NOVANEWS
By: KERRY-ANNE
“Take your Ebola ass and get out.”
These were the words hurled at black Palestinian solidarity activist and radio personality Margaret Prescod on October 18, 2014, by a self-professed “racist” pro-Israel counter-protester at a Block the Boat action in Los Angeles.
LA-based activist Taher Herzallah first tweeted the picture and quote:
Mondoweiss had the story corroborated by several activists for their report on the matter, but for those whom eye-witness testimony does not suffice, a video of the incident was uploaded on October 26th.
The common understanding of racial apartheid and associated violence that exists between the African-American community of the US and the Palestinian population of Israel, the West Bank and Gaza has clearly been noted.
Despite the best efforts of the Western media and political class to maintain the fairytale facade of Israel as a liberal democracy, the mask is slipping. Here are some quotes from Israeli social media and leading members of Israeli society in recent weeks and months that expose the truth behind that mask.
The summer exposed Israeli society to Western audiences like never before, and most were not prepared for what they saw.
At the heart of Israeli politics, we saw Israel’s Deputy Speaker Moshe Feiglin call for the total ‘elimination’ of Gaza, while ruling Likud Party lawmaker Ayalet Shaked called for the murder of Palestinian mothers and their children.
Meanwhile, social media was ablaze with such rhetoric.
A Facebook page called “Standing With the IDF”, featured revealing selfies of Israeli women covered in pro-IDF graffiti.
A Facebook page titled “The People of Israel Demand Vengeance!” (since deleted)set up in the wake of the murder of three Israeli teens revealed the same bizarre mix of sex and incitement. Teens posted sun-drenched selfies, no different to so many others filling Instagram…except for the fact they are holding placards calling for ‘Death to All Arabs’.
Western public opinion began to recoil in horror at this genocidal public discourse – even friends of Israel began to ask themselves ‘What kind of state am I supporting?’
How did Israel sink to such depths? One observer lays it plain:
All the seeds of the incitement of the past few years, all the nationalistic, racist legislation and the incendiary propaganda, the scare campaigns and the subversion of democracy by the right-wing camp – all these have borne fruit, and that fruit is rank and rotten. The nationalist right has now sunk to a new level, with almost the whole country following in its wake. The word “fascism,” which I try to use as little as possible, finally has its deserved place in the Israeli political discourse.
This observer is Israeli. This observer is Gideon Levy, writer and editorial board member of Haaretz newspaper, whose Grandparents fled to Israel in the 30′s as Nazi Germany annexed Czechoslovakia. A man who dare not use the word fascism lightly, uses it now – despite receiving threats of death and violence from his fellow citizens for so doing.
In light of all this, it is no surprise that those most fervent supporters of the Israeli state are people who align themselves with racially supremacist views and have no qualms about expressing them within Israel and around the world. The President of Israel, Reuven Rivlin, recently used the words ‘Israel is a sick society’ to describe the current state of the nation – he was right.
