Boycotting Israel
If you've been watching/listening to the news (at least the 'right' news, not CNN, FOX, or some other American bullshit) you'll have noticed that Benyamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister, has been traveling around Europe meeting with various foreign diplomats including George Mitchell, whom President Barack Obama appointed as US Envoy to the Middle East earlier this year. They have been discussing different diplomatic options on the table in the Middle East. E.g. the issues of Settlements (in the West Bank) and Israel's perceived threat: Iran. Basically a lot of political banter about the stability of the region. What will come from it is yet to be seen.
My friend pointed me to this Op/Ed piece in the LA Times, and asked for some thoughts. I will oblige him in this post. Besides, its been a while since I wrote something on this blog. (Don't get me wrong, I love photography, but even sometimes pictures can't do something justice. As if words ever could? Anyways, I digress.)
The article calls for a boycott of the state of Israel: after all, it was a similar (and largely effective) push that "put an end to the practice of apartheid in South Africa." Why a boycott? Because some voices in the international community largely disapprove of the ways in which Israel treats their neighbors: Palestine. At least this much is obvious.
The author (Neve Gordon) claims that this call for a boycott doesn't gain a lot of attention in Israel because it is seen as blatantly anti-Semitic. While I definitely see where such an accusation would have grounding, I don't think this defensive mechanism of 'playing the victim' (there might be a technical psychological term for this, I don't know) is very helpful to what goes on in these lands. I must say that terrible things have happened to Jewish people and the nation of Israel in the past, and we should not encourage a state of anti-Semitism anywhere. Maybe it takes an extra step of caution on our part: to make clear that when we critique Israel's violent and unnecessary use of force (cf. Gaza engagement in '08-'09) and even their general attitude toward its neighbors that we are not throwing out careless and arbitrary criticism bent on the humiliation of Israel. This boycott is careful and deliberate in its make light of Israel's faults, and does not seek to merely accuse but to also redeem. What is accusation without redemption anyways but empty words?
Gordon goes on to describe the current political state of Israel: more or less an unofficial apartheid regime.
For more than 42 years, Israel has controlled the land between the Jordan Valley and the Mediterranean Sea. With this region about 6 million Jews and close to 5 million Palestinians reside. Out of this population, 3.5 million Palestinians and almost half a million Jews live in the areas Israel occupied in 1967, and yet while these two groups live in the same area, they are subjected to totally different legal systems. The Palestinians are stateless and lack many of the most basic human rights. By sharp contrast, all Jews -- whether they live in the occupied territories or in Israel -- are citizens of the state of Israel.
Specifically in the West Bank, Israel has put in place a ethnic road system. There are roads that run through the West Bank connecting various settlements that only Jewish people can use. (The United Nations OCHA has a great resource of maps detailing this intricate system.) To some, this makes sense. But the reality is that these roads fragment the West Bank into smaller cantons (thus decimating any chance at economic viability, a viability which will determine the foundation of any future Palestinian state). Avraham Burg writes in his book 'The Holocaust is Over We Must Rise From its Ashes,' that these roads are used as 'reality bypass roads.' They serve to remove (both physically and mentally) the entire existence of the Palestinian people, thus the term bypassing reality. It's bizarre, you can drive miles and miles (or kilometers and kilometers) through Palestinian territory without encountering a single Palestinian.
There is a deeply engrained hatred between these peoples. After spending 5 weeks in Israel/Palestine this summer I have experienced what seems like an incomprehensibly small sliver of what this conflict is. One bit I came away with was the experience of hatred; there is a hatred that runs deep in the blood of Israelis against the Palestinians and vice versa to an equal degree. But this hatred does not stay contained in the psyche of these peoples, it lashes out in offenses and suicide bombings. It is known in the songs sung by young Palestinian children in the Jenin Refugee Camp:
Answer the call from the Aqsa mosque, call out against those who oppress us. For you sake, my steadfast people, together we will fight and struggle. Raise your voice and say: God is Great, God is great. Every mother's tear and every drop of blood takes its toll. For every martyr that falls a new one will rise. For your sake, my steadfast people...
It is a hatred that is known in the Israeli education laws that require young students in public education to read from the book of Joshua, to learn of the conquest commanded by God to annihilate the peoples of the Promised Land (this is their interpretation of the text). As of now, both vocal majorities of both the Israel and the Palestinian narrative promote violence against the other.
Gordon sees massive international pressure as the only way to make Israel avoid their fate, a fate they cannot see themselves; there needs to be a large international push against Israel to avoid a new Apartheid. It must be noted that Gordon is an Israeli citizen; he can't bear the sight of seeing his two boys grow up with the deeply entrenched hatred for their neighbors.
As an American, looking at this issue from thousands of miles away, I think Gordon makes a strong point in that the U.S. and the international community (especially including the United Nations) need to take a more forward approach to the situation in Israel/Palestine. Without their initiative, there will never be any progress. Whether the result is a binational state, or a two-state solution, that is neither here nor there. The fact is that Israel and Palestine cannot redeem their hatred alone.
Israel will not take this lightly, there will be much resentment towards the West. But if we are to be ethically responsible humans we must understand that Israel, by her actions, continues dig further and further down a deep hole that only ends in a similar fate experienced in Israel's past. But it is our duty as humans to answer to the call of the oppressed and seek out redemption of those who oppress.
I will close with a reference to this article.
The lesson that Israel must learn from the Holocaust is that it can never get security through fences, walls and guns." Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu of South Africa.
Seriously, this article will floor you. It floored me, especially the last line.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask. I'd love feedback or just general comments about this conflict.
2 comments
ilan pappe is a notorious revisionist whose historical narrative has been dismissed as extremely inept and downright malicious. Regardless, he is very popular among the leftist and "progressives" by virtue of being a Jew (and double irony since he a citizen of Israel).
This "boycotting" phenomenon is none other than a continuous ploy by the rabid Israel haters and their radical bankrollers who will cash in on the arab narrative. Why? Oil, book-sales, it certainly is not sincere.
It is truly insulting to hijack buzzwords like the apartheid and compare it to the plight of the Palestinians. It is a disservice to those who truly lived under the Apartheid, and is unfair to Israel.
Second, Jews and ZIONISTS played a crucial role in toppling the Apartheid. Google it, "Jews in South Africa" or Harry Schwarz. One Jew who owned a large diamond shaft individually supported one of the largest anti-apartheid movements. Several zionist Jews were assassinated by Apartheid activist, and hundreds imprisoned. And considering Jews were only .4% of SA's population. What were the Arabs doing? Oh yeah, killing people.
This is pretty consistent with Jews in general, who have been leaders in the civil rights movements - unlike people like yourself, who apologize for certified bigots and terrorists. The innocent Palestinians like the Mufti of Jerusalem, or Yasser Ararat, who murdered thousands in Lebanon, torched embassies and hijacked airplanes and orchestrated the assassination of the US ambassador to Sudan, represent the Palestinian narrative. Hamas, whose declaration is not only rooted in hatred of Jews but hatred of everyone, also represents the Palestinians.
Israel's policies towards the Palestinians are perfectly justified and acceptable. Israel has been subject to over 1,000 suicide bomber attempts, half of which were foiled before they began thanks to Israeli intelligence.
Over 70 children were used as suicide bombers, half of which were successful. Do you think it is honky dory when Palestinian leaders lock up kids in classrooms and brainwash them to kill Jews? Do you?
Clearly you do.
Just ask Khaled Abu Tomah, former PLO-writer and Jerusalem Post journalist. He'll tell you all about the "innocent" Palestinians.
Boycotts of Israel are illegal under US law, European Union Law, and aren't supported by the Palestinians. Why? Because if you boycott Israel, YOU BOYCOTT THE PALESTINIANS! Israel exports 500 million a year into Gaza, and another 500 million in taxes for the PA government. Majority of Palestinians use hospitals in Israel (for free) for advanced medical purposes or doing wars, and virtually all of the aid is distributed through Israel because the Arab countries refuse to help.
90% of the oil, water, and electricity comes straight out of Israel.
Palestinians are the world record holders in humanitarian aid. 600million from the USA for the UNRWA, 500million from Israel, and 300million from the EU. On top of this, Hamas makes 100million a month on extorting Palestinian businesses, price fixing goods from the tunnels, and selling arms from Darfur (yeah, almost all the weapons in Gaza come from the ARAB genocide in Darfur - shocker!). PLO makes about 1.5-2billion a year in foreign donations, drug-trafficing and other "peaceful" means.
In a war that has killed about 9,000 since 1998...compare it to say, the genocide in Darfur, 400,000 killed since 2003.
If the Palestinians spent HALF as much as on war and subjugation, perhaps they would have a state - but the leadership does not want such a thing. Hamas certainly doesn't, they even say so.
Notice how no one talks about Black September, where the Jordanians murdered 20,000 Palestinians in ONE month, or the Hama Massacre, or the Egyptian-Yemen war, or the Muslim wars in Somalia, Arab genocide in Darfur, Pakistan genocide of what is now Bangaldesh...etc...you know why?
Because they don't fit the american imperialist fallacy. So called "progressives" who claim they are liberals and support womens, gays, and minority rights march lock-step with some of the biggest bigots on Earth because it gives them the status of activist. they lobby on behalf of the Palestinians, arguably one of the most war-like group of people on Earth, whose current leadership is simply an extension of Arab imperialism (Arafat was a descendant of Nasser and the Mufti while Hamas is Iranian proxy).
80% of ALL MURDERS in Gaza and the West Bank are HONOR KILLINGS! Yes, but of course - that doesn't matter. No jews to blame!
And when Hamas ceased humanitarian aid, it's all good! Or when Hamas refused to allow Palestinians seek medical care in Israel...eh, no worries - it's all part of the "resistance."
Israel's legitimacy is certainly more obvious than the USA's, whose entire existence is predicated on the complete uphevel of its indignious population and the succumb mass-slaughter of them. 15 million natives died during the colonization of North America, while thousands died during the later American-settler Indian wars.
America is rich in hypocrisy, and so are the muslims. LOL!
