It began–well, who knows when the conflict began? That’s part of the problem. The religious might say it began with Abraham and his sons Isaac and Ishmael. Flash forward some thousands of years to September 28, 2000, and Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount plaza, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock sit. This was followed by (spontaneous? orchestrated?) rioting by Palestinians, followed by Israeli self-defense? brutality? Watching, listening, and reading about this second intifada led to sleepless nights for Chicagoan Steven Feuerstein, computer software author, former activist against apartheid in South Africa and injustice in El Salvador, former planter of trees in Israel.
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Not that he planted the trees directly. Feuerstein’s never been to Israel. The trees are the ones you buy in Sunday school: you send money to the Jewish National Fund, and you get a certificate that says a tree has been planted on your behalf. When I was in Sunday school there was no question that you would buy a tree–in memory of the grandparent you were named for, say, or, if you were a “bad” boy, in honor of your dog. Buying a tree is such a common Jewish-American experience that poet Julia Vinograd used the image in “For My Tree in Israel,” first published in Tikkun, to express disappointment in some of Israel’s policies: “There is blood on my tree, / on the tree with my name in Israel /…There must always be an Israel / because my tree is there / and they shall never come with axes / and cut down my name. / But there is blood on my tree / and the smell of blood / and I want my name to be good again.”
Other E-mails followed, and Feuerstein responded by creating a Web site called Not in My Name (www.nimn.org), through which like-minded souls could find news of their cause. He then started a group by the same name that organizes political and educational events, and a listserv where members and supporters can share information. Currently there are about 320 listserv subscribers–about 100 of them in the Chicago area. NIMN has just instituted dues; nearly 70 people have paid up.
Inside NIMN, members have varying views about how to achieve peace. Some favor a separate Palestinian state; others do not. Officially, according to its Web site, the group supports “a peaceful and just solution to the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,” including an end to the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, withdrawal of the settlements, a shared Jerusalem, “equitable distribution of critical natural resources,” and “a change in U.S. policy so that our tax dollars are not used to fund the military occupation.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Dorothy Perry.
