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The Palestinian Nakba ("Catastrophe"): Israel's Racism and Racist Laws
by Michael R. Burch, an editor and publisher of Holocaust and Nakba poetry
Israel's laws and courts are racist, and therefore patently unjust. Racism
against Palestinians and even less-favored Jews such as Ethiopian and Yemeni
Jews seems to be rampant. Here are just a few
examples:
Israel has created "Jewish only" roads and "Jewish only"
settlements outside its legal, internationally-recognized borders, in Occupied
Palestine (the West Bank). This is like Americans creating "white only" roads
and towns in Mexico, discriminating against Hispanic citizens of Mexico in their
own country.
Israel has created apartheid walls and military checkpoints outside its legal
borders, in the West Bank, where Jews can travel freely but Palestinians are
often detained for long periods of time, sometimes dying because they are unable
to reach hospitals in emergency situations. Pregnant women and their unborn
children have died in the shadows of those killing, dividing apartheid barriers.
Anyone with a Jewish mother can "return" to Palestine and
become a citizen of Israel, even though they and their ancestors have not lived
in the region for more than a thousand years. But Palestinians whose families
lived in Palestine as recently as 1948 are not allowed to return, even if they
have clear deeds to land that was stolen from them during the Nakba (Arabic for
"Catastrophe").
Israel defines itself as a Jewish state, rather than as a state of all its
citizens regardless of race and creed. This is like the United States defining
itself as a white Christian state, which would be unfair to all non-whites and
non-Christians.
Israel's "Law to Amend the Cooperative Societies Ordinance" also known as the
"Admissions Committees Law" permits committees to exclude "socially unsuitable"
applicants. This racist law is used to discriminate against Palestinians and
other non-Jews.
In 2003, the Knesset (Israels parliament) passed the "Nationality and Entry
into Israel Law," which keeps Palestinians from becoming Israeli citizens when
they marry Israelis. This is like saying that the lighter-skinned spouses of
American citizens automatically become citizens of the United States, but the
darker-skinned spouses do not. Obviously, this is racism and patently unfair.
This law can even force Palestinian mothers to be separated from their spouses
and children, the way racist Confederate and Nazi laws allowed mothers to be
separated from their spouses and children. Obviously, any law that splits
families apart so unjustly is a horror.
Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Occupied Palestine (the West
Bank) by illegally demolishing Palestinian houses without due process of law, on
the basis of their ethnicity, then refusing to issue them new building permits.
This allows Jews to gradually displace Palestinians.
According to a 2004 U.S. State Department Country Reports on Human Rights
Practices for Israel and the Occupied Territories, the Israeli government had
done "little to reduce institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against
the country's Arab citizens."
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) in a 2007 report suggested that anti-Arab racism in the country was
increasing. One analysis of the report concluded: "Over two-thirds
of Israeli teens believe Arabs to be less intelligent, uncultured and violent. Over
a third of Israeli teens fear Arabs altogether ... 50% of
Israelis taking part said they would not live in the same building as Arabs,
will not befriend or let their children befriend Arabs, and would not let Arabs
into their homes."
Another 2007 report, by the Center Against Racism, also found hostility
against Arabs was on the rise. It reported that 75%of Israeli Jews don't approve
of Arabs and Jews sharing apartment buildings; that over half of Jews wouldn't
want to have an Arab boss; that marrying an Arab amounts to "national treason";
and that 55% thought Arabs should be kept separate from Jews in entertainment
sites. Half wanted the Israeli government to encourage Israeli Arabs to
immigrate. About 40% believed Arab citizens should have their voting rights
removed.
What we can do? First, we can speak firmly for the
right of Palestinians to enjoy the same freedoms and privileges that we enjoy
ourselves. Second, we can educate help other people, especially Americans who may
still believe the prevailing fictions. (For instance, you could provide links to
my articles, if you think they have merit.) Third, if at any point you are persuaded
to try to end the current madness, I have developed a new peace initiative which
I welcome you to study. Perhaps you can be the person to help make it happen.
You can read the details here: The Burch-Elberry Peace
Initiative. The idea is mine; my friend the Egyptian peace activist
Zainab Elberry agreed to allow me to use her name alongside mine because she
thinks the idea has merit.
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