As I transferred planes with Qatar airways on route to Melbourne. I hadn’t finished my article on Palestinian “Freedom riders” and took it out to read as I was surrounded by people speaking Arabic. I assumed that we’d have very different perspectives on the actions taken by these Palestinians, the context of segregated roads and public transport, and the points expressed in the article.
Of course I didn’t get the chance to see if those assumptions were true. I didn’t really feel up to a tricky conversation in broken english and got distracted by 6 episodes of Glee, the rise of planet of the apes and some fidgety sleeping.
One assumption I got wrong was that Qatar airways, to my pleasant surprise, did indeed serve booze and plenty of non practicing Muslims joined me in enjoying it 🙂
So what’s my point? I had a mixed reaction to the piece on ‘freedom riders’ and I felt mixed about making assumptions about perspectives on the conflict based on being Jewish or Arab.
I’d spent the first leg of my flight choking up watching ‘the help’ and felt unsettled with the allusion to civil rights and racism in 50s and 60s USA. I felt like writing one of those ZF responses highlighting the security context for the segregation and that Israel does not have these policies based on racism, that Israel is a vibrant democracy etc. etc.
Even ignoring recent attacks on Israeli democracy that throw that line of argument into doubt, I had to check myself. In the article one ‘settler’ says something to the affect of ‘whilst these Palestinians may have had good intentions, others might board the buses to perpetrate suicide bombings’.
Isn’t it racist to tar a whole group of people based on the (admittedly horrific) actions of a few within it? Isn’t it racist to enact policy and law targeting a whole population based on this dehumanising lumping together of all under one label?
(Isn’t it prejudiced to lump all Israelis living beyond the green line under the banner ‘settler’ with it’s implied notions of ultra religious Zionism? although I’m someone who advocates withdrawing from most of west bank/Judea & Samaria – I can distinguish between the hill top youth, those who resettled in Gush Etzioni after massacres drove people out pre-state, and those drawn to areas most likely to be part of post-2 state israel by left and right wing governments)
Back to the ‘freedom riders’ – I believe the Israeli government is doing these things based mainly on fear and to protect lives, and with some justification after seeing hundreds of civilians killed on terror attacks on buses. The events in Eilat earlier this year remind us that there is still a threat. Although, I do also feel there’s an element of desperately trying to placate settlers in continuing the stranglehold on the west bank and establishing facts on the ground.
The coverage of the ‘freedom riders’ attempts to evoke a lazy comparison, as are those who try the same with apartheid. For those ordinary Palestinians who have their freedom of movement restricted because protecting the lives of settlers is more important than upholding the rights of Palestinians, does it really matter?
Israel eventually pulled out of Lebanon and Gaza after leaders and the public agreed that continuing the status quo and risking Israeli soldiers and civilians wasn’t worth it for the sake of maintaining settlements – is it too much to hope that even if based on security principles, the de facto denial of rights to millions of Palestinians is too big a price to pay in the current situation?
It may be a lazy comparison, but perhaps non violent direct action invoking the spirit of Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr will force the Israeli government to reconsider how this looks. It might also just show the Palestinians that these tactics work a lot better than terror.
(slightly naive and confused jet lagged thoughts x)
obviously a slanted take on events, but this video raises troubling issues nonetheless;
jewishgeekandproud 