Ediblog.com
Creating A Palestinian Apartheid State?
© 2004/5764 Ariel Natan Pasko
You know for years, leftists and Arabs, and all kind of anti-Semites have
compared Israel to South Africa. For the last few years, there's been a
divestment campaign against Israel as was done against South Africa. Many
Jews shrugged off the comparison, or hid from it. And most decent people of
all persuasions, argued, "No it's not true, Israel is a democracy, and
the old South Africa had apartheid."
But it has dawned on me that the comparison makes some sense. Not between
Israel - the embattled victim of morally degenerate suicide bombings - and
the once racially segregated South Africa. Not between Israel, the victor in
a defensive war - that pitted several enemies against it, attempting a
second Holocaust in 1967 - and a cruel divisive South African regime that
pitted one group against another for racial supremacy. But between Israel
the country that since 1948, has wanted to live peacefully with its
neighbors; between Israel who has won all the wars that were forced upon it
and still made agreements to return territory captured - territory that gave
it much needed strategic depth - in return for promises written on
paper; and the new racially diverse South Africa of Nelson Mandela, Desmond
Tutu, and the current President Thabo Mbeki.
You see Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk - winners of the 1993 Nobel Peace
Prize - and Desmond Tutu - winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize - called for
reconciliation between groups in South Africa. It might not be perfect now,
but after Mandela's release from 28 years of imprisonment in 1990, the first
thing he DIDN'T do was call for killing whites. Being elected President in
the first multi-racial election in South Africa in 1994, Mandela also knew
how to step down after 5-years in office; instead of like Arafat - the
infamous Nobel Peace Prize winner - who died in office, incapable of
releasing power until his death. Desmond Tutu has used his Nobel money to
set up the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre.
Will Yasser Arafat's heirs (Mahmoud Abbas, Marwan Barghouti, Hamas, and
others), use some of his stolen money to set up the "The Yasser School
of Safe Explosive's Use," maybe?
The Quartet's (US, EU, UN and Russia) so-called Roadmap to Middle East
peace, envisions the first case of "Ethnic Cleansing" of the 21st
century, this time internationally legitimated. The Sharon government in
Israel intends to be a willing accomplice, if it carries out it's planned
expulsion of Jews from Gush Katif-Gaza and Northern Samaria (euphemistically
called "Disengagement"). I understand that if most countries would
have favored the Nazi attempt to commit genocide against the Jews, or most
of the world supported forced racial segregation - Apartheid - in South
Africa, that would have made them okay to do. You don't agree? So why is it
okay to close Jewish "settlements," uproot several hundred
thousand Jews from Judea and Samaria - the West Bank - and Gaza, in the name
of "Peace," when the world is being promised an end to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a democratic Palestinian State? Forget
Apartheid, they're planning a racially-ethnically pure Arab state free of
Jews.
If the "democratic" Palestinian state that Bush and Blair keep
talking about, and everyone else envisions, requires uprooting whole
communities; towns and villages of thousands, expelling families from their
homes, destroying everything built - schools, synagogues, community centers,
businesses, people's lives - in the last 37 years, where may I ask is the
reconciliation? Where is the peace? When the blacks in South Africa finally
gained power, they didn't throw the whites out, or try to murder them.
If Palestine has to be "Judenrein" - free of Jews - then it won't
be "democratic" but NAZI!
Palestine won't be an Apartheid State like the old South Africa, but a Nazi
state, not racially supremacist but racially pure. And that's a far cry from
the vision being presented to us by Bush, Blair, Sharon, and all those nice
people who say, "we have to solve the Palestinian problem" or
"The solution is two states living side by side in peace". The
Palestinian Authority till now has done nothing to stop the Oslo War for
over four years. Plenty of evidence indicates they've actually helped carry
it out. Marwan Barghouti (founder of the al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades
terror group, affiliated to Arafat and Abbas's Fatah) just called on Mahmoud
Abbas (the Fatah candidate for PA President) not to give up the option of
"armed struggle". The express purpose of the terror groups is to
drive Jews out of their homes, and Sharon is helping them with his expulsion
plan for Gazan Jews.
But Jews have a longer history as the indigenous population (almost 4,000
years) with these ancient Holy Places (Gaza, Hebron, Shechem, Bethlehem,
Shilo, Tekoa, and Jericho) than the Arabs do. Most of whom came into the
area from the surrounding Arab countries in the late 19th & early 20th
centuries. Why should the Jews have to leave? If Arabs can live as equal
citizens in Israel, able to be elected to the Knesset (there are Arab
citizens in Israel's parliament), or serve on Israel's Supreme Court (there
is an Arab Supreme Court Justice), why can't Jews be equal citizens in the
democratic Palestinian state in the making, with full rights,
responsibilities, and privileges?
The comparison between Israel and the old South Africa doesn't fly, but the
comparison between the Palestinian state that they're trying to sell us, and
the old racist South Africa goes quite well. On the other hand, the correct
comparison is between Israel and the new multi-racial South Africa. The
population of South Africa today is about 75% black, with the remainder made
up of white, coloreds, and Indians. Israel's population is about 80% Jewish,
with the remainder Arab, Druze, Bedouin, Circassian, Armenian, etc.
Both are democracies with a dominant majority and minorities sharing equal
rights.
The proposed Palestinian state will have an estimated population of between
2.4 and 2.9 million people, and almost 10% of the population is
Jews. In Judea and Samaria - the West Bank - there are about 1.5 to 1.8
million Arabs and almost 250,000 Jews, or about 15%. When you include the
post-1967 parts of Eastern Jerusalem that some want to make into the
Palestinian capital city, it brings the total number of Jews in the
so-called "occupied territories" to about a half a million, or
almost 20% of the proposed Palestinian state.
So why exactly can't Jews stay in "democratic" Palestine?
In Hebron for example, the media always tells you that there are 500 Jews
living among 100,000 or 120,000 Arabs. BIG LIE! What they "forget"
to tell you is that the population figure for the Arabs, is for the greater
metropolitan area of Hebron, surrounding villages (i.e. suburbs) and all,
and if you include all the Jews living in the same areas (Kiryat Arba, and
the Hebron Hills towns and villages) there are close to 10,000 Jews living
there, or about 10% of the total population. Jewish cities in Judea and
Samaria like Ma'ale Adumim with almost 35,000 Jews and Ariel with 22,000 -
the size of Anytown, USA - they're going to be expelled?
Why can't all these Jews stay living in Palestine, just as the non-Jews live
in Israel? Real peace doesn't mean "Ethnic Cleansing," real peace
means reconciliation, respect, and mutual trust. If there aren't any of
these, THERE ISN'T ANY REAL PEACE! So, why are the Jews being forced from
their homes exactly?
Why does everyone (Bush, Blair, the Quartet, Sharon, Peres and Israel's
left) just assume Jews can be moved like cattle (and have no rights)? Why
does the world want to Ethnically Cleanse "democratic" Palestine
of Jews? Why would the world voluntarily create - at best - another old
South Africa - at worst - a Nazi Arab state? Does the world somehow have
lower expectations from the Arabs? That Arabs somehow can't live peacefully
among others? No one even mentions the possibility of Jews staying in their
homes and becoming Palestinian citizens. Does the world have racist
attitudes that somehow Palestinians can't live in democratic societies and
share? Or, does the world not care about persecuted Jews? Just like in the
time of the Holocaust.
Where are all the "Great Souls" of the world, morally outraged by
a "Peace Plan" that calls for the expulsion of people from their
homes? Where are all the anti-apartheid activists, who saw such evil in the
old South Africa? Why aren't they protesting this latest injustice? Why not
divest from Palestine?
So, I challenge you Desmond, I dare you Nelson, and all you
"Anti-Apartheid Great Souls," stand up for those high morals
everyone has attributed to you. Don't just sit back and watch as 8,000
people get expelled from their homes in Gaza. Don't let several hundred
thousand more Jews get Ethnically Cleansed from their ancient homeland and
call it "democracy".
Remember Rev. Tutu, the Land of Israel, Canaan or Judea, that place
described in your Bible? Certainly men of such high moral fiber as
yourselves, and all the others like you, will call out for
"understanding," "tolerance," and "peace and
reconciliation," between Arab and Jew in a democratic Palestine. And
certainly, you will all oppose expelling people from their homes in Gaza and
elsewhere, even if they are only Jews.
Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko