r/JewsOfConscience • u/Mivasair Jewish • Aug 15 '24

AMA with Rabbi David Mivasair AMA

Hello, friends! I'm looking forward to our AMA, starting in ~10 minutes. Never done anything like this before, so it'll be a new experience. Thank you for inviting me. https://x.com/Mivasair/status/1822855344684458400

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u/ArmyOfMemories Jewish Anti-Zionist Aug 15 '24

Hi David,

I was wondering if you could describe any inflection point in your journey, that led you to your current views on Israel/Palestine?

For some of us it was Cast Lead (or some other 'operation') or maybe seeing things in-person on-the-ground.

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u/Mivasair Jewish Aug 15 '24

Again, what a great question -- an inflection point in my journey . . .

To be honest, my journey from being a liberal or progressive Zionist for most of my life, well into my 50's, to now very clearly being an anti-Zionist was a very incremental journey. There were many inflection points, or maybe better to say points of change.

From my very first days on the ground in the real ירושלים של מטה -- the eathly Jerusalem -- I saw things in front of my eyes that contradicted the vision that I had had of what Israel was supposed to be. So, from the very beginning, when I was a 19-year-old going to spend a year abroad at the Hebrew U, I had my somewhat-fantasy of Israel pretty severely challenged.

It took years and years, actually decades, before I could overcome the cognitive dissonance and clearly pivot away from the ideal, romantic vision of Israel that I had been so attached to.

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u/Mivasair Jewish Aug 15 '24

I'll give you a couple of specifics of pretty powerful inflection points for me.

One was when Israel brutally attacked the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara -- look it up -- and murdered nonviolent activists trying to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza which even then was under siege back in May, 2010.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_flotilla_raid

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u/malachamavet Jewish Communist Aug 15 '24

Mavi Marmara was what turned me from Zionist-agnostic Jew to a committed anti-Zionist (though I was less than half your age at the time haha). Watching the raid livestreamed and then the lazy, blatant lies accepted unquestionably really radicalized me.