Not Their First Genocide

From the original print magazine, Palestine Perspectives, September/October 1983

Setting the stage:

June 4,1982: Israel invaded Lebanon with 100,000 troops. By the end of the month 15,000 civilians had been killed. A Canadian physician working in Sidon said that 50% of those killed were children under 13.

September 16-18, 1982: Over one thousand Palestinians were slaughtered in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps in Beirut.

Marking the one-year anniversary of the Sabra and Shatila massacre:

Israel’s Dark Ages

It is an observable fact that Israel, in its brief existence, displayed a remarkable capacity to deceive foes and friends alike. One explanation for this fact is that Israel’s intentions are so outrageous they are simply not credible. That is why, for example, it succeeded in misleading large segments of public opinion about the purposes and scope of its invasion of Lebanon. What was alleged to be a limited strike to avenge the attempted assassination of Israel’s ambassador in London, or at worst a “posse” to subdue a 25-mile zone in the south of Lebanon, turned out to be a cover for an in­ discriminate onslaught to obliterate a nation, to colonize a neighboring state, and to intimidate a region.

Another reason for Israel’s ability to surprise people with its behavior is the mistaken assumption, widely held in the western world, that Israel is a European-style, twentieth­ century, democratic state. Such states, it is generally presumed, are enlightened by values and guided by self-imposed constraints which civilize their behavior even in the face of provocation. Consequently, the discovery of mass graves in an African state, for example, or an armed attack on a university campus in an Asian country would surprise a few people in the west. But the discovery of mass graves in Israeli-occupied Lebanon and the armed assault on the University of Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank appear to be fantastic allegations to some and unfortunate lapses to others.

To understand this astonishing discrepancy between Israel’s image and its reality, it is necessary to scrutinize its self-proclaimed credentials and to inquire into their authenticity. Israel came into being, in 1948, through an act of usurpation. The claim which it makes today—that it is different from South Africa because in Israel the majority governs—is only true because, unlike South Africa, Israel expelled the indigenous majority. Even the formal appearance of Israeli democracy is rooted in a colossal demographic purge.

Just as important is the fact that Israel is blatantly and purposefully discriminatory. Many states practice various forms and degrees of discrimination. But no other country parades with pride its discriminatory values and practices as the state of Israel does. Even South Africa seeks to convince the world that it is racial “separation” rather than racial discrimination which it practices against the indigenous African population. Israel, on the other hand, belligerently asserts and practices a “Jews only” policy even in the most basic and elemental areas of life including the right to live in Palestine, a policy which it honors in practice and sanctifies in ideology and legislation.

These violations of the basic assumptions and principles of civilized societies are serious enough when they are perpetrated by despots and tyrannical regimes. When they are incorporated in the basic values and practices of a society, as they have been in the case of Israel, they signify atavistic and regressive social behavior. This is the key to understanding the apparent Israeli enigma, the stark discrepancy between the image and the reality. In Israel, behind the glittering facade of a modern society lurks a chauvinistic tribal mind rooted in the dark ages.

History will judge Israel as the state which used modern means to revive discredited values and to achieve medieval ends. And history will condemn Isreal as a society which popularized oppression.

May the Palestinian people, as they remember the victims of Sabra and Shatila, who have come to symbolize all the victims of Zionist repression, continue to resist the temptation to emulate their tormentors. May they continue to remember that they are not soldiers of vengeance, but seekers of justice. The cause of Palestine and the memory of its martyrs deserve to be so honored.

And we need only add Gaza to the last paragraph to bridge more than 40 years.