Dissent in the Diaspora

>> Montreal Jews voice their opposition to Israel’s occupation

by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR
and PATRICK LEJTENYI

Photos by JASON FELKER

Thousands of Montreal Jews turned out at Phillips Square last week for Israel’s Independence Day celebrations, most of them feverishly pro-Israel. A small group of protestors, however, gathered at the corner of Aylmer and Ste-Catherine, holding signs denouncing the violence in the Occupied Territories. Some called Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon an assassin; others, more tempered, held signs reading “The Occupation Kills Us All” (at least one enraged pro-Israeli screamed back, “No, the Occupation is only killing you!” Another told the protestors to “Go kiss Arafat’s ass!” Others returned the “assassin” epithet, with “assholes” and “cocksuckers” also audible).

A number of those holding the anti-Occupation signs were, in fact, Jewish. For reasons that are political, personal and religious, ultra-Orthodox Hasidim mingled with secularized Jews, Arabs and leftist protestors in opposing Israel’s heavy-handed tactics. Below is a list of some of Montreal’s Jews who refuse to believe that the recent invasion of the West Bank has made Israel any safer from attack, or that the State of Israel should exist at all.

Palestinian and Jewish Unity (PAJU)

Bruce Katz, a Jew, and Rezeq Faraj, a Palestinian, have been organizing the Silent Vigil in Black outside the Israeli consulate on Peel and René-Lévesque for the past 15 months. Every Friday between noon and 1 p.m., a small group of about 50 gathers on the corner, holding signs denouncing the occupation. Others hand out anti-occupation flyers. The event is largely peaceful, despite a few hecklers and arguments breaking out between passers-by and the demonstrators.

Last Friday, however, Katz was bemused by the presence of a truck bearing a large, bilingual “Canada supports Israel” board. The same truck was parked near that same spot two days previous, at the Israeli Independence Day rally. Katz blames the Canadian Jewish Congress.

“You see this?” Katz says, pointing to the truck. “This is a perfect analogy for what Israel is doing. It’s an illegal occupation in contravention of municipal law, done with absolute arrogance to suppress freedom of dissent and freedom of speech. It’s designed to intimidate and suppress the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.” The truck was later towed by the city, as the group clapped and cheered.

As a Jew, Katz says he is not particularly religious, but sees himself as influenced by Maimonides, the 12th-Century Cairo rabbi whose writings, Katz says, “reflect faith tempered by reason.” He believes in a Supreme Being, but does not identify himself exclusively as a Jew. “I don’t separate the idea of a people from the rest of humanity. The overall principle of humanity is not one tribe [above all others]. We should defend rights without exception, without a double standard.”

Katz and his group do have a plan for a lasting peace. It involves an international peacekeeping force, the dismantling of all settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, a guaranteed right of return for Palestinian refugees and the recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

While Katz recognizes that “Arafat’s no angel,” he recognizes him as the legitimate Palestinian leader. He regards Sharon as a kind of Captain Ahab, leading Israel, like the Pequod, to certain destruction in pursuit of his own personal white whale, Arafat. “It’s time for the crew to mutiny,” Katz says, “while there’s still time.”

Jewish Alliance Against the Occupation (JAAO)

The year-old, Jews-only group aims “to make the public aware of just how detrimental the occupation is to any chance of peace. We want to show how it’s up to Israel at this point to withdraw from the Occupied Territories,” says representative Edeet Ravel, an Israel-born CEGEP teacher who was raised on a Marxist kibbutz and holds a Ph.D. in Jewish Studies. Ravel says the group has 40 local members, many of whom prefer their identities remain confidential, although Lillian S. Robinson, principal of Concordia’s Simone de Beauvoir Institute is a founding member, as is Baruch Kimmerling, a renowned Jerusalem-based scholar. The JAAO wants the creation of a Palestinian state based on the pre-’67 borders and thinks the international community should become more involved.

“The UN, EU and U.S. have to become active in imposing a negotiation process on the two sides, because it’s quite clear that the government of Israel can’t bring that about in the spirit of anger that has been prevalent,” Ravel says. The group believes peace could begin with a greater understanding of the Palestinians among Jews. “The Jewish community here has no trust in the Palestinians,” says Ravel. “They demonize them and consider them all terrorists. It’s hard when you have certain ideas about the other side and you’re convinced others are out to get you.” She says that Palestinians appreciate the group’s positions. “They get tearful and they are consistently appreciative of any work that we do. I’ve been hugged, thanked so many times and it’s very moving and all these people said we have nothing against Israel, we just want a country next to Israel.”

She says that the JAAO “is not against Israel. We’re against certain policies. The occupation treats Palestinians in a way that considers it okay to deprive them of human rights because it considers them lesser beings. It’s a system of apartheid.”
For non-Jews who wish to join in on the cause, Ravel recommends the newly formed Women in Black. The fast-growing group is based on a group of women who’d held anti-occupation vigils throughout Israel on Friday afternoons since 1988. For further information on either group, call 626-3084 or write to edeet@go.com

The Neturei Karta

Neturei Karta, which means “guardians of the city,” was born in 1938 as a spin-off of the Agudas Yisroel Hasids, who also denounce Zionism. Both have their roots in the mystical Orthodox Jewish Hasidic movement, which was started 250 years ago by Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer (Baal Shem Tov) in Poland and includes around a dozen major sects, among them the fervently pro-Israeli Lubovitchers. The small, reclusive Neturei Karta, on the other hand, are anti-Zionist and insist they are anti-violence. The Montreal chapter is based in Boisbriand.

“One of the basics of Judaism is that we are a people in exile due to Divine decree,” says their Web site (www.netureikarta.org). “Accordingly, we are opposed to the ideology of Zionism, a recent innovation, which seeks to force the end of exile. Our banishment from the Holy Land will end miraculously at a time when all mankind will unite in the brotherly service of the Creator.”

In other words, the Neturei Karta believe that a Jewish state should only be formed after the return of the Messiah, which will take place after the apocalypse. At that time the Prophet Elijah will return on a chariot, bring a new dawn and the dead will rise from their graves.
Their e-documentation accuses Israel of violating the spirit of Judaism. “In addition to condemning the central heresy of Zionism, we also reject its policy of aggression against all peoples. Today this cruelty manifests itself primarily in the brutal treatment of the Palestinian people. We proclaim that this inhuman policy is in violation of the Torah.”

Students and youths

The cornerstone of any good dissent movement—students and young people—were behind the brief occupation of MP Irwin Cotler’s TMR office last week. Among those arrested was 24-year-old Zev Tiefenbach, co-coordinator of local soup kitchen the People’s Potato. Tiefenbach is also involved in an informal group of young Jews at Concordia opposed to the occupation.

“Basically, we’re dissatisfied with the representation of Jewish-ness as put forward by groups like the Canadian Jewish Congress, Hillel and the B’nai Brith, which assume a kind of homogeneity among the Jewish population,” he says. “They see Judaism as having a direct correlation with Zionism, which to us is problematic. What we want to say is that it is possible to be proud Jews and still address the human rights abuses the Israeli government is perpetuating.”

His group, now numbering between 15 and 20 students, is expressly Jewish, although the definition of what makes one so has been loosened. While the strict condition for being Jewish requires having been born of a Jewish woman, Tiefenbach says that anyone with Jewish parentage or “an experience that would have you identify yourself closely with the Jewish community” is welcome. They want Canada to “take a proactive role in addressing the human rights abuses, to apply economic sanctions, and for Israel to end the building and existence of settlements and to withdraw completely from the occupied territories.”
The choice of occupying the office of a well-known human rights crusader was an easy one. Although Cotler has often spoken out against abuses around the world, Tiefenbach says he remains far too silent on the question of Israel. Cotler’s response in Saturday’s Gazette called the occupation an “assault [on] the very values that underlie this free and democratic society.”

Meanwhile, Tiefenbach and his six co-occupiers face charges of mischief and trespassing. He says he hopes his actions will act as a catalyst for other acts of civil disobedience. :

There will be another anti-occupation demonstration on Saturday, April 27, at 1 p.m. in front of the Isreali consulate at Peel and René Lévesque