Early Zionists said that Palestine was "a land without people...for a people without land", just as early European colonialists said that North America was an "empty wilderness". A "land without people" and an "empty wilderness" means that the native inhabitants are not "people". Dehumanizing native people in the 19th century was how European colonialists rationalized their land grabs and genocide. Israel needs reminding that this is the 21st century and that genocide is now by international law a crime against all of humanity.
Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly call Palestinians "wild beasts". He says that the reason Israel built the Apartheid Wall is to keep out the "wild beasts". From "not existing" to being "wild beasts" is shockingly racist to say, and dehumanizing in the 21st century. Netanyahu is making racist slurs not only against occupied Palestinians, but also against Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. Can anybody imagine the uproar if a public official said that "Jews do not exist as a people and a race", or that "Jews are wild beasts"; what if a US president said that "there is no such thing as African Americans" or that Blacks are "wild beasts"?
Calling Palestinians "wild beasts" is comparable to the worst anti-Semitic slurs and hate speech. Netanyahu should be called out as a racist and condemned for such dehumanizing hateful speech. It is as intolerable as what African Americans were called during Jim Crow in the US, and it is no different than the slander used against Jews under Nazi Germany. In the 21st century, hate speech is unacceptable. We know from atrocities and the Holocaust that hate speech leads to discrimination, violence, lynchings and genocide. "Never Again" should mean that never again in the 21st century will we be silent during a holocaust of any race, religion, sexual orientation or nationality.
In 1947 when the United Nations created Israel it did so as a homeland for Jews, but not as an "Jewish State" in which only Jews had human, civil and national rights. In 2009 Prime Minister Netanyahu changed the rules. He demanded that Palestinians had to recognize the right of Israel to exist "as a Jewish state". Palestinians have long accepted that Israel has the right to exist, but not as an exclusively Jewish state.
If Israel is a "Jewish state" then where do non-Jews fit in? The answer is they don't. Israel cannot be both a Jewish state and a democracy since many of its own citizens are non-Jews. Nor should Israel demand that Palestinians must recognize Israel's right to exist "as a Jewish state" before their can be peace. Palestinians have already recognized Israel's right to exist...within its pre-1967 border as recognized by the United Nations and the international community. Is Israel ever going to recognized Palestine's and Palestinians' right to exist?
As long as Israel demands to be recognized as a "Jewish state" and as long as Israel refuses to recognize that Palestinians have a right to exist, then there can neither be a two-state solution nor a one-state solution. The obstacle to peace is Israel's demand that it is exclusively a "Jewish state" and its refusal to return to its pre-1967 border. Otherwise one can only conclude that peace is not what Israel wants. What Israel must want then is all the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River; or at least all of the good land and the water.
What Israel is leaving for Palestinians is ghettos, apartheid, ethnic cleansing and genocide. These are all war crimes and crimes against humanity in the 21st century. The United Nations Charter, the Geneva Conventions, and the rules of war are international law. A state which militarily occupies another state during wartime is required to obey all the rules.
Israel is breaking the rules and is in violation of international law. A state that is a scofflaw and violates international laws is a rogue state, a pariah state and a criminal enterprise. Israel fits that description as long as it continues to persecute Palestinians and ignore the United Nations Charter and Resolutions.
As I accompanied "Sam" around East Jerusalem I saw the evidence that Israel is committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. I have also seen it in the West Bank in Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem and Nablus. I have seen the humiliating checkpoints. I have seen children attacked by adult Israeli illegal settlers. I have seen olive orchards cut off from Palestinian farmers by illegal settlements. I have seen the destroyed property, the arrested and beaten children, and the women tear gasses in the street. I have seen how Israel turns a blind eye to illegal settlers who beat children, terrorize their Palestinian neighbors and parade around with automatic assault rifles.
With Sam in East Jerusalem I saw where Israel had destroyed a horse stable, a small shop and a Mosque. I heard the testimony of children who were beaten. Two of the children were boys with a chronic and debilitating illnesses who were arrested and beaten, along with their father, by the police. Another was a young boy who was obviously emotionally traumatized and depressed after being beaten by illegal Israeli settlers who are his neighbors in the Silwan section of Jerusalem.
The father of the Palestinian boy who was beaten by an Israeli illegal settler reported it to the Israeli police. The police said he had insufficient evidence and for him and his son to go home. Evidence? It is everywhere in Occupied Palestine. I have seen it.
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