June Rally to Mark 40 Years of Occupation
My parents’ copy of the Jewish newspaper The Forward arrived today, about the same time Jewish Voice for Peace sent an email reprinting a Forward article about an event this coming June:
United for Peace and Justice, the convener of the January 27 march [in Washington against the Iraq war], is joining with the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation to co-sponsor a two-day “mobilization” in June, titled “The World Says No to Israeli Occupation.” The event will include a mass rally, a “teach-in” and lobbying. It will mark the 40th year since Israel’s capture of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem in June 1967.
When the Occupation began at the end of the Six Day War I was in Israel during my post-high school year abroad. The war provided an emotional peak that helped nudge me along the Zionist path. Digging ditches to jump into in case invading Egyptians reached the kibbutz escalated my pro-Israel identity, changing the prospect of moving to Israel for the rest of my life from possible to definite. Or at least that’s what I remember my 18-year-old self thinking. When I get back to Boston I’ll read some of the letters I sent my parents at the time (they saved the letters and gave them to me a year or so ago, but I haven’t yet gone through them). Maybe I wrote them about my plan to return to Israel, but I’m not sure. I was trying not to worry them.
Things didn’t work out quite the way I expected, either for me or for Israel. Some of this I’ve touched on before, but maybe I’ll do more of that now that I’m thinking about it.
I’ve read a couple of things previously about the June rally, which comes at a time when Jewish opposition to Israeli policy is getting more attention. Another article in today’s email today claims “Jewish progressive criticism of Israel is now a movement.” Let’s hope so.
