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By Mohioddin Sajedi
Unbelievable as it may sound, an Israeli official has dubbed any opposition to the expansion of Jewish settlements on annexed Palestinian land in the West Bank as "racist."
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor made the comments during a debate with chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, at the International Peace Institute on Friday, 25 June.
Withstanding Meridor's verdict, US President Barack Obama, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, as well as many human rights organizations and the International Court of Justice in The Hague are all guilty of racial discrimination.
According to Israeli mentality, the world can be sliced into two halves; one side encompasses the racist opposition; and the other far-right Israeli parties deem the settlements as essential to Israel's existence.
In 2004, after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution rejecting the Israeli West Bank barrier, the UN General Assembly requested The Hague's verdict on the legality and legitimacy of the wall.
The court took its time over the issue, but finally ruled the separation barrier illegal.
The most important section of the ruling was the acknowledgement that apart from the wall, almost all Israeli actions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on lands annexed in 1967, have been illegal.
These actions also included the Jewish settlements and changes to the population texture in the occupied territory. The Hague also pronounced East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as occupied land.
Under UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, Israel must retreat from the lands invaded in 1967 and has no right to make any changes in the territory. Israel has refused to heed the resolutions, one of which is now 43 years old.
The predictable reaction from Israel was to reject the resolutions and proceed with the barrier's construction. The wall stretches 700 meters, five times the size of the Berlin Wall. Its 8-meter long height also surpasses the symbol of the Cold War. Eighty percent of the wall has been constructed on Palestinian land and it cuts through several villages and farming lands.
Because of this, Palestinian farmers would have had to apply before for an Israeli permit allowing them to cross a gate to be able to visit their properties.
Raising a Berlin-type wall of confinement around the West Bank is aimed at creating new ghettoes. Those who suffered the mark of Jewish ghettoes in Europe are now putting Palestinians through much worst.
Moreover, Europeans who considered the Berlin Wall as an unnatural entity, permit Palestinians to suffer a fate much worse. The separation barrier is also a reminder of the apartheid regime in South Africa, whose life ended in the 1980s.
In his speech, Meridor also pointed to another interesting fact concerning the return of uprooted Palestinian refuges.
"It's more important than even the exact delineation of the border, which is a problem but we can agree on this: It's more important even than the security arrangements that are very important."
It is possible that many have forgotten that these refugees are comprised of those who were forced to scatter in Gaza, the West Bank, and other Arabic countries like Syria and Lebanon after the 1948 annexations.
If the 5 million refugees were to return, it would seriously disrupt the Israeli population's texture and Jews would lose their majority in the space between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River.
Another effect would be that Israel would no longer remain a strictly Jewish nation.
The idea of a creating a purely Jewish homeland goes back to the era of British colonialism in the Middle East and the Balfour Declaration. But plans to change this promised homeland into a solely Jewish territory is blatantly racist, since its actual result would be decreasing the Muslim and Christian Palestinian population.
In an interview with the Sunday Times in June 1969, Israel's fourth prime minister Golda Meir said, "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist."
Meridor and his boss, Israel's current premier Benjamin Netanyahu, follow the same line of logic; opposition to the Jewish settlements becomes racism and refuting the existence of a historic nation, a universal truth.
Unbelievable as it may sound, an Israeli official has dubbed any opposition to the expansion of Jewish settlements on annexed Palestinian land in the West Bank as "racist."
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor made the comments during a debate with chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, at the International Peace Institute on Friday, 25 June.
Withstanding Meridor's verdict, US President Barack Obama, United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon, as well as many human rights organizations and the International Court of Justice in The Hague are all guilty of racial discrimination.
According to Israeli mentality, the world can be sliced into two halves; one side encompasses the racist opposition; and the other far-right Israeli parties deem the settlements as essential to Israel's existence.
In 2004, after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution rejecting the Israeli West Bank barrier, the UN General Assembly requested The Hague's verdict on the legality and legitimacy of the wall.
The court took its time over the issue, but finally ruled the separation barrier illegal.
The most important section of the ruling was the acknowledgement that apart from the wall, almost all Israeli actions in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, on lands annexed in 1967, have been illegal.
These actions also included the Jewish settlements and changes to the population texture in the occupied territory. The Hague also pronounced East Jerusalem (al-Quds) as occupied land.
Under UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, Israel must retreat from the lands invaded in 1967 and has no right to make any changes in the territory. Israel has refused to heed the resolutions, one of which is now 43 years old.
The predictable reaction from Israel was to reject the resolutions and proceed with the barrier's construction. The wall stretches 700 meters, five times the size of the Berlin Wall. Its 8-meter long height also surpasses the symbol of the Cold War. Eighty percent of the wall has been constructed on Palestinian land and it cuts through several villages and farming lands.
Because of this, Palestinian farmers would have had to apply before for an Israeli permit allowing them to cross a gate to be able to visit their properties.
Raising a Berlin-type wall of confinement around the West Bank is aimed at creating new ghettoes. Those who suffered the mark of Jewish ghettoes in Europe are now putting Palestinians through much worst.
Moreover, Europeans who considered the Berlin Wall as an unnatural entity, permit Palestinians to suffer a fate much worse. The separation barrier is also a reminder of the apartheid regime in South Africa, whose life ended in the 1980s.
In his speech, Meridor also pointed to another interesting fact concerning the return of uprooted Palestinian refuges.
"It's more important than even the exact delineation of the border, which is a problem but we can agree on this: It's more important even than the security arrangements that are very important."
It is possible that many have forgotten that these refugees are comprised of those who were forced to scatter in Gaza, the West Bank, and other Arabic countries like Syria and Lebanon after the 1948 annexations.
If the 5 million refugees were to return, it would seriously disrupt the Israeli population's texture and Jews would lose their majority in the space between the Mediterranean Sea and Jordan River.
Another effect would be that Israel would no longer remain a strictly Jewish nation.
The idea of a creating a purely Jewish homeland goes back to the era of British colonialism in the Middle East and the Balfour Declaration. But plans to change this promised homeland into a solely Jewish territory is blatantly racist, since its actual result would be decreasing the Muslim and Christian Palestinian population.
In an interview with the Sunday Times in June 1969, Israel's fourth prime minister Golda Meir said, "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist."
Meridor and his boss, Israel's current premier Benjamin Netanyahu, follow the same line of logic; opposition to the Jewish settlements becomes racism and refuting the existence of a historic nation, a universal truth.
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