Ralph E. Stone<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nApril 22, 2009<\/p>\n
On Monday, at the United Nations Racism Conference in Geneva, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Israel “a cruel and repressive racist regime,” prompting delegates from European nations to walk out. While I am not a fan of the Iranian President and his numerous diatribes, he did make a point. Why doesn’t Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians belong at a forum on discrimination and xenophobia?<\/p>\n
Consider, Israel has erected a wall or fence, which cuts deep into Palestinian territory, joining large Jewish settlement blocks to Israel, further confining the Palestinians to isolated enclaves. Israel continues to establish new settlements (called outposts), demolishing homes and uprooting plantations in the process. And since Israel instituted a strict closure policy in 2000, the Palestinian economy has been on a downward trend. Fuel, electricity and materials to maintain water and sanitation are under Israeli control. The lack of investment in public infrastructure and private enterprises are eroding the limited remaining Palestinian economic base. The economic blockade has devastated the Gaza private sector and driven almost all industrial producers out of business. About 63 percent of Gazans and 45 percent of the West Bank population live below the UN poverty line. The Palestinian unemployment rate is about 24 percent.<\/p>\n
How can a People who have been persecuted for centuries and were the victims of the Holocaust in turn persecute the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip? Looks like a prima facie case of racism to me and a proper item for discussion at a conference on racism.<\/p>\n
Succumbing to lobbying by Jewish and pro-Israeli groups, the United States boycotted this conference as did a number of other nations. Given our history of discrimination against Blacks, Asians, the Irish, etc., we could have provided a unique perspective on racism. After all, a conference on racism is an ideal place to discuss controversial opinions. And isn’t somewhat ironic that an African American president declined to provide leadership at a conference on racism? As Woody Allen once said, “90 percent of life is just showing up.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the Durban Review Conference on racism at the UN European headquarters in Geneva. (Reuters Photo) By Ralph E. Stone April 22, 2009 On Monday, at the United Nations Racism Conference…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1230,"featured_media":1192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n
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