This is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.
It could be any street in Israel, Jerusalem, Haifa or Tel Aviv. Israeli soldiers guarding the public.
Israeli soldiers even protect those who come from afar to serve Palestinians in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
Ironic isn’t it? To be guarded by those who transgress those one has come to serve. Even during Israel’s invasion of Gaza.
The globalized world of massive suffering and service to those in need is rarely simple. Humanitarian aid to Palestinians is no exception.
After all, those who work for the UN, NGOs and the churches are protected, investigated and censored by the Israeli government. Their movements in and out of Israel are monitored and controlled by the Israeli government.
The question of questions was broached years ago but now in the wake of Israel’s invasion of Gaza – at this moment of reckoning – it needs further consideration. Do humanitarian workers serve the Palestinian people – only? Or do they, in an important way – also – serve the interests of the Israeli government?
It isn’t direct service to Israel as in a corporate welfare model. Humanitarian workers can be crucial to the survival of individuals and communities in need. They may function as witnesses to the humanity of the suffering. They can also function as humble enablers, siphoning off the steam of occupation and invasion.
Perhaps Marx was right about religion and thus by extension humanitarian aid, the religion of choice of many in our modern secular age. Are religion and humanitarian aid opiates for suffering Palestinians and especially for the world community that washes its hands of the situation as long as children aren’t burning?
Even the prophetic denunciation of Israeli power, as some NGOs and churches have properly engaged in lately, can serve the same function.
The UN, NGOs and churches have to face the question of questions: Should they continue to serve as they have with the results obvious to all or contemplate a boycott of Israel? Concentrating on an occupation and blockade that for all intents and purposes are permanent has failed.
“Boycott Israel” wouldn’t go over big in most quarters. Perhaps it shouldn’t even be put on the table. It’s difficult to draw a red line when the needs of the people you’re serving are so great.
This would be upping the stakes considerably. Boycotting Israel might not work either.
But if you’ve noticed, the needs of Palestinians keep becoming greater. And greater. Each year. With no end in sight.
The international community is outraged – and does nothing.
Serving the disenfranchised is rarely simple. Especially when under the auspices of the Jewish state.
So UN, NGO and church business as usual during Israel’s invasion of Gaza?
Perhaps there’s no other choice. The UN, NGOs and the churches may be trapped like the people of Gaza.
Yet where there’s no way out, a way out still has to be found. What is that way?
This is seriously one of the dumbest columns I’ve ever read. It is the apotheosis of leftist stupidity.
Yes, Marc. Yes. Let’s remove all humanitarian workers from the territories so that it will be easier for you as a Westerner to show how evil Israel is, since Israel will have to fill the breach (or Egypt in Gaza, but never you mind), and in forcing Israel to do so, it will make the occupation plainer. Of course, let’s not waste a single word on the corruption that is endemic in the territories, which has received more international aid per capita than anywhere else.
By all means, Marc, the most important thing to remember these days is that life for Western left-wing anti-Israel activists should be made easier. They are suffering SO badly.
Just disgusting. One of the most disgusting columns I’ve seen printed here.
It’s interesting and ironic that the largest recipient per capita of humanitarian aid needs it because it’s neighbor, Israel is the worlds largest per capita recipient of American military/foreign aid. Do you think things would change if America short circuited Israel and gave my tax dollars direct to Palestine?
If hophmi doesn’t like this idea, then it’s probably a good one.
It doesn’t make sense to keep building humanitarian projects that Israel is going to destroy. Is a slow holocaust preferable to a fast one? Is there a difference in the suffering?
It seems to me that the only difference is that it is so much easier to get away with carrying out a slow holocaust.
Great article, “Let My People Go!” here by Chris Hedges: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2014/08/boycott-israel.html/comment-page-1#comment-700515
“God’s covenant in the Promised Land was not made, finally, with any race or religion. It was not made with the Jews. It was not made with the Muslims. It was not made with the Christians. God’s covenant—in the Bible and the Koran—was made with the righteous. When Ibrahim asked in the holy Koran if the covenant could be inherited, he was told bluntly: “My covenant is not given to oppressors.” And God’s iron requirement to stand with the oppressed occurs as well in the Hebrew and Greek bibles. Those who turn away from righteousness—be they Jew, Christian or Muslim—violate that covenant. They are not God’s people.”
So much for “birthright” and for Israel.
MARC ELLIS- “Concentrating on an occupation and blockade that for all intents and purposes are permanent has failed.”
There is a reason for that. The same reason that a boycott of Israel would also fail. As long as Israel enjoys imperial support little will change. This is particularly true at this juncture when empire is attempting to eliminate any and all potential future competitors prior to a rapidly approaching seismic shift in the global political economy as empire risks nuclear war to lock in a form of corporate neo-feudalism which, in turn, is fundamentally unsustainable. At this point in time, empire is seeking confrontation, not compromise. Perhaps mere survival is the best we can hope for.