Jewish, not Zionist

Marilyn Garson worked in Gaza for four years, enduring Israeli bombardments and witnessing the toll of the total military siege on the lives of ordinary Palestinians, during which she was forced to ask herself, "What do I believe: everything I've ever been told or the world in front of my eyes?" As she unlearned Zionism, she uncovered a rich, outward-looking Jewishness and became a practising Jew.

In her new book, she recounts the story of her return home seeking community and justice for Palestine, quickly discovering most unwilling to confront the contradictions inherent in the settler-colonial project of Zionism. Excluded from Jewish institutions, she co-founded Alternative Jewish Voices to call for justice in a pluralist, anti-racist Jewish voice.