Israelism Is a Powerful Indictment of Pro-Apartheid Indoctrination
A new documentary called Israelism tells the story of young American Jews coming to question the narrative they were taught about “the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Still from Israelism. (Israelism.com)
Abe Foxman was the national director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) from 1987 to 2015. A few years after his retirement, he agreed to be interviewed for Eric Axelman and Sam Eilertsen’s movie Israelism. Documentaries can take a long time and it wasn’t until a couple weeks ago that Foxman heard from the filmmakers that it was done. They sent him a link and he started to watch. By his own account, he only got through about ten minutes.
I can understand why he found it so upsetting. During his decades at the head of the ADL, Foxman was one of the leading proponents of the idea that caring about Jewish people means supporting the state of Israel and that anyone who condemns Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians must be an antisemite. Israelism takes apart that narrative, brick by brick, until nothing is left.
Simone’s Story
The movie tells the story of two young American Jews who were raised in institutions where strong support for Israel was taken as a given. One of them, Simone Zimmerman, went to a Jewish day school where 10 percent of the graduating class ended up “making aliyah” — moving to Israel — and joining the Israeli army.
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