His book is on Bookshare, and is absolutely excellent. I'm glad that he
chose to write this article. The Establishment punishes everyone who openly
objects to Israel's treatment of Palestinians.
Miriam
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > When I Published My Book About Palestine This Year, I Learned How
Death Threats and Abuse Became Normalized
________________________________________
When I Published My Book About Palestine This Year, I Learned How Death
Threats and Abuse Became Normalized
By Ben Ehrenreich [1] / AlterNet [2]
August 17, 2016
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optionsShare to Email
Ben Ehrenreich's critically acclaimed book,The Way to the Spring: Life and
Death in Palestine [3], was published in June 2016.
Earlier this August, Donald Trump dragged American political discourse to
what most pundits agreed was a new low by suggesting that "Second Amendment
people" would know what to do if Hillary Clinton were to impose rigorous
controls on gun ownership. The threat was implicit but very clear. Americans
were duly outraged-threats of violence, the consensus has it, should have no
place in our political discourse. Writing in the New York Times, Tom
Friedman made the link to the only mildly subtler smear campaign against
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the months before his assassination
by a right-wing extremist. A week later, Rabin's son appeared on CNN to urge
American politicians to show "restraint," because, as he put it, "Words do
kill." What neither he nor Friedman mentioned was that in one contested
corner of American political discourse-the conversation about Israel's
occupation of Palestine-threats and intimidation have long been the norm.
I learned this through the conventional method: by speaking out until the
threats poured in. I spent most of June traveling the country and talking
about my book, The Way To The Spring, which compiled my reporting from the
West Bank, where I lived in 2013 and 2014, and where I had been working
since 2011. I was encouraged: nearly every venue was full and my audience
was enthusiastic. More than anything, I was heartened by the mood of the
people I encountered. Despite a rash of recent attempts on American college
campuses to shut down critical discussions of Israeli violations of human
rights, and to tar a nonviolent boycott movement as antisemitic, it was
abundantly clear that people all over the U.S. were ready-hungry even-for
the kind of critical and honest conversation about Israel that has for too
many years been absent here.
Not all of my interlocutors agreed with me about everything, but we were in
almost every case able to speak and listen to one another with openness and
respect. You don't have to pay close attention to debates on Israel and
Palestine in this country to know how remarkable that is. It meant that
despite everything I know about the grim situation in the Middle East, I was
able to end every talk I gave on a note of optimism that was sincere-the
fact of our conversation, of people's eagerness to participate, demonstrated
that it was becoming more and more possible to discuss the undiscussable.
That alone gave me genuine hope. As a nation, it seemed, we had quietly
turned a corner.
But some realities have not gone away. On the question of Palestine, we
still let extremist scare tactics define the contours of the mainstream. I
cannot think of anyone in the U.S., whether Jewish or Palestinian or
neither, who has written critically about Israel who has not been publicly
smeared as an antisemite and an apologist for terror. And I have met no one
who has achieved any prominence while speaking out against injustices
perpetrated by the Israeli state who has not received death threats. Out of
stoicism, stubbornness or shame, very few talk publicly about the threats
they receive, but intimidation of the crudest sort forms the backdrop to the
entire conversation about Israel and Palestine in U.S. media. It marks and
enforces the boundary line of what is permissible to say. If anyone does not
know where that boundary lies, they swiftly find out. Any serious attempt to
represent Palestinian realities is met with unrelenting threats and
defamations. They represent a consistently brutal attempt to intimidate
opposition into silence, and they are effective.
The crazy thing is that this is normal, and has been for years. In the
chapters of my book in which I wrote about the West Bank city of Hebron, I
spoke about the strange idea of normalcy that reigns in that city, where
having rocks and worse thrown into your home by settlers counts as "normal,"
where beatings in the street by Israeli soldiers are entirely "normal" too.
I referred to the city half-seriously as "Planet Hebron" because the norms
of behavior there are so alien to the usual terrestrial expectations. But
this twisted sense of normalcy extends far beyond the extremist settler
enclaves of Hebron, to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, any
place where critical political discourse can be counted on to be met with
naked threats and campaigns of intimidation.
In the past week, I was called a Jew-hater more times than I can count, as
well as a terrorist and a murderer. It was suggested to me that I should,
and may, suffer a terrorist attack. I was told that "sick, twisted people"
like me "should not be allowed to write" and informed that I will "someday"
answer for the acts of terror I allegedly support. I was wished a painful
death and promised that I will "get what is coming" to me.
I am not complaining; I knew what I was getting into. Others have endured,
and will continue to endure, far worse harassment than this. But these
tactics must be exposed. The climate of fear that they create must not be
allowed to stand.
It's not just crazies on social media. Efforts to intimidate critics of
Israeli policies lately often bear official stamps. The governing body of
the University of California recently attempted to categorize opposition to
Zionism as a form of hate speech. Professors assigning Edward Said or Noam
Chomsky to their students or inviting Palestinian speakers to campus would
have risked their jobs and reputations. In a March speech before AIPAC,
Hillary Clinton associated the movement for boycott, divestment and
sanctions, or BDS-an explicitly nonviolent campaign to exert economic
pressure on Israel in order to end the occupation-with global antisemitism
and "efforts to malign.the Jewish people." Many of BDS' strongest
supporters, it must be said, are Jewish.
This did not stop New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from signing an executive
order in June that would punish any group that shows support for BDS,
effectively creating a blacklist of companies and organizations forbidden
from doing business with the state. The New York Civil Liberties Union
described Cuomo's order as "an affront to free expression." Similar bills
are pending in more than a dozen other states. They should be seen for what
they are: not brave attempts to combat antisemitism, but a desperate and
futile effort to silence valid criticism.
The truth is that in a real sense we have turned a corner. The daily
injustices of the occupation are too grave and too widespread to conceal.
Our government's continued support for them is too hypocritical to be
sustained. I feel quite safe in predicting that, like Trump's crudely veiled
threat, these efforts at intimidation-both official and freelance-will not
be met with passivity. They will not work anymore. Too many of us refuse to
be silent.
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Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [4]
[5]
________________________________________
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/when-i-published-my-book-about-pale
stine-year-i-learned-how-death-threats-and-abuse
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/ben-ehrenreich
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Way-Spring-Life-Death-Palestine/dp/1594205906
[4] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on When I Published My Book
About Palestine This Year, I Learned How Death Threats and Abuse Became
Normalized
[5] http://www.alternet.org/
[6] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org)
Home > When I Published My Book About Palestine This Year, I Learned How
Death Threats and Abuse Became Normalized
When I Published My Book About Palestine This Year, I Learned How Death
Threats and Abuse Became Normalized
By Ben Ehrenreich [1] / AlterNet [2]
August 17, 2016
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+More
AddThis Share optionsShare to Email
Ben Ehrenreich's critically acclaimed book,The Way to the Spring: Life and
Death in Palestine [3], was published in June 2016.
Earlier this August, Donald Trump dragged American political discourse to
what most pundits agreed was a new low by suggesting that "Second Amendment
people" would know what to do if Hillary Clinton were to impose rigorous
controls on gun ownership. The threat was implicit but very clear. Americans
were duly outraged-threats of violence, the consensus has it, should have no
place in our political discourse. Writing in the New York Times, Tom
Friedman made the link to the only mildly subtler smear campaign against
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the months before his assassination
by a right-wing extremist. A week later, Rabin's son appeared on CNN to urge
American politicians to show "restraint," because, as he put it, "Words do
kill." What neither he nor Friedman mentioned was that in one contested
corner of American political discourse-the conversation about Israel's
occupation of Palestine-threats and intimidation have long been the norm.
I learned this through the conventional method: by speaking out until the
threats poured in. I spent most of June traveling the country and talking
about my book, The Way To The Spring, which compiled my reporting from the
West Bank, where I lived in 2013 and 2014, and where I had been working
since 2011. I was encouraged: nearly every venue was full and my audience
was enthusiastic. More than anything, I was heartened by the mood of the
people I encountered. Despite a rash of recent attempts on American college
campuses to shut down critical discussions of Israeli violations of human
rights, and to tar a nonviolent boycott movement as antisemitic, it was
abundantly clear that people all over the U.S. were ready-hungry even-for
the kind of critical and honest conversation about Israel that has for too
many years been absent here.
Not all of my interlocutors agreed with me about everything, but we were in
almost every case able to speak and listen to one another with openness and
respect. You don't have to pay close attention to debates on Israel and
Palestine in this country to know how remarkable that is. It meant that
despite everything I know about the grim situation in the Middle East, I was
able to end every talk I gave on a note of optimism that was sincere-the
fact of our conversation, of people's eagerness to participate, demonstrated
that it was becoming more and more possible to discuss the undiscussable.
That alone gave me genuine hope. As a nation, it seemed, we had quietly
turned a corner.
But some realities have not gone away. On the question of Palestine, we
still let extremist scare tactics define the contours of the mainstream. I
cannot think of anyone in the U.S., whether Jewish or Palestinian or
neither, who has written critically about Israel who has not been publicly
smeared as an antisemite and an apologist for terror. And I have met no one
who has achieved any prominence while speaking out against injustices
perpetrated by the Israeli state who has not received death threats. Out of
stoicism, stubbornness or shame, very few talk publicly about the threats
they receive, but intimidation of the crudest sort forms the backdrop to the
entire conversation about Israel and Palestine in U.S. media. It marks and
enforces the boundary line of what is permissible to say. If anyone does not
know where that boundary lies, they swiftly find out. Any serious attempt to
represent Palestinian realities is met with unrelenting threats and
defamations. They represent a consistently brutal attempt to intimidate
opposition into silence, and they are effective.
The crazy thing is that this is normal, and has been for years. In the
chapters of my book in which I wrote about the West Bank city of Hebron, I
spoke about the strange idea of normalcy that reigns in that city, where
having rocks and worse thrown into your home by settlers counts as "normal,"
where beatings in the street by Israeli soldiers are entirely "normal" too.
I referred to the city half-seriously as "Planet Hebron" because the norms
of behavior there are so alien to the usual terrestrial expectations. But
this twisted sense of normalcy extends far beyond the extremist settler
enclaves of Hebron, to Tel Aviv, Los Angeles, New York, Washington, any
place where critical political discourse can be counted on to be met with
naked threats and campaigns of intimidation.
In the past week, I was called a Jew-hater more times than I can count, as
well as a terrorist and a murderer. It was suggested to me that I should,
and may, suffer a terrorist attack. I was told that "sick, twisted people"
like me "should not be allowed to write" and informed that I will "someday"
answer for the acts of terror I allegedly support. I was wished a painful
death and promised that I will "get what is coming" to me.
I am not complaining; I knew what I was getting into. Others have endured,
and will continue to endure, far worse harassment than this. But these
tactics must be exposed. The climate of fear that they create must not be
allowed to stand.
It's not just crazies on social media. Efforts to intimidate critics of
Israeli policies lately often bear official stamps. The governing body of
the University of California recently attempted to categorize opposition to
Zionism as a form of hate speech. Professors assigning Edward Said or Noam
Chomsky to their students or inviting Palestinian speakers to campus would
have risked their jobs and reputations. In a March speech before AIPAC,
Hillary Clinton associated the movement for boycott, divestment and
sanctions, or BDS-an explicitly nonviolent campaign to exert economic
pressure on Israel in order to end the occupation-with global antisemitism
and "efforts to malign.the Jewish people." Many of BDS' strongest
supporters, it must be said, are Jewish.
This did not stop New York Governor Andrew Cuomo from signing an executive
order in June that would punish any group that shows support for BDS,
effectively creating a blacklist of companies and organizations forbidden
from doing business with the state. The New York Civil Liberties Union
described Cuomo's order as "an affront to free expression." Similar bills
are pending in more than a dozen other states. They should be seen for what
they are: not brave attempts to combat antisemitism, but a desperate and
futile effort to silence valid criticism.
The truth is that in a real sense we have turned a corner. The daily
injustices of the occupation are too grave and too widespread to conceal.
Our government's continued support for them is too hypocritical to be
sustained. I feel quite safe in predicting that, like Trump's crudely veiled
threat, these efforts at intimidation-both official and freelance-will not
be met with passivity. They will not work anymore. Too many of us refuse to
be silent.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [4]
Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.[5]
Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/grayzone-project/when-i-published-my-book-about-pale
stine-year-i-learned-how-death-threats-and-abuse
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/ben-ehrenreich
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Way-Spring-Life-Death-Palestine/dp/1594205906
[4] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on When I Published My Book
About Palestine This Year, I Learned How Death Threats and Abuse Became
Normalized
[5] http://www.alternet.org/
[6] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
