A Wall for a Wall: Mirroring Racism
William A. Cook
Now that our President has handed over the resolution of the Syrian debacle to the United Nations, perhaps justice demands that he hand over resolution of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict to that international body as well.
One can turn to the reality of the illegal machinations of the Israeli Zionist government any day of the week and see and know and feel the terror that exists for the occupied people who are defenseless before the impunity granted to the state of Israel for crimes that any other member nation of the UN would, as is true of Syria, be brought for justice before the International Courts. Consider these items from today’s news:
“In the 12 years since September 2000 up to the end of September 2012 Israel killed 6,550 Palestinians in their homeland. Of these, 1,335 were children. Over the same period Palestinians killed 590 Israelis in their homeland, including 85 children.
This is a kill-ratio of 11 to 1. When it comes to children, the Israelis are even more proficient, achieving a kill-ratio of nearly 16 to 1. This does not take into account the Israeli onslaught on Gaza from 27 December 2008 – 18 January 2009 which killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians a huge number of whom were children. Obama, the US president-in-waiting at the time, refused to lift a finger, let alone utter a word of condemnation.
Finally, the above does not take into account the thousands of Palestinian homes demolished by the Israeli military machine funded by the United States.” (info@1948.org.uk), 9/29/13).
“Here’s a piece of disgusting news, so disgusting in fact that it beggars belief. Israel and its army of occupation are not just brutal, inhuman and utterly devoid of morality. Israeli army sprays sewage on the streets of the Palestinian town of Abu Dis ) (Camden Abu Dis Friendship Association, on 26 September).
Here’s an idea whose time has come: create Israeli designed occupied territories in multiple cities across Europe, Britain, and America, each mirroring the prison that exists in Judea/Samaria (sic). Only here the 400 miles of wall would surround the Jewish enclaves that exist in these cities so that a veritable comparison might be made obvious to the entire world of the conditions that prevail in Palestine. The idea originates from Iran, a land that is threatened by the impunity of the state of Israel; perhaps it could become the next peace project of the United Nations after Syria. After all this one has existed now for over 63 years. Justice demands it.
“Supposing Iran imposed strict regulations on its Jewish community telling them there are places in the country they cannot go to, or gives them special coloured number plates for their cars which identifies them as Jews or constructs a ‘barrier’ around their residences restricting their movements and effectively blocking them from accessing other parts of Iran, or make a strict checkpoint system where Jews would have to queue up for hours to get a permit to go to taboo places for legitimate business or to visit a sibling or to take a patient to hospital. Add to this mix an official announcement that henceforth Iran would be an exclusive state for Aryans and Aryans only, thus automatically relegating all minorities to a second class status, can you imagine the outcry of such outlandish racist policies would make?” (Hameed Abdul Karim, hameed247.blogspot.com)
Sometimes a wall is needed if only to magnify its purpose, to include and to exclude: apples from cows or humans deprived of life by humans depraved enough to deny life; indeed, a wall mirrors those on each side, the haves from the have-nots, the people without a country from a country exclusively for one people identifiable only by their religion, a people denied freedom of movement or of economic growth or of their natural resources, the aquifers that traverse their land, the oil and gas off their shores, from those who have stolen the land and the aquifers and the taxes and slam the gates shut effectively imprisoning a people without charge or justice.
I speak obviously of the Sharon Wall of Fear and Racism that incarcerates the people of Palestine. It reflects like a glowing mirror in the sun the inherent racism that is embedded in the state of Israel as it continues its devastation of those not born into Judaism and imposes its will on the indigenous people whose land they occupy. I would suggest that Iran build what Hameed Abdul Karim describes in the above paragraph in Iran and America build its own Wall in Brooklyn and the UK build its Wall in London to reflect before the world what it prefers not to deal with, the lawless state of Israel that has yet to be brought before the international courts.
The irony of this suggestion jostles the just mind that knows in all probability that the people of the United States, many in Britain, some in Europe and all in Israel would be repulsed by such racism and condemn the nation and the people of Iran and America and Britain for such injustice and hate-filled behavior, yet, and this is the irony, they would not see the mirror reflection in that condemnation of the existing state of affairs in occupied Palestine. What is the cause of such overwhelming acceptance of the injustice inflicted on the Palestinian people by the Jewish State; what mental blindness prevents our representatives and Senators from realizing that the foundational principles of the United States of America are antithetical to the foundational policies of the Zionist state; and how can anyone present this contradiction to the citizens of America so that the injustices inherent in our unbridled support may be repudiated?
In 1492 and again about 100 years later when “settlers’ from Britain invaded the eastern shores of this continent, they brought with them beliefs rife with racism, arrogance and military conquest allowing them to enslave, incarcerate, and slaughter the people they encountered indifferent to the plight of these people before the might of their innate beliefs and overwhelming military power. That is the Eurocentric mindset that devastated the indigenous people with disease and massacre until they were essentially eradicated. That is the same mindset that the Zionists brought with them to Palestine. That is the colonialist mindset that cemented in the invaders their superiority over all others. It is a mindset that is anathema to the beliefs that all humans are created equal, that all are endowed by their creator with unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and it is anathema to those who would deny the rights embedded in the Bill of Rights that guarantee to all citizens justice before the law. Yet this nation has supported without condition a nation that has acted contrary to all of these principles since its founding in 1948.
Perhaps it is time America relinquish its “unbreakable” support of the Zionist state so that justice can flourish in Palestine, so that Walls of Hate may fall before bridges of compassion and love, so that weapons of mass destruction can be removed from the face of the earth, so that peace may reign in the mid-East, so that brother and sister can live together throughout the world.
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William A. Cook is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern California. His most recent book is Decade of Deceit: 2002-2012 Reflections on Palestine. His other works include Tracking Deception: Bush Mid-East Policy, The Rape Of Palestine: Hope Destroyed, Justice Denied, and The Plight of the Palestinians: A Long History of Destruction all dealing with the crisis in Israel/Palestine. His fiction works include The Chronicles Of Nefaria, a morality tale, The Agony of Colin Powell, a one act play, and a co-authored tragedy written with his wife Darcy, The Unreasoning Mask. He also has a Book of Psalms published by Mellon Poetry Press, Psalms for the 21st Century. He can be reached at wcook@laverne.edu or through his web site: www.drwilliamacook.com
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