When There Seems to Be No Solution
How might our attention, connection, and imagination find a way through
Yesterday I woke up to a message from a dear Israeli friend. She’s someone who found my book, Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame very useful to her, and wrote to me sharing her excitement back in 2010. She wanted to invite me to come give a talk about teaching socially engaged art at her school in Haifa, Israel, but I said “no” because of my participation in the cultural boycott. She responded by saying that “there are leftwing Israelis who need to hear from people like you,” and I said that I’d be willing to be in conversation with them, but not in Israel. A couple of years later, she invited me to speak on a panel at a conference in Rome. We shared a room in a tiny hotel and spent many hours together during that trip. We had many political discussions about the rise of the right wing in Israel, especially among settlers moving into the West Bank, and the increasing apartheid structures, including the massive walls and intense check-points, that have been put in place since I spent time living on a kibbutz in 1972. My friend spoke with dismay about the dwindling numbers of leftwing Israelis, the militaristic regime of Netanyahu, and the painful decision that her son had to make: would he go to prison for his pacifist beliefs or follow his orders to serve in the military? I really felt for her and her family.
A year later, we tried to collaborate on a project that she initiated to assess students processes in relation to socially engaged art projects, but for various reasons, it never was completed. After that, we lost touch. I still stayed aware of events in Israel/Palestine and was encouraged by the rise in activism against the Netanyahu regime, but became discouraged and enraged every time I learned about more bombing in Gaza.
Recently, after the events of October 7th, I reached out to this friend on Facebook to find out how she was doing. I was sad to learn that the pro-Palestinian, ceasefire, and anti-war posts on Facebook’s Arts for Change page had been so triggering for her. She said that she felt that the Jewish leftists and other progressives in North America had abandoned her and her fellow Israelis who have been terrified about more surprise attacks from Hamas. Given that she and many others who have been against Netanyahu's racist and apartheid policies, and are in the line of fire, much more immediately than most of us are, I have taken some time to gather my thoughts before posting them here. They are imperfect. I welcome responses that may make them more nuanced, particularly ones that open my lens wider.
Being against the current state/military policies of both the US and Israel, and the current genocide in Gaza, does not mean that we are against Israelis (although some of the art and articles posted in my FB group, Arts for Change, may seem skewed that way). It's obvious that we may not be seeing the same media. I’ve read some contradictory and inflammatory stories that only increase the polarization, reactionary responses, and suffering. In times like these, we need to use all of our critical thinking skills so we don't become victims of an intense propaganda war.
At the same time, I know artists in Gaza who have lost their families, their homes, and their lives in this current conflict, and I'm horrified that it continues, creating terror in the hearts of so many. I'm horrified that journalists keep being targeted. I grieve for all the innocent lives that are being sacrificed in this insanity and the mental/emotional scars that will likely continue for many lifetimes. I'm grieving for everyone, Palestinian, Israeli, and all those who have volunteered to be there, who cannot escape what is going on.
My two visits to Israel in my youth (in 1969 and later in 1972) taught me that Palestinians were human beings deserving of human rights (I may write more about those experiences in a future post), and as I learned more about the Nakba, became friends with Palestinians living abroad, and developed a deeper understanding of the oppression that Palestinians face daily, not just in Israel, I became an ardent advocate for Palestinian rights. I made art about the racist attitudes I heard from right wing Israelis and family members, but gave up trying to change their minds. When unhealed trauma guides reactions and actions, one has to step away and care for oneself and for those who are open to learning.
From the series, √Other: Breaking Out of the Box, 2001, digital painting & text piece
It is not that I am blind to what happened on October 7th. It was terrifying and devastating on so many levels, but the current military response does not heal that trauma. It seems to have no purpose other than a lethal expression of arrogant megalomania, racism, and cruelty that makes many us cringe at what some humans have become. It creates more trauma for generations to come (Gabor Maté and others have spoken powerfully about this). There's been 75 years of trauma since the Nakba; those years have shaped the extremism of Hamas, but it’s important to mention that Netanyahu and his minions' helped Hamas grow in power and eliminated the competition. If we look at the conflict historically, we can see that the creation of the Israeli state by European powers who did not want to deal with "their Jews" and the shame that they carried about the Holocaust has put multiple generations in the current mess, reacting defensively out of fear.
I don't have an easy answer for how to solve this. There needs to be a way to remove the $$$ made from bloodshed and bloodlust (all those weapons manufacturers and their investors are cashing in). We need to remove those in power who benefit from victimizing both Israeli citizens and those who are Palestinian. We need more and more opportunities for those who are in a "reactionary freeze response" to see those whom they consider as "other" as human beings. And how will that be done? What non-governmental agency can take this on? Can legions of peaceful grandmothers or followers of Thich Nhat Hanh's lineage do this or the beautiful resistance movements that have arisen in indigenous and Black communities?
At the moment, it may seem like a fool's quest, an idealistic dream, but perhaps it is one of the ways to reimagine this moment and as artists that may be one of our tasks now. In fact, artists have been trying to do this for decades, but the projects have not yet reached enough people. Perhaps with social media they can reach more now or maybe the overwhelm people are carrying will cancel out whatever we try to launch. I really don't know, but I keep putting one foot in front of the other, and keep taking the next breath. We need embodied gatherings where we can breathe each others' air, feel each others embodied energy, and hug each other. Otherwise, worse catastrophes and nightmares will continue to knock at the doors of so many.
There are people waking up during this conflict, and that is encouraging. It is encouraging to see my fellow members of the Jewish Voice for Peace out on the street with allies. The deep Jewish value of “tikkun olam” (repairing the world by working for social justice) that is an ancestral thread on one side of my family has become more visible in my social media bubble, and it is encouraging to see some of the personal stories being posted daily - I hope that more people can see them and hear how compassion is awakening more and more folks. Thanks to my Arab-American artist friend, Doris Bittar, for posting this video today.
To my Israeli friend, it may seem that no one sees the suffering of the Israeli people, but in the circles that I am part of, that is always being considered. There is deep empathy for what it means to be manipulated by a ruling class that does not care for the people, who is driven by revenge, a deep reactionary and maladaptive trauma response, that rains harm on others. The intense moral corruption that drives people like Netanyahu, Putin, Trump, and others to create bigger nightmares on the daily is hard to fathom. In Israel, there are repercussions for Jewish Israelis speaking out against the State. People are losing jobs and some are being jailed, and, of course, it has been much worse for Palestinians for a long, long time.
May we all have the courage and strength to navigate these times, and find ways to stand in our power. May we use our creative tools to reimagine the world and help others who need to heal from trauma. May we find ways to create more peace, kindness, and compassion in our daily lives.
Thank you, great read. A complicated and confusing situation brought clearer by you and I appreciate your thought "When unhealed trauma guides reactions and actions, one has to step away and care for oneself and for those who are open to learning." very nice. Peace.
I very much appreciate your voice, your art, here. I grew up in South Florida. When I was a child, I had an Aunt Lil and Uncle Jack who were Jewish. I believed they were my actual aunt and uncle. Their sons and I and my siblings played together. I loved them. One of my best friends in college was Jewish. We played volleyball together, I tutored her in school, we spent hours at her house, her mother preparing one of my favorites, "eggs and onions" which we ate ravenously on Ritz crackers. You don't grow up in SoFlo without knowing and loving Jewish people. So my heart goes out to the anti-zionists, their feeling of invisibility and their vulnerability for retaliation. Nevertheless, I have Palestinian friends; artists and poets, some were our volunteers, some in my circle. As a child of a dispora, grandparents fleeing occupation and genocide and famine, then landing on other stolen land, I feel an obligation to work for peace and right wrongs. I wrote about this in February 2022. How we have just been ignoring Palestine, Syria, the Congo...the world at a loss for peace. I have no answers, except to amplify voices and continue to teach resistance...using art and curiosity and tools to discern sources and propaganda from truth.