Deafening Silence on Israeli Violence

Seth Wessler

Deafening Silence on Israeli Violence

Almost eight years ago, during the beginning of the second Palestinian Intifada, the Israeli Defense Force murdered 13 Palestinian citizens of Israel during a protest against Israeli actions in Palestine. Asel Asleh, a 17 year-old Palestinian Israeli, who was shot point-blank and killed that day, was a close and deeply respected acquaintance of mine from an organization we were both affiliated with. Yesterday, the Attorney General of Israel determined that the soldiers who shot Asel and the other 12 young Palestinian Israeli men who live as minorities inside Israel under conditions of official state racism and second class citizenship, would not face charges for the crimes.

After reading this news today I came across another story; Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma and co-founder of the US-based MK Gandhi Center for Nonviolence was forced to resign after he argued that Israel has effectively defined itself as a country based on violence. He asserted that Israel exists always and only in reference to the historical violence committed against Jews in Germany and has become a nation that acts only through violence. Gandhi argued, I think aptly, “any country that remains anchored to the past is unable to move ahead and, especially a nation that believes its survival can only be ensured through weapons and bombs.” Consequently, Gandhi was accused of anti-Semitism and pressed to leave his position.

Arun Gandhi fell victim to the suffocatingly closed sphere of acceptable debate around Israel and Palestine in this country. This intentional silencing helps to allow Israel to continue acting as it has, perpetrating brutal violence against Palestinians, inside and outside of the Israeli borders. The effective prohibition placed on any public figure in the United States to take positions against Israeli violence, a prohibition seeped in anti-Arab racism, is partially to blame for violence like that committed against Asel. Gandhi attempted to hold Israel responsible for its actions despite Israeli refusal to do so itself and was forced out as a result.

Posted at 8:43 AM, Jan 30, 2008 in Global Issues | Permalink | View Comments

Comments

I totally agree! I think it is very sad that the charge of antisemitism is leveled almost without thought on anyone who criticizes Israel. I think this is a disgrace not only to supporters of free speech but to the European Jews who perished in the Shoah, and to the original idea of Israel as it was promoted by those who began to set up the country. The bad treatment of Palestinians, inside and surrounding Israel, is a stain on a people who have an enormous legacy of peacemaking and truth telling to be proud of. It is also interesting to note that demeaning and defining Palestinian Arabs as lesser or non-human (which is the effect of many Israeli state policies) is also by definition being anti-SEMITIC since Arabs too are Semitic speaking peoples. This is a horrible example of brother against brother fratricide. Many Jews I know are shocked and horrified by the policies of Israel, especially the current rage for wall-building. More of us, of all races and faiths, need to speak out against censorship of well-meaning, non-racist criticism of the state of Israel.--Norma

I live in Israel in one of the towns where the Israelis were shot. The media here is rewriting history by claiming that the Israelis who were killed were all from Um El Fahim. This is a lie. People were killed in Nazareth as well as in other Arab towns. People were shot by snipers positioned on rooftops. Several were wounded driving in cars trying to get out of the way. This whole thing is a disgrace and, as many people here who have lived here all their lives say, just business as usual.

Thanks for your additions. I think your comments are right on, especially in pointing to the fact that there are many Jews and even Jewish Israelis working tirelessly toward justice in the region. As Norma wrote, we need more of that and, as Marie notes, complacency is a dangerous thing.