40
Bad Years
By Uri Avnery
11 June, 2007
Gush
Shalom
"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".
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