What we saw in Israel

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This article was submitted on behalf of 29 participants of a February service and solidarity trip to Israel organized by the Minneapolis Jewish Federation. Their names are listed below.

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Israel is consistently in the news, often judged and analyzed by critics who’ve never even set foot there. After a week of service and solidarity in Israel, our group returned with a deeper understanding and a closer connection to the land and people. This trip was fraught with emotions: questioning how we’d feel upon arrival, what we’d witness and how we’d react. Never before has it been so hard to return home.

The first thing we noticed is that Israelis carry with them Oct. 7, 2023, every day. It was the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

Israelis cannot move forward while there are still 134 hostages in Gaza. Images and reminders of the kidnapped are everywhere, from the airport to city streets, desolate bus stops and provocative Tel Aviv graffiti. Israelis include all hostages of every nationality, religion or citizenship in their demands for immediate release.

The despair and fatigue of the hostage families we met is palpable and heart-wrenching. Having no information for more than 150 days about their loved ones’ conditions, about whether they are dead or alive, injured, or subjected to rape and torture, is intolerable.

On Oct. 7, Hamas broke the existing cease-fire, murdered 1,200 people and committed unspeakable atrocities, all documented in videos shared widely internationally. Still, walking through the ruins of the Sderot police station, visiting the site of the Nova Music Festival and traveling on the roads and to the bomb shelters, which all became killing fields, creates a far deeper level of understanding of the violence and proximity of Gaza, strengthening empathy.

Our trip, however, wasn’t just a week of bearing witness.

We also spent time with members of the Israeli Defense Forces of all ages and roles. We met older soldiers, who, though exempt from service, volunteered to defend their tiny nation from monsters who’ve promised to massacre them again and again. Doctors, lawyers, engineers, tour guides, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters; they serve in any way they can.

We also volunteered for Israeli nonprofits and local governments, filling the void left by Israel’s national government and institutions. Everywhere we were amazed by the fortitude of the Israeli people.

Hamas does not hide its genocidal goal, “from the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free,” by murdering, raping, torturing and kidnapping as many Jewish men, women, children and babies as it can. Hamas counts on foreign activists to deny, justify and even celebrate these atrocities. All of this continues to happen here, from the University of Minnesota to middle schools, our places of work, Minneapolis City Hall and our State Capitol.

This war, devastating for Israelis and Palestinians alike, could end if Hamas’ leaders returned the innocent hostages and left Gaza. Yet the loudest voices call for a unilateral cease-fire and cutting off of aid to Israel instead of demanding anything from Hamas which remains the primary obstacle to peace and a better life for Gazans.

We cannot comprehend, nor accept, how so many fail to recognize that Hamas is an evil that no nation, including our own, would possibly tolerate on its borders. Relatedly, we are dumbfounded by the explosion of antisemitism, including false charges of genocide, unleashed since Hamas launched a war that no Israeli, no Jew we know of, wanted. No group of people should have to live like Israelis and Jews do because terrorism in Israel and antisemitism everywhere has been normalized.

Since Hamas’ 2007 bloody takeover of Gaza, Israelis have been forced to defend themselves against a neighboring government run by a terrorist organization which proved on Oct. 7 that its intention to annihilate them isn’t mere rhetoric. Outrageously, the world, including much of the media, incredulously believes and disseminates Hamas’ lies. By vilifying the Jewish state, including negating its right of self-defense, too many justify and contextualize yet another attempted genocide of the Jewish people.

Israelis and Jews share the burden of deep generational trauma. We’ve been hated, persecuted and killed simply because we are Jews. Our ancient and unwavering connection to the Land of Israel is continuously challenged by many who have no idea of which river or which sea they are chanting about. At the same time, many non-Jews usurp our right to define antisemitism. They amplify and tokenize fringe voices within our community, who refuse to recognize antisemitism as a threat from the far right and the far left, while silencing the rest of us in a way that wouldn’t be tolerated for any other marginalized community.

That all must change.

“Never again” is now. We are resilient people, whether in Israel fighting against Hamas or here in Minnesota, where a record number of us participated in precinct caucuses to advance resolutions condemning antisemitism.

It is better to be hated and alive than pitied and dead.

Am Yisrael Chai. The people of Israel live.

The authors are: Shai Avny, Steven Baker, Alan Bank, Stuart Bear, Jim Cohen, Rabbi Max Davis, Cindy Dubansky, Randy Eylmann, Steve Finkelstein, Eilat Harel, Zehorit Heilicher, Tommy Hoffman, Jamie Hurewitz, David Kline, Rabbi Matt Goldberg, Aaron Goldstein, Brenna Gross, Janice Gross, Steve Lear, Kiel Majewski, Ethan Roberts, Molly Rosenblatt, Kara Rosenwald, Marsha Schoenkin, Anita Silver, Jacqueline Stewart, Lior Sztainer, Gary Weiss and Sarah Winger.