Might Makes Right For Mittens And Other Apologists For Israel's Apartheid Culture

Back in the distant mists of time -- my childhood -- well-meaning liberals commonly referred to Negroes/Blacks/Afro-Americans as "culturally deprived." This was a nod to the widely held belief that non-white people were generally stupider than white people, prettied up by favoring nurture over nature as the explanation.

Expanded, this point of view allowed people to point out how many black people were on welfare, that "they" destroyed "their" own neighborhoods when "they" rioted, and that buying a flashy big car with any available funds was the act of people barely wiser than children.

Now, in summer 2012, come our two candidates for chief celebrity spokesman for corporate government.

The billionaire presumed nominee of the GOP took it upon himself to comment -- in Jerusalem, no less -- that Palestinian culture is inferior to Israeli culture, and as a result Palestinians are economic failures. Like the last guy from his party to inhabit the Oval Office, we suspect that he is at least ignorant if not downright dumb. Doesn't matter; he knows what to say to keep the massive campaign contributions flowing. That's as smart as you need to be for that sort of job.

Meanwhile the current resident of the White House does backflips for the same rewards. Last spring when I was helping to Occupy AIPAC, the behemoth lobbying organization for Israel's right wing parties calling the shots in Congress, Obama was speaking to them of the U.S. Israel relationship as "sacrosanct" and assuring PM Netanyahu that "I've got your back." You could almost feel Barack's fingers in Bibi's back pocket, where the wallet is.

Israel bulldozing Palestinian olive trees Source: Join Advocacy Initiative http://www.jai-pal.org/content.php?page=60

But what does this really look like on the ground, where generations of Palestinian (and Israeli Arab) children have grown up in a society that institutionalizes racism? Or, as the prominent African American Poet Langston Hughes put it:
What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up
like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
... Every story is different, here is but one: Murad Amro, 23 year old college graduate, from Hebron in the occupied West Bank, applied for a UN internship in agriculture to further his studies before proceeding to grad school. He was deeply disappointed with the reply he received from the International Fund on Agricultural Development said they could not even consider his application because Palestine is not a member state of the UN.

Not too surprisingly, Murad was extremely discouraged about being denied consideration because of his nationality, wondering aloud about his own personhood. "I AM NOT A HUMAN BEING!!!" "What am I?"  "[is there] no one in this world [who] can hear me and listen to me?" 

Some of the other things Murad could put on his resume, according to Kristin Szremski in an Al Jazeera opinion piece "Romney, Economic realities, and one Palestinian's story":

...non-violent resistance to Israel's occupation with the group Youth Against Settlements. ...efforts to open Shuhada Street, which is closed to Palestinians, ...documenting violence at the hands of Jewish settlers.

Murad's degree is in plant production from Al Quds Open University. And his dreams, apparently, can wither on the vine while ignorant politicians claim he comes from a backward culture that can never thrive economically.

It is the very definition of discrimination, this withholding of assets to a person' based on conditions they were born into and have no control over. It keeps bright leaders like Muran down, stymied and hampered in doing the work they consider important, in Murad's case, food production. Human rights be damned.

Thus the evil empire reigns over its subjects.

Here are some things people used to say publicly about African Americans when the U.S. was heavily segregated in access to education (many would argue it still is).

“[The Negro] has less of what I call ‘abstract intelligence’ than the white man. He functions at a lower level… he is not so able to think in terms of symbols—words, numbers, formulas, diagrams.” Psychologist Henry Edward Garrett, U.S. News & World Report, 1963.

"Sure, we identified with the blacks in Africa...Here were black people, talking of freedom and libration and independence, thousands of miles away...we couldn't even get a hamburger and a Coke at the soda fountain." -- John Lewis, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) put out a fact sheet on Palestinian cultural and economic conditions that covers a lot of ground in concise fashion. From the introduction:

...many critics pointed out that the Palestinian West Bank, East Jerusalem, and Gaza Strip, have been under Israeli military occupation for more than 45 years, with Israel tightly controlling and systematically stifling Palestinian economic activity. Moreover, some pointed out that the destructive effects that Israeli policies have had on Palestinian economic development in the occupied territories is just one part of a wider, systematic, decades-old Israeli assault against Palestinian culture and historical memory.

The fact sheet has a brief catalog of lost manuscripts and other cultural treasures. As with the U.S. in Iraq, we see a pattern of deliberate destruction of priceless cultural artifacts.

Source: U.S. Iraq Withdrawal: Antiquities Still Missing by Mike Walter

Absence of evidence helps support claims of  inferiority in a culture you are trying to stamp out. Keeping Muran from even applying to UN programs, and keeping droves of students from traveling abroad, even to accept Fulbright Scholarships.

Oh and did I mention denying freedom of movement within his non-country as well? I'll end with this map of checkpoints in the occupied West Bank.

Tell me, what does apartheid look like?

Uprooting trees

Human rights in the Occupied Territories › Separation Barrier › Action against uprooting of trees in Beit Jala, 03.03.2010

I once learned that 60-80% of trees were believed to have been destroyed by war in Afghanistan 1980-present. What a shocking amount. War is one of the most destructive activities humans engage in, and it is an issue for the entire globe when our common Earth is threatened.

Here we see a woman watching removal of olive trees from her family's land in March, 2010 in Beit Jala. Settlements are allowed by Israel to continue to fence in agricultural land used by Palestinian families for herding or orchards. Bulldozers dig up trees and cart them away. Fences keep shepherds from grazing their flocks, or farmers from walking to their fields that need tending.

Occupation looks like a mad giant, careening through space,  crushing things under his feet.

Last night I went to a talk at Boston University by young Israeli resisters called Anarchists Against the Wall. Noam Lekach and Elinor Amit shared images like the one above which photographers collectively gather and save as documentation of the ever-expanding occupation of Palestine.

There were several current maps showing the absurd cantonment of the West Bank, and multiple walls with checkpoints that look like the Canada-U.S. border. These are staffed by private contractors. How tidy and profitable they look.

AATW presented exuberant photos of struggle with popular committees in occupied villages and towns. They go in support of what the local people are doing to resist the containment and destruction of the land. Cutting fence never looked so exhilirating, but they are always under threat of interference by IDF or settler militia waving automatic weapons.

Burning olive tree, which caught fire due to tear gas shot into the dry groves. Weekly demonstration against the Wall, Ni'lin, Ramallah district, July 17th, 2008. Keren Manor/Activestills

The apartheid is partly accomplished by roads that only Israel's citizens are allowed to drive on, many built with funding by U.S. aid.

Israel has been the largest recipient of cumulative U.S. aid since WWII.

Bring Our War $$ Home!