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
&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/).
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. http://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
http://www.pcr.ps
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