[News] What the persecution of Azmi Bishara means for Palestine

[Anti-Imperialist News]

What the persecution of Azmi Bishara means for Palestine
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6798.shtml

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 16 April 2007

Azmi Bishara (Magnus Johansson/<http://maanimages.com/>MaanImages)

The Israeli state and the Zionist movement have begun their latest 
assault in their century-long struggle to rid Palestine of its 
indigenous people and transform their country into a Jewish 
supremacist enclave: the persecution of Azmi Bishara, one of the most 
important Palestinian national leaders and thinkers working today. 
This case has enormous significance for the Palestinian solidarity movement.

Bishara is a Palestinian citizen of Israel, one of more than one 
million who live inside the Jewish state, who are survivors or their 
descendants of the Zionist ethnic cleansing that forced most 
Palestinians to leave in 1947-48. Elected to the Knesset in 1996, 
Bishara is a founder of the National Democratic Assembly, a party 
which calls for Israel to be transformed from a sectarian ethnocracy 
into a democratic state of all its citizens.

On Sunday, Bishara appeared on Al-Jazeera, after weeks of press 
speculation that he had gone into exile and would resign from the 
Knesset. He revealed that in fact he is the target of a very high 
level probe by Israeli state security services who apparently plan to 
bring serious "security" related charges against him. Censorship on 
this matter is so tight in "democratic" Israel that until a few days 
ago Israeli newspapers were prohibited from even mentioning the 
existence of the probe. They are still forbidden from reporting 
anything about the substance of the investigation, and Ha'aretz 
admitted that due to official censorship it could not even reprint 
much of what Bishara said to millions of viewers on television.

Bishara himself was vague about the allegations. If he even knows all 
the details, he could place himself in greater jeopardy by talking 
about them. He said he is still thinking about his options, including 
when to return to Israel. While he questioned the value of spending 
years proving his innocence of things he does not consider illegal, 
such as maintaining broad contacts with the Arab world of which he 
feels a part, he poignantly reflected that ultimately he faced a 
choice between prison, exile or martyrdom. These indeed are the only 
choices Israel has ever placed before Palestinians who refuse to 
submit to the racist rule of Zionism.

What he was clear about was that he is the target of a campaign, 
coordinated at the highest levels of the Israeli state to destroy him 
and his movement politically. He is undoubtedly right about this and 
there is long precedent. In 2001, Israel's attorney general Elyakim 
Rubinstein charged Bishara with "endangering the state" because of 
comments he made during a visit to Syria, and the Knesset voted for 
the first time in its history to lift the immunity of one of its 
members so Bishara could be prosecuted. In 2003, the Israeli Central 
Elections Committee attempted to disqualify Bishara and his party 
from standing in national elections, on the grounds that the party 
did not adhere to the dogma that Israel must remain a "Jewish state." 
Under Israeli law all parties are required to espouse the dogma that 
Israel must always grant special and better rights to Jews, meaning 
truly democratic parties are always flirting with illegality. That 
decision was eventually overturned by the courts. (Though it should 
be noted that the ban was supported by former attorney general 
Rubinstein, who is now a Supreme Court judge!). Such persecution 
against Palestinians in Israel has been the norm since the state was 
founded. Until 1966, they lived under "military government," a form 
of internal military occupation similar to that experienced by 
Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza today. Laws, practices and 
policies that continue to deny their fundamental human rights are 
well described in Jonathan Cook's recent book 
<http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article4800.shtml>Blood and 
Religion: Unmasking the Jewish and Democratic State. In recent years 
opinion polls show that a majority of Israeli Jews consistently 
support government efforts to force Palestinian citizens out of the 
country. (In recent weeks, former Israeli prime minister and current 
Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu declared that it would be best if 
Bishara never returned).

Bishara sees Israel's latest gambit as signalling a change in the 
"rules of the game." If he, an elected official, a well-known public 
figure can face such tactics, what will the rest of the community 
face? Indeed, the recent publication by leading Palestinians in 
Israel of <http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6381.shtml>a 
report calling for mild reforms to the Israeli state prompted 
Israel's secret police, the Shin Bet (which operates torture and 
death squads in the occupied territories) to warn that it would 
"disrupt the activities of any groups that seek to change the Jewish 
or democratic character of Israel, even if they use democratic means" 
("Arab leaders air public relations campaign against Shin Bet," 
Ha'aretz, 6 April 2007). (There is precedent for such disruption not 
only against Palestinians, but even against Israel's Mizrahi Jews 
whose attempts to organize against Ashkenazi discrimination were 
destroyed by the Shin Bet -- see Joseph Massad's book 
<http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5896.shtml>The Persistence 
of the Palestinian Question.)

Palestinian solidarity activists must understand and act on the 
signal Israel is sending by persecuting Bishara. For years, the 
mainstream Palestinian movement and its allies have buried their 
heads in the slogan "end the occupation." If it ever was, this vision 
is no longer broad enough. We must recognize that Israel's war 
against Palestinians does not discriminate among Palestinians, 
sparing some and condemning others. It does however take different 
forms, depending on where Palestinians are. Those in East Jerusalem, 
the West Bank and Gaza Strip live under an extreme form of military 
tyranny now often called "apartheid," though it is increasingly 
apparent that it is something even worse. Palestinians inside 
Israel's 1948 borders live under a system of laws, policies and 
practices that exclude them politically and oppress them economically 
and socially. Millions of Palestinians outside the country are 
victimized by racist laws that forbid their return for the sole 
reason that they are not Jews.

In practice this means that the Palestinian solidarity movement needs 
to fashion a new message that breaks with the failed fantasy of 
hermetic separation in nationalist states. It means we have to focus 
on fighting Israeli racism and colonialism in all its forms against 
those under occupation, against those inside, and against those in 
exile. We need to educate ourselves about what is happening all over 
Palestine, not just in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. We need to stand 
and act in solidarity with Azmi Bishara and all Palestinians inside 
the 1948 lines who have for too long been marginalized and abandoned 
by mainstream Palestinian politics. Support for the Palestinian civil 
society call for boycott, divestment and sanctions is particularly 
urgent (see <http://www.pacbi.org/>http://www.pacbi.org/). In 
practice we need to start building a vision of life after Israeli 
apartheid, an inclusive life in which Israelis and Palestinians can 
live in equality sharing the whole country. If Sinn Fein's Gerry 
Adams and hardline Northern Ireland Unionist leader Ian Paisley can 
sit down to form a government together, as they are, and if Nelson 
Mandela and apartheid's National Party could do the same, nothing is 
beyond the realm of possibility in Palestine if we imagine it and work for it.

Azmi Bishara is the only Palestinian leader of international stature 
expressing a vision and strategy that is relevant to all Palestinians 
and can effectively challenge Zionism. That is why he is in fear for 
his life, safety and future while the quisling "president" Mahmoud 
Abbas in Ramallah receives money and weapons from the United States 
and tea and cakes from Ehud Olmert.

Ali Abunimah is co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of 
<http://electronicintifada.net/bytopic/store/548.shtml>One Country: A 
Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse (Metropolitan 
Books, 2006)


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