|
Jewish ‘Raging Grannies’ protest
peace movement’s anti-Semitism
By Lauren Krugel OpEdNews.com
Raging Grannies (from left to right) Deborah Gorham, Alma
Norman and Kareen Jackson in their garish granny-esque garb. (Photo:
Lauren Krugel)
On the fifth day of Passover, three women sit in Nate’s
Delicatessen on Rideau Street sipping from bottomless cups of coffee and
noshing from a colourful spread of matzah and gefilte fish.
They wear buttons with peace signs and, like many
people are doing these days, discuss the political situation in the Middle
East in excited tones accentuated by grandiose hand gestures.
Until recently, Alma Norman, Deborah Gorham and Kareen
Jackson were actively involved with the Raging Grannies, a group of
women over the age of 55 who demonstrate for peace and social justice
issues. They show up to demonstrations in garish, granny-esque garb and
sing political ditties.
Now, two have left the group and the other refuses to
walk with the Grannies at anti-war demonstrations because of the growing
anti-Semitism in the protest movement.
It all began with a protest on March 22 – just as
America was poised to invade Iraq. Norman says she and her cohorts were
glad to see both a rabbi and a mullah give speeches at the protest. After
that the mood shifted.
"After the rabbi this woman came on and delivered
the most inflammatory anti-Israel, anti-Zionist speech," says Norman.
"It was disgusting."
The woman gave a speech on behalf of the Palestinian
people. While the protest was to have centred on the situation in Iraq,
according to Norman, this woman used this platform to portray Israel as a
state guilty of the worst human rights abuses.
When Norman tried to approach this woman she says,
"she wouldn’t talk to us, she just sneered and walked away."
The three women agree that there has been a lot of
similar anti-Israel views expressed at peace rallies, marches and on
university campuses.
Gorham remembers one protester who held up a sign
reading "Zionism stinks." She approached the protester and
"told her that the sign stunk." In France, she says, there have
even been signs with stars of David superimposed onto swastikas.
"I’ve been getting a shorter and shorter fuse
lately," says Gorham.
Norman, Gorham and Jackson rushed over to comfort the
rabbi after the woman gave her speech, as he looked visibly distraught.
Jackson asked him what the group should do. He suggested the Grannies hold
a meeting to discuss the anti-Israel, anti-Zionist speech.
Norman and Gorham decided to leave the march after the
offending speech. Norman wrote a letter to the Grannies outlining her
concerns and brought it up at an emergency meeting. The meeting was not a
success.
Norman says another Granny "scolded us like we
were school children for walking away from this thing. When I consider
that for 60 years I’ve been involved in social protest, I don’t need
someone telling me how to act.
We were criticized for our political act but our
personal hurt as a member of this group was never acknowledged."
Except for one other Granny, no one expressed any
support. Norman says Grannies fall under two groups: those who are
vehemently anti-Israel, and those who feel as though the issue of the
Middle East is completely out of their hands and don’t want anything to
do with it.
While all three of the Jewish Grannies consider
themselves Zionists, it does not mean they have not been critical of
Israel’s occupation.
Gorham wrote a letter to the group, Nowar/Paix,
the group in charge of the March 22 protest in which she expressed her
position. In it she wrote, "I support the position that Israel should
get out of the occupied territories immediately; I oppose Sharon’s
policy of seeking revenge after every suicide bombing against Israelis.
"But the suicide bombers are terrorists. Israel
does have a right to exist. I support moderates on both sides of the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict who seek a peaceful solution."
The problem, it seems, is that the very definition of
Zionism has been skewed within the anti-war movement.
"Zionism has nothing to do with war, has nothing
to do with being anti-Palestinian," says Norman. "It’s a
Jewish homeland."
Norman says her position on the conflict does not come
without flack from the Jewish community too.
"There’s someone in my shul who won’t talk to
me because I have expressed positive views about the Palestinians,"
she says. "He’s convinced that all Palestinians want to destroy
Israel and kill all Jews."
The problem, according to Norman is the fact that there
is no Jewish peace movement that adequately expresses hers and the other
Jewish Grannies’ sentiments.
"The problem is that people who consider
themselves Jews against the occupation tend to be solidly pro-Palestinian
and anti-Israel and that is the thing that makes it difficult for me to
relate to them," she says.
While Gorham says she believes the Jewish group, Peace
Now is a possible outlet for those with similar positions, Norman says she
has a vision for a group with a focus wider than just the Middle East.
"If such a group existed, that’s where we’d
belong," she says.
For the time being, Jackson and Gorham have withdrawn
their consent from their group. However, after more than 10 years of being
a Raging Granny, Norman has decided to stay a member because of the group’s
commitment to social justice issues, but not march alongside the Grannies
at protests.
"I stayed because I see myself as a bridge. To me,
it’s terribly important that there be somebody who is identified as a
Jew, who is identified as a Zionist, who keeps saying to the unlistening
hoards, ‘… this is where peace-loving Jews stand. This is where
peace-loving Zionists stand, Open your minds. Open your ears. Open your
hearts and listen to us …’ "
Lauren Krugel, laurenkrugel@rogers.com
is a
journalism student at Carleton University in Ottawa, I grew up in Toronto
and also writea songs, poetry and short stories
Originally Published in the Ottawa
Jewish Bulletin |
