P U L S E

Before interviewing an Israeli lawyer today, I sat down with a group of Jewish Canadians who were conversing about Israel’s current government.  They agreed that while there are not many significant differences between the actions of parties like Kadima and Likud when it comes to the Palestinians, there is also a positive side to having a conservative like Benyamin Netanyahu as Prime Minister.  This is because he projects a more accurate version of the ruling elite in Israel to the world.  Unlike someone like Tzipi Livni who would implement discriminatory policies against the Palestinians while nodding and smiling as though she were a willing member of the current so-called Israeli/Palestinian peace process, Netanyahu has found it more difficult to hide his intolerance for those who criticize his actions.

Shlomo Brom, senior research associate at the Institute for National Security Studies, has argued that ”Netanyahu doesn’t believe in the feasibility of a two-state solution and thinks permanent status solutions are a waste of time.”  Moreover, according to the Jerusalem Post, “Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman (Israel Beiteinu) both want to see the court become less liberal” and this may become a reality when a secret ballot vote is held in the Knesset on representatives to the judicial selection committee next week.  Many analysts have also commented on perceived tension between the Netanyahu and Obama administrations, specifically in regards to the question of Palestinian statehood, which the Obama Administration has been at least vocally in favor of despite Netanyahu’s clear disapproval over America’s insistence.

As Israel leans further into conservatism, with a significant portion of the society supporting someone like Lieberman (referred to as “Israel’s racist in chief” by award-winning journalist and author Chris Hedges) Israeli dissenters are also becoming more active at the same time.  Israeli scholar Ilan Pappé has exposed how modes of thought control imposed from above on various elements of Israeli society work to produce an atmosphere of close-mindedness when it comes to status quo beliefs about the Palestinians – but Israeli dissent is still increasing, little by bit, even despite this.

In the clip below Al Jazeera reporter Sherine Tadros interviews Israelis (from two different generations) who have chosen to act out against Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, even in the face of harsh adversity.

Conscientious objectors like Tali Lerner have opted to go to prison rather than serve in Israel’s army:

A few weeks into the army you can see the brainwash the soldiers are going through by the army authorities to treat the Palestinians as non-existent.  They don’t speak about killing people but about hitting targets as if it was a cardboard.  The Israeli society doesn’t recognize the rights of the Palestinians to defend themselves and to have a struggle, but they do recognize our right to have the same struggle, to have militants in our houses, to have army bases all over Israel.

Others young people like Lerner have also joined the Shministim campaign, which was launched last year in support of Israeli conscientious objectors.

Organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and others like it are also gaining increasing support among Jewish people both within Israel and abroad and Israel’s recent moves to wipe out organizations like New Profile (as shown in the clip), indirectly prove their growing effectiveness, hence the reason why they are being targeted in the first place.  While Palestinian resistance is certainly an important part of the struggle for peace in the region, support from Israeli Jews, be it by activists like Jeff Halper or courageous journalists like Amira Hass, is also crucial to the success of the peace movement as a whole.

Philip Weiss, an American-Jewish investigative journalist and founder of the excellent Mondoweiss, cements this idea at the end of his thoughtful first piece written after his recent trip to Gaza:

A couple of people said to me that the jail that the Israelis have built for the Gazans is the jail in their own minds. “Israeli politicians need their close friends to help them to understand what they are doing,” Hasan Zeyada, a psychologist at the Gaza Community Mental Health Program, said, appealing to us. “They have a very tragic experience in the second world war, and … they are psychologically displacing and projecting their suffering on the Palestinians. They need mature politicians to help them pass that experience and integrate it. Only when the Israelis feel guilty about what they have done to the Palestinians will we come to a place of peace.

“And this is your responsibility now, to help them understand.”

Tagged: Al Jazeera, Israeli Dissent