"We must do everything to ensure
they [the Palestinian refugees] never do return." --David Ben-Gurion, in
his diary, 18 July 1948 [1]
�Let us not today fling accusations at the murderers. Who are we that we
should argue against their hatred? For eight years now they sit in their
refugee camps in Gaza, and before their very eyes, we turn into our homestead
the land and the villages in which they and their forefathers have lived."
--Moshe Dyan (Israeli Defense Minister during the
Israeli-Arab war, 1967), 1953. [2]
�No State Has the Right to Exist as a Racist State� --Palestinian
activist and author, Omar Barghouti [3]
Responding to issues raised by the article �Defining
Racism,� [4] Barbara Kay, a columnist with the Canadian newspaper National Post, [5] employed a standard Zionist discourse devoid of elementary
principles, historical validity, or logical thematic constructs. Kay�s defense
of the Zionist dispossession of Palestinians coupled with heinous crimes
against humanity is patently manipulative since she flagrantly attempts at
confounding the fundamental subject that defines Israeli Zionist racism in its
factual historical context and sequence of events.
Writes Kay:
They
[Palestinians] were transferred for two reasons: i) because their own leaders
told them to leave so they would not be in the path of war, which the Arab
countries initiated in 1948 and fully expected to win, after which the people
would return and take back all the land and homes of the Jews; and ii) because
you cannot have hostile people in your own state if they will not agree to live
as citizens. Transfers of populations go on all the time. If the Arabs had accepted
the two-state solution proposed by the UN partition plan of 1947, they would
have been living in their own state for 60 years in peace with Israel. Why do
you blame Israel for Arab intransigence and stupidity?
You mention the expulsion of the European
Jews. i notice you fail to mention the expulsion of the Jews in Arab lands, of
which there were 600,000, the exact same number as the Palestinians. Except
they were not left to rot by their brethren as the Arab refugees were; they
were absorbed by Israel, just as the Arab refugees should have been absorbed by
Jordan, since ethnically they are Jordanians. So let me ask you: Was it wrong
for the Arabs to expel Jews from their lands? And since I now assume you will
say yes, why don't we agree to call it a draw. The Arabs are now happily free
of Jews, and Israel - while happily living with their 1 million Arab citizens -
is also happily free of those Palestinians who wish them dead.
We present a general dissection of Israeli Zionist racism
with Kay being only the instigative trigger behind this series. Accordingly,
Kay is just a minute personification of Zionism that we can use as a model for
our dissection. Therefore, to deconstruct Kay�s (and by extension all Zionist
analysts�) statements -- hence, tearing down her manipulative ideological
edifice -- we have to address first the eminent question whether racism, pointedly,
Israeli Zionist racism, is
materially applicable to the Palestinian issue. To this end, we will divide
this series in two sections: 1) analysis of Israeli Zionist racism, and 2) the
deconstruction of Kay�s statement
Section 1: Analysis of Israeli Zionist racism
Before demonstrating
the material aspects and institutionalized policies of Israeli racism in
Palestine (as well as actions and policies in the Arab world), we must define
said racism in its practical and ideological terms. However, to do just that,
we still have to define first the term, �racism� itself. As a preliminary
approach, we decided to rely on the definition given by the United Nations
Organization. This is in spite of the fact that 1) western
colonialist-imperialist powers created this organization to defend �-
exclusively -- their strategic and geo-economic interests, an 2) it was this
same organization that illegally sanctioned the partition of Palestine between
the indigenous Palestinians and Jewish European invaders, thus leading to the
installation of the fascist racist state of Israel.
Definition
Sub-article # 1 of Article 1 of
the United Nations� International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Racial Discrimination [6]
gives the following definition to racism:
In
this Convention, the term "racial discrimination" shall mean any
distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent,
or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or
impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human
rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or
any other field of public life.
Do all elements that the United Nations said constitute the
practical manifestation of racism apply to the situation of Palestinians since
the immigration of Europeans of Jewish faith to the Arabic Syrian region of
Palestine in the early 20th century? Does the subsequent forcible installation
of the Zionist entity in Palestine where diverse ethnic groups from disparate
parts of world having no social, anthropological, or cultural relations amongst
them except nominal adherence to Judaism, settled through violence, murder,
intimidation, land expropriation, and then collectively joined in practice of
ritualistic discrimination against the indigenous populations constitute, per se, racism?
To answer these questions methodically and give the reader
the widest view possible on this subject, we relied on extensive anthological
extracts dealing with Israeli Zionist racism from varied perspectives. We
anticipate that Zionists and their sycophants and acolytes would want to debate
this series or distort its basic conclusions. For this purpose, we want
emphasize that we are not merchants of accommodating principals and have no
inclination to debate deceitful arguments like that of Israeli racism vis-�-vis the Palestinians based on
terms dictated by Zionists whereby cheap preemptive accusations, including labeling those who disagree
with Zionism and the �ber-colonialistic policies of Israel as
�anti-Semites,� is a norm.
We took the position for not debating Zionists on their own
terms primarily because, before dubbing anyone with this trite label, we need
to define what Semitism is in the first place, who invented the term, and who
decided to use it to intimidate and silence the opponents of Zionism. In
addition, if Zionists insist to make the terms: anti-Zionism and
anti-�Semitism� (or more accurately and specifically, �anti-Jewish�)
interchangeable or equivalent, then that would not be our problem to address,
discuss, or resolve.
Facts about Israeli Zionist racism
A) A historical view by Basel Ghattas
Writing for the Jerusalem Fund, Basel Ghattas, General
Director of the Galilee Society (Haifa, Israel), gives the following account on
the situation of the Palestinians (Christians and Muslims) who remained in the
newly formed exclusivist Jewish state:
History and demographics
The 156,000 Palestinians that remained in the newly established Jewish state of
Israel in 1948 have grown into more than one million. Their annual birth rate
exceeded five percent in the 1950s and 1960s, and decreased to around three
percent in recent years.
More than 20 percent of these one million people are displaced from their towns
and villages as internal refugees. Palestinians in Israel now live in three
main geographical areas: the Galilee, or the northern district of Israel where
they comprise half of the population; the central triangle of Israel; and in
the Negev in the south. The majority of Palestinians in Israel (60 percent)
live in 115 villages. An additional 20 percent live in 7 towns, 10 percent live
in 6 mixed Jewish-Palestinian cities, and the rest live in over 40
�unrecognized� villages that are considered illegal by the government.
Statistics of discrimination
Until 1966, the Palestinian citizens of Israel lived under military
administration. Still today, despite supposedly being equal citizens of a
democratic state, the Palestinian minority continues to be subjected to
systematic institutional and legal discrimination, and is completely
marginalized by the Israeli government. Israeli prime ministers from left and
right have recently acknowledged this discrimination, yet little has been done
to bridge the wide gap that has been created between Jews and Palestinians.
When one looks at the economic conditions of Palestinians in Israel, this gap
becomes apparent. The Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics has classified all
communities in Israel into 10 clusters according to their socio-economic
status. All 10 communities in the lowest cluster are Palestinian. Out of 26
communities in the second lowest cluster, 23 are Palestinian. None of the
Palestinian communities ranked higher than the five lowest classifications.
Moreover, almost 50 percent of the children living below the poverty line in
Israel are Palestinian, despite the fact that Palestinians do not comprise more
than 20 percent of Israel�s entire population. Palestinians in Israel also
receive less education than their Jewish counterparts. Sixty percent of the
Palestinian labor force have a maximum of nine years of education. Only five
percent of Palestinians have college degrees or higher, compared to 17 percent
of Jews in Israel.
In addition, Palestinians encounter problems of overcrowding. They own less
than three percent of Israel�s land, and less than 50 percent of that land is
under their local authority�s jurisdiction. The severe lack of appropriate,
updated urban plans for their neighborhoods has created a serious housing
problem. This shortage has resulted in a high population density, as well as
more than 10,000 illegal houses threatened to be demolished under court order.
According to a report submitted to the
Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination by Adalah, The Legal
Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, there are 17 Israeli laws that are
discriminatory against Palestinians. These laws create a reality in which
Palestinian citizens are deprived of basic educational, religious, social, and
economic rights. [7]
B) A statement by the United Nations
Recently, the United Nations, an organization that reflects
the hypocritical establishment of its founders and signatories, condemned
Israeli discrimination against the Palestinians [8]. Before quoting on the nature of this discrimination, we have to
point out to four relevant facts:
One: As for �suicide-bombing,� the U.N., as one may expect,
does not explain as why this type of attack (self-sacrificing against the
Israeli occupiers of Palestine) is happening in the first place? An
explanation, however, is readily available: 1) resistance against an occupation
that has been lasting since 1967, and 2) frustration and despair against
Israeli Zionist discrimination and racism.
Two: if the United Nations is concerned about
anti-Palestinian discrimination, why has it never issued a resolution punishing
Israel for its institutionalized racist policies and otherwise taken actions to
stop the racism?
The use of the word
"discrimination", however, is a U.N. political ruse meant
to appease Israel and mitigate the reality that pervades the Israeli
relations with the Palestinians, which is racism. In fact, after the
General Assembly adopted Resolution # 3379
in 1975 that equated Zionism with racism (abrogated it in 1991 after Gulf War
Aggression against Iraq and the de facto military occupation of the Gulf
States) it would be impractical for the Israeli-controlled U.N. (via the
U.S.) to re-apply the term �racism� to any racist act by Israel.
Three: the imperialist news agency, Reuters, reported on the
discrimination charges by employing linguistic deception. It printed the
charges under the headline: �UN: Israel must stop discrimination against
Arabs, Palestinians.� It is
deception because, who is the Palestinian and who is the Arab in occupied
Palestine, the occupied West Bank, and in the Gaza Strip? Does Reuters mean
that Palestinians are distinct from the Arabs? Or maybe Arabs and Palestinians
are two similar/dissimilar groups living in Palestine? Or maybe it wanted to
imply that 1) it meant all indigenous Palestinians from all origins; or 2) it
meant Arabs outside Palestine?
Arguably, therefore, Reuters�s attempt at concealing the
victims of Israeli racism is apparent. The agency is trying to water down the
Palestinian identity and merge it with that of the greater Arab nation
primarily to promote the Zionist Israeli idea that Arab countries should absorb
all Palestinian refugees in the countries where they are currently residing
since they are all Arabs. . . .
Four: reporting on
the UN charges against Israeli practices in the whole of Israeli-occupied
Palestine was no less than Haaretz, a
Zionist Israeli newspaper. This is somewhat peculiar since many in the West
accredit it with progressive leanings. We believe this is sheer nonsense since
Israel and all of its institutions, culture, and media are multiple faces for
the same merchandize, that is, they are all expressions of the racist Zionist
matrix that generated them. Specifically, Zionism and political or humanistic
progressivism are antithetical because Zionism as a foundation and ideology
could never reconcile with the reality that it has been trying to uproot and
supplant Palestinians since the Balfour Declaration [9].
In quoting the
United Nations, we added italics to all relevant situations where the charge of
racism is transparent:
The UN Committee on the Elimination of
Racial Discrimination said Israel's security measures to ward off suicide
bombings and other attacks must be re-calibrated to avoid discrimination
against Arab Israelis or Palestinians living in Israeli-occupied lands such as
the West Bank.
The committee specified that Israel should ease roadblocks and other
restrictions on Palestinians and put a stop to settler violence and hate
speech.
Its 18 independent experts, who examined the records of 13 countries at a
four-week meeting in Geneva, also said Israel should cease building a
barrier in and around the West Bank and ensure its various checkpoints and road
closures do not reinforce segregation.
In its conclusions, the committee also voiced concern at an unequal
distribution of water resources, a disproportionate targeting of Palestinians
in house demolitions and the "denial of the right of many
Palestinians" to return to their land.
Differing applications of criminal law between Jews and Arabs had caused
�harsher punishments for Palestinians for the same offence,� said the
committee, whose recommendations are not legally binding.
A high number of complaints by Arab Israelis against police officers are not
properly investigated and many Arabs suffer discriminatory work practices and
high unemployment, it said.
Excavations beneath and around the Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's holiest site in
Jerusalem, should also be undertaken in a way that will "in no way
endanger the mosque and impede access to it," it added.
Israel argues that the UN
committee's remit, to ensure compliance with a 1965 international treaty
against racial discrimination which the Jewish state has ratified, does not
apply to the Palestinian territories it has occupied since 1967. The committee
rejects that position. [10]
Next: Part 2 of 12
NOTES
[1] Quoted by Michael Bar Zohar's in Ben-Gurion:
the Armed Prophet (Prentice-Hall:
1967), p. 157.
[2] Quoted by Uri Avneri in Israel without Zionists (Macmillan: 1968), p. 134.
[3] Interview with Silvia Cattori, �Omar
Barghouti: �No State Has the Right to Exist as a Racist State,�� Voltairenet.org, 7 December 2007.
[4] Kim Petersen, �Defining Racism,�
Dissident Voice, 26 November 2007.
[5] David Beers, �Marc
Edge on �Asper Nation�� The Tyee,
13 November 2007. The National Post,
a chunk of �Canada�s Most Dangerous Media Company,� CanWest Global, is
according to Mark Edge, associate professor of journalism at Sam Houston
University, undermining democracy and attempting to set the political agenda
through ownership manipulation of editorials. The Asper family that own the
National Post are unabashed supporters of Zionism.
[6] Office of the High Commissioner for Human
Rights, �International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,� 21
December 1965.
[7] Basel Ghattas, �Palestinians
in Israel: Discrimination and Resistance,� Palestine Center and The
Jerusalem Fund, Information Brief No. 59, December 2000.
[8] The United
Nations, Committee on the Elimination of Racial
Discrimination, Reuters via Haaretz,
�UN: Israel must stop
discrimination against Arabs, Palestinians,�
24
September 2007.
[9] The Balfour Declaration.
[10] Reuters, �UN: Israel must stop
discrimination against Arabs, Palestinians,� Haaretz, 9 March 2007.
Kim
Petersen is co-editor of Dissident Voice and B. J. Sabri is an Iraqi-American
antiwar activist Email them at Petersen_sabri@yahoo.com.