NOTE: because this Reading Group will be using a slightly different format to usual, we will be meeting in oyoun, Lucy-Lameck Straße 32.

This session aims to expose us to narratives that we don’t agree with so we can discuss them and how they seep into mainstream (non Palestine solidarity) circles, particularly in Germany. It includes guides on to how to argue for Israel as well as different perspectives which show both covert and overt support for Israeli government actions/ attacks on Palestine. We focused on the narratives themselves (rather than countering them), as requested from reading group members.

It may seem like a long list but most resources below are relatively short.

Recommended Reading

• The Israel Project’s 2009 Global Language Dictionary
  • Chapter 3, How to talk about Palestinian self government and prosperity, pp. 22-32
  • Chapter 4, Isolating Iran-backed Hamas as an obstacle to peace, pp. 33 – 38
  • Chapter 6, Gaza: Israel’s right to self defense and defensible borders, pp. 45-58
  • Appendix 1, The toughest questions, pp. 103-106

• Examples of Brand Israel

  • Maryan Toledano, The defiant femininity of Israel’s female soldiers,

  • Elizabeth B. Solomont, San Francisco festival to showcase Israel’s gay culture,

• Matti Friedman, An insider’s guide to the most important story on earth,

• Creative Community for Peace, The truth about the BDS movement

• Hillel Neuer, The Jew Among nations – Israel and the UN, 2022 – YouTube or podcast

• Yossi Klein Halevi, What Israelis fear the world does not understand

• Howard Jacobson, The founding of Israel wasn’t a colonial act,

• Hamas Raped Me Too website [content note: images of bound and gagged woman in blood soaked trousers in distress in video on home page]

• Deborah Lipstadt and Michèle Taylor, Israeli women and girls have suffered horrific sexual violence from Hamas. where is the outrage?

Reading in German (please use DeepL or another online translation service if needed)

• Nahostkonflikt in der Schule – Düzen Tekkal will Spaltung durch Dialog überwinden

• JSUD-Präsidentin Hanna Veiler: Junge Jüdinnen und Juden hinterfragen ihre Zukunft in Deutschland und Europa

• Michaela Dudley, Die Lüge vom Genozid in Gaza

Additional resources

• Israel’s project global language dictionary

  • Chapter 14, Talking about Arab-Israelis, p. 83

  • Chapter 17, Talking to the American left, pp. 90-98

• Nick Hopkins, The Israeli Defence Forces: first for women

• Berger et al, A country as a brand: Israel’s evolving branding strategy

• Elizabeth B. Solomont, In Haiti: ‘this is the spirit of the IDF’

• Anne Herzberg and Olga Meshoe Washington, Debunking the Apartheid Lie, YouTube or podcast

• Neubauer distanziert sich von globalem Netzwerk von Fridays for Future

• PM Netanyahu comments on the decision of the International Court of Justice

• Howard Jacobson The founding of Israel wasn’t a colonial act – a refugee isn’t a colonist

• Scroll through headlines on the Israel21c website homepage which works with the Israeli Foreign Ministry to focus attention on ‘the 21st century Israel that exists beyond the conflict’ so that by ‘promoting positive images of Israel and Israelis, people will come to view Israelis as more like themselves and understand the relevance of Israel to their own lives’

For a (perhaps unnecessarily) deeper dive

• Dan Diker, BDS unmasked – radical roots, extremist ends,

• Dan Diker ed. Israelophobia and the West