July 22
GUEST: Dr. Alice Rothchild, physician, award winning filmmaker and author of several books on Palestine, talks about the intersection between her Jewish background, her career at Harvard Medical School, and her work for Palestinian rights.We Are Not Numbers
We had a very interesting discussion about how a Jewish person in the US decides to become an advocate of Palestinian rights. It isn't easy. Even as a well respected gynecologist and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, Alice faced daunting hurdles in bringing up the subject of medical rights for Arabs under Israeli occupation.
It was such a compelling story that I didn't get to the organization that I had intended to talk about, We Are Not Numbers. Alice is on the board of directors for this group, and also serves as a mentor to its young writers. The Palestinian stories are quite fascinating, and provide a window of understanding for those who have never been to the West Bank or Gaza. Good storytelling helps us walk in someone else's shoes. In this case reading helps us understand life in an apartheid state.
https://wearenotnumbers.org/home/Stories
I think the interview did explore the variety of way that Alice has devoted her life to the concept of "never again." As she describes it, "never again" belongs to the whole world and is not owned by one religion or ethnicity. The Holocaust is a teaching moment for the entire human race, and not an excuse to treat others the way Jews were treated in the Third Reich.
"We will have to face the reality that Israel is neither innocent, nor redemptive. And that in its creation and expansion we as Jews, have caused what we historically have suffered; a refugee population in Diaspora." Martin Buber 1949
