[Peace-discuss] Anti-racism

[David Green]

On the original point, I would suggest two perspectives that are ironically related. The U.S. does much more damage in the Middle East and the world than does Israel (notwithstanding that Israel's damage is done with indispensable American support). But we have 300 million people and need only a fraction of those, most secured by a poverty draft, in order to do what we do, and do it far away from our shores, out of sight and whenever possible out of mind. That mitigates the racial/religious prejudice that does exist in relation to Arabs/Muslims; as well as the fact that they are not an economically marginalized group in this country.

At this point, in all of Israel/Palestine, there are about 5 million Jews and 5 million Arabs, more or less. The Arabs are within and around Israel, all controlled by Israel. That's one Israeli controlling one Arab, a largely universally conscripted army, an occupation with checkpoints, Palestinians being used by Israeli soldiers as human shields in Gaza and the West Bank, etc. I would suggest that in this intimate context racial prejudice is intensified just as a defense mechanism against what has become normalized dehumanization, as well as in the usual sense in terms of justifying domination. While most Israelis don't participate in overt repression on a daily basis, most participate at some point in their lives, or have a family member/friend who does. There is not even lip service paid to "equal opportunity" for Arab Israelis, (although their condition relative to the Arab world is used for propaganda purposes by supporters of Israel).
 Rationalization for this has to be integrated into Israeli culture. Thus the figures that Carl cites, also reflecting ongoing political events and the so-called "rise of the right," as if Israel is not a right-wing political culture by definition.


________________________________
From: Marti Wilkinson <martiwilki at gmail.com>
To: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
Cc: peace-discuss <peace-discuss at anti-war.net>
Sent: Thursday, March 5, 2009 8:11:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Anti-racism




On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 7:58 AM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:

Wouldn't it betray a "privileged mindset" so easily to set aside, say, the victories against racism of the US civil rights movement, by saying that that racism wasn't different from racial prejudice?


Nope, in fact citing the victories of the Civil Rights movement overlooks the fact that marginalized groups still face many uphill battles in the United States. It's a convenient form of denial that perpetuates the myth that racism is a thing of the past. 



Marti Wilkinson wrote:

For many people racism is not something that can be separated from racial prejudice, and it can be argued that even attempting to make such a distinction is consistent with a privileged mindset.


On Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 8:23 PM, C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu <mailto:galliher at illinois.edu>> wrote:

   [Racism refers to legal structures that penalize groups defined by
   descent. Racial prejudice refers to censorious attitudes towards
   groups defined by descent.  Both are present in Israel. Racism, but
   not racial prejudice, is now largely absent in the US (altho' some,
   like native Americans, may justly not think so).  --CGE]

          March 4, 2009
          SEGREGATION IN ISRAEL

   Israeli Association for Civil Rights

   Some 55 percent of Jewish Israelis say that the state should
   encourage Arab emigration;

   78 percent of Jewish Israelis oppose including Arab parties in the
   government;

   56 percent agree with the statement that 'Arabs cannot attain the
   Jewish level of cultural development'

   75 percent agree that Arabs are inclined to be violent. Among
   Arab-Israelis, 54 percent feel the same way about Jews.

   75 percent of Israeli Jews say they would not live in the same
   building as Arabs.

   http://prorev.com/2009/03/segregation-in-israel.html
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