Racism and Zionism

A Voice for Palestine

“Israel strikes me today as the only country on Earth where public figures and celebrities have to issue

tearful apologies for not being sufficiently racist.”

But a careful and even elementary scrutiny of the situation reveals the sad truth that the Zionist program – the cleansing of the indigenous Arab population for the establishment of an ethnically pure state – is inherently and fundamentally a racist one.

Racism and Zionism

2010 January 4

by joshuaseraphim

At the recently held 2009 National Campus Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Conference at Hampshire College in Amherst Massachusetts, Ali Abuminah, founder and force behind the Electronic Intifada, relayed the story of a famous Israeli football player, who was reprimanded and later apologized to his fans for having expressed his openness to having an Arab player on his team. To this he made the comment: “Israel strikes me today as the only country on Earth where public figures and celebrities have to issue tearful apologies for not being sufficiently racist.” Mr. Abuminah’s response to this was poignant, and illustrated the absurdity of the situation in present day Israel/ Palestine.

My guess is that this sort of language offends those who tentatively oppose the occupation, but who are unfamiliar with the conflict, either out of exasperation or a perceived over-complexity. This reaction is further shored up by the fact that our in our lifetime, the mantra of the media and of policy makers is that those who oppose the Nation of Israel are the racist ones. But a careful and even elementary scrutiny of the situation reveals the sad truth that the Zionist program – the cleansing of the indigenous Arab population for the establishment of an ethnically pure state – is inherently and fundamentally a racist one.

Consider a story posted by Mondoweiss, “a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish perspective,” that describes the violent break-in and attack of an Arab Israeli family’s home in Jerusalem by Israeli settlers – an unfortunately all-to-familiar narrative. One striking – though not surprising – aspect of the story is the complicity with which the police support the settlers. Another striking aspect, and one that should sound absolutely outrageous to enlightened North American ears, is the following:

‘That was when I heard a child crying, and as I walked over to him, I saw why he was crying. At his feet was another child, not more than 12 or 13 but possibly 10 or 11, lying on the ground. As I listened, I realized he too had been hit. At a minimum, I could see his knuckles were bleeding, but I knew there was more to it than that as he wasn’t getting up. He didn’t cry, didn’t shout, he just lay there waiting for help.

That was when I heard what I couldn’t believe… honestly, you read about this kind of thing, but you never realize how serious it is until you hear it for yourself. The policeman called for an ambulance.

The ambulance, over the radio, responded by asking in Hebrew “Is it an Arab or a Jew?”’

Of course the question is: what does it matter? Is this a common response by rescue and medical workers in an enlightened, Western-friendly, vividly democratic society that values the rights of every human regardless of race, religion, color or creed?

The question for us is: how many examples of blatant racism do we need before we realize the severity of the situation? How many photos of settler children throwing wine on old women, or stories of little girls in Gaza getting blown apart while they do their homework and the ones who shot them villianize their opposition for murdering innocent civilians? How many videos of soldiers breaking the arms of children with rocks or shooting blindfolded prisoners point blank?

Of the list of questions the racist reality of Zionism births in a curious mind, perhaps the most pertinent one for us is “Where is the Outrage?”