I quickly found, however, that life is very much the way it is being described in whatever Israeli media finds its way onto my computer screen or my kitchen table. For on the very day that I arrived, the Rabin administration saw fit to forcibly remove Jewish settlers from Jewish land, and from land which moreover, was approved by the very same government for increased Jewish settlement. In the process of this forcible removal, 110 people were arrested. The fact that no crime was committed by these people was readily attested to by the almost immediate release of 108 of these prisoners. Only two remained in custody -- Nadia Matar and Rabbi Shlomo Riskin. These are the two people involved in the case of Givat Hadagan who have historically made the most noise.
But arbitrary arrests is nothing new to this government. What is perhaps more bothersome is the next outrage to befall these people. All 108 refused to leave the prison without Matar and Riskin among their number. So the police forcefully threw them out of the compound. This, too, is apparently nothing tremendously new to Israel. Yet the story goes further. The same day as the Givat Hadagan removals, the Arutz 7 radio boat, in harbour for repairs, was boarded by people under the orders of Meretz leader and Communication Minister Shulamit Aloni. All the equipment aboard the boat, used for transmitting the radio signal of this voice of the religious opposition, was taken off the boat and destroyed, mostly burned.
These three outrages have not been lost on the Israeli public. If similar acts had been committed by a government whose interests truly included the protection of Israel from its enemies, the entire humanist left would beup in arms and threatening to bring the government down. Leftist forces from around the world, such as Amnesty International, and the Arab wing of the United Nations would be clamouring about human rights abuses and fascist government actions. Arbitrary arrests, police brutality against non-incarcerated people, not to mention the bruatlity shown against prisoners, and the removal of the right to free expression of peaceful opposition elements, all point to a government dangerously out of control.
One benefit that supporters of Israel have always been able to point to in discussions with government representatives from other states is that Israel is the only real democracy in the Middle East. As part of the general effort of the Rabin government to break this country apart, the insitutions of democracy are now under direct attack.
The interesting twist of this whole chain of events was the remark made by Shimon Peres in attempting to justify the government actions at Givat Hadagan. He claimed that the reason for the government removal of the settlers from this land, Jewish-owned and zoned though it is, was the threat these settlers posed to Israeli democracy and the peace-process. Since is when is peaceful civil disobedience a threat to democracy? On the contrary, it is one of the cornerstones of free societies the world over. And the second part of his statement is no less troublesome.
In 1993, Peres went on international television to justfiy Israel's acceptance of the PLO as a negotiating partner. He said that in his opinion, Israel's acceptance of the PLO would lead the PLO to institute a democratic rule of law in any territory that it took over. But instead, the very process started with the Oslo Accord, is being used to justify the destruction of Israel's democracy, rather than to create democracy among the Arabs.
I don't profess to know what Peres or Rabin are thinking. I don't really want to know either. If what they are thinking is giving rise to policies as disastrous for Israel and the Jews as the current policies are, then all Israel should want nothing to do with Peres and Rabin, much less Aloni. What I do know, and what is more plain to see from Israel than through the non-Israeli media, is that the damage is being done, and that it is very widespread. The other thing that I do know, and that I now feel stronger than I did in North America, is that Israel is my land. All of it -- unconditionally. My existence depends on its survival. So does the existence of the entire Jewish nation. If Peres, Rabin, and Aloni are so willing to abuse their power to destroy this land and all that it means to the Jewish nation, they should be recognized at long last for the threat they represent to the Jewish existence, and dealt with accordingly.
Copyright 1995. Reproduction in electronic or print format by permission only.
