The Pervasiveness of Race

Whilst the following news story (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/21/henry-louis-gates-jr-arrest-harvard) is not directly related to the Middle East I have decided to post it anyway because of a recent debate about racism and as it provides a convenient excuse to revisit the topic on this site. What this short news story suggests is that even though institutional and legally enforced racism is less pervasive today than in previous eras where the slave trade and European colonialism produced racist doctrines premised on the superiority of the white race, there is still a resilience to racial stereotyping and more subtle forms of racism in the US, at least. I would argue that subtle and insidious forms of racism remain pervasive in the modern world more widely than just in the US . The harsh reality is that racism is as pervasive internationally as it was a century or so ago when W.E.B. Du Bois suggested that the issue of race relations would be a defining motif of the twentieth century. The events of the twentieth century have shown us how prescient Du Bois was and how relevant his comments remain as we enter into a new millennium. Today, racial differences (ethnic and religious differences as well) continue to shape the world we live in.

Paul McGeough on Hamas

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Middle East correspondent, Paul McGeough, is interviewed by Katia Bachko in the latest issue of Columbia Journalism Review.  McGeough is working on a book that explores Hamas’ 20-year history, and so in this interview he reflects on what it means to represent key players in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in the face of the kinds of gross simplifications that often circulate in the media, but he also looks at what Hamas is, what the organization means to Palestinians, and what it means to Israelis.  Here’s an excerpt:

To simply state that somebody is a moderate or somebody is a militant, and expect the reader to use that as the sole description or descriptor of an individual or an organization, doesn’t deliver all that could be delivered. You’re talking about Hamas? Hamas are militants, yes, they are militants who appealed to Palestinians at an election that was supervised by Western observers and deemed to be fair, and Palestinians chose the militants not necessarily because of their militancy, but because of their belief in them on a whole range of issues. And then you have to ask, “if they’re militants, if they are terrorists, how did they get to be allowed to contest an election? Who let them contest an election?” Israelis allowed them to contest the election, Americans allowed them to contest the election, Fatah allowed them to contest the election.Right up until that first election that Hamas contested in 2006, Hamas had been saying, “We represent about fifty percent of Palestinian public opinion, therefore we should be accorded that level of representation in various Palestinian forums.” And everyone laughed, and said no, that’s not true, that’s not right, and so they allowed them to contest the election. Even though they had refused to renounce violence. There’s not too many militant or nationalist or liberation groups that have been allowed to contest elections without renouncing violence. They were allowed to do so, and they won the election. That has to count for something in your assessment in where Hamas stands in Palestinian affairs, and in the region.

He also asks: what is Fatah, that Hamas could beat them in this election?  He does a good job of showing us the complexities behind easy words like “moderate” and “terrorist,” what makes Hamas as an organization that uses terror different from a terrorist organization like al-Qaeda, and how deeply hated corrupt Fatah had become by the time it was elected out of power.

–L.L. Wynn

Humanitarian aid for Gaza.

As if the blockade against Gaza and the war against Gaza were not bad enough ……

Israeli Navy intercepts aid boat bound for desperate Gaza

BEIRUT: A Lebanese aid ship bound for Gaza was fired upon and boarded by the Israeli Navy on Thursday, the trip’s organizers and journalists onboard have said. Israeli officials initially refused to verify the reports, but Defense Minister Ehud Barak then confirmed that the ship had been boarded and was being escorted to the Israeli coastal town of Ashdod.
….
The Togolese-flagged Tali was trying to deliver about 60 tons of aid, including medical supplies, food and children’s toys, to the besieged Gaza Strip, still in the midst of a humanitarian crisis after Israel’s three week bombardment on the impoverished territory in December and January that left over 1,300 dead and thousands homeless.
….
Al-Jazeera journalist Salam Khoder, who was aboard, said the ship had been boarded and that crewmembers were being assaulted. “There are Israeli soldiers who actually have boarded the vessel … They are … beating and kicking us,” he said before, according to Al-Jazeera, the line went dead.

Israel: Whose Democracy?

Josef Federman from Associated Press reports  “Israel bans Arab parties from coming elections”

So much for the claim that Israel is the Middle East’s only democracy. One-fifth of Israel’s population are Arabs. There is no evidence that they would all vote for Arab parties but this recent move is clearly designed to deny Arabs a voice of their own in Israeli politics. In this respect, Israel is not that different from Egypt which denies some oppositional political parties from engaging in the electoral process.(you can also read more here at http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1054867.html)

Anti-War News reports that “Israel indicts Two Journalists for Reporting Start of Gaza Invasion”

Not much room for a free press in Israel either. And the rule of law seems to be an anachronism in Israel as the government and the military have ignored a Supreme Court decision to allow eight foreign journalists into Gaza.

On a related but different matter, I recently received an email which was sent to try and convince me that Israel was a beacon of light in a region of degeneration and primitive tribal conflict (ironic really at this moment that Zionists are making such claims) complete with a photo of Albert Einstein . I am well aware that Albert Einstein was Jewish but also that he was no Zionist and since his death in 1955 Israeli and non-Israeli Zionists have made every effort to attach his name and his legacy to a Jewish only Israel. Other Jewish people have fought to remind people of Einstein’s antipathy to Zionism. Just as a reminder of Einstein’s position on Zionism, at this time of heightened pro-Israeli propaganda, read Albert Einstein’s forewarning of the dangers of Zionism sixty years ago at: http://www.rense.com/general59/ein.htm

Israel: When is a Rogue State not a Rogue State.

In an earlier post JBayeh quoting from Saree Makdisi revealed that the language and philosophy that the Israeli state projects outwards is very different from the language and philosophy of state employed internally. The spokespeople for the Israeli government and military knowingly spin the realities of their policies in a way that promotes Israel as an internationally responsible member of the “community of states” while engaging in a litany of abuses and crimes against the Palestinians that flagrantly contravene international norms and international laws.

However, somehow the Israeli state is still able to effectively promote itself as a “responsible” and upright member of the international system. For example, last week Mark Regev (spokesman for the Prime Minister of Israel and an advisor on foreign press and public affairs) appeared on the 7:30 Report where he said all the right things about human rights and minimizing civilian casualties in Gaza which was only middy challenged by the interviewer Scott Bevan. When Regev  uttered a most incredible statement that “we want to cooperate with the United Nations, as I just said we have a good relationship with the United Nations”  Bevan  launched no objections despite a long history of Israeli transgressions against the UN, international law and international public opinion. Interestingly, just to add insult to injury in regards to the acceptance of the Israeli projection of itself as having a “good international standing”, only yesterday, the 10 January, the UN decided to return to Gaza because it had received assurances, not from Hamas, but from Israel that UN humanitarian workers would not be fired on. And yet in this context, it is Hamas which is still demonized by the “western” media and politicians who still portray Israel as the moral victim. The following is a brief and incomplete list of Israel’s violations of international law, their failure to comply with UN resolutions and the consistent Israeli disregard for international conventions that characterises Israel’s relationship with the international system.

More on the Western response to Gaza.

Much can be said about the failure of Australian politicians, like their American allies, to issue an overt condemnation of the Israel’s actions. Thankfully some academics, like John Docker and Ned Curthoys, and writers, like Greg Barns (who is also a barrister and a former political advisor), are not at all weak and do not mince words when it comes to the current humanitarian crisis Palestinians face.

Docker and Curthoys have established a new group within Australia called the Committee for Dismantling of Zionism. What is of particular note in the Committee’s first statement is that their condemnation of the current siege does not begin with an implicit endorsement of Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish-only state.  This is a very brave act stemming from the Jewish diaspora and follows the spirit of other Jewish diaspora thinkers, like Daniel and Jonathan Boyarin who propose that the ‘lesson’ of any diasporic experience should be “that peoples and lands are not naturally and organically connected”.

The Barns opinion piece, while short, highlights the lack of humanity Western politicians have displayed over the last week. A particular target of Barns is President-elect Obama. Obama has failed to issue any statement on the carnage taking place in Gaza, preferring to holiday and play golf. I am not in the least bit surprised by Obama’s lack of action, especially in the context of his election campaign where he did all he could to distance himself from his onetime friend Rashid Khalidi, an American-Palestinian professor at Columbia university. This was part of Obama’s overall scheme to endear himself to those groups in American domestic politics, including the Israel lobby, who thought he was a supporter of terrorism or to weak and ‘liberal’ to deal with the ‘enemies of Israel’.Bush might be on his way out of the White House but his replacement, in terms of foreign policy, is so far proving to be much the same.

The Docker and Curthoys statement and the Barns article can all be found below.

1. Committee for the Dismantling of Zionism
John Docker & Ned Curthoys

The December 2008 Gaza Massacre

We are part of an increasing number of people around the world of Jewish descent who are sickened by the coldly calculated massacre of the Palestinians of Gaza and who utterly repudiate Israel’s claim that it acts in the name of Jews the world over. Like Antony Loewenstein we deplore the ‘myth of Israel’ as perpetual victim and rational peace seeker, and its stranglehold over media reportage of the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Racism: Arab-Black African Relations in North Africa

Dear Readers,

By now I am sure you are aware of my position on racism. In previous posts I have rallied against the Israeli state and certain segments of Israeli civil society for institutionalizing racism as a form of power over Palestinians and as a political mechanism to control national political discourse. I also have written and spoken about the scourge and legacy of colonial racism. My last post highlighted the twin forms of discrimination faced by Australian man Hussein Mumin who was both homeless and Black. I remember only too vividly how Andrew Fraser was able to gain momentary notoriety and fame (amongst a small but vocal segment of the population) for his obscene references to Black Africans- especially the Sudanese- as inferior humans, an argument he based on long discredited scientific evidence popular with Hitler and a central part of Nazi and Neo-Nazi propaganda. Before the Nazi’s, Fraser’s “science” was used by pro-slavery groups in the United States in the nineteenth century. Government silence on the issue was disquieting but even more troubling was the defence of Fraser’s right to free speech, by none other than the Minister for Education at the time, Dr Brendan Nelson. His colleague, former Federal Minister for Immigration in the last Howard government, Kevin Andrews, did not go quite as far as Fraser in his demonization of the Sudanese communities in Australia in 2007,  but skirted the edge of overt racism with his comments. The 2005 Cronulla riots, the recent bombings of Asian properties in WA and this weeks news on the anti-Semitic facebook scandal demonstrate the existence of racist attitudes in contemporary Australia. Racism remains a major issue for contemporary societies and the election of Barak Obama, while promising , should not deflect us from the reality of the continuing problems associated with racism throughout the world.

But in this post I want to focus not on Australia but on the recent racist trends in the North African context.

The Murder of Hussein Mumin

I know this is a site for discussion about issues  related  to the Middle East but I had to post this story because of the cruel, tragic and senseless nature of the story and the impact it had on me. So please excuse me for posting on a subject on the widest possible margin of this blog.

This is a story about the killing of a homeless man, an Somali immigrant to Australia, Hussein Mumin which I read this morning in the Sydney Morning Herald. Hussein may or may not have been a victim of a racially motivated attack (he had been in the past) but the racial discrimination that Africans- especially the Sudanese and Somalis- have experienced in Australia has been well documented. Hussein was not only an immigrant but also homeless, and combined these two realities made him one of the most invisible members of our society. The horrific nature of his killing is compounded by the neglect of his story in the press and a reminder of how little value our society has for the poor and for minorities. I hope that Hussein’s killers are identified and that the value of the life they took is brought home to them by the judicial system.

Australia’s recent treatment of migrants has been cruel and in numerous cases tantamount to torture. This is case is of an even more heinous nature and is reminder of what can happen when government’s institutionalise and condone racism, as with Kevin Andrew’s comments about Sudanese-Australians last year. The Rudd government has made a good start in overturning this legacy with the apology to indigenous Australians and the embracing of the Obama victory, but much more is still needed to be done to unravel the racialism which was an integral part of the Howard period. A more concerted government effort in battling racism is needed if Australia is to ensure the safety of the numerous African communities that have decided to make Australia their home.  A strongly worded government statement about the tradegy of the death of Hussein Mumin, public condolences and a guarantee that the perpetrators will be caught would send a message that Australia is committed to the protection of all human life, even that of the weakest and most silent members of society. And possibly if this would occur then maybe Hussein’s sister and his friends may start to feel that his brutal death was not in complete vain.

Noah Bassil

Call to action to end the siege of Gaza

Here’s an alert we received from a coalition of U.S.-based organizations with some suggestions on how to protest the siege of Gaza:

Action Alert: End the Starvation and Siege of Gaza

Adalah-NY: The Coalition for Justice in the Middle East
Network of Arab-American Professionals of NY
Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee of NY
Brooklyn For Peace
US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation

November 17, 2008

Take Action

With Gazans already impoverished and struggling to survive, on November 5, Israel completely sealed Gaza’s border crossings. This followed an unprovoked Israeli attack on Gaza that killed six Palestinians, despite a ceasefire, and Palestinian rocket fire in response. As a result of Israel’s closure, the United Nations has been forced to stop food distribution to 750,000 needy people, and 70% of Gaza is now without power due to a lack of fuel.

According to reports, even candles are now in short supply. “Let’s see this for what it is.” said UN spokesman Chris Gunness . “Fifty-six percent of the Gaza Strip are children. Let us not cause suffering of innocent children.” Blocking witnesses, on November 13, Israel denied the entry to Gaza of 20 senior EU diplomats.

Israel also has refused to allow foreign journalists to enter Gaza. Foreign Press Association chairman Steven Gutnik called the ban “a serious violation of freedom of the press” and said “it is essential that journalists be allowed to enter the Gaza Strip since it is the foreign media that serves as the world’s window into Gaza.

Zogby on Rahm Emanuel

I’m reprinting below an e-mail I got from the Arab American Institute.  It’s a thoughtful article by James Zogby about how the Arab world should interpret Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel.

Washington Watch
November 17, 2008

Lessons That Should Be Learned

Dr. James J. Zogby (c)
President
Arab American Institute

On November 5th, my office sent an email to tens of thousands of our members and contacts congratulating President-elect Barack Obama. In our message, we noted the historic transformation his victory represented and commended the thousands of Arab Americans who participated in this winning campaign.

The initial and near universal response was heartwarming, with many sharing moving anecdotes of their campaign experiences, their reactions to the victory, and their hopes for change.

One day and one announcement later, the tide turned.

With the naming of Congressman Rahm Emanuel as Obama’s White House Chief of Staff, the euphoria of some, not all, turned to despair. The emails and calls to my office were both troubled and troubling because much of the reaction was based on misinformation and because of what the entire episode revealed about the larger political dynamics involved.