Thank you for this. Joanna and Raz, her husband, have been personal friends for nearly two decades. I spent Rosh Hashanah at their place, three weeks before Oct 7, 2023. It is extremely disingenuous, if not gaslighting, for Archer to suggest that the idea to retract came from her, and it is outrageous to suggest that her views align with those of "mainstream media", so that she will be fine. In fact, she represents an increasingly sidelined minority voice in Israel, left-wing Jews, and being de-platformed by people who she thought were her friends was and remains a hurtful thing. She still volunteers to transport Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals, still promotes Palestinian writing, and still helps and interacts with Palestinians from all walks of life practically every day, and she does all this here, where it is astronomically harder than it is to sit and type out a column in New York expressing solidarity with the oppressed who only exist as free floating ideas in people's heads, and is becoming even harder. As you say, it is also weird to frame this as a competition, as if paying attention to Joanna has to come at the expense of listening to "the preferably unheard." And while we are at it, part of what I get from all this is that people like Joanna are also "the preferably unheard." And that is a massive own-goal.
I read Chen's article. I don't understand the controversy. It's a beautifully balanced depiction of those living in the middle of an historically ceaseless quagmire where no one wins and the innocent always lose.
Zina, I haven't read the essay. I'm more than persuaded it's time. Thank you for the nudge and for Damien Lewis. As for the "fulsome" response, the whole affair sounds meretricious--not to be confused with "meritorious."
Thank you for this. Joanna and Raz, her husband, have been personal friends for nearly two decades. I spent Rosh Hashanah at their place, three weeks before Oct 7, 2023. It is extremely disingenuous, if not gaslighting, for Archer to suggest that the idea to retract came from her, and it is outrageous to suggest that her views align with those of "mainstream media", so that she will be fine. In fact, she represents an increasingly sidelined minority voice in Israel, left-wing Jews, and being de-platformed by people who she thought were her friends was and remains a hurtful thing. She still volunteers to transport Palestinian children to Israeli hospitals, still promotes Palestinian writing, and still helps and interacts with Palestinians from all walks of life practically every day, and she does all this here, where it is astronomically harder than it is to sit and type out a column in New York expressing solidarity with the oppressed who only exist as free floating ideas in people's heads, and is becoming even harder. As you say, it is also weird to frame this as a competition, as if paying attention to Joanna has to come at the expense of listening to "the preferably unheard." And while we are at it, part of what I get from all this is that people like Joanna are also "the preferably unheard." And that is a massive own-goal.
I read Chen's article. I don't understand the controversy. It's a beautifully balanced depiction of those living in the middle of an historically ceaseless quagmire where no one wins and the innocent always lose.
Zina, I haven't read the essay. I'm more than persuaded it's time. Thank you for the nudge and for Damien Lewis. As for the "fulsome" response, the whole affair sounds meretricious--not to be confused with "meritorious."