“I cannot identify any more with Israel. However, I do feel morally involved to the extent that I will continue to try and do my bit from afar to create a just society in Israel and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as you call it.”

The Interviewee – Dr. Jane Henriques PhD (Born 1944), academic, filmmaker, journalist, now retired from everything except being an artist and art-teacher. Born on a farm in a tiny Cotswold village called Winson in the Southwest of England.

In your opinion, what importance, if any, does the existence of a Jewish state have to you personally and to Jewish people in general?

“This is not an easy question to answer. From the age of 12 (in 1956) I became aware of Israel. My family had lived in Britain since the mid 19th century, was well-established and served in both world wars. They were non-Zionist and believed in the continued existence of Jewish communities in the Diaspora. However, with the Suez Campaign my father (Robert Henriques), who was a colonel and had been a top planner during WWII, was very influenced by the seeming skills and struggles of Israel, and for the first time became interested in supporting Israel.

“Although he was initially ignored with some embarrassment by the Israeli powers that were when he offered his planning skills to help the effort, he was enthusiastically welcomed when he offered instead his writing skills and was given access to all sorts of information (mostly proving fallacious when Moshe Dayan’s diaries were published as my father lay dying in 1966!) and swiftly wrote and published ‘100 Hours to Suez’. My first visit to Israel was with my parents and brother at the invitation of the government, to show gratitude for the positive publicity provided by my father’s book. We were entertained by many leading Israelis, including, as I remember, Golda Meier, Ben Gurion and Walther Eytan.

“Some four years later, when I was 16, my father became president of an organisation called ‘The Bridge’ which aimed to foster relationships between professionals and students in Britain and Israel and, ostensibly, to stop Israel becoming too ‘isolated’ from Europe. I was invited to join the first ‘scholars’ group, though younger than the others, and was much teased as ‘the Colonel’s Daughter’! I did all the usual things, like working on kibbutzim and taking part in meetings and events. At 18, before University, I opted to teach myself modern Hebrew and went to volunteer at the last immigrant reception centre north of Haifa, which by then, instead of receiving immigrants, was running year-long courses for the children of immigrants, who tended to be behind their peers in scholastic achievement.

“I became very interested in the cultural differences between the children I taught and  decided to study Anthropology when I arrived in Cambridge as a result of my experiences. I developed strong ties with an English-speaking kibbutz in the region, Kefar Hanassi, and my father later built a small house there for winter writing. Thus the family became quite close to the Israelis we knew. I never questioned the right of Israel to exist; I never delved into the history of Zionism, I’m embarrassed to say’, and I was never aware of what had been and still was happening to the Palestinians.

“Now, I am in a very different position. Through more politically-aware friends I became aware of the injustices suffered by Palestinians, and eventually joined a group touring the West Bank. I met Israelis and Palestinians working in countless organisations that try to heal the wounds of children imprisoned by the IDF, to rebuild houses arbitrarily demolished by the Israeli government and to counter Israeli abuses by non-violent means.

“I am ashamed at my former non-critical position and horrified at the blatant racism and abuses of an explicitly apartheid state. I am non-practising, but strongly identified as Jewish. However, I do not identify at all any more with Israel and its current policies, although I have close ties with a number of Israelis who share my views. They are in a very difficult position, trying to oppose the excesses of an occupying power intent on annexing the whole of Palestine. Zionism now means ‘Jewish state’ rather than homeland for dispossessed and abused Jews from the Diaspora, and this runs counter to any notions I may have of democracy.

“To better answer the question (!) the existence of a specifically Jewish state is now anathema to me and irrelevant in the contemporary world, where multi-racial, multi-national and multi-cultural are terms that are far more appropriate if we want to live in peace. I am not religious, which obviously colours my perceptions, but when I was more interested in my own religious and cultural heritage, I was part of a regular interfaith gathering.”

Do you feel committed in some way to defend the future existence of Israel?

“I do, but not as an apartheid state! Not as an occupying power, exploiting, humiliating and abusing the rightful owners and inhabitants of the former Palestine or the Palestinian inhabitants of officially Israeli territory.”

Do you affiliate yourself with a specific denomination in Judaism? What is your view regarding the dominance of the Orthodox denomination in Israel religious establishment?

“My family were founders of the the West London Synagogue in 1840 and leaders of the progressive/liberal/reform movement in Judaism. I was brought up on a farm in the English countryside, in fact, with very little Judaism in my life. I later belonged for a while to the progressive synagogue in Bristol. I hate extremism of any kind and all religious orthodoxy, which is usually highly prejudiced against women and minorities.”

Do you feel morally responsible for Israel’s actions (such as its management of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict)?

“No. I cannot identify any more with Israel. However, I do feel morally involved to the extent that I will continue to try and do my bit from afar to create a just society in Israel and resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as you call it. It will be a small bit, I know, but at least I can reassure my many non-Jewish friends that not all Jews – nor non-Jews – have to agree with Israeli policies, and that they should not be labelled anti-Semitic if they do, and that being Jewish does not mean one is uncritical of thoroughly vile policies. Moreover, that ‘Zionism’ is not synonymous with Judaism and that to be non-Zionist is perfectly acceptable and reasonable. We are members of the Diaspora and entitled to be so.“

In your opinion, what is the main thing Israelis fail to understand about the reality of being Jewish outside of Israel?

“That we are all culturally dissimilar, with different experiences of being Jewish and different notions about our Jewish identities. I have little in common with many of the Israelis I meet or have known. On the other hand, I often discover that friends I have made turn out to have Jewish roots, which interests me. Maybe we do share something at a deeper level. My own family did not suffer from pogroms or persecution – in the last century and a half at least – which must colour my perceptions. The fact that I suffered some anti-semitism as a child in a Christian school did not make me hide my racial roots, but now I find myself ashamed to be Jewish because of the behaviour of the Israeli government. We get tarred with the same brush and can feel threatened as a result.”

How would you describe Israel’s policy (formally and in practice) regarding its relationship with the Diaspora?

“Material. I don’t think Israel is much concerned with Jews in the Diaspora. I think it is narrow-minded and solely interested in defending its policies and continuing to get financial support from those who will fund them. Ironically, it is the Christian Zionists who are most likely to help it survive, even after the Diaspora Jews have disassociated themselves from Israel! “

In your opinion, does Israel have an obligation to defend and help Jewish communities in need?

“I suppose it does. However, when it encourages Jews to come to Israel, it is much more interested, I think, in affecting the demographic – ie swelling the Jewish population so that the Palestinian population doesn’t become too dominant in numbers. In other words, to be cynical, self-interest. I think, however, that it has been important to threatened Jewish communities in many countries to know that Israel would accept them. The reality is, though, that there is great discrimination in Israel between the former nationals of those countries, particularly if they are dark-skinned…”

Have you ever been to Israel?

“When I was 16 I was in Israel twice and was very impressed with what seemed like a very democratic society, with little division between professionals and ‘workers’. Kibbutzim seemed then like a socialist, utopian dream. This was refreshing, as I grew up in a very class-conscious environment and never personally accepted the status quo. I was aware that Yemeni Jews were discriminated against because of their colour, however.

“As an 18-yr old I found Israeli Tsabras of my sort of age very arrogant and decided that I couldn’t emigrate to Israel, though it had been a thought before that. I found them narrow-minded, thinking that they were the centre of the world. There were many older Israelis who impressed and influenced me a lot. They were sophisticated and cultured.”

Can you tell us a bit about the Jewish community in your hometown?

“My parents moved from London to the English countryside long before I was born (in 1944). We had no Jewish neighbours and my mother sent me to church in our village, as she thought that ‘worshipping someone else’s god was better than not worshiping one at all’!

“My only contact with Jewish practices was when I visited a school friend’s Orthodox family near Cheltenham and enjoyed the Sabbath rituals, but hated the synagogue, where women were segregated and the service a horrible, incomprehensible mumbo-jumbo. On the other hand, my mother would take my brother and I up my great-uncle’s Jewish settlement in the East End of London every year to share the communal Seder. This was always an enjoyable and meaningful event for me and I stayed close to my great uncle and aunt for the duration of their lives..”

If you could ask the Israeli readers of this project a question, what would it be?

“Do you think it’s morally acceptable for you or your fellow Israelis to be living on and profiting from stolen land?”