That anti-Zionist and anti-Israel Jews exist is far from being news. But it is local news when a possible “rising young star” of this group makes a first speaking appearance in Milwaukee.
Anna Baltzer, 32, a California-native now living in St. Louis, delivered a presentation “Life in Occupied Palestine” to an audience of about 80 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union on Feb. 24.
This graduate of Columbia University and former Fulbright scholar has been speaking on this subject throughout the country since about 2005.
She also has written a book, “Witness in Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories” (2007), that has been praised by people like anti-Israel Jew Noam Chomsky and one-state-solution advocate Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh.
She now is making her living as an organizer of the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
Though this was her first appearance in Milwaukee, it was not her first in Wisconsin. She was keynoter at a Wisconsin Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies Student Conference at Marian University in Fond du Lac in 2009.
Her presentation, lasting about 40 minutes and illustrated with computer-projected images, included such statements as:
• “We should not fall into the trap of associating Israel with Judaism… What Israel is doing — occupation, oppression, discrimination — has nothing to do with Judaism.”
• “It is offensive to say that to criticize Israeli human rights violations is to criticize Judaism. To speak out when you see these things happening is neither anti-Semitic nor anti-Jewish. It is in line with the tradition of social justice that has been the pride of many Jewish people for generations.”
• “Israel never was a democracy. It can’t be a democracy and claim to be only a state of the Jewish people when you have non-Jews living there and when your Jewish majority was not organic, but was created by removing Muslims and Christians from the area.”
And when, during the question session, someone asked her if she favored a one state or a two state solution, Beltzer replied:
“I don’t care how many states… I care about the quality of the states. I support democracy, equality, equal rights including the right of return [of Palestinian Arab refugees to Israel]… One state only of the Jewish people is incompatible with democracy and international law and human rights. That is not something I can support in good conscience.”
To read more, see the April issue.
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