Deir Yassin – From Remembrance to Resistance
March 2007
In a recent piece on The
Guardian - Comment is Free Tony Greenstein says that Deir Yassin Remembered
is an anti-Semitic organization and, along with Roland Rance, Sue Blackwell and
Les Levidow he’s going to try to get the Palestine Solidarity Campaign to have
nothing to do with us. Well, good luck to them, and if the PSC is foolish
enough to bow to this kind of thing, then good luck to them too – they’re going
to need it.
Deir Yassin Remembered
is an international organisation whose aim is to build a memorial to the
victims of the Deir Yassin massacre of April 9th 1948. But the list of victims extends far beyond the
100 to 130 elderly men, women and children who died that day. It extends also to the over 750,000
Palestinians expelled in the concurrent Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine,
to the over 500 Palestinian towns and villages destroyed or expropriated by the
Jewish ethnic cleansers and now also to their descendants - the now over six million
dispossessed Palestinians living either as second-class citizens in Israel, in
the towns, villages and refugee camps of post-1967 occupied Palestine, in
refugee shanty-towns in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and finally in the
many Palestinian communities-in-exile in
practically every corner of the world. In short, Deir Yassin Remembered
exists to build a memorial to all of Palestinian life and memory.
But Deir Yassin Remembered is not just about remembrance;
Deir Yassin Remembered is also about resistance. Yes, there was a time when we spoke
passionately about the proximity
of Deir Yassin to the Jewish Holocaust memorial at Yad Vashem and about the
inextricably close and agonised relationship between Jewish suffering and the
suffering inflicted by Jews on Palestinians. But not any more. There have been too many deaths, too many
disappointments and now the
nearness of Deir Yassin to Yad Vashem serves merely to underline the
stark differences between abused and abuser - and the continuation of the
abuse.
But there's no smoke without fire. If Tony and his colleagues say that we
are anti-Semites and the Palestinian solidarity movement should have nothing to
do with us, there must be something in it – nobody, surely, nobody could dream up
such a thing. Indeed there is something
in it. Tony's complaint rests on three matters
- the inclusion in our Board of Advisers of Israel Shamir, a couple of articles
written by myself, and a recent visit by Dan McGowan, the founder of DYR, to
Ernst Zundel sentenced to five years imprisonment in Germany for Holocaust denial..
To take these in turn: Israel Shamir is indeed on our board – he is one of twenty
members of whom half are Jews, half non-Jews; half are men, half women. Shamir is an intellectual, a religious thinker and writer and an
outstanding and tireless supporter of Palestinian rights with a love of the
land rarely seen in a non-Arab Palestinian.
He also has severe criticisms to make of the way Jews and Jewish organisations
are currently behaving and have behaved in the past. Shamir has also proposed the existence of what
he would term a Jewish "spirit" or "paradigm" (which
incidentally is by no means confined only to those who identify themselves as
Jewish) which, if unchecked and unbalanced can lead to supremacism.
But Israel
Shamir has never been guilty of violence nor has he ever advocated violence. He has never discriminated against anyone, nor
has he ever advocated discriminating against anyone. Nor has he ever advocated denying anyone the
right to free speech, or to a fair hearing. I like Shamir enormously, I find
him stimulating and informative and always gentle in his manner and humane in
his approach and I agree with a lot, though not all, of what he says and
writes. Shamir is in full agreement with
the spirit and meaning of Deir Yassin, has contributed enormously to Deir
Yassin Remembered and is an honoured member of the Deir Yassin Remembered Board
of Advisers.
Tony also
objects to DYR because I, one of its seven directors, wrote, in a personal
capacity, two articles with which he disagrees. The first, "Jewish Power" examines
Jewish identity and the complex relationship between Judaism, ‘Jewishness’
and Zionism and distinguishes between Judaism the religion and ‘Jewishness’,
the more complex cultural and emotional identity. It also examines Jewish
power, not only in its political manifestation but also, and more
interestingly, its cultural, ideological/religious and emotional significance.
Finally it examines the degree to which Zionism, and therefore the abuse
of Palestinians is a Jewish phenomenon and, if it is, asks why it is so hard to
say so.
The Holocaust Wars was written in three
sections. The first titled “Scum" describes the struggle of
Ernst Zundel, now sentenced to five years' imprisonment in Germany
Finally, Dan McGowan, the founder and U.S.
But that’s not all; it gets worse – worse even than Tony
knows because DYR does indeed include in its solidarity discourse a challenge
to the notion of a non-religious Jewish specialness and its possible effects,
when empowered, on the Israel/Palestine conflict. Is this racism? Not at all - Jews
are not a race so, strictly speaking, any anti-Jewishness cannot, by
definition, be racist. Is this anti-Semitic? Maybe it is - it all depends what you mean by
the term. Is it acceptable? Who knows? Let the debate begin.
But look, it really doesn’t matter what anything means or
what is or is not acceptable. Tony and
his colleagues will tell us what things mean and what we may or may find
acceptable because Tony is an arch practitioner of that which he most denies - Jewish
power. Does Jewish power exist? Of
course it does. Who has not seen someone
stand up in a solidarity meeting and begin with the words, “As a Jew…”? And who has not seen the meeting then fall reverently,
even fearfully silent? And who, in the
course of their solidarity activities, at one time or another has not felt the
brunt of Jewish collective power? So of
course Jewish power exists. The question
is how does it exist, to what extent and to what effect? Let the debate begin.
So on March 10th at the PSC AGM Tony Greenstein,
Roland Rance, Les Levidow and Sue Blackwell will propose, and may even pass, a
motion which will urge the PSC to shun Deir Yassin Remembered. And their stated reasons are that one out of
twenty DYR advisers and two out of seven DYR directors hold views with which
Tony and his friends disagree. Why do
they do this? Why do these largely Jewish activists see their personal
struggle against a perceived anti-Semitism as so important that it overrides
any other considerations, including the good work of Deir Yassin
Remembered?
The answer is simple. Like so many Jewish activists, and
particularly those who style themselves as 'anti-Zionist, Tony and his
colleagues’ real priority, despite their protestations to the contrary, is
defending Jews, mainly from what they see as anti-Semitism. Of course
they care about other things too - Palestinian liberation, civil rights. human
rights etc. etc. but when push comes to shove it is Jewish
interests that they will ultimately defend. But why should this be a problem? Why should Jews and others not defend Jewish
interests? The problem is twofold: First
because not only do they prioritise Jewish interests but they also insist that
everyone else must do the same. And
they’re not afraid to enforce it either with the ever-present threat of being
labeled an anti-Semite. The second reason why their defense of Jewish
interests is a problem is that they won't admit that they are doing it and one
reason why they won't admit they are doing it is because they don't really know
that they are doing it. At least that is
how it was. I now have a sneaking suspicion many of them are beginning to
realise what they are doing and are now beginning to do it consciously. In
effect, self-delusion is becoming conscious lying.
And why could the PSC, without a whimper, pass such a motion? The answer is again simple: Like all of us, they are terrified, terrified
of Zionist power and the penalty of defying it – being branded an anti-Semite
or, even worse, a Holocaust denier. And
this is what this is really all about.
Because the real reason for this motion is this: Tony Greenstein, Roland
Rance and Les Levidow, three Jewish activists, plus Sue Blackwell their
obligatory non-Jewish associate, want to make it clear who really runs the PSC,
indeed who runs all Palestinian solidarity.
Deir Yassin Remembered does not ‘know’ what is right for the
Palestinian people. Only Palestinians
can know that. Deir Yassin Remembered
cannot free Palestine
Deir Yassin Remembered has advisers, directors, members and
supporters with very many different ideas and beliefs – some will agree with
all of the above, some with parts of it and some with none of it. But what they all share is an unconditional commitment
to Palestinian remembrance and resistance.
Anyone who wishes to join us
is welcome and, provided they do not try to impose their views on, or try to
silence others, we care little for what else they believe. So, if Tony Greenstein and his friends will
mend their ways, they too are welcome.
Paul Eisen
March 2007
paul@eisen.demon.co.uk
Paul Eisen is the UK Director of Deir Yassin
Remembered
