I have heard a great deal over the last month about Israel's 50th birthday. I am not celebrating.
I am thinking about all of the Palestians and other Arabs who have been killed, dispossessed, arrested, and tortured by the state of Israel. More, I am thinking about those who are still homeless or imprisoned. And I would like to suggest, for those who will be celebrating, that you take a moment during your parties to think about them, and to talk together about what Israel can do to make its future more just than its past.
I have a few suggestions.
Call upon Israel to release those political prisoners who are currently being held without any sort of trial, and renounce torture of all of its prisoners. To see Amnesty International's 1997 report on Israeli human rights violations, look here. For a news release on Israel's use of torture, look here. For an index of related other Amnesty International documents, look here.
Call upon Israel to give back the territory in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and Golan Heights that it invaded in 1967. Israel has no right to this land, and is secure without it. With this land, Palestinian people will have someplace to go other than refugee camps scattered throughout the Arab world. Israel must start listening to the United Nation's repeated demands for fair treatment for Palestinians. Look here for more information.
Insist that Israel provide civil rights for all of those born within its borders. Currently Israel is a religious state--it persecutes Christians, Moslems, and other non-Jews within its borders. Call upon Israel to deal fairly with all of its inhabitants, not only those who are Jewish.
If you would like more information, I recommend:
And in case you're wondering:
- al nakba for what the creation of Israel meant for Palestinians.
- The Politics of Dispossession: The Struggle for Palestian Self-Determination, a collection of essays on Palestine by Edward Said. Published by Vintage Books, a division of Random House, in 1995, and available from amazon.com here.
- You can also check the American-Arab's Anti Discrimination web page for regularly updated pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian information and action within the United States.
But aren't the Palestinians all just terrorists, anyway?
"When Menachem Begin's Likud party came to power in 1977, the official line taken on all acts of resistance by Palestinians against Israeli occupation or Israeli attacks in Lebanon was to call them terrorism..." (Edward Said, The Politics of Dispossesion, Vintage Books, 1995.) This includes nonviolent acts of civil disobedience. So, if you have ever gone to a demonstration, then by the Israeli definition you are a terrorist. So was Gandhi.On the other hand, when an Israeli soldier bombs a refugee camp, or shoots an eight-year old boy who throws a rock at a tank, it is not considered to be an act of terrorism.
Aren't you being anti-semitic?
Since I was around ten years old, I've noticed that whenever I criticize Israel I am called anti-semitic. For a long time I though that was what anti-semitism meant--criticism of the state of Israel.More recently, I reason that since Jews and Arabs are both semitic, any racist statement or act against Jews OR Arabs is anti-semitic. So, while a synagogue defaced by swasticas is a target of anti-semitism, so are the mosques which received bomb threats after the Oklahoma City bombings. And the recent Loudon County hearings designed to prevent the construction of a private Moslem school are anti-semitic. (Oponents of the school argued that it would be used as an airforce hangar for an invading army, and a base to kidnap American children.) As are all the movies and newspaper articles which portray Arabs as automatically terrorist, along with the U.S. and Israeli government officials who speak of the threat of terrorism inherent in Islam without mentioning violence comitted in the name of other religions.
Still think I'm anti-semitic? Still sure you're not?
