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Can ethnic nationalism ever be OK in Israel?

by Peter A. Belmont / 2011-12-27
© 2011 Peter Belmont

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Ethnic nationalism need not always be horrible! No, indeedy.

However, it only fails to be horrible when a single territory contains as its proper inhabitants no-one other than members (in good standing) of that one ethnic nation. Un-mixed. Then these people can form a government and an army, throw up walls against immigration, etc. This is OK, I suppose. Possibly boring (for a resident of an interesting place like NYC) but OK.

(Proper inhabitants are people who were present in a normal way rather than as illegal immigrants [as many Jews in Palestine were—recall Exodus] or invaders. The Palestinians in Mandatory Palestine were “proper inhabitants” as far as I know, Joan Peters’ poisonous propaganda efforts notwithstanding.)

What about white supremacists in the USA?

“White supremacists” in the highly-mixed USA do not live in an un-mixed single-ethnicity country. Indeed, the USA never “enjoyed” an un-mixed white population, what with the still-remaining Native Americans and all the African-Americans, to say nothing of everyone else in America today.

What about Jewish supremacists in Israel?

And the Jewish-supremacists of Israel have no leg to stand on, since they invaded a territory fully-populated (overwhelmingly by non-Jews) in 1948.

Well, does ethnic cleansing (as the USA practiced 1700-1900) by introduction of disease and by violent use of overwhelming armed might, make ethnic nationalism all right? Is Israel’s refusal to re-admit the Palestinian refugees/exiles of 1948 OK as a proper and suitable expression of Israel’s desire for an ethnically-nationalist country?

Not in the modern era. We do not live in “Biblical Times” any more, We do not even live in the 19th century any more. The UN, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Conventions against Racism, Genocide, etc., the Four Geneva Conventions, so much, so much, have the people of the world expressed their opposition to ethnic cleansing and other oppressive racist operations.

The Palestinian refugees/exiles of 1948 (and of 1967) were proper residents of their land and should be allowed to return. Israel’s refusal to do so is, of course, a piece with Israel’s other racist actions (most visible, otherwise, in the horrors inflicted by Israel on Gaza including the still on-going siege and in the miseries inflicted on the Palestinians living in the West Bank under Israel’s illegal regime of settler colonialism—settlement of a militarily-occupied territory being violative of international law—that is to say, illegal).

Ethnic nationalism in Israel by Jews against Palestinians living properly in their midst cannot be excused. Period.



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