[GushShalom] "The Ghetto Inside" & selectied articles

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - www.gush-shalom.org/

# The Ghetto Inside
   Avnery on a dangerous tendency of Jewish isolationism

# FYI: Three Israeli daily papers have an English-language internetsite
   A few recommended articles 

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# The Ghetto Inside
   Avnery on a dangerous tendency of Jewish isolationism

Hebrew at request &  soon at the site
òáøéú òì ôé á÷ùä àå á÷øåá áàúø
http://www.gush-shalom.org
   
Uri Avnery
28.2.04
				The Ghetto Inside

    "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.



# FYI: Three Israeli daily papers have an English-language internetsite
   A few recommended articles 

The three  sites:
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/    [translated from Haaretz Hebrew]
http://www.jpost.com/    [English only - right-wing]
http://www.maarivintl.com/    [translated from Ma'ariv's mass-distribution daily]

A few recommended articles 
[incidentally collected - not pretending to be complete]

--Court orders fence work suspended near W. Bank village 
  
By Yuval Yoaz, Aluf Benn, Nathan Guttman and Sharon 
Sadeh, Haaretz Correspondents - Sunday, February 29, 2004

 Hebrew / òáøéú
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/spages/399449.html

 English
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/399442.html


--Injured in the fault line   
By Amira Hass - Fri., February 27, 2004 

Hebrew
http://www.haaretz.co.il/hasite/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=
398962

English
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/398835.html



--The Bottom Line / It's the lack of peace, stupid 
By Nehemia Strasler - 27/02/2004 

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemN
o=399108

[we didn't locate the Hebrew online version]



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\\the columns of Uri Avnery 
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