DOCSLIB.ORG

Are Taught to Hate

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Are Taught to Hate Scheinberg: ‘They’ are taught to hate The following is the text of a radio broadcast by Prof. Stephen Scheinberg (a Montreal historian who is active with Canadian Friends of Peace Now) for a program called “Radio Shalom”: Recently a good friend posed a challenge to me. I suppose that my regular insistence that the government of Israel was thwarting any movement towards peace irritated him. His strategy was to cut to the basics, asking: “how can there be any real peace if the Palestinians continue to teach their children to hate Israel and its citizens?” In other words, let us suppose that Israel, with the best of good will, signed a peace treaty; could this overcome the hatred that “their” children are imbued with? It is not a question to be answered lightly and it demands an informed response. First, hatred is a serious problem, among both Israelis and Palestinians. A 2007 survey conducted by University of Haifa researchers revealed the extent of this malaise. 800 Israeli, Jewish high school students from 11 schools showed a deep contempt for Arabs. Seventy-five per cent said that Arabs were “uneducated” and the same number said they were “uncivilized”. Shockingly, 74 per cent responded that they were “unclean”. That constitutes clear, unadulterated racism. I had reacted negatively to the widely distributed video from journalist Max Blumenthal that showed the nasty racism of Israeli youth through select interviews in which they attacked not only Arabs but the skin color of President Obama. I believe you can find such louts in front of the clubs in any city of the world. However, the poll results indicate that Blumenthal’s sample may not have been unrepresentative. That same poll showed that Israeli Arab students were also racist but not at quite as high a level as their Jewish counterparts. I have not been able to locate a similar study of Palestinian youth in the West Bank and Gaza. Israeli propagandists have focused not on their opinions but on the text books they are exposed to. The Center for Monitoring the Impact of Peace (CMIP), a group which seems more interested in undermining rather than furthering peace efforts, has fueled the debate. Akiva Eldar of Haaretz describes CMIP’s founder Itamar Marcus: “In recent years Marcus has been making a living translating and disseminating defamatory communications against Israel, extracted by his staff from Palestinian publications. Marcus, a settler, used to work for David Bar Illan, Benjamin Netanyahu’s PR chief, and served on the Joint Israeli Palestinian Anti-Incitement Committee. Marcus’s center routinely feeds the media with excerpts from “Palestinian” textbooks that call for Israel’s annihilation.” Marcus’s methods have come under serious fire from Prof. Nathan Brown of George Washington University, who contends that most of the words cited by Marcus were taken from the old Egyptian and Jordanian texts and not the newer Palestinian ones. Brown’s own conclusion was more optimistic, that the newer “books certainly contained material unfriendly to Israel, but they did not attack its existence or veer into anti-Semitism.” In their joint project Prof. Ruth Finer of Hebrew University and Prof. Sami Adwan of Bethlehem University examined 13 Israeli and nine Palestinian texts in history and civics. Not surprisingly the texts were almost mirror images of one another. Each celebrates only its own victims, and ignores the human suffering of the other. Perhaps the utopian alternative was offered by Prof. Adwan and Prof. Dan Baron who authored a joint text with parallel narratives on alternate pages. I suspect, that sadly, it did not find its way into too many schools. Unfortunately, more typical is the finding of Prof. David Bar-Tal of Hebrew University who found that in 124 Israeli textbooks, Arabs are presented as “primitive,” “cruel,” and “riffraff.” So, perhaps that is enough of mutual charges of racism and cultivating hatred. Neither side has a monopoly on hatred and both could do more to eliminate it. Yet, while I believe that education has an important role to play, and that parents and peers also play influential roles; the most important teacher of hatred is the conflict itself. Suicide bombers and those who fire Quassem rockets on the one hand, and on the other, those who rob Palestinian lands, destroy olive trees and above all those who support the humiliation of occupation are the professors of hatred. By all means, change the textbooks, teach anti-racism, and bring Palestinian and Jewish youngsters together to recognize their common humanity, but I fear the changes will be negligible until there are real strides towards peace. Rodgers and Hammerstein probably had it right in their [Broadway musical] “South Pacific”: “You’ve got to be taught before it’s too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all the people your relatives hate, you’ve got to be carefully taught.” Conflict is the great teacher of hate; peace is the best teacher of understanding..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Changing Forms of Incitement to Terror and Violence
    THE CHANGING FORMS OF INCITEMENT TO TERROR AND VIOLENCE: TERROR AND TO THE CHANGING FORMS OF INCITEMENT The most neglected yet critical component of international terror is the element of incitement. Incitement is the medium through which the ideology of terror actually materializes into the act of terror itself. But if indeed incitement is so obviously and clearly a central component of terrorism, the question remains: why does the international community in general, and international law in particular, not posit a crime of incitement to terror? Is there no clear dividing line between incitement to terror and the fundamental right to freedom of speech? With such questions in mind, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung held an international conference on incitement. This volume presents the insights of the experts who took part, along with a Draft International Convention to Combat Incitement to Terror and Violence that is intended for presentation to the Secretary-General of the United Nations. The Need for a New International Response International a New for Need The THE CHANGING FORMS OF INCITEMENT TO TERROR AND VIOLENCE: The Need for a New International Response Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs המרכז הירושלמי לענייני ציבור ומדינה )ע"ר( THE CHANGING FORMS OF INCITEMENT TO TERROR AND VIOLENCE: The Need for a New International Response Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs המרכז הירושלמי לענייני ציבור ומדינה )ע"ר( This volume is based on a conference on “Incitement to Terror and Violence: New Challenges, New Responses” under the auspices of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, held on November 8, 2011, at the David Citadel Hotel, Jerusalem.
    [Show full text]
  • Peace Between Israel and the Palestinians Appears to Be As Elusive As Ever. Following the Most Recent Collapse of American-Broke
    38 REVIVING THE ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN PEACE PROCESS: HISTORICAL LES- SONS FOR THE MARCH 2015 ISRAELI ELECTIONS Elijah Jatovsky Lessons derived from the successes that led to the signing of the 1993 Declaration of Principles between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization highlight modern criteria by which a debilitated Israeli-Palestinian peace process can be revitalized. Writ- ten in the run-up to the March 2015 Israeli elections, this article examines a scenario for the emergence of a security-credentialed leadership of the Israeli Center-Left. Such leadership did not in fact emerge in this election cycle. However, should this occur in the future, this paper proposes a Plan A, whereby Israel submits a generous two-state deal to the Palestinians based roughly on that of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s offer in 2008. Should Palestinians find this offer unacceptable whether due to reservations on borders, Jerusalem or refugees, this paper proposes a Plan B by which Israel would conduct a staged, unilateral withdrawal from large areas of the West Bank to preserve the viability of a two-state solution. INTRODUCTION Peace between Israel and the Palestinians appears to be as elusive as ever. Following the most recent collapse of American-brokered negotiations in April 2014, Palestinians announced they would revert to pursuing statehood through the United Nations (UN), a move Israel vehemently opposes. A UN Security Council (UNSC) vote on some form of a proposal calling for an end to “Israeli occupation in the West Bank” by 2016 is expected later this month.1 In July 2014, a two-month war between Hamas-controlled Gaza and Israel broke out, claiming the lives of over 2,100 Gazans (this number encompassing both combatants and civilians), 66 Israeli soldiers and seven Israeli civilians—the low number of Israeli civilians credited to Israel’s sophisti- cated anti-missile Iron Dome system.
    [Show full text]
  • Using a Civil Suit to Punish/Deter Sponsors of Terrorism: Connecting Arafat & the PLO to the Terror Attacks in the Second In
    Digital Commons at St. Mary's University Faculty Articles School of Law Faculty Scholarship 2014 Using a Civil Suit to Punish/Deter Sponsors of Terrorism: Connecting Arafat & the PLO to the Terror Attacks in the Second Intifada Jeffrey F. Addicott St. Mary's University School of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.stmarytx.edu/facarticles Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Jeffrey F. Addicott, Using a Civil Suit to Punish/Deter Sponsors of Terrorism: Connecting Arafat & the PLO to the Terror Attacks in the Second Intifada, 4 St. John’s J. Int’l & Comp. L. 71 (2014). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the School of Law Faculty Scholarship at Digital Commons at St. Mary's University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Articles by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons at St. Mary's University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. USING A CIVIL SUIT TO PUNISH/DETER SPONSORS OF TERRORISM: CONNECTING ARAFAT & THE PLO TO THE TERROR ATTACKS IN THE SECOND INTIFADA Dr. Jeffery Addicott* INTRODUCTION “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.”1 -Edmund Burke As the so-called “War on Terror” 2 continues, it is imperative that civilized nations employ every possible avenue under the rule of law to punish and deter those governments and States that choose to engage in or provide support to terrorism.3 *∗Professor of Law and Director, Center for Terrorism Law, St. Mary’s University School of Law.
    [Show full text]
  • Wye River Memorandum: a Transition to Final Peace Justus R
    Hastings International and Comparative Law Review Volume 24 Article 1 Number 1 Fall 2000 1-1-2000 Wye River Memorandum: A Transition to Final Peace Justus R. Weiner Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/ hastings_international_comparative_law_review Part of the Comparative and Foreign Law Commons, and the International Law Commons Recommended Citation Justus R. Weiner, Wye River Memorandum: A Transition to Final Peace, 24 Hastings Int'l & Comp. L. Rev. 1 (2000). Available at: https://repository.uchastings.edu/hastings_international_comparative_law_review/vol24/iss1/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings International and Comparative Law Review by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Wye River Memorandum: A Transition to Final Peace? BY JusTus R. WEINER* Table of Contents Introduction ...........................................................................................2 I. Inception of the Wye River Memorandum .................................5 A. The Memorandum's Position in the Peace Process ............. 5 B. The Terms Agreed Upon ........................................................8 1. The Wye River Memorandum and Related Letters from the United States .....................................................8 2. The Intricate "Time Line".............................................. 9
    [Show full text]
  • Peace, Propaganda, and the Promised Land
    1 MEDIA EDUCATION F O U N D A T I O N 60 Masonic St. Northampton, MA 01060 | TEL 800.897.0089 | [email protected] | www.mediaed.org Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land U.S. Media & the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Transcript (News clips) Narrator: The Israeli-Palestinian conflict dominates American news coverage of International issues. Given the news coverage is America's main source of information on the conflict, it becomes important to examine the stories the news media are telling us, and to ask the question, Does the news reflect the reality on the ground? (News clips) Prof. Noam Chomsky: The West Bank and the Gaza strip are under a military occupation. It's the longest military occupation in modern history. It's entering its 35th year. It's a harsh and brutal military occupation. It's extremely violent. All the time. Life is being made unlivable by the population. Gila Svirsky: We have what is now quite an oppressive regime in the occupied territories. Israeli's are lording it over Palestinians, usurping their territory, demolishing their homes, exerting a very severe form of military rule in order to remain there. And on the other hand, Palestinians are lashing back trying to throw off the yoke of oppression from the Israelis. Alisa Solomon: I spent a day traveling around Gaza with a man named Jabra Washa, who's from the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and he described the situation as complete economic and social suffocation. There's no economy, the unemployment is over 60% now. Crops can't move.
    [Show full text]
  • Hamas Attack on Israel Aims to Capitalize on Palestinian
    Selected articles concerning Israel, published weekly by Suburban Orthodox Toras Chaim’s (Baltimore) Israel Action Committee Edited by Jerry Appelbaum ( [email protected] ) | Founding editor: Sheldon J. Berman Z”L Issue 8 8 7 Volume 2 1 , Number 1 9 Parshias Bamidbar | 48th Day Omer May 1 5 , 2021 Hamas Attack on Israel Aims to Capitalize on Palestinian Frustration By Dov Lieber and Felicia Schwartz wsj.com May 12, 2021 It is not that the police caused the uptick in violence, forces by Monday evening from Shei kh Jarrah. The but they certainly ran headfirst, full - speed, guns forces were there as part of security measures surrounding blazing into the trap that was set for them. the nightly protests. When the secretive military chief of the Palestinian As the deadline passed, the group sent the barrage of Islamist movement Hamas emerged from the shadows last rockets toward Jerusalem, precipitating the Israeli week, he chose to weigh in on a land dispute in East response. Jerusalem, threatening to retaliate against Israel if Israeli strikes and Hamas rocket fire have k illed 56 Palestinian residents there were evicted from their homes. Palestinians, including 14 children, and seven Israelis, “If the aggression against our people…doesn’ t stop including one child, according to Palestinian and Israeli immediately,” warned the commander, Mohammad Deif, officials. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel “the enemy will pay an expensive price.” has killed dozens of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad Hamas followed through on the threat, firing from the operatives. Gaza Strip, which it governs, over a thousand rockets at Althou gh the Palestinian youth have lacked a single Israel since Monday evening.
    [Show full text]
  • Playing the Security Card: Israeli Policy in Hebron As Means To
    Playing the Security Card Israeli Policy in Hebron as a Means to Effect Forcible Transfer of Local Palestinians -1- Playing the Security Card Israeli Policy in Hebron as a Means to Effect Forcible Transfer of Local Palestinians September 2019 Research: Adam Aloni, Eyal Hareuveni Writing: Eyal Hareuveni Fieldwork: Musa Abu Hashhash, Manal al–Ja’bri Data coordination: Marwa Ghannam Map: Asaf Volanski Translation: Michelle Bubis Editing: Maya Johnston Cover photo: Shoter Checkpoint, Eyal Hareuveni, 1 May 2019 Einhar Design ISBN 978-965-7613-37-5 B'Tselem thanks Nadav Weiman, Ron Zaidel and Yehuda Shaul of Breaking the Silence, Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, Att. Roni Pelli of ACRI and Yonatan Mizrahi of Emek Shaveh for their help in preparing the report. This publication was produced with the financial support of the European Union. Its contents are the sole responsibility of B’Tselem and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union. In compliance with the law passed by the Israeli Knesset that seeks to equate the receipt of foreign funding with disloyalty, please note that 52% of B’Tselem’s funding in 2018 was received from foreign state entities. They are listed on the website of the Israeli Registrar of Associations (and elsewhere). In any case, B’Tselem remains steadfastly loyal – to human rights, freedom, democracy, and to an end to the occupation. Table of Contents Introduction 5 Chapter 1: Israeli settlement in Hebron and plans to expand it 8 Chapter 2: The separation regime in Area H2 13 Chapter 3: Routine of violence 19 Chapter 4: Forcible transfer of Palestinians from H2 22 Chapter 5: Daily life – testimonies of past and present residents of H2 25 Conclusions 32 Introduction The Israeli settlement in Hebron was established once the cultural and commercial hub of the entire in the heart of a bustling city that used to be the southern West Bank, are now a ghost town.
    [Show full text]
  • A Threshold Crossed Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution WATCH
    HUMAN RIGHTS A Threshold Crossed Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution WATCH A Threshold Crossed Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution Copyright © 2021 Human Rights Watch All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America ISBN: 978-1-62313-900-1 Cover design by Rafael Jimenez Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people worldwide. We scrupulously investigate abuses, expose the facts widely, and pressure those with power to respect rights and secure justice. Human Rights Watch is an independent, international organization that works as part of a vibrant movement to uphold human dignity and advance the cause of human rights for all. Human Rights Watch is an international organization with staff in more than 40 countries, and offices in Amsterdam, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Goma, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Paris, San Francisco, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto, Tunis, Washington DC, and Zurich. For more information, please visit our website: http://www.hrw.org APRIL 2021 ISBN: 978-1-62313-900-1 A Threshold Crossed Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution Map .................................................................................................................................. i Summary ......................................................................................................................... 2 Definitions of Apartheid and Persecution .................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • B'tselem Report: Dispossession & Exploitation: Israel's Policy in the Jordan Valley & Northern Dead Sea, May
    Dispossession & Exploitation Israel's policy in the Jordan Valley & northern Dead Sea May 2011 Researched and written by Eyal Hareuveni Edited by Yael Stein Data coordination by Atef Abu a-Rub, Wassim Ghantous, Tamar Gonen, Iyad Hadad, Kareem Jubran, Noam Raz Geographic data processing by Shai Efrati B'Tselem thanks Salwa Alinat, Kav LaOved’s former coordinator of Palestinian fieldworkers in the settlements, Daphna Banai, of Machsom Watch, Hagit Ofran, Peace Now’s Settlements Watch coordinator, Dror Etkes, and Alon Cohen-Lifshitz and Nir Shalev, of Bimkom. 2 Table of contents Introduction......................................................................................................................... 5 Chapter One: Statistics........................................................................................................ 8 Land area and borders of the Jordan Valley and northern Dead Sea area....................... 8 Palestinian population in the Jordan Valley .................................................................... 9 Settlements and the settler population........................................................................... 10 Land area of the settlements .......................................................................................... 13 Chapter Two: Taking control of land................................................................................ 15 Theft of private Palestinian land and transfer to settlements......................................... 15 Seizure of land for “military needs”.............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • A Brief Guide to Politics '92
    ISRAEL, THE MIDDLE EAST AND THE UNITED STATES A BRIEF GUIDE TO POLITICS '92 r111:1.11a1~111 AMERICANS FOR ~ CE Nl W NEW HOPE FOR PEACE The results of the June Israeli election offer fresh hope and opportunity for peace. The new Israeli government's mandate to pursue the peace process has been cheered by a broad base of Israelis and American Jews who favor a negotiated outcome to the Israeli-Arab conflict. Americans for Peace Now welcomes these new developments. Americans for Peace Now is an American Jewish _membership organization and the support group for Israel's largest peace group, Shalom Achshav (Peace Now). We approach the matter of Middle East policy as uncompromising supporters of Israel. Given the strategic and economic significance of the Middle East to the U.S., and the importance of Israel in the hearts and minds of the American public, Middle East policy will remain a major foreign policy challenge for the U.S. throughout the 1990s. ********** We urge all candidates to incorporate the following components Into their positions on U.S. policy toward Israel and the Middle East: • Support the peace process currently underway. These are the direct negotiations that Israel has wanted for 40 years. The talks are vital to Israel's security and economic well-being, and to its ability to absorb new immigrants. The United States must continue to play an active and substantive role In the peace process. • Support continued economic aid and security assistance to Israel. The basic aid that Israel receives annually is vital, as are loan guarantees for new immigrants.
    [Show full text]
  • The National Left (First Draft) by Shmuel Hasfari and Eldad Yaniv
    The National Left (First Draft) by Shmu'el Hasfari and Eldad Yaniv Open Source Center OSC Summary: A self-published book by Israeli playwright Shmu'el Hasfari and political activist Eldad Yaniv entitled "The National Left (First Draft)" bemoans the death of Israel's political left. http://www.fas.org/irp/dni/osc/israel-left.pdf Statement by the Authors The contents of this publication are the responsibility of the authors, who also personally bore the modest printing costs. Any part of the material in this book may be photocopied and recorded. It is recommended that it should be kept in a data-storage system, transmitted, or recorded in any form or by any electronic, optical, mechanical means, or otherwise. Any form of commercial use of the material in this book is permitted without the explicit written permission of the authors. 1. The Left The Left died the day the Six-Day War ended. With the dawn of the Israeli empire, the Left's sun sank and the Small [pun on Smol, the Hebrew word for Left] was born. The Small is a mark of Cain, a disparaging term for a collaborator, a lover of Arabs, a hater of Israel, a Jew who turns against his own people, not a patriot. The Small-ists eat pork on Yom Kippur, gobble shrimps during the week, drink espresso whenever possible, and are homos, kapos, artsy-fartsy snobs, and what not. Until 1967, the Left actually managed some impressive deeds -- it took control of the land, ploughed, sowed, harvested, founded the state, built the army, built its industry from scratch, fought Arabs, settled the land, built the nuclear reactor, brought millions of Jews here and absorbed them, and set up kibbutzim, moshavim, and agriculture.
    [Show full text]
  • The Palestinians: Background and U.S
    The Palestinians: Background and U.S. Relations Jim Zanotti Specialist in Middle Eastern Affairs August 17, 2012 Congressional Research Service 7-5700 www.crs.gov RL34074 CRS Report for Congress Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress The Palestinians: Background and U.S. Relations Summary This report covers current issues in U.S.-Palestinian relations. It also contains an overview of Palestinian society and politics and descriptions of key Palestinian individuals and groups— chiefly the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), the Palestinian Authority (PA), Fatah, Hamas, and the Palestinian refugee population. The “Palestinian question” is important not only to Palestinians, Israelis, and their Arab state neighbors, but to many countries and non-state actors in the region and around the world— including the United States—for a variety of religious, cultural, and political reasons. U.S. policy toward the Palestinians is marked by efforts to establish a Palestinian state through a negotiated two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; to counter Palestinian terrorist groups; and to establish norms of democracy, accountability, and good governance within the Palestinian Authority (PA). Congress has appropriated assistance to support Palestinian governance and development amid concern for preventing the funds from benefitting Palestinian rejectionists who advocate violence against Israelis. Among the issues in U.S. policy toward the Palestinians is how to deal with the political leadership of Palestinian society, which is divided between the Fatah-led PA in parts of the West Bank and Hamas (a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization) in the Gaza Strip. Following Hamas’s takeover of Gaza in June 2007, the United States and the other members of the international Quartet (the European Union, the United Nations, and Russia) have sought to bolster the West Bank-based PA, led by President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
    [Show full text]