Below is a transcript of this interview with David Adler, who joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza last October. Here’s testimony that David gave from Amman, Jordan after his release.

MAA

Transcribed by TurboScribe

I ask myself, do you not have the moral clarity, the moral conviction, the moral courage to be part of this great mission? I come from a Jewish family in Los Angeles, California that comes from two very different traditions. From my mother’s side, there was a tradition of Jewish-American Zionism. From my father’s side, there was a tradition of resistance, anti-fascist, anti-Zionist politics.

So I grew up a bit in the tension between these two different traditions. When I look into my heart, thinking as a Jewish-American, that is, thinking as someone for whom these crimes have not only been committed in the name of my identity, but with my tax dollars. Hey mom.

Hey dad. I’m on a boat, and just getting everything ready with the crew of the boat. That’s my roundabout way of telling you how excited I am to be part of this mission.

One of the horrors that we have witnessed over the past, not just two years, not just 20 years, but of course 75 years or more since the Nakba of 1948, is the ways in which Zionists have deployed Jewish identity to defend our safety. When our friends and our family searched for global Sumut flotilla, now the first hint that they see is a sponsored ad on top of Google. The report that tries to claim that we are the Hamas flotilla.

This flotilla will be, as I suppose, more violent than Medellin or Handan. My question is whether it’s more violent at sea or whether it’s more violent at land. The second that we stepped off the boats, we were beaten by Israeli soldiers and put into a pose on our knees and our hands with our heads down.

An Israeli soldier came, approached, took my passport, read my name, asked me if I was Jewish. I said, yes I am. And then with such anger and such spite and rage, kind of ripped me from the group and made me sit through me in front of this flag of the State of Israel.

They made me sit staring at the flag as a kind of punishment for being the wrong kind of Jew. For being a Jew who dared to confront the State of Israel. We have a different Jewish tradition.

We’re trying to rescue and recover before it is too late.