This was really difficult for me to read. These two responses quoted in the article stuck out to me: What this woman wrote is her grappling with her own emotional havoc from what for her country...
This was really difficult for me to read. These two responses quoted in the article stuck out to me:
Emily Fox Kaplan, a Jewish writer who had shared the essay before it was retracted, wrote that she saw the criticism of Chen’s essay as part of a much wider dynamic.
“The problem, when it really comes down to it, is that it presents an Israeli as human,” she tweeted. “The people who are losing their minds about this want to believe that there are no civilians in Israel. They want a simple good guys/bad guys binary, and this creates cognitive dissonance.”
Some non-Jewish writers also lamented the piece’s retraction.
“Anyone who wants to seriously grapple with war had better be prepared for far more shocking opinions than are found in this thoughtful essay by a translator and writer living in Israel,” tweeted Phil Klay, a US military veteran whose writing draws on his war experiences. “Shame on @GuernicaMag for pulling it down
What this woman wrote is her grappling with her own emotional havoc from what for her country was worse than 9/11 (proportionally) and then reasserting her empathy. If what she feels isn't OK, isn't allowed... The only words I could use to describe here is absolute purism. With purism, there is no ability for finding middle grounds, problem solving, compromises. No recognition of mutual humanity, with all of its flaws. Chen opinion isn't valid, isn't allowed to be said out loud unless she suppresses her own lived experience and struggles in reaching it.
I have a group of Jewish friends, ranging from secular to orthodox, several of whom are LGBTQ+. We've all had difficult discussions in what had previously been safe spaces over the last few months. Sometimes as much as asking for a dialogue with a friend over what reads as anti-semetism, or even just asking to temporarily drop a difficult topic in a group chat has lead to hostility, anger, or even public denuciations. It can make you feel like there is no space in the world for you. Space to grieve, space to be worry about the very real hatred that has been stoked, space to be afraid for your loved ones...
Amid criticism from staff members and others, a prestigious literary magazine has retracted an essay by an Israeli writer and translator wrestling with her attempts to find mutual understanding with Palestinians after the Hamas-led massacre of October 7.
Guernica magazine did not explain the retraction over the weekend, but said it “regrets having published” the essay by Joanna Chen, titled “From the Edges of a Broken World.”
The retraction came after multiple members of the journal’s volunteer staff resigned publicly over the essay.
...
Guernica’s case stands out because Chen, and her essay, are deeply critical of Israel. Chen, a writer and translator of both Hebrew and Arabic work who moved to Israel from the United Kingdom as a teenager, wrote for Guernica in 2015 about her efforts not to build on land from which Palestinians had been displaced. In the retracted essay, she details her commitment to coexistence and frets over the ways in which Hamas’s October 7 onslaught on Israel has challenged it.
...
Chen writes about how she refused to serve in the Israel Defense Forces and worked as a volunteer for Road to Recovery, an organization in which Israelis provide transport for Palestinians who are seeking medical care, both before and after Hamas’s attack (while briefly pausing in the immediate aftermath). She also recalls an experience donating blood to Palestinians during Israel’s 2014 war in Gaza, for which she received blowback from other Israelis. But she says the bridges she had been working to build felt impossible to complete after October 7.
“It is not easy to tread the line of empathy, to feel passion for both sides,” Chen writes in the piece, which also includes translated excerpts from Hebrew- and Arabic-language poems. It remains available online through the Internet Archive.
Of two Gaza-based poets she works with, Chen wrote, “Their voices are important ones, and I want the English-speaking world to listen to them as much as I want the world to listen to the voices I translate from Hebrew.”
I think it's important to highlight why some folks are calling for its retraction:
I think it's important to highlight why some folks are calling for its retraction:
Joshua Gutterman Tranen, an anti-Zionist Jewish writer who has published in Guernica in the past, specifically pointed out a passage he found objectionable in which Chen briefly pauses her volunteer work after October 7, writing, “How could I continue after Hamas had massacred and kidnapped so many civilians, including Road to Recovery members, such as Vivian Silver, a longtime Canadian peace activist? And I have to admit, I was afraid for my own life.”
“The moment in the Guernica essay where the Israeli writer — who never considers why Palestinian children don’t have access to adequate healthcare b/c of colonization and apartheid — says she has to stop assisting them getting medical support because of ‘Hamas,’” Tranen tweeted. “This is genocidal.”
She personally afraid after a massacre, temporarily stops volunteering and writes about her fear, and this is genocidal? She's not calling for the ngo to stop operating if I understand correctly...
She personally afraid after a massacre, temporarily stops volunteering and writes about her fear, and this is genocidal?
She's not calling for the ngo to stop operating if I understand correctly
Edit: she stopped for two weeks. She now continues to drive patients from the border.
I hate that they retracted her essay. I think it's important to note how these people should be able to live peacefully side-by-side, and they can't. She's doing good work. I think the modern...
I hate that they retracted her essay. I think it's important to note how these people should be able to live peacefully side-by-side, and they can't. She's doing good work. I think the modern anti-zionists choose not to understand the history of the situation and choose not to understand why the land is the way it is and the people living there - all the people living on that land - have every right to live there now.
The Right-wing Israeli government and Hamas are the problem here, not the people trying to live their lives, whether they be Palestinian or Israeli.
In a note to readers, Guernica founder Michael Archer wrote that the “piece felt jarring in both its timing and its approach” and took responsibility for its retraction. Change is afoot, he declared: “Moving forward, we will ensure that our decision-making processes are more transparent, our editorial engagement is more collaborative; and our accountability practices are clearer.” The magazine also announced [a] new publisher, Magogodi aoMphela Makhene.
…
Whereas the Guernica masthead in January listed about 50 people, it now lists about a dozen, thanks at least in part to staff dismay over Chen’s essay. Some staffers wrote impassioned posts on X outlining their rationales for turning in their passcodes. They left behind a labor of love: Guernica is run entirely by volunteers. Jina Moore Ngarambe, who took over as editor in chief in 2021, resigned her post on April 5: “The magazine stands by its retraction of the work; I do not. Guernica will continue, but I am no longer the right leader for its work,” wrote Ngarambe.
…
Following the Guernica retraction, the Washington Monthly picked up the essay and published it with an italicized explanation dissenting from all the critiques. How did it land? “The reaction was overwhelmingly positive from left, right, and center,” noted Matthew Cooper, the Monthly’s executive editor for digital.
The essay is not bad, but it still has something which doesn't really sit right with me. But it's subtle, and even if I tried putting it into words, this would be yesterdays news beforehand. That...
The essay is not bad, but it still has something which doesn't really sit right with me. But it's subtle, and even if I tried putting it into words, this would be yesterdays news beforehand.
That said, the article is rather heavy on genocide-denial and the usual Israelic martyrdom roundabout.
I was thinking of this bit, where the journalist take offence of the word "genocidal" (used in a different context) and use the Israelic governments words that they are the good guys as proof....
I was thinking of this bit, where the journalist take offence of the word "genocidal" (used in a different context) and use the Israelic governments words that they are the good guys as proof. This if followed by a counterargument to the word "colonization and apartheid" where the journalist pulls the "black best friend" argument. (which is in stark contrast which everything showing up if you google israel black depotation)
“The moment in the Guernica essay where the Israeli writer — who never considers why Palestinian children don’t have access to adequate healthcare b/c of colonization and apartheid — says she has to stop assisting them getting medical support because of ‘Hamas,’” Tranen tweeted. “This is genocidal.”
Israel strenuously rejects the charge that it is committing genocide, saying it takes measures to avoid killing civilians. Its supporters, including a cohort of Black Jews who have vocally defended Israel online in recent months, dispute that it is a “white” country, noting that a large portion of its Jewish population has roots in the Middle East and North Africa.
My intial feeling was that people should read better, and understand that I was talking about the article when I wrote "the article". However, I realize that I should simply have written better....
My intial feeling was that people should read better, and understand that I was talking about the article when I wrote "the article". However, I realize that I should simply have written better. My comment is missing a middle part connecting the two different lines. Something about that while I don't find the essay all that objectable, the way the article frame the story warrents a closer scrutiny, etc, etc. I think I fall into the trap of modern online prose where you don't as much put your thought to paper as you boil it down to a simplified declaration.
I think I understand you better. The Israeli newspaper does soft-pedal the issue. However the article that was removed from the Literary magazine does not, which is why people are unhappy it was...
I think I understand you better. The Israeli newspaper does soft-pedal the issue. However the article that was removed from the Literary magazine does not, which is why people are unhappy it was removed
Archive link is here. I think it’s a pretty good essay.
Perhaps more people will read it due to the controversy than otherwise?
This was really difficult for me to read. These two responses quoted in the article stuck out to me:
What this woman wrote is her grappling with her own emotional havoc from what for her country was worse than 9/11 (proportionally) and then reasserting her empathy. If what she feels isn't OK, isn't allowed... The only words I could use to describe here is absolute purism. With purism, there is no ability for finding middle grounds, problem solving, compromises. No recognition of mutual humanity, with all of its flaws. Chen opinion isn't valid, isn't allowed to be said out loud unless she suppresses her own lived experience and struggles in reaching it.
I have a group of Jewish friends, ranging from secular to orthodox, several of whom are LGBTQ+. We've all had difficult discussions in what had previously been safe spaces over the last few months. Sometimes as much as asking for a dialogue with a friend over what reads as anti-semetism, or even just asking to temporarily drop a difficult topic in a group chat has lead to hostility, anger, or even public denuciations. It can make you feel like there is no space in the world for you. Space to grieve, space to be worry about the very real hatred that has been stoked, space to be afraid for your loved ones...
...
I think it's important to highlight why some folks are calling for its retraction:
It's another unfortunate side effect of Twitter call-out culture
She personally afraid after a massacre, temporarily stops volunteering and writes about her fear, and this is genocidal?
She's not calling for the ngo to stop operating if I understand correctly
Edit: she stopped for two weeks. She now continues to drive patients from the border.
I hate that they retracted her essay. I think it's important to note how these people should be able to live peacefully side-by-side, and they can't. She's doing good work. I think the modern anti-zionists choose not to understand the history of the situation and choose not to understand why the land is the way it is and the people living there - all the people living on that land - have every right to live there now.
The Right-wing Israeli government and Hamas are the problem here, not the people trying to live their lives, whether they be Palestinian or Israeli.
An update on what’s happened since:
Opinion: Guernica doubles down on retraction of essay on Israel-Gaza war - Erik Wemple (Washington Post)
…
…
The essay is not bad, but it still has something which doesn't really sit right with me. But it's subtle, and even if I tried putting it into words, this would be yesterdays news beforehand.
That said, the article is rather heavy on genocide-denial and the usual Israelic martyrdom roundabout.
I don’t see anything that looks like denial. But maybe it’s missing context that you think should be included?
If I were the editor, I might have paired the article with one written by a Palestinian
I was thinking of this bit, where the journalist take offence of the word "genocidal" (used in a different context) and use the Israelic governments words that they are the good guys as proof. This if followed by a counterargument to the word "colonization and apartheid" where the journalist pulls the "black best friend" argument. (which is in stark contrast which everything showing up if you google israel black depotation)
Yeah, I'm talking about the article which criticize the tweet which criticize the essay. Sorry about the confusion.
My intial feeling was that people should read better, and understand that I was talking about the article when I wrote "the article".
However, I realize that I should simply have written better. My comment is missing a middle part connecting the two different lines. Something about that while I don't find the essay all that objectable, the way the article frame the story warrents a closer scrutiny, etc, etc. I think I fall into the trap of modern online prose where you don't as much put your thought to paper as you boil it down to a simplified declaration.
I think I understand you better. The Israeli newspaper does soft-pedal the issue. However the article that was removed from the Literary magazine does not, which is why people are unhappy it was removed
Peacemakers frequently suffer during war time.