Two Arrested Protesting Jewish Federation’s Celebration of Israeli “Lone Soldier”
-As St. Louisans continued to clean up from the recent devastating tornado, the St. Louis Jewish Federation, the St. Louis Jewish Community Center, and the Jewish Agency for Israel sponsored a presentation of St. Louis native Israeli “Lone Soldier” Paratrooper Myles Rosenblum. He spoke to probably around 120 people at the Jewish Community Center in unincorporated north St. Louis County near Lindbergh Boulevard on the evening of Monday, May 19th.
While we do not know exactly what Rosenblum did as a paratrooper, we do know that he is an American who volunteered to serve in the military operation of a foreign country that is committing genocide against the Palestinian people of Gaza. Rosenblum also fought in Lebanon, where Israel has recently committed multiple war crimes against civilians. Note that when Americans join other human rights-abusing armies or militias, such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, they are criminally charged upon returning home. Rosenblum’s speech was not a speech to expose war crimes or condemn the operation. The event was put on to celebrate the soldier as a hero, and, in doing so, to reinforce the narrative that the annihilation of the Palestinian people is necessary to defend the Jewish people.
Opposition to this dishonest framing of the war in Gaza is why people came out to protest. Palestinian children are being starved to death by the State of Israel while food is at the border, ready for delivery. It is being stopped by soldiers like Rosenblum. These crimes need to stop and we should not celebrate those who participate in them.
Roughly 40 people gathered outside of the Jewish Community Center prior to the presentation, and we greeted those who entered with Palestinian flags, signs, and chants. I held a sign that said “Jews Against Genocide”. Multiple people gave me the middle finger as they drove into the event. When my son was holding the sign an older woman decided to scream at him that he wasn’t a real Jew and then decided to start arguing with this child that she had just met. There was a lot of Jewish Federation private security at the location, and multiple actual police officers came when they thought protestors went off the sidewalks and into streets for too long. In the end, nobody was arrested for protesting outside the event.
The same cannot be said for a protest inside of the event.
Based on an eyewitness account, someone known only as Sarah entered the event with the intention of sending a message about the horror of Palestinian suffering in Gaza, which they did.
Early in the presentation, when Paratrooper Myles Rosenblum began speaking, sounds emerged from the back of the room. There were sounds of crying and a speech by a Palestinian child about his suffering. The crowd began acting uncomfortable and Paratrooper Rosenblum tried to laugh it off. Event organizers and security began looking for where the sound was coming from, and they determined that it came from a trash can. They could not quickly find what in the trash can was generating the noise, so they removed it from the room.
Rosenblum continued his presentation. When he presented a picture of himself holding an assault rifle as a child, Sarah spoke up. She proclaimed loudly, “I guess they started the indoctrination early. If you give children murder weapons, I guess they are going to group up to be murderers. You are a war criminal! You deserve to be tried at the Hague. How do you justify the murder of innocent children?”
Off-duty police officers who were working as private security for the event quickly grabbed her, put tight handcuffs on her, and began to roughly pull her out of the building. As this was happening, a man in the audience stood up for Sarah and pleaded with security not to be so rough. Security threatened to tase him unless he backed up. Someone in the audience yelled “Arrest him too!” The man was also dragged out of the building by private security. They were detained until St. Louis County police took them away to be arrested for unknown charges. At no point did either Sarah or the man apply any force to security or refuse to comply with their orders to leave.
Paratrooper Myles Rosenblum is only one soldier, one small cog in a genocidal machine – but it is important that we do not accept the celebration or normalization of any part of the machine. As a child, I was raised in the Reform Jewish community of St. Louis. Over and over, my elders told me “never again”. Never again should the world look away while an entire people are herded into concentration camps, starved, and massacred as was done to the Jews of Europe by the Nazi government of Germany. Right now the State of Israel is doing it again and we all have a duty to resist.
There is much you can do. Please do not be afraid to speak out for what is right. Let elected officials know that you oppose Israel’s genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people. Support the community effort to oppose St. Louis’ complicity with this genocide by signing the Not Another Nickel pledge to make sure St. Louis stops investing in Gaza’s destruction. The pledge calls for St. Louis to cease issuing tax incentives, no-cost leases, and procurement deals involving city-owned land and buildings to corporations that profit from destroying Palestinian lives and property. Join this campaign led by the St. Louis Palestine Solidarity Committee, St. Louis Democratic Socialists of America, St. Louis Jewish Voice for Peace, Progressive Jews of St. Louis, St. Louis Catholic Workers, and Code Pink Missouri.
