US-based Jewish writer encourages other Israelis to join him in protest against Israel's actions

Avi Steinberg, an Israeli-born author, announced on Thursday that he had formally renounced his Israeli citizenship.

Justifying his decision in an article for the left-leaning news publication Truthout, Steinberg said that Israeli citizenship had “always been a tool of genocide” that legitimised settler colonialism.

“Israeli citizenship is predicated on the worst kinds of violent crimes we know of, and on a deepening litany of lies intended to whitewash those crimes,” he argued in the op-ed.

  • TedescheEnglish
    0•4 days ago

    While I agree with his criticism of Israel, I can’t help but note that it’s pretty easy (and therefore meaningless) to give up something you aren’t using. His words matter but giving up his citizenship seems like a hollow sacrifice.

    • @[email protected]
      1•3 days ago

      The author was born in Jerusalem to American parents and raised in an Orthodox setting. In 1993, his family moved back to the US, first to Cleveland and then to Boston, where his father got a job as a director at Harvard University.

      I’m sure people doing this are burning at least some social bridges within the wider community, in order to make waves there and beyond. That’s probably the biggest sacrifice. Maybe since they recently started trying to draft even Orthodox Jews into their military for the first time ever, some more people’s eyes will be opened?

      • TedescheEnglish
        1•3 days ago

        You don’t know that any social bridges are being burnt. This seems like a big “meh” to me, which would make total sense. Make a big deal about it in writing, while it doesn’t actually cost you that much. Perfect political action: superficially poignant, but ultimately meaningless.