Jefferson Corner

Israel will celebrate its 60th birthday during the month of May. A month that also saw the forced exile and ethnic cleansing of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians from their homes and farms in Palestine. More than 500 villages where completely wipe out, totally destroyed. Thousands of years of history was destroyed so a new history of European Jewry can be written in a land not their own

Transmitted below is an open letter to the famous South African writer Nadine Gordimer which might set a useful precedent for letters to other notable personalities who are planning to participate in this month’s celebrations of the 60th anniversary of the Nakba, the massive, carefully planned first stage of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, particularly those who have also expressed moral qualms about attending the opening ceremony of the Olympics.

NOTE: An article published in HA’ARETZ on April 30 reported that a wide-ranging group of 175 American rabbis and “other prominent Jews” had signed and released a statement “urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China’s troubling record on human rights and Tibet.” This is not a joke.

Nadine Gordimer on her decision to participate in ‘Israel at 60  Celebrations’

April 24, 2008 By Dr.  Haidar Eid

I am a  Palestinian lecturer in Cultural Studies living in Gaza. I happen to also have  South African citizenship as a result of my marriage to a citizen of that  beloved country. I spent more than five years in Johannesburg, the city in  which I earned my Ph.D and lectured at both traditionally black and white  universities. At Vista in Soweto, I taught your anti-apartheid novels My  Son’s Story, July’s People and The  Late Bourgeois World. I  have been teaching the same novels, in addition to The  Pick Up and Selected Stories, to my Palestinian students in  Gaza at Al-Aqsa University. This course is called ‘Resistance, Anti-Racism and  Xenophobia’. I deliberately chose to teach your novels because, as an  anti-apartheid writer, you defied racial stereotypes by calling for resistance  against all forms of oppression, be they racial  or religious. Your support of sanctions  against apartheid South Africa has, to say the least, impressed my Gazan  students.

The news of  your conscious decision to take part in the ‘Israel at 60′ celebrations has  reached us, students and citizens of Gaza, as both a painful surprise, and a  glaring example of a hypocritical intellectual double standard. My students,  psychologically and emotionally traumatized and already showing early signs of  malnutrition as a result of the genocidal policy of the country whose birth  you intend celebrating, demand an explanation.

They wonder  in amazement that you might have missed Archbishop Tutu’s contention that  conditions in Israeli-occupied Palestine are worse than those under apartheid?  They ask how you can ignore John Dugard’s dispassionate and insightful   report on  the dismal state of Human Rights in the Occupied  Territories? Surely, you have not been unaware of Ronnie Kasrils’ writings  following his latest visit to Gaza and the West Bank? Like you, these three  men, all South Africans, were also active in the fight against racism and  apartheid. Dugard’s words on Palestine are very significant: ‘I certainly have  a sense of déjà vu… The sad thing is that Israel is  unwilling to learn from the South African precedent.’ In an article titled,  ’Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped,’ Dugard observed that the human  rights situation in the occupied territories continues to deteriorate and  called the conditions ‘intolerable, appalling, and tragic for ordinary  Palestinians.’ Significantly, Dugard made  shocking parallels between the situation in the Palestine and your country  South Africa under apartheid: ‘Many aspects of Israel’s occupation surpass  those of the apartheid regime. Israel’s large-scale destruction of Palestinian  homes, leveling of agricultural lands, military incursions and targeted  assassinations of Palestinians far exceed any similar practices in apartheid  South Africa.’  Moreover, in its final declaration, the World Conference  against Racism (WCAR) NGO forum, held in Durban in 2001, stated that: ‘We declare Israel as a  racist, apartheid state in which Israel’s brand of apartheid as a crime  against humanity has been characterized by separation and segregation,  dispossession, restricted land access, denationalization, ?bantustanization’  and inhumane acts.’

You are no  doubt aware of Israel’s deep ties with apartheid South Africa, during which  Israel, breaking the international embargo, supplied South Africa with  hundreds of millions of dollars of weapons. Apartheid South Africa relied on  apartheid Israel to persuade Western governments to lift the embargo. How did  you relate to Israel during that period and what was your position regarding  countries and individuals that did not support the policy of isolating  apartheid South Africa? You were surely critical of the infamous policy of  ’constructive engagement’ led by Thatcher and Reagan at the height of the  struggle in the 80s? And today, inexplicably, you have joined the ranks of  sanctions busters.

The eminent  Palestinian, Edward Said, who gave you his friendship, would have been  dismayed by your decision. He named you as a model for what he called,  ’oppositional intellectuals.’  It was  his strong belief that, with regard to Israel, ‘[i]t only takes a few bold  spirits to speak out and start challenging a status quo that gets worse and  more dissembling each day.’ Little did he know that you would fail the  oppressed in Palestine.

My cold and  hungry students have divided themselves into two groups, with one group  adamant that you, like many of your courageous characters, will reconsider  your participation in an Israeli Festival that aims to celebrate the  annihilation of Palestine and Palestinians. The other group believes that you  have already crossed over to the side of the oppressor, negating every word  you have ever written. We all wait for your next action.

Dr.  Haidar Eid

Gaza,  Palestine

Dr. Haidar  Eid is an Associate Professor in the  Department of English Literature, Al-Aqsa University, Gaza Strip,  Palestine.

http://www.zcommunications.org/znet/viewArticle/17248

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