Israel is no example

The Middle East torture state, like Canada, covers up its brutal colonial war, and that’s no reason to give it a free pass

by Michael Nenonen <mnenonen@republic-news.org>

US Senator John McCain's opposition to the use of torture speaks highly of his character. Unfortunately, he's been relying upon a rather shoddy argument to make his case. McCain's been saying that since Israel doesn't use torture even though it's suffered numerous terrorist attacks, there's no reason for America to use torture either. While I respect McCain's goals, he's got his facts wrong.

One of the most impressive scholarly reviews of Israel's human rights record is Professor Norman Finkelstein's Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History (University of California Press, 2005). Relying upon reports by major human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem, Finkelstein builds a case that thoroughly undermines McCain's assertions.

It's true that on September 6, 1999 torture was officially outlawed by the Israeli Supreme Court. Prior to this, Israel was the only modern country that had legalized the practice. The court ruling didn't stop torture from occurring, however. The ruling was full of loopholes allowing the use of torture in cases where members of the General Security Service (GSS) believe it's necessary to save lives.

Furthermore, the GSS, with the complicity of the Supreme Court, continues to use torture "routinely" and "systematically" against Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Far from being constrained by necessity, nearly half of all interrogations result neither in charges being pressed nor any other action being taken against the detainees.

Detainees are regularly beaten on the face, chest, stomach, and testicles. Their heads are sometimes bashed against walls. They're placed in darkened, frigid, closet-sized rooms for many hours. They're bound in ways that painfully expose their torsos to their tormentors. Many of the victims have perished during their interrogation.

Such horrors have been going on for quite some time. In 1977, ten years before the First Intifada, a London Sunday Times report documented evidence that Palestinian detainees were being sexually assaulted, electrically shocked, and locked inside a 60 cm by 150 cm room that had concrete spikes on the floor.

The victims come from all walks of Palestinian life. According to B'Tselem, the list includes "political activists of Islamic movements, students suspected of being pro- Islamic, religious sages, sheiks and religious leaders, and persons active in Islamic charitable organizations, the brothers and other relatives of persons listed as 'wanted'. . . and Palestinians in professions liable to be involved in preparing explosives. . . . In a number of cases, wives of detainees were arrested during their husbands' detention, and the interrogators even ill-treated them to further persuade their husbands. Also, GSS agents used torture to recruit collaborators." In all, out of a population that has fewer than 750,000 adolescent and adult males, tens of thousands of Palestinians have been tortured.

The torture doesn't occur only inside interrogation cells. Police brutality is commonplace in the Occupied Territories, and sometimes it's severe enough to qualify as torture. A 2001 B'Tselem report, for example, documented a case where Border Policemen broke a three-year old's hand.

Torture is but one of the indignities that Palestinians have to endure. Finkelstein documents many others, such as arbitrary detentions, the decimation of their economy and infrastructure, the theft and partition of their land, the demolition of their homes, assassinations that kill scores of innocent bystanders, checkpoints that prevent the injured and the severely ill from reaching hospitals in time to save their lives, and courts that allow settlers and soldiers to kill Palestinians with relative impunity.

When confronted by this evidence, people often argue that both sides are equally to blame for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This claim is false. According to Amnesty International, in the last three years Palestinian insurgents have killed 729 Israelis, including 462 civilians, 76 of whom were children. During the same period 2,300 Palestinians have been killed, including approximately 400 children. Amnesty notes that the majority of these Palestinians have been killed "unlawfully—in reckless shooting, shelling and air strikes on civilian residential areas; in extrajudicial executions; and as a result of excessive use of force."

The crimes of the Palestinians are perpetrated by poorly-armed paramilitary organizations that aren't accountable to the Palestinian people. The Israeli crimes, on the other hand, are carried out with advanced military technology by the security forces of a state that prides itself on being democratically governed. The Palestinians’ crimes are committed as part of a war against an occupying power; the Israeli crimes are committed as part of a war against an occupied people. Israel enjoys the patronage of the world's only superpower, and is supported by influential lobbies throughout the Western world; the Palestinians, meanwhile, are global pariahs. While both sides share some responsibility for this mess, by every conceivable measure, Israel's responsibility is far greater than the Palestinians'.

However well-intended they may have been, McCain's statements have reinforced a widespread misconception about the Israeli state. According to popular myth, Israel is an oasis of civilization in a desert of barbarism. North Americans should be familiar with this fairytale; after all, we used it ourselves to justify our acts of genocide against First Nations people. It’s the same racist narrative that every colonial society tells itself in order to salve its conscience and fortify its murderous resolve. Israeli propagandists have been reciting this story for decades. To our shame, many Westerners are only too willing to believe the fable.

In Canada, the myth of Israeli righteousness has been promoted by politicians like Stockwell Day, pundits like Barbara Amiel, corporations like CanWest Global, and spokespersons for prominent Jewish organizations such as the Canadian Jewish Congress. Thanks largely to Israel's sugar-coated image, Canada entered into a Free Trade agreement with Israel on January 1, 1997. How many other Middle Eastern torture states enjoy such a relationship with us? How much success have the Syrian, Iranian, and Saudi Arabian lobbies had in winning liberal trade agreements with Canada, or in persuading the Canadian people of their nations' benevolence?

This preferential treatment is particularly galling in light of Canada's recent history. Israel's crimes against the Palestinians aren't terribly different from those committed against Blacks in South Africa during the Apartheid era. In the 1980s, when the US government was issuing apologetics for South Africa, Canada, under the Progressive Conservatives, proudly opposed the Apartheid Regime, and even encouraged an international boycott of the country. If Canada was ethically justified in taking this stance towards South Africa then, we would certainly be ethically justified in taking the same stance towards Israel now.

Given current political trends in Canada, this is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Indeed, as reported by Haaretz.com on December 2 2005, “ Canada has decided to adopt a more pro-Israel stance in the United Nations regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict and to move closer to the positions of Israel and the United States. The decision followed a tough campaign by prominent members of the Canadian Jewish community, who directly lobbied Prime Minister Paul Martin to change Canada's voting pattern.”

With pro-Israeli sycophancy and anti-Arab bigotry spreading throughout the US and Canada, there seems to be little hope that either country will ever give the Palestinians their due. When even John McCain is willing to abandon them to their inquisitors' whims, one has to wonder if there's any hope at all.

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