So, by now we've all seen these pretentious rubber bracelets everywhere. Yellow ones, red, pink, green, black, purple, and even camouflauge. These things are a bit ridiculous, because they're a fantastic version of what The Ragin Asian calls the 1st rule of humanity: "What About Me" and it's corrolary, "Look At Me!" Yes, wearing the yellow bracelet notifies us all that the wearer supports a cure for cancer! Well, unless you yourself or someone close to you is a cancer survivor (in which case you are awesome and not annoying), I think we all can say that we're equally in support of a cure for cancer and therefore wearing the bracelet is a simple expression of "Look At Me!" Still, I'm not completely annoyed by the rubber bracelet phenomenon, though, because it's a better use of "Look At Me!" than a diamond bracelet.
But, just the other day, I saw one of these bracelets that really got me going. It was orange. And I immediately suspected the worst, and sure enough, the orange bracelet notifies us all that the wearer supports the continued oppression of Palestinians through the maintenance of racist and illegal settlements on Palestinian lands.
The fuss now is that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has launched a controversial plan to dismantle the illegal Israeli settlements on the Gaza Strip. While most Gaza settlers (of whom there are fewer than 10,000) and a substantial majority of Israeli citizens in general (who number about 6 million) think that leaving Gaza is a good idea, a few extremists have taken the color orange to symbolize their all-out war to do everything from wearing orange stars reminiscent of the Holocaust to plotting to assassinate Sharon to stop the withdrawal from happening.
Take that orange bracelet off and be happy that your government will do everything in its power to help the settlers get off to a good new start in Israel proper. If you want to wear a bracelet, wear a different color, please. "Look At Me! I'm a Racist!" doesn't cut the mustard.
this is bull**** you have no idea what to say so just shut the @#*& up!!!!!!!!!!
Erik... I have to ask that you please not link to images on other people's sites. It is bandwidth theft and it is not nice. Each time someone views your blog and the images are called, it uses bandwidth that I pay for (in the case of the orange bracelet picture here). I have no problem with you taking the image and loading it onto your won server... and I appreciate the link (even though we don't agree on the politics).
I appreciate your doing the right thing from here on in.
Thanks.
Thanks for your kind message, Treppenwitz. I'll immediately change the code so I stop stealing your bandwidth. You're right, and I ususally only link to other sites when they're one of the big ones -- AP, Yahoo, CNN, etc. And I didn't think my little blog, despite it's status as the Most Important Blog Ever, would take up a noticeable amount of bandwidth. In any event, thanks for sharing the image.
Best regards,
Erik
Yo Erik...
Go f*** yourself. You're a anti-semitic nazi just like all the other f***ers in the UN and you don't have a rat's ass of an idea of what you're talking about. Go back into your f***ing cocoon of ignorance, you f***ing kraut!!!!
Wanna keep going? greenmansam@gmail.com
FUCKING BULLSHIT
Thanks. Much appreciated.
Treppenwitz, thanks again for your comments. As you know, and I'm sure this is a policy of yours as well since you are a very well-respected blogger, I don't respond to hate messages or completely inartculate comments left here at the blog.
But, let me see if I can help enumerate a position counter to my own.
Someone who disagrees might point out that Israeli opinion polls had begun to show a weakening in support for Sharon and his plan to evacuate the Gaza settlements. So, perhaps Israelis aren't sure this pullout plan is a good idea. What's more, Erik, Ariel Sharon was elected as a champion of the settler movement, and he's now breaking his promise to defend the settlements. And for that, he deserves to be removed from office. This is an outrage. Let the people decide! Give me my orange bracelet!
And I, remaining civil, would first point this hypothetical opponent here: "Israeli opinion moves against Gaza pullout foes," a story from 7/1 on the Reuters. Today, Yedioth Ahronoth reports that fully 62% of Israelis think that pulling out of Gaza is a good idea. I agree with them. So, if I'm an anti-Semite, so are 62% of Israelis.
Secondly, I'd point out that Sharon is defending the settlements. The major West Bank settlements are virtually guaranteed to be made permenant with this action. Even the Americans have accepted that, albeit mostly tacitly. Furthermore, Sharon is defending the Jewish character of Israel because he knows that demographically, within a few decades (perhaps even sooner) there will be more Palestinians between the Med. Sea and the Jordan than Jewish Israelis. Withdrawal from some Palestinian land is required if Israel is to maintain what democratic character it has while not adopting a policy of all-out ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians.
So, who are the orange bracelet wearers? Extremists who are willing to assassinate Sharon, barricade themselves in hotels, bludgeon Palestinian teenagers at random, and put oil and nails on a major Israeli freeway just before rush hour. Take the bracelet off, and be thankful that Sharon is doing everything he can to defend Israel and the settlements. The Gaza settlers will be just fine in Israel proper, and maybe the Palestinians might have a little hope for a normal life someday soon, too.
I said that those who wear the orange bracelet in support of Gaza settlers are racists. I stand by that, because the settlements themselves are racist. They are exclusively for Jewish Israelis. Not just any Israeli citizen (who might be of any racial, ethnic, or religious background) but specifically they are for Ashkenazi (almost exclusively), Jewish Israelis. And, they are designed explicitly to stake out a position in Palestinian territory so that the State of Israel is forced to extend itself into those areas. They're designed to create a policy of ethnic cleansing. If they weren't, why wouldn't the settlers just live in Palestinian towns peacefully? It's not impossible.
Erik,
I hadn't intended to engage in a discussion here beyond the issue of bandwidth theft. Bust since you were nice enough to offer your views (and apparently what you believe mine to be) I will offer a few corrections:
1. While I don't enjoy incoherent anonymous comments any more than you do, I think you came under fire because you said that anyone wearing an orange bracelet is a racist... a statement that you have yet to support. My 11 year old daughter wears and orange bracelet. She is not a racist.
2. Yes, Sharon has stated his intention to hold onto some of the major settlement blocks in the West bank. However he made statements in the past that he intended to hold on to Gaza, so who knows what his true intentions might be.
3. The West bank and Gaza came under Israeli control during a war that was not of Israel's choosing (from Jordan and Egypt respectively). Egypt relinquished all claim to Gaza as part of the peace deal that saw the return of Sinai to Egyptian sovereignty. Jordan never had any legal claim to the west bank under the terms of the UN partition plan or the previous British mandate, however at the end of the 1948 war (again a war initiated by the Arabs), the west bank ended up in Jordanian hands. From 1948 until 1967 Jordan not only kept the Palestinian population of the West bank in refugee camps, but did nothing to indicate that the Arab population of the west bank had any legal claim to it. After the '67 war when the west bank and Gaza came under Israeli control suddenly there was a cry from the international community for Israel to recognize the rights of this local population. Not only has Israel not interfered with Palestinian rights to areas where they have lived in the past (with the exception of reacting to terrorism), but since 1967 Israel has raised the standard of living for the West Bank Arabs to among the highest in the Arab world (according to the World Health Organization). Oh, and even Jordan unilaterally relinquished all claims to the west bank in the late 80s. It is sad but true that the only people without any legal claim to the west bank or Gaza are the Palestinians. This is not to say that they are not entitled to a state of their own. I'm not saying that at all. But for purely legal purposes, it would be incorrect to say things like "...they are designed explicitly to stake out a position in Palestinian territory" since according to international law there is no such legal entity. While I am discussing politics and legal issues, it is worth pointing out that there is not one settlement in the West Bank or Gaza that was built on a former Arab village or property. Not one. My own town has crazy borders (including a several plots of Arab land inside the town itself that the owners continue to farm) because of our unwillingness to infringe upon the rights of Arab farmers to work land to which they have a title. Also, until one of them blew himself up in our emergency medical center a couple of years ago, all of the surrounding Arab villages received free medical care there 24/7. Unfortunately they now have to go into Jerusalem for their free care in Israeli hospitals.
3. Yes, there are extremists wearing orange bracelets, but they are a tiny minority within a movement that has overwhelmingly chosen non-violent protest to express their views. There are also extremist working for Greenpeace and other worthwhile organizations. I am somehow able to condemn the extremists while continuing to support the organizations they claim to represent.
4. Not only are your population figures you quote not even close to the real ones, but the use of the term ethnic cleansing (as the Palestinians do often) is quite offensive. There is ethnic cleansing and genocide going on in many places around the world today, but this part of the world is not one of them. Please don't dilute the power of these words in order to forward a political agenda.
5. The racist card. No way you can make such claims and expect not to get wacked-out comments from people. I don't even know where to start... but lets start with the fact that Jewish settlements are exclusively Jewish. Why is that racist but the fact that Arab cities, towns and villages are exclusively Arab is somehow not racist? The truth is that Arabs can (and do, in the hundreds) come into my town and are employed here. If I were to try to enter a Palestinian town, I would be arrested, if I wasn't killed first. Who is the racist here? Also, while we're at it, why was the State of Israel somehow able to come into being with hundreds of vibrant Arab villages in it's midst, yet there can be no Palestinian state until all the Jews are transferred out? Isn't that just a tad racist? You also made a suggestion that the settlements are somehow exclusively an Ashkenazim domain (as if we are somehow excluding not only the Arabs but also the Sephardim). This is just not true. I don't have exact numbers, but if synagogues are any indication, more than two thirds of the synagogues in my town follow the Sephardi customs or are culturally mixed in their traditions.
6. As to why we wouldn't live peacefully in the Arab towns, may I remind you that on the few occasions that Jews have made wrong turns and actually entered Arab towns, they have been beaten and killed (remember the two guys who were lynched in Ramallah?). As I said earlier, every single day millions of Arabs walk and drive the streets of Israeli towns and cities unmolested.
Erik, it has become very fashionable to bash Israel, and the settler movement in particular. However, the claims you have made in your post are all quite incorrect. I am not signing off here. You seem like a reasonable person who has a hunger for facts and figures. I would welcome the opportunity to point you to information that supports what I have said here... information that is above suspicion and can be verified by you or anyone with the interest. If you are genuinely interested on seeing that everyone in this region of the world is treated fairly I would urge you to send me an email telling me how we can begin a dialogue.
ah get over it you big crybabies.
Erik,
I think that what you have said about the the orange bracelets is coming from a uninformed point of veiw. You seam to be only listening to what you hear on the news without any research into the mater.
To put it into a different perspective think of the situation this way. What if you were told that you had to leave the home and town you lived in all your life because your government was giving it to Iraq. How would that make you feel? Well, that is what is happening in Israel and just because it is'nt happening here doesn't mean that you should be so sure to pass Judgement on others. It is no more Palestinian land then Detroit is Iraq's or maybe we should just give America back to England.
First of all, Treppenwitz, let me once again extend my thanks for a great, rational, and responsible discussion. Even though we disagree on the issues, I think we can agree that having these kinds of discussion is extremely important if peace is ever to have a chance. The terrible tragedy in Netanya yesterday is yet another example of why discussions like this are so important. We must find a way to move forward.
Allow me to clarify my previous post. In that post, I included a mock discussion with someone who disagreed with me, but I did not intend to put words in your mouth – my opponent was hypothetical and not intended to be you. I’m glad that you have offered your opinions so openly and are willing to engage in a productive discussion here. I hope we can continue this dialog in a spirit of cooperation toward a peaceful resolution for all of the people in Israel and Palestine.
And, before I get into your fine discussion points, I would like to emphasize that I am not “bashing Israel” and I hope it is not popular to do so. I have nothing but love and admiration for the State of Israel. Israel is a wonderful place that I want to remain strong, beautiful, and a home for the Jewish people. I stand with the majority of Israelis when I criticize some of the policies of the Israeli government, most notably the policy which allows the continued illegal settlement of civilians on the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and Golan Heights. I think that in order for Israel to remain strong and free, this policy must end. I want nothing more than for Israel to fulfill its democratic ideals and to live in peace with its neighbors. My work on this blog is one small way in which I am attempting to further that goal.
So, after that lengthy preamble, let’s get into the issues you have eloquently identified.
1. I stand by my statement that people who wear the orange “let the people decide” bracelets support a racist cause and thus are themselves racist. Racists do not necessarily have to engage in discriminatory actions themselves – but actively supporting a cause that reproduces a racist environment is itself racism.
2. Most analysts agree that the eventual goal of the Gaza withdrawal is to solidify Israel’s hold on the West Bank settlements. In fact, Sharon succeeded in getting President Bush to explicitly agree with the permanence of the West Bank settlements. Since Bush’s unprecedented announcement that there should be no expectation of a return to the 1967 pre-occupation borders, West Bank settlement activity has increased rapidly. In other words, while the State of Israel’s left hand is preparing to move settlers out of Gaza, her right hand is helping more and more settlers move to the West Bank. More and more Palestinian land is being appropriated by settlers in a blatant attempt to reduce the chance that Palestinians will regain control of the West Bank. Read more here.
3.a. The West Bank and Gaza came under a brutal and undemocratic Israeli military control and occupation in 1967 after Israel launched a “pre-emptive” attack against Jordanian and Egyptian forces. Historians have debated whether the war was started by Egypt or by Israel, but the debate ended when then-Prime Minister Menahem Begin said in a 1982 interview, “In June 1967, we again had a choice. The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches to not prove that [Egyptian President] Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.” (from Noam Chomsky, “The Fateful Triangle” and the Jerusalem Post, August 20, 1982). This debate is over. Historians now agree that Israel, pursuing a policy of expansion, started the 1967 war in an attempt to gain more territory. Even “BBC On this Day”
“>records that the Israelis instigated the attack and intended to occupy the West Bank and Gaza.
3.b. Mentioning how Jordan or Lebanon or Egypt treated Palestinian refugees is irrelevant – we’re talking about how Israel has treated the Palestinians under the control of its military. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and just because living conditions in the West Bank are better than the living conditions in, say, Cambodia, doesn’t mean that it’s OK for Israel to brutally occupy Palestinian cities and deny Palestinians basic civil rights. The situation caused by the extended Israeli occupation is unique in the world and must be opposed.
3.c. The claim that “Not only has Israel not interfered with Palestinian rights to areas where they had lived in the past” is, frankly, laughable. Nearly all Jewish-only settlement towns sit on land that used to belong to Palestinians. Just take any of the settlements which exist in East Jerusalem as an example. Huge tracts of Palestinian land – including valuable farmland -- have been uprooted: first for ‘military zones,’ then for Jewish-only settlement highways, and now for the hugely invasive ‘security barrier.’ B’tselem, the leading Israeli organization working to document the abuses caused by the Israeli settlement movement, has a new report out about the forced expulsion of native Palestinians in the southern West Bank. Start here and read all of their reports for more information on how the settlement movement has continuously and intentionally interfered with Palestinian rights to areas where they had lived in the past.
3.d. Palestinian legal claims to the West Bank and Gaza have been enshrined in international law with several United Nations security council resolutions (especially 242), the Israel-Egypt peace treaty of 1979, and the Oslo Accords of 1993 and subsequent agreements in the 1990s, and most recently the opinion handed down by the International Court of Justice in 2004 (regarding the building of the security barrier). The world is united in demanding the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the areas occupied in 1967. Only some extremist members of the Israeli government attempt to make the dubious legal claim that Palestinian families who have lived in the West Bank and Gaza for generations have no claim to that land. Furthermore, the movement of a civilian population into areas under military occupation is expressly forbidden by the Fourth Geneva Convention. Again, the only member of the international community to dispute this is the Israeli government, which claims that technically, the West Bank and Gaza aren’t under military occupation despite the thousands of Israeli soldiers stationed there, because there was no sovereign state in place prior to the war in 1967. Whether this technicality is valid must be evaluated not by the Israeli government but by a conference of the signatories to the Geneva Conventions. Again, the world is united in that the Israeli settlements are almost universally recognized as illegal and part of a blatant attempt to displace the indigenous Palestinian population.
3.e. Moreover, the Israeli settlers have all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizens – and more. They water their lawns, fill their swimming pools, and wash their cars while Palestinians living in neighboring towns struggle to find water for drinking and for growing crops. Settlers vote, enjoy the ability to travel anywhere in the West Bank and Gaza as well as Israel proper, and work where they please. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, in stark contrast, are under constant military surveillance. They must cross an Israeli checkpoint whenever they try to travel in or around their towns. They are often placed under 24 hour curfews and may not leave their homes. They cannot travel freely. They cannot work. They have no political rights in Israel, and only fledgling political rights under the pseudo-government known as the Palestinian Authority.
Long story short – the settlers live in relative luxury while their Palestinian neighbors languish. Hence, the international outcry about the settlements. And, hence, the violent outrage of Palestinians.
3.f.. I will agree that many in the pro-settler movement have engaged in peaceful protest. So, too, have Palestinian many activists engaged in peaceful protest. Only a small minority has engaged in despicable acts of terrorism. Are you “somehow able to condemn the extremists while continuing to support the organizations they claim to represent? Do you agree with those who “somehow support” Hamas and the Palestinian movement and agree that we should ignore the small minority of terrorists? Of course not. Hamas’ military wing needs to be abolished along with the military wing of the settler movement and the military wing of the Greenpeace movement. Nothing justifies violence against civilians. Period. I’m surprised that you argued differently.
4. I use the term “ethnic cleansing” carefully and only where appropriate. I did not use the term genocide, as you implied, because I use these terms carefully. The actions of the Israeli settlement community show a clear plan to push the Palestinian population out of the West Bank and Gaza. This is ethnic cleansing, albeit slow. There have been open calls by MK’s in the Israeli Knesset calling for the forced expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank, Gaza, and even Israel proper. The worst example of this disgusting idea comes from Likud’s Uzi Cohen, who told Israeli radio that many Israelis agree with “the idea of ethnic cleansing.” Under the euphemism of “transfer” or “voluntary transfer,” this policy is openly debated in the Knesset. That this is happening in Israel, of all places, is a crying shame.
5. I agree that Palestinian policy has historically (since the 1900s) been anti-Semitic and racist. I think any subjugated population often develops racist opinions about their oppressors. Were black slaves racist against their white owners in the American south? You bet. And I think it was justified, because the root cause was the white slaveowners racist attitudes toward their slaves. Israeli settlers aren’t slaveowners, but they do create the oppressive conditions that Palestinians live with. As such, they are part of a racist movement which expressly works to deprive Palestinians of freedom and the pursuit of happiness.
5.a. And here’s why those who support the settlements are racists. The settlements themselves are a racist enterprise. They exclude non-Jews from residing in them. They expressly try to take Palestinian land. The settlements are an Ashkenazi domain. And supporting them means you are supporting a racist enterprise, making any active supporters (like those wearing orange bracelets or throwing nails on a highway) racist.
5.b. If you were to try to enter a Palestinian town, you might be surprised by the reaction. The tragic and deplorable murder of those two men (who were probably Israeli soldiers on an intelligence gathering operation) in Ramallah is the exception and not the norm. Israeli peace activists and other Israelis often meet and walk around in Palestinian cities. I’ve seen it myself.
5.c. I would continue to argue that the settlements are designed for Jews only, and they are almost exclusively Ashkenazi domains. You cite a personal opinion that about 2/3 of synagogues in your settlement are mixed or follow Sephardi tradition. I would never make the claim that California isn’t racist just because there are churches in my town that have services in Spanish and follow Mexican tradition. California is still a very racist place.
5.d. I think that there has been no requirement that all Jews leave the West Bank and Gaza in order for a Palestinian state to be declared. The problem lies in the Israeli government’s insistence that the settlements remain part of the State of Israel. Were the settlements to become part of a Palestinian state, anyone (Jewish or otherwise) who wished to continue to live there would simply have to live as a Palestinian citizen or as a registered alien with a visa. I won’t be naïve enough to suggest that it’s that simple, because there has been a war going on between these two communities for so long that living peacefully side by side would be difficult. The sooner the occupation ends and the soldiers protecting the settlers can withdraw, the sooner the healing can begin.
6. To say that Arabs walk the streets of Israeli towns unmolested is like saying that millions of Mexicans walk the streets of Californian towns unmolested. Ideally, that would be true, and we in California strive to achieve that dream. But, in reality, we know that non-white Californians are subject to oppressive racism that must be opposed. The same holds true for Israel. I remember seeing a restaurant near Zion’s Square in downtown West Jerusalem with a sign at the door: “No dogs. No Arabs.”
6.a. And, remember that Palestinians can’t even walk around in Palestinian towns unmolested by Israeli troops and settlers. Innocent bystanders have been killed by Israeli missiles fired from the sky at suspected terrorists. Israeli checkpoints dot the Palestinian landscape. Israeli soldiers walk the streets of Palestinian cities like Hebron, harassing and intimidating Palestinians. Settlers often physically harass their Palestinian neighbors without provocation. Recall that the very first Palestinian suicide bombing occurred in 1994, exactly 40 days after an Israeli settler (Goldstein) massacred dozens of Palestinians in Hebron.
In short, Israelis and Palestinians both can’t walk around their towns freely and without fear. That’s the sad nature of war and why we must work to end this terrible condition of occupation and oppression.
7. So, how do we stop this war? By ending the root cause of it – the occupation of Palestinians and the continued oppression of them in the name of settlements and “security.”
Thanks for reading. From our communications, it is clear that you are a thoughtful and reasonable person. I have no doubt that since we have the same goal – the continued flourishing of Israel – we can find some common ground. I’m not signing off, and look forward to continuing this discussion.
Leah, thank you for your important point. I agree with you that this will be a difficult time for those few Israelis who chose to live in the Gaza Strip, in occupied territory, in violation of international law.
I make no argument that it will be emotionally difficult for those who have to leave their homes next month.
So, perhaps we can agree that the Palestinians who have lived in refugee camps for the past 30 years and have been denied the right to return home felt and continue to have emotional difficulties.
And, I'm sure we can agree that the suffering felt by the Israelis who will be moved from homes in Gaza will be lessened by the thorough and, frankly, generous plan that the Israeli government has prepared to help them find new homes in Israel proper. Indeed, brand new homes in lovely communities have been prepared for the former settlers. In fact, my research has shown that the US government -- my government -- has been asked to provide some 2.2 billion dollars to help construct new homes for the former settlers after they move to Israel.
So, let's be sure to include the entire picture when we consider the effects of the Gaza withdrawal.