Letters to the Editors: On Jewish Palestine
I found the article by Raanan Rein in the March, 2024 issue of The Volunteer to be interesting and insightful. But there was just this one phrase that raised the hackles on this Palestinian Jew’s head: “Jewish Palestine.” No such place existed. Rather, there was a place called Palestine, a multicultural home to Jews, Arab Muslims and Christians. Only later did that land become a Jewish State. The difference matters a great deal, as Zionists continue to deny that Palestine ever existed. The women in comrade Rein’s article were, like my grandfather, Palestinian Jews, but not citizens of a “Jewish Palestine.” As members of the Palestinian Communist Party, I suspect they would have agreed with me that they, and their non-Jewish volunteer partners, represented Palestine, and not some proto-Israel.
—Bill Kransdorf
In the most recent issue of The Volunteer, in the article on page 4 about the Howard Zinn Book Fair, there are a couple of errors in the last paragraph. 1. My book is titled Home So Far Away. 2. My character is in Spain working as a chemistry lab technician when she volunteers in the Spanish Civil War as a nurse and translator.
Gracias y salud,
—Judith Berlowitz
