I can think of several responses to this:
- The history of marginalized and oppressed people is so large and so over lapping that our only choices are to eventually learn to live together or to exterminate ourselves. A list of world ethnic groups. The list of separatist groups could potentially be even larger still.
- In reference to the Holocaust in particular, Jews are not the only victims. Rather they are the only victims to be given special status. The figure 6 million is a form of holocaust revisionism. The real number is 11 million. As a percentage of their world total population of the corresponding victims, Jews were not the largest victims of the Holocaust. (Total killed, yes) That distinction goes to a group who is to this very day heavily discriminated against. Don’t know who this could be? Here is a link from European Tribune.
- It is not acceptable to create victims of victims. Europe had no right to give other people’s land away to atone for their own crimes. The Jews had no right to drive the Palestinians off their land, unless it is to recognise and accept that the Nazis had the same right. If Jews deserve a state let’s provide the better parts of Germany. It was Germany where Hitler came from. And for those who think that it’s too late, the Jews already have a state – well the Palestinians don’t, and I’m sure they would be quite grateful to receive what should have been Israel’s.
- If I have a right to a place in Israel, then I wish to allow a Palestinian refugee to take my place. I am quite sure I can find one who is stateless and living in truly desperate straits who would benefit far more than I would from living in Israel.
- under the fold. (warning – long)
The obvious retort to #4 leads to my final objection. This one is personal. Starting with the enlightenment is as good a place as any, though one could go back much farther.
One of the things that came out of the enlightenment was that people had “rights”. On a purely practical level this is of course not true. We have conventions that we call rights. I’m going to ignore that mostly and pretend that yes, we do have rights.
until the 17th century such attempts to establish a framework for such rules, laws and codes, whether in social, legal, secular or theological debate, emphasised duties and privileges that arose from peoples’ status or relationships, rather than abstract rights that, philosophically, preceded or underlay those relations or laws.
Then, attention moved from social responsibilities to the individual’s needs and participation. It was seen as fundamental to the well-being of society, under the influence of philosophers such as Grotius, Hobbes and Locke, Then, these rights were called ‘natural’ rights, or ‘the rights of man’. These natural or moral rights became part of the political agenda. They spread as the economic frontiers came down.
History of Universal Human Rights – Up To WW2
The concept of individual rights has grown significantly. On December 10, 1948 the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Article 1.
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.Article 2.
Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.Article 3.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.Article 4.
No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms.Article 5.
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.Article 6.
Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.Article 7.
All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.Article 9.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.Article 10.
Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him.Article 11.
(1) Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his defence.
(2) No one shall be held guilty of any penal offence on account of any act or omission which did not constitute a penal offence, under national or international law, at the time when it was committed. Nor shall a heavier penalty be imposed than the one that was applicable at the time the penal offence was committed.Article 12.
No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.Article 13.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.
(2) Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.Article 14.
(1) Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.
(2) This right may not be invoked in the case of prosecutions genuinely arising from non-political crimes or from acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.Article 15.
(1) Everyone has the right to a nationality.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality nor denied the right to change his nationality.Article 16.
(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.
(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.Article 17.
(1) Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others.
(2) No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his property.Article 18.
Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.Article 20.
(1) Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.
(2) No one may be compelled to belong to an association.Article 21.
(1) Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives.
(2) Everyone has the right of equal access to public service in his country.
(3) The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.Article 22.
Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security and is entitled to realization, through national effort and international co-operation and in accordance with the organization and resources of each State, of the economic, social and cultural rights indispensable for his dignity and the free development of his personality.Article 23.
(1) Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.
(2) Everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work.
(3) Everyone who works has the right to just and favourable remuneration ensuring for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity, and supplemented, if necessary, by other means of social protection.
(4) Everyone has the right to form and to join trade unions for the protection of his interests.Article 24.
Everyone has the right to rest and leisure, including reasonable limitation of working hours and periodic holidays with pay.Article 25.
(1) Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control.
(2) Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.Article 26.
(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.
(2) Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.
(3) Parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that shall be given to their children.Article 27.
(1) Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.
(2) Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.Article 28.
Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realized.Article 29.
(1) Everyone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.
(2) In the exercise of his rights and freedoms, everyone shall be subject only to such limitations as are determined by law solely for the purpose of securing due recognition and respect for the rights and freedoms of others and of meeting the just requirements of morality, public order and the general welfare in a democratic society.
(3) These rights and freedoms may in no case be exercised contrary to the purposes and principles of the United Nations.Article 30.
Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and freedoms set forth herein.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
A quick scan will show a number of places where the state of Israel is violating the rights of Palestinians, but that’s not what I am after here.
A slightly more detailed look will show where Israel is violating the rights of Jews.
What is a Jewish state?
Obviously it is a state of Jews. If Israel has a right to exist, it has a right to be Jewish. To claim anything else is to in effect create Palestine – even if the name is technically Israel. If Israel has the right to be Jewish it must have the right to decide who is, and who is not a Jew.
By going one step further, and making Israel the state for all Jews, and the voice of all Jews, it is claiming the right to decide who is and who is not a Jew everywhere on the planet. At some level there is that need to control the faith. Too many Jews claiming that Israel is just another racist theocracy will undermine the view that Israel has a right to exist. At some point, this must be contained, and Israel and its supports spend lots of effort and money to try to stop any criticism of Israel.
Not surprisingly there is a group that takes this to its logical conclusion. Ideologically, the Kach – listed as a terrorist group in Israel and the US, tasks itself with maintaining the purity of Jewish thought.
Part of this conflict can be seen within the SHIT list – now renamed as Shi’ite. Masada2000 is a true hate site.
This list is in effect an assassination list. All groups have their extreme right wing. The Kach are the right wing of a right wing country. Racial purity and thought control are what they want.
Currently
41% of Israel’s Jews favour segregation
Among the poll’s other findings was that 63% of Jewish Israelis consider their country’s Arab citizens a “security and demographic threat to the state”. Some 18% said they felt hatred when they heard someone speaking Arabic, and 34% agreed with the statement that “Arab culture is inferior to Israeli culture”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1738508,00.html
The Kach may be considered to be terrorists, but some of their basic ideas seem to be rather popular. What is done today against Palestinians will become acceptable to do against Jews who sympathise with the “enemy” tomorrow. The SHIT list is ready and waiting for that day to come.
Israel claims the right to decide and define Jewish faith. If Israel allows freedom of religion and marriage it runs the risk that people may choose not to be Jews, or that conversely, the wrong type of people may choose to be called Jews. It would effectively end the state of Israel. This would be a variation on the “Demographic Threat”. A racist term if there ever was one.
In order to preserve the Jewishness of Israel, ultimately control must be exercised over religion, marriage, citizenship, immigration, emigration, and political beliefs. Political beliefs for Jews, while under attack, are still allowed.
Israel continued to apply a host of laws and policies that discriminate on the basis of ethnic or national origin. In June, the Israeli High Court upheld Knesset legislation that prohibits Palestinians from the OPT, who are spouses of Israeli citizens (mostly Arab-Palestinian Israelis), from joining their partners in Israel, except in certain age categories. Since 2002, Israel has frozen family reunification and forced thousands of married couples and their children to choose between living apart or living together in Israel illegally
http://hrw.org/englishwr2k7/docs/2007/01/11/isrlpa14707.htm
Jews that seek to marry non Jews will face extreme difficulties in living with their spouses. Article 16
Several Israelis, both men and women, who refused to serve in the army because they opposed Israel’s occupation of the Occupied Territories, were imprisoned for up to four months. They were prisoners of conscience.
http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Regions/Middle-East-and-North-Africa/Israel-and-the-Occupied-Territ
ories
While not listed in the UDHR, conscious objection is recognised a human right. That right is denied to Israeli jews.
4) Israel should ensure that the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency and the Jewish National Fund, which manage land, housing and services exclusively for the Jewish population, are “bound by the principle of non-discrimination in the exercise of their functions.”
6) Israel’s policy of affording highly advantageous benefits, particularly for housing and education, to those who perform military service is incompatible with the Convention, bearing in mind that most Arab citizens do not perform national service.
- Israel should assess the significance and impact of Israel Land Administration’s “social suitability” admission criterion to small communities, as it may allow in practice for the exclusion of Arab citizens from some State-controlled land. The Committee recommended that Israel take all measures to ensure that State land is allocated without discrimination, direct or indirect, based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin.
- Israel should assess the extent to which discriminatory attitudes by employers against Arabs, scarcity of jobs near Arab communities, and lack of daycare centers in Arab villages are a cause of high unemployment rates, particularly for Arab women.
If a Jew converts and becomes a Muslim a series of discriminatory laws come into effect. In effect you are punished for conversion. In particular this violates Articles 2 and 18, as well as articles 3 and 7.
This year I [a reform Jew] was invited to recite the El Maley Rachamim memorial prayer at the municipal remembrance ceremony in the town of Hod Hasharon where I live. However, during the final days before the event things began to change….
There were threats of violence and local “religious” thugs threatened to disrupt the ceremony if I were allowed to chant the prayer. In panic, the event’s organisers suggested that I drop my title and simply be called to the podium as “Mr”. Naturally, I refused to accede to such discrimination and capitulate to the hooliganism of those who would de-legitimize me.
Less than 24 hours before the ceremony was due to start, I was informed that the invitation to me had been rescinded and that the prayer would be recited by a military chazzan in my place. Naturally, I was devastated.
http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/articles/comment/religious-discrimination-in-israel.html
Articles 3
And of course, Article 8.
Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.
It is important to note that these types of problems are not just with Israel. They are present with all theocracies – Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu and so on. It is not just outsiders who are discriminated against.
An Afghan man is being tried in a court in the capital, Kabul, for converting from Islam to Christianity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4823874.stm
Why not Jewish State just like all the other states?
What has happened here is a sleight of hand. The question assumes the outcome. A Jewish State is not like other states. Other democratic states have adopted the principles found in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In Canada, for example the Canadian Human Rights Code supersedes all other legalisation. A Jewish State like Saudi Arabia would be closer to the truth.
A theocracy places one group in a privileged position and punishes dissent to keep that group privileged. Think slavery in the US, white South Africa, Hitler, Franco, and Israel. They are not equally extreme, but they all espouse(d) a philosophy that can be called fascism. If one wishes to be picky, we could search between fascism, colonialism, and apartheid for the best fit. It isn’t Democracy, as that seems to require adherence to the UDHR.
For more informatin on the UDHR see
http://www.unac.org/rights/question.html
