Chag Pesach Sameach (happy Passover). Passover seders traditionally end with the declaration, “Next year in Jerusalem!” Here is the blessing I offer this year, in solidarity with Palestinians organizing for liberation: Next year in a free Jerusalem, in a free Palestine.
I believe in safety through solidarity. I believe Jewish liberation is inherently tied to Palestinian liberation. As a Jewish person, as a Columbia University alum, as a college professor, as an antifascist community organizer, and as a member of the Charlottesville Virginia collective antifascist resistance to the 2017 “Unite the Right” attacks, I am here to say that I want freedom. I want liberation. I want a world in which students organize against all forms of fascism, towards shared visions of justice, and receive support and care and collaboration from those who claim to be educators. I want a world in which we know we can and must fight Islamophobia and antisemitism in tandem, a world in which we know anti-Zionism is not antisemitism, a world in which we resist false victimization narratives that twist the very real need to protect Jewish people into manipulative attempts to protect Jewish nationalism. I resist white Christian nationalism and fascist moves for a white Christian ethno-state in the U.S.; I resist Christian Zionism and Jewish Zionism; I resist U.S. backing of Israeli aggression; I resist Jewish nationalism and fascist moves for a Jewish ethno-state. I resist genocide.
I will not be free until Palestinians are free. Stop the genocide now. Next year in a free Jerusalem, in a free Palestine.
