Just lately, in a hipster cafe in downtown Los Angeles, I used to be ready within the toilet once I noticed a chalkboard lined with phrases. One rendered in giant mint inexperienced cursive caught my eye: “Free Palestine,” it learn, punctuated by a cartoon coronary heart. Choosing up chalk, I discovered an adjoining clearing and scribbled “Two-state answer,” adopted by the identical teenager’s coronary heart form. It wasn’t as a result of I disagreed with the unique writer’s assertion; I simply suppose peace wants higher PR.
I did not develop up with the two-state answer. I come from a half-Jewish family, the Jewish half of which is Zionist. I used to be raised with which candidates would defend Israel, together with tales of how strangers welcomed my father “dwelling” at Ben Gurion Airport, or how he packed chickens in a kibbutz.
In faculty I studied Israeli modern dance, and wrote about giants within the discipline reminiscent of Ohad Naharin, and performed archival analysis on the Suzanne Dellal Middle in Tel Aviv. On the airport in Lisbon, Portugal, en path to Israel, I used to be detained for additional screening. An Israeli transport officer didn’t imagine {that a} 22-year-old man who traveled alone for 4 days to Israel was going there to do dance analysisno matter whether or not he was Jewish or not. I took out analysis books from my backpack to persuade the officer. Once I lastly received by way of after which landed in Israel, my baggage did not make it. An Israeli pal’s mother and father generously lent me the underwear and garments I wanted till my bag arrived. Regardless of the hiccups, I liked Israel. Tel Aviv was good, vibrant and various.
Then a yr in the past my cousin on my mom’s facet, who’s a Christian, married a Palestinian American. For his or her wedding ceremony, I traveled to Israel once more, this time to the West Financial institution, to a Christian village referred to as Taybeh. The ceremony was held exterior on the ruins of a 4th century Palestinian Orthodox church. I spent 4 days with my cousin and her fiancé, consuming hummus and za’atar crackers and emphasizing my 50% Italian-American heritage from my mom to keep away from suspicion. I realized to shrug my shoulders and wave my palms within the type of Palestinian social dancing. I met a whole bunch of uncles and aunts and cousins. I visited the town’s breweries and distilleries: wine, arak (an ouzo-like spirit) and their specialty, Palestinian beer.
On brewery and distillery excursions, which primarily involved the granulated manufacturing course of, guides additionally confirmed the cisterns on their roofs. The massive tanks accumulate rainwater, they defined, as a result of it’s by no means clear when the Israeli-run water firm will reduce off their provide. The guides additionally described the tough export course of: Israeli troopers let wine bins spoil for hours in sizzling daylight, and few shipments attain their American or European locations.
In the course of the wedding ceremony reception with greater than 200 visitors, the water was turned off. The bride, groom and visitors have been instantly unable to scrub their palms or flush the bogs. At my desk, the place giant bottles of water have been served together with Coca-Cola, Taybeh beer, wine and arak, the groom’s cousin requested what I had studied at school. “Israeli dance,” I replied. The cousin frowned. “I did not know the Israelis danced!” he exclaimed. “I assumed they have been simply taking pictures folks.” I turned to the dance ground the place the groom’s grandmother, together with fist-pumping males, have been leaping on their knees, beaming, swinging their arms and mouthing Arabic lyrics. “Sure, Israelis dance too,” I replied.
In current weeks, my social media feeds have been flooded with flags and slogans: condemning Hamas assaults, standing with Israel, exhibiting carnage in Gaza, advocating for a free Palestine. In between, the mandatory advantage indicators are: My coronary heart goes out to all, Israelis and Palestinians alike, affected by this horrible tragedy. I promised myself I would not get entangled. The ethno-nationalist stance or obsequious banter, I felt, was counterproductive. Would not any involvement that may be lowered to a slogan be inappropriate?
Wanting on the hipster espresso store message board, I spotted that the issue is not a lot that current messages are too simplistic. It’s that there’s not a transparent and thrilling sufficient image for a center floor, a two-state answer. Palestine deserves to be free. Nor does Israel should stop to exist or defend itself to make it occur.
Israel might surrender a good portion of its territory, its apartheid coverage and any future settler growth; Palestine might get a hall “from the river to the ocean” and quit the appropriate to a terrorist authorities that murders Jews. Each side might train their youngsters concerning the different’s very actual historical past of genocide victimization.
However compromise doesn’t have the resonance that “Free Palestine” or “I stand with Israel” have. It does not hijack our limbic programs just like the flags and sentences that litter our houses, streets and feeds. Nonetheless, perhaps it might. Maybe peace and goal fact merely want sexier branding in an outrage-based system.
William Keizer is a Los Angeles-based screenwriter whose newest pilot, “The Revolutionary Potential of Dance” is about historic anticapitalist actions in America.