Sent: Tuesday, September 04, 2001 1:01 PM
Subject: Israel's Immunity from
Criticism.
The Editor.
The Globe & Mail
Dear Editor:
In the context of the US bullying and our
government's submission to US pressure in relation to the World
Conference Against Racism [WCAR}, why is the conference not allowed
to debate the issues openly and call the perpetrators of racism by their name,
including Israel? Must Israel be allowed always to remain above international
law? Israeli practices and laws are blatantly racist against Palestinians as
well as its own non-Jewish citizens. The list is formidable but let us look at
the evidence as clearly stated by Israeli human rights workers and other
international observers:
The late Professor Israel Shahak,
a Holocaust survivor and Chairperson of The Israeli League
for Civil and Human Rights, stated: " It is my considered
opinion that the state of Israel is a racist state in the full meaning of this
term. In this state people are discriminated against, in the most permanent
and legal way and in the most important areas of life, only because of their
origin. This racist discrimination began in Zionism and is carried today
mainly in cooperation with the institutions of the Zionist movement."
The Israeli thinker Derek Tozer stated:
" The official policy of the government [of Israel] is unequivocal.
Arabs like the Jews in Nazi Germany are officially 'Class B' citizens, a
fact which is recorded on their identity cards."
Denis Goldberg, a
Jewish South African sentenced to life imprisonment for " conspiring to
overthrow the Apartheid regime", was released through the
intercession of Israeli officials, came to Israel and stated in 1985 that he
sees " many similarities in the oppression of blacks in South
Africa and of Palestinians", and pledged never to stay in Israel and
moved to England.
Nelson Mandela, not
unfamiliar with racist practices, in one of his first speeches after release
from prison, compared blacks in South africa to Palestinians who are
fighting " against a unique form of colonialism".
South Africa Archbishop Desmond Tutu observed,
during a Christmas visit to Jerusalem in 1989: " I am a black South
African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is
happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, could describe events in
South Africa."
Attorney Malea Kiblan, a
member of the American National Lawyers Guild Group who
visited Israel and the Occupied Territories, stated at the Guild's Press
Conference on Aug. 1, 1977: " Before I came, I had never fully
understood the UN Resolution that equated Zionism with racism, and I came
here with an open mind to have personal access to the facts of the
situation. When I saw things first hand, I was totally overwhelmed by the
way the Arabs are treated as inferior people. I didn't really understand
institutional racism until I made this trip, although we have racism in the
United States. Israel is built on an exclusive system, and the Arabs
racially cannot qualify as equal citizens in the West Bank or in Israel in
any area, including health , education, personal treatment and every other
area."
To quote one of the many laws in Israel that
discriminate against non- Jewish citizens of the satate, there is the Development
Authority Law of 1950, which remains effective. This law grants the
Jewish National Fund authority over 92% of the land in
Israel. By means of a "land Covenant". All this property, most of
it expropriated from Palesinians, becomes the
"inalienable property" of the Jewish
people worldwide. This means non-Jews, citizens of the
state, can never buy any of it, rent it or till it. If such a law
stipulating only Christians or any specific religious
entity can own or lease or till 92% of the land of Canada, would there not
be an outcry of discrimination and racism?
No country, including Israel, must be allowed to
remain above international law, and Palestinians as well as Muslim and
Christian citizens of Israel are humans too.
Your sincerely
Ismail Zayid, MD.