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:
- 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.
And in case you're wondering:
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, growing up in the outskirts of Washington
DC, 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?