Activists Host Telethon to Raise Money for Senator Feinstein to go to Jenin
Dialing for DiFi
By Joyce Nishioka
04/25/2002
The San Francisco Examiner

Jewish-American peace activists continued their protest of Israel's policies Wednesday, targeting U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein with impassioned speeches and a few antics.

   Below the senator's 24th-floor office at 1 Post St., money was collected at noon for the senator, but not for what you may think.

   Standing in front of the hushed crowd, activist-comedian Jeffrey Grubler worked the scene.

   He held a bag containing donations and dialed the number for Feinstein's office in Washington, D.C., as a drum rolled softly in the background.

   "Yeah, hi," Grubler said into his cellphone. "I would like to make a donation to Dianne Feinstein, but see, I don't want it to go to just anything. I don't want it to go into a home-demolition fund."

   The beat of the drum intensified. People cheered.

   "I want it to go to a plane ticket so she can go to Jenin to investigate human rights violations. Is that possible?

   "I think she hung up," Grubler told the assembly.

   Organized by A Jewish Voice for Peace, the rally drew about 150 protesters and a sizable lunchtime crowd calling on the United States to end Isreal's occupation of the West Bank and suspend aid to Israel.

   Although the protesters had many complaints about U.S. handling of the Middle East conflict, Feinstein's recent stance brought the most rhetoric Wednesday.

   After the recent Israeli invasion of the Jenin refugee camp, Feinstein introduced the Arafat Accountability Act of 2002, which imposes penalties on Palestinian Council President Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority.

   It would downgrade PLO representation in the United States and would confiscate Arafat's U.S. assets. It would also deny visas to Arafat or other officials of the PLO/PA.

   The legislation releases Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon from responsibility for the current Middle East crisis, protesters said. The crowd called the Israeli army's recent actions -- accounts include bulldozers burying Palestinian families in their homes and blockades preventing ambulances and food from reaching Palestinians -- crimes against humanity.

   Feinstein was unavailable for comment, but her spokesman Harry Gantman issued this statement: "The senator feels Israel has the same right to protect itself from terrorists as United States has to respond to terrorism and the murders of Sept. 11."

   Grubler, an anti-war activist by day and a bartender by night, joined A Jewish Voice for Peace a week ago. For him, being an American Jew is not incongruous with being a critic of Israel policy.

   "I look at Israel with the same ideals I grew up with, that everyone should have the same rights and freedoms. That's not the way it is in the occupied territories."

   Wednesday's rally wasn't Grubler's first stand-up venue. Recently, he yucked it up at a Palestinian protest, also right here in The City. To a crowd of about 1,000 angry activists, clutching their fists and ready to drag him off the stage, Grubler introduced himself as an American Jew from the historic homeland of his people.

   Brooklyn.

   Ba-da-bing.

   "Humor is really important. It's a very powerful weapon," Grubler said.

   Grubler said many Brooklynites are settling in the Gaza Strip

   "In my opinion, the West Bank of the Gaza Strip is probably the last place for a neurotic Jew should be," Grubler chuckled. "Culturally, it's a mind warp. Our food is not humus and falafels and babaganoush. Our traditional food is Chinese."

   The Zionist movement, he said, actively recruits Jews worldwide to fill the settlements. Ironically, many of the settlers turn out to be not real Jews.

   "There are a slew of Russian Orthodox churches that opened all over Israel that no one can explain," Grubler said. "They just wanted to get the hell out of Russia. It's like anyone else is welcome but the Palestinians."

   There is a serious side to Grubler's shtick, as he explained the phone call to Feinstein's office.

   "Raising money for a plane ticket was really ridiculous, but on the other hand, it was the most realistic demand we've made."

   E-mail Joyce Nishioka at jnishioka@sfexaminer.com

 

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