That’s such a powerful story especially given the time you wrote it. As a Gen Xer I too grew up with romanticised stories of the Israeli Kibbutz. Clearly this vision was pushed as part of the Zionist propaganda narrative of « a land without people for a people without a land ». At the time Israel became synonymous with the socialist ideal of community farms.
It makes you realise the extent to which Israel has totally destroyed its carefully constructed image of a just, fair and equal society. Clearly Zionists do not believe they need that image any more particularly given what they need to do in order to achieve their dream of a greater Israel.
As another Gen Xer I remember how romanticised kibbutz life was. I am amazed by how much 🇮🇱 content was woven into our everyday life. I can see how frustrating it must be for the propaganda machine that today people have access to the history and can’t be manipulated as easily.
Same here, grew up in Belgium (pure gen-X from 74 baby!) in Antwerp with a large Jewish community, most visibly chassidim “with the funny large hats 🎩, pipe curls and long black jackets” (none of that meant disrespectfully but as a kid growing up. Und funny as in weird.
But other than being weird, in our catholic college, the history we learned was about the pain and prosecution of the Jewish people, before and after WWII. That it was logical that the land was theirs. That they got it peacefully (wrong). That they always got attacked and never started a war (wrong). That Israel deserved our respect and was simply looking for peace (wrong) and that those Palestinian Arabs (in a half slur meaning) always destroyed the process (wrong).
Those kibbutzes were part of a well sold dream. So well that I had no urge to go there but that I could imagine myself go live there asa non Jew, just to experience that remote community.
So weird looking back at all of that indoctrination.
I am convinced that our history teacher believed what he taught us. The story of and mostly by Israel was well crafted and welk spread.
It’s so easy to see the cracks and lies in all of that now.
It’s like on e you open your eyes, you cannot unsee it.
My first contact with Palestinians was back in Sweden when our first kid was 2 maybe 3 years old (2007-2008). We met another couple from Palestinian descent in Sweden with a kid of the same age. They became friends, told about their family, their family’s orchard and about the wall that cut their village off from their own land and trees.
I sympathized a lot but even then it was hard to see completely through the carefully built up wall of lies by Israel. Surely their story was sad but the wall was there for peace and security after all. A sad side effect but not the goal, or so I thought.
No wonder that at one point they broke off contact.
So sad. Wish I had understood that story better even then.
I have never heard the word kibbush, certainly I have heard the stories of ‘amazing time on a kibbutz, connecting with community and land’. Thank you for sharing - your resolve to keep speaking, keeps me going ✊🏽🇵🇸 x
That’s such a powerful story especially given the time you wrote it. As a Gen Xer I too grew up with romanticised stories of the Israeli Kibbutz. Clearly this vision was pushed as part of the Zionist propaganda narrative of « a land without people for a people without a land ». At the time Israel became synonymous with the socialist ideal of community farms.
It makes you realise the extent to which Israel has totally destroyed its carefully constructed image of a just, fair and equal society. Clearly Zionists do not believe they need that image any more particularly given what they need to do in order to achieve their dream of a greater Israel.
As another Gen Xer I remember how romanticised kibbutz life was. I am amazed by how much 🇮🇱 content was woven into our everyday life. I can see how frustrating it must be for the propaganda machine that today people have access to the history and can’t be manipulated as easily.
Same here, grew up in Belgium (pure gen-X from 74 baby!) in Antwerp with a large Jewish community, most visibly chassidim “with the funny large hats 🎩, pipe curls and long black jackets” (none of that meant disrespectfully but as a kid growing up. Und funny as in weird.
But other than being weird, in our catholic college, the history we learned was about the pain and prosecution of the Jewish people, before and after WWII. That it was logical that the land was theirs. That they got it peacefully (wrong). That they always got attacked and never started a war (wrong). That Israel deserved our respect and was simply looking for peace (wrong) and that those Palestinian Arabs (in a half slur meaning) always destroyed the process (wrong).
Those kibbutzes were part of a well sold dream. So well that I had no urge to go there but that I could imagine myself go live there asa non Jew, just to experience that remote community.
So weird looking back at all of that indoctrination.
I am convinced that our history teacher believed what he taught us. The story of and mostly by Israel was well crafted and welk spread.
It’s so easy to see the cracks and lies in all of that now.
It’s like on e you open your eyes, you cannot unsee it.
My first contact with Palestinians was back in Sweden when our first kid was 2 maybe 3 years old (2007-2008). We met another couple from Palestinian descent in Sweden with a kid of the same age. They became friends, told about their family, their family’s orchard and about the wall that cut their village off from their own land and trees.
I sympathized a lot but even then it was hard to see completely through the carefully built up wall of lies by Israel. Surely their story was sad but the wall was there for peace and security after all. A sad side effect but not the goal, or so I thought.
No wonder that at one point they broke off contact.
So sad. Wish I had understood that story better even then.
💯 you cannot unsee it now. Those words change everything. I have never been more critical in my life. Thank you for sharing ❤️
I have never heard the word kibbush, certainly I have heard the stories of ‘amazing time on a kibbutz, connecting with community and land’. Thank you for sharing - your resolve to keep speaking, keeps me going ✊🏽🇵🇸 x
I was surprised! Thanks again for another enlightening post.