I just read an extraordinarily moving account by a young Jewish Israeli woman of witnessing the humiliation of two fellow Israelis of Palestinian background by El Al security at the Prague airport. Her account begins:
I'll never forget my trip to Prague about a week ago, unfortunately not because Prague is so beautiful, it actually is an amazing place to travel to and tour around for a week, but because of the traumatic expereince at the airport. A brief acquintance on the way with two normal and educated young Israeli "Technion" (a highly acclaimed technical institute) graduates gave us the perfect option to share a cab, as well as pleasant companionship. Everything was wonderful - yes, it is possible for Israelis of Jewish and Arab origins, Muslim or Christian to get along and feel great together, despite those dark forces of evil, that made us realize the huge gap between us. These young people were abused - their non-Jewish name caused them awful damage and awful treatment at the airport. . .
She describes what they underwent (interrogation, strip-search, being dogged by security during their stay at the airport) and concludes:
I realized that we must screen people in order to protect ourselves from extremist terrorists, yet it is inconceivable that from the hundreds of passengers, only two citizens, the non-Jewish ones, should be forced to undergo over two hours of screening and questioning, including shameful humiliation. Why should I feel guilty because of you, El Al security staff? Why should I feel unequal to my Christian and Muslim friends because I'm Jewish? What do I care about religion anyway? I aspire to live in a country that respects its' citizens and their liberty, regardless of race, religion and sex. I promise NEVER to fly El Al again. . .
This young woman's feelings give me hope for humanity.
But there is a further point. Several months ago I was involved in a rather warm discussion here at DKos regarding the Palestinian BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Suspension) movement. The purpose of the BDS movement is to pressure Israel to comply with international law. During that warm discussion I was chastised for saying that the movement was right to exempt Palestinian citizens of Israel from the boycott, on the grounds that they were second class citizens, not responsible for Israeli actions. Weeks later, my argument was presented in other discussions as an example of the kind of antisemitism (and antisemite) allowed to run free at DKos.
This young woman's account shows, much better than I could, that the notion that Jewish and Palestinian Israeli citizens are equal is quite untrue.
Parenthetically, the highly recommended site containing this account, MondoWeiss, was started by Jewish journalist Philip Weiss, a longtime contributor to mainstream publications who had a column at the New York Observer for ten years. To quote from the site's About statement:
(MondoWeiss) has four principal aims:
To publish important developments touching on Israel/Palestine, the American Jewish community and the shifting debate over US foreign policy in a timely fashion.
To publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues.
To foster the movement for greater fairness and justice for Palestinians in American foreign policy.
To offer alternatives to pro-Zionist ideology as a basis for American Jewish identity.
MondoWeiss has been the target of laborious attempts, including one entire diary, to ban references to it from DKos on the grounds that it's a hate site. It's true that doctrinaire supporters of Israel hate it. To be honest, the comments are not strictly monitored and do sometimes contain unfortunate anti-semitic remarks. But as a whole the site is invaluable, providing much-needed oxygen to the airless public discussion of Arab-Israeli issues in this country, especially for Jews.