by Bouthaina Shaaban
A few weeks after newly elected Prime Minister of Australia,
Kevin Rudd, apologized to the Aborigines, the indigenous
inhabitants of Australia, Rudd was party to a motion in
Parliament describing Israel as a "robust democracy" and a
"custodian of freedom" in a region abounding in autocracies
and theocracies.
Opposition Liberal party leader Brendan Nelson said that in a region
"characterized more by theocracies and autocracies, Israel is the custodian
of the most powerful of human emotions — that is hopeful belief in the
freedom of man, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom of
assembly."
All this was expressed in the aftermath of Israel killing over 130
Palestinians in Gaza, 39 of them children and 12 women, and the rest young
men in their twenties aspiring to live in peace and dignity on their own
land. The question that came to mind upon reading the disappointing news of
the motion in the Australian Parliament was whether Kevin Rudd and his
colleagues want to wait for 200 years to apologize to the Palestinians as
they apologized to the Aborigines, when it becomes too late and almost of
no value to a people and culture who have been almost completely destroyed.
If the world expressed its absolute shame in the way the "stolen
generations" were treated in Australia, it should be more ashamed of the
"slaughtered generation" in Palestine that is being collectively punished
and ethnically cleansed by the most abhorrent racist policies adopted by any
state in the world, including the past apartheid regime in South African.
To Kevin Rudd and Brendan Nelson, I would like to say that Gaza is not on
the moon; it is only a few miles from Jerusalem and you may easily visit or
send a camera and a journalist to take pictures of what is happening to the
Palestinians at the hands of the Israelis, and to see for yourselves, what
kind of "custodian of freedom" you are supporting. A million and a half
Palestinians are imprisoned in a big jail called Gaza, after they were
transferred from southern Palestine. The small West Bank has over 400 check
points and a tall apartheid wall that prevents children from going to
schools and farmers from reaching their lands, and in the case of Qalqilia,
prevents the sun from reaching the windows of houses. Palestinians in Gaza
are killed by Israeli missiles, tanks and fire, whether they are men tending
their cattle or women making their bread at home, or children playing
football, or simply attending schools.
These immoral, illegal and inhumane crimes perpetrated by Israeli forces
against the Palestinians on a daily basis prompted Ilan Pappe, the Israeli
historian from Haifa university (who was later virtually expelled, and is
now a professor at Exeter University, England) to say "I don't think there
is one moral person in the world who supports what Israel stands for,"
(Yedioth Ahranot, March 16, 2008). I am sure the Australian Parliament,
which lauded Israel and congratulated it on its 60th anniversary, is aware
that the president of the Palestinian Parliament, Aziz al Douek, and 15 of
his colleagues who were democratically elected in elections described by
former President Jimmy Carter as democratic and transparent, have been
imprisoned and tortured in Israeli jails for the last two years. Yet no
parliament in the world has put forward a motion demanding their release or
threatened to boycott their jailors (the Israelis) if they do not release
them. This moral support given to the racist, criminal policies of Israel
against the Arabs is, partly responsible for the crimes perpetrated.
The balance of military power is by far in Israel's favor, and the only hope
for the Palestinians is to have the moral and political support of peoples
of the world who gave us all hope when they mounted pressure on the
apartheid regime of South Africa until they brought it to an end. The very
same effort is badly needed today to free the Palestinian people from the
last occupation of the twenty first century. Let's again listen to the best
expert on Palestinian-Israeli affairs, Professor Ilan Pappe: "I believe that
things would change only if Israel receives a strong message that as long as
occupation continues it would not be a legitimate member of the
international community, and that until then its academics, doctors and
authors would not be welcome. A similar boycott was imposed on South Africa.
It took 21 years, but it eventually led to the end of apartheid." (Yedioth
Ahranot, March 16, 2008).
Much sooner than 21 years, the Australian people will be ashamed of the
motion passed by the Australian Parliament.
Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban is minister of expatriates in Syria.
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