From: Subject: "Prussia on the Mediterranean?," by Roane Carey, The Nation, 05/27/2009
"Harsh repression of Palestinian citizens is a deeply engrained practice in Israel." http://www.thenation.com/blogs/notion/438863?rel=hp_picks , "It was like I was in a South American dictatorship. It was as if an arbitrary order had been given nationwide that a certain number of people needed to be arrested--it was a simple matter of intimidation." At least South American dictatorships were not established on stolen land the people of which ethnically cleansed!!! (Berkovitch told me that many passers-by at the January demonstration shouted abuses at the protesters, calling them traitors and saying things like "Jews should kill more Arabs." "So much hatred I've never encountered in my life," she said.) The trend is worrying, but it should be emphasized that in general, Israeli Jews, unlike Palestinians, still enjoy a remarkable degree of freedom to speak out on almost any issue. What sort of democracy is this?! How can a state that imprisons 4 million Palestinians behind ghetto walls, bypass roads and a blockade, and treats another 1.5 million as second-class citizens, be democratic? Prussia on the Mediterranean? posted by Roane Carey <http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/roane_carey> on The Nation, 05/27/2009 It is an assumption almost universally acknowledged among the liberal American intelligentsia that while the Israeli occupation is repressive and abhorrent, Israel itself is an open, fully democratic state with a lively, argumentative and very free press. Perish the thought. After spending three months in Israel on a fellowship, I can say that nearly every member of the liberal Israeli intelligentsia I've talked to says something quite different: that their country's media are seriously diseased, failing to provide the minimal level of fair reporting and serious critical inquiry that are crucial pillars of an open society. Americans who don't read Hebrew or watch Israeli television news may get a skewed view of the spectrum, assuming that Ha'aretz, the smaller-circulation daily read mostly by intellectuals and the political classes--and foreigners, who devour its English-language edition online--is representative, and that critical columnists and reporters like Gideon Levy, Akiva Eldar and Amira Hass are sprinkled throughout the Israeli media. It isn't, and they aren't. The larger-circulation dailies Yediot and Ma'ariv, as well as the Jerusalem Post and television news, are tilted much more to the right--just like the mainstream US media, which certainly have nothing to teach Israel in this regard. And as for being an open, fully democratic state, most people I talk to speak of a chilling of dissent in recent years, running in parallel with the election of increasingly right-wing governments. The nadir came during the recent Gaza "war." I've seen a microcosm of this myself here in Beer-Sheva, at Ben-Gurion University. A few days ago, Noah Slor, who is in the graduate program in BGU's department of Middle Eastern studies, was arrested by police at the request of campus security and detained for several hours for quietly handing out leaflets opposing a bill now before the Knesset that would make it a criminal offense to commemorate Nakba Day (the day in May when Palestinians mourn the catastrophe of their dispossession and expulsion, which for Jews is a celebration of independence). She was doing this in a spot right outside the main campus gate, where students traditio Student activists and professors attest to a pattern of politically motivated harassment by campus security. Indeed, Slor, an activist with Darom le Shalom (the South for Peace), a recently formed group of Arabs and Jews in the Beer-Sheva area who "struggle against racism and for equality and coexistence between Arabs and Jews," told me that at the time of her arrest, a security officer told her, "Listen, don't pretend you're so naïve--I've seen you in past demonstrations. Everything is recorded and written, everything is documented." She can't prove it, but she's convinced security went after her because she was protesting the Nakba Day legislation; "that was the subtext," she told me. The students were not going to take this sitting down. That same night, about sixty or so held a demonstration protesting the arrest, gathering at a university ceremony attended by the board of governors and other dignitaries. The students put masking tape over their mouths and held up signs saying "The Security Department Runs the University" and "Security Department = Secret Police." (In a response to questions about the incident, university spokesperson Amir Rozenblit said students are not allowed to distribute fliers on campus--why in the world not?--and that Noah was handing them out "in an area considered part of the campus"--even though it was outside the main gate. He also claimed one security guard was detained as well as Noah.) The stifling of dissent was pervasive during the Gaza campaign. Nitza Berkovitch, a BGU sociologist, said, "I think the media was completely and truly mobilized. There was complete support of the war." A few days after the start of the war, in late December, a group of Arab and Jewish students held a peaceful demo against it. The police soon arrived and demanded that they disperse. They agreed, but as they were folding their signs, several were tackled by police, dragged to cars and held for hours, accused of "rioting." There was another demonstration in mid-January, this one even more moderate, with people holding signs calling for peace and an end to violence on both sides. Again, the same thing happened: dozens of police arrived and roughed up the crowd, arresting several. One BGU student, Ran Tzoref, was put under house arrest for a month. Harsh repression of Palestinian citizens is a deeply engrained practice in Israel. Recent incidents indicate there may be a loosening of constraint on repression of Jewish dissent as well. Hundreds of Israelis were arrested for protesting the Gaza campaign, probably most of them Palestinian but many Jewish as well. Tzoref told me, "I was in protests in the occupied territories, and they acted the same here. For me it was shocking that riot police came to the university and attacked us. This was never done before, not on this scale." Berkovitch said, "It was like I was in a South American dictatorship. It was as if an arbitrary order had been given nationwide that a certain number of people needed to be arrested--it was a simple matter of intimidation." Certainly the Gaza campaign brought out the worst in the apparatus of repression, which was fueled by a public mood of vengeance and hatred of Palestinians, which was itself heightened by the Hamas rocket barrages. (Berkovitch told me that many passers-by at the January demonstration shouted abuses at the protesters, calling them traitors and saying things like "Jews should kill more Arabs." "So much hatred I've never encountered in my life," she said.) The trend is worrying, but it should be emphasized that in general, Israeli Jews, unlike Palestinians, still enjoy a remarkable degree of freedom to speak out on almost any issue. With a far-right government that is not only determined to avoid serious negotiations with the Palestinians but is actively promoting settlement growth; that shows all the signs of preparing for war against Iran and is actively stoking public paranoia on that front; that increasingly sees Palestinian citizens as a menace, as the enemy within, the contradictions of a nation that claims to be both Jewish and democratic are fraying. How can a state that imprisons 4 million Palestinians behind ghetto walls, bypass roads and a blockade, and treats another 1.5 million as second-class citizens, be democratic? BGU geography professor Oren Yiftachel calls Israel an ethnocracy (the title of a recent book of his); the late Hebrew University sociologist Baruch Kimmerling called it a "Herrenvolk democracy." Whatever you call it, if Israel continues along its current path, the repression will necessarily intensify, and the avenues for free expression will become ever more constricted. The old joke about Prussia was that it was an army masquerading as a state. Is Israel destined to become Prussia on the Mediterranean? Comments: 1. If you want to understand how much of a "civil society" Israel is - if you want to understand whether the nation is "an open, fully democratic state", then all you have to do is look at the governments that Israelis vote into power, and the actions of the nation over time. They generally vote for regimes so utterly militarist and brutal towards the Palestinians as to hearken back to our era of Manifest Destiny, in the 19th century. Their nation engages in war of aggression after war of aggression. Before the barbaric slaughter in Gaza, there was the barbaric slaughter in Lebanon. And before that, the barbaric transformation of Gaza into an open-air concentration camp. And before that, the barbaric occupation of Gaza. And before that, the barbaric occupation of southern Lebanon. And throughout it all, the ongoing barbaric expropriation of land and resources in the West Bank, along with the "dispossession" of the Palestinian people there. The Israelis have used bulldozers, soldiers, and assassination to take lands from the Palestinians, and to give these lands to fanatical "settlers", one of whom is now the Foreign Minister of Israel. The Israeli people have voted for this behavior for decades. Israel is not an elightened Western democracy. Israel is a colonial entity founded recently by fanatical, militant Western Europeans lacking any conscience in the pursuit of their project. Israelis eagerly support behavior, that if exposed completely to the American public, would shock our consciences. The Israeli military on a daily basis commits acts that, if committed by the US military, would result in court-martial after court-martial. 1. I have no love for the political and economic elites of the Arab world, and I am part of a political tradition that has long condemned as counter-productive the reliance on terrorism in struggles for any kind of liberation, but really, is it so hard to understand the anti-Semitism that now infests the Palestinian population? Dispossesed and treated like animals, is it so shocking that some Palestinians are filled with hatred and anger? And if anyone thinks that the average Israeli has suffered to the degree that the average Palestinian has over the last 60 years, you are delusional. Israel is fast approaching a purely apartheid model. Hopefully, new leaders will arise in both the Palestinian and Jewish communities who will pull both sides back from the brink. We are starting to see inklings of that on the Palestinian side, while the Israelis remains stuck on a very bad road with no end in sight. 1. The Zionists are in process of transformation; they are about to undergo skin color change, as they come under more pressure to stop the thievery of Palestinian land. Trying to shift attention to Iran is one way to refocus attention from the mounting criticism over the Jewish settlements. One more effective way used by the Zionists to deflect pressure is by instigating false-flag incidents; like manufacturing clashes with Hamas. It was reported that the Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mike Mullen, has preempted the Zionist's deception by telling his Israeli counterpart: There will be no USS Liberty Part II. Mullen was hinting at the Israel's attack on the USS Liberty, killing 34 sailors and wounding 174, and then claiming it was a mistake. That warning showed the US concern of potential Israeli false-flag attack on a US vessel in the Gulf to blame Iran. It is becoming more and more difficult for the Zionists to perpetuate their lies about wanting peace, and thus it is high time to pull their mass reserve of lie and deception. One effective strategy will be to undermine Obama's domestic agenda to reduce his approval rating and to make him easier target for their mainstream media. It was the AIPAC official and Israeli Spy, Steve Rosen, who proclaimed once that he can have the signatures of 70 US Senators on a napkin in 24 hours. Well, Zionist Rosen was proven correct. At the request of AIPAC, 76 Senators and over 280 house members signed a letter asking Obama not to pressure Israel on the settlements. The only question is whether the signatures were collected on a napkin, but nevertheless, the Zionists proved again that they can pull strings with their employees on Capitol Hill. *** exposing the hidden truth for further educational research only *** CAVEAT LECTOR *** In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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