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Jeff Halper

by Paul Eisen
Saturday, May 5th, 2012

 

Jeff Halper's good works

Below is a piece by Susan Abulhawa about Jeff Halper. Susan is a Palestinian currently exiled in the USA and a member of the Deir Yassin Remembered Board of Advisers. Susan’s piece struck a particular resonance with me because once upon a time Jeff Halper too was on the DYR Board of Advisers. But one night in 2005 Jeff resigned and, I’m sure not at all by accident, he took most (not all!) of the Jewish members with him. 

It was a major blow and a terrible night.   

 I picked up the publicly emailed resignation letter at about 1.30 in the morning (London time); skimmed it and then tried to sleep but I couldn’t. Resignations were flying all over the place and the time gap between London, the U.S.and Israel/|Palestine making it all the more gruelling. 

Sleepless and distressed I began to think of the trip Dan McGowan and I made to Israel/Palestine in April 2004 and particularly of the times we spent with Jeff Halper.

I thought of the solidarity visit he organized to Beit Arabiya – the ‘Peace House’ – ‘once’ Salim Sharamwa’s house in the village of Anata. The original house was built by Salim, demolished by the occupation forces and then rebuilt by Halper and ICAHD. Three times they bulldozed the house and three times Halper rebuilt it. Marvelous work. But I also recall at the solidarity visit, being served Palestinian food by Salim’s silent and nameless wife.

 I was also reminded of the Friday night when he invited Dan and myself, with many others, to his home in Jerusalem. It was an unforgettable evening, a wonderful occasion – pasta and wine followed by chocolate cake. The room was jam-packed with activists – Jews, non-Jews, Christians and others and the conversation was loud, raucous and very stimulating. I had a great time.

 But not a single Palestinian was in that room. Everyone – all us activists doing all that fine work – from Israel, the US and the UK– colonizers, all of us. From the young woman, once an American called Deborah now an Israeli called Dvorah, to the former North London Jew once called Ruth but now called Ruti – all the way to Dan and myself (also in our own ways colonizers), and finally to Halper himself. .

Above, I wrote that Beit Arabiyah was “once” Salim Sharamwa’s house. I included the quotation marks because that house, no matter whose name is on the title deeds, is no longer Salim’s house. It is no longer Salim’s house more than if the IDF had, as they intended, bulldozed it to the ground. Salim’s house is now, by courtesy of the IDF and of Jeff Halper, a  Jewish house.

 Salim’s house is no longer Salim’s house as surely as the land that Jeff Halper shows to solidarity visitors is no longer Salim’s land. As the IDF with its bulldozers has turned it into Israeli land so Jeff Halper, by his good works, has turned it into Jewish land.

 At the end of his resignation letter, Jeff Halper urged us at DYR to search our souls and that in leaving the organization he would “find other ways to pursue the lessons of Deir Yassin.”  It may be that, in the short term, Palestinians may be better off for Halper’s solidarity work but of one thing I am sure: It is not we at Deir Yassin Remembered who needed to search our souls for the true meaning of Deir Yassin, – it is Jeff Halper.

Now, over to Susan

 

Solidarity and Realpolitik: My Response to Jeff Halper
By Susan Abulhawa
 
Some years ago, I was on a panel with three men, Jeff Halper among them, at a Sabeel conference in Pennsylvania. Each panelist was asked to give their vision for a solution to the ‘Palestine/Israel conflict’.  Because I was sitting at the end of the table, I was the last to speak.  I listened to each one of my fellow participants lay out different versions of a two-state solution, each more depressing than the other, each with irrelevant nuances (all previously articulated by Israel, by the way) on how to make the refugee problem just go away.  They spoke the tired talk of land swaps, compromise, several surreal highways that bypass humanity for miles on end, and more creative solutions designed to circumvent the application of human rights where Palestinians are concerned.
 
When my turn came, I spoke of Palestinians being accorded the same basic rights that apply to the rest of humanity, including the right to return to one’s home after fleeing a conflict.  I spoke of equality under the law regardless of religion.  I spoke of a construct that would prevent one group from systematically oppressing another.  I spoke of human dignity and the universal right to it.  I spoke of equal access to resources, including water, regardless of religion.
 
I will never forget Jeff Halper’s response, which he was eager to voice even before I had finished speaking.  He began with a smile, the way an adult might smile at the naive remarks of a small child.  He needed to give me a lesson in reality, and proceed to tell me, in the patronizing way of someone who knows best, that my vision lacked “how shall I say it…Realpolitik”.
 
I did not waiver then, nor have I since, on my position that Palestinians are not a lesser species who should be required to aspire to compromised human dignity in order to accommodate someone else’s racist notions of divine entitlement.
 
That said, I do not consider Jeff Halper racist and I acknowledge the mostly positive impact he has had in bringing attention to one of Israel’s enduring cruelties, namely the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes as a tool to effectuate ethnic cleansing of the native non-Jewish population.  But in my view, that does not entitle him to speak of what Palestinians should or shouldn’t do.  I also don’t think it qualifies him as an anti-zionist when he clearly accepts the privilege accorded to Jews only.  After all, Jeff Halper is an American from Minnesota who made aliyah (Israel’s entitlement program that allows Jews from all over the world to take up residence in my homeland, ultimately in place of the expelled natives). Perhaps is it my lack of Realpolitik, but I cannot reconcile embracing the very foundation of zionism on one hand, and calling oneself an anti-zionist on the other.
 
In a recent interview on Al Jazeera’s website with Frank Barat, he did just that.  He also laid out a dismal scenario for the future of Palestinians, based on what Israel is very likely plotting, namely the annexation of Area C and the pacifying of the Palestinian Authority (also likely) with economic incentives and mini Bantustans they can call a state.  But he missed the mark, repeatedly, when it came to Palestinians themselves, as if he sized us all up with a glance and decided he was not impressed. Despite the burgeoning nonviolent resistance taking place all over Palestine, in various forms ranging from demonstrations, significant solidarity campaigns, hunger strikes, and more, he says that “[Palestinian] resistance is impossible” now.  At best, he trivializes the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is the first coordinated nonviolent movement of Palestinians inside and outside of Palestine that has also managed to inspire and capture imaginations of individuals and organizations all over the world to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom.  Again, my lack of Realpolitik here, but to me, creating a situation where it is possible to force the implementation of human rights and restore dignity to Palestinian society is in itself an end.  Jeff Halper seems unable to consider anything other than a negotiated agreement to be an end.
 
He enumerates all that is wrong with internal Palestinian issues.  Of course there are problems. We know our leadership is doing little more than pick up the trash and keep people in line while Israel steals more and more of our land.  We are not happy about it either.  But he seems to suggest that he, along with other Israelis I presume, have been carrying the burden of resolving this conflict.  In one instance he says:
 
“We’ve (I assume Israeli leftists?) brought this to governments, we’ve raised public awareness, we’ve had campaigns, we’ve done this for decades, we’ve made this collectively, one of two or three really global issues. But without Palestinians we can only take it so far.”
 
Then he adds:
 
“I am trying to challenge a little bit my Palestinian counterparts.  Where are you guys?”
 
If I read this correctly (and I will grant the benefit of the doubt that it was not meant as it reads), then he clearly sees himself at the forefront of the Palestinian struggle where his Palestinians counterparts are disorganized, haphazard, or not present.  He even suggests that at this crucial time, “Palestinians have to take over,” further supporting the suggestion that Palestinians are not at the helm of the resistance.
 
He also asserts that importing Jews from all over the world to live in colonies built on land confiscated from private Palestinian owners is “not settler colonialism”.  What is it then?
 
But back to his strange assertion that Palestinians “should take over” (from whom?), he describes an instance where he refused to participate in the global march to Jerusalem because the Palestinian organizers (who took over?) did not want to include the world “Israel,” the name of the country that denies our very existence and seeks in every way to eradicate us.  Is it that Jeff Halper wants “Palestinians to take over” as long as Palestinians do so in a way that does not offend the sensitivities of the very people deriving privilege at their expense?  That is not how solidarity works.
 
I don’t presume to tell Israelis what they should or should not do but I would like to see Israelis concentrate on their own failures rather than ours.  I would sure like to hear those who have made aliyah acknowledge that it was not their right to do so; that making aliyah is a crime against the native people who have been and continue to be forcibly expelled to make way for those making aliyah. I would like to hear an apology. The trauma that Palestinians feel is very much part of the Realpolitik and it is not unlike the trauma in the Jewish psyche.  It comes from the same humiliation and anguish of not being considered fully human. Of being treated like vermin by those with the guns. If Halper truly understood that, perhaps dropping the word “Israel” – a word that hovers over the rubble of our destroyed homes and suffuses the pain at our collective core – would have been a no brainer expression of solidarity.
 
- Susan Abulhawa is the author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010) and the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine (www.playgroundsforpalestine.org). She contributed this article to PalestineChronicle.com.
 
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16 Responses to Jeff Halper

  1. Ariadna Theokopoulos

    May 5, 2012 at 3:06 pm

    Tribal supremacism–the beast within, is hard to vanquish; it sturdily adapts and thrives even in apparently counterintuitive environments, like sincere “progressive” activism.

  2. Gilad Atzmon

    May 5, 2012 at 3:11 pm

    Choseness=tribalism=progresivness=AZZ=gate keeping

    all we have to do is just to spread this formula.. cos everyone can see it really.

  3. Deborah Maccoby

    May 7, 2012 at 5:57 pm

    Among many other misrepresentations in both pieces, Paul includes one in particular that I feel I should correct immediately – that Jeff’s resignation from the Board of DYR was “public”. In fact, Jeff sent his resignation letter to Dan McGowan’s private list, consisting of DYR Board members and some friends of DYR. I was on the list as one of the latter, even though I had written some time previously to Dan saying I no longer wished to be associated with DYR. I want to make it clear that Jeff did not make this letter public. I was the one who leaked it. I felt – and still feel – that such a wonderful letter ought to be given to the public. Paul does not give any reasons for Jeff’s resignation. For those who want to know why he resigned, here is a link to the letter, on Sue Blackwell’s website:

    http://www.sue.be/pal/Halper_DYR.html

    EXTRACT:

    “To turn the Deir Yassin tragedy into a discussion of Jewish racial characteristics, to dirty it with racist discourse, to create a situation where the people who were the most committed to honoring its memory in the senses I described above feel the need to leave, raises serious, fundamental questions. When I hear diabtribes of non-Palestinians against the Palestinian Ali Abunima because he raises concerns over Shamir’s racism and the entire tone of the DYR discussion, a red light goes off. Has Deir Yassin been hijacked by a cult more intent on pursuing hate campaigns against the fictive “Jews” than in searching for the humanistic, universal, critical and truly relevant elements of the Deir Yassin story? Is Deir Yassin’s memory being sullied by those who claim to honor it?

    Shamir is only the symptom. I am more concerned about the few who have taken over Deir Yassin and, in defiance of anyone else, indeed, in arrogant dismissal of any dissenting voice, presume to be the “true” voices of DYR. The resignation of any one of the people who left DYR, Jewish or not, should be a cause of soul-searching, especially among the non-Palestinian “gatekeepers” of Deir Yassin who may be finishing off the job – massacring the memory of Deir Yassin by making it synonymous with racism and anti-Semitism.”

    One more point among the many others: so far from Arabiya Shawamreh being Salim’s “silent and nameless wife”, Beit Arabiya, the joint Israeli-Palestinian peace centre (recently demolished for the fifth time by the Israeli army and due to be rebuilt this summer) was named after her (it was also dedicated to the memory of Rachel Corrie and Nuha Sweidan); and Arabiya has toured Britain addressing large meetings.

    Deborah

    • Roy Bard

      May 7, 2012 at 6:44 pm

      That’d be the same Deboarh Maccoby who claimed:

      No doubt Atzmon will present this article as yet another vicious “defamation” of him by a “Jewish Gatekeeper”. He will claim I and other practitioners of “Jewish Power” – ie the Jewish world conspiracy – are trying to silence him and his allies. But we’re not trying to silence them; we simply want to reply to their attacks and defend ourselves. Our very efforts to defend ourselves become, in their twisted and deluded thinking, proof of our sinister “Jewish Power”. I will end by asking readers of both articles to decide who is doing the defaming, and I appeal to Palestinians and their supporters to resist this attempt to divide and undermine the Palestinian solidarity movement from within.

      and since then her and her mates appear to have done NOTHING BUT try and silence Gilad and his allies….

      Arbiter of the truth? I think not!

      • Ariadna Theokopoulos

        May 7, 2012 at 7:04 pm

        What are you on about? I looked at the site Jews Sans Frontiers — bit of an oxymoron but with a nice ring to it and with nice associations:
        1. Jews are everywhere and everywhere and 2. they are like the selfless doctors ready to help out, as is the case with the Palestinian Solidarity Movement.

        • Ariadna Theokopoulos

          May 7, 2012 at 8:40 pm

          CVorrrcetion: I should have said “pleonasm” not “oxymoron”

        • who_me

          May 9, 2012 at 5:22 am

          “Jews Sans Frontiers”

          their name describes their tribalist mentality quite well.

    • Paul Eisen

      May 8, 2012 at 5:16 am

      And here’s Jeff Halper a few years later but in much the same vein:

      Hi, Gabi,

      I’m sorry for all the difficulties over the conference you and the others are organizing in Freiburg. I feel very close to you all, and maybe should have warned you about Gilad Atzmon, since you fell into a long-standing problem of mixing the Palestinian tragedy with Holocaust denial.

      I was on the Board of Deir Yassin Remembered when Paul Eisen, Israeli Shamir and Atzmon began equating “Jewish power” with Holocaust denial. I wrote that none of this had anything to do with the Palestinians, and to drag the massacred Palestinians into this discussion is essentially to massacre them again. Why, when one thinks of Deir Yassin, should one think of whether Auschwitz was a death camp or not? Why should the voices of murdered Palestinians be coopted by Jews trying to cast doubt on the Holocaust? The Palestinians’ voices should be left alone, clear and unexploited testimony to the cruelties of Zionism and Israel, but having nothing to do with the Holocaust, of which they probably never even heard.

      The exploitation of Palestinian voices for other political purposes is intolerable. Together with me, ALL the Israeli and Jewish members of the Deir Yassin Remembered board resigned in protest, followed by a number of non-Jews. Unfortunately, not knowing this history and being aware of Atzmon et. al.’s agenda which does additional violence to the memory of the people of Deir Yassin, and tarnishes the entire Palestinian cause, you suffered the consequences.

      I hope that somehow, in your conference, you succeed in separating completely and unequivocally the Palestinian issue from any attempt to dishonor and minimalize the deaths of all victims of racism, Jewish and Palestinian alike.

      I hope these words put things in a context. You can share them if you want.

      All the best,

      Jeff Halper

      • Ariadna Theokopoulos

        May 9, 2012 at 5:37 am

        Someone capable of so many lies, vicious distortions and projections (except one, which I flagged below) is reprehensible and dangerous.

        –”mixing the Palestinian tragedy with Holocaust denial”
        –”equating “Jewish power” with Holocaust denial”
        –”to drag the massacred Palestinians into this discussion is essentially to massacre them again”
        __ ” when one thinks of Deir Yassin, should one think of whether Auschwitz was a death camp or not”
        –”Why should the voices of murdered Palestinians be coopted by Jews trying to cast doubt on the Holocaust?”
        –”The exploitation of Palestinian voices for other political purposes is intolerable. ” [this one may be sincere AND correct: he says the exploitation is OK but not for "other" purposes, only ours]
        –”dishonor and minimalize the deaths of all victims of racism, Jewish and Palestinian alike”

  4. Ariadna Theokopoulos

    May 7, 2012 at 6:42 pm

    I am not deeply familiar with the work of DYR but just from this comment of yours…
    “To turn the Deir Yassin tragedy into a discussion of Jewish racial characteristics, to dirty it with racist discourse”

    …I think I understand the problem. DY should be remembered as a tragic mistake of the past, with no ramifications to the present and without harping on who was responsible and why, which inevitably veers into anti-semitism and what is anti-semitism but a racist discourse?
    Viewed in this new light I can in fact understand why the Israelis keep demolishing Beit Arabiya, giving you, guys, a chance to start again until you get it right.

    “When I hear diabtribes of non-Palestinians against the Palestinian Ali Abunima”

    Oh, let’s not even start on that; his detractors get my blood pressure up. It’s almost as bad as the non-jews’ diatribes against Jews, and worse yet, “fictive” Jews.

    “searching for the humanistic, universal, critical and truly relevant elements of the Deir Yassin story?”

    Got that too. It boils down to the fact that these things happen everywhere, sadly they always have and rather than singling out “jews” as scapegoats we should focus on the fact that they have to do with human nature in general and in part only with the special circumstances of the young state of Israel trying to secure a place under sun for its people.

  5. searching

    May 7, 2012 at 7:14 pm

    “Has Deir Yassin been hijacked by a cult more intent on pursuing hate campaigns against the fictive “Jews” than in searching for the humanistic, universal, critical and truly relevant elements of the Deir Yassin story”
    …
    Why ten Jews insist on “celebrating” Shoah done to them during WWII by so many f…en years, why do they build so many monuments, museums, and what have you, made so many movies, performences, shows, speeches, books, seminars, studies etc. all over the world, especially in Europe and USa??
    Why did they start the” Holocaust Industry” that squeezed (and wants to squeeze more) millions of $$$ out of the pockets of many nations???
    Why didn’t they stop at
    “searching for the humanistic, universal, critical and truly relevant elements” of the Holocaust story ???”

  6. searching

    May 7, 2012 at 7:19 pm

    errata.” Why then Jews insist….”
    I need cofee today ,shesh.

  7. Jay Knott

    May 7, 2012 at 7:43 pm

    Maccoby is one of the crypto-Zionists Atzmon goes on about. She illustrates well their strategy (conscious or otherwise) for undermining Palestine solidarity:

    - make it impossible to discuss typical Jewish behaviour, claiming that this is to attribute ‘racial characteristics’ to Jews, which is inevitably ‘racist discourse’

    - behave in the typically Jewish ways you’ve just made impossible to discuss

    But the times are changing’. Debbie and Tony and the gang carry on like a scratched record. Their pseudo-anti-racist rhetoric sounds funnier each day.

    • Ariadna Theokopoulos

      May 7, 2012 at 8:47 pm

      She is “crypto” as an obese woman in a bikini at an Anorexia patients clinic.

  8. Paul Eisen

    May 7, 2012 at 7:54 pm

    Hello Deborah

    You weren’t there at Beit Arabiyah, I was. And I can tell you, we were indeed served Palestinian food by Arabiyah and some other Palestinian women. And they were pretty silent – as silent as I would have been under the circumstances.

  9. Roy Bard

    May 8, 2012 at 8:26 am

    Jeff Halper was interviewed recently by Frank Barat

    He doesn’t have a lot of time for BDS it seems, or indeed for the Palestinian strategy, and it also seems that he is there to insist that the Palestinians recognise Israel:

    My problem is that I cannot obviously be part of a struggle which is not inclusive. It deserves to be addressed in-house, in the movement, not in public. I was forced to bring it up in the global march to Jerusalem. I was pressed to endorse the march publicly but they said not as the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions because we can’t use the word Israeli. You have to endorse the march as the head of the committee against house demolitions. I said no and that set up a whole discussion. An organiser of the march wrote that this whole issue of inclusivity was a western preoccupation.

    So exactly how inclusive does he think Israeli society is?

    Oh and if the Palestinians don’t do it his way then guess what:

    Because what’s going to happen is that people will get fed up, depressed, and move on to other issues. There are many issues around the world.

    I seem to recall that the Israeli government even highlighted some of them in their letter to Flytilla activists.

    Are Jeff and the Israeli government singing from the same hymn sheet after all?

    Anyway thank goodness there are nice Israelis like Jeff to tell Palestinians how to resist their oppression (just as long as they don’t resist too much!).

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