as black and white as it gets

There is an organization called Nefesh B'Nefesh, that, according to Wikipedia is

"an organization that encourages immigration by Jewish people to Israel from North America and the United Kingdom. The organization was founded in 2002 by Rabbi Yehoshua Fass and Tony Gelbart, and works in cooperation with the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli government."

This makes sense because it is a goal of Israel to bring in as many Jews to become citizens as possible in order to keep a Jewish majority for the Jewish state.

The problem is that at the same time (and for the last 43 years), Israel has also had a program to populate Palestinian land, not just Israel, with Jews. There couldn't be any greater contrast between the winners in this and the losers, hence the title of this post.

For Israel, it would be perfectly acceptable for a former American, say, to move to Israel and then to a settlement...a settlement that, from the arrival of the first bulldozer, evicted Palestinians who lived on that land, a settlement that is not part of Israel.

Let's take a look at some pictures.

Here is a happy group sponsored by Nefesh B'Nefesh, from their website, just arrived on a chartered El Al flight. The caption says they plan to join the IDF (the Israeli army). It looks like a very happy bunch. They haven't lived in Israel yet but they are welcome to do so.



Such happiness is not misplaced. Peruse the Nefesh B'Nefesh website and you will get the feel of a very well funded organization. Look at the many services they offer to young and old. Happiness jumps from the screen.

Now let's take a look at some Palestinians in the occupied territories. They don't look happy or prosperous. Here are women and children waiting at an Israeli checkpoint (Shu'afat) in East Jerusalem. They are not welcome, though they live there. Actually, they are welcome to leave. (B'Tselem photo)


Here's another Nefesh B'Nefesh group arriving and joyful. Notice the elderly woman near the middle holding the flag of Israel.


Now look at an elderly Palestinian, just refused entry to Jerusalem by IDF troops. He is welcome to walk back to wherever he came from...and keep walking out of his land as well. If he chooses not to, a future eviction from his home for settlement expansion might help him along. No Palestinian knows what the next day will bring. (B'Tselem photo)


I could provide dozens of similar comparisons but I think you get the idea. Foreigners are brought in to live and to help (if they join the IDF as Israeli citizens are expected to do) evict natives from their own land.

Remember:

• Israel controls all access to the occupied territories and Gaza
  
• Israel does not allow any Palestinian immigration (coming in)
  
• Israeli citizens have full civil rights, even in settlements outside Israel
  
• Palestinians have Israeli military justice wherever they live (except a token number of Palestinian Israelis)
  
• Israeli citizens may travel freely on modern roads
  
• Palestinians must stop at checkpoints and use assigned roads, un-improved, often dirt.
  
• Israelis are encouraged with incentives by the government to move to settlements on Palestinian land
  
• Palestinians may not enter settlements, though they are built on Palestinian land.

This is only a short list, there is much much more that makes Palestinians not just second-class citizens but no citizens at all - on their own, rapidly shrinking, land.

Keep in mind, this doesn't appear to trouble the newcomers in the least. Many of them are Americans and I wonder if they know even the little about the Palestinian plight that I have just told you. Try entering "Palestinian" in the search box of the Nefesh B'Nefesh website. It returns nothing.

You, as an American, are supporting outrageous injustice. If you are reading my posts, you should be getting the gist of how truly awful this situation is, a terrible stain on the reputation of the United States that is blatant to the world.

We say we are sorry about the Indians.
We say we are sorry about the Japanese-American internment.
We say we are sorry about our terrible record regarding African-Americans

But we finance Israel, arm it, and do nothing to stop the settlement project!

I want nothing to do with it, but our government has decided to ignore the many like me who want change now and panders to the Israel lobby. If you think Nefesh B'Nefesh looks well funded, imagine the kind of money going to Congress.

Will you join me, us, in the drive for change?

Avatar - the Palestinian version

A sure way to make a movie that will sell tickets is to appeal to the sense of justice.

Think of movies that you've seen that open with a scene of innocence - it might be of a happy family, someone going about their daily routine with a sense of normality, that is suddenly torn apart by some awful act.

The rest of the movie is predictable. The injured party, the one who has lost a loved one or been terribly wronged, goes after the perpetrator. Not seldom the perpetrator is at the top of some conspiracy - a government official, or high ranking member of the military or some huge corporation.

This is standard Hollywood fare. It sells because it taps the strong sense for righting wrong that is deep within every human being. Vicariously, each movie-goer gets the satisfaction of having this feeling aroused and then, often violently, put to rest.

So it is with Avatar. The difference is cosmetic. The Na'vi are on another planet, the bad guys are human, but the plot line is the same.

Now consider a movie about the Palestinians. There they are in Palestine, tending their flocks, sharing the land in peace with a minority of Jews. Outsiders arrive from Europe and start buying land, occupying territory. Move forward a few years and the Europeans and the Palestinians are fighting sporadically. A few years more and the Europeans have a state.

Ok, now remember this is a movie about the Palestinians, so we've arrived at the scene where the outrage takes place. Instead of the tree being brought down as in Avatar, the land is lost, but in both cases the good guys are evicted from their home.

The rest is ongoing history. Unlike the Na'vi, the Palestinians don't have exotic animals as allies that can win the day. Instead, money and weapons pour in on the side of their adversaries, the Israelis. Far from seeing justice done in the return of their land, the Palestinians are driven back, and back, and back even more.

Now you can see the Palestinian perspective.

The outrage, as they see it, is that they are being asked to endorse the act of horror, their loss of land. This is exactly the opposite of the satisfying movie plot line and counter to the in-built rejection of injustice that every human being possesses.

Things are so topsy-turvy that the ones who have suffered the losses must humiliate themselves and declare to the world that the wrong that was done to them is right. This is the problem with demanding a statement from Palestinians that Israel has a right to exist.

Can't you just see the characters in a movie swearing never to do this and movie-goers having a deep feeling of empathy?

Americans have since 1948 seen the Palestinians twisting and turning in their agony and trying every possible means of violent resistance, just as the protagonists in Avatar do. But, unlike Avatar, Americans are asked to condemn the Palestinians as violent monsters incapable of reason, scornful of peace with peace-loving Israel.

In short, America has sided entirely with those who took the land instead of the dispossessed! America has acted as supplier, armorer, and bank for the party that committed the crime of throwing the innocent party out.

At the moment we have the incredible scene of the oppressing party continuing to take more land and a superpower with the ability to stop it doing nothing.

The story of the Palestinians is a reversal of the plot of Avatar. Is it any wonder that the rest of the world looks at what the U.S. does with astonishment? Is it any wonder that rockets are fired into Israel from Gaza? Is it any wonder that there is a continual confrontation between IDF troops and Palestinian stone-throwers?

Americans thrilled at the resistance of the Na'vi in Avatar as they threw out the human beings who attacked and destroyed their tree-home. But the Palestinians, whose homes not only were taken but still are being taken 62 years on, are no-good, bloodthirsty terrorists who should submit to peace plans dictated by their oppressor.

Do you see the hypocrisy and how Palestinians could be consumed with rage?