The Jewish Nakba

On Judaism and Jewish Values After Gaza

Rabbi Heschel. One of Judaism’s modern moral heroes.

With the first detonations over the heads of the people of Gaza, the Jewish century ended on the 8th of October of 2023. The monstrous brutality unleashed on that day, differs from the demonic brutality of the last seven decades of Israeli occupation and its machine of death in its intensity and concentration.

Yet the current chapter of the Nakba, of the catastrophe, which never stopped since at least December of 1947, is in all sorts of ways the legitimate successor of al-Tira, of Deir Yassin, of Tantura, of the Rafah massacre of 56, of Sabra and Shatila, of the Ibrahim Mosque Massacre, of the murder in broad daylights of Muhammad al Durrah, of the slaughter of 300 children during Ehud Olmert’s Operation Cast Lead, of the murder of the Bakr children during Netanyahu’s operation Protective Edge, in which Israel murdered more than 500 children, of the infernal wave of pogroms in the West Bank perpetrated by the children of the Kach party and under the auspices of the IDF and of the perpetual apartheid that underpins this rapacious exercise of religious nationalism.

But there is at least one way in which the Slaughter of Gaza differs from the history of Israeli atrocities with its long catalogue of raped women including minors, murdered children and bereaved parents. The Slaughter of Gaza, despite the best efforts of the Israeli military complex and of the ministry of strategic affairs is not hidden from view. The evil that is being committed in the name of Jews and Judaism is being done in broad daylight and in front of cameras for everybody to see. The trembling hands of the Palestinian victims hold the phone cameras to broadcast their own murders and of their children. And then out of courage or desperation these men and women are fulfilling the journalistic and moral duties that editorial board ideologues, newsrooms mercenaries and cowering reporters have betrayed:

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I sit here and watch a little girl, probably no more than three. She cries in desperation. She is wounded. Her head is wrapped in bloodied bandages. She cries for her mother who the reporter explains was killed in the massacre of Nuseirat. Coming into frame, next to her, lays the ashen body of a small toddler. Her younger brother, explains the voice. I lost count of the number of dead and desperate children that I have seen in eight months of Israeli atrocities.

The world bares now witness to a spectacle of evil so profound, so gruesome and so unrelenting that all attempts at finessing it, dismissing it or explaining it have nothing but the unmistakable accent of the most villainous of complicities. This one particular postcard of hell with a child wounded and alone sitting in the only familiar presence of a corpse is only one episode of an infernal catalogue of Israeli monstrosities which refuses the defence of ignorance.

This is the curious matter at hand. As opposed to the brutality of history which can only be assessed in its aftermath--the owl of Minerva flights at dusk—the brutality of the present moment is offered to us for viewing and assessment as it unfolds and this also means that it is in this moment that the demand to make this evil stop is being put to us simultaneously.

The ubiquity of the images of the horror and the brutality perpetrated by Israel will never go away. But what is perhaps more importantly, is that the permanence of those images of charred bodies, decapitated children, common graves and men summarily executed in broad daylights will stand for good as a testament to the moral bankruptcy of the Jewish post-war project.

Jews who could not repeat the name of Muhammed al Durrah should never be allowed to forget the name Al Shifa. Jewsish communities that have spent decades espousing humanistic values must now reckon with their implicit commitment to oppression. Jews who took pride in the works of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel must explain to themselves their support for racial discrimination, celebratory lynching and impune murder. Jews that saw as their life work to rummaged among the books of the tradition in search of holiness must now confront the fact that they have been the enablers of the darkest of evils.

This evil, greater than Auschwitz because it profits from Auschwitz to further the work of evil, cannot be washed away and it cannot be hidden from our own eyes. No Jew can allege ignorance. Willingly or unwillingly, we Jews are forced to be witnesses of the atrocious and murderous judaism, to which many among us claimed loyalty seven decades ago and the horrors seen cannot be unseen. The horror of what has been done in our name and the horror of not having disallowed the Zionist project to carry our name and our consent has now bloomed in the death of the Judaism we believed we were part of.

What is the use of Jewish values that require feigned ignorance to protect our conscience from the hell that we have helped to foster for children like ours, women like ours, men like ours. What use is a Judaism that could not protect us from becoming that which we have abhorred most? The Judaism of the Jew that should have known and took solace in not knowing as the Judaism of the Jew who knew and applauded, as the Judaism of the Jew that found excuses for the pogrom in the West Bank, for the rape of women in Tantura and for the extermination of entire families in Gaza dies with the Zionist project with which it chose to poison its own blood.

This is the Nakba of Judaism and it is the unavoidable effect of the Palestinian Nakba that with voice and coin, it helped to promote. What is now needed is a new Judaism. One capable of returning to the values and intuitions of Hillel the Elder who not only writes: “Whosoever destroys one soul, it is as though he had destroyed the entire world. And whosoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the entire world.” but perhaps more importantly:

“Where there are no men, strive to be a man!"

With the first detonations over the heads of the children of Gaza, the Jewish century ended on the 8th of October, 2023. The monstrous brutality unleashed on that day differs from the demonic brutality of the last seven decades of Israeli occupation and its machine of death in its intensity and concentration.

But the current chapter of the Nakba, of the catastrophe, which never stopped since at least December 1947, is in many ways the legitimate successor of al-Tira, of Deir Yassin, of Tantura, of the Rafah massacre of '56, of Sabra and Shatila, of the Ibrahim Mosque Massacre, of the murder in broad daylight of Muhammad al-Durrah, of the murder of 300 children during Ehud Olmert’s Operation Cast Lead, of the murder of the Bakr children during Netanyahu’s Operation Protective Edge, in which Israel murdered more than 500 children, of the infernal wave of pogroms in the West Bank perpetrated by the children of the Kach party and under the auspices of the IDF, and of the perpetual apartheid of this rapacious exercise of religious nationalism.

But there is at least one way in which the slaughter of Gaza differs from the history of Israeli atrocities with its long catalogue of raped women, including minors, murdered children, and bereaved parents. The slaughter of Gaza, despite the best efforts of the Israeli military complex and the Ministry of Strategic Affairs, is not hidden from view. The evil that is being committed in the name of Jews and Judaism is being done in broad daylight and in front of cameras for everybody to see. The trembling hands of the Palestinian victims hold the phone cameras to broadcast their own murders and those of their children. And then, out of courage or desperation, these men and women are fulfilling the journalistic and moral duties that editorial board ideologues, newsroom mercenaries, and cowering reporters have betrayed.

I sit here and watch a little girl, probably no more than three. She cries in desperation. She is wounded. Her head is wrapped in bloodied bandages. She cries for her mother, who the reporter explains was killed in the massacre of Nuseirat. Coming into frame, next to her, lies the ashen body of a small toddler. Her younger brother, explains the voice. I lost count of the number of dead and desperate children that I have seen in eight months of Israeli atrocities.

The world now bears witness to a spectacle of evil so profound, so gruesome, and so unrelenting that all attempts at finessing it, dismissing it, or explaining it have nothing but the unmistakable accent of the most villainous of complicities. This one particular postcard of hell, with a child wounded and alone sitting in the only familiar presence of a corpse, is only one episode of an infernal catalogue of Israeli monstrosities which refuses the defense of ignorance.

This is the curious matter at hand. As opposed to the brutality of history which can only be assessed in its aftermath—the owl of Minerva flies at dusk—the brutality of the present moment is offered to us for viewing and assessment as it unfolds, and this also means that it is in this moment that the demand to make this evil stop is being put to us simultaneously.

The ubiquity of the images of the horror and the brutality perpetrated by Israel will never go away. But what is perhaps more important is that the permanence of those images of charred bodies, decapitated children, common graves, and men summarily executed in broad daylight will stand for good as a testament to the moral bankruptcy of the Jewish post-war project.

Jews who could not repeat the name of Muhammad al-Durrah should never be allowed to forget the name Al Shifa. Jewish communities that have spent decades espousing humanistic values must now reckon with their implicit commitment to oppression. Jews who took pride in the works of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel must explain to themselves their support for racial discrimination, celebratory lynching, and impune murder. Jews that saw their life work to rummage among the books of the tradition in search of holiness must now confront the fact that they have been the enablers of the darkest of evils.

This evil, greater than Auschwitz because it profits from Auschwitz to further the work of evil, cannot be washed away and it cannot be hidden from our own eyes. No Jew can allege ignorance. Willingly or unwillingly, we Jews are forced to be witnesses of the atrocious and murderous Judaism to which many among us claimed loyalty seven decades ago, and the horrors seen cannot be unseen. The horror of what has been done in our name and the horror of not having disallowed the Zionist project to carry our name and our consent has now bloomed in the death of the Judaism we believed we were part of.

What is the use of Jewish values that require feigned ignorance to protect our conscience from the hell that we have helped to foster for children like ours, women like ours, men like ours? What use is a Judaism that could not protect us from becoming that which we have abhorred most? The Judaism of the Jew that should have known and took solace in not knowing is the same as the Judaism of the Jew who knew and applauded, as the Judaism of the Jew that found excuses for the pogrom in the West Bank, for the rape of women in Tantura, and for the extermination of entire families in Gaza dies with the Zionist project with which it chose to poison its own blood.

This is the Nakba of Judaism and it is the unavoidable effect of the Palestinian Nakba that with voice and coin, it helped to promote. What is now needed is a new Judaism, one capable of returning to the values and intuitions of Hillel the Elder, who not only writes: “Whosoever destroys one soul, it is as though he had destroyed the entire world. And whosoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved the entire world,” but perhaps more importantly: “Where there are no men, strive to be a man."