Claus Mueller

Work on the documentary ISRAELISM started in late 2015 and was completed at the end of 2022. The film was released in February 2023 and offers a challenging interpretation of the contemporary meaning of Jewish identity in the United States against the background of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

Axelman and Eilertsen, first-time Jewish filmmakers, provide a cogent and objective analysis of the forces shaping the modern Jewish-American identity and the growing discrepancy between the definition suggested by the politics of Israel and her American followers and the more traditional understanding of what it means to be Jewish without bonding with the state and existence of Israel. In this discussion the directors and the principal protagonists Zimmerman and Eitan explore some current issues like the links between Judaism and Israel, Zionism, settlements in areas occupied by Israel, and the rise of antisemitism. What also transpires through the comments by Zimmerman and Eitan are their insights about being raised by US Jewish families and in Jewish school settings; the immersion with their faith and the strong ties to Israel as well as their experience in Israel and eventual conversion to a critical perspective of that country.

As revealed in the documentary, these insights include the settler movement in the West Bank now exceeding more than half a million, compared to the more than 2.7 million Palestinians living there, perspectives which are also new for most Israelis who rarely have direct contact with the Palestinians living in the West Bank. As an April 2024 survey by the Israel Democracy Institute indicated, close to 70 percent of Israeli Jews had seen no or only few images of the destruction of the Gaza strip or the bodies of its residents. In that context, even before the Israel-Hamas war research revealed that 25% of the US Jewish population considered Israel an “apartheid state” and 22% held the view of Israel committing genocide (The New Republic, April 2024, p. 37). As Abraham Foxman points out in Israelism, we failed to educate them [young Jews] “When we talk about ‘We are losing the kids’...we lost them”.

ISRAELISM clarifies the growing generation specific gap in Jewish communities and congregations in the perspectives held about Israel. Younger Jews in the US are more likely to be sympathetic of Palestinians and critical of Israel. Given the ready access to information they tend to be better informed about the Gaza war and West Bank developments than young people living in Israel whose access to current and past information about the history of their country is censored. Ironically, similar attempts to control information about Israel can be observed in Germany where any criticism of Israel is identified as anti-Semitic, also views frequently encountered in the United States. Both countries are probably the only firm remaining friends of Israel and face a strange situation. They try to ameliorate the food and famine crisis in the Gaza strip while its residents, including Hamas and affiliated groups, continue to be killed by weapons both countries have been providing to Israel. The latest estimates for the Gaza strip death toll as of mid-April 2024 are 35,000 civilians dead of which more than two thirds are women, children and the elderly. Since the Hamas attacks in October, more than 400 Palestinians were killed in the West Bank area by Israeli forces and colonial settlers. Current German funding for Israel amounts to $352 million, 10 times higher than in 2022. Germany is the second biggest exporter of arms to Israel with 30% of all sales. The US share amounted to an estimated $3.8 billion in 2023, not including the value of US arms stockpiled in Israel over the last years. Arms exports from other countries is minimal.

ISRAELISM presents a balanced perspective of organizations with unquestioned backing to Israel and its enlargement, including annexation of all occupied areas, and of those groups which emphasis the human rights of Palestinians. ISRAELISM is now on a screening tour in more than 40 cities in North America and received several awards in 2023 as the best documentary by the Arizona and Brooklyn International Film Festivals and the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. However, it had some problems getting screened in a few colleges but will be available this summer on some major US streaming platforms. From the data presented in ISRAELISM, the amount of funding in the United States for cultural and political events supporting the state of Israel’s philosophy and actions far exceeds what is available to those defending the human rights of Palestinians in the Gaza strip and the West Bank. Apart from AIPAC’s dominant role influencing Congress and engaging in well-funded public relations events aimed at policy makers and young Jews, the Birthright Isael foundation has been arranging free trips to Israel for the Jewish 18-26 year-olds. By 2020 twenty percent of that age group had gone on that trip. Compared to AIPAC’s radical pro-Israel positions, the Wahington J group supports Israel but emphasizes democracy and peace. The latest organization established to support Israel is the  Israeli American Council funded with more than $20 million from the late billionaire Sheldon Adelson who also owned the conservative newspaper Israel Hayom.

The negative reactions to alleged or real pro-Palestinian events and their restrictions by senior university administrators has been covered by the media. The labeling of these events as antisemitic is frequent in press reports and comments by observers precluding meaningful exchanges about the Gaza war. As a former Hunter College professor specializing in media and social research, I was struck by the sudden cancellation of the screening of ISRAELISM by Hunter’s acting President Ann Kirchner and her executives without consulting the faculty involved in organizing the event. The screening event had been set for November 14, 2023, but was cancelled the same day. It was organized by the media department and associated faculty and student groups including the Arab Studies program as a co-sponsor. Kirchner agreed to a subsequent smaller event on December 5, 2023, limited to Hunter College faculty, students and staff.  As it turned out, large organized outside pressure was applied to Kirchner, including more than 300 identical emails requesting cancellation of the screening. Bypassing faculty consultation, Kirchner requested Rabi Andy Bachman as a moderator for the panel which also included Simone Zimmerman, featured in ISRAELISM and one of its directors Eric Axelman. The Arab Studies program was dropped as a sponsor of the event. The December event’s audience was not comfortable with the moderator who could not handle the film given his strong pro-Israel bias. Thus, open exchanges about Israel and issues of Jewish identity did not take place in part because of intervention by the acting president and the violation of academic freedom at Hunter College.

Claus Mueller

filmexchange@gmail.com

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