Today, for the third time, the US vetoed a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
A majority of American Jews are white. I am among them, which means I have a responsibility to say this out loud.
It is maddening that so many white American Jews insist that our inherited sense of historical trauma, and our fears for our safety here in the US, are equally as urgent as the ongoing, present, wholesale slaughter of Palestinians. Maddening and childish.
And I can’t help but feel like the insistence that our feelings be the center of every conversation is the result of white supremacy culture.
Let me say that again: the entitlement of white American Jews to center themselves is white supremacist. Full stop. Our Jewish heritage does not exempt us from our white inheritance.
Whenever there is a call for a ceasefire, some white Jewish American materializes to chant that “it was Hamas who violated the ceasefire on October 7th.” And I am reminded that the many decades of captivity and bloodshed suffered by Gazans prior to that were perfectly acceptable to them.
Once again, I am reminded that to white Americans, “peace” is the state of us not being troubled by the existence of others.
“What about the hostages?” “Doesn’t Israel have a right to defend itself?” I don’t know, how many Palestinian lives are equal to an Israeli one? 24 Palestinians have been killed for every 1 Israeli who died on October 7th. 90 Palestinians are being held hostage in Israel for every 1 Israeli being held hostage by Hamas.
This lopsided calculus is pure hatred. Why are we entertaining it? Why are we entertaining thought experiments about how many dead Palestinians add up to a whole white person’s entitlement, as if that were legitimate discourse?
Why is it not possible to condemn Israel — as we all should be doing, whole-heartedly, loudly, and unceasingly — without first going through the litany of disclaimers, assuring white American Jews that our feelings matter more than Palestinian lives?
Why are we pretending that the safety of ANY white American depends on blowing tens of thousands of Palestinian children to shreds? I don’t feel more safe. No one on Earth has been made more safe.
Given that so many of us have been fervently outspoken against Israel’s genocide, why are the only Jewish voices that receive widespread public validation those that support the IDF? Even among Unitarian Universalists, this is true. Are we not real Jews? Is the measure of a Jew really our bloodlust, our Islamophobia, are thirst for revenge?
White Unitarian Universalists have spent years grappling with the fact that sometimes, we need to get over ourselves. Sometimes, we need to learn about other perspectives. Sometimes, we are wrong, and our ignorance was sustained by our white privilege. Why are we pretending that this situation is any different, and that the fully wrong opinions of white “Jewnitarians” should be condoned for the sake of their feelings?
This is childish. Childish, self-centered, entitled, and white supremacist. All of my prayers are with Gaza. Right now, I have none for Israel save repentance.