We are telling the wrong stories in relation to violence in Israel-Palestine. A historical overview can open up a new story; one in which we mourn all deaths together.

Things I’ve read / watched recently:

A video of an excellent Zoom talk organised by the fairly new group – Progressive Jews for Justice in Israel/Palestine. It contains contributions from 4 young British Jewish leaders who critique the response of the community, and in particular Progressive Judaism, to the Gaza war.

A very enjoyable read: Isaac Asimov on Dominationist Ethnonationalism about a furious argument with Elie Wiesel.

This Jewish Currents podcast on secularism, featuring older Jewish secularists furious that the magazine has introduced a Parashat Hashavua (Torah portion of the week) has produced much debate and is well worth listening to. This one on conflicts over politics in synagogues is also great.

I recently read Leon Rosselson’s memoirs, Where are the Elephants? It’s a great read, and well worth engaging with for anyone on the British / Jewish left, especially if you’re interested in political songwriting.

Do get in touch if there are subjects you’d like me to write on in future

(10-15 minutes reading time)

There has been, in the last two months, two different stories, told by two groups of people. The Jewish/Israeli story is ‘October 7^th’; a day repeated on loop in the Israeli media. In this narrative the Israeli victims of the day are the only ones remembered, in addition to soldiers who have died since then ‘because of October 7^th’. This is then placed in the context of a longer story, of Jewish and Israeli deaths over the last 100 years. In contrast, the Palestinian/Palestinian Solidarity story is ‘the genocide’; an approach which sometimes treats the war in Gaza as if did not arise because of October 7^th and was simply a continuation of Israeli attempts to ethnically cleanse Palestinians. This is placed in the wider context of Palestinian deaths and expulsion since the Nakba.  This narrative inevitably only mourns the dead in Gaza – understandable given how large the death toll there is – and does not consider Israeli victims of Hamas.1 What if we brought these narratives together, as part of a single story? What if we could mourn all of them, and treat them all as mutual victims of war, nationalism and empire?

What a British Jewish politician from 100 years ago can teach us about anti-Zionism and antisemitism

This is the 6^th Torat Albion essay. It has a more historical bent to the others and relates to my academic research more closely. Thank you for subscribing or reading, and I hope you’re enjoying the journey. I’d love this to feel like a community of enquiry rather than just a top-down initiative, so please do post your thoughts as comments or send them to me by email. If I can, I’ll incorporate your thoughts into future pieces. At some point I hope to create a Torat Albion podcast, to discuss the issues in the week’s essay with some guests, thus furthering the dialogue. And do share the posts with others who you think might be interested.

Things to read (I don’t necessarily agree with everything in them):

A rich piece on the history of the Venetian ghetto in the LRB.

A provocative but enlightening piece on philosemitism and the White House by Em Cohen

A fascinating read from August 2023 on Israel’s bizarre futurist neo-liberal plans for rail lines across the middle east

A detailed overview of developments within the anti-antisemitism movement over the past 15 years from Adam Sutcliffe

A thought-provoking collection of essays from 2022 on Palestinians imagining futures beyond the model of the nation state (free book)