Anyone cruising up Lincoln Avenue on Sunday would have seen a bewildering spectacle of political sentiment: a noisy rally in support of Israel’s invasion of Gaza on the Capitol steps, and a loud protest against the attacks on the opposite side.
American Jews like myself could be seen on both sides of the street.
A keynote speaker at the Israel rally was none other than former Congressman Tom Tancredo. (Not exactly a favorite among most Jews, who voted overwhelmingly for Obama.)
In broad strokes the speakers referred to the Islamist threat sweeping the world and the need to vanquish it. At any expense. (Not exactly in keeping with Jewish traditions of tolerance, coexistence, and truth.)
People at the counter-protest across the street spoke out against Israel’s targeting of the civilian population in Gaza and bore witness to the extreme devastation: so far, over 1100 Gazans have been killed, more than 5,200 wounded and close to 100,000 displaced.
In addition to the massive civilian casualties in Gaza, ten Israeli soldiers and three civilians have been killed.
It remains unclear whether the recent military actions in Gaza have made Israelis any safer.
And many in the Jewish community are speaking out – to the media, to political leaders and to fellow community members – about alternatives to unflinching support for Israel and to the endless conflict which that support entails.
A growing number of American Jews believes that Israel’s path to peaceful coexistence with its neighbors must involve dialogue with all parties, confidence-building measures, a genuine reckoning of historical atrocities and an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands.
Yet the silent majority is torn and finding truth in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be a full-time job.
Here are some basic facts:
Most of the 1.5 million people who live on the Gaza Strip are refugees and the descendants of refugees. These are people who Israel forcibly expelled in 1948 from cities in southern Israel – the same cities that have been targeted by Hamas.
The Palestinians in Gaza were confined to an even smaller share of the strip to make way for 10,000 Israeli settlers, who lived in heavily fortified compounds until August 2005, when the state of Israel finally removed them.
For 38 years the Israeli army carved out a system of closed military zones, checkpoints and roadblocks that ensured there was no freedom of movement for the people of Gaza. These are not topics for debate but facts widely acknowledged by Israeli and Palestinian academics alike.
Far from the conflict, many here in Denver respond by asking whether Gaza was liberated in 2005 when Israel pulled out. But it is hardly a matter of great dispute that Israel has maintained a blockade on Gaza.
All land borders have been sealed, and access by air and sea is controlled by Israel. In the last three-and-a-half years, Israel has raided Gaza repeatedly and most unbiased authorities acknowledge that Israel broke the ceasefire with Hamas.
None of these facts should diminish empathy for the residents of southern Israel any more than we should ignore the devastation in Gaza.
Rather, we should redouble our efforts to protect human life by actively promoting a fair American policy in the region that attends to issues such as Israel’s crippling siege of Gaza, its targeting of civilian and UN facilities, its continued settlement-building in the West Bank, and its refusal to acknowledge the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to Israel or be compensated.
To date, the Jewish community in Denver has been split between those who cling to the notion of Israel as a tiny embattled nation in a sea of hostility and those who understand that Israel has been embroiled in conflict for a reason, for a lot of reasons.
Here in Denver the tide of public opinion has been turning but for the people of Gaza the last 21 days have been a catastrophic tsunami.
Randall Kuhn is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Global Health Affairs Program at the University of Denver Josef Korbel School of International Studies. He just returned from a trip to Israel and the West Bank.
