Monday, September 12, 2011

Thoughts on Palestine

The  Palestinians have an inalienable right to resist military occupation, colonialism, and apartheid. They have the right to use violent armed struggle against the agents enforcing this oppression. The lives of Israeli soldiers, Shin Bet torturers, and the armed thugs that have illegally settled in the West Bank are not sacrosanct. I know this opinion is only held by a very small number of Americans and that the vast majority of politicians, academics, and journalists in the US support Israel in everything it does. But, Israel's war against the civilian population of Palestine is not my war. I don't care if I am the only person with US citizenship with this opinion. I do not care if people think I am an anti-Semite because I oppose Israeli racism and brutality. It has become a meaningless term. I do care that I can say to myself that I am not a hypocrite supporting human rights for some groups of people and opposing it for others because their oppressors consider themselves to be "The Chosen People."

3 comments:

amy said...

You're not the only one with that opinion. I just don't get it. I don't care one bit what religion they are. The things that were done to them by the Nazis were beyond horrible I think everyone can agree to that. Where does that make the things they have been doing Palestinians alright? Do humans never learn from the past?

J. Otto Pohl said...

Amy:

Thank you very much for stopping by here to comment. You are now a member of the tiniest minority in the university. A minority far smaller than Americans sympatheic to Palestine. ;-)

No, humans never learn from the past. I do not think anybody should expect that persecution makes people more tolerant. At anyrate the connection between European Jews killed by the Nazis and modern Israelis is now two generations removed. The people bombing Gaza were not born until long after the deafeat of the Nazis on 9 May 1945.

amy said...

I don't mind being in the minority. I'm actually a very liberal democrat. By very liberal I mean that I don't care if your straight, gay, christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist, etc. All people deserve the same respect. I just don't see that happening very much in this world.