Israel, the Racist State: Criminalizing Journalists, Politicians

Is Israel a racist state?. You bet. Is Zionism racism? Can there be any doubt after reading what follows?

The Biggest Loser in the recent Israeli election: Netanyahu”s racist government. Not gracious losers by any means. Like Trump, they blame everyone but themselves for their defeat. Their refrain is: the fault Dear Brutus, is not in the stars, but in themselves.

You always have to pick a patsy. In this case, the proverbial bete noir, the “Arabs.” The Fifth Column. The Other. The hated. The enemy.

There is a long history of criminalizing Palestinian MKs. Almost all have been investigated on some trumped up charge. Others have been arrested for exercising their so-called democratic rights. One even was imprisoned for two years on–you guessed it– trumped up charges. Yet others, like Azmi Bishara fled into exile to avoid a certain prison sentence. Can they all be criminals!? Are they all corrupt or enemies of the state? I think we know the answer to that question.

This election is no different than the past. First, the Likud charged the Joint List with taking wads of Qatari cash. Once that was discredited, they came up with another claim: that Turkey and Qatar had meddled in the election in some undetermined way. These charges were legitimized by the Shin Bet chief and Netanyahu lap dog, David Zini. He took the unusual step of commencing an “investigation” without notifying the police or attorney general. That’s not how things are done in Israel. The three  agencies consult each other and review evidence before commencing a case. Zini knew he would be laughed out of the box, as he had steady been on the Qatari cash case, so he did an end around. All in service to his master, the PM.

There is no credible evidence. But that hardly matters. Bibi’s aim is not to prove his charges. It is go discredit the entire election, so a new election is called or (more likely) the Opposition government’s legitimacy would be undermined. That would hasten it’s eventually defeat and his return to power. A plot both cynical and racist. One can argue that Bibi doesn’t even hate or care about Palestinians. They are merely convenient foils for his political interests. His attacks on them are a cynical manipulation. Racism? You bet.

Criminalizing journalism

This week yet another incident of racism reared it’s ugly head. The Shin Bet arrested Palestinian journalist, Abu Shehadeh. According to him, the investigation centered on an interview he did with Bishara, who is currently a top advisor to UAE’S emir. Abu shehadeh is accused of consorting with a foreign agent. Which is ironic considering the UAE is an Israeli ally and member of the Abraham Accords. Apparently a leopard, once it’s an enemy, cannot change its spots. Bishara is an enemy because he advocates “a state for all it’s citizens: a nation built on full equality for all citizens, regardless of religion or ethnicity. This is a grave undermining of the Judeo-supremasist state and must not be tolerated.

The Israeli state considers its own Palestinian citizens to be enemies of the state for advocate human rights and equality. This is not a recent phenomenon confined to this racist government. A decade or more ago, the Shin Bet chief codified this outrageous police.  Any Palestinian who advocated for national rights was declared a criminal and traitor.  Racism, you bet.

In some ways Shehadeh is lucky. A Palestinian-Israeli journalist gets a prison cell. A Gaza journalist is publicly executed. 300 in the past three years. An unconscionable violation of internatonal law and further evidence of genocide.

As I wrote above, in addition to every otheg crime since 10/7, Israel and Zionism are guilty of systematic, historical racism. Let no liberal Zionist or Israel apologist ever raise the claim Israel is a democratic state. It is, as I wrote above, a Judeo supremacist ethnostate.