New York rally: Why some American Jews refuse to 'Celebrate Israel'

Peter Feld attended every Celebrate Israel Parade in the early 1960s and 1970s, and would proudly wave the white and blue Israeli flag.

For those two decades, he was a fervent supporter of Israel. He would encourage children, teenagers and adults alike to fly the Israeli flag when they marched down New York City's Fifth Avenue.

But in 1982, when Israel brutally invaded Lebanon, Feld decided he could no longer march in support of Israel.

Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 to supposedly crush the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which at the time, was headquartered in West Beirut. 

In an attempt to drive out the PLO, Israel maintained a two-month siege on the western part of the Lebanese capital, cutting off food, water and electricity supplies.

Israel also launched a devastating aerial campaign, targeting five UN buildings, 134 embassies or diplomatic residences, and destroying six hospitals.

According to estimates, at least 17,000 Lebanese and Palestinians were killed between 6 June and 25 August of that year, most of them civilians.

At the end of the month, former US President Ronald Reagan called the killings a "holocaust" in an angry phone call with then Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin.

That year, Feld, along with another group of activists, protested the invasion and renounced Zionism. Now, as a member of Al Awda New York, he joins pro-Palestinian advocates every year to protest the parade and Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories.

"I'm sorry that I was ever on the side of the Zionist movement," he told Middle East Eye. "I'm glad that I'm not anymore. And I feel that showing up to protests like this is part of the obligation that I have to the Palestinian community to repair some of the harm that I caused.” 

The Celebrate Israel Parade has been taking place along the iconic Fifth Avenue since 1964. After going virtual for the last two years because of the coronavirus pandemic, the parade took place in person on Sunday and brought together an estimated 40,000 people. 

Just a block away from where the parade was being held, about 50 people - many of whom were holding Palestinian flags - held a counter-protest.

Cries of "Shame on you" were directed at attendees of the pro-Israel parade - which included Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz, New York City Mayor Eric Adams, New York Governor Kathy Hochul and Congresswoman Grace Meng, among others.

Amid the sea of thousands of Israel supporters and a marching band, the pro-Palestine voices and their chants were drowned out.

"What is there to celebrate?" one protestor could be faintly heard shouting. "Genocide?"

The counter-protest was organised by Al Awda New York, NY4Palestine, and American Muslims for Palestine (AMP). 

"It is a tradition to protest this parade. We do it every year," Feld said. "We do it because the parade is a celebration of Zionism and ethnic cleansing. It's a celebration of the Israeli celebration of the Nakba that's the anniversary of what they call Israel's independence, you know, which for Palestinians was catastrophic."

According to Abderrahmane Amor, an organiser at AMP, the objective of the counter-protest is to highlight the daily injustices felt by Palestinians.

"Americans should not celebrate a system of apartheid, the occupation and ongoing theft of Palestinian land, and a remnant of European military colonisation of the 20th century," he said. 

"Israel apologists are hell-bent on equating support for Israel as part and parcel of the Jewish tradition, and our Jewish friends and allies have repeatedly rejected this notion as offensive and a disservice to world Jewry."

But for Tova, a 60-year-old who came to the parade with her three friends, the parade is an opportunity to showcase how ordinary New Yorkers view Israel.

"It's the biggest Israel parade in the world I think. It's not surprising to see so many people here. Israel has done so much for America and America has done so much for Israel."

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When asked if she thought Israel needed to reckon with its heavy-handed policies against Palestinians, which includes the recent killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, she said: "The bullet came from a Palestinian. The media, you always try to change the facts.

"Palestinians aren't innocent. Israel has a right to defend itself from Hamas."

Eyewitnesses, including MEE correspondent Shatha Hanaysha, have said Abu Akleh was targeted by an Israeli sniper.

For Curtis Brodner, Tova's views don't correlate with how young American Jews view Israel or the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I think a lot of young Jewish people consider themselves progressives. I don't think that Israel serves the best interests of Jews like me," he said.

"I feel like Israel has a goal of homogenising. To Jews, Israel acts in opposition to diasporic cultures. Jews are really diverse and have a long and interesting and beautiful history all over the world.

"In America, there is a parallel struggle that young people are bearing witness to in racial justice movements. Black liberation struggles have had allyship with Palestinian liberation struggles for decades," he continued.

"Ironically, in some ways, I think a lot of like my moral framework comes from religion. And I don't think that Zionism is consistent with the religious, moral framework that I hold."

Esther Tsvayg told MEE that she grew up in a secular Jewish household. Her family never attended the Celebrate Israel Parade, and so she says she never took it upon herself to go.

"There was always something devastating happening in Palestine. And especially now, what is happening is very tragic," she said.

'It's incredibly distasteful to have the largest celebration happening right now for a country that ethnically cleanses its population'

- Esther Tsvayg

"I think it's incredibly distasteful to have the largest celebration happening right now for a country that ethnically cleanses its population."

She added how statistics show that an increasing number of young American Jews are becoming critical of Israel for its treatment of Palestinians.

She said the 2018 Great March of Return protests, Israel's devastating assault on Gaza last year, and the killing of Abu Akleh were all examples of Israeli aggression. 

"You can't deny these things happened," she said. "It's becoming really, really obvious what the reality on the ground is like and what it demands of us politically."

Tsvayg also slammed the tactic of labelling critics of Israel who are non-Jewish "antisemites" and those who are Jewish "self-hating Jews".

“It's a terrible, terrible thing," she said. "Is this about Jewish people and their safety? Or is this about a particular vision and fantasy of what Jewish people are and what Jewish people shouldn't be?

"This is not about antisemitism, because if it was, then I, as a Jewish person would have my thoughts and opinions and feelings about this issue and not be dehumanised for it."

Rivka Mitnik-Kostanyan said that while she has also been heckled and called a "self-hating Jew", the remarks had not deterred her from speaking out in support of the Palestinians.

She said it was crucial the US listen to Americans and hold Israel accountable for its gross human rights violations.

"We pay taxes and those taxes go towards funding these human rights abuses. And there are certainly many arguments that money could go domestically for health care and housing and everything else."