In the impassioned speech she gave yesterday a block away from the New York home of the Jewish Senator Chuck Schumer, the eco-feminist and author Naomi Klein (also a Jew) delivered a very powerful criticism of Zionism. She likened it to the golden calf of the times of Moses, a false idol which has betrayed the core Jewish values and principles of emancipation and justice in favour of ethno-racism, colonial land theft, ethnic cleansing and genocide against the Palestinians.
In particular, Naomi Klein accuses Zionism of violating fundamental Jewish commandments such as Thou shall not kill, Thou shall not steal and Thou shall not covet. According to her, this has justified the killing of Palestinian children with cluster bombs and enabled the bombing of educational and cultural institutions in Gaza. This, which has rightly been condemned by the Palestinians as a scholasticide, Naomi Klein considers to be a full betrayal of what she believes to be the Jewish values of questioning, education and love for text.
Furthermore, she asserts that true Judaism cannot be contained within a militarist ethnostate like Israel, as Judaism is inherently internationalist by nature. Klein emphasises that Judaism finds safety and freedom in solidarity with the Palestinian cause across races and identities, embodied in the portable Passover Seder ritual of questioning, remembering and reviving the revolutionary spirit. As such, Naomi Klein calls for an exodus from the false idol of Zionism, which would be a liberation from the fear and ideology it instils.
She concludes by declaring that the American Jews gathered before her and who have been taking to the streets for months and months have already left Zionism behind. Their children are with them [the Jews of her age, I suppose, and whose children are camping at various universities in New York and elsewhere in protest against US complicity with the ongoing genocide] in this departure: So, to the Chuck Schumers of this world, we do not say, Let our people go. We say We have already gone, and your kids, they are with us now.
Transcript available at https://www.democracynow.org/2024/4/24/naomi_klein_seder.
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Source: https://youtu.be/U75KcMUjMyI
Lausanne, the above was published on the twenty-fourth day of the fourth month of the year two thousand and twenty-four.
