05/02/2024
We stand in solidarity with all working class people across the globe, and this International Worker's Day, our hearts and minds are with the workers of Gaza. At yesterday's May Day march, local JVP member Morton Alexander spoke about the ongoing genocide and the history of peace advocacy in the Jewish community.
Full Speech Transcript:
My name is Morton Alexander. I am an old Jew, older than Israel. I was raised as an Orthodox Jew in Brooklyn. My wife, Paige Kenney, and I are members of Congregation Emanu-El in Spokane. And now pleased to be in a new group: Jewish Voice for Peace – Spokane. Most of my comrades in the organized Jewish community regard this as incompatible and see JVP as heresy.
Years ago, I heard that criminal Netanyahu say on television, "I speak for all Jews." Who elected him, or Israel to this role? He shows that Jews have no monopoly on morality, as many of my fellow Jews believe. We are not immune from committing genocide. Zionism is as racist a system of apartheid as South Africa was. And just as South Africa did, Israel/Palestine can eventually find peace only in one democratic state. It’s hard to see now, but we must envision this.
Some in our congregation consider me not a Jew, even an anti-semite. I'm used to that. My late brother Edward, a prominent Zionist spokesman, ostracized me for having made the mildest criticism of Israel. But a woman elder in our community inspired me by saying, "No one defines my Jewishness for me!"
The infamous Israeli General Moshe Dayan said, "The Palestinians can either leave, or they can stay and live like dogs." Well, they can't leave their confinement in Gaza. Israelis exact revenge for the terrible October 7th Hamas attack. But that was also revenge. Revenge for massive bombings every few years. Revenge for the elimination of future generations, so well symbolized by an early image of newborn infants placed close together for warmth in an incubator with no electricity.
We hear only jingoistic nonsense from the mainstream media and the political establishment. But there is new hope from the students and faculty in colleges around the country. They brave brutal police violence to say “NO!” Assaulted and jailed in some American cities at the hands of police forces trained by Israel in "anti-terrorist" tactics: How to suppress the dissent we demonstrate here today. The tail wags the dog.
For decades, American politicians could only see the most visible Jewish organizations, namely synagogues and the Israel lobby. They tell us, “It’s complicated”. We reply, “35,000 dead (above the rubble) is not complicated”. The scam is wearing thin. Anti-zionism is not Anti-semitism. It is uniquely painful for previously unorganized and unrepresented Jews to witness the carnage and hear it said to be done for us.
We have now found each other in our own groups and say, “We stand in solidarity with Palestine, and condemn the crimes done in our name!” Murder, maiming and starvation will never bring Israel peace, but it will surely increase anti-semitism.
On a grander scale, though, I'm convinced that it is the arms industry itself that embroils our world in a hell of its own making. Its terrorist grip on our government imposes mass shootings at home, and forever wars abroad. The billions spent on our own armed forces, and those of proxy states like Ukraine and Israel are primarily welfare for the gun industry and military contractors, and secondarily (dubious) gifts to those peoples’ welfare. War is good business.
May 15th is Nakba Day. JVP and other solidarity will hold a vigil at 5:30 at the Rotary Fountain in commemoration of the anniversary.
