Letter to a Zionist...

[Violet_Crumble]

by Justin Podur
November 20, 2003


It's been almost a year. Do you remember it? It was a speaking event like any other but it sticks out in my mind even now. A friend from the International Solidarity Movement had come back from the Occupied Territories and was giving his report. Others offered some analysis of the situation there. It was well attended. I was the moderator.

As at any event about Israel/Palestine, there were some in the crowd who were purveyors of nonsense or worse. For example, the first person to speak during the question period told a bizarre story about how Israelis were harvesting the organs of Palestinians and how there were no Jews in the World Trade Center. I dismissed the stories as anti-Semitic conspiracy theorizing.

You, on the other hand, had serious concerns. When it was your turn, you identified yourself as a Zionist, and made a comment and announcement instead of asking a question. Afterwards, you came up to me and we argued for a while. Eventually I ended the interaction, saying: "There is no way we are going to agree even on the most basic things." You said: "I think we could if we had a few hours."

I suppose I remember the event in detail because I remember admiring your patience. You came and sat through about two hours of talk with which you must have very strongly disagreed.

http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=22&ItemID=4529