In the recent weeks new laws and Bills have been introduced by a country that claims to be a western democracy, despite it being located in the Middle East. These measures include 20 year prison term for throwing stones, collective punishment of demolishing homes and now the Nationality Bill declaring it a religious state. The implications for the indigenous population are that they can be deprived of, already diluted, rights of citizenship. The indigenous population has already seen confiscation of their land, farms and homes and influx of Western Citizens settled on that land. These new settlements, populated by people who are neither refugees nor economic migrants, are often built in a way that it divides existing communities who are then forced to use long routes, separate roads and paths. It increases presence of not only the armed police and army but also abuse , threats, harassment from armed settlers, who arrive with already developed prejudices.
There is no other country in the world which has such discriminative and inhumane laws. I am of course talking about Israel which claims to be a modern democracy. However, her actions do not support this grand claim, they show that Israel operates a discriminative and apartheid based system against the Palestinians / Arabs. This kind of behaviour was previously seen in the colonised countries, most recently in the apartheid state of South Africa. There are clear similarities between the apartheid regime and Israel. South Africans claimed to be superior on the basis of colour and their western ancestry. Same can be said about Israelis, who have descended from the white western communities. Like South African apartheid regime, Israeli survival is dependent on the trade and aid from the West.
We in the West believe that we are living in secular societies where human rights of all are protected. We claim to have systems and legislations that promote and protect equal rights of all and the justice system is not based on punishment and revenge but Justice and rehabilitation. We tell rest of the world that we have democratic systems that protects right to air views openly without any repercussions. We have the free and open society with freedom of thought and where disagreements are resolved with intellectual debate and discussion. We proudly take on causes of the people, who are persecuted for their views, politics, religion, ethnicity or who are at odds with their government.
With all the above virtues of civility, how come there is no outcry about the injustices in Israel? Why do our politicians accept Israel as a democratic country? Why does the United Nations look incompetent and incapable of enforcing the Resolutions passed for a period spanning several decades? Why do US keep blocking any resolutions which condemn the massacres carried out by Israel? Why does the West continue to ignore the outrage felt by their citizens? Why are Palestinians left to struggle under the oppression of this apartheid state?
The answer probably lies in the fact that some of the virtues we were proud of are fast becoming a distant memory. There has been a drip-drip erosion of the very foundations of civilisation which was the envy of the world. The pity is that this erosion has been caused by deliberate action of our politicians and power Hungary civil administration. It has been supported by the people who claim to be people of science and reason, intellectuals, media in general and journalists who fail to carry out their job properly and opt to fill their column with sensationalist headlines not thought provoking analytical pieces.
The turn of the century has not only brought us the dark incident of 9/11, it also brought the darkness in our thinking. It replaced rationality with child like how dare they do this to us. Our politicians, media and intellectuals see terrorists everywhere. This has given our security services to demand for ever more powers and tools. Same applies to US where we have seen that their Police and other domestic forces are now armed better than their armed forces. These forces now believe that they can literally get away with murder.
The reality is that the UK has an extensive experience of dealing with terrorism. We had adequate legislation and experienced security forces to deal with the issue of terrorism. Yes, modernisation was needed to cope with the technological advances. However, this attitude of how dare they, exceptionalism and fear of others, has lead to irrational thinking and legislation which is not thought through. This has resulted in the annual enactment of new legislation and regulations. Often such legislation is brought in a short space of time without proper thought and procedures.
The purpose of good legislation is to be long lasting to bring desired results without bringing unintended implications.. This requires full impact assessment and need for safeguards to prevent unintended and discriminatory effects on the wider communities. When you start saying that you want to control people’s thought processes, freedom of speech, freedom of movement, you betray the freedoms you preach. Furthermore, when you know that the legislation is having adverse affects on the wider community but start to justify it on perceived threats rather than actual events you are not a democrat.
If anything our experiences in the Northern Ireland tell us that despite extensive security measures we were unable to stop acts of terrorism and murder both in the Northern Ireland and on the mainland. With this in mind it is even more surprising that UK has been churning out legislation this way. There is continuous development of hardening of rhetoric. In the recent weeks our politicians and media has used terms like treason, exclusion and detention. This has now been presented as yet another terrorism bill. These proposed measures are more akin to internment, an outdated practice, than a positive measure to bring desired results.
The annual assaults on the freedoms are sinister when white groups and some banned terror groups are allowed to raise funds and are given safe passage to the battlefields. Also people who train and fight with foreign armies are excluded, even if they have been accused of committing atrocities/ war crimes. Furthermore, mercenaries disguised as volunteers and private security firms like G4S and Blackwater are allowed to operate freely.
I wonder why the Prime Minister made the announcement, about the current terrorism bill, in the Australian. I think it is now a policy to revive the old commonwealth plus USA against the alleged threat from the new commonwealth. May be the Prime Minister was impressed by the Australian policy of holding asylum seekers in detention centres based off her shores. Britain has it’s own detention centres but nothing like the Australian or USA’s Guantanamo Bay. Britain had previously unsuccessfully tried an off shore detention centre on a floating ship. May be this time it could build one on Thames Estuary/ Boris Island. Who needs an airport when you need to intern “terrorists”.
What is surprising is that the old Commonwealth countries and USA, all English speaking, seems to have similar policies. Other countries in the West and other parts of the world has also experienced terrorism but somehow they have managed to keep things in perspective. Spain, for example, has not only experienced internal terrorism it also suffered the most deadliest post 9/11 attack in Europe, managed to deal with issue without draconian laws. Draconian laws, along with the negative rhetoric from politicians and media can only lead to more frustration and alienation.
Is it a coincident that the same governments who treat their minority communities with discriminative and draconian legislation are also the countries that support Israel? These countries not only support Israel, they supply Israel arms and ammunition to carry out the atrocities. They allow their citizens to fight alongside Israeli armed forces and the highest number of settlers housed in the illegal settlements built on the stolen land are from these countries. They host the organisations that spread propaganda in favour of Israel and spread hate and hysteria about the minorities in these countries. Their state media has sister organisations BBC, ABC, CBC, etc. and private media like Sky which also broadcasts in all of these countries directly or through sister channels.
Despite the advances and popularity of the social media, mainstream media has a very important role to play. Mainstream media which has the ability to reach millions at home and abroad has a responsibility to inform and question our politicians. Unfortunately the mainstream media is in a stranglehold of certain class of people who control the agenda. They make more fuss about a dissident in China than pay attention to the plight of Rohingya in Burma. They are more concerned about the imprisonment of a businessman or a pop group in Russia than the suppression of Kashmiris. They would rather condemn Putin for helping the Ukranians against the Right wing neo Nazi’s than criticise Netnayhu who, as far as the Palestinians and reasonable people are concerned, is a brutal dictator.
In short, you can’t expect governments that operate discriminatory policies and legislation to condemn the discriminatory policies of Israel. It is for us the public to speak up for the Palestinians who are suffering from occupation, oppression, discrimination and increasingly dehumanisation by the Israel and her supporters based in Europe Australia and North America. We must remain steadfast in our support for the Palestinians and their right to freedom and continue to voice our disgust at the shameful apartheid dictatorship of Israel. 