Soon after my first child was born this past summer, I received a phone call that my friend Addie had entered hospice for cancer. They had only days left to live. Addie and I had become friends in our twenties, at that time when life is a marvelous and brutal discovery, and together we learned to cook rather than subsist on cereal and dining hall food, spent nights dancing at house parties, and stayed up late talking about justice and love while drinking cheap wine.
Addie passed away when my son was just six weeks old. But their bright red hair, sparkling eyes, and fierce spirit have been quite alive for me as I witness the crisis unfolding in Israel-Palestine. See, Addie was Jewish, but actively advocated through If Not Now for Israel to stop occupying Palestine and to end its long campaign of displacement and violence against Palestinians. Addie knew what our country’s leaders don’t: that the well-being of one people does not mean shackles and violence for another. While the historic oppression against Jews could be felt deep in their bones, Addie knew that this trauma did not justify dehumanization and that standing up for Palestinians wasn’t “pro-Hamas” or “anti-Semitic.” In fact, it was the most Jewish thing they could do.
As we watch innocent Gazan children lose their limbs under the rubble created by U.S.-supplied Israeli missiles; as we see hospitals bombed and leaders blurring facts to justify mass murder; as we see two million Gazans being cut off from water, electricity, and humanitarian aid as they are trapped in what is essentially an open-air prison, let us remember that healing and liberation cannot come from doing unto others the disgusting crimes that have been done to us. Call your lawmakers: We must call for a ceasefire in Gaza now.
