Segregation then and now, from Ben White
Israel's creation of "Palestinians-only" bus lines in the occupied territories-- so that Jews and Palestinians don't mix when traveling-- has become a global story. People are paying attention, because the racism is so disturbing.
The story reminds us of the Jim Crow South, and a heroic chapter of American history: the Freedom Rides, when young people contested the segregation of bus lines and the stations serving them across the South. Many of those idealists were beaten or worse; and the civil rights we enjoy today are a testament to their sacrifice.
What follows is a story about how witnessing racism can change someone's life. In June 1961, the Freedom Rides were heating up, and the late William M. Kunstler was traveling cross-country when the legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union asked him to stop in Mississippi "and tell the black lawyer that's handling cases that the ACLU stands behind him."
Kunstler told the story of his visit to Sarah Kunstler and Aimee Pohl-Deming. It was published by Michael Steven Smith in his book Lawyers We Love (Smyrna Press, 1999).
I landed in Jackson, Mississippi, on June 15, 1961, and the next day I went to the office of Jack Young. I said, "I'm here to offer you the regards of the ACLU."
He replied, "I don't want regards, I need lawyers. I'm going crazy. If you want to see something that will make you want to do this, go down to the Greyhound bus terminal. There's going to be an arrest."
More than a hundred Freedom Riders had been arrested in Mississippi and Jack Young was the only lawyer working for them.
He sent me down to the Greyhound bus terminal and the place was filled with cops. CORE [the Congress of Racial Equality] had this action called Operation Mixer and Captain William Ray from the Jackson Police Department had the whole place ringed with police officers. I went to have something to eat at the lunch counter and wait, and then the police ordered everyone, including me, to clear the waiting room. All of a sudden, the back door opened and in came five young people, three white young women, a white man, and a young black man, all scared to death. They went and sat down at the lunch counter I had just left, and then they were swooped up and arrested because they had ridden on an interstate bus together. The mayor had ordered the police to arrest the bus riders.
Once I saw that, I went back to Young's office and I said, "I'm yours. I'm going to be a lawyer, not just bring you regards from the ACLU." That was the start of it. I never forgot that day, my brother's birthday, June 16, 1961. I didn't realize it then, but there was going to be a change in my whole life.
I knew I had to get those five young people out of jail....
When I arrived in Jackson, 111 riders had been arrested, and before I left in late August, over 400 had been arrested. It was impossible to get a fair trial for the hundreds of arrested riders given the hostile climate of the South at that time.
How many of us have had these feelings when we go to Palestine and witness apartheid and know that we have to do something? Read Scott's story, "The Boy on the Horse."
Great article, but darling the abbreviation for Mississippi is MS. MI is Michigan, and there is a Jackson in Michigan too.
In the meantime, these “separate but equal” things are inherently racist – and should be boycotted fully.
“Jackson, MS,” not “MI,” which is Michigan.
Thanks Joe
As to civil rights (and human rights), we’ve had good days and bad days in the USA. From my vantage point, there have been only bad days in Israel.
Voting rights look to be taking a bad turn just now in the good-ole-boy USA.
It was bad day in the USA when the Supremes took a close look at the original intentions of the founding fathers and discovered, nestled among them, that corporations were and are citizens which enjoy all the Constitution’s protections as to political speech.
Back to Israel.
I’m waiting for an American president to go to Ramallah and say, “I am a Palestinian” (or maybe “I am a falafel”) in Arabic. I should live so long.
I’m waiting for an American president to go to Ramallah and say, “I am a Palestinian” (or maybe “I am a falafel”) in Arabic.
Thanks for the first laugh of the day for me. But I agree with the sentiment.
Thanks, tree. And I learn that he should say, “Ana Filistini / Filisteenee” (or “Ana falafel”).
You’re welcome pablemont. I had a good chuckle.
Just in case there’s someone reading this who doesn’t understand your witticism, I’ll mention that your “I am a Falafel” is a historical take off on President Kennedy’s trip to West Berlin after the erection of the Berlin Wall, where he made a famous speech in which he uttered the words, “Ich bin ein Berliner”. Although sources now seem to say that his sentence was grammatically and thematically correct, there was a joke at the time that by inserting the word “ein” into the sentence, his translated words were “I am a jelly donut”, a “Berliner” being a type a type of jelly donut.
Perhaps everyone here knows this, but maybe the foreigners or youngsters here aren’t aware of the reference.
Not Ramallah. Ramallah is like West Berlin was.
He or she would need to go to East Jerusalem and say
Ana Qudsi/Qudsiyeh ma sha allah !
pabelmont – “I’m waiting for an American president to go to Ramallah…”
Wow, that would be like the visit of you-know-who to occupied Paris, or Johnson’s visit to Saigon… Do you really think it is not obvious to all and sundry that he is Palestine’s invader and occupier?
Would be good –after having dumped the Zionists.
This is a great example of Hebrew/Galut dissonance. Separate buses make so much sense in Hebrew.
However if a horse deposited a load of fresh manure in Netanyahu’s personal wardrobe the chances of Bibi making it smell better again by using up a bottle of Febreze and wearing a snorkel for a week are better than his chances of selling apartheid to the goys.
Enough already with trying to manage dissonance through hasbara! Make it right!
The buses are symbolic from a U.S. standpoint but they are not the most severe. Witness the law that forbids Palestinians from the West Bank of marrying with Palestinians inside ’67 Israel(or whatever’s left of it sans settlements). That’s a direct blood law. And it was passed by the ‘leftist’ Kadima back in 2006. There’s tons of more examples.
That most people don’t know about this is a failure of the pro-peace movement’s message efforts. I’m no PR guy, but there gotta be people who are good at that stuff. Because as the old phrase goes “if Americans knew”…
Krauss says: Witness the law that forbids Palestinians from the West Bank of marrying with Palestinians inside ’67 Israel(or whatever’s left of it sans settlements).
=============================================
That is simply not true. You are probably referring to the law that prevents West Bank Palestinians from gaining Israeli citizenship by marrying Israelis.
Were Southern blacks involved in suicide attacks against whites in the South? Was there an assumption in the international community that MLK would be asking for an African-American state?
Sorry, I know how these subtle distinction can be elusive.
“Were Southern blacks involved in suicide attacks against whites in the South? Was there an assumption in the international community that MLK would be asking for an African-American state?”
Actually, white racists have always pointed to violence by blacks, both on the level of individual crime and also the sorts of race riots that have occurred from time to time, as an excuse for discriminatory policies.
As for asking for an African-American state, in the US there’s this presumption on the part of liberals that one-man, one-vote is the policy that liberals support, not states based on ethnicity or religion. I realize that the liberal ideal doesn’t have enough supporters in the Middle East. People who want Muslim or Jewish or Christian states obviously oppose it.
“Actually, white racists have always pointed to violence by blacks, both on the level of individual crime and also the sorts of race riots that have occurred from time to time, as an excuse for discriminatory policies. ”
Wrongly. And Blacks have never as a community supported the use of violence against whites nor framed the civil rights movement as an attempt to take over America.
“As for asking for an African-American state, in the US there’s this presumption on the part of liberals that one-man, one-vote is the policy that liberals support, not states based on ethnicity or religion.”
Your point? The Palestinians want a state. That’s the basis of their program and the understanding of the international community. Failing getting their own state, they would like to reverse the 1948 and 1967 wars. I haven’t seen a credible push for liberal democracy.
RE: “Israel’s creation of ‘Palestinians-only’ bus lines in the occupied territories– so that Jews and Palestinians don’t mix when traveling– has become a global story. People are paying attention, because the racism is so disturbing. The story reminds us of the Jim Crow South . . .” ~ Weiss
A BLAST FROM THE PAST, FROM WIKIPEDIA [J.B. Stoner]:
SOURCE – link to en.wikipedia.org
P.S. PHOTOS OF J.B. STONER:
• Stoner as chairman of the National States’ Rights Party - link to google.com
• “Don’t Tread on Me”, St. Augustine, FL (1964) - link to google.com
• “I thank God all the time for AIDS” - link to flickr.com
P.P.S. THE WAY WE WERE (CIRCA 1939); LEST WE FORGET [SHORTNIN BREAD LYRICS]- link to mondoweiss.net
• Nelson Eddy sings Shortnin Bread 13.09.1939.wmv [VIDEO, 02:39] – link to youtube.com
According to NYT Robert Mackey, the separate bus lines are meant to be a benefit to Palestinians – at least that’s what he intimates in the opening paragraph of his article on the subject:
“Israel’s transportation ministry introduced Monday what it billed as improved service for nearly 30,000 Palestinians who live under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and commute to work daily in Israel: two new bus lines “designated” for their use.”
dbroncos, i didn’t read it as mackey intimating the separate bus lines are meant to be a benefit to Palestinians. operative wording “what it billed as”, that means he’s saying Israel’s transportation ministry is trying to push it as such. also the double quotes around “designated” implies he ain’t buying it. otherwise he would have merely written ‘Palestinians who live under Israeli military occupation in the West Bank and commute to work daily in Israel now have two new bus lines designated for their use.’
I understand what you mean, Annie. However, my complaint is that he opens the article with this paragraph and while putting “designated” in quotes may well mean that he ain’t buing it there are readers won’t pick up on Mackey’s cynicsm, if that’s what it is, and will instead take the Israeli transportation ministry’s claims at face value. If Mackey meant to feature Israel’s rationale as a lame excuse why not present it as such at the end of the article and only after leading with the obvious injustice of separate and unequal bus service?
Sir, – It is deeply regrettable that a positive development for 30,000 or so Palestinians, who travel to Israel for work each day, has been reported in such a negative manner (“Israel to run separate buses for Palestinians”, March 4th).
The facts are that new transport lines have been established, which will facilitate easier travel to and from Israel. Until now, Palestinians doing so had no direct line from their residences to the border crossing; therefore, they had to pay for expensive taxi transport or walk a long journey or travel to an Israeli community in the West Bank and take a bus, all of which was highly inconvenient.
The new transport lines allow Palestinians direct transport from their towns and villages to the border crossing. Under any circumstances, this would be seen as a positive development; regrettably it has been implied that these arrangements amount to segregation. – Yours etc,
NURIT TINARI-MODAI,
Deputy Ambassador of Israel,
Embassy of Israel,
Pembroke Road,
Ballsbridge, Dublin 4
The problem for the Zionist apologist Modai , is that overleaf in the World News section of the Irish Times, is the report from UNICEF covering Israel,s torture and abuse of children–all 700 on an annual basis.
And he wants us to beliveve that Israel cares about it,s Palestinian slaves–sorry, Workers.
Tough job being a Propagandist for the TA regime.
News Flash Palestinians agree to their Segregation.
So says The Israeli Ministry of Transport as reported in Y,NET/
“According to the statement, “The Transportation Ministry is forbidden from preventing any passenger from boarding any line of public transportation, nor do we know of a directive to that effect. Instating these lines was done with the knowledge and complete agreement of the Palestinians.” ynet
Link link to ynetnews.com