"From A Zionist Upbringing to Weekly anti-Wall Protests" -- Tali Shapiro

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Our Cause

I’m a closet freedom fighter. For three months now, I’ve joined the weekly demonstrations in the village of Bil’in. My father doesn’t know. For many Israelis the West Bank is "enemy territory". Personally, I was just desperate to meet Palestinians. In the flesh, with my own eyes. Once would never be enough. Once would give a shallow impression. So every week, for the past three months, I’ve been discovering these people. Palestinians aren’t the devil, they aren’t saints, either. They are, however, human… I’m sure daddy would be shocked.

Here’s a story of another daddy. After the protest, we usually sit with our friend (I’ll keep his name to myself, if you don’t mind), who is usually up-beat and up for conversation. He was like this when I met him 3 months ago, he was like this a day after the IDF kidnapped his son in the middle of the night, and he was like this a week after the kidnapping. He was like this today, as well, but at some point, his son’s arrest was brought up. He started telling us how they carried his son out of the house, how he could hear him screaming as the soldiers beat him. Then this 50 year old man started to cry.

That’s just one story. My friend would tell you hundreds more, if you just sat on his porch for tea.

A typical Israeli would wish me hung in the square for cavorting with the "other side". We have only one thing in common; I also see sides: Human beings and the human beings who are programmed to kill them. Today, more than ever, it’s clear to me that I don’t protest in solidarity with "their cause". This is my cause- our cause.


Through the Prism of Freedom

In my writing, I continue a constant process of learning. Each article requires research on issues and details I have yet to explore. Be it history, current events, politics, or culture, it all seems to tie in. It was through the issue of Palestine that I would find my own politics and beliefs make sense, or that I’m political at all! I would find that there are others that think as I do, and that unlike any other type of politics, these politics discriminate against no one. The world has opened up to me, and I’m no longer afraid. I can only describe it as enlightenment.

Throughout the last nine months I’ve been reassessing my experiences and education through a new prism. I call it the prism of freedom, because once you look at Israel from the outside, you realize that everything you were taught – Zionism, "love of the land" (in the "revived" Zionist Hebrew, the words "land", "country" and "state" are completely interchangeable), "serving your country", "loyalty", "patriotism" - is all a nationalist lie that serves to make you into a killing machine. These lies have been practiced before, throughout history and geography, and they embody the banality of evil. When you can see the lies, you are free.