Thank you for bringing the IMPACT- SE website to my notice.

No doubt an attempt will be made to deny the credibility of the site because it is based in Israel.

This tactic of shooting the messenger and ignoring the message must be resisted.

Poisoning young minds through hatred filled textbooks, television shows and unbridled media distortion have been – and continue to be – among the principal contributors to exacerbating the 130 years old conflict between Arabs and Jews.

Until these outrageous practices are halted – real reconciliation between Jews and Arabs seems to be unattainable.

The preliminary finding of its latest report on Israel is summarized on its website at http://www.impact-se.org/research/israel/index.html The summary is:
“IMPACT-SE has recently started a review of Israeli schoolbooks used in school year 2009-2010. It has discovered that the encouraging fundamentals found in the previous report persisted and even strengthened, namely: regarding the “other” as first and foremost a human being; overcoming suspicion, hatred and prejudices; knowing and respecting Islam and Arabs; admitting the legitimacy of the rival national movement and; presenting conflict in a balanced way. Despite deterioration of Palestinian-Israeli relations after the second Intifada and the deep disenchantment with the peace process among Palestinians, peace is still considered something that might and should happen one day, and is presented as obviously positive and worthwhile for all sides.”

The most recent report on Palestinian schoolbooks is summarized at http://www.impact-se.org/research/pa/index.html It reads:
“IMPACT-SE has studied the Palestinian Authority schoolbooks used in the current school year (2009-2010), and has come to the conclusion that although positive changes have occurred in the books during the last two years, they still do not amount to forming a clear departure from the negative fundamentals in PA schoolbooks regarding the attitude to the Jewish and Israeli “other” and to peaceful resolution of the Middle Eastern conflict.”

There are separate reports on the subject relating to schoolbooks and other educational programs in Hamas-run Gaza (see http://www.impact-se.org/research/hamas/index.html).

The most recent report is summarized as follows:

“IMPACT-SE recently completed its report on Al-Fateh (http://al-fateh.net), the Hamas web magazine for Children, which serves as its internet educational instrument, supports its ideology and terrorist activities, and serves as a platform for Hamas propaganda and indoctrination, especially of Palestinian, and more generally, Arab and Muslim, children. Politically, the website’s consistent message is a call for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic state in its stead, and an armed struggle of violence and terror against all who are defined as the enemies of Islam, including the West in general. The site indoctrinates children to adopt the concepts of jihad and martyrdom and aspire to become not just fighters but suicidal martyrs, effectively preparing them to serve as the next generation of sacrificial instruments in the war of terror and annihilation waged by Hamas.”

I therefore call upon Stewart Mills to redirect his criticisms to the Palestinians. It is not needed nor just when directed against Israel.

You are off on a tangent again. The Freedom House report said not one of the 22 Arab League countries including the territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas is free and that Israel is the only free state in the region..

Do you agree or disagree with this conclusion?

A simple “Yes” or “No” will suffice..

Israel is in simple truth a liberal democracy, with complete rule of law, and includes its Israeli Arab inhabitants as citizens with the full range of civil rights granted in any liberal democracy, including access to legal redress, independent political expression and parties, freedom of expression and all the rest. These are just matters of fact. Israeli Arabs sit in the Israel Parliament, the Kenesset, on the Israeli Supreme Court, in the Foreign Service, write columns in the newspapers, run businesses and do everything others do. Nothing like this exists for Jews, for example, in the Palestinian Authority areas, or indeed for anyone else either, nor in any of the Arab countries around Israel for any minorities or dissidents. In fact, in the P.A. it is official policy that all Jews in their future state must be ethnically cleansed from the land: they want 0% Jews in their proposed state. Torture is rampant in their prisons, there is no freedom of expression, elections have been suspended for the duration, Fatah supporters are tossed off the roofs of buildings in Hamas-run Gaza, while Hamas supporters are jailed and even executed in the West Bank. Even people who cooperate with Jews, selling land to them or joining in business ventures, are threatened with death or are actually killed. The contrast is stark.

Stewart Mills is indifferent to these realities. According to him, Palestinians are not even enemies of Israel, and the consistent 70% of the P.A. population that (according to Palestinian opinion polls year after year) believe that terrorist atrocities committed against Israel are good, justified and proper, do not matter. He calls upon Israelis to see the good and bad together in the Palestinians who blow up people in pizza parlours or heroize their perpetrators by naming public squares after them.

But actually, Israelis do see the good and bad in Palestinians, do not like to hate nor approve of it, and generally have not indulged in the sort of hate-incitement and gun-waving and raving mass rallies and protests common in Gaza or the West Bank societies. One does not find such hate-incitement on Israeli TV, school books, or political speeches. But, Stewart Mills, I invite you to have a look at the PLO National Covenant, still unmodified despite claims otherwise, or the Hamas Charter. — But, hold on, that does not register with Stewart Mills either. Rather than see that, he must tie his shoelaces, again.

For a good analysis of the sort of thinking that seems to be operating here, see Bernard Harrison, The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism: Jews, Israel and Liberal Opinion (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2006). Bernard Harrison is a British analytical philosopher, non-Jewish by the way, who thought it would be interesting to apply the logical skills and linguistic analysis of his discipline to the “real world,” by analysing the anti-Israel discourse that is so central and emphatic in the leftist media in Britain. He devotes a whole chapter for example to some debates in the Guardian newspaper and blogs, and another chapter to John Pilger. Very penetrating reading.

Who is this ‘enemy’ you refer to that you seem to no so well? Why is this ‘enemy’ so different from other people in history? If you are prejudging all Palestinians as the enemy then I feel sorry, for indeed this is what your fate will be. If you see friendships within the community then there is a chance to find peace. Your fate is dependant on your outlook. A more realistic view is to see the good and bad in all people and try and work towards reconciling differences instead of trying to force submission. History shows that forcing a people to consent only creates a bigger problem for a later time. It is wiser to resolve problems now, for the benefit of future generations, than to keep the cycle of violence going.

“Israeli military justice authorities arbitrarily detained Palestinians who advocated non-violent protest against Israeli settlements and the route of the separation barrier. In October a military court sentenced Abdallah Abu Rahme, from the village of Bil’in, to one year in prison on charges of inciting violence and organizing illegal demonstrations, largely on the basis of coerced statements by children. In January the Israeli military released anti-wall activist Muhammad Othman, after detaining him for 113 days without charge.”

“Complaints of torture committed by West Bank PA security services increased in 2010, with the Independent Commission for Human Rights receiving 106 complaints as of September.”

My point is if Israel wants to take the high moral ground about the threats faced by their state, then equal consideration needs to be given to the lives of those whose lives are threatedned by the military occupation by Israel. If Tel Aviv had tanks rolling through their streets and jeeps driving around with Egyptian soldiers shooting tear gas at Israelis throwing stones at them, I can sure as bet you would be outraged (and rightfully so). Why then not outrage if Israeli soldiers can do it, but not Egyptian soldiers?

Look to at the plight of Palestiniasn living in Israel. Is there a reason Freedom House did not focus on the plight of Bedouin-Israelis? Again from Human Rights Watch report 2011:

“Bedouin citizens of Israel suffered discriminatory home demolitions. From July to October police and the Israel Land Administration destroyed the Bedouin village of Al-Araqib six times, displacing 300 people. At the time residents were contesting in court the state’s claims that they had never owned lands in the area. Some 90,000 Bedouin live in “unrecognized” villages with no basic services and at risk of demolitions.”

David, there are a plethora of reputable agencies that publish their perspective on the civil and political rights of fellow human beings.

What does B’Tselem, Amnesty International and the various United Nations agencies say about the civil and political rights of citizens in the Arab world. Deplorable. What do they say about the civil and political rights of Palestinians. Intolerable. Intolerable on two counts. Not only do citizens have to withstand the deprivations and repression associated with military occupation and effective control by a sovereign state, Israel, they have to deal with the trauma of infighting and repression presented by the leadership that has surfaced within the occupation.

What type of future is this for either Palestinians or Israelis? Certainly not a recipe for good neighbourly relations. Without a doubt all the ‘Arab’ world is not a shining light to democracy and human rights. But Israel too is failing its duties as an occupier of the people of Palestine. Does that mean we close our eyes to one area of injustice. King reminds us that “injustice anywhere is injustice everywhere”. So we as people of conscience should respond to the injustice. For those who respond to the injustice in Sudan, all power to them, for those who support the rights of Copts in Egypt, thank you, for those who champion potential climate refugees because of Climate Change, you are beautiful people, for those who seek for justice for the poor and marginalized within Israel, toda raba, for those who seek for freedom for the Palestinians from occupation, blessings to you. The point is striving for tikkun olam, healing and wholeness, requires looking out for those beyond your tribe. Through the act of giving life to others we in turn make our life one that is worth living.

Shalom