You can read this article online at http://www.tikkun.org/
Uri Avnery on Israeli Racism
with a prefatory note from Rabbi Michael Lerner
October 23, 2015
Editor’s Note:
The sad reality of racism in Israel (the latest incident discussed by
Uri Avnery below) has been known to many of us for decades–a tragedy for
a people which has suffered so much from the racism directed against
us. Its first manifestation was in the early Zionist claim that its
attempt to build a Jewish society in Palestine was merely directing
Jewish refugees to a "land without people for a people without a
land"--making invisible the hundreds of thousands of Arabs who lived
there by the early part of the 20th century. Next manifestation was in
the scorn and discrimination with which Sepahrdic/Mizrachi Jews escaping
from Arab countries were treated by Ashkenazi Jews who shaped the
Yishuv (the pre-1948 Jewish settlements in Palestine). It has reached
monumental proportions against Palestinians in contemporary Israel, yet
most Israelis pretend that their discriminatory treatment of
Palestinians is only a reaction to the the insecurity that Jewish
Israelis feel in relationship to the Palestinians, denying the other
element that is a major part of the psychodynamics of the conflict,
namely the guilt that Israelis feel at being oppressors which is then
denied, repressed, split off, and manifests in racist portrayals of
those they are dominating and hurting. Yet finally in the last few years
that racism became harder to deny as it manifested toward African
refugees seeking asylum in Israel and the many other non-Jews who Israel
imported to fill the menial jobs that would no longer be filled by
Palestinians once Israel decided to cut off the Gaza- or West
Bank-located Palestinians from working in Israel. Now this latest
incident which Avnery discusses below demonstrates the racism ever more
clearly, and tragically. For those of us who care deeply about the
Jewish people and worry about the tendency in much of the Jewish world
to blindly worship the State of Israel (the latest manifestation of the
idolatry that has often undermined true Jewish commitment to God), this
racism is particularly distressing.
Yet
it is a bit problematic for us in the U.S. to get too self-righteous
about Israeli racism, without also acknowledging that racism is deep
within almost every form of nationalism on the planet (certainly there
in Russia, China, the Arab states, the European states turning away
Syrian refugees, and the list goes on and on). Most obvious is the
racism that continues to shape American society, from its beginnings in
the genocide of Native Americans and the enslavement of Africans, but
carrying right through to this moment when so much of the appeal of the
Republican Party is based on its (sometimes covert signals, but just as
often overt policies) racism against African Americans, Latinos, and the
list grows. So much of what resonates in the Republican’s call for
reduced size of government is the covert message that “those people”
(the non-white minorities) are getting too much from the government, and
“our money” is being given to “them.” The huge shift in American
politics in the 1970s and 80s came when the Democrats were perceived as
having become champions of an anti-racist agenda (a huge exaggeration,
to be sure, since Democrats barely touched the economic foundations of
contemporary racism), and so the former racists of the South and MidWest
who had aligned with the Democratic Party jumped to a Republican Party
no longer connected with the legacy of its first president Abraham
Lincoln and by the 70s and 80s clearly willing to assault all those who
cared for the most oppressed minorities. Their base, ironically, was
often white middle income and working class people whose economic
interests were better served by the Democrats but who could not
withstand the allure of racist hatred offered through the code language
of the Republicans (not the whole story, to be sure, as I demonstrate in
my 2006 book The Left Hand of God: Taking Back Our Country from the Religious Right,in
which I offer a strategy to change these dynamics). So we in the West
must approach the racism in Israeli society with a bit of humility about
our own failure to deal with racism in our own societies. But for those
of us who love Israel, it is nevertheless appropriate to express
sadness at the way our own people have shut their hearts to “the
stranger/the Other/ha’ger” even at the expense of ignoring one of the
Torah’s most frequently repeated commands: to love and not oppress the
stranger/theOther (in Hebrew: ha’ger), reminding us some 2,500 years ago kee gerim hayeetem be’eretz Mitzrahyim (because
YOU were the Other, the stranger in the land of Egypt). It is with this
sadness that we read (below) Uri Avnery, the leader of Israel’s widely
respected peace movement Gush Shalom.
– Rabbi Michael Lerner RabbiLerner.tikkun@gmail.com
******************************
Uri Avnery
October 24, 2015 Tel Aviv, Israel
Weep, Beloved Country
SOMETIMES, A small incident can pierce the darkness and reveal a frightening picture.
This happened last Sunday in Beersheba, the capital of the Negev.
The picture was frightening indeed.
THE
INCIDENT started as a routine attack, one of many we have become used
to in recent weeks. Some call it “the Third Intifada”, some speak of a
“Terror Wave”, some are satisfied with “Escalation”.
It
is a new stage in the old conflict. Its symbol is the knife-wielding
lone Palestinian individual – either from East Jerusalem, the West Bank
or Israel proper.
It
is not connected with any of the Palestinian parties. Before the deed,
the attacker had no known connection with any militant group. He or she
is completely unknown to the Israeli Security Service. Hence it is
impossible to prevent such actions.
One
morning the future shahid wakes up, feels that the time has come, takes
a large kitchen knife, goes to a Jewish neighborhood and stabs the
nearest Israeli Jew, preferably a soldier, but when there are no
soldiers around – any Jewish civilian, man, woman or even child.
The
attacker knows well that they will probably be killed on the spot. They
want to become a shahid – a martyr, literally “witness to the faith”.
In
earlier intifadas, the attackers were generally members of
organizations or cells. These cells were invariably infiltrated by paid
traitors, and almost all perpetrators were caught, sooner or later. Many
such acts were prevented.
The
present outbreak is different. Since they are carried out by lone
individuals, no spies are aware of them. The acts cannot be stopped in
advance. They can occur anywhere, anyplace – In Jerusalem, in the other
occupied territories, in the heart of Israel proper. Any Israeli,
anywhere, can be knifed.
To
get the whole picture, one must add to this the stone-throwing groups
of Palestinian youngsters and children along the highways. The groups
form suddenly, spontaneously, generally composed of local teenagers, and
throw stones and firebombs at passing cars – first making sure that
they are Jewish Israeli. Often they are joined by mere children, who are
eager to prove their courage and devotion to Allah. One caught was 13
years old.
Stone-throwing
incidents sometimes lead to the death of drivers, who lose control of
their cars. The army responds with teargas, rubber-coated steel bullets
(which cause acute pain but rarely kill) and live ammunition.
THE OUTBREAK – which does not yet have a definite name – started several weeks ago in East Jerusalem. As usual, one may add.
The
center of the Arab Old City is the holy place called by the Jews “the
Temple Mount” and by the Arabs “Haram al-Sharif” – the Holy Shrine. It
is where the ancient Jewish temples once stood.
After
the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans some 1945 years ago, the
place was desecrated by the Christians who turned it into a dunghill.
When it was conquered by the Muslims in 635, the humane Khalif Omar
ordered it cleaned. Two holy Muslim buildings were erected – the
beautiful Dome of the Rock, with its conspicuous golden dome, and the
even holier al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest mosque in Islam.
If
one wants to cause trouble, this is the place to start. The cry that
al- Aqsa is in danger arouses every Palestinian, and every Muslim around
the world. It excites moderately religious Muslims (as most Arabs are)
as well as religious fanatics. It is a call to arms, to self-sacrifice.
This
has happened several times in the past. The terrible “events” of 1929,
in which the ancient Jewish community in Hebron was massacred, were
started by a Jewish provocation at the Western Wall, part of the wall
that encloses the Mount. The second intifada broke out because Ariel
Sharon led a provocative demonstration on the Mount, with the express
permission of the then Labor Party Prime Minister, Ehud Barak.
The
present trouble started with visits by Jewish extreme right-wing
leaders, including a minister and members of the Knesset, to the Temple
Mount. This in itself is not forbidden. (Except by Orthodox Jewish law,
because ordinary Jews are not allowed to tread were once the Holy of
Holies was located.) The mount is a paramount tourist attraction.
To
regulate things, something called the Status Quo is in place. When the
Israeli army occupied East Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-day war, it was
decided that the Temple Mount enclosure, though now under Israeli rule,
would be run by Muslims under Jordanian jurisdiction. (Why Jordanian?
Because Israel did not agree to Palestinian jurisdiction.) Jews were
allowed to enter the enclosure, but not to pray there.
Binyamin
Netanyahu maintains that the Status Quo was not broken. But lately
groups of fanatical right-wing Israelis have entered the enclosure,
protected by the Israeli police, and prayed. For the Muslims, that was a
breach of the status.
Moreover,
much publicity has been given to Jewish groups who are preparing to
rebuild the Jewish Temple after destroying the Muslim shrines. The
clothes and instruments prescribed by the Bible are being prepared by
fanatics.
In
normal times, at a normal place, this could be settled peacefully. But
not on the Temple Mount, and not now, with Jewish settlers starting to
secure footholds in the Arab villages surrounding the Shrines. All over
the occupied territories and among the Arab citizens of Israel the cry
went up: the Holy Places are in danger. The Israeli leaders shouted back
that this was all a pack of lies.
Young
Palestinians took up the knives and started stabbing Israelis, knowing
full well that they would probably be shot dead on the spot. Israeli
leaders called upon Jewish citizens to bear arms at all times and shoot
at once when they see an attack. There are now several such incidents
every day. Altogether, this month eight Jews have been killed, together
with 18 suspects and 20 other Palestinians.
This, then, is the background of the Beersheba outrage.
IT
HAPPENED in the central bus station of the desert capital, a town of
about 250,000 Jews, mostly of Oriental background, surrounded by
numerous Bedouin townships and encampments.
Three persons figure in the incident.
The
first was a 19 year old soldier, Omri Levi. He got down from a bus and
entered the large station building, when he was killed by an Arab
attacker, who grabbed his weapon. We know very little about the soldier,
just a nice-looking 19 year-old.
The
second person was the attacker, 21 year old Muhammad al-Okbi.
Surprisingly, he was a Bedouin from the surroundings with no
security-risk past. Surprising, because many Bedouins volunteer for the
Israeli army, serve in the Police or study at Beersheba University. This
does not prevent the Israeli government trying to grab the land of the
tribes and re-settle them in crowded little townships.
Nobody
knows why this boy of the desert decided, on waking up that day, to
become a Shahid and go on a rampage. His extended family seems as
perplexed as everyone else. It seems that he had become very religious
and and was reacting to the al- Aqsa incidents. Also, like all Bedouins
in the Negev, has was certainly upset by the government’s efforts to
dispossess them.
So
he shot at the bystanders – either with a pistol in his possession or
with the weapon he had grabbed from the soldier. After reading tens of
thousands of words, I am still not quite sure.
BUT THE person who drew the most attention was neither the soldier nor the assailant, but the third victim.
His
name was Haftom Zarhim, a 29 year old refugee from Eritrea – one of
50,000 or so Africans who illegally crossed the border into the Negev.
He was completely innocent. He just happened to enter the building
behind the assailant, and some bystanders mistook him for an accomplice.
He did not look Jewish.
He
was shot and wounded. While lying on the floor, bleeding and helpless,
the mob surrounded him, kicking him from all sides, several kicking his
head. He arrived dead at the hospital. The entire scene was gleefully
photographed by a bystander with his smartphone and shown on all TV news
programs.
There
is no way around it: this was an incident of vicious racism, pure and
simple. The barbaric treatment of wounded Palestinian assailants by an
excited mob can somehow be understood – not excused, not condoned, but
at least understood. We have a conflict that has already lasted more
than 130 years, on both sides several generations have been brought up
in mutual hatred.
But
asylum seekers? They are almost universally hated. Why? Only because
they are foreigners, non-Jews. Even the color of their skins cannot
provide a full explanation – after all we now have quite a number of
dark-skinned Ethiopian Jews, who are accepted as “ours”.
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