Inside the Big Tent for Israel
Thursday, 01 December 2011
Ben Abram, RSY-Netzer's Northern Project Worker attended the Big Tent for Israel in Manchester and shares his thoughts on the day's events.
The Big Tent for Israel was a challenging experience. With over 700 people attending, the kosher food, lively debate and the natter of Jews reconnecting and reminiscing fulfilled expectations. There did seem to be some underlying tensions, however, after complications regarding the involvement of progressive rabbis.
We heard some promising words in the opening address from Ivan Lewis MP who argued that you can be both pro Palestinian and pro Israeli, and that he is proud that the majority support a two-state solution. Israeli Ambassador Daniel Taub was also very encouraging when talking about most Israelis wanting to live side by side with a prosperous Palestinian state.
Later in the day I attended a session along with the majority of the conference delegates entitled 'Alternative perspectives on support for Israel'. There was a lot of talk beforehand about this session as Hannah Weisfeld from Yachad was one of the speakers, which was likely to cause a stir. Hannah spoke about having the right to be a 'critical friend' of Israel in order to guarantee its future as a Jewish and democratic state. On the other side, they argued that we should never be critical of Israel or admit that it is at fault, so that we can do the best advocacy work. To me the first approach stands out as the best and most logical one because we love Israel and want to hold it up to the highest ideals. The Jewish people are meant to be ‘a light onto the nations’, and that should be the same for the Jewish state. My experience on campus has shown me that if you are ready to have an honest debate, you are much more likely to change people’s perception of Israel for the better.
I thought that the majority would agree with me but that was not the case. They seemed to think that we should in fact blindly support Israel and agree with everything that Israel does in order to be a true advocate. They demonstrated their opinions quite clearly by heckling Hannah during her speech, then refusing to applaud her. I was under the impression that the Jewish community had generally moved on from the traditional hasbara approach to Israel advocacy, but obviously not. Perhaps I am being naive.
The creation of the Big Tent was inspired by the Reut Report that said that London is the international 'hub of hubs' from which the worldwide campaign of the delegitimisation of Israel is mounted. If the Jewish community in the UK continues to try to approach the subject of Israel without accepting any of its flaws, we will continue to loose the battle against the delegitimisation of Israel. Maybe the people in the room that seemed to represent the majority at the event need to change their approach in order for the London and the UK to shake the title of 'hub of hubs'.
Attending the Big Tent was a frustrating experience but it did make me very proud. Proud that in RSY-Netzer we engage our chaverim (members) in top quality educational experiences in Israel. We give our chaverim an honest education about Israel on our events, demonstrating the amazing qualities of the Jewish and democratic state whilst not ignoring the complexities that it faces. I am proud that our chaverim love Israel, regardless of its problems.
These are the personal views of the author and are published to inspire debate and discussion within the Movement for Reform Judaism
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