- "...the occupation has ruined every good part and
destroyed the moral infrastructure upon which Israeli society
exists.
-
- Let's stop this march of fools and build society anew,
clean of militarism and oppression and exploitation of other people, if
not worse."
-
- Professor Baruch Kimmerling
- Hebrew University, Jerusalem,
- 2002
-
- "If we cannot find ways of peace and understanding,
if the only way of establishing the Jewish National Home is upon the
bayonets
of some Empire, our whole enterprise is not worthwhile, and it is better
that the Eternal People that has outlived many a mighty empire should
possess
its soul in patience... It is one of the great civilizing tasks before
the Jewish people to enter the promised land, not in the Joshua way,
but bringing peace and culture, hard work and sacrifice and love, and
a determination to do nothing that cannot be justified before the
conscience
of the world."
-
- Judah Magnes,
- Chancellor, Hebrew University,
- Jerusalem, 1929
-
-
- WASHINGTON - For a people
who claimed the world's help and support to rebuild themselves from the
crematoriums of Nazi-dominated Europe just 55 years ago to have themselves
become caricatures of those they despised is one of history's greatest
of ironies. In a sense the "Jewish State of Israel" was itself
justified as a historic international affirmative action program -- with
huge amounts of support, aid, reparations, and excuses extended to the
Jewish people because of what had happened to them in Christian Europe.
But those who in the aftermath of Europe's own orgy of destruction have
suffered the most as a result of Israel's creation are the Palestinian
people; and the time is long overdue now that they not only have their
freedom and independence but that they now receive great support, aid,
and reparations for what has so wrongly happened to them.
-
- Professor Baruch Kimmerling, author of this short but
powerful column, is one in a long line of major Israeli personalities who
have boldly spoken up, going back to the great Chancellor of Hebrew
University,
Judah Magnes, to Nahum Goldman, to Yehoshua Liebowitz, and to so many
others
in many walks of life including the historian Simha Flapan, the General
Matti Peled, the poet Natan Zach, the playwright Dan Almagor, and
courageous
modern-day journalists like Amira Hass and Orit Schohat and quite a few
others...the list is very considerable.
-
- But today the Generals, the thugs, and yes the war
criminals
are in charge. Tomorrow in Washington there is a Council of War at the
White House and the Pentagon and the CIA as Ariel Sharon and his gang come
visiting for the fourth time in less than a year. And let's not forget,
as dastardly as it sounds, as brute as is the analogy; Hitler and his gang
were elected to power in one of Europe's most civilized and cultured
societies
less than seventy years ago.
-
-
- I ACCUSE
- By Professor Baruch Kimmerling*
- Kol Ha'Ir (Israeli Hebrew Weekly)
- February 1, 2002
-
- I accuse Ariel Sharon of creating a process in which
he will not only intensify the reciprocal bloodshed, but is liable to
instigate
a regional war and partial or nearly complete ethnic cleansing of the Arabs
in the "Land of Israel."
-
- I accuse every Labor Party minister in this government
of cooperating for implementation the right wing's extremist, fascist
"vision"
for Israel.
-
- I accuse the Palestinian leadership, and primarily Yasir
Arafat, of shortsightedness so extreme that it has become a collaborator
in Sharon's plans. If there is a second Naqba (Palestinian Holocaust),
this leadership, too, will be among the causes.
-
- I accuse the military leadership, spurred by the national
leadership, of inciting public opinion, under a cloak of supposed military
professionalism, against the Palestinians. Never before in Israel have
so many generals in uniform, former generals, and past members of the
military
intelligence, sometimes disguised as "academics," taken part
in public brainwashing. When the judicial committee of inquiry is
established
to investigate the 2002 catastrophe, they too will have to be investigated
alongside the civilian criminals.
-
- I accuse the administrators of Israel's electronic media
of giving various military spokespeople the access needed for an
aggressive,
bellicose, almost complete takeover of the public discourse. The military
is not only controlling Jenin and Ramallah but the Israeli radio and
television
as well.
-
- I accuse those people, of all ranks, who order the black
flag hoisted above them, and those who follow their unlawful orders. The
late philosopher Yeshayahu Leibovitz was right-the occupation has ruined
every good part and destroyed the moral infrastructure upon which Israeli
society exists. Let's stop this march of fools and build society anew,
clean of militarism and oppression and exploitation of other people, if
not worse.
-
- I accuse everyone who sees and knows all of this of doing
nothing to prevent the emerging catastrophe. Sabra and Shatilla events
were nothing compared to what has happened and what is going to happen
to us. We have to go out not only to the town squares, but also to the
checkpoints. We have to speak to the soldiers in the tanks and the troop
carriers-like the Russians spoke to their soldiers when they were ordered
to retake control in Red Square-before entry into Palestinian cities turns
into a murderous urban warfare.
-
- And I accuse myself of knowing all of this, yet crying
little and keeping quiet too often.
-
-
- * Baruch Kimmerling is a professor of sociology at Hebrew
University.
-
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