Reflections on Freedom

I know this isn’t the normal thing usually write about. And I feel things changing in me and in the way I show up in the world. And activism in one arena is very easy to let spill into another. I am very passionate about human rights for all peoples. I tend to focus that passion on the area of how it effects women and reproductive sovereignty. I don’t see it as a far stretch to apply that combination of logic and heart to what is happening in Israel. I spent the day getting much more educated on things than I planned. I am surprised by how important it feels to me to understand what is happening. When I look at some facts of my life, it makes quite a bit of sense. I am hereditarily Jewish, and identify as an esoteric Christian because one, it’s true, and two, it’s easier than explaining I’m part of a plant medicine tradition that comes from Brazil, that is an amalgam of an indigenous medicine path with a christian/catholic focus and shared center. Plus a Brazilian Spiritist doctrine with its roots in Africa. Like I said. Lots to explain.

Both my mother’s and father’s sides of the family are Eastern European Jews. My paternal great grandfather left Russia in the middle of the night to escape religious and cultural persecution. I have ancestors that didn’t make it out of Europe in time and didn’t survive the Holocaust. I was raised by two radicals. Who transformed into two spiritual and religious healers and leaders. My Mom is a student and lover of mythology and how fairy tales inform culture, and my Dad is a religious scholar and could have been a professor in comparative religion.. They have both dedicated their lives to helping others heal and transform. I have very close friends who are Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Spiritist, and incredibly spiritual and religious people who identify as none of the above. This is all to say maybe it’s not surprising that I found and find myself feeling it is very important to understand what is happening in the middle east right not. I’m not here to give you a history lesson or break down the role of the Israeli government in al of this. You can get that in plenty of places. I want to share my larger humanist and spiritual perspective.

I’ve been asking myself the following question the last few days:

What does it mean to be a global citizen?

And in asking that question the thing coming out of my inner mind and heart is this:

IIt is not accurate or truthful that we have to choose who we support having life and freedom and humanity. Everyone on this earth deserves those things. Everyone in the Middle East deserves those things.

This isn’t all lives matter so as not to recognize that persecution and prejudice and bigotry and privilege and inequality exist. This is me seeing that in the unfolding of media since I’ve been back online, the energy of “either these people get rights and protections OR these people get those things, and you need to choose which side of that line you fall on” is coming out and is very pervasive.

To me it’s not a choice. The citizens of Palestine - all creeds, because hello not every Palestinian is Muslim- deserve human rights and freedom and protection and a safe prosperous place to live, just like the people of Israel - all creeds, hello not everyone who lives is Israel is Jewish- deserve those things.

The people of Israel deserve our support and solidarity and help. The Jewish people of Israel and those around the world deserve our support and solidarty and help. The people of Palestine deserve our support and solidarity and help to become free.

It’s so interesting to me that all the messages I’m seeing of people standing with the Jewish community- who are of course grieving and suffering in the midst of this grave grave tragedy- aren’t recognizing the reality that everyone in Israel is not Jewish. Israel also has large Christian and Muslim populations.

Although this is by no means the first time I’ve been aware or moved by things happening in the Middle East, I am also guilty of realizing how much I care, and how important this amalgam of issues is to me many many many years after the fact. Years and years and years after Palestinians have suffered these same atrocities being shown to us, daily. I tend to follow the women’s rights end of things, and have done a really good job of continuously blocking from my consciousness and feeling very little personal connection to the broader ongoing situation and suffering in the Middle East. Obviously something shifted. The global citizen piece, the hereditary Jewish piece mixed with the esoteric Christian piece and believing Israel to be a place where Jesus walked and lived and baptized and preached and forgave. He’s not the only one. By far. The deeper I go into my spiritual and religious path and life and self, the more I feel committed to the freedom of all people to worship and believe and exist and live how they feel called. Belief in a God or Gods or no. My spirituality and religious practice and path shows me the universality of Light and love and creation beyond any religious distinction or definition. In talking with a dear friend of mine who is a devout Muslim, I realize I also share in many of that traditions beliefs. That we all worship the same Light and vibration of God. My religious path makes me believe in freedom for all people more, not less. And while this situation and war in Israel and the Middle East isn’t explicitly religious, the bed rock of religion meeting in that place is inescapable. The use of religion by governments to divide and dehumanize different peoples of that region is inescapable. The reaction of people to support and feel heart broken for one religious group and not another, together, at the same time, is inescapable. So yes, I see a religious thread, many actually, in what is going on.

The other thing standing out to me is that in the energy of “we have to choose who we support” is the underlying belief that there is a finite amount of human rights to go around. We see this same thing far beyond this situation. We see it in the fight for racial equality, gender equality, trans rights, gay rights, and reproductive rights. That not only are these “others” less human and less deserving, but if we give rights to these other people it will take away from the rights of… the white men? It’s truly absurd. If trans kids have rights it diminishes the rights of cis gendered children? If Black people are seen as human and stop being targets for racism and inequality in all of its forms… well yes I guess that directly threatens white supremacy. Which is a good thing obviously. I could go on and on. Women having access to reproductive choice limits the ability of those to not choose it? No it doesn’t.

Someone having human rights does not take away from another person having those same things. There is no lack of rights. There is a lack of believing we all, all, deserve them as our basic right, and in applying them to all groups of people. It heartens me to see people calling out the either or mentality. It is morally congruent to believe in the Israeli peoples right to live, and in the Jewish peoples right to live and thrive the globe over while at the same time calling for the end of the occupation of Palestine and wanting its citizens to live in peace. It is morally congruent to not support a governments actions and want safety and well-being for the people of that country. Hello did Trump represent all Americans?

Being in support of humanity uniting and all people being treated as human while recognizing the power structures in place and the agendas of those power structures, and the way they affect people differently is not wrong or diminishing one group’s suffering. It’s being able to hold nuance and the reality that many things being true at once.

Human rights are not the ceiling. They are the ground.

I see some amazing opportunities from this showing up. One is that it is highlighting a huge amount of prejudice and bias around the world, and in the western world in particular, surprise surprise. If we are paying attention, it is showing us internalized prejudice that we absorb from our government, media, news, and western retelling of history. In that we are given the opportunity to correct that and come into a more equal way of looking at things. We can grow as people in our mental and emotional capacity. The other opportunity I see is that growth. The chance to expand our beliefs and vision beyond the divisive lines that those above mentioned sources create and then feed us as the only possible option to thrive.

Why is a Muslim or Christian or Jew or white Israeli or brown Israeli or Black or brown Palestinian or anyone in the Arab nations any more or less worthy or deserving of freedom, love, kindness, safety, and political, cultural, and human rights than the other. Like really. Really ask yourself that question. What makes someone more or less worthy of not being in danger and violently oppressed?

Personally I can not come up with one reason someone should have those good basic things and another shouldn’t.