Shministim in Arizona
By Gabriel Schivone
Apart from their piercing analysis and insightful conclusions about the occupation, a powerful aspect of Maya and Netta’s presentation is their appearance, which matches up with who they are. This is what struck me before they even arrived on the University of Arizona campus. Their youth and relative privilege resembles any given college student on any given college campus. Therefore it’s hard to discredit them before they even speak, which is so often a difficulty in and of itself when imploring a compassionate critique and invoking justice on the subject of Palestine, the U.S., and Israel.
Maya and Netta’s whole program inspires a curiosity, a need for discovery; the act of problematizing the conflict in the multiple ways they do — by the way they look, the way they compassionately engage those who disagree with them, the way they talk about what they’ve experienced as Israeli conscientious objectors — provokes new questions (particularly for Americans) entirely outside of the commonly accepted framework of thinking and of typical discussion of the conflict in the U.S. In a way, the fact that Maya and Netta look like our friends, our sisters, our loved ones who we see every day sneakily transcends the barriers of thought that hold many people captive from engaging the Palestinian narrative and experience, much less from engaging the narrative of Israeli resistance, which Maya and Netta represent very well.
I think the most profound impact Maya and Netta’s visit had at the University of Arizona and throughout Tucson was the sheer amount of people to whom they relayed their message who were not all too familiar with the situation in Israel/Palestine. This can be measured especially by the reception they received everywhere they went; the mountainous applauses particularly in the classrooms and the young people who came up after the various talks to offer thanks and appreciation for speaking.
Although the first night’s event had them speaking before a crowd of mostly people who had preconceived perceptions about the issues, having made up their minds either way, for the most part, the second day/night’s series of events saw Maya and Netta speaking before large — and smaller — crowds of young students who mainly had little to no knowledge of the issues.
After their first event, on Tuesday Sept 22, an attendee said:
“What powerful, brilliant, brave women we heard last night! I couldn’t sleep for quite a while reflecting on what they had presented…”
Maya and Netta represent the new generation of international dissent that ties brave people within Israel who resist their government’s policy with those who resist it from the outside, including foremost Palestinian as well as American and Europrean and South African and so on. Their struggle is ours; the struggle for solidarity, resistance, and justice in Palestine/Israel.
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