The world must stop condemning the Palestinians

Some political commentators, a few international legal experts and many defenders of Israel argue that Israel is singled out as a poriah. They maintain that many states and non-state players are responsible for atrocities far worse than those ever committed by Israel in its 73 year history. Yet Isreal is the country most reported on in the news, most demonstrated against in cities around the world and most condemned via UN resolutions.

It has been argued that singling out Isreal for its disproportionate response to attacks is disingenuous, when disproportionality has been a feature in all wars, including the wars between the Taliban and the USA, Iran and Iraq, India and Pakistan. Disproportionality is also a feature of attacks on Kurds, Armenians, Yemeni insurgents and Mozambique separatists.

The pro Israel lobby maintain that Isreal is singled out, since Israel, they argue, is not unique regarding claims and counter claims over rights to land and is not unique in that Israel has to balance power of majority with the rights of minorities.

The pro Israel lobby maintains that Israel is singled out and condemned as being the bully and the aggressor.

I maintain that it’s not only Israel that is singled out. The world does not only condemn Isreal and hold only Israel to a different standard. The Palestinians too are held to a different standard.

Kurds, Tibetans, Afrikaners, Native Americans, The Khoisan, the people of Quebec, Aboriginal Australians, Armenians and many other peoples have the right to self determination and to a life of dignity. Why shouldn’t any cohesive group not have that right?

Have these, and many more group, have any less right than Palestinians to self determination, the right to study in their own language, promote their own culture and govern themselves?

If they don’t have those rights, then why are they different to Palestinians?

If they do have those rights, then why are these groups not bombing Australian cities from Aboriginal towns or launching rockets on American cities from Native American reserves? Why are many disposessed peoples across the globe not doing these things, yet Palestinians are singled out as being justified in attacking Isreal?

And if Palestinian violence towards Israelis is justified because of the lack of dignity and the tragic lives that Palestinians lead, then why is the community of Alexandra township in Johannesburg South Africa, a densely populated shantytown with little to no sanitation, water, electricity or quality of life not bombing Sandton, one of South Africa’s most affluent and richest suburbs less than 2 kilometres away? If suffering and a lack of dignity is justification for suicide bombings and Qassam Rockets, then every elder of Alexandra township should be strapping explosive belts onto the children of Alexandra and sending them off to the shopping Mecca of Sandton City mall to make a statement and highlight their plight. For singled out Palestinians, this method of resistance is seen by the world as acceptable, justified and unavoidable.

Palestinians, just like Israel, are held to a different standard. My question is, why do so-called Palestinian supporters hold Palestinians to a lower standard than the rest of the world? As a Zionist, I appreciate the anti-Israel mob holding the Jewish state to a higher standard. It is a compliment to Israelis and Jews that they should behave with a higher sense of ethical and moral discipline.

However, if I were Palestinian, I would be f’ing insulted that I am held, by so called supporters, to a lower standard.
Palestinian supporters don’t think Palestinians can be peace loving, productive and live in, and with, dignity.

Palestinian sympathisers think that Palestinians cannot live with pride and with excessive compassion for all people while they live in densely populated Gaza, while 500,000 residents of Alexandra township living in squalor within several square kilometres are amongst the most peaceful, welcoming and compassionate people I have ever met. Palestinian supporters argue that violence is justified because their land has been stolen. Yet, there are hundreds of peoples around the world, with unique national characteristics, who have either had their land taken away, or they believe they have a right to their own land, and they live in peace and prosperity without committing acts of violence.

Palestinians are singled out from amongst the displaced and disposessed peoples of the world, and are confined to refugee camps, even within the areas that the Palestinians control. The Palestinians are singled out for UNRWA support even though there are far more real and severe refugee disasters around the world.

The Palestinians are singled out for hand-outs and charity funding while other poor communities, countries and nations receive investment funding.

The world, in its sympathizing with the Palestinians, treats the Palestinians like Nemo’s dad treats Nemo when his loving dad says to him, thinking he is protecting Nemo: “You know you can’t swim well’. The Palestinian sympathisers continue to treat the Palestinians as if they cannot swim and will never be able to swim. Palestinian supporters are like many parents or people close to drug addicts. Out of love, they do not make tough decisions and do not take a hard line. This type of love turns a supporter into an enabler.