What BDS Activists COULD Learn from George Costanza

(CLERMONT, FL) - Jason Alexander, the “actor/director/producer/author/magician/poker guy” who played GEORGE COSTANZA on “SEINFELD” is also the spokesman and representative for One Voice, a grassroots organization of Israelis and Palestinians committed to a peaceful, two-state solution in the Middle East.

The Jewish National Fund of Canada is featuring “GEORGE COSTANZA” as their headline entertainer at its June 4th fundraiser in Winnipeg at the Centennial Concert Hall.

Jason added, “I will commend everyone for the good works that they do and I will remind them - ALL OF THEM - that there is pain and suffering on all sides in this conflict and that everyone - EVERYONE - needs to do more to consider their actions and end the aggression and violence. That is the message I always bring…I challenge you to share your experiences on the ground, in the region. Not the secondhand ones that get reported to you. I'd like to hear your real, verifiable, on the ground stories.”

Having been to both sides of The Wall in Israel Palestine seven times since 2005, I TWEETED Jason and he RESPECTFULLY replied!

My mantra is DO SOMETHING because knowledge brings responsibility, but I also am an optimistic idealist, so I am IMAGINING that Jason could be following in the footsteps of the Hebrew prophets who used humor to get their message through.

Jason also stated, “My role in this conflict is to communicate to others the real experiences for those who cannot get their voices heard. Merely telling people to boycott or shut up or back down or go away -- will do nothing to end the suffering or increase the understanding. If you don't like what an organization does, then it is your responsibility to engage them, respectfully, and work to change their direction and understanding. That is what advocacy is - not silence.”

Only through respectful dialogue and NOT playing the blame game can we ever achieve the win-win: Justice for Palestine and Security for Israel.

During my seven trips to Israel Palestine to learn and support NONVIOLENT Palestinians and Israelis who work in solidarity to end the occupation by honoring international law and upholding the equal human rights of all people, I always asked: “What can I do to really help?”  

"The formula is simple and it's reduced to four words every kid in the world knows: Tell me a story. It's that easy."-Don Hewitt

What follows is a story I learned from Dr. Ilan Pappe, when he spoke in East Jerusalem, on Nov. 8, 2006 at the Notre Dame Conference center to over 330 International ecumenical Christians during Sabeel's 6th International Conference: The Forgotten Faithful: AKA Palestinian Christians regarding “The Red House.”

Dr. Pappe is Israeli born and a graduate of Hebrew University and Oxford and he was then teaching at Haifa University.

He is also a well-known revisionist or "post-Zionist" Israeli historian who has been both acclaimed and demonized.

In “A History of Modern Palestine: One Land, Two Peoples” he documents the expulsion of Palestinians as an orchestrated crime of ethnic cleansing. 

Dr. Pappe explained that in Tel Aviv "on March 10, 1948, eleven men had a meeting in the Red House headed by Ben Gurion. The eleven decided to expel one million Palestinians from historical Palestine.

"No minutes were taken, but many memoirs were written about that fateful meeting. A systematic ethnic cleansing of Palestine began and within seven months the Zionists managed to expel one half of all the Palestinian people from their villages and towns.  

"The Red House in Tel Aviv is gone now. It was a typical building in Tel Aviv that had all the characteristics of Mediterranean homes but with the local Palestinian architecture of the '20's. Today a USA Sheraton Hotel stands in its place.

"The Red House was the home of the Hagganah; a Jewish underground organization but before 1948 it was the home of a socialist movement, from which it received its name."

Haganah is Hebrew for "The Defense" and was a Jewish paramilitary organization formed in what was then the British Mandate for Palestine from 1920 to 1948.

It began as a small group of Jewish immigrants who guarded settlements for an annual fee. At no time did the group have more than 100 members until after the Arab riots of 1920 and 1921.

The Jewish leadership in Palestine believed that the British, whom the League of Nations had given the Mandate of Palestine in 1920, had no desire to confront the Arabs about attacks on the Palestinian Jews, and thus created the Haganah to protect their farmers and settlements.

The initial role of the Haganah was to guard the Jewish Kibbutzim and farms, and to warn the residents of and repel attacks by Palestinian Arabs.

"In the period between 1920 and 1929, the Haganah lacked a strong central authority or coordination. Haganah "units" were very localized and poorly armed: they consisted mainly of Jewish farmers who took turns guarding their farms or their kibbutzim. Following the Arab 1929 Hebron massacre that led to the ethnic cleansing by the British authorities of all Jews from the city of Hebron, the Haganah's role changed dramatically.

"It became a much larger organization encompassing nearly all the youth and adults in the Jewish settlements, as well as thousands of members from the cities. It also acquired foreign arms and began to develop workshops to create hand grenades and simple military equipment. It went from being an untrained militia to a capable army." [1]

The British did not officially recognize the Haganah, but the British security forces cooperated with it by forming the Jewish Settlement Police, Jewish Auxiliary Forces and Special Night Squads.

By 1931, the most right-wing elements of Haganah branched off and formed Irgun Tsva'i-Leumi (the National Military Organization), better known as "Irgun" or by its Hebrew acronym, pronounced "HaEtsel".

They were discontented with the policy of restraint when faced with British and Arab pressure and "terrorists" in their own right.

Irgun later split in 1940, and their offshoot became known as the "Lehi" (Hebrew acronym of Lochamei Herut Israel, standing for Freedom Fighters of Israel, and also known by the British as the "Stern Gang" after its leader, Abraham Stern).  

Because the British severely restricted Jewish immigration to Palestine, in 1939 the Haganah created the Palmach - the Haganah's strike force, which also organized illegal Jewish immigration of over 100,000 Jews to Palestine.  

In 1944, in response to the assassination of Lord Moyne (the British Minister of State for the Middle East) by members of the Jewish Lehi underground, the Haganah worked with the British to round up, interrogate, and, in some cases, deport Irgun members.

This action was called the Saison (or hunting season), and seriously demoralized the Irgun and reduced its activities.  

The Saison could not stop the Irgun, Haganah and the Stern Group from working together.

The three groups had different functions, which served to move the British out of Palestine and to make Palestine a "Jewish State" rather than create a Jewish home in Palestine.

"In fact, there is a division of roles; One organization advocates individual terrorism (the Lehi), the other conducts sporadic military operations (the Irgun) and there is a third organisation which prepares itself to throw its final weight in the decisive war." [2]

According to Dr. Pappe, "The New York Times followed Israeli troops and reported the truth of the expulsion and separation of men and women, and of the many massacres. The world was well informed in 1948, but a year later not a trace was reported in the USA press or books. It was as if nothing ever happened.  "

"From March to October 1948 the USA State Department stated what was happening was a CRIME against humanity and ethnic cleansing.

"When ever one ethnic group expels another group they should be treated as War Criminals and the victims should be allowed to return.

"Israel is so successful in their ethnic cleansing because the world doesn't care!

"The ethnic cleansing continues via the apartheid policies of the Israeli government and because of the denial of the truth by the USA media.  

"The Six Day War of 1967 escalated the ethnic cleansing and today in Jerusalem every Palestinian who fails to pay taxes, or has a minor infraction will loose their citizenship.  

"In 1948 the mechanism of denial and ethnic cleansing as an IDEOLOGY, not a policy but a formula began.

"When Zionism began in the 19th century it was meant to be a safe haven for Jews and to help redefine Judaism as a national movement, not just a religion. Nothing wrong with either of those goals!

"But by the late 19th Century it was decided the only way these goals could be achieved was by ridding the indigenous population and it became an evil ideology.  

"Israeli Jewish life will never be simple, good, or worth living while this ideology of domination, exclusiveness and superiority is allowed to continue. The mind set today is that unless Israel is an exclusive Jewish State, Palestinians will continue to be obstacles.

"However, there has always been a small vocal minority challenging this.   The only thing that can save Palestinians is for the world to say ENOUGH is ENOUGH!

"The way to challenge and change the ethnic cleansing is to pursue true democracy and the use of sanctions and divestment, for money talks."

I will be listening to Jason with prayers, hopes and wishes that he will be able to tear down walls with humor because the walls in men’s hearts and minds must fall before man-made walls ever can!