The
Ghetto Inside
By Uri Avnery
06 March, 2004
Gush Shalom
"It
is easier to get the Jews out of the ghetto than to get the ghetto out
of the Jews!" - this dictum of the early Zionists is now assuming
a new meaning. Israel is cutting itself off from the world and enclosing
itself in a ghetto, and not only physically.
In The Hague, the
proceedings of the International Court of Justice on the Separation
Wall have started. Sharon's people understand that they have no chance
of winning and have decided, therefore, to boycott the session. Instead
of arguing their case before the court, they decided to organize a street
event, in the spirit of the classic Israeli maxim: "If your case
is weak, raise your voice!"
Inside the courtroom,
the legal arguments were made. The representatives of Palestine argued
that the Wall is unlawful, since it is being erected in the middle of
the West Bank. According to them, if Israel fears suicide bombings,
it is entitled to put up such a wall on its border, but not in the heart
of the occupied territory, where it puts the Palestinian population
into prison-like enclaves. Nobody contradicted this argument inside
the court.
Outside, Sharon's
people organized a colorful spectacle. As a gimmick for the media, they
brought a bombed-out bus over from Israel, complete with experts on
the gathering of body parts. Also, dozens of family-members of victims
of attacks were brought over. The Israeli embassy distributed the photos
of the 900 victims, and Jewish students carried them in procession.
The message: the Jews are suffering; in Israel, too, they are the victims
of pogroms.
Later in the day,
the Palestinians organized a counter-spectacle. There, the 3000 Palestinian
victims of the intifada were lamented, as well as the sufferings of
the Palestinian population under occupation. The residents of The Hague
were treated to a kind of World Championship for victims. The world
media devoted some minutes to the spectacles, evenly divided between
the two parties. But, for them, the main event was the proceedings inside
the courtroom.
In Israel, an entirely
different picture was presented. In a style reminiscent of the Soviet
Union, the media enlisted as one man in the service of the brain-washing.
All TV networks, all radio stations, all newspapers, without exception,
took part in this national effort. From early morning to late at night,
all TV and radio stations broadcast continuous coverage from The Hague
and created the impression that the whole world was glued to the Israeli
street spectacle.
The court proceedings
themselves were presented as unimportant, a miserable little show of
Arabs and other anti-Semites. The Israeli demonstration was turned into
a world-shaking event. The bombed-out bus appeared on the screen of
all Israeli channels many dozens of times, as did the victims' families.
Again and again and again. The corresponding Palestinian event was shown
for a few seconds, as were the courtroom proceedings. Just to show how
liberal we are, the Palestinian representative was also allowed to say
three sentences.
But the message
for the Israeli viewer and listener was unequivocal: this was a huge
Israeli victory. The whole world now understands that in this story
we are the victims, that the Palestinians are terrorists, that the Wall
is needed to save our lives, that "the lives of Jews are more important
than the quality of life of the Palestinians" - a sentence repeated
dozens of times during the day. A phalanx of army officers, Security
Service personnel, reporters, commentators and professors talked their
heads off on all stations, and all of them said exactly the same thing:
we are being attacked, we are the persecuted, the Arabs are killers,
we are defending ourselves.
The occupation was
not mentioned at all. Why should it be?
What has it got
to do with this?
While the broadcast
was going on, the Israeli peace movements demonstrated against the Wall
at the Prime Minister's residence in Jerusalem. The state-owned TV Channel
1 showed it for all of four seconds. Throughout the whole day, not one
single Israeli TV channel or radio station allowed anyone to say a word
against the Wall or in favor of the International Court.
This is quite frightening,
because it is happening in a democracy. No KGB or Gestapo is threatening
the lives of the journalists, no Gulag or concentration camp is awaiting
those who deviate from the official line. It is all done voluntarily,
from inner conviction.
True, the free media
in the democratic USA behaved in much the same way during the early
days of the Iraq war. But they, at least, were not afflicted with the
syndrome of "All the World is Against Us".
The day after the
first court session, the Israeli Deputy Minister of Defense, Ze'ev Boim,
declared in the Knesset that all Muslims are murderers from birth, that
it is in their genes. And a personal friend of Ariel Sharon disclosed
on TV: "Arik has told me that he is deeply worried about the rise
of Christian anti-Semitism. For example in Mel Gibson's movie "The
Passion of the Christ". And now, a large part of the Muslim world
is also infected by anti-Semitism."
This is the mentality
of the ghetto. We created the State of Israel in order to become a normal
nation, "a people among peoples". The events of this week
show that we have not succeeded in this. The ghetto is deep inside us.
This is also throwing
another light on the Separation Wall. It encloses the Palestinians in
enclaves, but it also returns us to the reality of the ghetto, and not
only physically.
The struggle against
the Wall has many aspects. It is not only a struggle to liberate the
inhabitants of the West Bank from the monstrous obstacle that turns
their life into hell and puts them under pressure to leave "voluntarily".
It is not only a struggle to liberate the two peoples of this country
from a situation that imposes on them an ever-widening cycle of bloodshed.
It is also a struggle to liberate the Israeli nation from the ghetto
that is inside our hearts.