The video posted on YouTube of an Israeli soldier belly dancing around a frightened, bound and blindfolded Palestinian woman was disturbing and disgusting. It perfectly illustrated how low members of the Israeli military are prepared to stoop in their efforts to humiliate an occupied people. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has apologised for that nauseating display of man's inhumanity to man — or to woman in this case — which hardly rings true when he is attempting to humiliate all his country's non-Jewish citizens.
Netanyahu pushed for a new bill to force non-Jews seeking Israeli citizenship to first swear an oath of allegiance recognising Israel as "a Jewish and democratic state". This bill, which was approved by the cabinet on Sunday, is abhorrent, discriminatory and simply wrong on several levels.
In the first place it flouts democratic principles. Democracies do not favour the followers of one religion over another. Imagine the international uproar if Britain, the United States or France made citizenship conditional upon Jewish, Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist applicants having to pledge their loyalty to a "Christian" country. If Israel is a Jewish state, then it is a theocracy not a democracy.
Feelings of exclusion
Secondly, such an avowal is offensive to Palestinians in 1948 areas, who make up almost 20 per cent of Israel's population, as it officially confers an inferior status upon them. Moreover, it will accentuate the insecurities with which most of them are beset and heighten existing feelings of alienation or exclusion.
Thirdly, the proposal — whether passed into law or not — is the first step on a potentially slippery slope. Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman would ideally like all Palestinians in 1948 areas to be stripped of citizenship and forcibly transferred to any future Palestinian entity. In the meantime, he wants them to swear a loyalty oath to Israel as a state for Jews.
"No loyalty, no citizenship," was his former campaign slogan. Surely, this signifies the ultimate humiliation for Arabs who know no other home. In many instances, their ancestors tended to olive groves, fished the shores and ploughed the land now known as Israel hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago. Neither the Balfour Declaration nor the 1947 United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (UN Resolution 181) blessed expulsions.
The plan was that Jews and Palestinians in 1948 areas within Israel would become citizens of that state with the same principle applying to the Arab state.
The idea that Muslim and Christian Palestinians in 1948 areas should prostrate themselves before Judaism as a prerequisite to continuing the only lives they've ever known on the soil they love echoes the Spanish Inquisition set-up to preserve Catholic orthodoxy when Spanish Jews and Muslims were told to convert to Christianity or leave.
Returning to the loyalty oath applicable to non-Jews applying for citizenship, it is also discriminatory because it forces non-Jews to prove their ideological leanings while assuming that all Jews are Zionist supporters of a Jewish state. In reality, Jews are some of Israel's most vocal critics and certainly not all Jews are Zionists.
Last month, a boat carrying Jewish activists from around the world set sail for Gaza hoping to break the siege. And some of the most prominent pro-Palestinian activists, intellectuals and writers are Jews such as Holocaust survivor Hedy Epstein, political scientist Norman Finkelstein, Haaretz columnist Amira Hass and the world-renowned pianist Daniel Baranboim to name but a few.
By the same token, some of the most fervent Zionists are evangelical Christians who believe that the incoming of Jews to Israel is a precursor to the Second Coming. The rightwing Baptist pastor Jerry Falwell once said "to stand against Israel is to stand against God."
An unreasonable demand
Unless the Israelis can come up with a more reasonable leader able to distinguish between patriotism and racism there will be no peace in the Middle East. Netanyahu has not only refused to impose a renewed freeze on Jewish colony expansion, he is also insisting that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas recognises Israel as "a Jewish state".
There is no way that Abbas can concede to this demand and Netanyahu knows it. Doing so could adversely affect the nationality rights of Palestinians in 1948 areas and would also rob Palestinian refugees of their right to return to areas inside the Green Line. Nobody can accuse Abbas of being inflexible on this point. Some years ago he offered to accept Israel as a state for Jews and other people.
In 2001, a world conference against racism was held in Durban, South Africa. A draft resolution likening Zionism to racism led to a walk-out by western delegates while the EU refrained from condemning Israel for its racist practices.
Such tacit approval by western powers has created a monster that cannot easily be reined in. Unless it is controlled Israel will remain nothing more than a rogue state, even if America and Europe are too cowardly or too duplicitous to admit it.
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com. Some of the comments can be considered for publication.
