Tema Okun

Illustration by Ellen O’Grady

Unimaginable atrocities in Israel and Gaza are still unraveling at the time of this post. Many of us are grappling with the conflict, and mourning a staggering loss of life. We reached out to Tema Okun, a member of Jewish Voice for Peace, to shed light on the situation:

On October 7th Hamas attacked Israel, resulting in brutal murders, sexual violence, and kidnappings. In retaliation, the Israeli government relentlessly bombarded Gaza, killing thousands of Palestinians, largely women and children. Shock from this death toll and cruelty is widespread, accompanied by confusion about the reasons and origins for this violence. What are your thoughts here?

The challenge is how many people assume that what happened on October 7th was the beginning or the start of this conflict. Framing what happened as a terrorist act by Hamas doesn't really address the larger context. The people living in Palestine - the West Bank and Gaza - have been living under a very oppressive Occupation, a growing enactment of apartheid, for a very long time. And yet there's an algorithm, or a set of unspoken rules, that requires those of us who want to talk about this context to mention first how appalling the October 7th attacks were. If we don’t start by condemning Hamas, then we are accused of being anti-Semitic. Talking about Israel's decades and decades of illegal land grab, demolition and destruction of Palestinian homes and infrastructure, kidnapping and detention of Palestinians without cause, limiting movement into and out of the Occupied Territories, opening and closing checkpoints, the building of a Wall, particularly one that deliberately ignored recognized borders - this is positioned as disloyal and anti-Semitic.

There is a double standard at play here. As soon as we start with the premise that Hamas is a terrorist organization and we don’t talk about how Israel enacts violence on a daily basis, then we are no longer able to understand what is really happening. And let me say here, because I know it needs to be said, that I do not condone what Hamas has done. I abhor what Hamas did. And if I abhor what Hamas did, I have to abhor what Israel is doing. The premise that Israel is justified in its level of violence because it is responding to what Hamas did completely ignores what history tells us over and over again; we do not defeat violence with even more violence. What Israel is doing now makes each and every one of us decidedly much less safe. The world is watching and Israel is isolating itself, the U.S. is isolating itself, in this continued genocidal attack on Palestinian families whose only crime is that they live in Gaza.

I keep wondering, what does it require for us to understand that Palestinian mothers love their children as much as we love ours. That Palestinian fathers love their children as much as we love ours. That Palestinians live their lives with the same aspirations and hopes as most of us do - they want to love and be loved, laugh, eat, enjoy their work and their play, be creative, study. Israel and the West do a good job of dehumanizing Palestinians. A few days ago I watched a video of a high-ranking Israeli government official declaring that every Palestinian is an enemy of Israel. He was very specific. Every Palestinian baby, he said, every woman, every pregnant woman, every child, every single Palestinian is an enemy of Israel and of Jewish people. It took my breath away. Only two generations out from Nazi Germany, people representing Jews and Judaism are mirroring the hateful things that people were saying about us less than a century ago.

You said that the occupation of Palestine started 80 years ago. Are you questioning the creation of Israel?

I question, as any anti-Zionist does, whether a state is in the best interests of the Jewish people and Judaism. Establishing a state, at least in the way that Israel has done, has required that state to illegally occupy the West Bank and Gaza for decades, to make enemies of Palestinians, and to participate in a kind of othering that should be anathema to us as Jews. 

I challenge anyone from this country to spend a week in Palestine and say they’d be willing to live under Occupation. Palestine is a wonderful, magical place in spite of Occupation; the culture is very alive, the food is delicious, people are friendly and welcoming. The markets are fabulous, full of fresh vegetables and fruit, handmade bread and sweets, exquisite embroidery. I love spending time there.

And when I go, like the Palestinians I am visiting, I have to navigate checkpoints deep within the West Bank, not just at the border. Like the Palestinians I am visiting, I have to drive on apartheid roads built specifically for Jewish settlers. Like the Palestinians I am visiting, I have to be ready to change plans at a moment’s notice when Israeli soldiers decide to arbitrarily close a checkpoint so they can smoke a cigarette or eat lunch or sometimes just because they can. At the checkpoints, I see young Israeli soldiers, 18 years old, deciding on a whim to take a break, making pregnant women and children, those trying to get to hospital or to work, elderly men and women wait in the hot sun for hours. I grew up in the last years of Jim Crow. And I would say that Israeli Occupation is the equivalent of Jim Crow on steroids.

The Palestinian experience is one of having land taken, farms poisoned, houses demolished, and lives disrupted. The Israeli government's actions, including indiscriminate killings and arrests, contribute to a deep-seated hatred of oppression, not antisemitism. I am a member of Jewish Voice for Peace; we are explicitly anti-Zionist because we believe that a Jewish state is not in the best interests of Jews or Judaism. We are anti-Zionist out of a love for our fellow Jews and Judaism. And we reject absolutely any idea that anti-Zionism is antisemitism. The accusation that they are the same comes from those who want to silence any and all criticism of Israel at a time when Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I know that many Jews are frightened or alienated by the word - anti-Zionist. This is because those who want uncritical support for Israel have created a narrative suggesting that to be Jewish and anti-Zionist is a hateful stance. I find it to be just the opposite. Every Jewish person I know who is anti-Zionist came to that position or belief out of a deep love for Jewish people and traditions, all of which we feel are deeply threatened by what Israel has been doing for decades to maintain illegal and inhumane Occupation of hundreds of thousands of people. Put more simply, we love Jewish people, Jewish traditions, and Judaism more than we love the state of Israel, and our concern is how many seem to be willing to forsake the very things that make us Jewish in the name of a state.

You said we will never recover from this, have you lost hope for peace?

What gives me hope are the people who come out day after day to claim our mutual and shared humanity. To advocate for Palestinian rights is to advocate for humanity. The most loving thing I can do in relationship with Israel is to hold them accountable and say - Stop. Please stop. Just stop. What you are doing is not good for Israel, not good for Palestine, not good for any Jew, not good for anyone. People inside Israel who speak out against the government are also giving me hope.

As a Jew I have a responsibility to speak out when such horrendous things are being done in my name, supposedly for my safety.

The central tenet of Judaism is to not do to others what we would not want done to ourselves. Everything Israel is doing right now is a violation of this tenet. My stand in solidarity with Palestine and my anti-Zionism are a result of my love for myself, for other Jews, for Judaism, for the Palestinian people, and for all people.

I have always associated Jewish values and Judaism with social justice, with tikkun olam (healing the world), and as I witness what Israel is doing in my name and in our name, I am heartbroken and angry. There is no justification, regardless of what some Jewish institutions and leaders say. There is no justification for this level of violence, cruelty, and inhumanity.

Let me say that again and be absolutely clear. No person in touch with their own humanity can possibly think the violence, the withholding of food and water, the dispossession and dislocation, the demonizing of other humans is justified. My commitment is to call all of us back to ourselves, back to a love of and for each other. I am so proud to be part of Jewish Voice for Peace as we show up again and again to fight for the Judaism we know is possible and the world we know is possible.

War seems to be a perpetual part of human experience. What are your thoughts on how we can possibly change it? Is there a way out or we are doomed?

I don’t pretend to know the answer to this question. I do think that addressing the perpetual cycle of war requires a shift towards creating communities and nations that prioritize caring for each other rather than power and wealth. Judaism's core values emphasize caring for strangers, making it tragic to witness this ongoing justification for cruelty. The goal is not to give up on Judaism but to reject any version that justifies genocide.

I want Jewish people to understand that the fear of being wiped out that so many say we feel, that fear is what Palestinians are living in real time right now. Our fear for our own survival should spark empathy in us rather than this organized violent hatred. I encourage all reading this, Jewish or not, to reclaim a commitment to loving the stranger as ourselves, knowing how hard this is and doing it anyway.