Milwaukee resident Ari Bloomekatz. (Photo: Jimmy Rothschild)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel June 25, 2019

It’s just a few seconds caught on video.

Pulled from multiple videos and posted on Twitter, it includes 33-year-old Milwaukee resident Ari Bloomekatz in the West Bank’s South Hebron Hills. The clip shows Bloomekatz in the thick of an altercation involving about 30 activists and a dozen Israeli security forces, some carrying rifles.

It shows an Israeli soldier delivering a swift punch to Bloomekatz’s face. “For what?” the tweet asks. “Rehabilitating a critical access road for Palestinians.”

Bloomekatz was among a group of 17 activists and journalists arrested last month while repairing a road in Palestinian territory controlled by Israel as part of a program sponsored by the Center for Jewish Nonviolence.

The managing editor of Milwaukee-based magazine “Rethinking Schools,” Bloomekatz is among a growing number of primarily younger American Jews challenging Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory as morally indefensible and an affront to their faith.

“The American Jewish community needs to know that this is happening in our name and, in many ways, with our support,” said Bloomekatz, a former Los Angeles Times reporter and former managing editor of the left-leaning Jewish publication Tikkun.

“I and many other Jews across the country see our community’s support for the occupation killing the Judaism we love.”

The West Bank clip has been shared heavily in Jewish and Palestinian circles. Its virality reflects the concern among some American Jews about Israel’s policies in the Palestinian territories and sheds light on a deeply personal and painful conversation within the American Jewish community.

Even if they don’t support some Israeli policies, older Jews have tended to remain publicly silent, seeing criticism as an attempt to de-legitimize the Jewish state.

But a growing number of younger Jews, particularly millennials, have become less connected to the Jewish state, and less reticent about criticizing what they see as its shortcomings.

A study last year sponsored by the American Jewish Committee found that almost one-third of U.S. Jews, when asked to describe Israelis in familial terms, chose “not part of my family.”

Earlier this month, The New York Times reported that Jewish activists have begun to question Birthright Israel, which has provided nearly 700,000 young Jews free trips to Israel to foster a connection to the country. Some Birthright participants have walked off tours to meet with Palestinians and protest what they see as the organization’s failure to expose visitors to West Bank occupation.

The same report cited research by Don Waxman, professor of political science, international affairs and Israel studies at Northeastern University, showing 25% of Jews ages 18 to 29 believe Israel receives too much in the way of U.S. support, compared with just 6% of Jews over 50.

Elana Kahn, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, said her parents were born before a Jewish state had been established. Israel’s formation after World War II was “a huge moment as Jews — it was like they could begin to exhale.”

But Khan, who holds dual U.S. and Israeli citizenship, said youths often don’t feel the same way about Israel, and the community has struggled to facilitate conversations about the reasons why.

“They grew up in a world where Israel didn’t just exist, but Israel included the West Bank and became morally more complicated,” she said.

To repair and heal

The Palestinian territories — the West Bank including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip — are lands once ruled by Jordan and Egypt that were captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

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Pictured Here: Palestinian killed at random by an Israeli soldier

Christian Peacemaker Teams, March 13, 2019

On March 12, a Palestinian man came to deliver documents on behalf of the Palestinian court in the neighbourhood of Al-Jabari or Wad Al Hussein. His name was Yasser Fawzi Shweki and he was 27 years old. He was probably new to the neighbourhood of H2 because he used to live and work elsewhere. He was carrying a large bag full of documents; maybe that is why an Israeli soldier who guarded an Israeli settlement took interest in him. He ordered him at gunpoint to come closer. A little later, a shot was heard and Yasser fell on the ground, bleeding heavily. The Israeli military dragged him inside the building and refused to allow any medical assistance. The name of the settlement is Beit HaShalom, which means, ironically enough, house of peace.

Previously, two cousins were killed at the same spot and in the same style. Hussam Jabari and Bashar Jabari, who were also new to the neighbourhood, passed by the Israeli settlement to visit their aunt who was living there. After the Israeli military noticed the two young boys, they were shot immediately and the army let them simply die on the floor. The first one was 16, the second only 14 years old.

Right after Yasser died, the Israeli army officially declared that it was due to an attempted knife attack. However, a source declared that, slightly before, he saw how the Israeli army moved the body to another place, put a knife close to it and took a photo. That would fit a pattern in which the Israeli military tries to cover up murders of Palestinians this way, at least according to proof from video recordings from other killings.

And that is not even all that can be said about this notorious spot. It needs to be known that a total of 12 Palestinian people have been killed in this area by Israeli bullets. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank is an ugly business and the less known its real practices are to the world, the uglier it gets.