A letter emailed to performing artist Lana Nasser before she embarked on the “Connecting Daughters” walk from Jordan to Jerusalem, asking her to consider withdrawing from the initiative. Lana Nasser embarked on the “Connecting Daughters” walk on March 12th, 2013.

By Thoraya Rayyes

Dear Lana,

I hope this email finds you well.

I am writing to you as an anti-Zionist activist as well as someone who is interested in your artistic message and has enjoyed several of your performances over the past few years.

I was disappointed to hear that you will be embarking on a project this week involving a joint trip to Jerusalem with a group of Israeli women. While I understand that your intention is to spread a message about justice and to take a stand against oppression, I would ask you to think again about the way in which you are trying to spread this message.

Activities involving “cooperation” between Arabs and Israelis under the mantle of “peace building” have long been promoted by liberal Zionists who seek to create a narrative that Arabs and Israelis are two morally equivalent sides of a conflict who can put their “differences” aside through participating in joint initiatives. Such activities have been extensively promoted and funded by the so-called Israeli “Left” and  especially Shimon Peres- a man who made his name by procuring arms for the Israeli military in the 1950s and 1960s and who ordered the massacre of over 100 Lebanese civilians at Qana in 1996.

We all know that the reality is not one of two morally equivalent sides of a conflict. The reality is one of a powerful oppressor armed with tanks and nuclear weapons and funded by billions of dollars in American military aid. The reality is one of a powerful oppressor who adopted a racist European ideology and used it to justify the colonization, expulsion and mass murder of the indigenous people of Palestine.

By carrying out this joint project with Israeli women and by using the language of “cooperation” and “sisterhood” in this context, you are participating in a liberal Zionist narrative that aims to mask and beautify the oppression of millions of Palestinians stranded in refugee camps, suffering under military occupation and living as second-class citizens under apartheid.

Regardless of your intentions, this is the political context in which you are undertaking this project. Regardless of who these Israeli women are, the reality is that there is no anti-Zionist movement worth noting in Israel. You may personally reject liberal Zionism, you may even insist that these women are anti-Zionist. But in doing so, you would only be promoting a false picture about the reality that is the colonial state of Israel.

I would ask you to consider the story of Asel Asleh, a Palestinian child who was an active member of the Seeds of Peace movement. At the age of 17, he was shot by an Israeli soldier while participating in a protest during the Second Intifada. He was unarmed and wearing a Seeds of Peace t-shirt at the time. This is the reality of “peace building” initiatives with Israelis.

As artists and as activists, we have an important role to play in creating the stories and narratives that shape our world. I would ask you to join me and other anti-Zionist activists in creating a narrative of resistance to oppression and not to participate in promoting a narrative that masks oppression behind misleading platitudes about cooperation and sisterhood.

Best regards,

Thoraya El-Rayyes