Zionism Reproduces Nazism Under a New Guise

by U. R. Nezi Mon Jun 16, 2003 11:14

Racist Israeli leaders incite against non-Jewish citizens
Grassroots International News Association (GINA), 26 August 2002
Al-Khalil, Aug 26, IRNA -- Voicing manifestly racist views on the Zionist state's non-Jewish citizens, a number of Israeli officials on Monday called for withholding more legal and civil rights from liberties from Israel's sizable Arab minority on the ground of possible disloyalty to the apartheid Jewish state.

Zionist President Moshe Katsav, notorious for his fascist views toward non-Jews in general and Palestinians in particular, called on the government to examine the possibility of outlawing political movements and parties not loyal to the state.

The Israeli state-run radio quoted Katsav as saying that there is no place in Israel for those who oppose the Jewish nature of the state.

Katsav, an ardent advocate of legal and political apartheid, suggested that non-Jews in Israel, e.g. Palestinians, should come to terms with the fact that they are second-class citizens on the account that they are not adherents of the Jewish faith.

Earlier this year, Katsav launched a venomous tirade on the Palestinians, who have been languishing under a harsh Israeli military occupation for the last 35 years, saying years separate us and them.

Other Israeli officials made similar racist remarks against Palestinians.

Deputy Interior Minister Gideon Ezra, a Nazi-like figure advocating a heavy-handed approach toward the Palestinians, demanded that the government order the judiciary to terminate a commission of inquiry into the killing of 13 Israeli Arab citizens by the police in October 2000.

Ezra argued that the investigation and the possible indictment and prosecution of police officers would ultimately undermine police effectiveness in dealing with terror.

The same demand was also made by Michael Kleiner, a fascist member of the Israeli parliament.

Kleiner tabled a motion to the Knesset calling for dissolving the commission, which has been looking into the killing of the 13 Arabs.

A few months ago, Kleiner proposed enacting a special law that would encourage Muslims and Christians to immigrate to the Arab world in order to guarantee the racial purity of Israel.

Israel, which claims to be the only democracy in the Middle East, defines itself as a Jewish state whereby non-Jewish citizens don't enjoy equal rights despite the fact that they have the Israeli citizenship.
KA/NK/JB

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For Jews Only: Racism Inside Israel:
An Interview with Phyllis Bennis
By Max Elbaum, special to ColorLines,
15 December 2000
Phyllis Bennis, a longtime analyst and activist around Middle East issues, is now head of the Middle East Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. She is the author of From Stones to Statehood: The Palestinian Uprising, a book about the Palestinian intifada of the late 1980s, and Calling the Shots: How Washington Dominates Today's U.N. In this interview, Phyllis analyzes the racist character of Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza as well as its treatment of Palestinians who live within Israel's pre-1967 borders.

Max Elbaum [ME]: What do you see as the root cause of the current Palestinian uprising?

Phyllis Bennis [PB]: What's going on right now can be summed up in one word: occupation. Contrary to the U.S. media's portrayal, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is at the root of what the media at best identify only as a disproportionate use of violence by the Israelis on the West Bank and Gaza.

Certainly the Israeli troops' use of helicopter gunships, of machine guns mounted on tanks, and so on is profoundly disproportionate when used against a Palestinian civilian population armed only with stones and some old Kalashnikov rifles.

But the real issue is the Israeli military occupation of Palestine—not only that it is inherently violent and a violation of international law and contrary to United Nations resolutions. Even if Israel used only proportionate violence, it would still be absolutely illegal, because the occupation of Palestinian land is illegal.

[ME]: And why is there an occupation?

[PB]: From its origins in the 19th century, Zionism centered on the idea of creating a specifically Jewish state in which Jews would be protected and privileged over non-Jews. Zionist occupation of Palestine was at first meager, amounting to about 10 percent of the population by 1900. By 1947, Jews were still only about 30 percent of the population of Mandate Palestine and owned only six percent of the land, but the UN Partition Resolution that year still assigned 55 percent of the land to a new Jewish state. However, by means of the 1947-48 war, Israel took over even greater expanses of land and forcibly expelled about 750,000 Palestinians. This travesty was the basis for the official founding of the Israeli state in 1948.

[ME]: In this latest intifada, there have been numerous protests by Arabs living within the pre-1967 borders of Israel. What are their numbers and their conditions of life?

[PB]: Inside what is called the Green Line—the unofficial borders of Israel before the 1967 war—there are still about one million Palestinians, just under 20 percent of the total Israeli population. Most Palestinians are Muslim, some are Christian.

>From 1948 to 1966, the Palestinians within Israel lived under explicit military rule. They were considered a military threat to the Israeli state, and they were ruled under a completely different set of laws than the Jewish population.

After 1966, military rule was lifted, but it was replaced by a set of Jim Crow-like laws designed to discriminate against Arabs in Israel. According to Adalah, an Arab rights organization, today there are at least 20 laws that specifically provide unequal rights and obligations based on what the Israelis call nationality, which in Israel is defined on the basis of religion. Israelis must carry a card which identifies them as either a Jew, a Muslim, or a Christian. All non-Jews are second class citizens. The Israeli Supreme Court has dismissed virtually all cases which dealt with equal rights for Arab citizens.

[ME]: Can you be more specific about how this discrimination works and what it means?

[PB]: All Israeli citizens, including Palestinians, have the right to vote in elections for members of the Knesset (parliament) and for the prime minister. But not all rights are citizenship rights. Other rights are defined as nationality rights, and are reserved for Jews only. If you are a Jew, you have exclusive use of land, privileged access to private and public employment, special educational loans, home mortgages, preferences for admission to universities, and many other things. Many other special privileges are reserved for those who have served in the Israeli military. And military service is compulsory for all Jews (male and female), except for the ultra-Orthodox who get the same privileges as other Jews, but excludes Palestinians, who do not.

Over 80 percent of the land within Israel that was once owned by Palestinians has been confiscated. All told, 93 percent of Israel's land can only be leased or owned by Jews or Jewish agencies. Moreover, despite Israel's booming economy, Palestinian unemployment is skyrocketing—Adalah says it is about 40 percent. In 1996 twice as many Arab citizens (28.3 percent) as Jewish citizens (14.4 percent) lived below the poverty line. Less than five percent of government employees are Arab. And eighty percent of all student drop-outs are Arab.

There are also vast disparities between Arab towns and Jewish towns in government spending on schools, medical systems, roads and electricity, clean water, and social services.

Unlike any other country in the world, Israel does not define itself as a state of its residents, or even a state of its citizens, but as a state of all the Jews in the world. Jews from anywhere in the world, like me, can travel to Israel, declare citizenship, and be granted all the privileges of being Jewish that are denied to Palestinians who have lived in the area for hundreds of years.

[ME]: Are Palestinians within Israel participating in the current uprising?

[PB]: The recent resistance has seen a whole new level of involvement in demonstrations by Palestinians inside the Green Line. They are protesting the discrimination they face in Israel as well as the occupation itself and Israeli brutality against Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza. Such protests are not completely without historical precedent; in 1976 there were a series of demonstrations on what became known as Land Day which protested continuing Israeli seizures of Palestinian land. Six Palestinian demonstrators, citizens of Israel, were killed by Israeli forces.

But this time there is a vast increase in the participation of Palestinians inside the Green Line. Their demonstrations have been met with the same brutal military tactics used against Palestinians in the West Bank. So, far 13 Israeli Palestinians have been killed. These tactics are in sharp contrast to the methods used by Israeli authorities in response to demonstrations by Israeli Jews.

In 1982, for example, when there was an upsurge of Jewish protests against the Israeli war in Lebanon, one Israeli Jewish protester was killed and there was such an enormous outcry that people remember his name to this day—Emil Grunzweig. But when a Palestinian is killed by Israeli military occupation forces, that is not considered news. We might hear a body count, but we never hear their names, who their parents or children are, what they did for a living.

On the West Bank and Gaza, as well as inside the Green Line, police randomly fired live ammunition into crowds of unarmed Arab demonstrators that were throwing stones. The racist double standard is everywhere. A mob of Israeli Jews even attacked the house of an Arab member of the Knesset, Azmi Bishara. But the police would not act against the rioters.

Unfortunately, the years of occupation have created, or have allowed to flourish, an incredibly racist vantage point among the majority of Israeli Jews. The majority of Israeli Jews are willing to accept the killing of Palestinians and collective punishment of the Palestinian population as justified state policy.

[ME]: Can you tell us more about Palestinian politics within Israel?

[PB]: Not surprisingly, Palestinians inside Israel have historically felt themselves excluded and disempowered by the Israeli government. The Communist Party of Israel was long a predominantly Arab party and received the vast majority of Palestinian votes. The CP remains strong, but a few Palestinian Knesset members have recently allied themselves to the Labor Party and more and more Palestinians have joined newer nationalist blocs. Azmi Bishara, who leads the Tajamoah (National Democratic) Party, became the first Arab citizen to run for prime minister last year. He and others actually call for the de-Zionization of Israel&$151;for the transformation of Israel from a theocratic state privileging the Jewish majority to a democratic, secular state of all its citizens.

[ME]: You are painting a picture of an Israeli government, with the support of a substantial part of its Jewish population, which aims toward permanent subordination of Palestinian Arabs within its borders, along with domination over something that might be called a Palestinian state but what would really amount to a dependent Bantustan. Essentially the same vision that motivated apartheid South Africa.

[PB]: Yes. And there are even more complexities. Within Israel there are really four levels of citizenship, the first three being various levels of Jewish participation in Israeli society, which are thoroughly racialized. At the top of the pyramid are the Ashkenazi, the white European Jews. At the level of power the huge contingent of recent Russian immigrants—now about 20 percent of Israeli Jews—are being assimilated into the European-Ashkenazi sector, though they are retaining a very distinct cultural identity.

The next level down, which is now probably the largest component of the Jewish population, is the Mizrachi or Sephardic Jews, who are from the Arab countries. At the bottom of the Jewish pyramid are the Ethiopian Jews, who are black. You can go into the poorest parts of Jewish West Jerusalem and find that it's predominantly Ethiopian.

This social and economic stratification took shape throughout the last 50 years as different groups of Jews from different part of the world came, for very different reasons, to Israel. So while the divisions reflected national origins, they play out in a profoundly racialized way.

The Yemeni Jews in particular faced extraordinary discrimination. They were transported more or less involuntarily from Yemen to Israel. On arrival they were held in primitive camps, and many Yemeni babies were stolen from their mothers and given for adoption to Ashkenazi families. In the early 1990s a high-profile campaign began to try to reunite some of those shattered families.

Beneath all these layers of Jews come the Palestinian citizens.

A rigid hierarchy, highly racialized both within and between religious or national groups, orchestrates Israeli social life. Much of it is legally enforced. The most significant difference between this scenario and other similar ones is in the world's perception of the Israeli reality. For the overwhelming majority of the world's population, South Africa was always considered a pariah state. But Israel is not in that position. Israel is given a pass, if you will, on the question of racism. Because Jews were victims of the Nazi Holocaust, there's a way in which Israeli Jews are assumed to be either incapable of such terrible racialized policies, or that it's somehow understandable because of what Jews went through.

But the new intifada has refocused attention on the nature and extent of Israeli racism, among other things. You have new reports from Amnesty International looking at the Israeli treatment of its own Palestinian citizens—minors, children, being arrested, beaten and held for days. Israel treats Palestinians, inside or outside the Green Line, as being less human than Jews. This is rooted in the very definition and Basic Law of the Israeli state. And the new intifada may give us a chance to challenge that apartheid character.

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by Activist Mon Jun 16, 2003 12:39

The anti-human crimes, aggressions and murders committed by the Zionists and their inveterate rancor against Islam and Muslims are known to one and all….

A boundless passion for usurpation and hegemony is typical of these professional criminals of history; a passion which they try to satisfy through their fickle logic of 'From the Nile to the Euphrates.

For the last 35 years, in conspiration with the equally murderous superpowers, they have been getting closer and closer to their devilish objective.

…Not only has the complicity of the superpowers strengthened this cancerous tumor in the heart of the Islamic Middle-East, but also the silence of the Muslim Arab nations and the reactionary rulers of the region, has encouraged its aggressions and increased penetration.

To preserve their position among the Islamic nations, these reactionary rulers pretend opposition to Israel. However, for fear of their American masters, they do no take the slightest action against the Zionist aggressions.

The birth of the great Islamic Iranian Revolution in the region, had been and will be the greatest danger to Israel. Before the emergence of the Islamic Revolution and the establishment of an Islamic Republic in Iran, the American regime ruling the country at that time, was one of the closest friends of Israel and had clandestine relations with the usurping government. But no sooner did the Islamic Revolution of Iran become victorious, that all relations with Israel were severed and serious efforts at uprooting this cancerous tumor were started.

The liberation of Al-Quds [Jerusalem] and Palestine was one among the many decisive slogans that originated from the Islamic Revolution of Iran. Imam Khomeini, the exalted Leader of the Islamic Revolution, has repeatedly pointed out to the world Moslems how dangerous this Satanic enemy could be.

His famous statement, 'If each one of the Moslems of the world pour a bucket of water towards Israel, the Israelite murderers will be drowned,' is among the many meaningful statements of the great Leader, Imam Khomeini.

Moreover, it should be strongly emphasized that as long as the root of this deadly, cancerous tumor, Zionism, is not burned and wholly destroyed, peace and tranquillity will never prevail in the region.

The world Moslems, particularly those of the Middle East, should come to their senses and realize the disastrous consequences that this dangerous enemy -- Israel -- could bring about. Now, there is no time for hesitation.

by hitler was right Mon Jun 16, 2003 13:16

u lefties dont live in the real world .

U dont know what nazism is .

www.ihr.org wake up

by U. R. Nezi Mon Jun 16, 2003 14:34

Human Rights Should Not Be Bargained Away in Roadmap Negotiations
AI Index: MDE 15/050/2003
Publish date: 3 June 2003

Amnesty International calls on the participants in the "roadmap" peace plan summit in Jordan to recognize that respect for human rights and international law is a fundamental obligation - not a bargaining chip to be used in negotiations, or a concession.

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Israel/Occupied Territories/Palestinian Authority

"Disregarding human rights, or subordinating these rights to political considerations, can only undermine the prospect of achieving durable peace and security," warned the organization.

The "roadmap" peace plan, which as yet contains no specific mechanism to ensure compliance with obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law, refers to such obligations as if they could be made conditional on political developments.

The failure of past agreements between Israel and the Palestinians has demonstrated that while a human rights agenda alone may not be the answer, it must be a central part of any solution. Only a just settlement, which respects the human rights of all parties, will endure.

"The Israeli and Palestinian sides have a duty to respect fundamental rights, regardless of whether or not they are engaged in a peace process. Their obligation to abide by international law must not rest on the implementation of such a process or on other political considerations," Amnesty International said.

Both sides are bound by the principles of international human rights and humanitarian law which prohibit the killing of civilians. It is also unlawful for Israel, as the occupying power, to impose collective punishment on the occupied population, to wantonly destroy properties, or to impede access to medical care, relief and education. Israel must not detain Palestinians arbitrarily or use them to shield its armed forces during armed confrontations, forcibly transfer them, and move its own population into the Occupied Territories.

As parties to the Geneva Conventions, members of the international community who are sponsoring the "roadmap" peace plan must ensure that the parties to the conflict adhere to their obligations, regardless of the developments in this or other peace processes.

"The USA, EU member states, the Russian Federation and the UN must establish an independent mechanism to monitor and enforce Israeli and Palestinian compliance with human rights and humanitarian law," Amnesty International said.

"This mechanism should be adequately resourced and should be mandated to investigate violations and report its findings publicly."

In the past two and half years the Israeli army has killed more than 2,000 Palestinians and Palestinian armed groups have killed more than 700 Israelis. Most of those killed were civilians and included some 350 Palestinian children and more than 90 Israeli children.

"Israeli and Palestinian sides must put an end to killings and other attacks against civilians," Amnesty International reiterated.

The Israeli army has also destroyed more than 3,000 Palestinian homes, vast areas of cultivated land, and hundreds of commercial and public properties. Prolonged and disproportionate closures and curfews imposed by the Israeli army throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip have impeded or prevented Palestinians' access to medical care, education and work. Poverty, unemployment and health problems, including malnutrition, have spiralled as a result.

The spread of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza Strip continues and the measures taken by Israel purportedly to protect the freedom of movement of Israeli settlers, whose presence in the Occupied Territories violates international law, have resulted in increasingly widespread abuses of the local Palestinian population's human rights.

"The Israeli government and army must stop imposing collective punishment against Palestinians," the organization said.

Steps aimed at reducing attacks against Israeli and Palestinian civilians and at improving the situation of the Palestinian population which the concerned parties may take in the context of renewed peace efforts would be a welcome development.

"Taking concrete measures to end such abuses, some of which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity is a requirement of international law and cannot be made conditional to the implementation of the 'roadmap' or other political processes," said Amnesty International.

"Those who have conceived the 'roadmap' and are promoting its implementation must not repeat the mistakes of the past."

The seeds of the Oslo Accords' failure lay in the subordination of fundamental rights to political considerations and in the lack of mechanisms to monitor and enforce each side's commitments. The spiral of violence which has resulted from those failures makes the responsibilities of those involved in the renewed peace efforts even greater.

"Impunity must end. Those responsible for human rights abuses, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, must be brought to justice in accordance with the provisions of human rights and humanitarian law."

"No funds, equipment or training which may be used, directly or indirectly, to commit abuses of human rights and humanitarian law must be provided to Israel or the Palestinians," Amnesty International concluded.