Israel 66
COLONISATION?
IT’S STRANGE: DESPITE THE CONSTANT, FLAGRANT
human rights abuses in many of its
neighbouring Islamist countries, no
country in the Middle East draws anywhere near the same amount of controversy, criticism and seething hatred as
the State of Israel. When a country like
Saudi Arabia freely admits to propagating extreme levels of homophobia, xenophobia and misogyny against its own
citizens, the rest of the world barely
blinks an eye. When it comes to Israel,
though, every minor move she makes is
scrutinised, commented on and often
criticised by the rest of the world – often to ludicrously hypocritical levels. As
for the entire rotten situation between
Israel and her Palestinian neighbours, it
has somehow gone from being seen as a
stupefyingly complex conflict between
two nations to becoming this weird sort
of accepted belief that the whole mess
is entirely Israel’s fault.
It would, of course, be foolish to ignore the part that the ancient evil of anti-Semitism plays in this increasingly
lopsided lambasting of Israel. The United
Nations, for example, has repeatedly revealed an anti-Israel bias as it passes resolution upon resolution against Israel,
16 JEWISH LIFE
ISSUE 72
entirely overlooking the gross human
rights violations in Zimbabwe, North
Korea and Iran. And it is hardly alone.
Our own South African government is
certainly no less guilty in displaying so
nakedly one-sided a bias itself.
As Rabbi Ramon Widmonte – who has
long been affiliated with the “ReligiousZionist” movement, Mizrachi – so succinctly puts it, “How is it that the SA
government hasn’t withdrawn its ambassador from Syria where we’re reaching 200 000 civilians murdered, but it
does so at the drop of a hat from Israel –
the lack of balance here is blatant.”
On a smaller scale, politicians and political commentators alike have constantly turned their attention to delegitimising
both Israel and the Jewish people. Worse,
some of these rabid Israel haters are Jews
– and often highly respected Jews at that.
While (once) respected anti-apartheid activist Ronnie Kasrils constantly stokes
the flames of anti-Semitism in this country, we have an Israeli academic like Shlomo Sand who has apparently decided to
make a career of writing quickly-refuted
books about the “myth” of the Jewish
people and the “myth” of Israel as the
Jewish homeland. As if the seemingly
endless stream of anti-Israel rhetoric by
non-Jews isn’t enough!
That said, while one would have to be
in denial to not see the filthy fingerprints
of anti-Semitism all over a huge portion
of anti-Israel discourse – it would be
equally unfair to claim every criticism of
Israel and/or the Israeli government to
be based on prejudice. It’s clear that not
only do many of Israel’s critics come from
what is basically a decent, conscientious
place; many of their arguments are evenhanded, understandable and often perhaps even valid. Israel is a complicated
and undoubtedly unique country that
understandably gives rise to equally complicated and unique challenges, questions
and moral dilemmas.
ISRAEL: A BRIEF HISTORY
To get some sort of understanding of
current events in Israel and the Middle
East, it is crucial to understand just
how volatile a region it has been historically. The conflict surrounding the
modern State of Israel is nothing new,
but is just the latest in a millennia-long
string of conflict and strife that stretches back to the very birth of civilisation
itself. The land of Israel – or as it was
PHOTOGRAPHS: ILAN OSSENDRYVER
Getting to grips with the origins of the Jewish State I BY ILAN PRESKOVSKY