Gaza by Gene Bruskin As a non-observant but well-qualified Jew, Having lost family in a Russian pogrom, Once visiting Israel, as an internationalist first, a Jew second, My Jewish side having long reveled in the Jewish Bund, The Workman’s Circle, heroic textile worker Clara Lemlich, Having supported many revolts against the powerful, foreign and domestic, I met with Palestinian workers about their rights. At my airport departure, an armed Israeli guard locked me in a closet, Demanding names of Palestinian workers whom I had met. This war leaves me distraught and outraged. Why is that, since Jews were crushed in Europe, Palestinians had to be crushed in the Middle East? Conveniently for the US, The guilty West put the Jews in the middle again, old story. And now they have become like the West, and then some. The traumatized oppressed become oppressors. Is it ok that Palestinians suffer daily, Because Jews want a homeland? Is it ok for a Brooklyn Jew to join a settlement, With full rights over a displaced Palestinian, now stranded across a field? Copyright 2023 by Gene Bruskin
Gene Bruskin was born to a Jewish working class family in South Philadelphia and has been a life-long social justice activist, union organizer, poet, and playwright. Since his formal retirement from the labor movement (“redeployed” as he describes it), Gene has produced two musicals for and about workers and is currently producing a 3rd, The Return of John Brown.
