When it was reported that a protester near Columbia University had loudly suggested that Jews should return to Poland, I was already there. My wife, son, daughter and I were visiting Holocaust sites in Eastern Europe. My father's family is from Poland and Ukraine, and many of our relatives died in the Holocaust.
I don't know if any of my ancestors were Zionists, although I suspect some must have been. The definition of “Zionist” that I have always used is that of a person who believes that Jews deserve a state where they can be safe. That's something I believe. I also believe that the Palestinians deserve a state where they can be safe, the Israeli occupation has been a disaster and Benjamin Netanyahu needs to be replaced.
As for the suggestion that Jews, or more precisely Ashkenazi Israeli Jews (those of European descent), should book a one-way ticket to Warsaw, I realize that is not a representative view of all protesters in American universities. However, it is undeniable that it is a reflection of the “settler colonialists” position on Israel, a narrative that has gained traction despite the fact that more than half of Israeli Jews are Mizrahi, that is, from the Middle East. The Palestinians and the Israelis are two indigenous peoples who occupy the land that is disputed.
And what about Poland? Almost 3 million Jews lived in Poland before World War II. Now the population that identifies as Jewish is less than 5,000. It is instructive to remember that most of the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, perhaps 300,000, were taken to Treblinka, where they were murdered along with approximately 500,000 other Jews.
Treblinka is now a vast field covered by a huge monument consisting of hundreds of stones placed side by side, pointing towards the sky. I wandered among them and thought about the catastrophe that led to this place and what was now unfolding at universities across America: the anti-Israel chants, the fear of Jewish students being on campus, the protests and counter-protests that were creating a climate of threat.
On the same day my family visited Treblinka, another Columbia student, described as a leader of the protests there, was quoted in the New York Times as saying, “Zionists don't deserve to live.” He apologized and I don't want to compare him to Nazis. He and his compatriots are young and with youth comes the right to let the heart dominate the brain. His words, however, carried a swastika.
Of course, what has happened to the Palestinian people since 1948 has been its own catastrophe, of which the war in Gaza is the latest version. The number of civilian deaths is appalling, the suffering of families is deep and seemingly endless. It is not difficult to understand the anger and anguish animating the pro-Palestinian camps, although one wishes more protesters would recognize that the Israeli attack did not occur in a vacuum and that Hamas itself has an affinity for the dead Palestinians.
The “Go back to Poland” jibes are grotesque and deliberately misinformed. Reading about them in Poland, where a ghost country of murder victims exists alongside the current population, is deeply disorienting. Where there used to be a synagogue there is now a delicatessen; a ritual bathhouse is a police station; a cemetery, an abandoned plot of land, or a green grove in the forest devoid of headstones because they were stolen to pave roads. So many Jews died in Poland that you could say that the entire country is a Jewish cemetery. In Poland, Jews are like Native Americans in the United States. They are celebrated, sometimes sincerely, but mostly they are erased.
We visited a town that was almost 100% Jewish before the war; now not a single Jew lives there and there is virtually no indication that Jews ever made it their home. By inclination I sympathize with the protesters. I am even inclined to forgive their ahistorical point of view, although it is ironic given that many of them are being educated in elite institutions. But they must know: the collective Jewish trauma, like that of the Palestinians, is undeniable. You don't have to go to places like Treblinka to remember it. Have we learned nothing?
That not all protesters are anti-Semitic is a fact. Some will happily take a break from chanting “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” to inform you that they have Jews among them. And yet, from their camps in privileged Los Angeles and Manhattan, they imagine a progressive paradise where everyone's wounds are healed and racism is a vague memory, but there is no place for Zionists, which for many (once again: (not for everyone!) is simply a dog whistle that means Jews.
Return to Poland? It is impossible. And the maximalist daydreams of American protesters will not help the Palestinians.
Seth Greenland is the author of six novels and a memoir who resides in Los Angeles. His most recent book, “Plan Américain,” was published in France last year.
