The myth of Israeli morality

[Prometheus Bound]

<snip>

An act of fear
But Israel's reaction was not merely an act of arrogance. It was also an act of fear and weakness in the face of a rising tide of Palestinian and international civic campaigns, which Israeli studies have already warned aim "at delegitimising" the state. Israel's reaction to non-violent protests inside and outside the occupied territories is part of its fear of the assertion of Palestinian identity in the historic land of Palestine.

After its establishment in 1948, Israel placed the Palestinian Arab population that remained under harsh military rule, banning the teaching of Palestinian and Arab history, poetry and songs. Those who defied the ban were imprisoned, or in the case of the late poet Mahmoud Darwish, forced into exile where they sought to freely express the yearnings of a dispossessed nation.

Following the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Israel cracked down on Palestinian political leaders who were rounded up and many simply deported to Jordan. In 1974 Israel "authorised" municipal elections only to deport the winners when Palestinians elected supporters of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). Israeli extremists attacked two of the elected mayors, of Ramallah and Nablus, maiming both men. None of those elected were known to have any association with armed struggle but belonged to the Palestinian intelligentsia, including Hanna Nasser, the then president of the University of Beir Zeit.

Deportation, imprisonment, assassination
Deportations and imprisonment were part of a systemic policy to pre-empt the emergence of an independent political leadership in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, while for those outside the occupied territories - intellectuals in Beirut and PLO ambassadors in Europe - assassination was the order of the day throughout the 1970s.

In 1972, one of Palestine's finest novelists, Ghassan Kanafani, was killed in a car bomb and, in 1973, poet Kamal Nasser was assassinated by a Mossad hit team led by Ehud Barak, the current Israeli defence minister. Both operations were carried out in the heart of Beirut.

Until the signing of the Oslo agreement in 1993 the raising of the Palestinian flag - and at times the public display in any form of the banner's colours - was an act that triggered punishment. Young Palestinians, including children, were shot at and sometimes wounded or even killed for daring to display the flag in public. Even symbolic acts suggesting recognition of Palestinian rights are not tolerated by Israel.

More: http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/06/20106391049788617.html

Lamis Andoni is an analyst and commentator on Middle Eastern and Palestinian affairs. She has been writing about the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) for the past 20 years and has interviewed all of the key leaders of the movement.

[Arctic Dave]

1. Isael is a terrorist state, no better then the terrorist they are fighting with.

They day bibi, bush, cheney and the rest of the world terrorist are in jail, the better for all of us.

[ConsAreLiars]

2. The use of fear and creation of a threat from The Other is a well known and widely

used tactic intended to strengthen the right wing authoritarian segments and factions. They create fear, bigotry, supremacist beliefs, use increasingly murderous tactics, intensify hatred and resistance by The Other which they demonize. oppress and imprison and kill with impunity. And the cowardice within the population becomes so widespread that they will commit and condone torture, mass slaughters, bombing whole families and neighborhoods hoping to kill anyone who seems to be important to The Other. After all, The Other are not really human. That attitude is presented here all to often by some of those who hold such views.

No wonder the US and Israel are still friends. They followed the same road and came to the same place. The US may be veering slightly off that path (against stiff resistance) but the murders on the aid ship make it clear that those leading Israel to its transformation into the opposite of that which its founders envisioned and maybe to total destruction, are hell bent on staying on that path.

(Saw that article earlier and was intending to post it. Thanks.)

(edit to add a word)

[IndianaGreen]

3. K&R n/t

:kick: