In my last diary, I focused on the recent arrest of an gang of Israeli/Russian Neo-Nazi thugs, and discussed how this is related to some very important issues in Israeli society, from the Law of Return, immigration to Israel, and the overall nature of Israel as a Jewish state visa-vi the Palestinian; those exiled from I/P, those who are citizens (albeit 4th class at best) of Israel, and those under Israeli occupation.
I was very happy to see that diary be very well-received, and despite some of the usual silliness, I actually had some interesting discussions in the comment section, where differences could be discussed and many ideas were put forth for consideration. But there was the usual claim that such discussion was simply a scapegoating of Israel, and that the issues that I brought up were not at all pertinent.
Well, first up today, I bring you the writing of Meron Rappaport of Haaretz, who discussed the Neo-Nazi affair with a similar attentiveness and awareness of what it reveals and means in reference to many issues in Israeli society and history; the article was titled "Jews are capable of acting like neo-Nazis."After commenting on the media storm that it drummed up, he went right to the issue at hand, the Law of Return, and how many Israelis felt that if only such laws were made more stringent, and if only 'real' Jews (that is, according to Halakha, Jewish law) could enter the country, then these kind of things would not happen. But, as Meron points out, some of the gang members are "considered Jews according to halakha. And, sadly, the fact is that kosher Jews are also capable of acting like neo-Nazis."
I urge you to read the whole piece, especially these last paragraphs, which discuss the increasing de-humanization of the 'other' in Israel/Palestine;
Although the police demonstrated persistence in this case, the feeling remains that those without rights, the various "others," have no real address where they can seek protection here in Israel. Sometimes, it seems as though the authorities ignore the violence directed against these individuals. During the second intifada, several hundred people gathered around Jaffa's Hassan Bek Mosque following a terror attack and threw rocks at Muslim worshipers, who took cover in the building. Prominent among the rock throwers were Russian-speaking skinheads with tattoos. In my layman's eyes, they looked incredibly like neo-Nazis. Time and again they broke through the police lines and surrounded the mosque, hurling rocks at its windows. The policemen took note of them, but did nothing. At one stage, several of the skinheads lifted the police barriers and tossed them at the mosque and at the worshipers' cars. The police continued to look on with curiosity. No one was arrested.
Even if there is no connection between those skinheads and the group in Petah Tikva, the latter could have learned from the police's behavior in Jaffa that those meant to uphold law and order would not be greatly upset by violence against the "others." Perhaps those skinheads did not salute with an upraised arm. Perhaps they did not venerate Hitler. But they venerated violence against those weaker than them, and this is just as bad.
Until Israeli society begins seriously combatting this dark racism, it will continue to regard the "neo-Nazis" as aliens who suddenly landed here. Public opinion will continue to believe that if we only send them back to the distant planet from whence they came, everything will be resolved. This is really not the case.
One thing to keep in mind, is that Meron's discussion is mainly an intra-Israeli discussion; about violence towards the other, like foreign workers, or Palestinian citizens of Israel; the occupation is not even mentioned. Why is that? Well, it could be that he sees the occupation as being something outside of Israel per say, as opposed to a dedicated settler that would see the WB as an inseparable part of Eretz Israel; but that too would make the occupation invisible, insofar as since all the land is ours, then there can be no occupation. I point these things out not to disparage Mr Rapaport; I think that his article and other writing on the subject of Israel and the occupation is excellent. But, I do find it interesting how one can talk about violence in one situation, that is Meron's circumscribed view of Israeli society, and forget, or at the least omit how that society has been crushing another people systematically for the past 40-60 years, at least.
Now onto another article from Haaretz, this one from Amira Hass, concerning intra Palestinian violence and its representation in the media. In her article, It depends who is doing the torturing, she points out this obvious problem in the media narrative; "the acts of repression by Hamas in Gaza and the violation of basic civil rights there are given relatively wide media coverage in Israel and abroad. Similar actions by the PA in the West Bank, however, are hushed up."
And why is that?
The reason for this oversight is basically political. The negating of freedom, arrests and intimidations fit the definition of Hamas as an Islamic terror organization, but not the respectable, Western, appearance of the Ramallah leadership under PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayad. According to the current Israeli and American interpretation, Abbas and Fayad are capable of reaching a "compromise" (more correctly, a surrender) with Israel. That is to say, an arrangement of a state of enclaves, intersected by settlements (or, alternatively, "a state with temporary borders"). In order to promote this impression, the Abbas-Fayad leadership must be presented as deriving its legitimacy from authentic Palestinian frameworks - either the Basic Law of the PA or the historical legitimacy of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which today is completely devoid of any content as a liberation movement.
In reality, however, the legitimacy of the PA leadership stems from its compliance with the U.S. standard for an acceptable Arab regime. Ignoring the PA's campaigns of repression is a repetition of past mistakes. It means a denial of the fact that Hamas has won its popularity not because of its religious-political vision, and that the dual reason for its victory at the polls has not disappeared: The PLO failed in the negotiations to achieve political independence; at the same time, its internal administration is tainted by a lack of caring for its people and by seeing mainly to the interests of a limited stratum of society. This stratum owes its comfortable status to the adherence to a tactic of failed negotiations with Israel, over a non-solution.
Pretty simple, when you get down to the basic facts of the situation, and it is a tragedy for the Palestinians, as well as Israelis. In the opinion of many Israeli activists, the ongoing destruction of Palestine/Palestinians is spelling out eventual destruction for Israel as well;
An average Jewish-Israeli does not know - or does not want to know - about the ethnic cleansing program executed by their state - she or he prefers to think of it as `fight against terror`. Jewish-Israeli citizens live in virtual reality, thoughtfully provided for them by the leaders, the media, and the education system. In this reality, the Israelis figure as good guys, fighting for their existence, rather than as colonizers and occupiers. In this virtual world, it is believed that our government has worked hard to achieve a peace agreement with the Palestinians; and if this goal was not achieved, it was because of the Palestinian intransigence. Impediment of negotiations by settlers is admitted, but (Sasson report notwithstanding [8]) settlers are viewed as troublesome extremists, rather than as an offshoot of deliberate and consistent annexationist policy of the Israeli government [9].
I believe that the final objective of our rulers is to set the stage for the second Nakba. Otherwise what is the point of the endless goading of Palestinians into violence? Any minimally thoughtful person understands that the Israeli policies in the Occupied Territories will lead to an eventual paroxysm of violence. Do not tell me that our leaders never thought about it. Granted, amongst them there are total opportunists who do not care about anything except staying in power. But somebody is pushing the ethnic cleansing forward - Sharon was the foremost among them, but judging from the well organized continuation - his associates are fully operational and in business. I think that these people are actually looking forward to the violence. They have the eyes on the real-estate prize - the West Bank. A paroxysm of violence would enable the State of Israel to annex the West Bank - the entire West Bank, that is, while getting rid of most of Palestinian inhabitants. Just like in 1948. This is, in my view, the envisaged end-game. Where do they propose to expel the Palestinians? Jordan? The Gaza Strip? Syria? I do not know.
But in the long run, disaster looms for Israel. This is since we are a small nation, and Palestinians are a similarly sized nation which is moreover a part of the vast Moslem world. The experience of South Africa suggests that the apartheid-type system imposed on Palestinians is not viable in the long run, even if it seems invincible at the beginning. As exemplified by the last year invasion to Lebanon, the performance of the Israeli army is deteriorating, corrupted by years of operating as a colonial militia. At the same time, the generals are becoming increasingly unbridled and reckless [14]. The Israeli economy rests on support of the similarly reckless US corporate-political establishment, but this very expensive support is unlikely to last forever. The ability of US to dictate the world is also likely to wane as Russia and China are coming to their own. And perhaps most importantly - the Dome of the Rock - the third holiest place of Islam - is at stake. In my view, my country Israel has embarked on suicidal policies. Something like that already happened in the Jewish history, some 1940 years ago - see the `The Jewish War`, by Josephus Flavius. And just like in those days, most of Israeli public does not realize, that they are being dragged to disaster by their own leaders.
I will end this with diary with an article/press release from one of the lead organizers of the non-violent resistance of Bil'in village, and my friend, Mohammed Khatib, along with my photos of their continuing struggle for freedom. It was first posted in Znet, and I have permission to repost it in full.
thank you all
jon
Bil'in will continue to struggle against the wall and settlements
by Mohammed Khatib
Mohammed Khatib in Bil'in, March 2006
On September 4, after nearly three years of nonviolent protests by our village of Bil’in, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Israel’s wall here must be moved further west, returning 250 acres of our farmland. In Bil’in we celebrated, along with our Israeli and international supporters.
But Israel’s Supreme Court demonstrated both the power of nonviolent resistance to Israeli occupation, and its limits. On September 5 the court rejected our petition to stop the construction of another Israeli settlement, Mattiyahu East, on our land even further to the west. Israel, with US support, appears determined to retain major West Bank settlement blocs, including one west of Bil’in, that carve the West Bank into bantustans.
Bil’in is a West Bank agricultural village with 1600 residents located just east of "the Green Line", the pre-1967 border between the West Bank and Israel. In Bil’in, as in tens of Palestinian villages, Israel exploited security justifications to build a wall deep inside the West Bank and seize Palestinian land for illegal settlements. Israel trapped 60% of our land behind the wall, mostly olive groves that we depend on.
In December, 2004 when the Israeli army started bulldozing our land and uprooting olive trees to build the wall, we went to our fields to protest. We learned from other West Bank villages that nonviolently resisted the wall, and we studied Gandhi, King and Mandela.
We developed creative activities for our weekly protests. One Friday, activists locked themselves inside a cage, representing the wall’s impacts. Another time, we built a Palestinian "outpost" on our village’s land located behind the wall and next to an Israeli settlement, mimicking the Israeli strategy of establishing outposts to expand settlements.
Mohammed, Haitham, Emad, Abdullah and myself camping out at the outpost
Another Friday we handed the Israeli soldiers a letter saying, "Had you come here as guests, we would show you the trees that our grandfathers planted here, and the vegetables that we grow... There will never be security for any of us until Israelis respect our rights to this land."
Cindy and Craig Corrie, along with Israeli and International activists, being welcomed to a Bil'in demo
We hosted two international conferences on nonviolent resistance, and many Israeli and international activists responded to our call to join us in a "joint struggle." Palestinians, Israelis and foreigners suffered patiently together as the soldiers met our nonviolent actions with teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets, and clubs. Over 800 activists were injured in 200 demonstrations. An Israeli attorney and a Bil'in resident both suffered permanent brain damage from rubber-coated steel bullets shot from close range. Another Palestinian lost sight in one eye. 49 Bil’in residents, including some protest leaders, were arrested. Some spent months in prison.
Our achievements are due to our persistence, the worldwide media attention we attracted, and the support we gained from committed Israeli activists.
We never expected much from the occupier’s courts. The Israeli official who planned the wall told the Washington Post last month that he lost only three legal challenges to the wall’s path, out of 120 appeals filed, this though the wall isolates 10% of the West Bank and was ruled illegal where it is built inside the West Bank by the International Court of Justice.
All Israeli settlements are illegal under international law. Still, Israel’s Supreme Court legalized the settlement of Mattiyahu East on our land, even though Mattiyahu East appeared to violate even Israeli law because it lacked an approved building permit.
The rush to build followed President Bush’s April, 2004 letter to then Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon stating that, "new realities on the ground, including already existing population centers" make it unrealistic to expect Israel to withdraw completely to the Green Line. Israel responded by expanding "existing population centers", building huge apartment complexes, like Mattiyahu East, for hundreds of thousands of people, and calling them neighborhoods in existing settlements.
These expanding settlement blocs fall conveniently on Israel’s side of the wall. Strategically situated, the settlement blocs divide the West Bank into four isolated regions. Therefore, their annexation to Israel will render any Palestinian state unviable. Yet annexation of the settlement blocs is reportedly central to new Israeli government peace proposals to Palestinian President Abbas.
We will continue to challenge these expanding settlements because they threaten the futures of Bil’in and the Palestinian people. And we will put our experience at the service of other communities struggling against the wall and settlements. From Bil’in, we call on Israeli and international activists to join us as we renew our joint struggle for freedom.
Mohammed Khatib is a leading member of Bil'in's Popular Committee Against the Wall and the secretary of Bil'in's Village Council.
