:::Red Rag - The Justice of Occupation
By: Gideon Spiro [ ::: The Left and Protest ::: ]
The Jerusalem district court, composed of judges Moshe Ravid (senior judge), Orit Efal Gabai and Aharon Farkash, sentenced 33 year old Hamdi Kuran (Monday, December 3rd 2007) to life and a further one hundred years in prison after finding him guilty of the assassination of Minister Rechavam Zeevi. Upon entering the courtroom, Hamdi Kuran said that he does not recognize the court of the occupation and that "the day will come when we will judge you". In declaring the sentence, the judges reviewed the main accusations of which the defendant was found guilty and dedicated a section to the prominence of Zeevi who was then serving as Minister of Tourism; among other things it was stated that he loved Israel, was a General in the military, and "devoted his life to the defense of his people and the security of the State".
Not one word about Zeevi being a right wing extremist who supported the idea of "transfer" for the Arabs; not a word about his being an integral part of the foundation of the Israeli occupation and its oppressive activities - the killings, the murders, the collective punishment and the humiliation of millions of Palestinians, in his military capacity as General of Central Command and as a Minister in the government; not a word about the fact that as an MK, he wandered about, armed, in the occupied territories to give support for terror to the settlers; not a word about his support for the settlement project, which is defined as a war crime by international law.
Not a word about the fact that the assassination of Minister Zeevi on the 17th of October 2001 was retaliation for the "targeted elimination" (as it is termed in colonial Hebrew) performed by the Israeli occupying army two months earlier (on the 21st of August 2001) against Abu Al Mustafa, head of the Liberation Front, who was a civilian political leader.
The assassination of Minister Zeevi was essentially no different from another assassination, several decades earlier, performed by the underground Lechi. In Egypt, on the 5th of November 1944, in the midst of the Second World War, two members of the underground, Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Beit Zuri , assassinated Lord Moyen, the Minister of Middle Eastern Affairs for His Majesty"s Government under Winston Churchill.
The two were tried by a British Court which sentenced them to death. The two Eliahus did not recognize the authority of the British Occupation to try them, just as Hamdi Kuran did not recognize the authority of the Israeli court. In both cases the courts are of occupiers whose judges are extensions of the colonial rule conducting a predetermined trial with a known outcome.
Eliahu Hakim and Eliahu Beit Zuri, sentenced as terrorists, are considered freedom fighters in Israel today and have a place of honor at the Museum of Underground Prisoners which is administered by the Ministry of Defense.
This is exactly what will happen with Hamdi Kuran and his friends who took part in the assassination. In the Palestinian ethos they will be remembered as freedom fighters who fought to liberate their people from the cruel occupier.
Some of the irony here is that the senior judge in Kuran"s trial, Moshe Ravid, was raised on the legacy of Zabotinsky and still regards the two Lechi assassins as freedom fighters. With the passage of time, he is filling the role of the judges in the British Court that tried Hakim and Beit Zuri. The circle turns.
In the battle against colonialism and racism, I tend to identify with the oppressed who are fighting for their freedom and this tendency holds true for the struggle of the Palestinians against the occupation, even if some of the means of their struggle are not acceptable to me.
Jewish Chutzpah
Hanukah is a holiday with both religious and secular interpretations. The religious pre-Zionist Judaism places the emphasis on the miracle of the can of oil, to dim the glory of the Hashmonaic Rebellion and focus on divine intervention. Zionism, on the other hand, appropriated the holiday for its own purposes and emphasized the military activism, claiming that "we fought and conquered", which nourished the creation of a strong army and the creation of secular Hanukah songs.
Hanukah has many fans. For Chabad it is an opportunity to rush to the center of towns, erect giant Menorahs and hold nightly ceremonies of candle lighting. This is one of the "Mitzva"s" of the Rabbi for the missionary activities of Chabad.
Another Hanukah fan is the Association for the Soldier which holds its annual fundraiser, enlisting artists, politicians, the radio, the TV and, of course, the Chief of Staff and his Generals, to get money for "our soldiers".
This year they raised 14 million Shekels.
The fundraiser is one of the more revolting aspects of Jewish Chutzpah. The military has the largest budget in Israel. Billions of dollars of public funds are badly spent. The military has more than enough monetary sources to take care of the welfare of its soldiers. But why should they bother to improve the fund management of this mammoth structure when they can just create another institution under the warm and friendly name "Association for the Soldier" which, in turn, becomes another attractive job for a senior officer who becomes its chairman. There is a structure and it must also be funded.
This fundraiser is part of the brainwashing that the government and the military do to create among the public a high degree of admiration for anything military. The fundraiser is a well-oiled structure to squeeze the public and very few are immune. I am not referring to the large businesses whose donations are economic investments under the pretense of "love for our soldiers", and they will reap the benefits in some future contract with the government. Nor am I concerned about the millionaires who will know how to take advantage of their donations, not to mention the tax benefits.
But this fundraiser goes into the pockets of what is known as the small citizen, and even worse, into the souls and savings of children. The celebrity fundraisers (Ilana Dayan the journalist, Tzvika Hadar starborn and Rita the singer - a sample of the fundraising inventory) on radio and TV, repeat over and over again the emotional stories of a 12 year old girl who donated her Bat Mizvah monies to the army, of a first grade boy who donated his pocket money to our soldiers, and the brainwashing reaches the children. I remember how the teacher in charge of the pre-kindergarten attended by my children took the children to a military base to show them how the soldiers live. "Do you see, children, these are the beds upon which our heroic soldiers sleep!" This is where the begging and extortion begin. We no longer need the parents to tell the children. It is the children who ask their parents to donate to the soldiers.
As an illustration to the above, I passed by a booth for fundraising of the Association for the Soldier, on Ibn Gvirol Street in Tel Aviv. The Fundraisers asked for my donation. I told them I don"t donate. They asked why? I told them that the army is corrupt and mismanaging billions. I do not donate to any institution that is associated with the army because it is an army of occupation that oppresses another nation, that the little I have to donate finds its way to institutions fighting for human rights and social justice, such as the "refusniks of occupation". The fundraisers saw me as an alien who just landed from another galaxy and needed immediate attention. That's how it is around here.
They took away their game
A combined report from all USA Intelligence agencies, number 16, determines that the Iranians stopped military development of their nuclear program since 2003.
For years we have been hounded by the Iranian threat, preparing ourselves for a military attack, 2008 was supposed to be the decisive year, and suddenly the Americans are pouring cold water on our heated brains.
Instead of joy erupting in Israel that the source of our existential danger is gone "Israel"s leadership becomes depressed. The military and security establishment is dismayed. Their game has been stolen. What will the Minister for Strategic Affairs do now? His planes were practically in the air on the way to bomb Iran.
A normal democracy would allow its citizens to calm down and sleep peacefully. Not in Israel.
Okay, there was a bit of embarrassment but the gang is recovering. Now there is centralized attack by the generals, the politicians, aided by military journalists, telling us that the American report is full of holes, the danger is not over, that Israel"s intelligence picture is very different, that now it is Israel against Iran, etc.
All this is intended to cool down those who had begun to believe that the danger of war had passed. Not only is the danger still there, but I fear that Israeli war planes are continuing to train for attacks on Iran and the madmen in the government and the military will push for an Israeli military action which will lead to a retaliation of missiles upon Israel, and the end will be near.
Now it is the duty of politicians, cultural leaders and journalist who are more sane to stand guard and do everything possible to block the progress of war by adventurers and if anyone has secret information the publication of which would cancel any Israeli military action against Iran, please send it to London"s Sunday Times, which would be happy to publish it.
* Translated from Hebrew by Daphna Levit for Kibush.
