| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| "...the occupation has ruined every good part and destroyed the moral infrastructure upon which Israeli society exists. Let's stop this march of fools and build society anew, clean of militarism and oppression and exploitation of other people, if not worse." Professor Baruch Kimmerling Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 2002 |
"If we cannot find ways of peace and understanding, if the only way of establishing the Jewish National Home is upon the bayonets of some Empire, our whole enterprise is not worthwhile, and it is better that the Eternal People that has outlived many a mighty empire should possess its soul in patience... It is one of the great civilizing tasks before the Jewish people to enter the promised land, not in the Joshua way, but bringing peace and culture, hard work and sacrifice and love, and a determination to do nothing that cannot be justified before the conscience of the world."
Judah Magnes, Chancellor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, 1929
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 2/06/2002: For a people who claimed the world's help and support to rebuild themselves from the crematoriums of Nazi-dominated Europe just 55 years ago to have themselves become caricatures of those they despised is one of history's greatest of ironies. In a sense the "Jewish State of Israel" was itself justified as a historic international affirmative action program -- with huge amounts of support, aid, reparations, and excuses extended to the Jewish people because of what had happened to them in Christian Europe. But those who in the aftermath of Europe's own orgy of destruction have suffered the most as a result of Israel's creation are the Palestinian people; and the time is long overdue now that they not only have their freedom and independence but that they now receive great support, aid, and reparations for what has so wrongly happened to them.
Professor Baruch Kimmerling, author of this short but powerful column, is one in a long line of major Israeli personalities who have boldly spoken up, going back to the great Chancellor of Hebrew University, Judah Magnes, to Nahum Goldman, to Yehoshua Liebowitz, and to so many others in many walks of life including the historian Simha Flapan, the General Matti Peled, the poet Natan Zach, the playwright Dan Almagor, and courageous modern-day journalists like Amira Hass and Orit Schohat and quite a few others...the list is very considerable.
But today the Generals, the thugs, and yes the war criminals are in charge. Tomorrow in Washington there is a Council of War at the White House and the Pentagon and the CIA as Ariel Sharon and his gang come visiting for the fourth time in less than a year. And let's not forget, as dastardly as it sounds, as brute as is the analogy; Hitler and his gang were elected to power in one of Europe's most civilized and cultured societies less than seventy years ago.
[Kol Ha'Ir (Israeli Hebrew Weekly), 1 February 2002]: I accuse Ariel Sharon of creating a process in which he will not only intensify the reciprocal bloodshed, but is liable to instigate a regional war and partial or nearly complete ethnic cleansing of the Arabs in the "Land of Israel."
I accuse every Labor Party minister in this government of cooperating for implementation the right wing's extremist, fascist "vision" for Israel.
I accuse the Palestinian leadership, and primarily Yasir Arafat, of shortsightedness so extreme that it has become a collaborator in Sharon's plans. If there is a second Naqba (Palestinian Holocaust), this leadership, too, will be among the causes.
I accuse the military leadership, spurred by the national leadership, of inciting public opinion, under a cloak of supposed military professionalism, against the Palestinians. Never before in Israel have so many generals in uniform, former generals, and past members of the military intelligence, sometimes disguised as "academics," taken part in public brainwashing. When the judicial committee of inquiry is established to investigate the 2002 catastrophe, they too will have to be investigated alongside the civilian criminals.
I accuse the administrators of Israel's electronic media of giving various military spokespeople the access needed for an aggressive, bellicose, almost complete takeover of the public discourse. The military is not only controlling Jenin and Ramallah but the Israeli radio and television as well.
I accuse those people, of all ranks, who order the black flag hoisted above them, and those who follow their unlawful orders. The late philosopher Yeshayahu Leibovitz was right-the occupation has ruined every good part and destroyed the moral infrastructure upon which Israeli society exists. Let's stop this march of fools and build society anew, clean of militarism and oppression and exploitation of other people, if not worse.
I accuse everyone who sees and knows all of this of doing nothing to prevent the emerging catastrophe. Sabra and Shatilla events were nothing compared to what has happened and what is going to happen to us. We have to go out not only to the town squares, but also to the checkpoints. We have to speak to the soldiers in the tanks and the troop carriers-like the Russians spoke to their soldiers when they were ordered to retake control in Red Square-before entry into Palestinian cities turns into a murderous urban warfare.
And I accuse myself of knowing all of this, yet crying little and keeping quiet too often.
| Mid-East Realities | www.middleeast.org |
| Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/2/619.htm |