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CounterPunch
December
30, 2002
From Trent Lott
to Ariel Sharon
Wherever Segregationists Are Found
by TARIF ABBOUSHI
Trent Lott's recent and now-infamous faux pas
precipitated an avalanche of media editorials, mostly calling
on him to resign his post as U.S. senate majority leader. Lott's
statement that the country would have been better off if U.S.
Senator Strom Thurmond's segregationist Dixiecrat candidacy in
the 1948 presidential race had succeeded was deemed evidence
of his failure to shed deep-rooted racist sentiments. His attitude
was widely described as intolerable.
In the immediate aftermath of Lott's
gaffe, questions swirled about whether he had said what he meant
or meant what he said. Those questions were quickly swept aside
and replaced by near-unanimous editorial assertions that all
manifestations of racism are to be condemned. But when editors
of American newspapers correctly posit, as some have, that discrimination,
bigotry and intolerance deserve to be condemned wherever they
are found, it is fair to question whether they really mean what
they say.
It is an article of faith for most Americans
that discrimination, bigotry and intolerance should be condemned,
whether practiced by individuals, groups, organizations, or states.
It is held with equal conviction that condemnation is not only
appropriate for discrimination and intolerance based on skin
color, but also when the differentiator is sex, ethnicity, religion,
or whatever else sets human beings apart from each other. But
do we indeed condemn discrimination and bigotry wherever they
are found?
On March 4th, 2002, the U.S. Department
of State released its latest report on human rights practices
in Israel and the occupied territories. The report in its entirety
is available on the state department's web site. It states that
the Government of Israel has made little headway in reducing
institutional, legal, and societal discrimination against Israel's
Arab citizens, who constitute approximately 20 percent of the
population but do not share fully the rights provided to, and
obligations imposed on, the country's Jewish citizens. Among
the report's specific examples:
* Under Israel's Law of Return, automatic
citizenship and residence rights are granted to Jewish immigrants
and their families, but not to Christians, Muslims or other non-Jews.
* The Government provides proportionally
greater financial support to institutions in the Jewish sector
compared with those in the Muslim, Christian and Druze sectors.
. A Ministry of Education special program to provide academic
assistance to students from disadvantaged backgrounds is available
only to Jewish students. Muslims and Christians do not qualify.
The 2002 budget did not contain provisions to equalize spending
on Jewish and non-Jewish special education.
* The Government has not allocated sufficient
resources or taken adequate measures to provide Israeli Christians,
Muslims and Druze with the same quality of housing and social
services, as well as the same opportunities for government employment,
as Jews.
* On a per capita basis, the Government
spends two-thirds as much for Christians, Muslims and Druze as
for Jews.
* A ruling by Israel's High Court of
Justice found the Government's use of the Jewish National Fund
for development of public land to be discriminatory, since the
fund's by-laws prohibit the sale or lease of land to non-Jews.
* Christians and Muslims are barred from
military service. Many employers, including municipalities, advertise
"military service" as a prerequisite for job applicants,
even for parking lot attendants.
* Foreign workers are barred from obtaining
permanent residence status unless they are Jewish.
* When a group of approximately 1,000
Israeli Jews attacked non-Jewish homes in Nazareth, Israeli police
inserted themselves between the two groups and fired live ammunition,
rubber bullets and tear gas at the Arab citizens.
* During demonstrations and riots in
October 2000, Israeli police snipers used live ammunition against
unarmed Arab demonstrators, killing 13 non-Jewish citizens of
the state.
Mainstream American media editorials
ignore the picture of pervasive discrimination painted by the
U.S. State Department report, preferring instead to laud Israel
for its "shared values" with America. They abstain
from condemning the Government of Israel for practices that even
Israel's High Court of Justice considers discriminatory. It cannot
be that racial discrimination is abhorrent only when it rears
its ugly head in America, but is a phenomenon to be supported
with annual billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars when practiced
by our allies on the other side of the globe.
Selective application of any principle
is hypocrisy, and hypocrisy negates credibility. The cacophony
of American voices denouncing Trent Lott for his transgressions
rose inexorably, until he became the first senate majority leader
forced to resign his post. The editorial silence on Israel's
endemic racial transgressions is no less deafening.
Tarif Abboushi lives
in Houston, Texas. He can be reached at: tabboushi@aol.com
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