NOT IN MY NAME

I was on a boat to break the siege of Gaza in 2010. Why a Jewish boat is an important question for it could have been  any form of active resistance. It is important to tell you that I am an assimilated Jew with no affiliation to organized religion. I have always been more political than religious, a sixties hippie and active war resister. I don’t believe in wars and am a pacifist. I believe in listening and dialogue with  the enemy as a way to understand one another. In Zionist Israel where violence is endemic, we witness a cycle of hate that has deepened with each generation.

There is a strong distinction between Zionism and Judaism. This cannot be overemphasized and it helped to explain my strong desire to make this distinction by joining a Jewish boat to Gaza. The boat is significant because of my background,  but more important it gave me an opportunity speak out against human rights abuses as a Jew who is not a Zionist. To assume that every Jew supports the Israeli Zionist vision is an unfortunate misconception cleverly manipulated by the Zionist power structure. The Zionist ideal is a Jewish religious state that oppresses the Palestinians. The hallmark of Zionism is harsh nationalism that imposes itself in a completely illegitimate and amoral way to crush the freedom and spirit of the Palestinian people.

Because I am a Jew, I would have been exterminated in Germany. I survived because my father helped my mother and myself to leave for the United States . This was not easy. Our  exodus has been imprinted in my being for my entire life. That is just the way it is. I want to say again, I am a Jew and not a Zionist. Therefore the actions of the Zionist Israeli government is NOT IN MY NAME . Let the  people of the world  and all religions join together to demand full equality for Palestinians and  Israeli citizens  and let Zionism end its reign of terror.

As-Salaamu Alaykum Lillian Please share this post and your comments on social media. To read more at my blog click here: https://www.lillianrosengarten.com To unsubscribe from these emails, please reply with “unsubscribe"