Embracing Complexity and the Need for Inclusive Belongings

It is an acutely tragic time for many Jewish people who have for decades shared Eyal Rozmarin's commitment to working for peace in Israel/Palestine. Rozmarin importantly emphasizes the many ties that bind people, often unconsciously, to collectivities, especially the ways in which nation states, or birthplaces, provide identity narratives that unite, or sometimes, discomfort, us. However, it is not so uncommon for people to have fractured belongings, as life experiences complicate our ties to past identifications and attachments. In this essay I discuss the historic complexity of Jewish ties to Israel, including my own. I note that Jewish criticisms of Israel's dispossession of Palestinians, which have always existed from well before the creation of the state of Israel, are continually dismissed by allowing only one narrative to be addressed, that of political Zionism. All other attempts to criticize Israel's refusal to contemplate justice for native Palestinians is spuriously undermined as antisemitism. Yet today, more Jewish people are joining with others who are not only currently devastated by Israel's genocidal aggression in Gaza, but also demanding equal rights and freedom for everyone now residing in Israel/Palestine.