Last night at the Judson Memorial Church in New York, Amer Shurrab, a Palestinian studying in the United States, described the murders of his relatives in Gaza by Israeli soldiers.

In the video above, he opens by relating the killings of four cousins during Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge.”

At 3:40 he relates the killing of his brothers Kassab and Ibrahim during the Israeli invasion in 2009 called “Operation Cast Lead.”

Shurrab also told the story on Democracy Now! July 28.

Last night the story evoked a strong response from a crowd of over 100, gathered by Jewish Voice for Peace. I urge you to watch the video from 5:18 to 5:28, as I survey the crowd. Look at those American faces, hearing about atrocities.

In the Q-and-A, a woman rose to say that she had abandoned the liberal Zionist organization J Street “in disgust” after she heard Shurrab’s story, and had joined Jewish Voice for Peace, which is a non-Zionist organization. She speaks at the outset of the next video. You can judge her sincerity — and Shurrab’s — from their exchange.

I want to thank you for your courage. The reason why I’ve left J Street in disgust and joined Jewish Voice for Peace is because I heard you on Democracy Now! I apologize for getting emotional. But I have to tell you that this entire situation has brought me to a place where I have become more critical of Israel than I ever thought I would in my life. So you are having an impact.

Others have also made this woman’s walk recently.

Below is another questioner (he did not give his name) saying that he invited his family to hear Shurrab’s talk because they have a “special bond” with Shurrab: many of their ancestors were wiped out in the Holocaust in Poland. The man says his request created a “rift” in the family between himself and a Zionist brother. Shurrab graciously says he would do family outreach. This exchange ends in laughter.



Sorry that I don’t have the names of the speakers. I will try and get them later. I have long urged a public Jewish family feud be aired to the American public, to do for Zionism what the late Lance Loud did for homophobia, when his family was televised.