MIFTAH
Thursday, 28 March. 2024
 
Your Key to Palestine
The Palestinian Initiatives for The Promotoion of Global Dialogue and Democracy
 
 
 

When the Palestinians were subjected to a systematic campaign of intimidation, terrorization, and expulsion resulting in the tragic dispossession and dispersion of 1948 to create the state of Israel on the majority of Palestinian land, the term “ethnic cleansing” had not been coined.

The horrific racist connotations and genocidal implications of the “Nakba,” particularly as the natural outcome of the myth of “a land without a people for a people without a land” or an attempt to negate the existence of a whole nation remained absent from most “historical” accounts of the period.

The adoption of the mythical account in conjunction with the euphoria at the establishment of the state of Israel excluded the most basic human and moral realities and rights of the Palestinian people.

With the 1967 Israeli occupation of the rest of Palestine, the West Bank (including Jerusalem) and Gaza, a whole population came under military occupation with the full implications of the expression—total loss of all freedoms and rights.

As the occupation drew on, the Israeli system internalized and normalized a variety of aberrations and created a comprehensive self-perpetuating code of subjugation and uninhibited control.

A whole set of military orders plus a legacy of British Mandate emergency regulations became the “legal” instruments by means of which Israel proceeded to enact its policy of enslaving a whole people.

Even the Israeli legal system was distorted to allow for such violations as murdering Palestinians with impunity, the “lawful” torture of detainees and prisoners even to death, house sealing and demolition, land confiscation, the uprooting of trees, deportation, imposing curfews and states of siege, the theft and expropriation of all natural resources, closure of schools and universities, and all other forms of repression that are indicative of total control without checks or accountability.

Such crude and glaring violations were simultaneously the outcome and the source of the most pervasive system of racism and abuse of power. A vicious cycle of victimization and the intoxication of power augmented by “security” rationalizations inevitably led to the distortion of the mentality of the occupier.

While some individuals of conscience and movements like Peace Now adopted the slogan that “occupation corrupts,” the machine persisted in grinding itself to its expected outcome of the Palestinian intifada as the expression of the human will resisting such enslavement.

The damage, however, had been done. Racism in Israel became an internalized state that disfigured both the moral and legal landscape.

Israeli settlers and other extremists “enjoyed” power over the lives, property, and rights of Palestinians who had no recourse to any just laws under occupation. The natural attribute of such unbridled power is the difficulty (if not impossibility) of withdrawing or withholding it. Its consequence is the boomerang effect whereby it will turn its force against anybody who seeks to check its course or limit its exercise or challenge its “logic.” The assassination of Rabin became its most dramatic expression.

So long as the victims were Palestinian, the outrage—if any—was muted. The double value on human life was integrated into the system of occupation, until it turned inward and unleashed its force against Israelis as well. Its individual victims (whether Peace Now activists or prime ministers) were not its only target.

It has become apparent that the peace process has been “tainted” by this mentality of power and coercion, whether in the implementation of the interim phase agreements or in prejudging the final status issues.

This is summed up by the attitude of “unilateralism” in continuing land confiscation and settlement activity as well as in Barak’s denial of Israel’s moral, political, and legal responsibility for the plight of the Palestinian refugees. In-between, the Israeli government continues to claim a monopoly on the interpretation and implementation of such agreements as the third phase of redeployment or the release of Palestinian prisoners. The “safe passage” itself has become the ultimate expression of the Israeli policy of humiliation, discrimination, and subjugation.

The other, and just as sinister, diverse manifestations of this persistent mindset are simultaneously creative and bizarre. Having used different colored license plates, ID’s, and even magnetic cards to identify and label Palestinians, and having conducted a campaign against trees that are deeply-rooted in Palestinian soil, Israel added the invention of “by-pass” roads to its reservoir of discriminatory measures.

Built on confiscated Palestinian land, these “by-pass” roads are used to connect illegal Israeli settlements to each other and to link them to Israel. Thus they simultaneously serve Israeli “extraterritoriality” and the establishment of an apartheid system in the West Bank, while fragmenting the Palestinian territory and marginalizing its cities, towns and villages. This phenomenon of “racist” roads is further aggravated by the “ban” on Palestinian use of these roads that somehow will suffer irreparable damage or corruption should a Palestinian vehicle or person sully their surface.

Protection against the “tainting” power of Palestinians has extended to Israeli “public” parks and beaches. Palestinians are forcibly expelled and punished for daring set foot on what was once the land of historical Palestine, and a general alert among Israeli police and security agencies has ensued in response to the panic produced by actual Palestinians caught “red-handed” swimming in the Mediterranean or picnicking in “Canada Park” (historically known by the names of the Palestinian villages destroyed by Israel: Emmaus, Yalu, and Beit Nuba).

Historically also, Israel had long determined that Palestinians do not need as much water as Israelis for survival and public health. Being such strange creatures, Palestinians were allocated only 25% of the water liberally granted to Israelis. Thus Israel stole Palestinian water and sold it back at market rates but in drastically reduced quantities.

Settlers in Gaza are allocated 584 liters of water per person per day while the Palestinians are allowed to use only 65 liters per person per day of their own water. Perhaps genetics can explain how and why Palestinians can withstand thirst and poor hygiene conditions beyond otherwise “normal” endurance.

According to these statistics, a Ramallah person has no right to complain of thirst and severe water shortage (having been granted a generous amount of 75 liters per day) despite the fact that his/her Israeli counterpart in Tel Aviv can enjoy 904 liters per day. After all these years of occupation, Palestinians have been “conditioned” to tolerate higher levels of dehydration and almost non-existent levels of public health—a grand Israeli achievement indeed.

The same “logic” is being applied in negotiations. Palestinians should be grateful for any percentage of their rights that Israel would deign to “grant” them out of the kindness of its heart.

Therein lies the real flaw in the whole peace process.

The ongoing attitude of patronizing condescension and the automatic assumption of superior rights have generated a motif of oppression and discrimination in the conduct of negotiations.

Israel’s denial of its responsibility for the plight of the Palestinian refugees and the historical injustice suffered by the whole Palestinian nation while it persists in assuming responsibility over the future of the Palestinians are fatal factors in an uneven peace equation.

The foul stench of racism is a toxic element, and in order to clear the atmosphere for peace a serious purification effort is needed.

The real question is whether Israel is ready to shed such a contaminated legacy and to breathe the fresh air of equality, justice, and mutual respect.

 
 
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