This Wednesday will pass like any other for most students on Grounds. But for a few here in our safe utopia of Charlottesville, the date of April 9 carries the stigma of tragedy. Wednesday will mark the 55th anniversary of a the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians by Jewish terrorist organizations in the small, peaceful town whose name has become synonymous with Israeli terror -- Deir Yassin. Although some Israeli organizations still stubbornly persist in grotesquely denying the reality of the massacre, most people throughout the world recognize it for the catastrophe it was, fitting of a day of remembrance, and symbolizing 55 years of shameful Israeli oppression against a weaker, impoverished native population. I hope students take a moment on Wednesday to soberly reflect on the harsh realities of the Zionist occupation and the damage it has wrought and question why the United States continues to support it.
Many contemporary histories of the Middle East conveniently overlook the violence and injustices committed by Zionists, the founders of the state of Israel. We do not often hear of "Jewish terrorist" groups -- in fact, the concept sounds strangely oxymoronic to modern ears, so used to hearing one-sided accounts of Palestinian terrorism. But as any reader of Israeli history will confirm, Jewish terrorism was indeed a formative element of the founding of Israel.As described in David Shapiro's book, Arab and Jew, on the ninth of April, 1948, the Jewish terrorist groups Etzel and Lehi attacked the peaceful village of Deir Yassin and massacred its men, women and children; sliced off ears, gutted bellies, raped women, torched men, dumped bodies in stone quarries and left with a triumphant parade. Although the incident was not unique, it was best documented by representatives from the Red Cross and British police forces, who all witnessed the event. News of the event eventually filtered into the international news media and historical record. The evidence they provided later forced the Israeli government to rescind its claim that Jews were not the ones responsible at all -- rather, they originally blamed "rogue Arabs." Israeli school textbooks still depict this and many other twisted versions of history, such as denying that many Arab villages (whose inhabitants still exist as refugees) ever existed or lionizing Jewish terrorists as "freedom fighters" or claiming that, inexplicably, Palestine's Arab population fled the country voluntarily in 1948 (in fact, many times in response to massacres like Deir Yassin).
This is the basis upon which the Middle East's so-called "only democratic state" was founded. Of course, any foreign affairs major can rebut that claim -- both Iran and Turkey have been thriving, legitimate democracies for over 20 years. Interestingly, our media sources dismiss these nations as lacking legitimacy somehow because of their Islamic heritage. But what's wrong with Islamic parties winning elections in Turkey and Iran being a self-proclaimed Islamic state? After all, Israel -- not, in fact, the Middle East's only democracy -- is a self-proclaimed Jewish state, with many privileges granted to its Jewish population that are denied to non-Jews. Non-Jewish Israelis are subject to state-sponsored religious, and often racial, discrimination in the areas of leasing land, employment practices and voting, just to name a few. Several Nobel laureates and leading (non-Arab) international figures have compared the situation in Israel to South African apartheid on account of the striking similarities between the two.
American policy toward Israel is also grossly skewed. Despite a per-capita income of roughly $15,000 (more than many European states, and a product of a 50 year history of heavy public and private American investment), Israel receives over $3 billion in direct U.S. foreign aid every year -- more than all U.S. aid to the continents of Africa and South America combined. With federal loan guarantees and other direct subsidies, total aid rises approximately $5 billion, according to the General Accounting Office. Why would stingy Congressmen bathe Israel in so much unneeded subsidy? It could have something to do with AIPAC -- Israel's $15 million dollar political lobby in Washington, second in expenditures only to Taiwan's. AIPAC is Washington's most feared national lobby, due to multi-million dollar strategic candidate funding and specious lobbying practices that have led to its offices being raided by the FBI on several occasions. Groups like AIPAC also lobby and patronize the American Jewish community, a consistent voting bloc, for candidates they feel serve Israel's interest. Savvy politicians know that support for Israel means major contributions from this well-heeled lobby and their supporters and are only too happy to oblige.
Deir Yassin is a reminder to us today that the struggle is not over. Through shrewd lobbying and political insinuation, Israel has managed to portray itself to many Americans as the victim -- although its continued racist campaign of oppression against the Palestinian people has killed nearly three times as many civilians as vice-versa, according to every major international human rights organization (Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, among others). Even if the disgusting Israeli subjugation of the occupied territories isn't enough to convince many that America's policy towards Israel must change, surely Israel does not deserve what amounts to a full third of America's entire foreign aid budget. Take time on Wednesday to observe the suffering of the majority of the victims in this terrible conflict, who do not have access to a slick Washington lobby or PR office. Deir Yassin should remind us that the world will not truly be just until Israel recognizes its wrongs and corrects them and until we see a free Palestine.
(Blair Reeves's column appears Mondays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at breeves@cavalierdaily.com.)
Read More
EDITORIAL: Carla Williams deserves her seat at the table
By Editorial Board | 6 hours agoLooking beyond basketball and football reveals that Virginia Athletics is, in many ways, thriving.
UPADHYAYA: The Great and not-so-Good sides of U.Va.’s 2030 housing plan
By Apal Upadhyaya | 2 days agoInstead of improving the dire state of existing infrastructure, however, the University has shifted attention away from it and chosen to expand.
EDITORIAL: Support low-barrier shelters in Charlottesville
By Editorial Board | 3 days agoInvesting in low-barrier shelters now will pay off in increased stability for the homeless, which will undoubtedly improve the safety of shelters and the community writ large.
