Jennifer Loewenstein

Last updated

Jennifer Loewenstein is an American activist. She is politically active in Madison, Wisconsin, and writes as a freelance journalist. Her work has appeared in academic journals such as The Journal of Palestine Studies, [1] and she is a regular contributor to the CounterPunch magazine.

Contents

Background

Loewenstein lived in Israel in 1963 as a child when her father played first trumpet in the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. She returned in 1981 as a junior in college, and later as an adult. Loewenstein has lived in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and traveled in the Palestinian Territories, where she worked for five months in 2002 at the Mezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City. She has returned to Gaza several times since then. [ citation needed ]

Activism

Loewenstein is a member of the USA board of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions and founder of the Madison-Rafah Sister City Project. [2] [3] As a local political activist, she has helped organize demonstrations in Madison. On the day after Ariel Sharon's election as Prime Minister of Israel, she was among the organizers of an anti-Likud demonstration. [4] She helped organize protests against the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq, [5] and she occasionally makes arrangements for political activists or journalists to speak at American universities. [6]

The proposed Madison-Rafah Sister City Project occasioned an "anguished and bruising debate" in Madison. [7] [8] During the debate, Loewenstein called the executive board of the Madison Jewish Community Council "deeply racist." [7] Board Member Lester Pines alleged that Loewenstein's project was part of a "movement to delegitimize the state of Israel." [7]

Loewenstein writes that:

[Israel and the United States] have long since resided in the lowest circle of Hell for betraying the name of humanity...the Neo-Jewish Masters and their allies in the United States...have no intention of making a just peace with the lower forms of life in their midst." [9] [10]

Journalism

Loewenstein traveled to the Gaza Strip soon after the end of the Second Intifada, where she wrote for the Palestine Chronicle . Her description of the aftermath of the Israeli rocket attack that killed Salah Shehade criticized Israel for its collateral slaying of 14 civilians. [11] She has written that Israel has little interest in peace owing to its military and strategic advantage over the Palestinians, and is characterizes Israeli policy as "racist". [12]

Loewenstein was outspoken about Operation Cast Lead and American coverage of the event. This prompted a vitriolic response from conservative activist David Horowitz, who called her an "ignoramus and a moral defective", a "self-hating Jew" and a "capo." Horowitz has stated that Loewenstein represents a Western fifth column of "Islamic barbarism" that endangers America and Israel. [13]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaza Strip</span> Self-governing Palestinian territory next to Egypt and Israel

The Gaza Strip, or simply Gaza, is a polity and the smaller of the two Palestinian territories. On the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Gaza is bordered by Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the east and north.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gaza City</span> Ancient Levantine metropolis and modern city in Palestine

Gaza, also called Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of 590,481, making it the largest city in the State of Palestine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Corrie</span> American activist and diarist (1979–2003)

Rachel Aliene Corrie was an American activist and diarist. She was a member of the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and was active throughout the Palestinian territories. In 2003, Corrie was in Rafah, a city in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli military was demolishing Palestinian houses at the height of the Second Intifada. In an attempt to stop the demolitions as they were being carried out, she stood in front of an armored bulldozer and was subsequently crushed to death by it under contested circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Givati Brigade</span> Israeli military infantry brigade

The 84th "Givati" Brigade is an Israel Defense Forces infantry brigade formed in 1947.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rafah</span> Palestinian city in south Gaza Strip

Rafah is a Palestinian city in the southern Gaza Strip; it is the capital of the Rafah Governorate of the State of Palestine, located 30 kilometers (19 mi) south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Israeli disengagement from Gaza</span> 2005 withdrawal of Israeli personnel

In 2005, 21 Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip were unilaterally dismantled and Israeli settlers and army evacuated from inside the Gaza Strip.

The Murder of the Hatuel family was a shooting attack on May 2, 2004, in which Palestinian militants killed Tali Hatuel, a Jewish settler, who was eight months pregnant, and her four daughters, aged two to eleven. The attack took place near the Kissufim Crossing near their home in Gush Katif bloc of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip during the Second Intifada. After shooting at the vehicle in which Hatuel was driving with her daughters, witnesses said the militants approached the vehicle and shot the occupants repeatedly at close range.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jewish Voice for Peace</span> American anti-Zionist activist group

Jewish Voice for Peace is an anti-Zionist left-wing Jewish activist organization in the United States that supports the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.

Palestinian Jews or Jewish Palestinians were the Jewish inhabitants of the Palestine region prior to the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Free Gaza Movement</span> Movement challenging the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip

The Free Gaza Movement (FGM) is a coalition of human rights activists and pro-Palestinian groups formed to break Egypt and Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip and publicise the situation of the Palestinians there. FGM has challenged the Israeli–Egyptian blockade by sailing humanitarian aid ships to Gaza. The group has more than 70 endorsers, including Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky.

Mondoweiss is a news website that began as a general-interest blog written by Philip Weiss on The New York Observer website. It subsequently developed into a broader collaborative venture after fellow journalist Adam Horowitz joined it as co-editor. In 2010, Weiss described the website's purpose as one of covering American foreign policy in the Middle East from a 'progressive Jewish perspective'. In 2011, it defined its aims as fostering greater fairness for Palestinians in American foreign policy, and as providing American Jews with an alternative identity to that expressed by Zionist ideology, which he regards as antithetical to American liberalism. Originally supported by Type Media Center, it is a part of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change.

Tourism in the Palestinian territories is tourism in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. In 2010, 4.6 million people visited the Palestinian territories, compared to 2.6 million in 2009. Of that number, 2.2 million were foreign tourists while 2.7 million were domestic. In the last quarter of 2012 over 150,000 guests stayed in West Bank hotels; 40% were European and 9% were from the United States and Canada. Major travel guides write that "the West Bank is not the easiest place in which to travel but the effort is richly rewarded."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Egypt–Palestine relations</span> Bilateral relations

Egypt–Palestine relations are the bilateral relations between the Arab Republic of Egypt and the State of Palestine. Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser was a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause and he favored self-determination for the Palestinians. Although the Egyptian government has maintained a good relationship with Israel since the Camp David Accords, most Egyptians strongly resent Israel, and disapprove of the close relationship between the Israeli and Egyptian governments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miko Peled</span> Israeli peace activist, author, and karate instructor

Miko Peled is an Israeli-American activist, author, and karate instructor. He is author of the books The General’s Son: The Journey of an Israeli in Palestine and Injustice: The Story of the Holy Land Foundation Five. He is also an international speaker.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ali Abunimah</span> Palestinian-American journalist

Ali Hasan Abunimah is a Palestinian-American journalist who has been described as "the leading American proponent of a one-state solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict". A resident of Chicago who contributes regularly to publications such as the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, he has served as the vice-president on the board of directors of the Arab American Action Network, is a fellow at the Palestine Center, and is a co-founder of The Electronic Intifada website. He has appeared on many television discussion programs on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and other networks, and in a number of documentaries about the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, including Collecting Stories from Exile: Chicago Palestinians Remember 1948 (1999).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hanan Ashrawi</span> Palestinian legislator, activist, and scholar (born 1946)

Hanan Daoud Mikhael Ashrawi is a Palestinian politician, activist, and scholar.

Olivia Zemor is a French political activist who is the co-founder and leader of CAPJPO, a group which is commonly known as CAPJO-Euro-Palestine, or just EuroPalestine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ismail Haniyeh</span> Palestinian politician (born 1962)

Ismail Haniyeh is a Palestinian politician who is a senior political leader of Hamas, the current chairman of Hamas’s political bureau; as of 2023, Haniyeh lives in Qatar.

Ahmed Moor is a Palestinian-American writer, finance expert, and a founder of liwwa, Inc. He co-edited the book After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine which was published by Saqi Books in 2012.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Agreement on Movement and Access</span> Israeli-Palestinian agreement

The Agreement on Movement and Access (AMA) was an agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) signed on 15 November 2005 aimed at improving Palestinian freedom of movement and economic activity within the Palestinian territories, and open the Rafah Crossing on the Gaza–Egypt border. AMA was described as: ″an agreement on facilitating the movement of people and goods within the Palestinian Territories and on opening an international crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border that will put the Palestinians in control of the entry and exit of people.″ Part of the agreement was the Agreed Principles for Rafah Crossing.

References

  1. ↑ Apr 2007, Vol. 36, No. 3: 23–35
  2. ↑ Madison-Rafah Sister City Project
  3. ↑ Midwest city feels conflict in the Mideast close to home | csmonitor.com
  4. ↑ Samara Kalk (February 8, 2001). "ACTIVISTS HERE LABEL ISRAEL'S SHARON A THUG". The Capital Times (Madison, WI).
  5. ↑ . The Capital Times (Madison, WI). March 20, 2004.{{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  6. ↑ Robert Fisk (2002). Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon. p. 685.
  7. 1 2 3 Judith David (July 7, 2004). "Rafah Debate Anguished, Bruising". The Capital Times. p. 1C.
  8. ↑ Jo Napolitano (May 29, 2004). "Proposal to Adopt a Palestinian City as a 'Sister' Creates a Family Feud for Madison". The New York Times . p. A10.
  9. ↑ The Pathology of Jewish Anti-Semitism [incl. Shlomo Sand and Richard Falk] by Steven Plaut, FrontPage Magazine (reprinted in Campus Watch), February 16, 2010
  10. ↑ Shemer, Ze'ev. Israel: And the Palestinian Nightmare, Bloomington, IN: iUniverse 2010, page 129. (Available online.)
  11. ↑ Alden, Chris (July 24, 2002). "What the papers say". London: guardian.co.uk.
  12. ↑ "Casualties Mount in New Israeli Attack on Gaza". Democracy Now!.
  13. ↑ The War Against the Jews by David Horowitz
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.