In its latest plan released in summary form, the Reut Institute demonstrates the validity of Umberto Eco’s analysis of Ur Fascism : ‘Fascist governments are condemned to lose wars because they are constitutionally incapable of objectively evaluating the force of the enemy.’
By unceasing land grabs and burgeoning illegal settlements, demolitions, evictions, detainments, incarceration of Palestinian children, attacks on non-violent protestors, roughshod riding over court decisions, official condoning of racist laws, passing new racist laws, denial of rights to Palestinians, an overweaning, well-identified system of apartheid and decades of cruel Occupation, the Israeli entity delegitimises itself.
This week, Human Rights Watch released a 166 page report, “Separate and Unequal: Israel’s Discriminatory Treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Palestinian Territories”, which ‘identifies discriminatory practices that have no legitimate security or other justification and calls on Israel, in addition to abiding by its international legal obligation to withdraw the settlements, to end these violations of Palestinians’ rights.’
Human Rights Watch reiterated its recommendation that the United States, which provides US$2.75 billion in aid to Israel annually, should suspend financing to Israel in an amount equivalent to the costs of Israel’s spending in support of settlements, which a 2003 study estimated at $1.4 billion. Similarly, based on numerous reports that US tax-exempt organizations provide substantial contributions to support settlements, the report urges the US to verify that such tax-exemptions are consistent with US obligations to ensure respect for international law, including prohibitions against discrimination.
Human Rights Watch called on the EU, a primary export market for settlement products, to ensure that it does not provide incentives for settlement exports through preferential tariff treatment, and to identify cases where discrimination against Palestinians has contributed to the production of goods. For example, the report documents how crops exported from settlements using water from Israeli-drilled wells have dried up nearby Palestinian wells, limiting Palestinians’ ability to cultivate their own lands and even their access to drinking water.
The report also describes cases in which businesses have contributed to or benefited directly from discrimination against Palestinians, for example through commercial activities on lands that were unlawfully confiscated from Palestinians without compensation for the benefit of settlers. These businesses also benefit from Israeli governmental subsidies, tax abatements, and discriminatory access to infrastructure, permits, and export channels. Human Rights Watch called on businesses to investigate, prevent and mitigate such violations, including ending any operations that cannot be separated from discriminatory Israeli practices.
Blundering blindfolded by bigotry at windmills of concocted ‘Red-Green’ alliances is likely to be counter-productive when the root of the problem lies with Israel’s own atrocious behaviour.
Nor does the Reut tilt at its bete noir, the worldwide Palestinian BDS movement, seem cogent, considering basic aims of BDS which are thoroughly supported in international law – for equal rights, an end to Israeli apartheid and occupation, and recognition of the right of Palestinian people to return to their lands. Since the US has abandoned its pretence of being able to stop Israeli land grabs and oppression, boycotts, divestments and sanctions remain a primary means chosen by Palestinians to attain their rights.
The Reut Institute perceives these reasonable goals as an existential threat – somehow if Palestinian people were not discriminated against, disenfranchised and ethnically cleansed, Israel would cease to exist. Yet what legitimacy does an entity have which relies for its continuance on tormenting those whom it has dispossessed and continues to dispossess of rights and land? Reut seeks to:
‘Prioritize delegitimizing the BDS Movement, which is among the most sophisticated tools in the attempt to undermine Israel’s legitimacy, and can be considered a mega-catalyst due to its influence in a number of arenas. As mentioned, the BDS Movement claims to promote human rights, international justice, and peace, while in practice, its organizers explicitly or implicitly reject Israel’s right to exist.’
Whereas the BDS network is a grassroots, decentralised global effort sustained from solidarity of its members from myriad cultures including jewish culture in principled demands for justice and rights for those who have neither, the obtuse Reut hasbaroids intend targeting London as a ‘delegitimisation hub’, aiming ‘to out, name and shame activists’ in a scurrilous witchhunt. That Reut considers human rights activists have something to be ashamed of is symptomatic of the above-mentioned malaise – and again political zionism is revealed as a radical, fascistic ideology, whose adherents obliviously project onto their quarries their own attributes – ‘anti-peace, anti-Semitic’ and ‘dishonest purveyors of double standards’. Political zionism is limited and eroded by its internal contradictions of addictive expansionism and consequent insecurity, syncretised mythologies of entitlement, victimhood and hubris.
Below is a video of the brutal realities which Israel inflicts upon Palestinians within the Green Line which Reut, I feel sure, would rather have us ignore as much as it would like us to forget Israel’s violations in the Occupied Territories. The story of how 67 members of the extended Abu Eid family were evicted summarily and their homes bulldozed last week is horrendous.
It is a scene being repeated across Israel with increasing frequency. Some 42,000 Arab homes built without required permits are threatened with demolition: 13,000 could be carried out at any time and 30,000 are at some stage in local courts, said Ameer Makhoul, director of Ittijah, a Palestinian civil society organization.
Palestine / Israel Links
Do Israelis “hate Obama’s guts”?
Shalit activists protest against Palestinian prisoners’ rights
VOTE! ‘Israeli War Crimes’ signs to go on Metro buses
Refugees’ flat torched in Ashdod
Racial discrimination – a tool of occupation
Belarus Links
Buzek on Belarussian presidential candidate being beaten up
Presidential Pseudo-Elections in Belarus 2010
Lukashenka Declared Belarus Victor After Clashes, Detentions
Crackdown mars Belarus elections
Belarus journalist beaten by police
Wikilinks
WikiLeaks and OpenLeaks
2010-12-19 New Whistleblowing Sites
2010-12-16 FAIR: Media paint flattering picture of U.S. diplomacy
Brad Manning Has Rights!
Julian Assange to Launch Social Network for Diplomats, Twofacebook&tm;
China pays Nepal police to catch Tibet refugees: WikiLeaks
South Africa: Bloggers’ take on Wikileaks
Cover-ups, Coups, and Drones – A Holiday Sampler of What Wikileaks Reveals about the US
Spawn of WikiLeaks
Rap News 6 – Wikileaks’ Cablegate: the truth is out there
Secrecy, National Security and the Internet
Essential: voters support WikiLeaks and Assange, attack Gillard’s stance
Other Links