The
Slippery Slope: Racism Continues Unabated In This Land Of
Apartheid
10 February 2010By Mazin Qumsiyeh
As the
descent into the slippery slope of racism continues
unabated in this land of apartheid, the angle and
degree of the slide seem to surprise many. The Israeli
parliament (Knesset) has a "Constitution, Law and
Justice Committee" terms that only sound similar to
what exists in a Western
democracy. But the "Jewish state" is "special" where a
committee with this name drafts laws to discourage
inter-religious marriages, to deny Jerusalemites
residency rights, to declare it legal to take land for
Jewish development from those natives who happen to be
non-Jews, and to flaunt many
other basic rights enshrined in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights. In the last election, the
Israeli public split their votes between right and
radical right and fascist right parties. The Israeli
government shifted from right to ultra-fascist and
with it this Knesset Committee. For example, since
coming to power the Netanyahu apartheid government
froze Palestinian family reunifications that involve
Palestinians were frozen (including my wife's) and
withdrew residency rights from thousands of
Palestinians in Jerusalem.
It has been so bizarre to watch the level of vitriol
emanating from this Knesset committee. They felt
emboldened by public support, a public lulled by
racist education and by inculcated fear in a similar
way that Germans were lulled into accepting the Nazi
programs. The party most influential in the committee
wants Muslims and Christians, the minority who
remained after all the ethnic cleansing, to publicly
pledge allegiance to the Jewish (nature of the) state,
thus legitimizing their 10th class "citizenship". The
committee has now set-up a subcommittee to target even
Zionist groups that are deemed not going far enough in
their support of a homogeneous Jewish state in all of
historic Palestine. They want to examine what can be
done about European and North American support for
Israeli groups that support a two-state solution or
even begin to suggest that Israeli system
needs a reform. We are not talking here about funding
for Israeli-Jewish groups that are anti-Zionist or
that support a democratic state in all of historic
Palestinian. They want a cut-off of funding for
Israeli groups that simply want an Israel on 78% of
historic Palestine and let the Palestinians live
somewhat left alone on the 22% that is the West Bank
and Gaza (occupied in 1967).
Most of the groups targeted for being not right enough
are also happy to leave most of the 450,000 illegal
colonial settlers inside the West Bank. In exchange,
they are willing to allow us a little desert land from
the 78% that they took in 1948 (in the process
ethnically cleansing 530 towns and villages; see Ilan
Pappe, "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine"). Some
targeted groups believe in philosophies of Ben Gurion
but not Zeev Jabotinsky (founder of revisionist
Zionism and Zionist terror groups in the 1930s and
1940s). Ben Gurion with a wave of his hand ordered the
expulsion of residents of Lydda and Ramla and had a
saying that "Im tirtzu, ain zo agada" (If you will it
it is no dream)[IT here is now clear with the outcome,
a Jewish state in historic Palestine to replace the
native population and living by the sword behind walls
in a large Jewish ghetto].
Ben Gurion does look moderate compared to Avigdor
Lieberman, Menachem Begin and Zeev Jabotinsky. The
latter's philosophy does not believe in even using
accommodating (diplomatic) rhetoric let alone trying
to work with the International powers to achieve the
Zionist objectives. By contrast, the late Ben Gurion
and Yitzhaq Rabin believed in a mix of violence and
political/diplomatic activism (and of course media
work).
But Zionism has always been an International movement
with only a part of it here in Palestine (a part that
has been growing but increasingly facing stiffer
resistance). Sometime we find more moderate Zionists
here that say in the USA. American Jews who support
Zionism are a bit more radical on average than the
average Israeli. That is why the most extreme colonial
settlers that are right in the middle of Palestinian
towns like Hebron are American Jews. These ultra
extremists vandalize mosques and cemeteries, attack
Palestinians and their property regularly, uproot
trees, steel crops,
set fire to homes, and much more. The Israeli
government does not intend to investigate the foreign
source of funding for these groups but of the groups
that are hoping for a two state solution. In the US
there is a new campaign to look into the tax-exempt
status of groups that support these settlers
(see http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3437 <http://www.adc.org/index.php?id=3437&no_cache=
1&sword_list%5b%5d=tax&sword_
list%5b%5d=exempt&sword_list%5b%5d=status> &no_cache=1&sword_list[]=tax&sword_list[]=exempt&sword_list[]=status
and support this action).
Those Americans get a cozy life on tax-deductible
donations from other Americans and are paid by the
Israeli government to live on stolen Palestinian
lands. The settlers also inadvertently expose the
inconsistency in the positions that say we think
Palestinians should not be removed from their lands in
Ramallah area but it is OK to remove them from their
land in the Galilee and the Negev (see <http://rcuv.wordpress.com/>
http://rcuv.wordpress.com/).
Yet, there are many Jews and those who come from
Jewish backgrounds who join our struggle here and
abroad for restoring the rights to the natives.
Palestinians on their part have always welcomed
immigrants who come not to control (before Zionism
came we welcomed: Jewish European, Circasians,
Armenians, Roma, and other groups). Working together
for one democratic state in historic Palestine has
become to many of us the only way forward that
guarantees the natural rights of natives and the
wishes of those immigrants who want to live here in
peace without denying us basic rights (see my book
"Sharing the Land of Canaan" for details).
Finally, thanks to all of you who expressed interest
in our struggle to maintain Ush Ghrab from the
settlers. There have been stories about the struggle
in Haaretz (e.g. ttp://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1147472.html)
and in Al-Quds newspaper (see front page on the PDF
file of 5 February at http://www.alquds.com/pdf?date=20100205
but note it is not true that the army has already
reoccupied the area, the army is still not there and
we will make sure it will not happen). You can help by
continuing to educate people around you, by pressuring
and educating those in power (media and politicians),
by visiting us, and much more. For background on Ush
Ghrab http://www.poica.org/editor/case_studies/view.php?recordID=1392
http://www.decolonizing.ps/site/?page_id=40 Let us
know if you can help in any other ways and do keep us
informed of your activities.
Mazin Qumsiyeh, PhD, Popular Committee to Defend Ush
Ghrab (PCDUG), A Bedouin in Cyberspace, a villager at
home, http://www.qumsiyeh.org
©
EsinIslam.Com
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