Earlier today Felson wrote, in a post titled Israeli Arabs Should Reenact Selma: "How Israel's Arabs express their anger is crucial to reversing public opinion in the U.S. It needs to be non-violent, modeled after the civil rights campaign in the South." The post stirred a bunch of comment. Below are two comments from regulars, Mohammad of Vancouver, and by Felson himself.
Mohammad:
Mr. Felson should not preach Americanism to Palestinians. I laugh really hard when I hear arrogant words like "need to model after the Civil rights movement".
Of
course in spirit, every movement for equal rights shares its essence
with the Civil Rights movement in USA. But the Civil rights movement
belonged to a certain time and place. How can day to day actions of a
different people in a different time and place be copied out
of a movement from another dimension? Let's compare just one note and, please
correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't remember blacks being threatened
with a loyalty oath or expulsion from the USA back to Africa.
Before seeking to copy a strategy, one
needs to look at the longevity and the effectivity of the source of
one's emulation. Let's start with some blunt and simple questions.
preacher and even though the "letter to Anti Zionist friends"
was discovered to be a hoax, congressman Mark Lewis in a letter to San
Francisco Chronicle stated that: "During an appearance at Harvard University shortly before his death, a student stood up and asked King to address himself to the issue of Zionism. The question was clearly hostile. King responded, “When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews, you are talking anti-Semitism.” How can Israeli Arabs accept the Civil Rights
model in light of this comment by MLK?
To be fair, I
agree with Mr Felson that the best strategy for Arab Israelis is first
of all unity among themselves, so that rather than being represented by three
or four parties in the Knesset, they are represented by one united Arab
party. Next step, as Mr. Felson recommends, would be to unite with non
Zionist political progressives from Israel to form a united Party
aiming at bringing down Zionist policies.
My last word on this
topic is, when we talk about the civil rights movement, it is very easy
to forget the Back Panthers Party and the Malcom X contributions. Are
they also good models?
And here is Felson's followup to his earlier post:
and public haven't woken up to the realities in Palestine despite the
abundance of available evidence. And it's unfair that American public opinion
should play such a key role in this, but it does. With average
Americans asleep, presidents, Congress and even the media end up doing
the Israel lobby's bidding. So the question is: How do we jar Americans from their slumber?
complexities of issues; it latches on to simple, emotional
explanations. Right now, this works to Israel's advantage. Among
Americans, the conflict is widely seen as being result of militant
Arabs/Muslims and their blinding hatred of Israel and Jews. Any act of
Palestinian violence, even in response to military occupation,
only reinforces this view; and every act of Israeli violence, no matter
how appalling, is rationalized, because (supposedly) it was made
necessary by Arab violence. I believe that a concerted campaign on
non-violence within Israel could force Americans to question the basic assumptions that currently distort their responses to I/P news.
The parallel to South Africa is important. Yes, there was violence on the ANC's side — violence that almost defined the anti-apartheid movement
for a time. But it was when the movement became fundamentally
nonviolent in nature that it caught on with the American masses. They
could understand it easily. It was clear who the good guys and bad guys were. The same thing needs to happen with I/P.
