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Another Thought Experiment
By lindamuralidharan on 2017-03-10 04:35:19
It is unfortunate but true that the suffering or even the existence of many oppressed groups of people have been more or less
invisible to the larger society for many years before and even after some measure of justice is afforded them. While there
was eventually a sizeable abolition movement in the United States well before the Civil War was fought and slavery was
consequently abolished, it is highly unlikely that many in the majority white group gave much thought to the commonly
accepted institution of slavery and what it was actually like to be a slave....whether one who was at risk of being beaten to
death or one who experienced some relatively humane treatment by her master. The plight of women who actually suffered
because they were more or less the chattel of husbands and fathers, were not allowed to exercise their right to vote, or were
blocked from appropriate education or employment opportunities in all but exceptional cases was not the personal concern
of most in America. It was just the way it was. After women gained their voting rights, there were gradual changes in other
areas of oppression and the process continues with some more attention being paid than in the first centuries of our nation.
Even today, I doubt that very many people give much thought to what it was like for the children of First Peoples to be
forbidden to speak their own language (whether in the Territory of Hawaii or on the mainland). Frequently the children were
beaten if they violated the prohibition. Today it is only occasionally that attention is brought to the cumulative generational
affects of a culture being denigrated and squashed and the ravages to original populations by Western introduced diseases.
Many groups who have had to wait a long time for justice or are still waiting to be taken seriously as a group needing better
justice interventions are all but invisible to our daily lives unless a sensational case appears in the news or a popular TV
show dramatizes the issue. [caption id="attachment 9566" align="ali snleft" width="1024"]
; ap.
: i=
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Israeli grower of Jaffa oranges[/caption] Thus it is terrible but not surprising that the average American is not aware of the
levels of oppression that Palestinians experience in the land that was once theirs. It is not surprising that few know the actual
history of Jewish encroachment on the land of another people. And the official narrative that has been dominated by all
kinds of advantaged people and superior resources has made out the Palestinians to be the villains of the piece at worst and
an insignificant subgroup at best. In previous posts, I have written at length about the lies told about modern
Palestinian.....and Israeli history. I don't wish to go into details here. A person could start with President Jimmy Carter's book
about apartheid in the land of Israel/Palestine. I suggest that readers look up some books about the British mandate in
Palestine following the break up of the Ottoman Empire and then search out a number of contemporary authors....some who
are Jewish....who have fleshed out the modern story of how Zionism has come to dominate an otherwise reasonable concept
that Jewish people wish to have a safe haven in the Middle East after all those centuries of oppression and discrimination in
many other countries. For the record, I will also mention that there have been times and places such as in India and in
Lebanon up until the last few decades where a thriving Jewish community existed side by side with other groups and
religions....Christian or Muslim or Hindu. In recent years in the US, of course, Jewish people have had relative prosperity
and safety from individual or institutional discrimination although there are current popular political forces that are
threatening that safety. Briefly, the American people have been encouraged to believe for decades that the Jewish people
deserve to have a safe haven in the land that was Palestine without being informed that they utilized aggressive means and
support from Western democracies to carve out their own Jewish state in the name of Zionism. Well, it was not always
spelled out that new victims were created in this process. Sometimes the objection of nearby Arab states to discrimination
and aggression toward the native peoples, the Palestinians, took nasty forms that made the Jewish settlements and eventual
recognition of them seem like Israelis were on the side of the angels. As a matter of fact, books have been written and
widespread propaganda has been disseminated to the effect that there never was a Palestine. Just as some people believe that
Barack Obama was born in Africa so many people believe this propaganda because there was no effective counter narrative
for many years. Now, of course, there are widespread efforts at home (US) and abroad to tell the Palestinian story and
explain that Jewish rights, a safe decent home in the Middle East for Jewish people in Israel or from around the world is not
the same as Zionism. For decades the concept of Zionism was presumed by many to be a fringe element of the development
of modern Israel. Unfortunately all along the major leaders were saying behind the scenes and plotting behind the scenes to
ensure that Jewish people would have a Jewish state that utilized nearly all the land that had belonged to Palestine at the
conclusion of the Ottoman Empire. Certainly they envisioned Jewish and basically theocratic rule in the current state of
Israel and in the Occupied Territories of the West Bank, with or without the Gaza Strip. There was never any intention of the
major leaders of Israel over the years to accept a just Two State solution with the land and its resources appropriately divided
between Arabs and Jews. Undermining Palestinian Stability Palestinians, with various degrees of support from violent
factions...Palestinians or Arabs or even Iranians...made it a case of Muslims against Jews (the aggressors in the first place).
The Jews utilized these efforts to justify further oppression of Arabs in the name of national security. The Palestinians tried
all kinds of ways to fight back. Sometimes with diplomacy and sometimes with violence and the cycle has continued with
no real peace possible under the current circumstances unless Israel has its way. The majority leaders on both sides...and
including all kinds of input from the international community...posed a Two State solution as a means to achieve "peace".
All too rarely was the actual goal of "justice" mooted about. [caption id="attachment_9567" align="alignright"
aj
width="207"] anne igeoch. oom + 46 Israeli kibbutz[/caption] President Trump mentioned the possibility not long
ago of a one state rather than a two state solution. I do not know what he envisioned. It was at a time when he seemed
particularly friendly with the Zionist forces and Bibi Netanyahu. And then suddenly an article appeared in my paper from
the Palestinian perspective that said there could be advantages to looking at a one state solution. Perhaps the readers here
know that Israel has sponsored many illegal and dominating settlements by Israelis in the West Bank, often brutally
excluding Palestinians from their own land and sometimes making it nearly impossible to find usable routes to Jerusalem for
work or medical care. It's a very long and complicated set of circumstances, and the United Nations has long made it clear
that international law is being violated by the Zionists. [caption id="attachment_9568" align="alignright" width="300"]
“© Israeli Arab couple[/caption] The flouting of international norms by the
Israeli government over the years means that if Palestine were to have its own state in the West Bank, it would be left with
pockets of land broken up by the Israeli settlements (which would be part of the Israeli state in a Two State solution) and the
settlements for the most part have taken away from Arabs and other (minority) groups in the region the land with the most
resources needed for a truly viable state. [caption id="attachment_9569" align="alignright" width="239"]
a
Palestinian children[/caption] Recently former Secretary of State John Kerry said if it
comes to a one state solution, the Israelis will either be a democracy.....one that gives full rights to all religions and
ethnicities...or an exclusive Jewish state. The latter is desired by many but not all in the Jewish community as a whole but by
all Zionists as such. Basically that is the definition of Zionism which originated in the 19th century and was not particularly
religious but rather a cultural "racial" identity concept. It has morphed considerably since that time to a hard line belief that
is more religion based and that sees completely equal rights for Palestinians in a unified state as a loss of their identity in a
homeland in which they would become a minority in a decade or so. At the moment, Arabs have more children than typical
Israelis although one might argue that if Palestinians achieve economic eq ualit they might desire fewer children per family.
[caption id="attachment_9570" align="alignright" width="300"] Israeli
soldier[/caption] Some Palestinian leaders say that if a single state is established, the endless conflict over a separate
Palestine could end, and the efforts for justice could be focused on complete equality within the new state. The international
community would be lobbied to have the Israeli government provide equal justice, voting rights and other civil rights to
every single citizen of the new State. [caption id="attachment_9571" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Israeli citizen[/caption] I, myself, heard about the concept of a single, just
state about 5 years ago at a meeting sponsored by those in the Jewish Community who believe in Palestinian rights and
wanted the settlements to stop and for a genuine two state solution to be set in motion. A "rump" segment of the audience
held the floor afterwards to explain the viability of a single state and to point out that the recalcitrance of the Israeli
government in adding more and more settlements meant that in the end some kind of single state arrangement was becoming
"inevitable". [caption id="attachment_9572" align="alignleft" width="300"]
Israeli children[{/caption] My thought experiment goes something like this. A single state would be established. Maybe called
"Israel/Palestine". Maybe called "The Palestinian/Israeli Union". Maybe the "Federation of Palestine and Israel". [caption
' 7 0
id="attachment_9575" align="alignright" width="300"] Palestinian university
students[/caption] It would be established under guidance of the international community. The United States already gives
enough money for weaponry and the military to Israel...it could practically buy the place. Perhaps it would look a like a
"mandate" or "protectorate" of the United Nations or of a group of nations agreeing conduct the oversight. For 10 years the
new nation would be subject to international monitoring to ensure that all civil and human rights are protected. That would
mean that Jewish rights would be protected if the population imbalance shifts to the Arab side. Atheists, Jews, Muslims,
Christians, and other minorities....cach would be covered by permanent
protections, and after 10 years the international oversight would cease. It would then be hoped that the country would be
firmly established as a genuine democracy. And who knows? Maybe by then one or more other countries in the region
ongress unanimously voted to support
Israel's aggression against Gaza.
EMEMEMBER THIS IMAGE IN NOVEMBER!
would have evolved toward real democracy] hz a> _ Meanwhile, do you see the men,
women, children who live and work and study and go to hospitals and have anniversaries and sometimes fight in wars and
sometimes fight in the streets? Do you see persons? Israelis sometimes have stress because there have been terrorist attacks
inside the country. Israelis have stress because open conflict has broken out between Arabs and Jews so many times in the
past decades. And Palestinians have stress everyday knowing that they do not control their destiny. They know they live
with the indignity of a foreign occupation. They know they have severe worries about keeping secure in their homes or
traveling to work on roads that are winding and difficult since they are forbidden to ride on the smooth, direct Jewish
highways in parts of the West Bank. They know they get less justice in courts dominated by Israelis. They know that when
violence erupts way more Arabs will be killed than Israelis regardless of who hurled the first missile. And some Israelis feel
guilt and stress at what their country has become.
