Israel must end its cruel occupation of Palestine, says local Arab American leader
Sacramento’s Mayor Darrell Steinberg and Rabbi Reuven Taff may differ on how Israel should best maintain its rule over nearly 7 million Palestinians, but neither one comes to grips with the severe injustices involved or the power imbalance that continues to cause real harm.
Palestinians in various parts of the country have recently been subjected to threats to their lives, homes and livelihoods. Throughout the occupied West Bank, farmers and herders face increasingly common harassment, vandalism and violent attacks from settler gangs, oftentimes as soldiers stand by or add home demolition orders to the mix.
In towns where Israelis and Palestinians both live, police have failed to provide protection as roving gangs comprising some of the same illegal settlers have chased down members of the remnant Palestinian population in pogrom-like violence, resulting in several deaths.
In occupied East Jerusalem, longtime residents of Palestinian neighborhoods face expulsion by settlers assisted by the Israeli police, and when thousands congregate at nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque to show solidarity, militarized police intervene violently with tear gas, stun grenades and bullets.
This month, in the Gaza Strip, fighter jets, drones and artillery undertook massive bombardment of residential and commercial buildings, killing at least 250, among them 66 children, and rendering an estimated 70,000 homeless.
These atrocities are not isolated. There’s no need for a magnifying glass to examine who did what while getting lost in the details. The root cause has been staring us in the eyes for the past 73 years.
Since its inception in 1948, and especially since occupation of the rest of historic Palestine in 1967, Israel has employed different legal systems for Israeli Jews and Palestinians, with specifics depending on the exact locations. In the West Bank, military rule is applied to Palestinians while the civil law of pre-1967 Israel holds for colonial settlers living nearby on stolen land. Gaza’s 16-year closure has made it an open-air prison, detached from the civilized world, let alone the rest of Palestine.
Israeli Palestinian attorney Dianna Buttu laid out in a New York Times op-ed the segregation within Israel, writing, “Since its establishment, Israel has enacted more than 60 laws entrenching our second-class status. One law makes it possible for Jewish Israelis in many towns to deny me and other Palestinians the right to live alongside them because we are not ‘socially suitable.’” These dualities in Israel’s legal system have one name, as the prominent Israeli human rights watchdog B’Tselem and Human Rights Watch concluded this year: apartheid.
Arab Americans like me are also subject to this discrimination with our government’s complicity. Anyone with a Palestinian ID is prevented from entering Israel without a rarely granted permit. They also may not use Israel’s airports — instead, they must endure humiliation along with other Palestinians crossing between the West Bank and Jordan. Palestinian Jerusalemites who leave the city for extended periods risk losing their residency, especially if they hold dual citizenship. Jewish dual citizens do not face this terrible dilemma.
The annual $3.8 billion in U.S. military aid only emboldens Israel’s behavior, and consecutive administrations have further shielded it by either vetoing or preventing enforcement of countless U.N. resolutions. Whatever measures the Palestinians undertake to seek self-determination are vilified, even when they turn to international courts. Federal and state legislation has targeted advocates of Palestinian rights, attempting to criminalize or penalize nonviolent boycott and divestment campaigns meant to pressure Israel economically and morally, or redefine anti-Semitism to include criticism of Israel.
Neither spiritual searching, as suggested by Rabbi Taff, nor the both sides-ism of Mayor Steinberg is helpful. End the occupation. Until then, whenever you travel to Israel/Palestine, make sure you are not mistaken for a Palestinian.