[WCUSP] 40 Bad Years

[KATHARLOW at aol.com]

40 Bad Years

by Uri   Avnery

9.6.07

www.gush-shalom.org
http://www.avnery-news.co.il/english/index.html

"REST  HAS come to the tired
Repose to the toiler  
A pale night covers  
The fields of the  Jezreel valley 
Dew below and moon above  
(From Kibbutz Bet-Alfa to Moshav Nahalal..."

This is what we sang  when we  were young. Now it is a TV
nostalgia show, youngsters of the  50s singing  pioneer
songs.

The thoughts wander. Who were the  pioneers, the  first
to sing these songs?

They came from rich  homes in St.  Petersburg, from some
shtetl in Galicia, sons and  daughters of  university
professors in Germany. They could have sailed  to
America, like  most migrants at that time. But they were
attracted  to a remote eastern  country, to a great
national adventure. They lived  in abject poverty,  doing
hard labor in the merciless sun that they were  not
accustomed to,  and dreamed about a perfect  human
society.

They were real idealists.  It did not occur to  them that
they were hurting human beings of another  people.  The
Arabs were to them a part of the romantic landscape.
They   believed in all innocence that they were bringing
blessings and progress  to  all inhabitants of the
country.

As seen from today, four or  five  generations later,
they look quite different. Their  innocence  is
forgotten. It looks to many like rank hypocrisy,  a
cover for robbery  and oppression.

That is one of the results  of 40 years of  occupation.
The current settlers claim to be the  successors of
those  pioneers of the 20s and 30s. They say that  they
are today's pioneers. These  violent, thieving thugs
really  expect us to view the pioneers of old as  their
spiritual  forebears.

When we add up all the damage that the  occupation  has
done to us - to us too, and not only to the direct
victims,  the  inhabitants of the occupied territories -
let's not forget this. The   occupation poisons the
national memory. It soils not only the present,   but
also the past, not only in the eyes of the world, but
also in our  own  eyes.

IT IS enough to see what the occupation has done to  the
Jewish  religion.

In my childhood I was taught at home that  Judaism was  a
humane religion, a "light unto the Gentiles".  Judaism
means to loathe  violence, to value the spiritual above
the  powerful, to turn an enemy into a  friend. A Jew is
allowed to defend  himself - "If somebody comes to  kill
you, kill him first", as the  Talmudic injunction goes -
but not as a  lover of violence and the  intoxication of
power.

What has remained of   that?

Concerned friends recently e-mailed me some hair-
raising  quotes  from a statement by Rabbi Mordechai
Eliyahu, former Sephardic  Chief Rabbi of  Israel and the
spiritual leader of the settlers and the  entire
religious  Zionist camp. In a letter to the Prime
Minister,  the rabbi decreed that it is  impermissible to
have compassion with the  civilian population of Gaza  if
that imperils Israeli soldiers. His son,  Shmuel,
interpreted this  decree on behalf of his father: if  the
killing of 100 Arabs is not sufficient  to stop the
launching of  Qassam rockets at Israel, then 1000 must
be  killed. And if that is not  sufficient, then 10,000,
and 100,000 and even a  million. All this to  stop the
Qassams, which in all the years have not  succeeded  in
killing a dozen Jews.

What is the connection between this   "religious" view
and the God who (in Genesis 18) promised not to   destroy
Sodom if 10 righteous people could be found there?

What is  the  difference between this moral perception
and that of the Nazis who  executed  10 hostages for
every German soldier killed by the  resistance?

The  rabbi's decree did not arouse any reaction.  There
was no outcry, neither from  his flock nor from the
general  public. The number of rabbis who  publicly
support such methods has  risen to the hundreds. Most of
them come  from the settlements. This is  a "religious"
outlook that grew up in the  poisoned atmosphere of  the
occupation, a religion of occupation.  It  shames the
Jewish  religion, present and past.

No wonder that a person  with a strong  religious
conscience, Avraham Burg, former Speaker of the   Knesset
and Head of the Jewish Agency, this week renounced
Zionism  and  demanded to abolish the definition of
Israel as a Jewish  State.

IT IS  no longer anything new to point out that  the
occupation is destroying the  Israeli army.

An army cannot  fulfill its mission to defend the  state
against potential enemies when  it has been engaged for
decades as a  colonial police force. One can  give
attractive names to a death-squad - Team  Mango or Unit
Peach -  but it remains what it is: an instrument of
brutal  killing and  oppression.

An officer who today plans the Mafia-style  killing of  a
"senior militant" by an undercover action in the Kasbah
of  Nablus,  will not be able tomorrow to lead a tank
battalion against a   sophisticated enemy. An army that
shoots stone-throwers, chases children  in  the alleys of
Balata refugee camp or drops a one-ton bomb on  a
residential  building  cannot turn overnight into an
efficient  force on a modern  battlefield in a war of
last resort.

No need  to read this in the  Winograd committee's
report. It is enough to  compare the commanders of  1967
- people like Yitzhak Rabin, Israel Tal,  Ezer Weitzman,
Dado Elazar  and Matti Peled - with the  corresponding
figures of today. After 40 years of  doing  a
contemptible job against a defenseless people, the army
no longer   attracts young people distinguished by
original thinking and high  motivation,  by daring and
resourcefulness. It attracts the mediocre  of  the
mediocre.

In the Six-day War we had a small,  sophisticated  army
that defended the state from within the Green  Line,
once described by  Abba Eban as the "Auschwitz borders".
This  army needed hardly six days to  overcome four
opposing armies. Since  then, after the territory  was
enlarged and ideal "security borders"  were achieved,
the army has  become much bigger and its budget  many
times more bloated. The results could  be seen in the
Second  Lebanon War.

>From a military point of view, the  occupation is  a
grave threat to the security of the state.

THAT LEAVES  the  Supreme Court. Opinion polls have shown
that the public derides the   Knesset and scorns the
government, but respects the Supreme Court as a   bastion
of democracy and a source of pride.

Lately, it is  becoming  apparent that there was no solid
basis for this. A moment  after Chief Justice  Aharon
Barak retired from the Court, the entire  judicial
system started  sinking into a morass of intrigues,
mutual  accusations and even slander. Not  only in
anonymous internet blogs, but  also in the statements of
the new  Minister of Justice, the appointee of  a Prime
Minister dogged by personal  corruption scandals.

How has  this happened?

For many years now,  the court has lived in a world  of
illusion. The judges have closed their eyes  to their
own doings.  While believing that they are a pillar of
liberalism  and democracy,  they have allowed extra-
judicial executions. They have closed  their  eyes while
torture has become routine. They have created   mountains
of sophistry arguing that the monstrous Wall is
essential  to  security, trying to obscure the obvious
fact that its main aim is  the  grabbing of land for the
settlements.

When the International  Court  published its simple,
clear and indisputable opinion that the  Wall  violates
international law and several conventions which  have
been signed  by Israel too, our Supreme Court just
disregarded  it.

A court that  lies to itself in one sector cannot
maintain  its integrity in another. The  "bastion of
democracy" has been  undermined, and may  collapse
entirely.

In the meantime, the book  of laws is besmirched  with
racist legislation - from the law that  prevents Israeli
citizens from  living in Israel with  Palestinian
spouses, to the bill which received this  week  primary
approval in the Knesset, and which allows 80 members of
the   Knesset to expulse a Knesset member for voicing,
both in the Knesset or   outside, criticism of cabinet
ministers or senior army  commanders.

IT  CANNOT be denied: 40 years of occupation  have
changed the State of Israel  beyond recognition.

That is  obvious in all spheres of life. All of  them
have been  contaminated.

18-year old youngsters, most of who have  been  brought
up by decent parents as moral human beings, are drafted
into   the army, enter the brutal subculture of their
units and receive an   indoctrination that justifies
every act of brutality against Arabs. Only  a  few rare
individuals are able to withstand the pressure.  After
three  years, the majority leave the army as tough men
with  blunted sensibilities.  The brutality in our
streets, the routine  killings around the  discotheques,
the proliferation of rape and  violence within the
family -  all these have undoubtedly been influenced  by
the day-to-day reality of the  occupation. After all,
it's the  same people who are doing it.

A  policeman who is sent to Hebron and  the Hawara
checkpoint, who treats the  inhabitants there as
inferior  creatures, who acts sadistically  or  condones
the sadism of his  comrades - will he turn into a
different person  when he returns the  next day to Tel
Aviv, Haifa or Shefa-Amr? Will he wake up  the  next
morning, miraculously, as a devoted servant of   his
fellow-citizens in a democratic society?

For years now, the   security services, the police and
the army have been lying about events  in  the occupied
territories. Lying has become routine. Few  journalists
in the  world now accept these  statements
unquestioningly. And when lying becomes the  norm in  one
sector, the mendacity doesn't stop there. The liars of
the  army,  the police and the other services have gotten
used to lying about other   matters, too.

In the "territories", corruption has a ball.   Military
government officers take off their uniforms and get
involved  in  shady businesses. Capitalist barons also
profit from connections  with them.  Of course, this is
not the only source of the corruption  that has become  a
bane of the state, but it is surely a  contributing
factor.

THE  OCCUPATION causes rot, which then  penetrates all
the pores of the national  organism.

After 40  years, there is little similarity between the
State  of Israel as it is  today and the state that the
founders saw in their mind's  eye: a model  of social
justice, equality and peace. The founders dreamed  about
a  modern, enlightened, secular, liberal, socially
progressive  society  with a flourishing economy
benefiting all. Reality, as we known, has   turned out
very, very different.

True, the occupation cannot be  blamed  for everything.
Before 1967, too, the young state was far  from  perfect.
But the public felt then that this was a  temporary
situation.  Things could be corrected and improved.  When
the Israeli republic turned into  a nascent Israeli
empire, the  dramatic deterioration started.

AT THE  end of the Six-Day War, the  entire world saluted
us. Little, brave David had  won against Goliath.  Now it
is we who are seen as a heartless, brutal  Goliath.

The  boycott against Israel announced by several  foreign
organizations must  turn on a red light. In the
Declaration of  Independence, Thomas  Jefferson wrote
that every nation must behave with "a  decent  respect
for the opinion of mankind". That was not only a matter
of   ethics but also of practical common sense. For us to
maintain an  occupation  that violates international law
is spitting in the eye of  enlightened  humanity.

Israel arouses different expectations than  the Congo  or
Sudan. But for years now, hundreds of millions  of
people see it almost  daily in the form of occupation
soldiers,  armed to the teeth, abusing a  helpless
population. The accumulating  effect is becoming  clear
now.

One can treat the opinion of  mankind with disdain,  in
the spirit of Stalin's question "How many  divisions
does the Pope  have?" But that is stupid.  International
opinion can express itself in a  thousand  different
ways. It influences the policy of governments and   civil
society. The attempts at boycott are only an   early
symptom.

But beyond all the bad things the occupation   has
brought upon Israel, inside and outside, there is
something that   concerns each of us. Every human being
wants to be proud of his country.  The  occupation
deprives us of this.

ON THE 40th anniversary of  the  occupation of East
Jerusalem, a foreign TV station wanted to  interview  me
in the Muslim quarter of the Old City. We walked in  the
Via Dolorosa,  the Way of the Cross. The street was
almost empty.  The owners of the shops  offering
antiques, precious carpets and  souvenirs stood in their
doorways,  radiating despair, and tried to lure  us in.

>From time to time, small  groups of tourists went  past.
Each group was accompanied by four security  guards in
white  overalls, two in front and two behind. Every one
of them  was holding in  his hand a loaded pistol, ready
to open fire within a split  second.  That's how they
walked in the street.

That is the reality of   "Jerusalem Reunited and
Indivisible, the Capital of Israel for All   Eternity",
as the official slogan goes, 40 years after   its
"liberation".

[Israeli activist, journalist, and former  member  of
Israel’s Knesset who founded Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc),
one  of Israel’s  most influential peace organizations.

Uri Avnery,  tireless activist,  legislator, and
journalist, was born in Beckum,  Germany, in 1923  and
immigrated to Palestine at the age of ten with  his
family. Avnery was  one of the first Israelis to
establish  contacts with PLO representatives. In  1993,
together with his wife  Rachel, he founded Gush Shalom
(Peace Bloc),  one of Israel’s most  influential peace
organizations.

In 1938, Avnery  joined the  Irgun underground in order
to take part in the fight against  British  colonialism.
He became disillusioned with the group’s tactics   and
left it in 1942 in opposition to terrorism and anti-
Arab ideology.  He  also served as an Israeli Defense
Force commando in the 1948   war.]


GUSH SHALOM p.o.b. 3322 Tel Aviv   61033

info at gush-shalom.org  For information, write   to

www.gush-shalom.org



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