{"id":22998,"date":"2012-10-29T10:51:24","date_gmt":"2012-10-29T06:51:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/?p=22998"},"modified":"2012-10-29T10:51:36","modified_gmt":"2012-10-29T06:51:36","slug":"no-to-democracy-yes-to-racism-what-hope-for-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/showcase\/no-to-democracy-yes-to-racism-what-hope-for-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"‘No’ To Democracy, ‘Yes’ To Racism. What Hope for Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A recent poll conducted by \u00a0the\u00a0Dialog polling<\/a>\u00a0company on Israelis’ attitudes about Israel’s expansionist policies and Palestinians demonstrates the predictable outcome and the moral cost of Israeli policies. For decades the Israeli government primarily focused on four objectives: control the Palestinians, expand Israel beyond\u00a0the 1967 borders<\/a>, dominate the region, curb the population growth of its non- Jewish population. Understandably the results of the poll reveal the impact of these policies on the\u00a0moral compass of Israelis<\/a>. The Dialog poll findings indicate that if and when Israel annexes the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Israelis “will support apartheid<\/a>” and alarmingly suggests that Israeli Jews deliberately and unabashedly “want to discriminate against Israeli (Palestinian) Arabs<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Interestingly the questions chosen for this poll were proposed by\u00a0well known Israelis who are familiar with Israel’s policies, society and people<\/a>.\u00a0They included Reserve Colonel and former IDF chief of Education\u00a0Mordechai Bar-On<\/a>, former Israeli ambassador to South Africa Ilan Baruch, Dr.\u00a0Alon Liel<\/a>\u00a0former Ambassador and Ex general director of \u00a0Israel’s Foreign Ministry, human rights lawyer Michael Shard as well as a number of\u00a0Israeli activists and academics.<\/p>\n

To some Israelis, their American supporters and even Palestinians these findings may come as a surprise. While most are familiar with the moral demise of Israel’s IDF soldiers and their\u00a0abusive practices<\/a>\u00a0in the \u00a0Palestinian Occupied Territories and Gaza; but this stark evidence that the majority of Israelis’ embrace anti democratic principles and openly harbor racist views of Palestinians including Palestinian Israeli citizens living in the state of Israel is nevertheless very disturbing.<\/p>\n

These views did not spring out of vacuum- they have been sown and cultivated since the inception of Israel. The state of Israel built the conceptual framework for nationhood and political socialization through its\u00a0mandatory military service<\/a>. For Israelis membership in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) is the hallmark of citizenship, ethnicity, belonging, and honor sweetened with special privileges.\u00a0In addition Israel’s founders understood that democratic values have limitations that can infringe on Israel’s political and regional objectives and can be suspended when necessary. This notion was well articulated by Zionist leaders many years before the creation of the state of Israel. In 1920 Labor Zionist leader Berl Katzenelson said that \u201cbeyond the procedures of formal democracy, there are aims, goals, and values that, in order to be achieved,\u00a0permit it to be comprised<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel’s compulsory two year military service of its young men and women is a differentiating tool- marking the distinction between Israeli Jews and Palestinians and even discriminating among its own Jewish citizens based on their contributions and service in the IDF. Military service glorifies each IDF soldier and general as selfless heroes armed and prepared to act for the common good of the state of Israel- while the rest are obstacles in the path of Israel’s\u00a0demographic purity<\/a>\u00a0or a\u00a0taxing burden<\/a>\u00a0on the Israeli society.<\/p>\n

Molding IDF soldiers\u2019 conceptions of the enemy became a powerful mechanism to promote Israel’s political ideological conformity, legitimize hegemony, and to militarize its citizens.\u00a0Since 1948 Israel has deliberately shaped its ideal “citizen soldier” either through the ethnic\u00a0cleansing<\/a>\u00a0of the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants from their historical lands and properties; since 1967 enforcing Israel’s military occupation of the Palestinians and serving as the protectors and enablers of its illegal settlement policies; and\u00a0administering<\/a>, controlling\u00a0and\u00a0maintaining\u00a0the siege of Gaza while calibrating\u00a0their food intake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The functionality and utility of Israel’s\u00a0militarized socialization<\/a>\u00a0are beyond the scope of war, conflict or the occupation. The\u00a0mandatory IDF<\/a>\u00a0service is Israel’s effective political socialization instrument involving the majority of Israelis and providing Israelis one common experiential process to transmit political ideological values and goals. Its function and design is to shape the consciousness and belief system of Israel’s young, its future leaders, and amalgamates one shared understanding of the role and purpose of Israel’s “citizen soldiers.”<\/p>\n

Service in the IDF is also a useful assimilating vehicle capable of absorbing Jewish immigrants arriving from various countries, traditions, customs, values, and belief systems, social and ethnic backgrounds. The IDF is Israel’s national expression and tool that help it respond to its disparate composition, to mold conformity and unity, accept and execute Israel’s power paradigm and maintain its dominance over Palestinians and others in the region. Israel’s soldiers whether born in Israel or recent immigrants implement Israel’s political objectives with unquestioning acceptance. The IDF prepares and readies many to squash any political dissent- violent or\u00a0non violent<\/a>\u00a0that challenges Israel’s military practices or its policies.<\/p>\n

For the Israeli government, military service helps maintain its political and military domination and absolute control. It provides the state of Israel a process and format to build social and cultural consensus encompassing the entire fabric of society including the private and public sector. Where IDF soldiers and generals become its protective\u00a0future leaders<\/a>, politicians, and merchants. Israel’s “citizen soldiers” are the beneficiaries who hone their military skills based on one central military experience in the West Bank, East Jerusalem or as keepers of the Gaza blockade. Later they become the face of Israel-\u00a0defending its practices<\/a>, promoting its weaponry and its infringing security apparatus worldwide- all tested and demonstrated in the Palestinian Occupied Territories and Gaza.<\/p>\n

In addition the paradoxical claims of the founders’ of Israel and the day-to-day reality and function of the state of Israel is a contradiction well understood and accepted by Israelis. In 1948 when the State of Israel was founded its\u00a0Declaration of Independence<\/a>\u00a0states that Israel \u201cwill be based on the precepts of liberty, justice and peace taught by the Hebrew Prophets; will uphold the full social and political equality of all its citizens; without distinction of race, creed, or sex; will guarantee full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture; will safeguard the shrines of Holy Places\u00a0of all religions<\/a>, and will dedicate itself to the principles of the\u00a0Charter of the United Nations<\/a>.\u201d \u00a0Meanwhile Israel’s Declaration of Independence first signer and Prime Minister Ben-Gurion declared with little apprehension that \u201cdemocratic statements need not stand in the way of what needs to be done<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the very beginning Israeli founders, government and citizens were well aware of the negation between assuming democratic values in principle that will not necessarily be fully articulated, embraced, or protected by the Israeli government, its military or\u00a0\u00a0judicial system<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The IDF military experience made it possible for Israelis to internalize, adapt, adopt and accept democratic values as conceptual ideals that can be ignored to advance their state’s political expansionist ideological objectives.\u00a0 Not surprisingly the contradiction between the character and values of Israeli citizenship while unresolved is barely contested. Israelis find no inconsistency in enjoying special privileges uniquely bestowed upon them as citizens of Israel while maintaining Israel’s occupation, or infringing on the rights of others including\u00a0Palestinian citizens of Israel<\/a>\u00a0who have lived in their ancestral homelands before and since the creation of Israel.\u00a0Consequently Israelis willingly or unwillingly compromised and\u00a0desensitized<\/a>\u00a0their young IDF soldier to\u00a0torture and abuse<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In 2011, The Freedom House World Human Right index\u00a0ranked Israel at 92<\/a>\u00a0in the company of the Republic of Congo, Zambia, Lebanon and Ecuador. Israelis paid little attention to their own role as active members or former soldiers in influencing\u00a0Israel’s poor human right’s record<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Few questioned their abusive role in trampling over the rights of others or their responsibility in tarnishing Israel’s international standing. And fewer assessed their own function as the executers of Israel’s human right abusive policies. Most Israelis ignored to consider the consequences of their own activities in violating the human rights of Palestinians and others. Allowing these abusive attitudes to spill and engulf every group they interact with especially those who stand in Israel’s quest for its demographic purity- Palestinians within the 1967 borders, Palestinian Israelis, foreign workers,\u00a0Africans<\/a>, and immigrants.\u00a0Israel’s ongoing human rights violations<\/a>\u00a0is a manifestation of its military policies, where the political socialization of Israel’s “citizen soldiers” shelters all Israelis from blame and absolves them from any direct responsibility.<\/p>\n

But that does not mean that Israelis are doomed to continue this path. Within Israel there are\u00a0glimmers of hope<\/a>\u00a0that can bring about considerable change- while small they are the moral seeds of considerable potential to influence and change attitude and values. In the US every injustice first perceived as the social norm, mainstreamed and accepted by Americans, was challenged by a handful of courageous principled people and\u00a0organizations<\/a>. In due time Americans responded to the call of the few morally conscious. While at the time their numbers were small their persistence and determination in evoking our country’s collective moral potential they managed to deliver considerable success transforming American cultural and social beliefs- \u00a0their good efforts for calling us to higher ethical standard were eventually embraced spurring radical constructive change.<\/p>\n

In Israel a number of young and former IDF soldiers are demonstrating\u00a0their desire to correct past wrongs<\/a>. The Palestinians non violent peaceful movement has also found receptive Israeli partners<\/a>\u00a0 and Jewish organizations who are walking along their side protesting Israeli policies and IDF atrocities- these few moral giants will awaken Israel’s moral compass. Their vision for a better Israeli citizen, neighbor and friend free of cruelty and fear is the hope of every Palestinian, Israeli and international peace and just advocate. Yes they are baby steps but every change begins by the kindled conscience of the very few who refuse to be unheard.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MAI ABDUL RAHMAN: A recently released survey makes deeply disturbing reading. But the reasons are not difficult to find. Both Israelis and Palestinians are fighting back. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":272,"featured_media":23043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,82,171,483,60,482],"tags":[15542,14644,7483,5964,1579,278,12881,1572,15543,18311,2613,726,18309,18297,2204,1590,387,18302,580,8238],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/272"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mideastposts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}