Hardcore Supporters of Israel Ignore its Apartheid Policies Against Palestinians

By David Starr

Israel celebrated its 75^th year of “independence” in April 2023 with a too-good-too-be-true praising of its existence. But, obviously, hardcore Israeli supporters are in denial when it comes to Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians. 

 

Miko Peled is an activist who was born and raised in Jerusalem. He came from a family of Zionists and thus was exposed to all the propaganda that is used to describe Israel: the sacred homeland of the Jews, its religious totalitarianism giving it the “right” to take more Palestinian land, and harboring the supremacy myth of the “Chosen People.” (What about other people and their respective civilizations?)

 

Peled is now an Israeli-American and has been vocal about Israel and its role in reference to Palestinians. Not mincing words, he condemns Israel’s oppression of Palestinians with its apartheid policies. 

 

Peled’s father, according to Jehan Alfarra writing in the Middle East Monitor, “was a fervent Zionist ideologue and military man.” He eventually became a “leading peace activist.” Peled’s father actually met with members of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) “and was one of the earliest proponents of the two-state solution.” 

 

While Peled’s father continued to promote a two-state solution, he also was in favor of the PLO giving up armed struggle. Miko Peled thought this was wrong and unjust. Alfarra quoted him as saying: 

 

“In hindsight, that was catastrophic for the Palestinians, because a lot of it has to do with why we are here today – the fact that they dropped the struggle. I think he [Peled’s father] and his group were naïve. They believed that you can restrain this settler colonialist project, but you cannot restrain colonialism. You can only overpower it with more power.”

 

Peled wrote a book entitled, “The General’s Son: Journey of an Israeli in Palestine,” published in 2012. Peled asserted that “Israel is Palestine, which many people don’t realize.” He wrote further that he went from “the sphere of the privileged,” with all the conveniences, luxuries, necessities, safety and rights to the land of the occupied, of the dispossessed, which was “an enormous journey – mentally, emotionally, politically.” 

 

Peled was a “colonizer” but eventually became an “immigrant” in Palestine. He learned about Palestine and Palestinians. The more he learned the more Peled gained an “understanding and appreciation for the Palestinian experience, for the Palestinian reality, for Palestine as a country, as a nation, as a culture.”

 

Peled asserted that the “settler-colonial project which is the State of Israel has been going on for seven decades.” Meaning, from the moment Israel was established in 1948, it’s been on “stolen Palestinian land.” “It’s been an apartheid state from the very beginning .” 

 

The celebration of Israeli “independence” was touted by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. She made a speech which contained all the old stereotypes of an “angelic” Israel, while ignoring its treatment of the Palestinians. Miko Peled proceeded to condemn the speech on the Katie Halper Show.

 

A coalition of 42 European organizations also had harsh words for von der Leyen. The coalition wrote a letter to her expressing “our deepest concern and frankly speaking, our anger, regarding your statement issued on the 75^th anniversary of the establishment of the State of Israel.

 

“Your statement ignored the historical fact that the State of Israel was founded on the ethnic cleansing of two thirds of the indigenous Palestinian people between 1947 and 1949. This fact has been well-documented by Palestinian and Israeli historians and researchers. Palestinians commemorate this period as the Nakba (‘catastrophe’ in Arabic) that marks the process of planned dispossession and expulsion of the majority of the Palestinian people.

 

“More than 500 towns and villages were systematically destroyed and depopulated by massacre and mass expulsion. As a result, more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly exiled and became refugees. Many of those refugees and their descendants still languish in impoverished refugee camps, denied their inherent and UN-stipulated right of return after 75 years.

 

“This dispossession process, what Palestinians call the ‘ongoing Nakba,’ has never ended. It continues today, as Israel continues to occupy and annex Palestinian land, steal resources, demolish homes, schools and hospitals, and arbitrarily arrest, injure and kill Palestinians, including women and children.”

 

The letter continued, taking von der Leyen to task for replacing history with myth. An attempt to “greenwash” Israel’s settler and apartheid regime over the rights of Palestinians. And accusing her of being ignorant, something not expected from the president of the European Commission.

 

The letter concluded with a demand the EU recognize Israel for committing the “Crime of Apartheid.” And “EU institutions act to immediately end all complicity in the commission of this crime.”

 

Alfarra quoted Peled’s conclusion in the Middle East Monitor: “The transformation of a racist, colonialist, apartheid regime into a democracy is doable within a relatively short timeframe. We just need to act.” 

 

Hardcore Israel supporters need to overcome their denial and contribute to changing Israel. All people just need to act.