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The Spotlight on Israel Apartheid Must Not
Fade
By Kenn
Orphan on May 27, 2021
Unlike ever before, Israel is finally seeing some
major pushback that is international in scope. With its ongoing ethnic
cleansing campaign exemplified by the expulsion of Palestinian families from
their homes in Sheikh Jarrah, its attacks on worshippers at one of the holiest
sites in Islam, Al Aqsa, and on the holiest of holidays, and its murderous and
criminal assault on the captive population of Gaza, Israel has been put in an
uncomfortable spotlight. But the key to dismantling its entrenched apartheid system
lies in keeping that spotlight fixed, especially now that a ceasefire has been
implemented. If attention is diverted, as Israel desperately wants, then it
will become even more intransigent, especially as the Biden administration
continues its business-as-usual approach.
Fortunately, there has been a noticeable shift in public opinion. Even
among many American Jews there has been increasing unease with being associated
with such an obviously belligerent and sadistic colonial settler regime. Much
of this is thanks to the tireless work of organizations like Jewish Voice for
Peace. The recent reports from Human Rights Watch and the Israeli human rights
organization B’Tselem which detailed Israel apartheid, have also been
instrumental in providing a framework that can be used to understand and
confront this decades long injustice. But it is also largely thanks to the
Black Lives Matter movement which galvanized public outrage in the wake of the
brutal police murder of George Floyd. Justified parallels are being drawn
between systemic racism in the US and the intricate system of apartheid in
place in Israel/Palestine. And, in both instances, the self defense excuse is
wearing thin on anyone who has a conscience.
For years Israel has justified its periodic carpet-bombing rampages in
Gaza as its right to “self defense.” But that narrative is beginning to sound
an awful lot like American police when they tell Black people to “stop
resisting” as they kneel on their necks. It falls apart upon close inspection of
the facts on the ground. Just as the case with the police, one cannot claim to
have feared for one’s life if you are the one holding the gun and have your
supposed attacker in handcuffs on the ground. Gaza and the Occupied West Bank
and Jerusalem resemble the Bantustans of apartheid South Africa. They are
captive populations in shackles, with no say in how they wish to be governed,
constantly subject to arbitrary and violent punishment by the state of Israel.
After Israel’s heavy bombardment of the captive population of Gaza last
week, unprecedented mass protests have swept over the entire world. But make no
mistake, Israel is wasting no time now with its public relations campaign. It
realizes that its image as the Middle East’s “only democracy” has once again
been shown for the farce it is with videos on social media showing Palestinian
families being violently removed from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah to make way
for Jewish settlers, many of whom were not even born there and come from the US
or Russia.
These campaigns to sway international perception of Israel, known as
hasbara, are nothing new and they are not unique to them either. Apartheid
South Africa made many attempts to restore its image on the world stage as it
violently oppressed its Black population. The infamous Sun City courted
international celebrities to play in its one and only “integrated” enclave. And
during segregation in the US the government routinely sent Black artists on
international public relations tours to obscure the cruel reality of Jim Crow
segregation and create an illusion of American inclusiveness.
It is important to
remember this when apologists for Israeli apartheid say things like “there is
no apartheid in Israel since Arab citizens can vote and there is an Arab on the
supreme court there.” Oppressive systems often engage in what is known as
tokenism as a way of distraction. In other words, placing some members of an
oppressed population in positions of authority or high esteem as judges or
heads of departments or as celebrities.
This is an insidious tactic that has long been used in the US by its
ruling class. President Biden’s own cabinet picks reflect a lot of this. A
person from Cuba to head the Department of Homeland Security. A Black person as
Secretary of Defense [sic]. A woman to head the Department of the Treasury.
Tokenism is obfuscation. It gives the illusion of inclusion and change when, in
fact, it is primarily optics. Nothing of substance in regard to policy or
systemic operations of government change in the least.
Israel is no different in this regard. It routinely parades the LGBT
community and Black Israelis on the world stage in an effort to obscure its
fundamentally discriminatory and oppressive apartheid system. It is a cynical
approach which, sadly, often works. But fortunately, this game is beginning to
lose its edge.
Apartheid is easily demonstrated to most reasonable people when
presented with the facts on the ground. Within Israel, towns and neighbourhoods
have committees that have the right to exclude whomever they want on the basis
of ethnicity or religion. Those that have a Jewish majority can effectively ban
non-Jews from living where they want, echoing the redlining practices in the US
that excluded Black Americans from purchasing homes in predominantly white,
middle-class neighborhoods. Many Palestinian and Bedouin communities are
disproportionately discriminated in building permits and are often disconnected
from basic services like water and garbage collection. In fact, there are over
65 laws that discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel and it
allocates only a fraction of its budget to Palestinian Israelis councils.
In addition to
this, nearly 3 million Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem
live under Israeli occupation. Israeli apologists claim that the Palestinian
Authority is their government when, in actuality, it is merely a proxy
government for the occupation. Thanks to the corrupt Oslo Accords, Israel has
effectively divided the occupied West Bank into three administrative areas. In
all but one of those zones, Israel has absolute control. Palestinians in the
remaining area are still subject to the Israeli occupation by way of the
administration of its proxy, the PA.
All Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem face home
demolitions, walls, barriers, separate roads, scores of dehumanizing
checkpoints, daily violence from Jewish settlers that include being shot at and
the burning of olive groves, and military tribunals instead of civil courts
like their Israeli settler counterparts. Palestinian children are routinely
spirited away in terrorizing night raids and taken to detention centers that
are often undisclosed. There they often face abuse and neglect.
And over 2 million
Palestinians in Gaza, which has been blockaded and besieged for nearly 15
years, have absolutely no say regarding their unjustified imprisonment or the
routine collective punishment meted out by the Israeli military. These
Palestinians are subject to indiscriminate bombing and are prevented from
leaving the Strip by Israel and Egypt. The UN has warned repeatedly that Gaza
will be unlivable thanks to poverty, scant access to clean drinking water, and
routine Israeli drone surveillance and bombardment.
As the conviction of Derrick Chauvin was no cure for US police state
violence, the ceasefire between Israel and Gaza offers no solution for ongoing
Israeli ethnic cleansing and apartheid. It may provide some relief, especially
to the people of Gaza who were mercilessly terrorized for 11 days by one of the
world’s most sophisticated military powers. And it may ease the consciences of
those simply weary of the story dominating headlines and social media
timelines. But it does nothing to solve the entrenched problem itself. Only
through ongoing public pressure and mass movements will systems change. Now,
more than ever before, it is crucial that the spotlight on Israeli apartheid
not fade.
Article printed from CounterPunch.org: https://www.counterpunch.org
URL to article: https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/05/27/the-spotlight-on-israel-apartheid-must-not-fade/
Donations can be sent
to Max Obuszewski, Baltimore Nonviolence Center, 431 Notre Dame Lane, Apt. 206,
Baltimore, MD 21212. Ph: 410-323-1607; Email: mobuszewski2001 [at]
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"The master class
has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.
The master class has had all to gain and nothing to lose, while the subject
class has had nothing to gain and everything to lose--especially their
lives." Eugene Victor Debs
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