August 03 , 2018
Israel Votes for Discrimination
On July 19, by a vote of 62 to 55, the Israeli Knesset enshrined a deeply discriminatory law that declared that unlike all other nations which are the states of their citizens, Israel is to consider itself legally the nation state of the Jewish people. This is a ridiculous and immoral assertion that flies in the face of obvious facts. The majority of the world’s Jews are not Israelis, do not live in Israel, and will never live there. And yet, Israel is more their country than it is the nation state of its native-born non-Jewish inhabitants. Palestinians, mostly Muslim, make up almost 20% of Israel’s population and hold Israeli citizenship.
The US is majority White and Christian, but if anyone suggested we amend the Constitution to declare the US the nation state of White Christians, even the most dimwitted religious and racist fanatics would recognize such a move as deeply racist and totally at odds with any notion of equality of all citizens before the law, which is the bedrock of modern liberal democracy.
Israel has consistently discriminated against its non-Jewish citizens since its foundation. Why did this law need to be passed then? It was just a way for right-wing Zionists like Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to thumb their noses at all those who believe in democracy, the rule of law, and the equality of all citizens as the proper goal of any just society.
When the Zionist armed groups launched a civil war in Mandate Palestine in late 1947, their goal was quite simple, to conquer as much of Palestine as possible while the British colonialists were leaving. The British stayed until May 1948, but during that time they simply stood aside as the Jewish terror group Irgun massacred hundreds of Palestinians civilians in the village of Deir Yassin, and large numbers of Palestinian civilians were forcibly expelled from their homes or left in terror of the thought that they too would suffer the fate of Deir Yassin. By the time a cease-fire took place, the Zionists had conquered over half the territory that was supposed to go to Palestine under the UN plan, which they then refused to abide by and withdraw to the UN specified border, even though they had initially accepted it, because it was mere lip service and hid their desire to conquer large parts of Palestine.
When the fighting ended, 700,000 Palestinians, more than half the pre-war population, were now refugees. Only about 150,000 Palestinians remained in what became Israel. When the Palestinian civilians attempted to return to their legal private property, their homes, their farms, their apartments, they were literally shot at and prevented from coming back.
But even the Palestinians that remained in Israel were treated as second class citizens. They were denied citizenship, they were subject to military law, and they had severe limitations on their rights to work, live, and purchase land in a manner equal to Israel’s Jews. Only in the 1960’s were the military laws lifted and the Palestinians given the right to vote, which resulted in a handful of Palestinians elected to the Knesset. These token representatives have been cited for decades as proof that Israel is a real liberal democracy, but that is no moretrue than the fact that there were African-American Congressmen throughout the 20th century while Jim Crow continued unchecked.
There is an Israeli Jim Crow against the Palestinians that deeply discriminates against them in all aspects of life. Only Jews can live wherever they please in Israel, non-Jews are highly restricted. Government jobs are almost entirely filled by Jews, there is deep discrimination in housing, education, the public financing of government services, and Israeli settlements on the West Bank mysteriously never seem to allow non-Jewish Israelis the opportunity to purchase homes there.
For the Israelis, instead of tackling this deeply discriminatory state of affairs, the Knesset decided it needed to enshrine it in Israel’s Basic Law, which is their Constitution. They even went so far as to strip Arabic of its official language status. The basic contradiction at the heart of Zionism, how to create a nation state for the Jews in land full of non-Jews, remains unresolved. It cannot be done and still have a liberal democracy that is worthy of American and European support. Even many Jews within and without Israel are appalled by this act, which seems completely unnecessary as the state already discriminates with abandon without it. Any moral person should stand with all those who oppose this descent into further dividing Israel into first class and third-class citizens. The US government should suspend all aid to Israel until it commits to being a state of its citizens and not a state of one fraction of its citizens.
What is even more egregious in all this is that this law only affects the 1 million Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. The status of the 4 million Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, who have lived under Israeli occupation and sovereignty for over 50 years, is even more abominable. These four million lack any citizenship much less third-class status. They have no right to vote in the government that has ultimate power over their lives. They have no right to create their own businesses, run their own affairs, travel freely, live where they choose, exercise civil rights, or seek the protection of the courts. Their lives are forfeit at the whim of the Israeli military. Just consider recently when a terrorist attacked Israel from Gaza, Israel responded by conducting airstrikes on Gaza. If a terrorist conducted an attack in Los Angeles, and then hid in a Los Angeles neighborhood to avoid capture, how would Americans, and the rest of world for that matter, react if the US simply launched an airstrike on the neighborhood he was hiding in? The complete disregard for Palestinian human life and human rights, whether in the Occupied Territories or within Israel is a moral abomination. All people of goodwill must stand against it.
There is only one path forward in the Holy Land. The Occupied Territories must be fully and completely relinquished and a fully sovereign Palestinian state created, and both Israel and Palestine should define themselves as the state of their citizens only, and to treat all of their citizens of whatever background with full legal, social, and political equality.
