In response to Adam Yu's pieces last week, "The case for Israel's defense" and "Our Sacred Flag," I would like to have a coming-out. In the last two years, I have come to identify as an anarchist and humanist. In a sound byte, anarchism is a way of life that manifests participatory democracy, mutualism, and consent by replacing coercion, hierarchy, and domination. Humanism is love, defense, and solidarity for human beings regardless of identity or origin.Now that I'm out and proud, I would like to propose a radical shift: for peace, justice, equality, and environmental sustainability everywhere, for everyone. With our current power relationships, it is 'radical' to believe that these things can exist all at the same time. Today's academic, political, and economic elites, like many of us at Muhlenberg, render these principles inaccessible or impossible. We privileged few find it remarkably convenient that governments, lobbies, and corporations exist as we're trained how to use them to our benefit. My hat is off to anyone who thinks otherwise.
Among many things that are completely incompatible with my proposal is the ideology of nationalism. In the name of national identity, governments are formed. Certainly, we can agree that both 'government' and 'nation' are not synonymous with the people who live within their arbitrary borders. Every system that concentrates decision-making power in the hands of the few must be defended with violence and other types of coercion.
Now in an overview, both the United States of America and Israel are nation-states that were colonized without the consent or cooperation of the people who were living there before. Pretty flags, borders, governments, hierarchies, parties, pledges, anthems, and portraits were drawn up predominately by authoritarian old white men to beautify the violence and resource hoarding they needed to establish their power.
Forgive me for being short on a complex history, but I have to move onto burning flags. Flags stand for governments, not people. It says in the Pledge, "to the republic, for which it stands." Therefore, someone who sees their government as despotic, undemocratic, and destroying "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" ought to burn their flag! After all, the US government remains the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. Why would I ever want to pledge allegiance to its criminal politicians? I'd rather burn the flag they hide behind, among other things.
On Israel, I have to make no exception for their South African-style apartheid. Remember, Israel is a state with a government that makes policies that are fallible. I also like the quote Adam Yu used on the concept of freedom. "The only freedom which deserves the name, is that of pursuing our own good in our own way, so long as we do not attempt to deprive others of theirs." The question is, who has freedom and who is depriving it for others?
On freedom, Adam overlooked some facts about Gaza and Israel. On his distaste for angry nonviolent protests, I've seen demonstrations with pro-Israel signs that said "Nuke Gaza," a call for mass slaughter like the Allies did to Berlin, while "Smash the Israeli state" implies the dismantling and sabotage of a government. Let's not debate protest signs. Now rather than rockets, I would love to see Gazans using nonviolent, democratic means to petition Israel to end the siege of their tiny strip of land. Unfortunately, Israel makes nonviolence impossible.
Gazans have no representation in the Israeli government that controls land, air, and sea access to basic necessities of life and dignity. For example, the conservative Knesset parliament just recently banned Arab parties from the upcoming elections and has historically barred them from joining coalition governments. The Israeli high court overturned the ban last week, but the anti-democracy sentiment still festers.
Gazans have been collectively punished with a blockade since Israel's 2006 withdrawal of street troops and Merkava tanks. When they protest this policy at the border crossings, they get shot. When fishermen go out to sea, Israel's navy fires on them and detains their boats. Checkpoints at the border are reminiscent of crowded internment camps, complete with turnstiles, sniper towers, a prison wall, and guns pointed.
In addition to the naval attacks, the ceasefire determined in June between Israel and Hamas was violated by Israel on Nov. 4 via air raid preceding a tightening of the blockade to include food, medicine, fuel for electricity, and foreign journalists. During the ceasefire, Israeli intelligence admits that the less than 30 rockets fired from Gaza were by rogue militants and not Hamas. Yet, it seems they were looking for any excuse to entrap Hamas into annihilation.
While Gazans were deprived of food and eventually clean water as sewage overflowed, relief workers declared a "humanitarian crisis" there. Limited electricity forced hospitals to ration life support equipment for infants. More than half the population relies on UN food distributions and could not receive it. Protests swelled up around the world opposing Israel's genocidal tactic of starvation. Hamas fired rockets in desperation with clear demands to open the checkpoints. President-elect Obama and his crew remained silent.
Then in late December, Israel air raided Gaza, the most densely populated land in the Middle East, with cluster bombs, white phosphorous shells and dime bombs paid for by U.S. military aid. After quickly running out of Hamas targets, they widened their aim to civilian targets including schools, mosques, universities, refugee camps, most government buildings, the courts, 25 schools, 20 ambulances, and several hospitals, as well as bridges, roads, 10 electricity-generating stations, sewage lines, and 1,500 factories, workshops, and shops.
By the end of the ground invasion, Israel had killed over 1,300 Gazans in three weeks, forcing 100,000 into refugeedom. In addition, 80 percent of all agricultural infrastructure and crops were destroyed while foreign journalists were banned from Gaza during the conflict, according to the Palestinian Authority.
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