Israel is under attack. Day after day I am despairing for my friends there. And day after day I see more untrue articles and comments full of antisemitism and hatred towards Israel. Mind you - normal critique of the country's policy or its government is not anti-anything except anti some politicians and there are very few politicians I care for, and even with them it is part of the job to be criticized. As one Israeli diplomat put it long ago: don't try to compete with Israeli press in criticizing Israeli government. You have no chance of winning.
But sharing false and extremely cruel and hurting stories about a country or nation, wishing death upon all members of a nation or ethnic group, condemning the whole group for actions and omissions of some of its members or - even worse - somebody totally different or even non-existent (when the occurrence is false) is something totally different. It is at best hatred and discrimination and at worst incitement to abuse. And in today's western world everybody understands it (even if they don't apply it) if it concerns any other group but Jews and Israelis.
When something awful happens in the world (and it looks like it does every day) at least mainstream media try to usually blame individual perpetrator in case of criminal activities. A group of individuals in case of organized activity against law (e.g. gangs), organizations, usually proudly advertising their activities when it is terror activity (e.g. Boko Haram) or at least governmental entities in case it is on state level (even in democracies, critics of Hungarian PM Orban say/ write he or his administration passes classified NATO information to Russia and not Hungary; the same for the threat to attack Greenland, territory of other NATO member, it was said it is President Trump, sometimes Republican administration, not the USA). When terrorist attacks happen in Europe - on the Christmas markets or train station and the perpetrator in Muslim immigrant usually it is accompanied by statements, obviously true, that not all immigrants/ Muslims are terrorist and they cannot all share responsibility for what has happened.
Not in the case of Israel. This one state is treated more often than not as a single-minded democracy (something that doesn't exist) with high capabilities in telepathy and, what's more, agreeing on everything one of the government (or even of Israelis) does before doing anything. Of course only if the message is (true or untrue) showing Israel as a villain.
What is most, every Jewish person is treated as accomplice of what is (usually falsely) to be perceived as Israel's fault. When Jewish school students, small children, were attacked on the bus in London, Palestinian question was brought. When synagogue in Belgium was fired at, Palestinian question was brought. When supporters of soccer team were hunted in Amsterdam by people with weapons, Palestinian question was brought. When some police officers refused to protect them, the Palestinian question was brought. When rabbi in France was shoot, the Palestinian question was brought. When few demonstrators in Colorado were attacked with fire weapon, yes, you guessed it...
Would it be all right if protesting against occupation of Western Sahara by Morocco people would start attacking Moroccans? Or even EU citizens, since EU is paying Morocco for fishing rights on Western Sahara's waters, therefore legitimizing occupation few Europeans even know about.
Would it be all right to attack children of Russian emigrants leaving somewhere because we don't condone Russia's politics (OK, Russia is no democracy, still, EU from former example is, and many Russians support Putin).
Would it be all right to name every citizen of Emirates a murderer since many Philippine and Indonesian workers were murdered while building sport venues for soccer games? Apparently not, since UEFA and many Europeans and American tremendously enjoyed these games.
Would it be all right to hold not only every Saudi but also every Muslim responsible for Osama bin Laden's conduct and the murder of Khashoggi?
Would it be all right to hold every American responsible for fate of Afghanistan (regardless of their state of affairs)? This is probably the closest example I can think of, and I will write about it more. Later.
You see the pattern?
You see the pattern? So why Israel and Jews are exceptions for so many people from individual responsibility and subjected to the group one, but only for real or imagined evil deeds. The good ones (plenty of them) are either classified as false news (if possible), or dismissed as unimportant, or ridiculed at.
In my opinion there are only two possible answers, and as it happens, I believe both to be true.
One is well rooted, sometimes viscous and brought to a very high level, antisemitism with its fantasies about omnipotent, thinking as one and always evil Jews, starting from children at school in London, finishing on IDF soldiers throwing leaflets with warnings and orders to evacuate (the only army in the world that routinely does so).
The other is contempt for Palestinians, who evidently - in the opinion of Israeli enemies - are completely unable to plan long-term, pursue dialogue, keep promises (as Oslo ones), refrain from falling on pure terror and organize their state or its beginnings on Gaza strip, even with all tremendous help they got. Apparently small and not very smart children. This is the quintessential colonial mindset with all its paternalism and feeling of superiority. Sometimes this contempt of do-gooders and excuse-makers for Palestinians would have been funny if not so racist (the attribute usually subscribed to Israel by those people) and so deadly.
No comments:
Post a Comment