Soon I will be heading back to Israel and the West Bank for my fourth trip to the area. Along with notebooks and pens, I’m packing questions too. The recent deadly arson attack by Jewish Settlers in the village of Duma, near Nablus, has again focused my mind on what Zionism is or isn’t and what the Jewish project of nationalist renewal should mean to me as a British Jew. Just as the kidnapping and burning of Mohammed Abu Khudeir... Read more
Has a mistranslation in a BBC documentary created an image of innocence where none should exist? Was the motivation of the broadcaster to avoid diminishing sympathy towards the Palestinians while increasing antipathy towards Israel? For those that missed the coverage let me bring you up to speed. According to a report in the Jewish Chronicle, Britain’s oldest and most widely read Jewish newspaper, the BBC substituted the word “Israelis” for “Jews” in its translation of interviews with Palestinian children. The... Read more
Here’s five brilliant things about Judaism that Jews (and others) sometimes forget. 1. Strangers What kind of theology and communal politics would you expect to emerge from a people enslaved for centuries, forced to work in the hardest of conditions and finally subjected to an imperial order that their male children be murdered at birth? You’d think the phrase ‘Never Again’ would have turned up in the Book of Exodus and then been repeated time and time again throughout the... Read more
Well, nothing is wrong with the picture itself. It’s real. It wasn’t faked. It is a true artifact of 20th century European history. The poster on the shop window reads: “Germans beware. Don’t buy from Jews”. What started as boycotts against Jewish shops and businesses eventually led to the gas chambers and incinerators of Auschwitz and Treblinka. All of this is irrefutable. What’s wrong is how this picture, and others taken at the same time in the early 1930’s, are now... Read more
Lately, we in Britain seem to be importing some of the less attractive aspects of American Evangelical Christian culture. Last month saw the official launch of the British branch of Christians United for Israel (CUFI) thanks to the deep pockets of pastor John Hagee. Hagee and his organisation claim to be pro Jewish, pro Israel and anti antisemitism. So as a British Jew I ought to be welcoming him with a firm handshake and a warmed teapot. The ‘About Us’ section... Read more
This week the United Nations Human Rights Council published its investigation into last summer’s Gaza conflict. Reading the report, and following the media coverage, reminded me just how topsy-turvy is the world of Israel and Gaza. Even the language used to label the event is peculiar in its lack of precision and descriptiveness. Using the word ‘conflict’ deliberately removes any sense of blame or emotion in relation to what took place. It allows journalists and politicians around the world to... Read more
Like the title of my blog says, I’m writing from the edge. But which edge? And who says the Hebrew Covenant needs rescuing anyway? Well my Jewish edginess comes from a number of places and I can assure you the Covenant is not in a good shape. First, some edgy geography. I’m writing this from the unfashionable side of the Atlantic, from a small, wet island called Britain that used to have an empire and is now struggling to hold its... Read more
Writing from the Edge
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