A Simple Denial of Culture

It is difficult to avoid obvious cliches when contemplating recent actions taken by the Israeli police on Saturday to silence a small crowd of Palestinians in East Jerusalem from celebrating the city’s new designation as ‘capital of Arab culture’ for 2009. 

According to Al Jazeera, about 20 Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem were detained, flags and banners confiscated, and at one school in the area, balloons carrying the colours of the Palestinian flag to be released by children to mark the day were burst.

Celebrations in Nazareth (the largest Arab city in Israel) were also cancelled by police.

With absolutely no violence reported, it is almost impossible to justify or condone the rampant silencing of culture within a claimed  democratic state. Given the recent violence in Gaza, and its subsequent mobilizing of Arab sympathy across Israel and the Middle East, such brazen attempts to further suppress Arab expression must be seen as inciteful, and perhaps even taunting.

With Jerusalem following Damascus as the capital of Arab culture (an honour that is passed to a different city by the Arab League every year since 1996), this weekend’s celebrations and events were in no way designed to inflame discourse between Jewish Israelis and Arabs. Historically, the chosen city has marked the occasion with poetry, music, dance, and sporting events. 

In the media vortex that is ‘Middle East violence’, everyday facts and events like the freezing of cultural expression are often neglected, and their significance underestimated. Because the crucial subtext of this article admits the term ‘no violence’, these acts go relatively unreported in world headlines or in local evening news segments. 

This is indeed a pity, as in many ways the acts of the Israeli police on Saturday better summarize the ongoing denial of cultural identity that is occuring both within Israel borders as well as those areas in occupation whose names light up headline ticker tape. 

Perhaps even more urgently, it is crucial to realise that this story occurs every day, in a thousand places from Israel to Darfur to Tibet. Without the media catalyst of ‘violence’, rockets, and casualties, these stories seem less important - less weighty. 

Marshall McLuhan famously quipped, ““All media exist to invest our lives with artificial perceptions and arbitrary values.” 

It is difficult to deny this point to some degree, but the facts remain that meaningful stories do exist - and in a world of fully interactive and real-time access to diverse media sources, blogs, and digital opinions, it is everyone’s duty to find them.

Crossing The Lobby

As reported in yesterday’s Al Jazeera, President Barack Obama’s selection for the Head of the US National Intelligence Council, Charles “Chas” Freeman, has resigned from his appointment accusing the Israel Lobby in the United States of plumbing “the depths of dishonour and indecency” in its all-out character assassination campaign launched over the past several weeks.

Following a number of libelous e-mails sent in a rare ‘mass coordinated’ campaign to supporters sympathetic to the Israel Lobby, Freeman said on Tuesday:

“The tactics of the Israel lobby plumb the depths of dishonour and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the wilful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth.

“The aim of this lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favours.”

The resignation is not only a setback for Barack Obama (as yet another chosen appointee has backed out of a high profile position), but again highlights that lobby organizations such as AIPAC (American-Israel Public Affairs Committee) retain considerable power and influence even within Obama’s radically updated administration.

As we have witnessed in elite American politics, crossing the interests of lobby groups like AIPAC can spell political disaster - with most pundits speculating the recent attacks were engineered to not only remind the adminstration of the group’s influence, but to serve as a ‘warning’ to undecided US Senators facing difficult re-election campaigns.

Freeman has been a target of the Israel Lobby since his 2007 ‘pro-Palestinian’ statements, including his remarks that “the brutal oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli occupation shows no sign of ending.”

It is worth noting that the above relatively ‘mild’ statements - which we in Europe would view as almost commonplace amongst journalists and politicans - can create such political turmoil in the United States. Moving forward, Barack Obama’s ‘New America’ will ultimately be defined by its ability to face harsh internal friction from lobby groups such as AIPAC - if not, the ‘new’ adminstration will look awfully similar to the old.

A New Showdown In Gaza?

Prime Minister-designate Benyamin Netanyahu, while experiencing a difficult path to his future leadership in a series of failed coalition talks with the likes of Kadima and Labour, has revealed a glimpse into his future policy this past weekend by warning the International Aid community that no money or aid will be allowed to flow into devastated Gaza until militant rocket firings from the area cease entirely. 

Flying the face of Gaza reconstruction meetings taking place in Sharm e-Sheikh today - with attendees to include the new Secretary-of-State of the United States Hillary Clinton - the group of representatives covering over 80 countries are expected to announce an aid package in the billions to help relieve the humanitarian crisis and to provide much needed infrastructure and services updates crucial to the viability of a Palestinian state in the region. 

International Development Secretary of the United Kingdom, Douglas Alexander, an attendee at the meeting today, stated:

“There is a desperate need for tough restrictions on the supply of goods to be relaxed. Gaza needs money, fuel and construction materials, and whilst these goods are turned away at the borders, repairs to homes, water systems and the electricity network will remain impossible. Israel must do the right thing and allow much-needed goods to get through to those men, women and children who continue to suffer.”

As Netanyahu attempts to appease right-wing elements that will prove critical to his ability to form a coalition comprising at least 61 Knesset seats, his recent rhetoric will likely intensify. Although the various conservative ideological parties such as Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu have pledged initial support to a Likud-led government, Netanyahu needs to prove his ability to stand up to the International community and satisfy a slew of right-wing agenda points - all converging on the question of a Hamas-led Gaza Strip. Perhaps the only subject in agreement across these disparate parties is the case for eliminating Hamas all together - a goal that can only be achieved in direct opposition to current international pleas for a lasting ceasefire. 

Even more damaging for Israel, this afternoon the UK Guardian reported the international criminal court is considering whether the Palestinian Authority is justified in demanding a potential war crimes tribunal against Israel for their recent actions in Gaza. 

The combination of today’s reconstruction meetings in Sharm e-Sheikh and the recent news from the international criminal court will no doubt strengthen Netanyahu’s resolve, entrenching the would-be leader further in both a political battle for supremacy and an international stalemate that will exist long after the ruling coalition is decided.