To Call a Spade

By: Meir Margalit

Friday, March 02, 2007

The report submitted by Attorney Talia Sasson regarding illegal outposts is a brave and useful document. In order to grasp its larger meaning it is necessary to refer to other data that is not included in the report and which has not been commented upon. According to Israel`s Civil Administration in the West Bank, since the year 2000 some 800 structures belonging to Palestinians have been demolished. The explanation given is that these were illegal structures.

The real scope of the disgrace and the extent of deterioration becomes evident when comparing this data with the report regarding the house demolitions of Palestinians. The report raises the concern that the defective norms prevalent in the West Bank could permeate the State of Israel and affect the rule of the law. This, however, is not the gravest threat Israel faces. The most awful aspect of the entire affair is that the report reveals not only the large-scale network of legalizing illegal outposts but worse, it exposes the ethics we have sunk to. A state that distinguishes between citizens on the basis of ethnicity, enforces double standards based on religion, and determines criteria according to nationality is clearly a racist state. We are currently are shamelessly reproducing the Apartheid regime`s racism towards black people, as well as what was inflicted upon the Jews throughout history. Our actions in the territories from checkpoint to separation wall, from expropriating lands to uprooting trees, from closures to sieges - it all cries racism, adorned with the seal of racist discrimination. There is racist ideology behind every outpost and it crushes our ethical character; each illegal caravan is a marker of fascist ideology which is taking over our existence.

Attorney Sasson`s report depicts the systematic manner in which right-wing ideology associated with the Yesha Council`s beit midrash has taken over the main edifices of the state, including the Civil Administration, drowning it in a bog of racism. The Civil Administration, which assists settlers in contravening the law, simultaneously issued thousands of demolition orders for Arab residents` dwellings and did not hesitate to demolish them in the name of the rule of the law. More than 800 homes of innocent families were completely demolished, not families of terrorists, but people whose only sin was to build a house without a permit. This is called racism, even if we find it hard to utter the word.

There is no thought quite as unpleasant as attributing racist behavior to Jews. We are overwhelmed by the world of associations, which leads us into dark places in which we were the ultimate victims of racist ideology. Despite this, we are unable to look this report in the eye and read it intently. To do so is to comprehend the situation and question ourselves as to how we descended to this pit, where we too have joined the most racist countries in the world.

Sasson`s report reflects the true distorted face unmasked, yet refuses to refer to the reflection by its true name. It refrains from delving into the ideological motives behind those outposts, thus refraining from calling a spade a spade and focusing on procedure rather than the fundamentals. Attorney Talia Sasson missed the point. It isn`t a question of sound administration; it is a matter of Jewish racism which draws on religious fundamentalism and right-wing nationalism, the two basic elements in any fascist regime. The settlers bear the flag of nationalist ideology that include typical fascist content; the governmental mechanisms that support the settlers, the military, the government and the agencies, have become the servants of that ideology. As long as the state does not shake off the grip of the extreme right-wing, the process of becoming fascist is unavoidable. The state of Israel is afflicted with cancerous racism; this must be spelled out incessantly as part of the healing process. If we don`t call a spade a spade, if we do not cry out our pain publicly, the public will fail to open its eyes to the extent of the deterioration, and it will not be resisted.



* Hagada HaSmalit, March 16th, 2005. Translation to English - Leora Gal.

* http://www.hagada.org.il/eng/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=31