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Testing Out Repression in Israel

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Dennis Bernstein
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But beyond that, when you are in the U.N. in repeated votes and it's the United States, Israel and Micronesia, against everybody else, including your European allies, you know, it sends a message to the world that the United States is completely out of sync, and it's hostile to human rights. And that I think isolates the United States in a way that the American people don't really appreciate.

DB: Wow. Well, that is all a mouthful Dr. Jeff Halper. We just have 30 seconds left, but let me just ask you this. You must have been arrested. People don't love what you're doing in Israel. Are you afraid to do what you do? Why do you do what you do?

JH: I mean, I always say jokingly, but it's true, "Israel is a vibrant democracy if you are Jewish." If you're Jewish you have that privilege. You have that space to do it. Nobody bothers me.

DB: By the way, that's what Jeane Kirkpatrick said about ... South Africa, she said it's a partial democracy, the whites have a chance to vote.

JH: Exactly. And that's the situation. But if you're not Jewish it's a pretty repressive place to live, pretty violent. And now, of course, there's legislation going through the parliament to marginalize us as well. If we go to parliament the left groups, just the left groups, are going to have to wear a tag. As if we're foreign lobbies.

DB: Maybe a yellow star?

JH: We're playing with what that tag is going to look like. But really it's true. They're not even aware of the background, the implications. You know, Israel is becoming so fascistic, really. I mean I'm not just using that as a slogan, that it's replicating very dark times of other countries. It's an irony that here Israel would do something like that.

DB: So are you afraid?

JH: No, I'm not afraid. I mean, certainly things could happen. And it's getting harder and harder to protest in Israel. But I'm not afraid. You know, I just keep plugging on, what can I tell you?

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Dennis J Bernstein is the host and executive producer of Flashpoints, a daily news magazine broadcast on Pacifica Radio. He is an award-winning investigative reporter, essayist and poet. His articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Nation, and (more...)
 

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