New World, Old Tactics

New world, old tactics

Discrimination, apartheid and divestment in Israel

The Holocaust was undoubtedly one of the great atrocities of humanity. There will never be so profound a difference between anyone to warrant the indiscriminate discrimination of an entire people.

But past abomination does not justify that of the present.

The inequity between Palestine and Israel is undeniable. Beyond question or doubt, it is a grave injustice. But so often, criticism of Israel is immediately deemed an attack on judaism and discontinued. Discussions of fact become outrun by guilt.

Calling someone anti-semitic is a lot easier than listening about the inhumane conditions Palestinians are forced to endure.

Noting that Israel is an unjust state that denies people of different beliefs rights and retaliates attacks with disproportionate force is harsh but true. It has nothing to do with hating Jewish people.

Zionism is the Jewish political movement to re-establish a homeland for Jews in Israel. It seeks to create a Jewish identity, unify Jews and preserve Jewish culture. However, as such, zionism only strives at the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Now is the time to make clear that we will no longer stand for this mistreatment of an entire race. Not only does our government give billions annually to Israel, which undoubtedly attributes to the rampant human rights violations, but we, as a society, often unknowingly propel this unacceptable cycle of abuse.

A boycott of Israeli good and companies that support the zionist movement, as well as a divestment from these institutions sends the message that it is not an ideal we share, nor one which warrants any kind of aid.

The comparison between apartheid in South Africa and occupied Palestine is relevant, though contested. The situation is different, in that South Africa had a national policy of discrimination, blatant and undeniable. Israel’s apartheid is not legislated, per se, but is undeniably practiced.

But in a 2007 visit to Gaza and the West Bank, prominent South African politician Ronnie Kasrils said he felt as though brought back the past apartheid state of his home.

He witnessed the rampant checkpoints and ultimately contradistinct quality of life between the comforts of the Jews-only settlements and the poverty forced upon the Palestinian people. Kasrils called the structure of the segregation “infinitely worse than apartheid.”

A boycott approach was successfully used by consumers opposing apartheid in South Africa.

“By the time Barclays' Bank (UK) had pulled out of apartheid South Africa, its share of the student market had plummeted from 27 percent to 15 percent,” the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions for Palestine Movement reports.

This is a tangible show of efficacy. We need to apply this to companies promoting the zionist agenda.

Standing against Israel is not discrimination against Jews. It is standing against discrimination against Palestinians. Respect for humanity is not mutually exclusive.

Israel was deemed a state to essentially make reparations after World War II.

Palestine’s occupation is religiously justified. God promised Jacob, father of all Jews, a land for his children. It happened to be Palestine.

The Jews are virtually using a book that they wrote to legitimize their actions. How is this even remotely reasonable?

"Judaism is a religion that has tried to establish itself as a nationality," said Eddie Merlo, senior history major. "Now the Palestinians are constantly losing land to Jews, as they refuse to stop settlement expansion."

But last week, after months of refusing the United Nations and the Obama administration’s calls to freeze just West Bank settlement expansions, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu finally announced a 10-month pause on growth in the West Bank.

Palestine’s leaders have said for months that they will resume peace talks with Israel once it freezes settlement growth on Palestinian land in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

This compliance appears to be a significant effort by the Israelis to continue on with peace talks, however, it lacks the full effects sought by Palestine and all others seeking justice in the region. This lull is neither permanent nor does it actually end displacement and harm to Palestinians.

In East Jerusalem, in order to clear way for more Jews-only settlements, Israeli authorities have been forcibly evicting and demolishing Palestinian homes, on grounds that they were built without proper permits, and are therefore illegal.

Israel did not agree to stop expanding in East Jerusalem, leaving a conservative 60,000 Palestinians at risk according to the UN.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs states that the permits are very difficult for Palestinians to obtain; they are forced to build “illegally” to stay within the city, or else risk losing their Jerusalem Identity cards, the documentation required by Israelis to access and live in the city.

Over 600 Palestinians, at least half of them children, have already been displaced by these demolitions.

The American company Caterpillar provides the most commonly used bulldozer by the Israeli military, which according to Jewish Voice for Peace, “have been used in home demolitions, destruction of agricultural land and sometimes killing civilians.” In 2004, Caterpillar bulldozers, tearing into water and sewage networks, were used to contaminate Gaza water supply.

What’s worse is that Caterpillar CEO Jim Owens refuses to stop sales of military bulldozers to Israel, despite many calls from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and many other groups. Caterpillar is consciously selling their products as military, not construction equipment, with complete disregard to the systematic acts of terror they are perpetuating.

BOYCOTT.

Why support this?

The displacement of one people for the accommodation of another is neither just nor tolerable. Neither is the conscious deprival of basic human rights.

Students are frequent to this cause and tactic. There is a strong movement in students of the University of California system pushing to divest in numerous companies currently invested in.

From the UC Office of the Treasurer comes the information that the UC has $40 billion of investments in Israel, “at least 3.4% or $1.4 billion of which is invested in technological and military companies contributing to Israeli apartheid.”

General Dynamics Corp., General Electric Capital Corp., Honeywell Corp., Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and United Tech Corp. are a few of the companies which which provide Israel with military weaponry used against Palestinians. Helicopters, jet engines, fighter planes, tanks, rocket launchers, aircraft missiles and other missiles are but a few that these corporations supply.

Israel’s quest for nationality, dominance and land directly imposes on the rights and identity of the Palestinians. It is rooted in and perpetuated by a sense of Israeli nationalism.

A great nationalist said, "For us the nation is not just territory but something spiritual...A nation is great when it translates into reality the force of its spirit.”

It was no zionist, but fascist leader Benito Mussolini who said this in 1922.

While patriotism seems almost heroic, nationalism is frequent to manipulation of the perception of human worth.

Zionism and fascism are more similar than not. Ancestry is a unifying and binding force for people and for strengthening the state. They rely on nationalism as a means to promote national rebirth and unity, a return to culture and history and a push for national pride above all else.

This is also a push towards desolation. Zionism is directly harming the Palestinian people.

We are perpetrating this devastation.

America has budgeted nearly $3 billion for Israel in unrestricted military aid for next year, as we have for over 20 years. Israel is the largest recipient of U.S. military and economic aid, yet is in no way held accountable to report how our money is being used.

Why are we giving roughly one-fifth of our foreign aid budget to a fascist state?

Isn’t it, in itself, a little totalitarian that when people express dissent over Israel, it’s so often deemed anti-semitic?

Anti-zionism is not anti-semitism. As long as this rhetoric is sold as fact, misconceptions will perpetuate and injustices will go ignored.

Starbucks, Home Depot, Disney, Motorola, AOL/Time Warner and Coca Cola are just a few companies that propel the zionist movement, which people regularly support. We need to make a conscious effort not to.

Palestinians are treated beyond second-class citizens. They are being treated like livestock.

Amnesty International has found that Israel is rationing water access for the Palestinians.

“Israel allows the Palestinians access to only a fraction of the shared water resources, which lie mostly in the occupied West Bank, while the unlawful Israeli settlements there receive virtually unlimited supplies,” said Donatella Rovera, Amnesty International’s researcher on Israel and Occupied Palestinian Territories, in an October report.

Is it not enough that Israel restricts access to occupied Palestine? Rationing water blatantly denies an entire people a basic human need. Access to clean water is a right of all people.

As many as 200,000 Palestinians are forced to live in rural communities without running water, the report details. Yet Amnesty International found often, the Israeli army prohibits these people from even collecting rain water, literally destroying the containers they keep the water in.

This is not a mere denial of a human necessity, but an active effort of deprivation.

This is unjustifiable.

The West Bank is its own concentration camp. The only difference is instead of gas chambers actively killing Palestinians, Israeli policies are slowly and consciously letting them die.

Which is worse?

Our money should not be supporting a country with such blatant disregard for the welfare of another people. Our money should never support the displacement of an entire population.

We need to stop funding an unjust, unbalanced military state. It is our duty to stand against these egregious violations of human rights. Boycotts and divestment are a clear way to be heard.

An entire people could never be greater than another. Any country that ever acts otherwise is not worthy of our alliance or support.