The Siege Mentality

Jesse Rosenfeld, A Canadian journalist talked about the environment in Israel where he is living. He talked about a siege mentality in the Israeli government and much of Israeli Jewish society. The goal being to grab as much land as possible as quickly as possible for exclusive Jewish use. The idea being to create a bubble of Jewish exclusivity where Jewish people don't have to look at or deal with Palestinians. This can live on as little land as possible isolated from each other and the Jewish community.

One tactic they have been using is to bring in foreign workers to replace Palestinian workers from the occupied territories who had traditionally been a cheep labor source. Another is home demolitions where Palestinian inhabited homes are demolished and replaced by housing that is exclusively for Jewish people. Palestinians homes are demolished for other reasons. For example, as collective punishment and as part of a military operations. Palestinian homes are also being demolished in East Jerusalem to create a park system over the area where they use to live. The Israeli government hopes that if there is no where in East Jerusalem for Palestinian to live live they will leave.

In the beginning of April, there was the dismissal of of at least 40 Arab railway workers who were dismissed because the Israeli government owned railway company introduced a military service requirement for people in their position. Arabs generally do not serve in the Israeli military. When Israel was founded the Arabic speaking minority that was allowed to stay were referred to as Arabs even though most if not all thought of themselves as Palestinians. Those that live outside of the boarders originally declared when Israel was founded are generally referred to as Palestinians. Following these layoffs, Avishay Braverman, the Minority Affairs Minister wrote a letter expressing his concern that the Layoff would start a precedent that other government organizations would use to to ban Arabs from being employed in their organization.

Another tactic is to try to pressure Palestinians to leave the areas Jews want to live in and go to the areas Jewish people are not interested in living in. This has happened in East Jerusalem where Palestinians have been encouraged to resettle in undesirable places in the West bank. Jawad Siyam, a Palestinian living in East Jerusalem and a member of the Wadi Hilweh area's committee said in an interview that two offers had been made to him and his Palestinian neighbors to resettle in the West Bank. Both are in desert like areas and were described in an email as “in the middle of nowhere.” In any case they are definitely places that are not to appealing to live in. One use to have access to Jerusalem but because of the separation wall has been cut off from Jerusalem.

Jesse also talked about the Palestinian Authority's role in the occupation of the West Bank. He said much of Palestinian society views them as Israelis who speak Arabic. This is because the Palestinian Authority has been cracking down on Palestinian protest against the occupation for Israel. Not surprisingly the United States and Israel favor the Palestinian Authority.

I will end with a side note Jesse started his talk with. On the streets of Tehran the Iranian protesters are saying Iran has turned into Israel. When Iranian forces come to crack down on protest the protesters say the Israelis are coming. This is because they are using the some kinds of harsh tactics that the Israeli army uses to crackdown on Palestinian protest in the West Bank.