(no subject)

[violachic]

A new friend pointed me towards this article.

Amira Hass is an Israeli journalist whose work- largely Anti-Occupation human-interest-type stories- appears in Ha'aretz Daily, one of the two major print newspapers in the country (the other being the more conservative Jerusalem Post- Ha'aretz seems to be considered the liberal media). She is known for not pulling punches at all when it comes to criticizing her government's policies, especially in regards to Palestine. I thought this article was even bolder than those I've seen her write in the past. She has written several very complimentary articles about CPT.

For the link-phobic, here is the article's text:

Can you really not see?

By Amira Hass

Let us leave aside those Israelis whose ideology supports the dispossession of the Palestinian people because "God chose us." Leave aside the judges who whitewash every military policy of killing and destruction. Leave aside the military commanders who knowingly jail an entire nation in pens surrounded by walls, fortified observation towers, machine guns, barbed wire and blinding projectors. Leave aside the ministers. All of these are not counted among the collaborators. These are the architects, the planners, the designers, the executioners.

But there are others. Historians and mathematicians, senior editors, media stars, psychologists and family doctors, lawyers who do not support Gush Emunim and Kadima, teachers and educators, lovers of hiking trails and sing-alongs, high-tech wizards. Where are you? And what about you, researchers of Nazism, the Holocaust and Soviet gulags? Could you all be in favor of systematic discriminating laws? Laws stating that the Arabs of the Galilee will not even be compensated for the damages of the war by the same sums their Jewish neighbors are entitled to (Aryeh Dayan, Haaretz , August 21).

Could it be that you are all in favor of a racist Citizenship Law that forbids an Israeli Arab from living with his family in his own home? That you side with further expropriation of lands and the demolishing of additional orchards, for another settler neighborhood and another exclusively Jewish road? That you all back the shelling and missile fire killing the old and the young in the Gaza Strip?

Could it be that you all agree that a third of the West Bank (the Jordan Valley) should be off limits to Palestinians? That you all side with an Israeli policy that prevents tens of thousands of Palestinians who have obtained foreign citizenship from returning to their families in the occupied territories?

Could your mind really be so washed with the security excuse, used to forbid Gaza students from studying occupational therapy at Bethlehem and medicine at Abu Dis, and preventing sick people from Rafah from receiving medical treatment in Ramallah? Will also you find it easy to hide behind the explanation "we had no idea": we had no idea that the discrimination practiced in the distribution of water - which is solely controlled by Israel - leaves thousands of Palestinian households without water during the hot summer months; we had no idea that when the IDF blocks the entrance to villages, it also blocks their access to springs or water tanks.

But it cannot be that you don't see the iron gates along route 344 in the West Bank, blocking access to it from the Palestinian villages it passes by. It cannot be that you support preventing the access of thousands of farmers to their land and plantations, that you support the quarantine on Gaza which prevents the entry of medicine for hospitals, the disruption of electricity and water supply to 1.4 million human beings, closing their only outlet to the world for months.

Could it be that you do not know what is happening 15 minutes from your faculties and offices? Is it plausible that you support the system in which Hebrew soldiers, at checkpoints in the heart of the West Bank, are letting tens of thousands of people wait everyday for hours upon hours under the blazing sun, while selecting: residents of Nablus and Tul Karm are not allowed through, 35-year-olds and under - yallah, back to Jenin, residents of the Salem village are not even allowed to be here, a sick woman who skipped the line must learn a lesson and will be purposefully detained for hours. Machsom Watch's site is available for all; in it are countless such testimonies and worse, a day by day routine. But it cannot be that those who are appalled over every swastika painted on a Jewish grave in France and over every anti-Semitic headline in a Spanish local newspaper will not know how to reach this information, and will not be appalled and outraged.

As Jews we all enjoy the privilege Israel gives us, what makes us all collaborators. The question is what does every one of us do in an active and direct daily manner to minimize cooperation with a dispossessing, suppressing regime that never has its fill. Signing a petition and tutting will not do. Israel is a democracy for its Jews. We are not in danger of our lives, we will not be jailed in concentration camps, our livelihood will not be damaged and recreation in the countryside or abroad will not be denied to us. Therefore, the burden of collaboration and direct responsibility is immeasurably heavy.

Comments

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

Answering the title directly: it's my experience -- pessimistic, cynical, and not very hopeful for the future of humanity -- that, on any given issue of this sort, those who see clearly are incapable of understanding how it's possible for anyone to not see; and those who don't see think those who see are imagining things. But the sad part is not this, so much as that (again, this is my experience and interpretation of what I've read of history) those who don't see are, by and large, incapable of sight, and those who see are incapable of blinking. The sighted exclaim that the rest should open their eyes, never realising that they have no eyes to open.

Obviously, there are exceptions and extraordinary circumstances, or else, nothing would ever change at all, and of course, change occurs and can be hoped for. The American Civil Rights movement, incomplete and imperfect as it still is, is a demonstration of visionaries successfully leading the blind.

But to my mind, that's a lot of what it was. It's not that suddenly a wide swath of White America grew the eyes to see that discrimintaion was wrong. There's ample evidence that bigotry, on a personal level when not on an institutional level, is alive and well in the United States.

It's that they allowed themselves to be pursuaded to be led by a few who could see. The came to believe that there were some small number of people, whom they otherwise trusted, who honestly had a sense they lacked, and to be guided where that sense led them.

No one with the right, magical combination of eloquence and charisma and public trust and vision is in a position in Israel to lead the blind to a better vision, right now. Nothing there will change for the better until such a person appears.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I agree with you on every count But that doesn't mean we can't keep hacking away at it. And by "hacking away at it", I mean voicing public opinion and dissent- within Israel and outside of it- education for ourselves, and education for others.

As I mentioned, I think that this is a very bold article she's written, and I'm actually a little surprised that Ha'aretz printed it, as liberal as they're supposed to be. I'm very curious to hear feedback from people as to the level they might agree with her.

[belmikey.livejournal.com]

As I mentioned, I think that this is a very bold article she's written, and I'm actually a little surprised that Ha'aretz printed it,

Agreed without question. Such a strong anti-establishment stance is a very dangerous one for the media to take right now in the US, UK or Israel. I'm pleased every time I see it, whether I agree with the specific points or not, just for the evidence that the press has not entirely forgotten that it's not supposed to be working for Them.

[iniswitryn.livejournal.com]

Thanks for linking to and transcribing this article.

I'm trying to figure out whether I want to link to it in my own lj or not. There are pros ... and cons. The cons being, I'm not really in the mood for a heated "discussion". But it's always good to see that some Israelis condemn the injustices of the Israeli occupation and military actions while still "supporting Israel" (a phrase I find to be horribly insidious in its propaganda implications.)

It makes me feel more legitimate, as a non-Jew and non-Israeli, in my position that "no I am NOT anti-Semitic. But the Israeli state is anything but lily-pure, and it needs to be held morally accountable for its systemic injustices and hypocrisies and outrageous acts and human-rights abuses, just like any other state does. (*cough* Like our own, for example.)"

I don't think anyone's saying the task of the Israeli government is easy or straightforward. But history has abundantly demonstrated that longterm security (not to mention the elusive "peace") cannot be maintained through repression and oppression.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

Well, if its any consolation, you'll see I didn't get a lot of heated debate here for posting it :-) Although your f-list may be more agressive than mine.

When I started looking into Palestinian rights, I too felt guilty, and as if I'd be branded an anti-Semite if I questioned the policies of Israel's government (I try to make it clear that I separate the government of Israel from the citizenry of Israel from Jewish people in general). But the more I look into it, the more I'm actually in the country, the more I realize that there is a well-established voice of dissent already within Israel, and there are many organizations that work to end the occupation. CPT works closely with many of them. We couldn't do the work we do without our Israeli partners. And just like in the States, the media pretends they don't exist, and just like in the States, the general citizenry tries to ignore and discredit them, but they're there.

[piddyx.livejournal.com]

Very nice article. I will post on my LJ.

I doubt that any peace will happen before the culture of exploitation and racial superiority is weakened. The Palestinian commitment to armed resistance will not make that easy. A non-violent resitance movement among Palestinians would be better and more productive for all concerned.

I would like to see a one state solution where jews and arabs would live together. This could be done gradually over a long period of time. Otherwise, it is just a matter of time (100 years?) before the ballence of power will favor the arabs and Isreal will be destroyed by conventional or exotic weapons.

[violachic.livejournal.com]

I'm so torn on the one-state vs. two-state solution thing. In theory, I favor a one-state solution. But after being in Palestine, and seeing how hard Palestinians are fighting- and I don't mean physically or with weapons- for identity, I wonder. I've not met a Palestinian yet that didn't express pride in having their nation recognized by the rest of the world. They have fought for and recieved their own country recognition for internet domains, they have created their own cell phone company/network, and they're desperately proud of having elections for their own officials, even though many of them know it has the high possibility of being a sham.

So, I don't know how to see it right now. I also know that there has been a significant rise in non-violent methods of resistance. The very least being members of the Hamas party who have laid down their weapons and begun running for political office. Many see that as a positive thing; too bad they have now all been kidnapped and are being held without charge in Israeli prison.

[piddyx.livejournal.com]

They really should have given Hamas a chance.

I think, that if there is a small little Palestine next to Israel, they will allways be thinking "That is rightfully ours. Eventually, some leader will try to take it. So I think intergration is the only solution.