As the descent into the slippery slope of racism continues unabated in this 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?
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/
http://www.poica.org/editor/
http://www.decolonizing.ps/
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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