Murder of a Population Under
Cover of Righteousness
by
Shulamit Aloni
Dissident Voice
March 7, 2003
We
do not have gas chambers and crematoria, but there is no one fixed method for
genocide.
Dr. Ya'akov Lazovik writes
("Academic Genocide", "Ha'aretz", 4 March) that in the
State of Israel it is impossible that the regime and the nation will plan and
commit a genocide. It is difficult to determine if this is naivety or
self-righteousness. As we know, there is no single fixed method for murder and
not even for genocide. The author Y. L. Peretz wrote about "the righteous
cat" who does not spill blood, but only suffocates.
The government of Israel,
using the military and its instruments of destruction, is not only spilling blood,
but it is also suffocating. What other name can be given to the dropping of a
one-ton bomb over a dense urban area, when the justification uttered is that we
wanted to murder a dangerous terrorist and his wife? The rest of the citizens who
were killed and injured, among whom are children and women, do not count, of
course.
How is it possible to
explain the expulsion of citizens from their homes at three o'clock in the
morning on a rainy night, then depositing bombs in the house and then departing
without warning? When those expelled returned to their home, the bombs were
exploded and a brutal murder and destruction of property was thus committed. And
what is the justification for what happened in Jenin? We did not destroy the
whole neighbourhood, just 85 houses; it was not slaughter, we killed only
50-some citizens. How many does one need to murder and destroy for it to be a
crime? - A crime against humanity, as determined by the Laws of the State of
Israel, not only the laws of Belgium.
And more: A curfew and
closure of an entire city so that a few celebrants from the racist bunch in Hebron
could walk to the Cave of the Fathers, and tanks destroying fruit and vegetable
stands, and bulldozers that destroy houses, and Generals who, in their arrogant
hubris, are willing to destroy a whole neighbourhood for the convenience of a
group of settler hooligans. Curfew, closure, brutality, murder, destruction of
homes of suspects, while we keep parroting the incantation that a person is
innocent until proven otherwise (as in the case of our Prime Minister and his
sons).
The order that Ariel Sharon
gave to the soldiers who went to wreak revenge in Qibiah: "Maximize losses
in life and property", has not been forgotten. Today Sharon, Mofaz and
Yaalon, the three Generals who manage the policy of this government, behave
like that self-righteous cat - suffocating all the time. Curfew and another curfew,
arrests and more arrests, destruction of roads, brutality to the residents at
road stops. Benny Alon, (a minister in the present government), already said:
"make their life so bitter that they will transfer themselves
willingly".
This is done on a daily
basis, in addition to the destruction. The Chief of Staff, Yaalon, already
announced that he is "destroying for re-building". One can understand
from his moves that the "building" is building of more and more
settlements. So that they will not be obliged, as military rulers, to take care
of the residents' well-being, the army uses sorties, followed by retreats. They
enter a village, they kill, they destroy and they arrest, and then they retreat.
Those who remain on the ashes and the ruins will take care of themselves.
Many of our children are
being indoctrinated, in religious schools, that the Arabs are Amalek, and the
bible teaches us that Amalek must be destroyed. There was already a rabbi
(Israel Hess) who wrote in the newspaper of Bar Ilan University that we all
must commit genocide, and that is because his research showed that the
Palestinians are Amalek.
The nation is not planning
to commit genocide; the nation really does not want to know what's happening in
the territories. The nation is following orders given by the legitimate
representatives of the regime. After the legitimate Prime Minister who wanted
to bring peace was murdered, the hand is loose on the trigger, greed is
paramount, and there is always some reason to brutalise all of the residents of
a city that number tens, if not hundreds of thousands, because there are always
people there who are on the "wanted" list. It is sufficient that one
person is wanted to bomb and kill, by mistake, of course, also women, children,
workers and other humans - if indeed we still count them as humans.
Of course with our
self-righteousness, with our self-adoration in our "Jewish ethics" we
make sure to advertise how beautifully the doctors take care of Palestinian
victims in the hospitals. We do not advertise how many of those are executed in
cold blood in their own homes.
So it's not yet genocide of
the terrible and unique style of which we were past victims. And as one of the
smart Generals told me, we do not have crematoria and gas chambers. Is anything
less than that consistent with Jewish ethics? Did he ever hear how an entire
people said that it did not know what was done in its name?
Shulamit Aloni is a retired Israeli MK and Minister,
member of the Meretz Party.