On behalf of B’Tselem, the Israeli Information
Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, I implore you today
to take action. Anything short of decisive international action will
achieve nothing but ushering in the second half of the first century of
the occupation.”
These words, which I
addressed to the UN Security Council in 2016, have earned me the honor
of being barred from speaking in Israeli schools – thanks to Amendment
17 to the State Education Law. This amendment, enacted in 2018 (and also known as the Breaking the Silence Law), applies to “anyone who operates overseas to help institutions that promote diplomatic steps against Israel.”
I understand that
most Israelis have chosen to continue ruling over, oppressing and
violently dispossessing the Palestinians. To do so, we’ve defined almost
any opposition to our rule as “terror,” including demonstrations,
appeals to international public opinion or legal institutions, appeals
for economic action, and virtually everything else.
We’re
stronger and, for most of us, it’s more comfortable to continue the way
we are. The Palestinians are weak, the world is enabling it. So why see
the Palestinian under our boot if reality allows us another day,
another year or another generation of blindness?
Nevertheless, this
repulsive practice also demands control over Israelis’ consciousness. If
too much of a stench rises upward, our sense of smell might cause
something to happen somewhere between our kidneys and our heart.
Therefore, it’s necessary to mark those Israelis who loathe the boot as
traitors and gag them. I understand this very well, and I also
understand the public popularity of such moves.
But
when you draw a circle defining who’s outside, it’s impossible not to
pay even more attention to who’s inside. Who, by law, is worthy of
speaking to your children?
Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who calls for bombing 8-year-old children, is permitted to speak to schoolchildren in Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (“Arab voters are going to the polls in droves”) is permitted. So is Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked (“Zionism won’t continue to bow its head to individual rights”), the inflammatory Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan (“arson terror”) and the corrupt Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman (“There are no innocents in Gaza”).
Nor
is it just our elected officials who are allowed. So are Supreme Court
justices, who routinely approve house demolitions, collective punishment
and prolonged detention without trial. So is Attorney General Avichai
Mendelblit, our diligent moral compass who proposes creative ways of
legalizing more and more crimes and violence. So is Military Advocate
General Brig. Gen. Sharon Afek, who is responsible for giving advance
approval to the rules of engagement – which permit the shooting of
unarmed demonstrators – and is also skilled at whitewashing any
violations after the fact. The doors of the education system are open to
all of the above.
Your children can
also hear our devoted diplomats. These are the ambassadors who keep
themselves busy “explaining” such “image failures” as the Palestinian medic who insisted on jumping into the deadly path of an Israeli bullet. They also disseminate propaganda that equates international opposition to the occupation with anti-Semitism and, at the same time, pave a path to the hearts of anti-Semites in Hungary, Austria and Germany.
It turns out that all
of the above are worthy of being heard in Israeli schools. These and
others – the voices of the Israeli “center,” the “normative” voices
whose essence is legalizing injustice and perverting human morality –
are heard loud and clear, and have been setting the tone for decades
already.
Yet despite all this,
the truth and the facts have a tendency to peek out from behind the
propaganda. Therefore, the occupation project and the gagging project
are both destined to end the same way: in utter failure. It’s possible
to pass stupid laws, but it’s impossible to erase that “b’tselem”
– the Hebrew word for “in the image” – from the first chapter of
Genesis: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God
created He him.”
Therefore,
the Israeli consciousness will continue to be exposed to the reality of
our rule over the Palestinians – but this exposure isn’t enough to
remove Israelis from their comfort zone.
And that brings us
back to the international community’s responsibility to change all of
this, as I explained in my Security Council address: “I am a citizen of
that country. It is my homeland. For most of my country’s existence, the
world has allowed it to occupy another people. I have lived my entire
life, every single day of it, with that reality. Millions of Israelis
and Palestinians know no other reality. We need your help.”
Hagai El-Ad is the Executive Director of B’Tselem
Commenti
Posta un commento