Racism in Israel | Part 4 on Gaza

This series is about Israel’s policies in Gaza. I think they’re so unconscionable that I can’t believe they’re up for debate even among Jews — and yet they are. Instead of criticising Israel, I invite you to explore the basis and consequences of a pro-Israel’s-policy view. I’m not naive about changing minds but gotta try. This is for you if you: (1) support Israel’s policies in Gaza and the West Bank (2) consider Palestinians and Israelis to be equally human, their lives equally valuable and (3) don’t consider Jews to be a superior race.

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|Part 5|Part 6|Part 7|Part 8|Part 9

If you’ve made it this far, you probably recognise that racism and bigotry are a major problem in Israel. Events from the last few years included the revenge murder of a childanti-immigrant pogromstreatment of asylum seekers to rival the horrors Australia inflicts, explicit calls for genocide as a solution to “the Palestinian problem” and too many others to mention.

I know because I have many condemnations of such things from pro-Israel people. What I don’t think I’ve seen is awareness that these extreme racist views — which are carried by voices with considerable power mind you — actually matter. They do; they play a causal role in shaping both Israel’s policy and the pro-Israel narrative in the diaspora. And yes, this includes all the press-releases, talking points, fact-sheets and memes that make their way to the diaspora and your inbox. To take a crude example, here’s an excerpt from an online petition in support of Israel that a few people I know signed:

We, the undersigned citizens and residents of Australia, would like to convey our support for the people of Israel, who are once more under attack by savage Islamic terrorists. Our thoughts and prayers are with you.

In the conflict between the civilised man and the savages, the vast majority of Australians will always stand with Israel, no matter what some misguided student or anti-Semitic politician may say. We have not forgotten that Israel is the only liberal democracy left in the Middle East which protects human rights and the rule of law.

May strength and good fortunes be with the brave men and women in the IDF and other services, who are bearing the brunt of combatting these genocidal Islamic ideologues. May the memory of those who gave their all be blessed.

We hope that Israel’s people and your government will remain determined to demilitarize Gaza, with the least possible casualties on all sides. Only by disarming or incapacitating the terrorists can this conflict be brought to an end, so that the people of Israel and her neighbours may live once again in peace.

This is a lot less subtle than most things out there. The language clearly rises to the level of fascism and skinhead white supremacy. For something like this to be shared widely means that there’s absolutely no consideration of the attitudes behind a message and whether they’re hateful or not.

I mean, if a significant percentage of Israelis are prepared to go on a racist pogrom, are you really going to claim these attitudes aren’t reflected in how agents of the state (including the IDF) act? Especially given the number of documented incidents.

What the people who fit the 3 points at top are effectively saying is:

  • there are any incidents of racism from people in power (which we condemn)
  • these have no bearing on policy and how Israel conducts everything from Protective Edge to “peace-time” policy towards Palestinians

This is of course ridiculous. To draw some more examples, there have been incidents of units from the IDF doing things like making t-shirts with a pregnant Arab woman with a target on her saying “1 shot 2 kills”. If you think that an IDF unit like that isn’t likely to actually shoot a Palestinian civilian, I have some snake oil to sell you. There was a widely-publicised incident of a cop bashing Tariq Khdeir (the cousin of the boy who was burned alive) — would you identify this and similar events as all isolated incidents instead of a systemic problem directly connected to events like the t-shirt incident?

A common response to arguments like this is “but they do it too – and are far worse!!”. Out come the videos of Mickey Mouse telling kids to kill Jews and so on. This post is not about comparisons though but about the fact that systemic racism is driving both policy and opinion and it shouldn’t.

Also, having horrible views doesn’t make someone deserve to die. If it did, how many people in your own extended family would make the cut?

Part 1|Part 2|Part 3|Part 4|More to come

Yep, comments are closed. There are plenty of other venues to respond that don’t involve me paying to host pro-IDF rhetoric. I must be a coward and an enemy of Freeze PeachTM. What am I afraid of???

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