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Topic: Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist? (Read 407 times) |
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Blunderov
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Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?
« on: 2009-06-15 09:48:53 » |
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http://dissidentvoice.org/2009/06/does-israel-really-have-a-right-to-exist/
Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?
by Susan Abulhawa /
June 15th, 2009
Following Netanyahu’s much anticipated policy speech, politicians and journalists, like mindless automatons, have set about repeating Israel’s tired mantra that Palestinians should recognize Israel’s right to exist. Never mind the fact that the PLO and Palestine Authority have obliged this ludicrous call, not once, but four times. And never mind that Israel has always denied Palestine’s right to exist, not only as a nation, but as individuals seeking a dignified life in our own homeland.
Does anyone find it interesting that Israel is the only country on the planet going around with this incessant insistence that everyone recognize her right to exist? Given that we Palestinians are the ones who have been dispossessed, occupied, and oppressed, one might expect that we should be the ones making such a demand. But t hat isn’t the case. Why? Because our right to exist as a nation is self-evident. We are the natives of that land! We know we have that right. The world knows it. That’s why Palestine doesn’t need Israel or any other country to recognize her right to exist. We are the rightful heirs to that land and this can be verified legally, historically, culturally, and even genetically. And as such, the only true legitimacy Israel will ever have must come from us abdicating our inheritance, our history, and our culture to Israel. That’s why Israel insists we declare she had a right to take everything we ever had – from home and property, cemeteries, churches and mosques, to culture and history and hope.
Israel is a country that was founded by Europeans who came to Palestine, formed terrorist gangs who set about a systematic ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians from their homes on 78% of Historic Palestine in 1948. Those Palestinians and their descendants still languish in refugee camps. Israel attempted a similar scenario in 1967 when they conquered the remainder of Palestine, but Palestinians then couldn’t be dislodged from their homes as easily. This remains true, despite 40 years of Israel’s violent and oppressive military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Despite home demolitions, land confiscations, rapacious building of Jewish-only colonies, endless checkpoints, targeted assassinations, bombings of schools, hospitals, municipal buildings and malls, closures and denials; despite the massive human rights abuses, the imprisonment and torture of men women and children alike, the separation of families, the daily humiliations; despite the massive killings – Palestinians remain. We still resist. We still live, love, and have babies. As much as we can, we rebuild what Israel destroys. Such are rights!
Rights are inherent and inherently just, like the right to live with dignity and to be masters of one’s own fate. It is a human right not be persecuted and oppressed because you happen to belong to one religion and not another.
That Israelis simply take property belonging to Palestinians is not a right. That is theft. That Israel cut off the movement of food, medicine and other basic goods to the Gaza strip, causing massive malnutrition, economic collapse and misery because Palestinians elected particular leaders is not a right. That is an affront to humanity. That Israel rain death from the skies on an already battered and starved Gaza, murdering over 3000 human beings and maiming thousands more in a single month is not a right. It’s a war crime. That Israel has employed every imperialistic tactic to subjugate, humiliate, break, and expel an entire nation of principally unarmed civilians because of their religion is not a right. It is a moral obscenity. That every Jew from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia be entitled to dual citizenship, one in their native country and one in Israel, while the rightful heirs to the land linger as refugees without citizenship anywhere is not a right. It is an outrage.
I’m sure my words will be twisted in some way to imply that I’m advocating pushing Israelis “into the sea” or some other asinine claim. So let me be explicit: We all have the right to exist, to live, to be masters of our own destiny. We all have the right not to be oppressed by others. Such rights are inherent to every individual living in that land: Jew, Muslim, or Christian. But Israelis do not have the right to create particular religious demographics by causing the demise of the natives. To be a Jewish [or Muslim or Christian] state, where privilege is accorded to those belonging to a particular religion at the expense of those who do not is not a right.
A nation that discriminates against and oppresses those who do not belong to a particular religious, racial, or ethnic group is not a light onto nations. It is a blight. And to recognize such racism as a human or national right goes against every tenet of international law. It defies the basic sense that the worth of a human being should not be measured by their religion, any more than it should be measured by the color of their skin or the language they speak.
[Blunderov] It used to be my view that the so called two state solution was the obvious solution but it is clear to me now that this will simply result in the Palestinians getting the shitty end of the stick yet again. Israel must give up its absurd religious imperialism; whilst not exactly racism it is substantively the same as apartheid and every bit as repugnant - and completely unnecessary. IMV the tide of international opinion has turned against Israel now. It is time for them to step out of the Bronze Age and get real - or go down.
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Hermit
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Re:Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?
« Reply #1 on: 2009-06-15 21:32:25 » |
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Does any apartheid state, or state persistently engaging in crimes against humanity (including war crimes) have a "right to exist"? In 1948 the world said:
NO!
Yet it helped to found Israel, knowing that it had been established by terrorism, would lead to no good and principally because Truman needed the "Jewish Vote," but at least it meant that nobody had to open their doors to boat loads of filthy Jewish refugees - except the Palestinians and they were far away and unimportant.
Fifty years later we have Israel - (n) An apartheid state with multiple classes of citizen divided by genetics and religious affiliation* practising war crimes and crimes against humanity for 50 years and counting**.
Does this thing have a right to exist? No matter who is involved, the answer must remain the same as it was in 1948 - or we are hypocrites. So:
NO!
The fact that Apartheid Israel exists is an affront to humanity. The fact that its hideous policies and breaches of International law are protected by the politicians of the United States who still need the "Jewish Vote" to take and maintain office is an embarrassment. Even if one swallows the perversion of Israel as Semitic and implication that the Palestinians are not, the fact that there are Semites involved in Israel's actions does not mean that the above conclusions are anti-Semitic. The same conclusions would have to be reached if the oppressors were WASPs and those suffering Sioux. Err, wait. Afrikaners and Xhosa will suffice.
Is the world going to reject Apartheid Israel and its legacy of hate? Probably not. Most people are hypocrites to a greater or lesser extent, and all of us are vulnerable to propaganda. Especially when it is produced by masters at the art. Nonetheless, right or not, is Israel going to continue to exist? I - and CIA analysts - think that Israel has made a two state solution impossible, and the same CIA analysts give Israel 15 years or less before they are forced to become a non-discriminatory secular state - unless they succeed in foisting off some form of independence without autonomy on the long-suffering Palestinians. Which might account for the current American initiatives.
It also means that the answer to the question above is "probably not."
Kindest Regards
Hermit&Co
*As clearly shown by its own statistics service before suspension of reporting.
**As clearly shown by UN General and SC resolutions, including resolutions blocked or weakened by the Likud on the Potomac.
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With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion. - Steven Weinberg, 1999
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