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.”
• “Prior to Israel’s creation, all kinds of people — Jews, Christians, Muslims — lived in relative harmony. The Jewish population in the Muslim world was better treated than almost anywhere in the Christian west.”
• “What does it mean if having a Jewish state requires the perpetual discrimination against Muslims and Christians? … If you ask a Palestinian, ‘Do you recognize the right of Israel to exist on your historic homeland, a state that explicitly excludes you?’ — if that Palestinian says, ‘No,’ does that mean he’s anti-Semitic?”
• “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.”
Experience of acceptance
So how did Baltzer come to these positions?
In an interview afterward, she said that she had grandparents who “narrowly escaped” the Holocaust — though in response to an email she was not willing to say whether they were on her father’s or mother’s side.
She said these grandparents were born in Poland but grew up in Antwerp. When the German Nazis invaded Belgium, her grandparents fled and went “running from country to country” until they reached Portugal, from which they came to the United States, she said.
Baltzer said that she had little Jewish education when growing up. Her family did not belong to a synagogue, but she said she did attend a once-a-week Jewish class, and grew up in a community the majority of whom “identified as Jewish,” but primarily as secular Jews. She acknowledged that she has not done any “in depth studying” of Jewish history.
She said both in the interview and the presentation that she had originally thought of Israel as “a peace-seeking democracy” that was “doing what it had to do to defend itself.” She acknowledged that she once had “incredible fear” of Arabs in general.
What changed her mind was partly “going to see for myself” and “doing research for myself,” and partly “actual encounters” with Palestinian Arabs, she said.
“Without exception,” she said, “I was welcomed because I was coming as somebody who was interested in full equal rights and human rights for the people.” She also said she never felt a sense that she was being used.
Moreover, she said she has never received from pro-Israel Jews who have heard or met her accusations of being a traitor or self-hating Jew. “Usually what I get is, ‘You’re well-intentioned but very naïve,’” she said, a response she said she finds “very interesting.”
Baltzer’s Milwaukee appearance was sponsored by local groups Jews for Justice, Friends of Palestine, and Peace Action Wisconsin.
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