Michael Schwartz Schwartz is a
fifth-year sociology student who can be reached at [email protected].
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A letter printed in the Los Angeles Times on Oct. 17 put the
recent uprising in Israel into clear perspective for those who do
not know which side is the oppressor and which is the oppressed.
The author stated, “If the American Indians started an
intifada, how would we respond? If they threw rocks and there was
occasional gunfire, what would our response be? If they advocated
throwing the American government and its settlers back into the
sea, would our response be any different?”
For those of you who are not aware, the United States government
was founded on the genocide of the American Indians.
This was the toughest issue for me to deal with as I got active
in politics. Israel always had a special meaning for me. I was
raised Jewish, had a bar mitzvah and went to Hebrew school for nine
years ““ I always had romantic notions of the “Jewish
State”. We were taught to look at Israel as some kind of
Jewish Utopia, a place where the persecution of Jews ended and our
self-determination was finally realized. We learned to look at
Zionism as being equal to Judaism ““ the two are
“inseparable,” I was always told. Israel was “our
homeland” and we were the “chosen people” of God
and it was our right to be there.
Over the past couple of weeks we have witnessed the eruption of
“violence” in Israel. The incredible military advantage
Israel holds over the Palestinians is reflected in the casualties
that have taken place over the past two weeks. Over 100 people have
been killed, and the overwhelming majority have been Palestinians
or Israeli Arabs. Israel commands an extremely powerful modern
military while the Palestinians are mostly peasants with rocks.
We have witnessed the deaths of innocent children, including the
unforgettable photo of Israeli troops shooting and killing an
unarmed 12-year-old boy, as his father tried to save him. At first
Israel claimed the boy had been throwing rocks at soldiers; it was
only after the government realized the murder had been filmed live
on television that they recanted their claim (CNN, Oct. 15).
 Illustration by JASON CHEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff On
October 19, the 53-nation United Nations Human Rights Commission
voted to condemn Israel for “widespread, systematic and gross
violations of human rights” and set up an international
inquiry into violence in the West Bank and Gaza (CNN, Oct 19).
Israel has repeatedly denied the requests of the international
community to allow independent inspection teams assess the violence
that has occurred. The United Nations Security Council also voted
unanimously to send independent inspectors, but Israel refused (LA
Times, Oct 15).
Edward S. Herman once asked: “If Jews in France were
required to carry identification cards designating them Jews (even
though French citizens), could not acquire land or buy or rent
homes in most of the country, were not eligible for service in the
armed forces, and French law banned any political party or
legislation calling for equal rights for Jews, would France be
widely praised in the United States as a symbol of human decency
and paragon of democracy? Would there be a huge protest if France,
in consequence of such laws and practices, was declared by a UN
majority to be a racist state?”
(http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/may94herman.html).
This is the situation Palestinians in Israel face today. The
ownership of land in Israel is under the jurisdiction of the Israel
Land Authority, which applies religion and nationality as
“fundamental criteria” of land use
(http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/may94herman.html). Israeli
Professor Uzi Ornan pointed out in the article that “Those
registered as “˜Jews’ have full rights in regard to most
of the land, cities and settlements; those who are not registered
as “˜Jews’ are barred from owning real estate in most
sectors of the country.” He went on to explain that these
restrictions apply to over 90 percent of Israeli land.
This is the reality in Israel. Palestinians and Israeli Arabs
live under a system of apartheid and that should not and cannot be
forgotten.
I make a clear distinction between Judaism and Zionism. There
are many Jewish people on campus who claim “Anti-Zionism
equals Anti-Semitism.” This claim has no basis in reality.
There are many Jewish people, including myself, who are
anti-Zionist. It’s a list that includes American Jews and
Israeli Jews. Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Noam
Chomsky, as well as the Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights
have written extensively against Zionism.
Judaism has existed for over 3,000 years. In contrast, Zionism
is a political philosophy that originated in the 19th century. The
original Zionists claimed Palestine should be given to the Jews
since it was “A land without a people for a people without a
land.” This claim obviously was not based on reality since
there was more than a million Arabs living in Palestine at the
time.
The uprising you are witnessing today in Israel should not come
as a shock. The Palestinian people have had their land stolen from
them and have lived under a system of apartheid for many years. As
the Israeli League for Human and Civil rights pointed out in their
report, “Arab Villages Destroyed in Israel”, the 475
Palestinian villages that existed before 1948 were reduced to 90 by
1988 — 385 villages were destroyed by Israel. In 1948, the
Palestinian population consisted of 1.3 million people and has
decreased to 138,000. The report pointed out that the great
majority of Palestinians were killed or forcibly expelled or fled
in panic ““ another term for “ethnic
cleansing”.
You should ask yourself what you would do if your land was
stolen from you and your friends and relatives were being murdered.
You might also want to consider what life is like for the
Palestinians who are uprising right now in Israel. How much
oppression and exploitation is necessary before people will take up
stones against one of the most powerful militaries this world has
ever known?
Over the past few weeks we have seen a lot of
“violence” in Israel, but the violence has not been
equal. Please do not forget who has the tanks and F-16 fighter jets
and who has the stones. When persecuted people rise against the
nation who is carrying out the oppression, it is not violence; it
is a struggle for justice.