CITIZENS WITHOUT SOVEREIGNTY:
TRANSFER AND ETHNIC CLEANSING IN ISRAEL
The article mainly discusses the so
called ethnic cleansing or un-mixing that has been going on in Israel for the
past few decades. It is a gross violation of human rights but in order to
understand exactly how the author has discussed the new meaning of ethnic
cleansing and what it implies in detail, giving us a very vivid picture of what
is happening between the Muslims and Jews.
He starts with giving a theoretical
background for the concepts of transfer and ethnic cleansing. Usually ethnicity
is not used by liberal, democratic governments against their citizens, and in
fact is totally in opposition to the idea of multiculturalism that is
propagated today. So ethnic cleansing is against the basic code of humanity and
we cannot expect humane governments to practice it. Then ethnic cleansing
implies bloodshed and violence, with unarmed minorities being attacked and
driven out. Therefore it results in transfer, physically and bodily moving
citizens of one ethnicity out of the majority area. This brings up images of
trains filled with bloody refugees etc. being herded from one destination to
another. These are old concepts of ethnic cleansing. However, Israel today,
professing to be a liberal democracy. Using no direct violence and not
transferring citizens in the old sense, is still practicing ethnic cleansing.
The methods and strategies have changed, but what is happening is a grosser violation
of human rights if possible.
In order to explain how, the author
starts by giving a history of the state of affairs in Israel from 1948. When
millions of Palestinian Muslims were driven out of Israel, mostly to the West
Bank and Gaza strip, and it was declared a Jewish state. The Palestinians who
remained were stripped of their citizenship, property and possessions and put under
martial law until 1966. After this, this was lifted their plight still did not
end. They were treated as second class citizens and many Palestinian villages
were unrecognized by the state, receiving no municipal facilities like
utilities, education, health etc. They could hold meeting now however and soon
united to protest against the injustice. However they were brutally treated by
the state. The government then tries other methods to expel them. Some of these
included offering incentives like free educational scholarships to Palestinians
who agree to leave the country and not come back. Their citizenship was
conditional upon their loyalty, with Muslims who declared themselves moderate
being legible only. Even then they had no part in policy making or government.
In short they were deprived of the ‘right to have rights’ the worst form of violation
against a human being.
After going through an account of this
history the author brings the reader to the current situation. Today,
Palestinians who are living in Israel feel themselves excluded from the social
and political spheres. This is the new form of ‘cultural transfer’ or transfer
of rights which is being used. Living in the country they cannot call it their
own, or live in security. They are discriminated against and they cannot
protest in any way. The government has also proposed to shift the borders of
Israel so as to exclude the Palestinians areas from the state altogether.
Another plan is to cooperate with Arab countries like Morocco who will agree to
give citizenship to the Israeli ‘Arabs’ who do not belong. In short most of the
Jewish population and officials agree that the Palestinians living in Israel do
not belong there. This is a form of transfer or exclusion, not from the land,
but within it. Even though the Palestinians are still citizens, etc they are
citizens stripped of their sovereignty, dignity and identity.
Finally the perception of the Palestinians
themselves has been discussed. Even though they have been living on this land
for centuries, now the Jews claim that it is them and not the Muslims who have
the ‘natural right’ to it. This sentiment is obviously not in accord with the
Palestinians. They have been made to feel like outsiders, like lesser citizens,
lesser humans, and ‘dirty’ since the State is to be cleansed of them. The older
generations feel fear as they have seen years of suffering but the newer
generation is more demanding. Parties like the Aqsa Alintifda have come into
being over the last years. It is not enough for the Palestinians to get a
temporary situation, or reforms that will somewhat better there situation. They
demand to be treated as equal humans and equal citizens in the country which is
their homeland.
Thus, this new form of ethnic cleansing,
and transfer, where even though there is no bloodshed and no forceful bodily transportation
of refugees across national borders, is worse as it deprives the Palestinian
citizens of their basic humanity; their right to have rights. The citizens are
treated in the same way as the refugees who live outside Israel in the Occupied
Areas. This situation needs to be addressed, and even though the UN has
ventured to do so in the past, the gross violation of human rights, the ethnic
cleaning, continues in its modern form unchecked and unrecognized.
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