What
The Persecution Of Azmi Bishara Means For Palestine
By Ali Abunimah
21 April, 2007
The
Electronic Intifada
The Israeli state and the Zionist
movement have begun their latest assault in their century-long struggle
to rid Palestine of its indigenous people and transform their country
into a Jewish supremacist enclave: the persecution of Azmi Bishara,
one of the most important Palestinian national leaders and thinkers
working today. This case has enormous significance for the Palestinian
solidarity movement.
Bishara is a Palestinian
citizen of Israel, one of more than one million who live inside the
Jewish state, who are survivors or their descendants of the Zionist
ethnic cleansing that forced most Palestinians to leave in 1947-48.
Elected to the Knesset in 1996, Bishara is a founder of the National
Democratic Assembly, a party which calls for Israel to be transformed
from a sectarian ethnocracy into a democratic state of all its citizens.
On Sunday, Bishara appeared
on Al-Jazeera, after weeks of press speculation that he had gone into
exile and would resign from the Knesset. He revealed that in fact he
is the target of a very high level probe by Israeli state security services
who apparently plan to bring serious "security" related charges
against him. Censorship on this matter is so tight in "democratic"
Israel that until a few days ago Israeli newspapers were prohibited
from even mentioning the existence of the probe. They are still forbidden
from reporting anything about the substance of the investigation, and
Ha'aretz admitted that due to official censorship it could not even
reprint much of what Bishara said to millions of viewers on television.
Bishara himself was vague
about the allegations. If he even knows all the details, he could place
himself in greater jeopardy by talking about them. He said he is still
thinking about his options, including when to return to Israel. While
he questioned the value of spending years proving his innocence of things
he does not consider illegal, such as maintaining broad contacts with
the Arab world of which he feels a part, he poignantly reflected that
ultimately he faced a choice between prison, exile or martyrdom. These
indeed are the only choices Israel has ever placed before Palestinians
who refuse to submit to the racist rule of Zionism.
What he was clear about was
that he is the target of a campaign, coordinated at the highest levels
of the Israeli state to destroy him and his movement politically. He
is undoubtedly right about this and there is long precedent. In 2001,
Israel's attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein charged Bishara with "endangering
the state" because of comments he made during a visit to Syria,
and the Knesset voted for the first time in its history to lift the
immunity of one of its members so Bishara could be prosecuted. In 2003,
the Israeli Central Elections Committee attempted to disqualify Bishara
and his party from standing in national elections, on the grounds that
the party did not adhere to the dogma that Israel must remain a "Jewish
state." Under Israeli law all parties are required to espouse the
dogma that Israel must always grant special and better rights to Jews,
meaning truly democratic parties are always flirting with illegality.
That decision was eventually overturned by the courts. (Though it should
be noted that the ban was supported by former attorney general Rubinstein,
who is now a Supreme Court judge!). Such persecution against Palestinians
in Israel has been the norm since the state was founded. Until 1966,
they lived under "military government," a form of internal
military occupation similar to that experienced by Palestinians in the
West Bank and Gaza today. Laws, practices and policies that continue
to deny their fundamental human rights are well described in Jonathan
Cook's recent book Blood
and Religion: Unmasking the Jewish and Democratic State.
In recent years opinion polls show that a majority of Israeli Jews consistently
support government efforts to force Palestinian citizens out of the
country. (In recent weeks, former Israeli prime minister and current
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu declared that it would be best if Bishara
never returned).
Bishara sees Israel's latest
gambit as signalling a change in the "rules of the game."
If he, an elected official, a well-known public figure can face such
tactics, what will the rest of the community face? Indeed, the recent
publication by leading Palestinians in Israel of a report
calling for mild reforms to the Israeli state prompted
Israel's secret police, the Shin Bet (which operates torture and
death squads in the occupied territories) to warn that it would "disrupt
the activities of any groups that seek to change the Jewish or democratic
character of Israel, even if they use democratic means" ("Arab
leaders air public relations campaign against Shin Bet," Ha'aretz,
6 April 2007). (There is precedent for such disruption not only against
Palestinians, but even against Israel's Mizrahi Jews whose attempts
to organize against Ashkenazi discrimination were destroyed by the Shin
Bet -- see Joseph Massad's book The
Persistence of the Palestinian Question.)
Palestinian solidarity activists
must understand and act on the signal Israel is sending by persecuting
Bishara. For years, the mainstream Palestinian movement and its allies
have buried their heads in the slogan "end the occupation."
If it ever was, this vision is no longer broad enough. We must recognize
that Israel's war against Palestinians does not discriminate among Palestinians,
sparing some and condemning others. It does however take different forms,
depending on where Palestinians are. Those in East Jerusalem, the West
Bank and Gaza Strip live under an extreme form of military tyranny now
often called "apartheid," though it is increasingly apparent
that it is something even worse. Palestinians inside Israel's 1948 borders
live under a system of laws, policies and practices that exclude them
politically and oppress them economically and socially. Millions of
Palestinians outside the country are victimized by racist laws that
forbid their return for the sole reason that they are not Jews.
In practice this means that
the Palestinian solidarity movement needs to fashion a new message that
breaks with the failed fantasy of hermetic separation in nationalist
states. It means we have to focus on fighting Israeli racism and colonialism
in all its forms against those under occupation, against those inside,
and against those in exile. We need to educate ourselves about what
is happening all over Palestine, not just in the West Bank and Gaza
Strip. We need to stand and act in solidarity with Azmi Bishara and
all Palestinians inside the 1948 lines who have for too long been marginalized
and abandoned by mainstream Palestinian politics. Support for the Palestinian
civil society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions is particularly
urgent (see http://www.pacbi.org/).
In practice we need to start building a vision of life after Israeli
apartheid, an inclusive life in which Israelis and Palestinians can
live in equality sharing the whole country. If Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams
and hardline Northern Ireland Unionist leader Ian Paisley can sit down
to form a government together, as they are, and if Nelson Mandela and
apartheid's National Party could do the same, nothing is beyond the
realm of possibility in Palestine if we imagine it and work for it.
Azmi Bishara is the only
Palestinian leader of international stature expressing a vision and
strategy that is relevant to all Palestinians and can effectively challenge
Zionism. That is why he is in fear for his life, safety and future while
the quisling "president" Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah receives
money and weapons from the United States and tea and cakes from Ehud
Olmert.
Ali Abunimah is
co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One
Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse
(Metropolitan Books, 2006)
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