from Haaretz

Five rules set by the Kingdom of the Settlements

 

By Amira Hass

There is something exciting about those security men at the entrance to shops, cafes and office buildings asking everyone coming in to open their bags; the mother pushing a baby carriage, the blond youth with the kippa, the older man who looks like a moshavnik. Nobody came up with the idea to set a rule that creates two entrances to buildings, one for Jews and the other for Arabs. Despite the ongoing discrimination against Israeli Arabs, that lack of discrimination sends an encouraging message: that we haven't crossed some of the thresholds of shame. Some might say, Jewish thresholds of shame.

The lack of selection is particularly encouraging for those who know what happens on the eastern side of the Green Line. Over there, in the Kingdom of the Settlements, the thresholds of shame were crossed long before the suicide bombings. There was the trickery and legalistic manipulation that enabled the citizens of a state occupying lands it doesn't own - and in violation of international law - to move onto those lands; the limited water quotas for Palestinians and the generous quotas for Jew; the complex regulations that stripped tens thousands of Palestinian natives of the West Bank and Gaza, and their children, of their residency; the "state lands" that were made available only to Jews, at extremely low prices; the roads paved to serve Jews only, with the strategic goal of isolating the enclaves of a Palestinian state.

But now the proposals to ban Arab MKs and Arab lists from the Knesset and prove that the lack of selection at cafes are only a vague echo of the amputated civic democratic thinking, because the criteria for a "Jewish-democratic state" now is obedience to the rules that were set and constituted in the Kingdom of the Settlements and its protectors - the IDF and Shin Bet.

Rule Number 1: Jewish Arabists always know what Arabs mean and what they want, even if the Arabs say the opposite. Therefore Jews don't have to listen to what the Arabs say. The Arabists of Israel know that Azmi Bishara issued a call in Damascus for armed resistance against Israel. Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein decided there's no need to wait until the matter is determined by the courts, which will hear Bishara's clarification (of the very unclear statement he made there), which says he called for an Arab political initiative as a way to help the Palestinian resistance to the occupation. It's interesting that the Arab states not only didn't obey his supposed call for armed resistance, but also accepted the Saudi Initiative, which is based on the two-state solution. Most of the Israeli Arab public was among the first to struggle for that solution. If they had been listened to in time, a lot of lives could have been saved.

Rule Number 2: Shin Bet reports are always accurate and objective and without any political bias. Therefore, for example, "Nadav" knows full well why he has information from some meeting Bishara had with Hamas "leaders," but has no information from public gatherings in Ramallah over the last two years. At those meetings, attended by people who had just buried yet another Palestinian child killed by the IDF, Bishara vehemently attacked Palestinian attacks on civilians and came out against the rites of "the armed resistance." Apparently, "Nadav" also did not have an informant at a Tel Aviv University gathering last year when the number two man on Bishara's Balad list, Jamal Zahlaka, was asked whether it's unnatural for part of the Palestinian people to live in the Palestinian state and another part of the Palestinian people to live in another state - the state of Israel. Zahlaka answered that it is entirely natural, if the two-state solution is meant to preserve the most valuable resource of all - life.

Rule Number 3: Yesha is the state. Therefore, anyone who opposes the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza opposes the State of Israel. Therefore, anyone who supports the Palestinian struggle against the Israeli occupation opposes the State of Israel and supports terrorism. The warnings - like those of MK Ahmed Tibi and many Jews from Zionist parties that the occupation is an existential danger for the State of Israel - won't help, since their view doesn't count, because it does not fit the views of the Kingdom of the Settlements and its founders and proponents in the Knesset.

Rule Number 4: Jews worldwide have the right to express solidarity with the Jews of Israel and vice versa. They can also donate generously to Israelis, for example, who support transfer (willing or not). An Arab is not permitted to feel the pain of the suffering of his brethren. Jews are allowed to glorify the army and support all its actions. Arabs are not allowed to praise the people of Jenin and Nablus who withstood the bombing of their cities by the IDF.

Rule Number 5: What is undemocratic in the Western world is democratic for Jews. It's no accident that one of the main proponents for expelling Arab lists from the Knesset is Michael Kleiner, who promotes Arab emigration out of Israel. There are Jews who think that the call for willing transfer is not only undemocratic, but blatantly not Jewish. But they are Jews who oppose the Kingdom of the Settlements, so by definition their views don't count.