Wednesday, January 14, 2009
THINK before you sign petitions: A cautionary tale
In the summer of 2002, my sister and I went to a rally in support of Israel in Trafalgar Square, London. There was a crowd of 40,000. My old friend Pinchos, originally Tony before he became religious, was on the Lubavich mitzvah tank and saw me. He asked me to lay tefillin and I did. This was my mitzvah (*). I did it not because I believed it would do for me what he believed it would, but because he is my friend and he hoped I would do it. His mitzvah was to get me to do it.
Among the large crowd, across the road from a group of Arabs and Arab sympathisers yelling hate at the attendees of the Jewish rally, we found a group of a few dozen people standing in a group. They were mixed Jews and Palestinians. My sister and I thought the Palestinians very brave for attending this rally. Brave to be amongst so many people of whom some would be guaranteed to be hostile. Brave to attend a Jewish rally in support of the right of Israel to exist. We stood with them. And yes, some passers by did sneer. We thought them small minded. If Palestinians will stand with Jews in support of Israel, why should other Jews judge those who stand with those Palestinians? It made no sense to us!
We were asked to sign a petition by a group called Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP). I offer no support for those who choose to bomb Israel or teach their children to hate Jews. But I do cling to the hope that most Palestinians want what most Jews want: peace. And I want those people to have their dignity. I can’t remember the actual wording of the petition, but it appealed to the justice in us, so we both signed. And we both left the rally when Benjamin Netanyahu, who we consider to be a warmonger, started to speak. He was greeted with great cheers, and we were disgusted.
For the next few years, until I stopped them, I received countless emails which I took as showing that this was a group that sees the Palestinian cause but not the Israeli one. I found a level of gullibility in this organisation. They requested Jews to attend a joint Arab/Jewish rally which had been organised for a Saturday. No, I’m not religious. But if the Arab organisers wanted Jewish attendance, they should have shown the respect and courtesy to arrange it for one of the other 6 days of the week, and the Jewish side should not have been so eager to please as to accept the proposed date. For me, an insult was offered by one side, and eagerly accepted by the other.
I know such behaviour is common. People think they are being balanced, and they lose sight of what makes their own people do what they do. They don’t even realise that they have gone so far the other way that they are no longer the liberals they believe themselves to be, but are instead knee-jerk apologists. I choose to retain the middle ground I seek. If people on each side think I sympathise to some extent with the others, I am probably succeeding in my goal.
Unfortunately, according the browser you use, if you search my name, you may find several entries where I am associated with JfJfP. I signed one petition which seemed reasonable to me at the time I signed it. I now feel that I am intractably associated with a group which I feel no affiliation with. If this group publishes a statement which denounces those whose stated goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and death to Jews, maybe I will stop resenting them. I am not an apologist. I am a Human who believes in justice and dignity for all, or at least all who deserve it.
The moral of my story? If you don’t know the organisation asking you to sign what seems like a moral petition, research them before you sign. Example: Lyndon LaRouche’s organisation are frequently seen seeking signatures for apparently excellent causes. But if you read his full political beliefs, mixed in with the good stuff, I can pretty much guarantee there are things that most people will neither agree with nor want to be associated with. By signing a petition of his, no matter how much the cause speaks to you, you are endorsing his entire manifesto. Your conscience can associate you with people and things which are not as you first believed and not what you would have associated yourself with had you known better. Beware!
* A mitzvah is a good deed. I have also evocatively heard it described as a deed which makes God smile.
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Among the large crowd, across the road from a group of Arabs and Arab sympathisers yelling hate at the attendees of the Jewish rally, we found a group of a few dozen people standing in a group. They were mixed Jews and Palestinians. My sister and I thought the Palestinians very brave for attending this rally. Brave to be amongst so many people of whom some would be guaranteed to be hostile. Brave to attend a Jewish rally in support of the right of Israel to exist. We stood with them. And yes, some passers by did sneer. We thought them small minded. If Palestinians will stand with Jews in support of Israel, why should other Jews judge those who stand with those Palestinians? It made no sense to us!
We were asked to sign a petition by a group called Jews for Justice for Palestinians (JfJfP). I offer no support for those who choose to bomb Israel or teach their children to hate Jews. But I do cling to the hope that most Palestinians want what most Jews want: peace. And I want those people to have their dignity. I can’t remember the actual wording of the petition, but it appealed to the justice in us, so we both signed. And we both left the rally when Benjamin Netanyahu, who we consider to be a warmonger, started to speak. He was greeted with great cheers, and we were disgusted.
For the next few years, until I stopped them, I received countless emails which I took as showing that this was a group that sees the Palestinian cause but not the Israeli one. I found a level of gullibility in this organisation. They requested Jews to attend a joint Arab/Jewish rally which had been organised for a Saturday. No, I’m not religious. But if the Arab organisers wanted Jewish attendance, they should have shown the respect and courtesy to arrange it for one of the other 6 days of the week, and the Jewish side should not have been so eager to please as to accept the proposed date. For me, an insult was offered by one side, and eagerly accepted by the other.
I know such behaviour is common. People think they are being balanced, and they lose sight of what makes their own people do what they do. They don’t even realise that they have gone so far the other way that they are no longer the liberals they believe themselves to be, but are instead knee-jerk apologists. I choose to retain the middle ground I seek. If people on each side think I sympathise to some extent with the others, I am probably succeeding in my goal.
Unfortunately, according the browser you use, if you search my name, you may find several entries where I am associated with JfJfP. I signed one petition which seemed reasonable to me at the time I signed it. I now feel that I am intractably associated with a group which I feel no affiliation with. If this group publishes a statement which denounces those whose stated goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and death to Jews, maybe I will stop resenting them. I am not an apologist. I am a Human who believes in justice and dignity for all, or at least all who deserve it.
The moral of my story? If you don’t know the organisation asking you to sign what seems like a moral petition, research them before you sign. Example: Lyndon LaRouche’s organisation are frequently seen seeking signatures for apparently excellent causes. But if you read his full political beliefs, mixed in with the good stuff, I can pretty much guarantee there are things that most people will neither agree with nor want to be associated with. By signing a petition of his, no matter how much the cause speaks to you, you are endorsing his entire manifesto. Your conscience can associate you with people and things which are not as you first believed and not what you would have associated yourself with had you known better. Beware!
* A mitzvah is a good deed. I have also evocatively heard it described as a deed which makes God smile.
