Two Flags

​     I have no Palestinian friends. I have Palestinian colleagues and acquaintances whom I like and respect but I have no Palestinian friends. I have many Jewish friends and some Israeli friends, most of them left-leaning, some left-leaning and Zionist, some even hawkishly Zionist, and all of them sensitive to anti-Semitism and aware of the preciousness of a home country for the Jewish people, given Jewish history. Many have heard me express my questions and concerns, some since the 1980s, about the dispossession and second-class status of Palestinians but I have not been a vocal public advocate for Palestinian lives, rights, and sovereign status until the beginning of the war on Gaza in October 2023, in part because I was conscious of the deep collective hurt suffered by Jewish people from mainly European anti-Semitism, culminating in the Holocaust, all of which drove Zionism and subsequently the creation of the state of Israel in 1948.
     The war on Gaza started in response to the horrific violence, killings, and kidnappings by Hamas and associated militias on October 7, 2023. Why then, you might ask, did I not offer unambiguous support for Israeli “defensive” action? Because the violence against, and dispossession of, Palestinians has had a long history — too long — that is so much more than a defensive war against Hamas that started in October 2023. Witness, for example, increasing settler encroachments and violence in the West Bank, plausibly called settler terrorism, from well before Oct 7, 2023 and escalating with impunity in parallel with the war on Gaza. Regarding the war on Gaza, anyone who cares about that part of the world knows the massive death and destruction suffered by civilian Gazans at the hands of the Israeli army, a more than thirty-three-fold collective punishment whipped up and orchestrated by an incompetent, corrupt, manipulative, and cruel leader. I am no apologist for Hamas, but anyone who knows the history of the last 15 years in Israel knows that the elected governments of Israel have done more than their share to contribute to the current destruction of Gaza and the mutual fear and distrust of Israelis and Palestinians, much of it fueled by the policies of and military support from successive US governments.
     If we, as citizens of the United States, must hold ourselves accountable for our elected governments — even if we did not vote for this or that President or this or that legislator — and Gazans are held accountable for Hamas, surely Israelis must hold themselves accountable for their elected governments!
    But what does all of this have to do with two flags? Well, as part of doing more public advocacy for Palestinian lives and rights, I joined the Land Day demonstration in New York city on March 30, 2025. There was a very large number of pro-Palestine people in attendance, and a few pro-Israel people. I stood with the demonstration for about an hour. During that time, while I heard no one from either side explicitly calling for the killing of people on the other side, I did hear aggressive words from a few people, both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel, that proclaimed the other side as an enemy to be excluded from the speaker’s ethical or moral circle of reference. These angry and bitter words, coming as they do from fear, frustration, and grief, take a toll on the speakers and the listeners. When I heard these words from pro-Israel protestors, I compartmentalized, and mostly ignored the words and the speakers. But when I heard very strident and adversarial words from pro-Palestine speakers, I felt ambivalent, confident in my decision to be part of this public advocacy, but some of those words did not represent me.
    I strongly believe that at this point — when President Trump speaks of shipping Gazans off to some coerced or bribed place, and building luxury resorts on their land; when pro-Palestine voices are silenced in multiple unfair, cruel, and murky ways — those of us who care for Palestinian lives and rights must show up publicly. But I am not against Israelis or Jewish people, not at all. I do believe that the Palestinian flag must be able to fly as freely and proudly as the Israeli flag and I do believe that the Israeli flag must be able to fly in safety and friendship with the proud and free Palestinian flag. You do not have to tell me all the ways this imagined future would be hard, hard, hard to get to. But they have to figure this out — Israelis and Palestinians — and from the Palestinians and Israelis I know, I believe that they have the capacity despite their deep fear, distrust, anger, and grief. Certainly both sides know fear, distrust, anger, and grief, know how each of these feels! At this time, however, Palestinians have lost a lot more — have suffered at least a factor of 30 more casualties of children, women, people, homes — and Israelis have grabbed a lot more. An honest and fair give and take will be hard, hard, hard.
     At the demonstration, pro-Palestine demonstrators carried Palestinian flags, pro-Israel demonstrators carried Israeli flags. I had a watermelon slice pin on my bag. Could I have put a blue Star of David next to it? No. At this time, the extreme asymmetry of power, influence, constraint, and suffering, dictates that I must unambiguously show my support for Palestinian lives and rights. 
     Perhaps one day I can wear a slice of watermelon pin or a Palestinian flag pin proudly next to a blue Star of David pin or an Israeli flag pin at a celebration of a fair and viable peace, in which the next generation of Israelis will know Arabic in addition to Hebrew and read the poems of Mahmoud Darwish, and Palestinian children — already often bilingual in Arabic and Hebrew — will analyze and understand the history of their region not only through the work of Palestinian writers but through the novels of Amos Oz and David Grossman. This is a dream that is realizable.