It occurred to me recently that I ought to try to gain entry into the West Bank. As a Gaza-born Palestinian with dual American citizenship, I regularly travel using my American passport without any problems. I thought I’d do some due diligence before committing, so I pulled up the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs webpage to see what sort of preparations I had to make to fly into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
Before I launch into the content of the site, I want to highlight some formatting and visuals. The page is entitled, “Israel, the West Bank and Gaza: Country Specific Information.” Whatever the nattering ninnies at the top may say, the bureaucrats have it right: Israel, the West Bank and Gaza represent one control system – and therefore, one political (if dysfunctional and fragmented) unit. Just as significantly, the map on the page asterisks both Gaza and the West Bank with a footnote that reads in part, “Israeli-occupied.” Well, so much for Sharon’s disengagement.
The site tells us that the American government “seeks equal treatment and freedom to travel for all American citizens regardless of national origin or ethnicity.” Excellent! Go America!
Wait, there’s more. Just a few more lines into the text we learn that, “American citizens whom Israeli authorities suspect of being of Arab or Muslim origin are likely to face additional, often time-consuming, and probing questioning by immigration and border authorities, or may even be denied entry into Israel [italics mine].”
Well, this is problematic. A government that America wet-nursed now reserves the right to discriminate against Americans on the basis of race and religion. But let’s be reasonable. Israel has a special history of violence and security requirements. And, while all Muslims may not be terrorists, all terrorists are Muslims –TimothyMcVeigh, the Tax-me-not terrorist and these guys notwithstanding. And this is Israel, and there is no light between us.
I continued to read down the page: “It is possible that Israeli authorities would consider as Palestinian anyone who has a Palestinian Identification number, was born in the West Bank or Gaza, or was born in the United States but has parents or grandparents who were born or lived in the West Bank or Gaza. Any such U.S. citizens may be required to travel to Israel using their Palestinian Authority passport, regardless of whether they hold the U.S. citizenship… Individuals who hold a Palestinian Authority ID, as well as persons judged by Israeli authorities to have claim to a Palestinian Authority ID by virtue of ancestry, will be considered subject to Israeli law and to regulations that Israel applies to residents of the West Bank and Gaza, regardless of whether they also hold U.S. citizenship [italics mine].”
This is important. Basically, the American government, by continuing to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, is ceding American-identifying authority to the Israeli government. Put differently, within a circumscribed geographical space, the Israeli government gets to decide who is an American and who is a nigg… excuse me, a Palestinian.
Here’s an important jurisdictional question: Does this provision also permit the Zionist state to kidnap Palestinian-Americans from foreign cities? Or do they cease to be Americans only when they’re in or on the border of Palestine/Israel?
In effect, this provision also limits the capacity of the American government to fill vacancies on a race-blind basis. For instance, I could never be the American ambassador to Tel Aviv. Neither my children, nor my grandchildren could fill that post in the future. Paradoxically, if they were born in the United States itself, they could be the president, but not ambassador to Israel. Imagine for a moment that South Africa were still an apartheid state and Barack Obama has just been elected president – how embarrassing for everyone, having to confront racism upfront like that.
Here’s another paradox:
The world’s most sovereignty-jealous state – Kyoto was not ratified because it permitted foreigners to tell us Americans how to do things – is permitting a foreign government to define its own citizenship. This is undoubtedly an egregious degradation of American sovereignty.
So next time Iran or North_Korea holds an American journalist against his or her will, they ought to invoke the ‘We decide who’s an American on an ancestral basis’ principle.‘ So Kim Jong-il gets to say, “Look, she’s Korean-American, she’s one of ours. Keep walking, Johnny America.”
It gets worse.
A suspected member of the Israeli spy and death squad agency, Mossad, was recently arrested in Algeria. Uncle Sam wasted no time in sending over an FBI agent, John Pistole, to negotiate his release. That’s because Algeria doesn’t have any diplomatic relations with Israel. No big deal, right? America is always ready to lend a helping hand, even if it’s to an alleged foreign spy and potential assassin.
But what about Rachel Corrie? Did she get senior FBI support demanding the prosecution of her killer? And Tristan Anderson, that young American man currently in a vegetative state with a large wound to his head, does the FBI intervene there? Is anyone being prosecuted? Can I mention the USS Liberty attack or is that kooky and conspiratorial? Why is it kooky and conspiratorial? Was a senior FBI man dispatched to find the truth in that case? How about a Congressional investigation?
My fellow Americans, our government values our lives on a geographically contingent basis. You’re worth a fair amount in America, and a whole lot in Iran. But when it comes to Israel, you’re not even really American. So ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what your country can do for the Mossad.
The United States of Israel (USI).
cute, did you think of that on your own?
Ironic how people who were born in Palestine face all these restrictions trying to visit their homeland, but a European lookin dude in Brooklyn who claims Jewish ancestry gets a free ticket and a tour of the same place with tax break incentives to settle there…
Come on…why let it bother you, the uss liberty was directly from the hiarchy of our own usi allowed to take a hit for the mother country of ill fated land.
what really has my intrest is do they not realize how isolated they are making themselves, the usi has over 1000 terrorists organizations……I meant malitias.
It does not seem to hold any bearing with the dumbed down whom believe all the government media allows to. They are doing the world a favor by their own hands and controls and seem to either not realize or care what will happen to them or their people again..I forgot they didn’t care at then either. I wonder…..
[Any such U.S. citizens may be required to travel to Israel using their Palestinian Authority passport, regardless of whether they hold the U.S. citizenship… Individuals who hold a Palestinian Authority ID, as well as persons judged by Israeli authorities to have claim to a Palestinian Authority ID by virtue of ancestry, will be considered subject to Israeli law and to regulations that Israel applies to residents of the West Bank and Gaza, regardless of whether they also hold U.S. citizenship [italics mine].”
This is important. Basically, the American government, by continuing to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, is ceding American-identifying authority to the Israeli government. Put differently, within a circumscribed geographical space, the Israeli government gets to decide who is an American and who is a nigg… excuse me, a Palestinian.]
The tenor of the policy appears that both the governments wanted to make the process simple. Inasmuch as security in Israel is under Israel authority – all people other than Jewish must be subjected to Israeli identity classsification and related security procedure. 1) It has been experienced that terrorists in these areas of concern, no matter their citizenry, generally are of Islamic, and non-Jewish origin, 2) this problem is totally rooted to the fact and obstructed by the Palestinian conflict, the technicality for citizenship identity within the Jewish nation is not yet fully established, and that the prevailing or fundamental basis for identification is either traditional or for security matters; being Jewish or non-Jewish, Islamic or non-Islamic.
All these problem on citizenry, security, and identity rooted deep into the problem and even with the Palestine conflict, with the question, or the lack of definition; What is a Jewish nation… In my personal understanding, a Jewish nation allows the permanent presence of non-Jewish ‘strangers’ to live harmoniously among them…I admit I need more in-depth research on ancient history on this area of interest…
And ‘harmoniously’ meant to live with dignity, equality in opportunities and access to justice, liberty within the sphere of laws, security, and order, equitable right to property, and in peace…I think this historical order can be further revisited and exploited to give room to peace…
But unless we placed ourselves and the state of Israel under a regime of a permanent general peace all over the country, we cannot define; not even partially, the idea of the Jewish nation…
RE: “A Palestinian-American discovers that the State Department allows Israel to define his national identity” – Ahmed Moor
YET ANOTHER MUSICAL INTERLUDE FROM ZIOCAINE™:
“Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That’s how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died…”
Leonard Cohen – Everybody Knows (05:32) – link to youtube.com
Yes Dickerson3870, and just in case you think some deity is on way to rescue anyone –
BUSINESS
Just in case you are partial to that delusion –
“I’d sell your heart to the junk-man baby for a buck, for a buck!
If you’re looking for someone To pull you out of that ditch You’re out of luck, you’re out of luck
The ship is sinking, the ship is sinking, the ship is sinking
There’s a leak, there’s a leak In the boiler room,
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones left in charge?
Killers, thieves and Lawyers
God’s away, God’s away, God’s away
On Business. Business.
God’s away, God’s away, God’s away
On Business. Business.
Digging up the dead with A shovel and a pick It’s a job, it’s a job
Bloody moon rising with A plague and a flood Join the mob, join the mob
It’s all over, it’s all over, it’s all over
There’s a leak, there’s a leak, In the boiler room
The poor, the lame, the blind
Who are the ones that we kept in charge?
Killers, thieves, and lawyers
God’s away, God’s away, God’s away
On Business. Business.
God’s away, God’s away,
On Business. Business.
[Instrumental Break]
Goddamn ther’s always such A big temptation To be good, To be good
Tere’s always free cheddar in A mousetrap, baby It’s a deal, it’s a deal
God’s away, God’s away, God’s away
On Business. Business.
God’s away, God’s away, God’s away
On Business. Business.
I narrow my eyes like a coin slot baby,
Let her ring, let her ring
God’s away, God’s away,
God’s away on Business.
Business…”
I did not mean “you” specifically Dickerson3870, I meant the all-inclusive you (just in case).
RE: I did not mean “you” specifically Dickerson3870, I meant the all-inclusive you – VR
MY COMMENT: I’m glad you clarified that. I wouldn’t want my aesthetic feathers ruffled!
BEHOLD, my bona fides:
“Under the charm of the Dionysian not only is the union between man and man reaffirmed, but Nature which has become estranged, hostile, or subjugated, celebrates once more her reconciliation with her prodigal son, man…. Now the slave is free; now all the stubborn, hostile barriers, which necessity, caprice or ‘shameless fashion’ have erected between man and man, are broken down… Each one feels himself not only united, reconciled, blended with his neighbour, but all as one with him… In song and in dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community; he has forgotten how to walk and speak; he is about to take a dancing flight into the air… He feels himself a god, he himself now walks about enchanted, in ecstasy… He is no loner an artist, he has become a work of art: in these paroxysms of intoxication the artistic power of all nature reveals itself to the highest gratification of the Primordial Unity” (Nietzsche, The Birth of Tragedy, 1872)
“I should believe only in a God who understood how to dance. And when I beheld my devil, I found him serious, thorough, profound, solemn: it was the Spirit of Gravity – through him all things are ruined. One does not kill by anger but by laughter. Come let us kill the Spirit of Gravity!” (Nietzsche, Of reading and writing, Thus spake Zarathustra, 1883)
“And once I wanted to dance as I had never yet danced: I wanted to dance beyond all heavens. Then you lured away my favourite singer. And then he struck up a gruesome, gloomy melody: alas, he trumpeted into my ears like a mournful horn! Murderous singer, instrument of malice, most innocent man! I stood prepared for the finest dance: then you murdered by ecstasy with your tones! I know how to speak the parable of the highest things in the dance – and now my greatest parable has remained in my limbs unspoken!” (Nietzsche, The Funeral Song, Thus spake Zarathustra, 1883).
The Killers – Human (04:20) – link to youtube.com
RE: “He is no loner an artist, he has become a work of art”
SHOULD HAVE BEEN: He is no longer an artist…
P.S. Those damn internets!
VERY, VERY IMPORTANT!!!!
RE: “aesthetic feathers”
SHOULD HAVE BEEN: atheistic feathers (see the singer’s shoulders in the Human video)
P.S. Spell check threw me a Curveball*. And that damn dyslexia!
* Rafid Ahmed Alwan
So ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what your country can do for the Mossad.
Heh, great line …
Imagine if American Jews were subjected to the same discrimination by any country in the world. Not treated as other Americans by a foreign country.
There’s simply no better way to point out the ugly discrimination of this policy than to ask this question!
Ahmad, did you go? My husband is also Gaza-born and we’re considering a trip back, at least to the West Bank, as Gaza remains out of the question.
I don’t think Americans have any sense of how difficult this issue is for Palestinian-Americans. If you go, will the gov’t of Israel allow you to leave?
It is precisely because of this ugly discrimination that I call upon decent diaspora Jews to relinquish their right to travel — hell, to immigrate! — to Israel when people who were born there are subject to this unconscionable injustice.
Travel Advisory for Ahmed:
Better bring your own grease Ahmed: the Israeli immigration gestapo apparently are very fond of anal probing, sans vaseline of course.
As an attorney, albeit not in any way an immigration attorney, I would just say that admission to a country is normally considered within the sole discretion of the admitting nation.
Not to justify Israel’s discrimination against US citizens of Palestinian origin, but that concept is pretty well taken as a matter of fact in international relations.
Should, and could, the US put pressure on Israel to treat all US citizens the same? Absolutely.
To clarify–I am not excusing or whitewashing Israel’s discrimination, just setting forth what I believe to be the law in the matter.
pineywoodslim, I don’t believe there is any basis in international law for the denial of a person’s nationality or travel documents on the basis of a grandparent’s place of birth. In fact it appears to violate Israel’s obligations and undertakings in connection with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
If any country can decide if and when it wants to allow somebody to pass through its borders based on ethnic extraction from the family tree, then foreign citizenship means nothing at all–there results no recognition of mutal sovereignty. Considering how many Jews hold American and Israeli citizenship, won’t they be the biggest losers if this operating principle comes into full recognition?
To Ahmed Moor, if you follow these comments: I just want to say that I really appreciate this post, as well as the others you’ve contributed here. They’re beautifully written and add an important dimension otherwise mostly missing from this site. Keep ‘em coming!
I agree. Ahmed Moor for President :-)
I agree i enjoy your writtins Ahmed! great post.
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Another good article from Ahmed Moor. Keep them coming.
(But ” all Muslims may not be terrorists” means “it is possible that all Muslims are not terrorists”. I think what you mean is “it may be the case that not all Muslims are terrorists”. This could be more neatly written as “maybe not all Muslims are terrorists”.)
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Incidentally, on the “all terrorists are Muslims” line you sarcastically quote, I used to shock my American students by telling them that when I hear the word “terrorist” I think of an Irishman.
But (because I am a grumpy old git) I most closely associate terrorists with EOKA and the Mau Mau. Then the Irgun and Carlos the Jackal.
I also recall hearing the term applied to the Viet Cong, the Tamil Tigers, and the Baader-Meinhof gang. All good Muslims.
You are quite correct. There is no light between the US and Israel. They have no light.
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Nations for the most part are the franchise of those in power, and it is always the group of a few that get the apparatus of operation they want. It goes through a labyrinth of law, giving it an “official” air enfranchising who it wishes within its arbitrary borders (or in the case of Israel ever expanding borders, and that is because of a lack of law to their benefit so they do not have to circumscribe their colonial settler behavior).
So these countries are either set up by colonial or domestic desire, and while one prospers, right next store another one languishes perhaps because they refuse to join what is now a global status quo, or because they are severely exploited by greater powers, etc. Or they do join and “contribute” to the collective nightmare, mostly run by the few elites in the given countries like carbon copies of oppression, some both foreign and domestic (because there are pecking orders).
In Israel they not only steal and kill their indigenous, but they want them to feel isolated – so that they cannot feel or think that they have any support or recourse outside of the inflicted misery. They have their (Israel) program of disenfranchisement on steroids, so that not even those who no longer reside there can think that they can normally visit – so dead set are they against the “right of return” because of their majority principle, that they cannot even give visitors of the current oppressed (Palestinians) any slight comfort of temporary return. They want their dream to die, of a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel or a single state solution however conceived. They are willing to go to great lengths to communicate this racist, apartheid, colonial message –
THE EASIEST TARGETS
Embedded into the Israeli people is this “special” elite idea of their being more human and worthy than anyone else, and because they are the object of elite largess they feel that they can work their will no matter how repugnant with impunity. This has been made to be part of their “culture,” so that they live in a hermetically sealed environ that seems natural to them – something they can ignore (their atrocities) as they live their oblivious daily lives. A collective spirit of theft and murder because “everyone” is doing it, and if not there are worse examples they tell themselves in the race to see how low they can go.
They have so demonized their indigenous (Palestinians) that they shoot and steal from them without conscience, set in motion a process which has the aim of a complete ethnic cleansing. Ignore any overtures of the international community, and when addressed because of the atrocities they cite “you do not understand.” All of these things leading to their policies defining who or what can enter their ever moving borders, with special racist attention given to their victims.
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Ahmed Moor writes:
This is a good point, and I think it calls for some further research.
Does the U.S. government allow U.S. citizens who are its own employees (such as at the Tel Aviv embassy and the Jerusalem consulate) to be treated by the Israelis as Palestinians?
The State Department should have an answer to this question. The issue must even have come up before, unless the U.S. government deliberately avoids placing such people in jobs in Israel and its occupied territories.
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