,541
His children actually dragged his body down and buried him in the courtyard of the house

246
00:27:11,258 --> 00:27:14,758
A few days later when the jewish forces took over that neighborhood

247
00:27:15,758 --> 00:27:20,258
they demanded that all the non-Jews of that neighborhood be evicted

248
00:27:25,258 --> 00:27:32,258
It was the biggest mass exodus percentage-wise of a people from their land in modern history.

249
00:27:35,017 --> 00:27:37,900
The ethnic cleansing of Palestine the term “Nakba” 

250
00:27:40,017 --> 00:27:41,565
“The Catastrophe”

251
00:27:42,267 --> 00:27:46,050
 is the tragedy or catastrophe that hit almost every single Palestinian family

252
00:27:47,892 --> 00:27:49,517
 nearly 750.000 victims.

253
00:27:52,291 --> 00:27:55,291
It’s traumatizing in almost every possible level 

254
00:28:03,795 --> 00:28:10,795
Nearly 78% of the land of Palestine became under the control of the state of Israel.

255
00:28:12,262 --> 00:28:15,300
What else was I told about Israel, we were told

256
00:28:15,800 --> 00:28:18,762
it was a land without a people for people without a land and we came back

257
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:25,262
 from the ashes of the holocaust the state of Israel was birthed

258
00:28:28,553 --> 00:28:32,252
The rights of the people that lived here does not exist in that narrative

259
00:28:33,000 --> 00:28:35,700
and other than us being an obstacle the Nakba continues

260
00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:40,553
it started in 1948 and continues until this day.

261
00:28:50,033 --> 00:28:55,433
In 1967 the  state of Israel managed to complete his control over Palestine

262
00:28:56,350 --> 00:28:59,950
 by taking over the territory of the West Bank and the territory of Gaza.

263
00:29:04,350 --> 00:29:07,487
Ok, here’s the good stuff, more maps of greater Israel. 

264
00:29:10,500 --> 00:29:15,000
That was sort of, you know, the whole land, we were always told that the whole land was ours.

265
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:20,266
You know, that’s sort of what they teach us.

266
00:29:21,937 --> 00:29:29,437
After the 1967 war Israel put a very forceful very violent military force

267
00:29:29,950 --> 00:29:35,500
to dominate and control the lives of the Palestinians that continues until this day.

268
00:29:52,925 --> 00:30:02,500
The intention of Israeli control over the land of Palestine is complete colonization the territory

269
00:30:04,146 --> 00:30:07,146
 Building homes for those who are born to Jewish families.


270
00:30:09,141 --> 00:30:12,141
And also demolishing the homes of those were who born from Palestinian families.

271
00:30:18,485 --> 00:30:21,650
Palestinians kicked out of from their homes confiscated by settlers

272
00:30:22,399 --> 00:30:24,550
You are stealing my house

273
00:30:25,900 --> 00:30:27,000
And if i don't steel it someone else is gonna steel it

274
00:30:27,500 --> 00:30:29,709
No, no one is allowed to steal it "ya hami" (my uncle)

275
00:30:31,850 --> 00:30:37,500
A massive movement to confiscate land to build settlements to expand settlements

276
00:30:38,500 --> 00:30:43,500
Before we were even fully trained we were deployed to protect settlements

277
00:30:44,950 --> 00:30:49,500
 it was all for the security of this settlements.

278
00:30:55,770 --> 00:31:00,800
Israel filled occupied West Bank with Jewish Israelis living in different colonies and settlements throughout the region

279
00:31:01,500 --> 00:31:06,227
and those individuals are subject to Israeli civil law

280
00:31:07,686 --> 00:31:11,686
While you have Palestinians living within the exact same territory those are subject to Israeli military law

281
00:31:16,895 --> 00:31:21,395
When an American citizen comes here he has more right

282
00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:25,895
than I would have my entire life.

283
00:31:43,358 --> 00:31:47,500
We are in the quoted quote “West Bank” we’re in the quoted quote “settlements”

284
00:31:50,732 --> 00:31:54,350
This is one of the road blocks that kind of ensure that cars get checked

285
00:31:55,000 --> 00:31:56,750
to see that no terrorists are coming in.

286
00:32:01,406 --> 00:32:03,000
I lived in America and then I came back to Israel by myself 

287
00:32:03,600 --> 00:32:05,406
at the age of 17 to serve in the army.

288
00:32:08,034 --> 00:32:11,034
And there are elements what I would call the Jihadist elements that don't accept our presence here

289
00:32:12,383 --> 00:32:13,900
but that’s just tough for them

290
00:32:15,883 --> 00:32:18,383
it’s a great vision coming to flourish in our time and is nothing gonna stop us.

291
00:32:36,057 --> 00:32:40,150
From the day you are  born you’re living  day in day out day in day out 

292
00:32:41,200 --> 00:32:43,057
without experiencing a day of freedom. 

293
00:32:46,057 --> 00:32:49,500
Palestinians have to be forced to live in cages

294
00:32:55,390 --> 00:32:58,390
So I'm a Israeli born and raised

295
00:33:00,261 --> 00:33:03,400
As a young Israeli growing up, my grandparents lived in the center of Jerusalem 

296
00:33:05,727 --> 00:33:09,727
“The battle for Jerusalem at least twenty six people are reported dead.”

297
00:33:11,001 --> 00:33:14,001
People I knew were injured and killed and

298
00:33:14,001 --> 00:33:17,001
from a very young age, I knew I'm gonna be joining the military

299
00:33:19,450 --> 00:33:24,500
I was never in a Palestinian house till I barge into one in the middle of the night

300
00:33:33,820 --> 00:33:39,320
One thing that I did routinely was a mission where you are ordered to take over a Palestinian family's home

301
00:33:40,200 --> 00:33:42,650
and use that house as a military point

302
00:33:43,600 --> 00:33:47,650
no warrant and you don't call in advance it's a military occupation.

303
00:33:49,540 --> 00:33:55,450
And during my service there were many moments where I saw myself acting violently

304
00:33:56,540 --> 00:34:03,540
 and there were moments of of shame

305
00:34:06,756 --> 00:34:10,756
We can detain any Palestinian just because he looked at us in the wrong way

306
00:34:11,761 --> 00:34:14,000
that's a system that's based on violence.

307
00:34:15,203 --> 00:34:18,203
Oh, oh, oh, what are you doing ?

308
00:34:30,203 --> 00:34:38,203
Security, it's about security...is he a threat for you ? We don't know yet

309
00:34:48,634 --> 00:34:51,650
When I was stationed in the West Bank one day one of my commanders

310
00:34:53,384 --> 00:34:54,134
 came and grabbed me and one other soldier and said

311
00:34:55,550 --> 00:34:58,750
 there is a detainee at the Khowara checkpoint

312
00:34:59,884 --> 00:35:04,634
and we need to go pick him up and bring him to the detention center that's in the base

313
00:35:06,488 --> 00:35:12,200
When we got there the Palestinian detainee who was maximum in his early twenty's

314
00:35:13,888 --> 00:35:19,400
he was  sitting on the curb with his hands tied behind his back with zip ties and blindfolded.

315
00:35:19,528 --> 00:35:26,750
We got to the detention center within the base and right outside there were about eight soldiers waiting for us.

316
00:35:30,890 --> 00:35:34,890
They saw us come they grabbed the detainee from our hands 

317
00:35:35,890 --> 00:35:39,890
and threw him to the ground while he's still blindfolded and hands tied behind his back

318
00:35:40,560 --> 00:35:44,560
 and they started kicking him for a good few minutes

319
00:35:47,932 --> 00:35:51,500
I was responsible for this man's well being.

320
00:35:53,436 --> 00:35:59,950
I was responsible to bring him from the checkpoint to the detention center, that was my job.

321
00:36:01,100 --> 00:36:04,550
And right outside the fence of the detention center they grab him from me and they start beating him.

322
00:36:06,550 --> 00:36:11,550
I felt responsible  but

323
00:36:11,550 --> 00:36:15,550
my commander wasn't saying anything so how could I say anything. 

324
00:36:16,679 --> 00:36:20,679
 The entire time that this was happening a military police officer

325
00:36:21,550 --> 00:36:25,550
was standing just inside the fence watching and smoking a cigarette

326
00:36:27,550 --> 00:36:31,150
As soon as these guys were done kicking this Palestinian man

327
00:36:32,550 --> 00:36:37,550
the military police officer tossed his cigarette He came, brought him inside the detention center

328
00:36:43,488 --> 00:36:46,250
and I didn't even speak up... I didn't speak up

329
00:36:48,750 --> 00:36:55,988
That's just one of many stories that I have from my time in the West Bank

330
00:37:00,323 --> 00:37:05,323
It took many years for me to really count terms with my part in it

331
00:37:09,956 --> 00:37:13,706
only after I got out of the army did I begin to realize that

332
00:37:13,706 --> 00:37:16,456
the stuff that I did in the day-to-day 

333
00:37:17,456 --> 00:37:20,206
just working in checkpoints patrolling villages

334
00:37:21,206 --> 00:37:24,956
that in and of itself was immoral.

335
00:37:28,117 --> 00:37:32,350
Palestinians in the West-Bank even though their lives are controlled by the state of Israel from morning noon and night

336
00:37:34,000 --> 00:37:37,117
are not even theoretically citizens of the country in which they live.

337
00:37:40,041 --> 00:37:43,041
You see in some ways what non-democracy looks like up close.

338
00:37:46,724 --> 00:37:50,724
When people look at the West-Bank  and say is an apartheid system and it's not just throwing out a word

339
00:37:52,997 --> 00:37:56,997
a Palestinian lives under a different legal system than an Israeli settler living next door

340
00:38:10,321 --> 00:38:13,321
Anyone who you know sees these facts on the grounds or speaks to Palestinians

341
00:38:14,664 --> 00:38:19,664
would understand that this a process of settler’s colonization of an apartheid regime.

342
00:38:21,234 --> 00:38:24,142
I remember crossing that checkpoint into Bethlehem and before this

343
00:38:24,142 --> 00:38:27,050
I've been very much opposed to ever using the word apartheid 

344
00:38:28,379 --> 00:38:33,379
but seeing night and day difference just by crossing this wall changed that for me in an instant.

345
00:38:48,534 --> 00:38:54,650
Assuming in serving in the Israeli army is obviously one way of supporting Israel but there's also another modern battle

346
00:38:56,034 --> 00:38:58,350
 that is happening on campuses each and every single day

347
00:39:00,431 --> 00:39:04,431
and you are  standing in front of it, and hum, I mean

348
00:39:05,431 --> 00:39:11,000
the Israeli government and Israeli people  thank you for that and that's why they put me here probably and I thank you for that

349
00:39:14,636 --> 00:39:17,000
hum, there’s a lot of PR to be made.

350
00:39:18,400 --> 00:39:21,250
This university thank god is fairly a-political

351
00:39:21,750 --> 00:39:25,350
but I’ve heard all over the place how you universities

352
00:39:26,250 --> 00:39:29,250
 are these hot beds of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel work

353
00:39:36,500 --> 00:39:40,250
I remember very vividly I was sitting in my dorm-room with a friend of mine we got a phone call

354
00:39:41,250 --> 00:39:44,250
 that an anti Israel bill was being introduced in the student government we bought-in

355
00:39:47,803 --> 00:39:50,803
on the way called our parents both got sent talking points

356
00:39:56,461 --> 00:39:59,461
and then we went into this student government meeting

357
00:40:16,110 --> 00:40:18,405
The students senate at the university of California Berkeley

358
00:40:18,905 --> 00:40:20,700
calling on campus officials to divest from companies

359
00:40:21,650 --> 00:40:23,500
that supply weapons that Israel uses

360
00:40:24,150 --> 00:40:25,350
in it's occupation of the Palestinian territories

361
00:40:27,677 --> 00:40:31,050
You are siding with the Palestinians on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict there's just no question about it.

362
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,650
I just knew it was this bad thing that I had to fight

363
00:40:36,650 --> 00:40:39,000
It is anti-Semitism : it is !

364
00:40:39,995 --> 00:40:42,823
You're trying to make me feel marginalized on my own campus.

365
00:40:43,823 --> 00:40:46,823
And I remember all of us going “well, hu,

366
00:40:47,500 --> 00:40:50,500
you shouldn't boycott Israel because it's applying a double standard

367
00:40:49,823 --> 00:40:52,823
and “you shouldn't boycott Israel because

368
00:40:52,823 --> 00:40:54,150
it's unfair to single-out Israel.

369
00:40:56,460 --> 00:40:59,158
Please, I beg of you , I beg you please

370
00:40:59,758 --> 00:41:01,855
to have compassion and to remember

371
00:41:02,350 --> 00:41:04,552
that we're alienating student and I

372
00:41:04,552 --> 00:41:07,250
 am devasted by this bill and I’m a human being”

373
00:41:10,320 --> 00:41:12,700
I still remember you have these Palestinian students who get up and said you know

374
00:41:13,820 --> 00:41:19,320
Jewish students you are crying about feeling silenced and marginalized you know

375
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:23,800
You know my aunts and cousins didn't sleep for weeks while bombs were falling over

376
00:41:24,250 --> 00:41:25,700
heading Gaza. What do you have to say to that ?

377
00:41:27,047 --> 00:41:29,748
If divestment is hostile then where do we begin

378
00:41:29,748 --> 00:41:32,450
to describe the hostility of a military occupation ?

379
00:41:35,118 --> 00:41:36,684
I was thrown into all these conversations where people were throwing around

380
00:41:36,684 --> 00:41:38,250
all these words that I've never heard before 

381
00:41:39,500 --> 00:41:42,500
“occupation” “settlements” “apartheid” “ethnic cleansing”

382
00:41:42,500 --> 00:41:45,500
I just never heard anyone use any of these terms before.

383
00:41:49,050 --> 00:41:51,000
Thought I knew so much about Israel, but i didn't really know what anybody who's talking about

384
00:41:51,650 --> 00:41:54,358
 when they were talking about all these things.

385
00:42:00,261 --> 00:42:04,261
I remember coming to Hellil and saying “why aren’t we answering Palestinian students questions”

386
00:42:06,526 --> 00:42:09,526
I would feel really embarrassed by it because mostly I felt like we weren't doing a good job 

387
00:42:11,855 --> 00:42:14,855
refuting their argument. Do we not have an actual counter argument

388
00:42:15,500 --> 00:42:17,855
besides like rockets double standard anti-Semitism.

389
00:42:21,832 --> 00:42:23,332
People...people, I...I couldn't get answer from any body

390
00:42:24,332 --> 00:42:26,000
and that was really disturbing for me.

391
00:42:28,691 --> 00:42:31,750
I mean, there are these people called Palestinians who think that Israel wields all this power

392
00:42:33,691 --> 00:42:36,691
over the their lives and don't have rights, don't have water.

393
00:42:39,341 --> 00:42:44,750
What like literally what is this ?
How how is this happening ?
How do I had I respond to it ?

394
00:42:47,123 --> 00:42:51,200
People that have a problem with Israel there is a good chance they’re misguided in somewhere

395
00:42:52,200 --> 00:42:57,250
Everyone have the freedom in Israel like you can have any religion and you can do whatever you want in Israel 

396
00:42:58,500 --> 00:42:59,600
but only in Israel in the Middle-East.

397
00:43:00,500 --> 00:43:03,350
A lot of them, like it's lot, it's a lot of misinformation

398
00:43:04,350 --> 00:43:09,950
some of it comes from misinformation, some of it comes from ignorance, some of it comes from lies

399
00:43:11,250 --> 00:43:14,150
And it's very hard to deal with that in any kind of a have a positive way

400
00:43:15,250 --> 00:43:17,350
when they're coming from such a place of not understanding

401
00:43:18,350 --> 00:43:21,350
what the  reality  the situation when they just have this in their in their head

402
00:43:21,350 --> 00:43:24,350
all this misinformation and all these lies

403
00:43:25,500 --> 00:43:29,069
I mean somehow pro-Palestinian has become pro-social justice.

404
00:43:33,026 --> 00:43:35,263
I wanted to know answers from within my own community and

405
00:43:35,263 --> 00:43:37,500
nobody could answer those questions for me.

406
00:43:39,804 --> 00:43:42,200
How is it that I am like the best the Jewish community has to offer

407
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,700
I've been there all the training's all the programs and I don't know what the occupation is

408
00:43:47,700 --> 00:43:50,700
I don't know what the settlements are

409
00:43:52,834 --> 00:43:55,417
Eventually I got to a point where I found myself wanting answers

410
00:43:56,417 --> 00:44:00,000
to the questions the Palestinians students were asking

411
00:44:01,571 --> 00:44:04,571
and so it led me on a process of trying to go figure those things out for myself.

412
00:44:09,375 --> 00:44:12,375
What is this thing that is so horrifying you can't bear to let me see it.

413
00:44:19,227 --> 00:44:21,950
The summer after my freshman year I went to Palestine and

414
00:44:22,363 --> 00:44:25,500
I knowingly crossed line for the first time.

415
00:44:44,631 --> 00:44:48,200
I don't think I realize the extent to which what I would come to see on the ground

416
00:44:49,700 --> 00:44:51,500
would really shock me and or horrify me.

417
00:44:53,364 --> 00:44:57,600
So if you look at your maps, we’re standing again right before hum

418
00:44:57,864 --> 00:45:02,100
is going to turn red just so we hear, where the soldier are standing

419
00:45:03,255 --> 00:45:06,100
So just look behind you guys this is a block of houses

420
00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:09,723
the people living in all these apartments here we were not allowed to walk on this main road

421
00:45:11,250 --> 00:45:13,150
So this was, look, like a red road, a "sterilized" road

422
00:45:14,350 --> 00:45:15,650
and imagine, if you're a family living here you can’t open the front door

423
00:45:16,600 --> 00:45:17,892
of your house and walk out.

424
00:45:20,207 --> 00:45:22,950
I am listening to Palestinian students talking about

425
00:45:23,550 --> 00:45:26,050
what it was like being beaten at a checkpoint 

426
00:45:26,431 --> 00:45:29,431
and sitting down with a Palestinian family and and

427
00:45:30,431 --> 00:45:33,431
hearing their story about being displaced by Israeli settlers

428
00:45:38,088 --> 00:45:43,100
And even when we fix the water wells, and we try to cultivate the rainwater

429
00:45:44,400 --> 00:45:47,550
 to come into the water wells.
Even those things are being attacked by the settlers

430
00:45:49,000 --> 00:45:52,600
Either they to throw stones on them
Or they throw chemicals in them

431
00:45:54,000 --> 00:45:57,088
or they throw dead animals in the wells.

432
00:45:59,471 --> 00:46:02,471
He’s saying first he welcomes you.
Thank you very much for coming.

433
00:46:03,900 --> 00:46:05,550
Especially because you're Jewish

434
00:46:07,030 --> 00:46:10,950
The area here is populated by Palestinian farmers.

435
00:46:11,950 --> 00:46:15,750
Supreme court in Israel ruled that they are allowed to live in the caves

436
00:46:15,475 --> 00:46:18,950
that are here. They're not allowed to build anything.

437
00:46:21,076 --> 00:46:23,076
Today the civil administration and the army came

438
00:46:23,076 --> 00:46:25,076
and demolished some of the tents here

439
00:46:31,356 --> 00:46:36,356
Something is deeply wrong here and it's,
it's breaking my heart.

440
00:46:40,254 --> 00:46:42,500
What we've been told is that the only way that Jews can be safe

441
00:46:43,650 --> 00:46:45,550
is if Palestinians are not safe.

442
00:46:48,222 --> 00:46:50,950
I guess the more I learn about that

443
00:46:52,350 --> 00:46:56,000
the more I came to see that...as a lie.

444
00:47:04,759 --> 00:47:07,759
So this is the checkpoint that divides Jerusalem from Bethlehem

445
00:47:12,000 --> 00:47:13,500
Palestinians definitely cannot drive on this road

446
00:47:14,150 --> 00:47:16,425
So you can see that we're basically driving

447
00:47:16,425 --> 00:47:18,700
with walls on both sides of us right now.

448
00:47:40,400 --> 00:47:43,055
You wanna go to like the major square or where would you want to go ?
Well, you head man !

449
00:47:53,696 --> 00:47:55,500
This is my barber

450
00:47:56,796 --> 00:47:58,696
(laughs and Arabic small talk)

451
00:48:02,661 --> 00:48:05,400
As someone who came to see Jerusalem or Tel-Aviv as places that I should imagine as home

452
00:48:06,400 --> 00:48:08,900
I remember coming into the West-Bank for the first time

453
00:48:10,150 --> 00:48:12,200
and actually seeing this place as someone else’s home

454
00:48:13,400 --> 00:48:14,900
 This is a normal place where people are just

455
00:48:15,260 --> 00:48:16,400
trying to live their lives.

456
00:48:20,623 --> 00:48:23,498
For me to get to Jerusalem I have to think of : first of all having the permit

457
00:48:24,300 --> 00:48:26,700
getting to the checkpoint waiting in lines for the checkpoint

458
00:48:27,100 --> 00:48:29,450
getting to the soldiers at the checkpoint

459
00:48:29,950 --> 00:48:32,250
that soldier might do anything to me at that point

460
00:48:33,123 --> 00:48:34,750
including sending me back.
And then crossing the checkpoint

461
00:48:35,950 --> 00:48:37,000
and then having to take public transportation

462
00:48:37,873 --> 00:48:40,748
It’s just the fact that I can not drive as a Palestinian I can not drive

463
00:48:41,250 --> 00:48:43,500
 in Jerusalem or anywhere in Israel.

464
00:48:44,623 --> 00:48:46,650
So we drove here today and...

465
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:48,400
Yeah, if I'm not home by 10pm and I get caught on other side

466
00:48:49,480 --> 00:48:51,936
Then I can be detained. I could lose my permit, for good

467
00:48:53,100 --> 00:48:55,000
I could be put in prison. I could be...

468
00:48:55,593 --> 00:48:57,600
beaten up by soldiers

469
00:48:58,750 --> 00:49:00,000
Who knows what will happen to me

470
00:49:02,621 --> 00:49:05,650
Almost any rooftop you stand on in Bethlehem, you look one way or the other

471
00:49:07,311 --> 00:49:10,000
you will see a settlement built around you.

472
00:49:13,852 --> 00:49:15,550
I started coming here in 2010.
I heard you speak to a group

473
00:49:16,400 --> 00:49:18,014
about anti-semitism and inherited trauma

474
00:49:19,200 --> 00:49:21,100
and started thinking a lot about

475
00:49:22,300 --> 00:49:23,400
what it means to challenge my community

476
00:49:24,650 --> 00:49:26,338
around the deep ingrained traumas 

477
00:49:27,338 --> 00:49:29,000
that as that are totally stopping us from

478
00:49:29,650 --> 00:49:30,800
any sort of movement on this issue

479
00:49:33,470 --> 00:49:36,470
My first learning experience was when I was invited to go to Auschwitz

480
00:49:38,470 --> 00:49:40,595
on a "bearing-witness retreat"

481
00:49:41,595 --> 00:49:43,000
I actually say in Auschwitz, I discovered

482
00:49:43,957 --> 00:49:45,720
one of the main reasons why this conflict exists today

483
00:49:47,250 --> 00:49:50,000
which is this inherited trauma that exists in the Jewish community

484
00:49:51,500 --> 00:49:55,360
where the feeling is that, as Jews, we’re always attacked

485
00:49:55,860 --> 00:49:59,220
we've always been attacked will always be attacked and therefore

486
00:50:00,650 --> 00:50:02,600
the only way to maintain ourselves is to create

487
00:50:03,150 --> 00:50:06,560
this very suppressive security mechanism

488
00:50:07,500 --> 00:50:10,470
that would prevent this from happening again

489
00:50:12,236 --> 00:50:13,886
I mean that's what I learned

490
00:50:13,886 --> 00:50:15,536
Yeah that's what I heard.

491
00:50:17,758 --> 00:50:20,250
What is important for many of the Israeli Jews

492
00:50:20,800 --> 00:50:22,879
and the Jews from around the world we talked to

493
00:50:24,000 --> 00:50:26,500
is the simple recognition 
and acknowledgment of the story

494
00:50:27,258 --> 00:50:29,400
and that story is where

495
00:50:29,758 --> 00:50:32,500
the healing work begins to happen

496
00:50:38,723 --> 00:50:41,350
As an activist, I think for many activists what keeps us going

497
00:50:42,723 --> 00:50:44,723
is our ability to be able to look towards the future

498
00:50:47,862 --> 00:50:49,681
I really believe that there is an emerging

499
00:50:49,681 --> 00:50:51,500
awakening within the American Jewish community

500
00:50:56,720 --> 00:50:59,720
I’ve had even some American Jews
who come here and they say

501
00:51:00,200 --> 00:51:02,720
we came to Israel and we left from Palestine

502
00:51:08,008 --> 00:51:09,150
For American Jews coming here and listening to us

503
00:51:09,820 --> 00:51:11,633
and hearing us and seeing our humanity

504
00:51:11,950 --> 00:51:15,258
and understanding that we are not just out sitting in bunkers

505
00:51:16,350 --> 00:51:18,200
planning the next attack against Israelis

506
00:51:18,350 --> 00:51:20,350
That we do have a desire to live in peace

507
00:51:21,250 --> 00:51:22,877
and to have our freedom, and to be walking on our streets

508
00:51:22,877 --> 00:51:24,504
and eating in our restaurants and we, hum, I mean...

509
00:51:26,758 --> 00:51:29,883
it's crazy that I have to say this that we are real human beings that just want to survive

510
00:51:29,883 --> 00:51:33,008
 and live and like all other people in this the world.

511
00:51:37,665 --> 00:51:39,665
The moment they see this and experience this for themselves

512
00:51:39,665 --> 00:51:41,665
it creates something in them, it shifts  something in them

513
00:51:44,840 --> 00:51:47,840
what they do with it when they go back it becomes their responsibility.

514
00:52:03,731 --> 00:52:06,231
I came home and spoke out I think initially

515
00:52:06,850 --> 00:52:08,731
it was very painful and shocking for a lot of people

516
00:52:12,288 --> 00:52:15,100
 I had friends from high school and from college who didn't know how to speak to me at the beginning

517
00:52:15,600 --> 00:52:18,288
 because these conversations were forbidden for us growing up. 

518
00:52:22,844 --> 00:52:25,272
I've grown up very much as a product of this

519
00:52:25,272 --> 00:52:27,900
mass mobilization across the community

520
00:52:28,550 --> 00:52:30,197
to ensure that young people

521
00:52:30,197 --> 00:52:31,844
stay engaged in pro-Israel politics

522
00:52:36,704 --> 00:52:38,852
For most people I know oh who actually took the time

523
00:52:38,852 --> 00:52:41,000
to see with their own eyes what was happening

524
00:52:42,463 --> 00:52:45,157
It very quickly challenges everything we've been taught.

525
00:52:46,250 --> 00:52:47,850
It's very painful

526
00:52:50,168 --> 00:52:52,668
because it is so intimately bound up

527
00:52:52,668 --> 00:52:55,168
with the identity of the community

528
00:52:58,129 --> 00:53:00,900
Their have always been Jews who have spoken out for Palestinian rights

529
00:53:02,250 --> 00:53:03,450
and more and more people are willing

530
00:53:04,500 --> 00:53:06,250
to take off their binders looking at this reality

531
00:53:07,100 --> 00:53:08,129
 saying this is intolerable

532
00:53:27,555 --> 00:53:29,100
I continued to meet more and more young people like me

533
00:53:30,250 --> 00:53:32,200
who are having similar experiences

534
00:53:34,200 --> 00:53:37,200
and it made me realize that I was part of a bigger story

535
00:53:39,000 --> 00:53:41,278
of something that was happening not just to me

536
00:53:41,278 --> 00:53:43,555
but to young people around the country

537
00:53:46,372 --> 00:53:47,950
We decided to bring the crisis of

538
00:53:48,236 --> 00:53:50,100
American Jewish support for Israel

539
00:53:51,300 --> 00:53:52,800
to the doorsteps of Jewish institutions

540
00:53:53,600 --> 00:53:55,372
to force that conversation in public

541
00:54:23,201 --> 00:54:28,500
First of all, all my friends at AIPAC stop talking to me.
I've lost many childhood friends over this

542
00:54:30,701 --> 00:54:32,576
Also many friends have like come along politically with me over the years

543
00:54:32,576 --> 00:54:34,451
many of my family have also

544
00:54:34,750 --> 00:54:38,201
 many of my family also deeply disagree with me

545
00:54:44,096 --> 00:54:47,648
Every time I protested outside of a Jewish community event of some kind I have seen a friend

546
00:54:47,648 --> 00:54:51,200
a family friend a parent of a friend on the other side of the barricade

547
00:54:54,693 --> 00:54:57,693
We are literally talking about parents and children

548
00:55:00,860 --> 00:55:04,110
Young Jews they go to the Jewish federations they go to the reform movement

549
00:55:04,110 --> 00:55:07,360
They go to their day schools and they say

550
00:55:08,360 --> 00:55:12,110
You mobilized me to be a soldier for Israel

551
00:55:13,110 --> 00:55:15,860
But I had been completely misled.

552
00:55:17,700 --> 00:55:19,600
We are also in a moment when there is he possibility of

553
00:55:20,300 --> 00:55:21,500
of some kind of alternative.

554
00:55:24,250 --> 00:55:30,250
I see it hundreds of times and over and over again and those hundreds speak for thousands and they went to the Jewish camps

555
00:55:31,250 --> 00:55:35,850
and they went to the days schools and they went to the synagogue’s Hebrew schools

556
00:55:37,409 --> 00:55:39,150
They're really really angry at the way they were educated

557
00:55:40,659 --> 00:55:41,909
and the way that they were indoctrinated

558
00:55:42,800 --> 00:55:45,550
hum, about these issues and justifiably so

559
00:55:48,500 --> 00:55:51,364
The indoctrination is so severe it's almost hard

560
00:55:52,864 --> 00:55:55,500
to have a conversation about it

561
00:55:57,012 --> 00:56:00,012
It's heartbreaking. It is heartbreaking

562
00:56:02,269 --> 00:56:05,269
Our community right now has to grapple with our complicity.

563
00:56:07,935 --> 00:56:10,935
...and we want to welcome you, to the Jewish protesting

564
00:56:14,762 --> 00:56:17,050
Jewish opinion is split some Jewish groups

565
00:56:18,250 --> 00:56:20,500
vocally oppose Israel's military policies

566
00:56:21,250 --> 00:56:23,800
“More than a thousand Jewish activists descended on Washington DC

567
00:56:24,800 --> 00:56:26,350
Sunday to protest AIPAC.”

568
00:56:28,109 --> 00:56:31,109
“So we tell some of our more conservative brothers and sisters on the inside

569
00:56:32,109 --> 00:56:34,750
 that you do not represent the best of the Jewish

570
00:56:35,750 --> 00:56:39,109
prophetic tradition and we’re here to bear witness around the world"

571
00:56:42,165 --> 00:56:43,850
It’s a new day now, I think you got a number

572
00:56:44,682 --> 00:56:46,000
of young Jewish brothers and  sisters

573
00:56:47,100 --> 00:56:49,382
who are undergoing more spiritual awakening that are deeply concerned

574
00:56:50,382 --> 00:56:51,665
about the suffering of Palestinians

575
00:56:52,950 --> 00:56:56,600
they come from a people who have been hated but they don't want to see the cycle of hate

576
00:56:57,815 --> 00:57:01,165
perpetrated even by Jews themselves.

577
00:57:04,229 --> 00:57:08,229
Israel it’s been part of my life since early childhood.

578
00:57:09,229 --> 00:57:12,950
Within the Jewish community oh there's been a striking change

579
00:57:13,600 --> 00:57:16,229
and Israel's well aware of it 

580
00:57:17,229 --> 00:57:20,229
human will and commitment can change things

581
00:57:23,162 --> 00:57:29,450
My name is Tanya it’s the first time I'm using my full real name, to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians

582
00:57:31,662 --> 00:57:35,500
and I never thought in my life I would be standing with this many Jews for Palestine

583
00:57:36,700 --> 00:57:37,700
I'm a rabbi

584
00:57:38,300 --> 00:57:41,100
As long as Palestinian lives are treated as disposable

585
00:57:42,550 --> 00:57:44,500
Our house, as a people, is not in order.


586
00:57:49,077 --> 00:57:50,000
Tomorrow we show up, and we march

587
00:57:50,577 --> 00:57:52,077
For the bill sheet of Palestinians

588
00:57:55,002 --> 00:57:58,177
Free, Free Palestine

589
00:57:58,177 --> 00:58:01,300
Free, free, free Palestine

590
00:58:01,352 --> 00:58:04,527
Free, Free Palestine

591
00:58:04,527 --> 00:58:06,550
Free, free, free Palestine

592
00:58:08,300 --> 00:58:09,650
Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib :

593
00:58:11,250 --> 00:58:13,400
“I am the only Palestinian American member of congress now

594
00:58:14,750 --> 00:58:17,850
how many Palestinians have to die for their lives to matter ?"

595
00:58:18,500 --> 00:58:22,686
Life under apartheid strips Palestinians of their human dignity

596
00:58:23,500 --> 00:58:26,200
How many more decades to they need to endure this subjugation

597
00:58:27,627 --> 00:58:30,350
before there is a shift in this unreasonable status quo

598
00:58:31,250 --> 00:58:33,178
And what would you recommend ?

599
00:58:33,178 --> 00:58:35,107
I would recommend freedom !

600
00:58:38,170 --> 00:58:45,170
The real challenge is trying to keep that moral and spiritual dimensions strong

601
00:58:48,809 --> 00:58:51,809
Cause any time you cut against a grave.
And you’re gonna catch hell.

602
00:59:17,600 --> 00:59:19,400
The anti-occupation Jews

603
00:59:20,400 --> 00:59:21,800
are blocking Damascus Gate

604
00:59:24,188 --> 00:59:26,000
End the occupation

605
00:59:27,560 --> 00:59:30,560
Israeli Jews say (Hebrew)

606
00:59:55,265 --> 00:59:57,250
I don't think it's as serious as it's made up to be, okay ?

607
00:59:57,900 --> 01:00:00,050
they’re entitled, it's fine, okay !

608
01:00:00,950 --> 01:00:02,675
I don't think they represent much

609
01:00:02,675 --> 01:00:04,400
I think they’re a little super naive

610
01:00:05,750 --> 01:00:07,600
I think that this...most of American Jews

611
01:00:08,650 --> 01:00:11,650
even though they have different views on settlements or occupation

612
01:00:12,700 --> 01:00:14,650
I think that's still a decision at the end of the day

613
01:00:15,200 --> 01:00:16,650
they’re gonna leave for the Israelis to make

614
01:00:17,600 --> 01:00:19,950
As long as Israel is under threat

615
01:00:20,600 --> 01:00:23,600
and as strong as it is and as dynamic as it is

616
01:00:25,000 --> 01:00:27,650
it's still under threat from it's neighbors

617
01:00:28,494 --> 01:00:31,494
and a hundred thousand missiles, we postpone

618
01:00:32,505 --> 01:00:36,505
that philosophical debate to another time

619
01:00:46,648 --> 01:00:50,350
Palestinians are so dehumanized in the community that it's really hard

620
01:00:51,148 --> 01:00:53,648
for people to figure out how to even understand

621
01:00:54,648 --> 01:00:59,648
Palestinians legitimate rights and claims to the land

622
01:01:01,696 --> 01:01:04,696
“Palestinians gathered for protesting the Israeli Gaza border”

623
01:01:05,583 --> 01:01:08,583
They're demanding the right to return to lands from which they were forced out in 1948

624
01:01:11,142 --> 01:01:14,142
At least 55 Palestinians died Monday during mass protests

625
01:01:16,463 --> 01:01:18,800
Israeli troops fired on the demonstrators

626
01:01:32,102 --> 01:01:34,500
Look at the more recent Gaza demonstrations

627
01:01:35,700 --> 01:01:39,100
Ask yourself the question if the Mexicans stood at the border and march

628
01:01:39,100 --> 01:01:42,700
A million Mexicans or 20.000 Mexicans, what would America do ?

629
01:01:44,250 --> 01:01:45,750
You know first they would try tear gas and  this or that

630
01:01:47,300 --> 01:01:49,500
and eventually they would have to shoot.

631
01:01:51,841 --> 01:01:54,921
There are a lot of Jewish young people who see a Jewish establishment

632
01:01:56,300 --> 01:01:58,000
that is racist that is nationalistic

633
01:02:00,000 --> 01:02:01,950
Israel is in the Middle-East and not the Midwest

634
01:02:02,850 --> 01:02:04,400
So the neighbors are not necessarily the Jones or the Smiths

635
01:02:06,400 --> 01:02:08,400
I don’t want war, but it’s been imposed on us

636
01:02:09,400 --> 01:02:12,400
So we should do right, and defeat the terrorists

637
01:02:15,500 --> 01:02:16,650
We don't want to be a part of that

638
01:02:17,808 --> 01:02:19,550
but we are actually building an alternative

639
01:02:26,758 --> 01:02:29,650
I've been involved in this work for about a decade

640
01:02:30,900 --> 01:02:34,800
I was seen as a face of this young growing Jewish resistance

641
01:02:36,200 --> 01:02:37,000
to the American Jewish establishment

642
01:02:39,659 --> 01:02:42,159
It made perfect sense to me that Bernie would hire someone like me

643
01:02:43,550 --> 01:02:44,659
as a Jewish outreach coordinator

644
01:02:46,996 --> 01:02:48,998
Within about 48 hours of being on the campaign

645
01:02:49,900 --> 01:02:51,300
the attack started rolling in

646
01:02:55,230 --> 01:02:58,230
These old man from the Jewish establishment came out to say

647
01:02:59,500 --> 01:03:02,230
you know that I was dangerous that I was a threat

648
01:03:04,121 --> 01:03:05,850
a journalist wrote an article about me the headline was

649
01:03:07,350 --> 01:03:11,200
“Bernie sanders new Jewish outreach coordinator is an outspoken critic of Israeli occupation”

650
01:03:17,497 --> 01:03:19,500
The next headline that I found out about when I walked into work was :

651
01:03:20,500 --> 01:03:25,500
“Abe Foxman calls on Sanders to fire new Jewish community liaison for quote “anti Israel comments”

652
01:03:28,535 --> 01:03:32,850
“On Thursday the Sander’s campaign suspended it's new national Jewish outreach coordinator

653
01:03:34,000 --> 01:03:36,000
Simone Zimmerman, two days after she was hired.”

654
01:03:41,367 --> 01:03:46,200
So as far as I'm aware this was Abe Foxman’s first comment in public since his retirement from the ADL

655
01:03:47,367 --> 01:03:50,600
and he came out of retirement to defend the world

656
01:03:51,850 --> 01:03:53,367
from the great threat of Simone Zimmerman

657
01:03:56,770 --> 01:04:00,770
It hurts me for Jewish kid to stand up there and say : Justice for the Palestinians

658
01:04:02,000 --> 01:04:03,500
and not saying : Justice for the Israelis

659
01:04:04,400 --> 01:04:07,000
Troubles me, hurts me, me bothers me, it means we failed

660
01:04:08,270 --> 01:04:10,770
We failed in educating and explaining etcaetera

661
01:04:14,405 --> 01:04:16,605
When we talk about : "we're losing the kids"...


662
01:04:17,605 --> 01:04:18,805
Hu...We lost them !

663
01:04:22,006 --> 01:04:35,006
[292]

664
01:04:36,006 --> 01:04:43,850
[651]

665
01:04:45,087 --> 01:04:51,043
We see that many millennials are becoming desenchanted with Israel and

666
01:04:52,043 --> 01:04:54,500
 And, hum, I take a very different approach on this. I say to them

667
01:04:55,021 --> 01:04:57,000
we need to love Israel even more

668
01:05:10,233 --> 01:05:13,233
It...it means that we, we're the older generation have much more work to do

669
01:05:16,951 --> 01:05:20,550
This whole communal obsession with defending Israel has basically worked into

670
01:05:21,451 --> 01:05:25,951
seeing someone like me as a threat to the community

671
01:05:27,864 --> 01:05:30,682
The word that I used to hear a lot was “self hating Jew”

672
01:05:30,682 --> 01:05:33,500
Like the only way that a Jewish person could possibly

673
01:05:34,864 --> 01:05:39,000
care about the humanity of Palestinians is if you hate yourself

674
01:05:43,992 --> 01:05:46,650
Let’s see what I find in here.


675
01:05:47,500 --> 01:05:49,900
You are a self loathing Jew, go kill yourself

676
01:05:52,000 --> 01:05:55,500
...With Jews like you who needs ignorant racist bigot Arabs

677
01:05:57,358 --> 01:06:00,650
You work against our people...You're an anti-semitic Jew...You've been working for the enemy

678
01:06:01,900 --> 01:06:05,500
Simone Zimmerman another member of the lunatic anti-semitic far-left

679
01:06:11,100 --> 01:06:13,425
There's always been this argument of :
"Oh you can't criticize Israel"

680
01:06:14,425 --> 01:06:15,750
Criticizing Israel feeds anti-semitism

681
01:06:16,900 --> 01:06:19,650
Criticizing Israel helps the enemies of Israel

682
01:06:21,587 --> 01:06:24,587
As more and more American Jews are speaking out in support of Palestinian freedom

683
01:06:25,950 --> 01:06:28,769
Now they just say instead we're over anti-semite


684
01:06:30,000 --> 01:06:31,587
We hate all Jewish people or even worse that we're not Jewish at all.

685
01:06:34,800 --> 01:06:36,775
We are attacked as be being not really Jewish

686
01:06:38,000 --> 01:06:39,500
if we’re not support of Israel

687
01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:43,300
And that's where you start seeing just a blanket 
de-legitimization

688
01:06:44,300 --> 01:06:47,100
of an entire sector of American Jewish society

689
01:06:48,789 --> 01:06:50,500
focusing on this so called new anti-semitism

690
01:06:52,000 --> 01:06:56,762
And then came the new anti-semitism which was the anti-semitism  relating to Israel

691
01:06:58,200 --> 01:07:02,125
 What some have said that Israel became the Jew of the nations.


692
01:07:03,125 --> 01:07:07,200
In the same way that historically, you know,
whatever was permitted for anybody else

693
01:07:08,800 --> 01:07:11,750
was not permitted for the Jew.
Now israel was singled out...

694
01:07:13,672 --> 01:07:17,172
So many of the self appointed leaders of our community have been trying to equate the idea of

695
01:07:18,172 --> 01:07:20,672
supporting Palestinian rights itself with anti-semitism

696
01:07:23,038 --> 01:07:26,850
This is about anti-Israel, anti-semitic attitude.
Classic new anti-semitism.

697
01:07:27,950 --> 01:07:30,600
The extreme left has a long history of anti-semitism,


698
01:07:31,600 --> 01:07:33,250
of-of-of-of, of anti-israel hatred.


699
01:07:35,150 --> 01:07:36,519
How stupid have they been for all these years,
voting for Obama

700
01:07:37,519 --> 01:07:40,038
 and other anti-semites like him.

701
01:07:42,723 --> 01:07:44,800
Unwillingness to grapple with Palestinian suffering

702
01:07:46,223 --> 01:07:49,723
is putting a lot of American Jews in a really
dangerous and sad position

703
01:07:52,721 --> 01:07:55,721
How far will Jewish Americans go in their effort

704
01:07:56,721 --> 01:07:58,721
to quash pressure on Israel.

705
01:07:59,500 --> 01:08:01,721
You know how far will people go, it's hard to see.

706
01:08:02,721 --> 01:08:04,721
How far they won't go, is this is where things are today

707
01:08:10,738 --> 01:08:14,500
Again the pro-Israel's leaders just want to be in the room with the people in power.


708
01:08:15,000 --> 01:08:19,250
They will do anything to preserve unconditional support for Israel

709
01:08:23,829 --> 01:08:26,309
Thank you. When I become president.


710
01:08:27,309 --> 01:08:28,789
The days of treating Israel

711
01:08:29,789 --> 01:08:30,500
like a 2nd class citizen

712
01:08:31,670 --> 01:08:33,750
will end on day one

713
01:08:39,029 --> 01:08:41,050
History is not going to judge just kindly

714
01:08:42,761 --> 01:08:45,791
I’d like to say that we were blessed by heaven with Donald Trump


715
01:08:47,000 --> 01:08:48,821
being elected President of the Unites States.

716
01:08:49,791 --> 01:08:52,296
We should pray that they should remain in office


717
01:08:53,296 --> 01:08:54,800
and that he should continue to do the great things he does.

718
01:08:55,940 --> 01:08:58,600
On behalf of the United States of America and on behalf of Israel

719
01:09:02,480 --> 01:09:06,100
We're saying like of for fine combination of what support of Israel at all cost 

720
01:09:07,680 --> 01:09:10,280
has led to...disregarding any lesson of history

721
01:09:11,780 --> 01:09:12,880
disregarding any sort of morality

722
01:09:18,854 --> 01:09:22,104
The great irony of having this be where we are today within the Jewish community

723
01:09:23,800 --> 01:09:25,354
is that there actually is resurgent anti-semitism.


724
01:09:27,000 --> 01:09:28,004
The kind that I think my generation

725
01:09:29,900 --> 01:09:31,854
and the generations that have come after me never thought we'd see in our lifetimes

726
01:09:35,297 --> 01:09:37,297
Hail Trump
Hail our people
Hail victory

727
01:09:40,613 --> 01:09:44,000
In the US couple of things have been happening, number go to Trump or Trumpism.

728
01:09:45,000 --> 01:09:47,500
It's not easy...is he a biggot, is he.... I don't think he's a biggot.


729
01:09:49,000 --> 01:09:52,000
I think he is what he is. I don't think he’s a racist so I don't think is an anti-semite.

730
01:09:53,863 --> 01:09:55,613
I think that you can call him all kinds of things…

731
01:09:58,366 --> 01:10:03,000
The community has spent so much time attacking anyone who criticizes Israel

732
01:10:04,500 --> 01:10:06,000
and their actual threats to our community

733
01:10:07,636 --> 01:10:10,800
That has led our communal institutions to basically be silent

734
01:10:12,000 --> 01:10:13,550
in the face of rising white nationalism

735
01:10:14,900 --> 01:10:16,950
Jews will not replace us.

736
01:10:17,950 --> 01:10:19,000
Jews will not replace us.

737
01:10:20,000 --> 01:10:22,500
Jews will not replace us.

738
01:10:24,530 --> 01:10:28,100
The way that we talk about anti semitism isn't about protecting Jews it's about protecting Israel.


739
01:10:29,330 --> 01:10:32,500
How dangerous is that at this moment with the rise of anti semitism

740
01:10:38,422 --> 01:10:41,927
And often when American politicians are asked about anti-semitism

741
01:10:43,000 --> 01:10:45,432
they talk about their support for Israel

742
01:10:48,598 --> 01:10:51,098
Support for Israel, today, is actually replacing

743
01:10:52,198 --> 01:10:53,598
what it means to be a Jew

744
01:10:55,100 --> 01:10:58,175
These people have basically decided that 
support for Israel

745
01:10:59,500 --> 01:11:01,250
is more important than the safety of Jews

746
01:11:03,589 --> 01:11:06,800
We're not going to say anything about the spreading of these anti semitic conspiracy theories

747
01:11:09,300 --> 01:11:11,337
We have seen a tremendous amount of this use of vile

748
01:11:12,400 --> 01:11:13,375
anti semitic tropes.

749
01:11:14,700 --> 01:11:17,500
The thread talks about a Jewish plot
to enslave people in the United-States

750
01:11:19,200 --> 01:11:21,700
Anti semitic flyers sipped in Covid-19 conspiracies saying

751
01:11:22,750 --> 01:11:25,300
every single aspect of the Covid agenda is Jewish

752
01:11:27,400 --> 01:11:29,000
That's the way the Jews work.

753
01:11:30,387 --> 01:11:31,375
They decei...They are deceivers

754
01:11:32,100 --> 01:11:33,363
They plot. They lie

755
01:11:34,300 --> 01:11:35,350
They do whatever they have to do

756
01:11:43,795 --> 01:11:46,800
The gunmen told a SWAT officer that
he wanted all Jews to die

757
01:11:47,500 --> 01:11:50,795
and that they were committing genocide against his people

758
01:12:03,492 --> 01:12:06,492
It’s a profoundly sad moment, I think it’s tipping moment

759
01:12:10,370 --> 01:12:12,300
These anti semitic nightmares that we all...

760
01:12:13,018 --> 01:12:15,666
like it's all coming to life, in front of our eyes

761
01:12:19,500 --> 01:12:22,650
I can't help but think about all the 
American Jewish organizations

762
01:12:24,000 --> 01:12:26,850
that have spent the last decade pouring millions of $

763
01:12:28,125 --> 01:12:31,000
into smearing and marginalizing 
human rights advocates

764
01:12:32,728 --> 01:12:36,500
Jewish, Palestinian and not, 
trying to brand Palestinian protest

765
01:12:37,800 --> 01:12:38,728
 as anti-semitic

766
01:12:39,500 --> 01:12:41,200
when there were neo-Nazis

767
01:12:42,400 --> 01:12:44,728
trying to kill us and our synagogues

768
01:12:50,342 --> 01:12:51,500
My parents' and grandparents' generation

769
01:12:53,000 --> 01:12:54,500
grew up in a world in which Jews were not safe.

770
01:12:55,900 --> 01:12:58,800
They invested so much in the idea

771
01:13:00,660 --> 01:13:04,100
Jews could only be safe through Israel

772
01:13:05,100 --> 01:13:08,600
But our safety and our security is actually bound up in

773
01:13:09,600 --> 01:13:12,100
the safety and the security of all people

774
01:13:13,904 --> 01:13:16,250
The most powerful pro-Israel lobby in the country

775
01:13:17,500 --> 01:13:17,803
are now donating money

776
01:13:19,500 --> 01:13:21,702
to republican politicians who either incited or

777
01:13:23,002 --> 01:13:25,000
continue to support the righters who

778
01:13:26,200 --> 01:13:29,500
stormed the capital on January 6

779
01:13:31,553 --> 01:13:34,039
That's part of a politics of solidarity.

780
01:13:35,100 --> 01:13:37,500
It feels totally morally coherent and morally urgent

781
01:13:38,750 --> 01:13:40,400
to support freedom and dignity for all people

782
01:13:40,900 --> 01:13:42,500
in all the places that we live

783
01:13:47,912 --> 01:13:50,434
Palestinians have already been telling us this for decades.

784
01:13:51,500 --> 01:13:53,000
So guys here is the

785
01:13:53,800 --> 01:13:55,000
the the wall...

786
01:13:56,200 --> 01:13:58,000
but, the world is finally coming to catch up

787
01:14:03,593 --> 01:14:05,593
For me I would say if anybody has any influence 

788
01:14:06,900 --> 01:14:07,550
on Israeli policy

789
01:14:08,800 --> 01:14:09,400
and I say this with a big if

790
01:14:10,750 --> 01:14:11,593
it is the American Jewish community

791
01:14:13,836 --> 01:14:15,668
The American Jewish community have the potential

792
01:14:16,950 --> 01:14:17,500
 to have the greatest influence

793
01:14:18,700 --> 01:14:20,800
in shifting our reality outside of this land

794
01:14:22,300 --> 01:14:25,800
For many people around the world when they see the voice of the Jewish community

795
01:14:27,000 --> 01:14:28,700
rise and protest against this occupation

796
01:14:30,500 --> 01:14:31,400
 it will allow other voices to say yes

797
01:14:32,400 --> 01:14:35,000
we could also have a voice in it as well

798
01:14:36,518 --> 01:14:38,600
Now we're doing joint work in 
trying to end this occupation

799
01:14:39,800 --> 01:14:42,000
and bringing peace and justice
into this land.

800
01:14:43,259 --> 01:14:44,750
The most inspiring experiences I had

801
01:14:45,980 --> 01:14:47,400
are with Jewish Americans

802
01:14:48,500 --> 01:14:50,000
that come in and take a stand

803
01:14:54,978 --> 01:14:57,250
We’re gonna hear tonight number of personal stories

804
01:14:58,400 --> 01:15:00,350
at some point you guys decided to

805
01:15:01,550 --> 01:15:02,300
call upon break the silence

806
01:15:03,564 --> 01:15:04,700
and I'm interested was there a particular moment 

807
01:15:06,005 --> 01:15:06,426
that lead you to this

808
01:15:08,833 --> 01:15:10,800
In 2008, I, I joined the military

809
01:15:11,624 --> 01:15:14,250
in America we have this concept of 
innocent until proven guilty

810
01:15:15,300 --> 01:15:17,208
there is no innocent Palestinian according to the army

811
01:15:18,400 --> 01:15:20,000
 ("that's so not true"...) in occupied territory

812
01:15:21,000 --> 01:15:23,450
"quiet down please !"...
"get out of here...come on, you lie...

813
01:15:24,550 --> 01:15:26,700
that's a lie...she said there's no such"
..."It’s not a lie"

814
01:15:28,928 --> 01:15:30,200
What we're talking about is not getting Palestinians

815
01:15:31,600 --> 01:15:34,214
the right that we Israelis...and that’s apartheid.

816
01:15:36,200 --> 01:15:39,000
To go against the grain is not an easy thing to do

817
01:15:42,500 --> 01:15:45,400
So I did not speak about my experiences in the occupation

818
01:15:46,800 --> 01:15:47,600
 publicly until very recently

819
01:15:49,850 --> 01:15:52,000
I was afraid that I would be demonized

820
01:15:53,200 --> 01:15:55,400
I've seen friends of mine, being demonized

821
01:15:56,400 --> 01:15:57,481
for speaking out about the same things

822
01:16:01,658 --> 01:16:04,908
The first time I ever spoke publicly about my experiences

823
01:16:06,008 --> 01:16:08,550
I cried the whole time that I was speaking. 

824
01:16:10,200 --> 01:16:13,600
It's gotten a little bit easier to talk about since then

825
01:16:15,200 --> 01:16:17,150
because I have taken the time to process it

826
01:16:18,500 --> 01:16:21,850
But that doesn't mean it's easy any time I talk about these experiences...

827
01:16:24,408 --> 01:16:27,658
But we can't wait any longer

828
01:16:40,400 --> 01:16:43,800
I've been longing for this Jewish conversation for seventeen years.

829
01:16:45,800 --> 01:16:48,200
We’re here today...hum 

830
01:16:49,600 --> 01:16:50,600
to talk about some things that are often

831
01:16:52,000 --> 01:16:54,000
...can feel impossible in the Jewish community

832
01:16:56,461 --> 01:16:59,200
These conversations can happen we are not risking our Jewish history

833
01:17:00,700 --> 01:17:02,500
you are not closing a door or to the rest of your Jewish life.

834
01:17:03,811 --> 01:17:05,461
All that we have to risk is our denial...

835
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:08,483
I can start.

836
01:17:09,483 --> 01:17:10,965
My high school had an Israel studies class

837
01:17:12,200 --> 01:17:13,200
all about when you go to college

838
01:17:14,477 --> 01:17:16,700
and people start telling you about Israel 
beeing an apartheid state

839
01:17:17,200 --> 01:17:18,200
this is how you respond

840
01:17:19,799 --> 01:17:20,700
From, like summer camp in my youth movement

841
01:17:21,900 --> 01:17:23,700
one the one of the core tenant of it was that the Jewish state needed to be built

842
01:17:25,000 --> 01:17:27,450
and just no questioning of what price 
we were really willing to pay

843
01:17:28,850 --> 01:17:30,000
or willing to make Palestinian pay

844
01:17:31,725 --> 01:17:33,600
As an Israeli, Palestinian identity itself 

845
01:17:34,800 --> 01:17:36,225
is not something I had to learn that it exists

846
01:17:37,600 --> 01:17:38,725
So slowly, as I

847
01:17:40,000 --> 01:17:41,700
came to learn, the occupation exists

848
01:17:43,225 --> 01:17:45,725
I started learning that
there is another narrative

849
01:17:48,219 --> 01:17:50,900
We're here to talk about the history that's often 
referred to as "The Nakba"

850
01:17:52,300 --> 01:17:54,300
750.000 people displaced from their homes

851
01:17:56,750 --> 01:18:00,000
At least 400 villages undone in their entirety

852
01:18:01,692 --> 01:18:03,200
The colonization is also ongoing

853
01:18:04,500 --> 01:18:06,000
The ongoing Nakba

854
01:18:07,200 --> 01:18:09,048
the continued, not just the historical, but the continued

855
01:18:10,200 --> 01:18:11,500
but the continued ethnic cleansing of Palestinians

856
01:18:12,900 --> 01:18:15,400
I have been blessed to witness the ways that 
Palestinian society

857
01:18:16,800 --> 01:18:17,800
 continues to find ways to thrive

858
01:18:19,100 --> 01:18:20,500
But we can't deny that there has been catastrophe

859
01:18:21,750 --> 01:18:23,500
and that it's been catastrophic 
the scale of loss

860
01:18:26,091 --> 01:18:28,921
We’re really here to teach each other but I think nothing's as important as action

861
01:18:30,200 --> 01:18:32,000
Because we're talking about ongoing displacement

862
01:18:34,957 --> 01:18:36,950
People might tell you that if you stand up for Palestinian rights

863
01:18:38,500 --> 01:18:39,000
that you aren't really Jewish,

864
01:18:39,900 --> 01:18:41,100
that you're maybe a self hating Jew

865
01:18:42,300 --> 01:18:45,625
As a rabbi what I see when i look at the work of solidarity

866
01:18:46,800 --> 01:18:48,950
is a long chain of Jewish history

867
01:18:50,300 --> 01:18:52,900
This chain of people of ancestors and text and traditions

868
01:18:54,400 --> 01:18:55,600
that are about justice and fighting for it.

869
01:18:57,500 --> 01:19:00,050
Jewish tradition tells us to envision a world where all people are safe and free

870
01:19:01,350 --> 01:19:02,900
To never stop fighting for that world

871
01:19:04,600 --> 01:19:08,600
So, may you all feel blessed in a tradition of liberation

872
01:19:09,800 --> 01:19:11,100
and may you be blessed to know you're not alone...

873
01:19:12,900 --> 01:19:17,100
And let's get to work