22.3.06

Israel and human rights

Now this is an interesting question: can we compare Israel's violations of palestinian human rights to what happened in the nazi camps ? I think yes. The methods differ. This is another time. But the whole israeli enterprise is clearly ethnic cleansing and destruction of the palestinian society and the arab society in general amidst general international silence (Israel has some good friends among arab rulers who care only for their maintenance in power) and that was nazis's purpose in the emprisonment and the killing of jews.

''When this Wall of silence is breached, when the truth is made manifest, what the world will see and what Jews around the world will see, is that Sharon has destroyed the moral fiber of Judaism. What Jews suffered under the boots of Nazi Germany -- the humiliation, torture, powerlessness, and fear ­ impressed on them by a racist nation arrogant in their superiority, the Israelis now inflict on the hapless people of Palestine. What Jews suffered in concentration camps, isolated from the world's communities that did not see their pain, existed because world leaders heeded only the voice of Hitler, tolerated the deceit that hid the reality, and accepted the truth of the oppressor not the truth of walls, and chain link fences, and barbed wire, and guard towers, and ID cards and symbols of identification that imprisoned the Jews in body, mind and spirit. What the Jews of the holocaust bequeathed to all humankind as a moral legacy must not be lost again; it is a legacy at once unique in its awareness of the sacredness of each living being and in its acceptance of the responsibility each has to each, a blessed union built on tolerance for all. Jews throughout the world have reacted against Sharon's savagery but have been as helpless to stop it as Americans have been to stop Bush from destroying America.''

6 comments:

Cosmic Duck said...

It's important to take a balanced view here to get peace negotiations on the track again. Even though some of the operations Israel has carried out in Gaza and the West bank may be called a form of state terror, it is exaggerated to compare them to the nazis. But it's necessary for Israel and the USA, who has called for democracy in the region, to respect the election results. The USA must put more pressure on Israel.

It's very wrong to try to isolate Hamas and freeze money to the organisation. The West must understand that the Palestinian people have spoken and accept this.

Cosmic Duck said...

In continuation of my previous post:

If we are to compare the actions of the Israelis on the West Bank with other historical mistakes, it might be relevant to compare them to the apartheid regime that ruled in South Africa before 1995: The Palestinians are second class citizens. They're being fenced in by a monstrous wall and check points that make it impossible to move and look after their businesses and do their jobs.

The wall is a disgrace to all of humanity. It ought to be torn down as soon as possible. It does not help Israel to solve what the country considers the terrorism problem. It creates more suicide terrorists by alienating the Palestinians even more.

The spiral of violence has to stop somewhere. It is up to the strong parties, Israel and the US, to take the initiatives, and of course the Palestinians must be ready to go into constructive negotiations for a lasting peace settlements that would have to follow the stipulations of the Oslo agreements.

Sophia said...

Cosmic Duck,

I agree half way with you. My concern is the direction not the actual state of the matter. If we are to consider the actual state of Israeli occupation, you are indeed right, it is more comparable to the south african apartheid, although some leftists jews who lived in south Africa and fought the apartheid with the ANC think it is even worse in Israel (see my post:
http://lespolitiques.blogspot.com/2006/02/worlds-apart-israeli-apartheid.html ). However what preoccupies me is the direction this occupation is taking. real peace is needed right now. There is a humanitarian crisis (wages,water and bread are becoming less and less available)going on in the palestinian territories. yesterday, the person responsible for the UNRWA in the territories said that if palestinian aid is not delivered (Israel is still holding a great part of the good taxes which is due to the PA and the US and EU are holding part of their aid to the PA)there will be anarchy on top of the humanitarian crisis. Well this reminds me of the jewish getto (not the camps, but the ghettos were set as pre-concentration camps).
The direction of the actual occupation is going to have, as a logical end, a great tragedy. May be it will not reach the Nazi-camp stage but clearly the situation in the palestinian ghetto will become worse every day and there will be escalation. The other difference in my opinion with the 'nazis camps' method is that the palestinian tragedy is taking palce on a large time scale with some periods of relative relief and the false impression that palestinains are actually masters of their destiny, which is not the case.

Cosmic Duck said...

Sophia.

You're probably right. You seem to have more detailed knowledge of what is happening in Palestine than I do. I have most of my information from the media which do not inform objectively enough.

Cosmic Duck said...

Bia.

On a superficial level it looks like a lot of terrorism - and of course, in a way it is. But you cannot only see it as terrorism. A large part of it is a freedom fight of an oppressed people.

They react to being thrown out of their country, and they react to a lot of repression. What happened to the two refugee camps in Lebanon i the 80's, in which several hundred Palestinians died?

Hamas has done a lot of social work in the occupied territories, and they are not as corrupt as the incumbents in office. That's why people have voted for them. That does not turn the Palestinian people into terrorists.

Sophia said...

Cosmic Duck,

I take my information on the middle east from The Guardian, the first I open in the morning, Haaretz which I read every day, the blogs mentioned in my links and two recent palestinain blogs I discovered, laila Al-Haddad, which is now in my links just next to yours. On her blog you can find a link to another one: Um-Khalil.
Laila posted two days ago on the bread crisis in Gaza.

 
Since March 29th 2006