My Apartheid Tour

Tel Aviv is a very cool, walkable city right on the beach. I really enjoyed my “quarantine” time there. A 2-hour train ride took me from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. And so began my trip to Apartheid Israel. I am well aware that this is not the thing to say out loud in mixed crowds. But I saw what I saw and I’m not buying the Zionist party line. Having been persecuted does not ever justify persecuting others. Ever. Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela understood that. Most Israelis that I spoke with share these feelings too. They protest regularly.

The Israeli government has been controlled by a right wing minority of Zionists for a long time. Palestinians have lived in horrific conditions for three generations under that government. I spent a full day in Palestine and the West Bank behind the 20 foot concrete wall. I saw where Palestinian children were gunned down by Israeli snipers. I saw the community in abject poverty and the huge settlements of illegal housing that surrounds them. These aren’t little shacks; it’s huge 3-story homes. The settlements are on hills above the Palestinians. They literally throw garbage down on them. I saw it. The Palestinians had to put up protective netting over their market. It’s just appalling. They also control the water that goes to the Palestinians. They can turn it off and on. Zionists settlers have unlimited water supply. One Israeli I spoke with later said she felt the the Zionists are treating the Palestinians as badly as they were treated before the holocaust. By the end of the day I was in tears.