BOOK REVIEW: The Message

I just finished Ta-Nahisi Coates' controversial book The Message, a Christmas present from one of my kids who said, I know he's kind of a liberal darling, mom, but I think you're going to really like this book. It's an opportune time to read about Coates' experiences in Palestine  because I have friends who are visiting the West Bank as observers of the Zionist occupation. One of them posts to a private blog each day and coincidentally had just read The Message before leaving on their trip. Much of what they report aligns with Coates' descriptions of apartheid and white supremacy in all its ugliness.

As for what Coates made of his experiences, therein lies the controversy.

Coates burst on the scene with a long-form piece in the legacy liberal magazine The Atlantic where he was on staff. "The Case for Reparations" is something most of us probably read years ago when it came out in 2014. If so, did you remember that Coates used the creation of Israel as an historical example of reparations? That he now regrets his hoodwinking by hasbara (Zionist pr) is palpable; he's embarrassed for himself, but not too embarrassed to learn more and to hold himself accountable for his errors.

I had been aware of his fall from grace with the liberal, Democratic Party-aligned media over the book but didn't know the details. Since I never watch CBS Mornings or really any corporate media, I missed it when Israel-aligned journalist Tony Dokoupil attacked Coates for comparing Jim Crow and Israeli apartheid. Astonishingly, Dokoupil told him:

If I took your name out of it, took away the award, and acclaim, took the cover off the book, the publishing house goes away -- the content of that section would not be out of place in the backpack of an extremist.

So the Zionist argument is: despite your stature as a prominent Black intellectual, we are going put a pejorative label on you for drawing your own conclusions based on your own recent observations in occupied Palestine. 

Conclusions that prominent Jewish intellectuals Noam Chomsky, Dr. Gabor Maté , Hannah Arendt, and Albert Einstein also reached based on their own observations.

What makes Coates' observations and conclusions so powerful is his broad experience with structural racism and white supremacy in our times. The Message is actually a collection of three essays he wrote for his writing students at Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington DC. One essay reflects on his trip to Senegal to see where the African slave trade that his ancestors suffered through originated. One reflects on his visit to a South Carolina school district that attempted to ban his book Between the World and Me from Advanced Placement English. And both those essays inform what he makes of his experiences in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and Tel Aviv.

Coates is nothing if not a researcher, delving into primary sources like Zionist founder Theodor Herzl's early writings to find prescient scheming and plans for dehumanization:

We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it[sic] in the transit countries, while denying it[sic] any employment in our own country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.

As Coates begins to examine why he never interrogated Zionism, his research uncovers some facts that shock him: a study finding that from 1970-2019 fewer than 2% of opinion pieces about Palestine were by Palestinian authors. The dearth of Muslim or Arab journalists with positions in Western corporate media. Myths about Israel being "the only democracy in the Middle East" and the industry devoted to mythologizing archaeological ruins that become theme parks for promoting Zionist tropes.

The role of settlers in pushing Palestinians out of their homes and off their land is a major theme in Coates' essay. According to his research there are now half a million of them.

In case you're wondering, he meets with Israelis, too. They tell him how dangerous it is to speak out against apartheid or to refuse military service. They take him, a Black descendant of enslaved people, on the roads that only Jews may use, bypassing the checkpoints that clog up commerce, education, and familial bonding for Palestinians.

Back stateside, Coates gets together with a group of Palestinian professionals and activists and their friends.

The group spoke about politics in a manner of communal intimacy -- the way my people speak when no white people are around..

Deanna [Othman] told me she taught at a school where most of the kids were Palestinian, and she loved teaching "The Case for Reparations." She said, "The kids always say, Yeah but about the Israel part? And I just say, Well, nobody's perfect."

There's so much more in-depth analysis in The Message than I can convey here. As Israel refused over the weekend to release 600 Palestinian prisoners already on buses, despite the release as promised by Hamas of Israeli hostages in Gaza, and moved tanks into the West Bank for the first time in 20 years, it's time to examine the unvarnished truth about the Zionist project.

Shrinking Zionist Bubbles: Letters To The Maine Jewish Museum

Children try to get food relief in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah, on December 31, 2023. 

Rizek Abdeljawad/Xinhua/Getty Images

Yesterday I wrote about an upcoming photography show glorifying women making sushi to feed the Israeli military. After I shared my response, several people shared their own messages to Dawn LaRochelle, Executive Director of the Maine Jewish Museum in Portland (dlarochelle@mainejewishmuseum.org). 

With their permission, I'm sharing them with you. 

Zone of Interest

I just learned that your museum will exhibit photographs by artist Hedva Rokach of Japanese Sushi Girls celebrating their feeding of Israel's occupation forces -- the same forces who are implementing the internationally recognized genocide in Gaza. 

Meanwhile, I cannot lose the images of 15 months of photographs depicting what a genocide looks like. I am haunted by photos: of the baby who was starving to death; of the father holding the body of his headless baby; of the tents burning; of the lonely aid truck surrounded by starving, desperate people; of the nude male Palestinian prisoners paraded single file through the bombed out streets; of Palestinians kneeling in prayer beside the ruins of yet another Mosque; of the neighborhoods razed through the endless destruction using bombs built by my neighbors, paid for with my tax dollars.  

There are also brilliant photos of the resistance to this evil, including the many photos of Jewish friends standing strong, wearing handcuffs, stopping business as usual in an effort to wake us up to the devastating tragedy of this genocide. 

Your decision to exhibit these photos reminds me of the message in the recent film, The Zone of Interest, pretending that all is well while the smoke of the massive, cruel death of innocents permeates the world around us. 

Sadly, 

Mary Beth Sullivan, Brunswick 

Millions of residents of Gaza are at risk or starvation; children are dying of hunger  Pratapdarpan India

Shrinking Zionist Bubbles 

The upcoming sushi girls exhibit is advertised on your site as a show of solidarity and kindness in a complex time. True solidarity is the stand that Jewish Voice for Peace has taken against the apartheid institutions that privilege them while allowing for the ethnic cleansing of the people of Palestine, described and extensively documented as a genocide by virtually every international human rights organization.  Far behind us is the era where it is remotely socially acceptable to celebrate "the soldiers at the front in Israel," who have been enacting daily massacres resulting in the mass murder of scores of civilians on a constant basis for the past year on top of decades of military occupation and decades of siege of the indigenous population. This exhibit is a clear attempt to normalize that oppression, but the eyes of society are increasingly able to detect such efforts.  Even if associating with the apartheid project is socially acceptable in shrinking Zionist bubbles, this tone deaf display that betrays a White supremacist disregard for millions of refugees being targeted in the names of Jewish people is denounced by a growing number of conscientious Jewish allies and the entire rest of the world. Be advised that your institution can no longer enjoy the privilege of celebrating its war crimes without the scrutiny of society; I encourage you to do the research to unpack your Zionist programming, because people will no longer look away.

Yussra, New Hampshire

UNICEF/UNI495569/ZAGOUT

Shaima, 8-years-old, waits her turn in the crowd to get a meal from a charitable hospice that distributes free food in the city of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip. “I've been waiting here for two hours, but I haven't gotten any food. My mother and my little sister are waiting for me. They haven't eaten since yesterday.” Gaza Strip, December 2023

Upcoming Obscene Exhibit

Just when I think I've heard/seen it all . . . which is never the case with Israel's genocide of Palestinians . . . I learn of this upcoming obscene exhibit at the Maine Jewish Museum.  Have you lost all sense of decency?  A focus on "Sushi Girls" feeding the IDF, the Zionist Shock Troops responsible for carrying out the policy of the extreme right-wing Likud party!  Celebrating the feeding of those responsible for the slaughter, torture, terrorism, and starvation of Palestinians, the freezing to death of Palestinian babies, the murder of health care providers, aid workers, journalists, and on and on!  

And, to top it off, those coming to observe this travesty on the opening night can, we are told by your PR spiel, "Mingle with artists and art lovers, enjoy wine and cheese with museum mavens and curious minds, and celebrate with us as we unveil our newest exhibitions!" 

Of course, we know from History that there were also plenty of supporters of the Nazis willing to sell their souls in the midst of the horrific, unforgivable Holocaust of Jews, not dissimilar to the horrific unforgivable Genocide of Palestinians by Zionists.

Shame on you. 

Constance Jenkins, Belfast  

Palestinians line up for food in Rafah, Gaza, on November 30. Hatem Ali/AP

 

Should Be Ashamed

The Maine Jewish Museum should be ashamed to glorify the genocidal IDF killers with this Sushi reception.

Have you all no memory, no heart and any conscience at all?

Have you not learned anything from the Holocaust?

Are you not paying any attention to what is actually being done to the Palestinian people on a daily basis?

The Zionists controlling Israel have turned their nation into a global pariah.

You should apologize to the community for this glorification of war crimes.

Bruce Gagnon, Brunswick

Hasbara Not Working? Crack Down On Free Speech

Yahya Sinwar amid the rubble of Gaza, where he was born a refugee in his own land.

In the West we grew up awash in hasbara i.e. Zionist narrative spin both overt and, at times, surprisingly subtle. 

I can remember my father telling me that Israel had no oil reserves and stood alone in the region in this regard. At the time I'm sure he believed that was true. It was part of the David and Goliath myth-making where the Zionist entity was the weak and small character and the Arabs were the giants. Except when they were invisible -- as in the nonsense saying, "a land without a people for a people without a land."

Decades later I would teach high school students about the rise of fascism, the Holocaust, and the creation of the state of Israel -- followed by the Nakba, still unfolding. It was challenging to convey the jaunty tone of U.S. media coverage from the mid 1960's. For example, the Six-Day War, which a news anchor gleefully termed a "blintz-krieg." Because turning Nazi atrocities into cute references to Jewish cuisine helped conceal the fact that Palestinians were suffering for the sins of European fascists.

How times have changed.

Israel is now the butt of jokes about how universally they're hated, and their attempts at spin are tremendously out of touch. Witness their attempt to denigrate Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar by publishing their drone footage of his heroic last stand, footage which contradicted their own propaganda that Sinwar was allegedly hiding in the tunnels, disguised in a burqa, amid hostages being used as human shields. 

Today, people who barely knew his name have seen him display almost superhuman courage and resilience by continuing to resist with only one remaining hand. The effect on public opinion has been the opposite of what was intended: to depict Sinwar as weak and defeated.  Headlines like "IDF Finally Kills Yahya Sinwar After 41,800 Failed Attempts" and photo pairings like this one are all over social media: 

What's a failing imperial outpost to do? Crack down on free speech, of course.

Yesterday in the UK, Electronic Intifada editor Asa Winstanley had his home raided and his electronic devices confiscated.

Here in the belly of the beast, a friend reports their Instagram account is suspended after trying to post writings by and about Sinwar. 

Twitter just announced that blocking will no longer protect your account from unwelcome eyeballs. 

And Australia's government has announce it will levy fines of up to 5% of global revenue on social media platforms that fail to stop the spread of "misinformation." Misinformation meaning true facts that threaten the imperial narrative.

We were told for months that Israel's massacres were about the hostages. But that was never the case, as we found out when we learned that Israel murdered them, too.

From Palestine Will Be Free on substack yesterday:

The world has come to see why that deplorable, despicable, inhuman entity cannot continue to exist and why it must be dismantled in favour of a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea in which all faiths can live peacefully side by side, just like they did before the beginning of Zionist thievery and terrorism over a century ago. 

Sinwar, more than anyone else in recent history, has brought that day closer to fruition.