Over the last couple weeks, Israel has stepped up its use of pogroms and settler/colonial violence in Palestine. Their strategy for somewhat gradual ethnic cleansing seems to be a combination of bulldozing neighborhoods and farms, and evicting Palestinian families to make room for Israeli settlers, who are then “just defending their homes” if the previous occupants complain. The media often frame what’s going on there as a two-sided conflict, but the reality is that one side has one of the most advanced and well-funded armed forces in the world, and the other side has next to nothing. It often seems like the only course of action that would be acceptable to the Zionist movement, would be for Palestinians to all lie down and die. The policy of the Israeli government seems to be one of subjugation without end enforced with the practice of “mowing the lawn” – a dehumanizing euphemism for regularly rounding up and killing people who might form any sort of resistance to their apartheid regime. The Majority Report has more:
One can only “settle” on land where no one was living. The word “settler” is propaganda that erases the existence and history of Palestinians.
A better word for those Israelis is squatters, living illegally on land that does not belong to them, hoping to occupy it long enough for “squatters’ rights” to kick in, and deny homes to those who were kicked out.
I think I disagree. It’s settling in *exactly* the same historical sense as was used in the New World, hence “settler/colonialism” – they’re settling people, which then give those people a home to defend. The whole point is that according to the government, the people who already live there don’t count, because it’s “settling” as a strategy of conquest.
I guess I get what you’re saying, but to me, “squatter” both demonizes actual squatters, who’re just using vacant shelter because it’s what they can get, and it helps obscure the history of the term “settler”.
one side has one of the most advanced and well-funded armed forces in the world, and the other side has next to nothing
In terms of international humanitarian law, one side is under a military occupation, and any resistance they offer is in that context.
Apparently “Never Again” has some exceptions…
WH Auden:
I wonder if Auden is “cancelled” in Israeli schools.
No attack/ill will intended towards Intransitive, but I also feel that “squatter” has some implications/connotations of someone not quite legally, but also not harmfully, inhabiting some neglected/abandoned areas.
I do fully agree with Intransitive that “settle”/”settler” is entirely inappropriate in this scenario.
Maybe “colonizer”, or “invader”?
@WMDkitty – Never Again (to us, specifically)
@Marcus – good point.
I’ve always thought that the liberal left have made the mistake of giving a very charitable interpretation of the phrase “Never again”, which is to say ignoring the murderous exceptionalism it always meant. It was never an inclusive sentiment.
I think it was for a great many people, which is why there is so much Jewish opposition to Zionism and Israel’s policy of apartheid and ethnic cleansing.
But yeah, this shit was part of the Zionist project from the beginning, and way too many people either didn’t see it, or looked away.
Pierce R. Butler @5: English is taught as a second language in Israeli Hebrew-speaking school, and as a third language in Arabic-speaking schools. (There is a very small number of bilingual-bicultural schools that teach Hebrew and Arabic equally, and English is a third language there too). As a result, most of the literature taught in Israeli schools is either Hebrew or Arabic in origin. While some time in English classes is devoted to literature, most of the time is dedicated to grammar, language practice etc, though there is a required literature component to the English language Bagrut (high school matriculation exam, English is one of the required subjects). If you are familiar with the US school system, compare to how much (or little) literature is a component of the AP Spanish curriculum. So no need to ‘cancel’ anyone, there just isn’t that much of an opportunity to teach in the first plaace. That said, in my school days back in the 1980s we did study 2 WH Auden poems as part of the English literature program. As for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in literature, we studied Khirbet Khizeh which ends with the protagonist expressing similar thoughts to those in the Auden quote.