To the Editor:
I was frankly appalled by yesterday's advertisement sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, which attempted to question the rhetoric of Israeli apartheid by displaying pictures of four Arabs and one Druze who have attained some prominence in Israel. Just as the election of President Barack Obama has led some to deny the continued reality of systemic racism in America, Horowitz's advertisement attempts to argue that on the basis of the success of these few faces, Israel cannot possibly be engaged in a brutal military occupation, appropriation of Palestinian land and resources and systematic denial of basic rights — most notably the right of self-determination — to the Palestinian people. Contrary to what Horowitz would have us believe, the success of these individuals does not mean that the system is working, but rather that these individuals have managed to effectively navigate an extremely discriminatory system.
In their attempts to succeed, many of them have made concessions to the racist system that they navigate, choosing to endorse or at least refuse to contest, policies of systematic discrimination. Consider, for example, Mira Awad's decision to compete to represent Israel in the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest, which was met with a letter signed by a large and prominent contingent of Palestinian artists and intellectuals, urging her not to participate. The letter noted, "Whether you like it or not, your performance will be used to help Israel whitewash its atrocities in the Gaza Strip."
In cases such as this, in fact, it could be argued that the success of a small cadre of oppressed peoples who are willing to express their support for the actions of the Israeli government is actually an important component of the entire colonial project, for it allows Israel to claim the mantle of "democratic state," while continuing its exploitative business as usual. Any examination of concrete facts, rather than celebrity photo shoots, reveals a sobering picture of the situation of the Palestinians and Druze in Israel and the occupied territories. Consider, for example, that Palestinians in the Occupied Territories live under Israeli military law, while Israeli settlers live under civil law. Over half of Palestinians live in poverty, 45.7 percent in the West Bank and 79.4 percent in Gaza, compared to just 23.6 percent of Israelis. This discrimination also continues inside the 1967 borders of Israel, where, for example, Palestinian citizens of Israel are educated in a completely separate and underfunded school system from Jewish Israeli citizens. However, this advertisement conveniently omits such facts, as they would only serve to reinforce the reality of Israel's egregious violations of international law.
Michael Becker '13
