While in Paris a few weeks ago, whenever I would discuss Middle East politics
with anyone, I would be overwhelmed with the traditional refrains of classical
anti-Americanism: "they have no culture and deal with the world as if it had no
culture," "they have no morality in their foreign policy," "they go to war for
oil and money" and so on with inane over-simplified stereotypes. Soon after
would come the cackle of self-righteous pride: "we Europeans are different," "we
want our foreign policy based on a concept of morality," "we attempt to promote
justice in the world and fix up the mess left behind by the Americans." I would
then usually be told something about all the aid that Europeans give to
Palestinians as proof of the decency of Europeans as opposed to the rabidly
Zionist Americans who give billions to fund Israel's murderous army.
Would that this were true.
Europe's policy with regard to Palestine/Israel is so racist, short-sighted,
counter-productive and hypocritical that it could almost pass for American
policy.
When looking at the current situation in Palestine, an observer will find an
illegal Israeli occupation that has been festering for 40 years, combined with
illegal ethnically-exclusive colonies built on stolen Palestinian land, and the
world's only ethnically-segregated road network, where many routes can only be
accessed by Jews. An internationally-illegal apartheid barrier surrounds
Palestinian towns and villages, not only cutting them off from one another, but
also cutting off farmers from their lands, children from their schools, patients
from their hospitals and workers from their jobs. Israel controls all of the
Palestinians' openings to the outside world, stifling not only Palestinians'
freedom of movement, but also their economy and trade. The Israeli army, one of
the world's strongest, is regularly unleashed on civilian populations in
Palestine, murdering thousands and killing innocent children with complete
impunity. The Israeli government has as its Deputy Prime Minister an unabashed
fascist who openly and regularly calls for ethnic cleansing and mass murder of
Arabs as a solution to the conflict. Israel continues to deny millions of
Palestinians their legal right to return to their own homes from which they were
ethnically cleansed in 1948, restricts land-ownership to Jews only, and has
discriminatory racist laws in countless areas from marriage to immigration.
In the face of this travesty of justice, what is the only thing that the
Europeans do? Demand that the oppressed, the Palestinians, only elect political
parties that "recognize Israel's right to exist" as a precondition for sitting
on one table and discussing what to do about all these travesties.
Let us first bear in mind that the idea of Hamas -- or any Palestinian political
party for that matter -- recognizing Israel's "right to exist" is a patently
meaningless idea that makes as much sense as Manchester United Football Club
recognizing Tanzania's "right to exist." Nowhere is it written that nation
states have a "right to exist" themselves. What is meant by "recognition" in an
international setting is what happens when countries exchange embassies and
establish diplomatic relations. Nowhere but in Palestine has the idea of a
non-state entity recognizing a state ever been seriously discussed. Further, the
imbeciles who repeat this canard conveniently ignore that Israel is not merely
"not recognizing Palestine's right to exist," but actively, deliberately and
comprehensively destroying any chance of a Palestinian state ever existing. But,
for the morally superior Europeans, Hamas' "recognition" of Israel is the thing
that bothers them the most about Palestine/Israel today, and not all of the
crimes listed above. The kicker, of course, is not just that this is a morally
and logically absurd position, but that Israel's actions are the root of the
conflict, and not whether Hamas recognizes Israel. This recognition won't change
anything on the ground and won't affect the lives of anyone in any way, but the
walls, settlements, killings, checkpoints and Israel's racist policies will.
Only when these are ended can there be peace, regardless of what Hamas
"recognizes" or declines to "recognize."
All of the aforementioned crimes by Israel constitute clear violations of the EU
Neighborhood Policy terms under which EU neighbors get preferential access to EU
markets and a slew of other benefits and perks. The EU regularly uses its
economic and diplomatic influence to try and get countries to desist from
carrying out racist policies: it makes trade deals dependent on improvements in
human, labor and minority rights; it has made Turkey's accession to the EU
dependent on Turkey's human rights record, and has stopped Austria from bringing
Jorg Haider into the government. Far from taking any action to try to pressure
Israel to stop some of its crimes in Palestine, the EU has cowardly chosen a
policy of rewarding their transgressions with more carrots, and Israel continues
to enjoy extremely generous benefits from its relationship with European
countries, even being sold arms by many of them.
The tragic aspect of Europe's policy with regard to Palestine today is not just
that is practically indistinguishable from the policy of the US, but that it
comes bundled with great self-righteousness and an unshakable belief that it is
not only the correct policy, but is also vastly morally superior to anything
anyone else is doing. The financial aid provided by Europe is the major
rationale supporting this smugness.
As the Europeans continue to do nothing to stop Israel from destroying the
livelihood of the Palestinian people, they take out their checkbooks and assuage
their conscience by providing money to the Palestinians. Before the election of
Hamas, this money went to prop up the increasingly unpopular Palestinian
Authority in order to guarantee its survival and a continuation of the painful
status quo. After Hamas' election, they tried to surpass the PA by sending money
through increasingly complex, inefficient, and often counter-productive
mechanisms.
Here is a small microcosm of how this madness works: A Palestinian town has a
wall built surrounding it from all sides, making it impossible for previously
prosperous farmers to access their land, patients to reach their doctors and
children to reach their schools. Naturally, the town is devastated. That's when
Europeans send in their conscience-assuaging, smugness-propping aid "experts" to
"save" the town, in the process relieving Israel from having to deal with the
consequences of its crimes. They provide the farmers with food to replace the
food they could have produced themselves, and proceed with projects to teach
Palestinians "alternative industries," "new business models," "good local
governance," "participatory development," "creative educational techniques" and
countless other meaningless prattle that the Palestinians would gladly give up
for having the wall removed, an independent state and some sense of normalcy
bestowed on their lives. Naturally, these projects have a short shelf-life; the
funding soon dries up, the "experts" leave, but the apartheid wall remains, the
livelihood of a whole town is devastated, and the mirage of Palestinian
independence is even more distant. And worst of all: the next time an
unfortunate Palestinian like myself visits Paris, they will be bombarded with
self-righteous recitation of countless such micro projects, and expected to bow
in deference of the mighty superiority of European morality.
High percentages of European citizens have a good understanding of the conflict
and would like to see a better policy and a just solution. Countless Europeans
spend a lot of time and money in helping Palestinians, many volunteering to
travel there to protect Palestinians and protest and document the occupation.
These brave souls are some of my personal heroes. There are many sincere and
honest European politicians who have opposed these policies. I do not doubt the
sincerity of many of those who genuinely want to improve the lives of
Palestinians, and am personally very grateful to them. But a combination of
indifference on the part of many and malice on the part of the leaders
kow-towing to the US produces this criminal policy, and donates a lot of aid to
try to appease those who care. Europeans have to recognize that the only way
things will improve is not through charity, but proper, principled and sustained
political action.
True, Europe has shown some principled and humanist action in their foreign
policy towards many countries. They may give more aid, send more peacekeepers
and broker more peace deals than the Americans, and they have certainly improved
a lot in the way they deal with the world over the last few decades. But
whatever Europe does, its complicity in the abhorrent oppression of Palestinians
will remain to blight any claims it has to moral authority. After all, you are
only as moral as your least moral action.
Source: electronic Intifada
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