The Dispossessed and their moral duty to the oppressors. posted by Richard Seymour

With the portentous proclivities of the pseudo-novelist and huckster that he is, Elie Wiesel pronounced his verdict on the withdrawal of Israeli colonists from Palestinian territory:

The images of the evacuation itself are heart-rending. Some of them are unbearable. Angry men, crying women. Children, led away on foot or in the arms of soldiers who are sobbing themselves.

Let's not forget: These men and women lived in Gaza for 38 years.

Successive governments, from the left and the right, encouraged them to settle there. In the eyes of their families, they were pioneers, whose idealism was to be celebrated.

And here they are, obliged to uproot themselves, to take their holy and precious belongings, their memories and their prayers, their dreams and their dead, to go off in search of a bed to sleep in, a table to eat on, a new home, a future among strangers.

Honestly. The poor bastards. Having eulogised the "settlers" (stop using that word), he then goes on to berate the Palestinians for looking so pleased with themselves, adding:

I will perhaps be told that when the Palestinians cried at the loss of their homes, few Israelis were moved. That's possible. But how many Israelis rejoiced?

I don't know that it wasn't all a big laugh for some Israelis: however, is it the same? No. No, it isn't. For instance - and do try to follow this complex reasoning - when Palestinian homes were destroyed, it was to benefit the occupation of their land; when Israelis were removed with kid gloves, it was from land that they had stolen to service Israel's occupation. If someone had nicked my house, I'd be pretty happy to see them kicked out of it by whatever means were necessary. Still not convinced? Consult Jonathan Steele in Friday's Guardian:

There was no "sensitivity training" for Israeli troops, no buses to drive the expellees away, no generous deadlines to get ready, no compensation packages for their homes, and no promise of government-subsidised alternative housing when the bulldozers went into Rafah.

Within sight of the Gush Katif settlements that have been handled with such kid gloves this week, families in Rafah were usually given a maximum of five minutes' warning before their houses, and life savings, were crushed. Many people did not even have time to go upstairs to collect belongings when the barking of loudspeakers ordered them out, sometimes before dawn. Fleeing with their children in the night, they risked being shot if they turned round or delayed.

As many as 13,350 Palestinians were made homeless in the Gaza Strip in the first 10 months of last year by Israel's giant armour-plated Caterpillar bulldozers - a total that easily exceeds the 8,500 leaving Israeli settlements this week. In Rafah alone, according to figures from the UN relief agency Unrwa, the rate of house demolitions rose from 15 per month in 2002 to 77 per month between January and October 2004.
Parts of Rafah now resemble areas of Kabul or Grozny. Facing Israeli army watchtowers and the concrete wall that runs close to the Gaza Strip's boundary, rows of rubble and ruined homes stretch for hundreds of yards.

You see what I mean? There's a slight difference which is not merely academic.

On the other hand, we must never forget what We Must Never Forget. For instance, Elie Wiesel writes:

[L]ast May, at an official dinner offered by King Abdullah II of Jordan, I spoke with the Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qurei. When I asked him what he thought of Sharon's courageous decision regarding Gaza, it was with a wave of the hand that he objected, adding with disdain: "All that is worth nothing, means nothing. If Sharon doesn't begin right away to negotiate definitive borders, a great catastrophe will be the result." He repeated those words: "right away" and "a great catastrophe."

The optimist in me wants very much to believe that those were just words.

The drama of the Nazi holocaust is endlessly replayed in the mind of the apologist for Israel. The Arabs, jack-booted, marching in their military parades, foaming at the mouth, baying for Jewish blood, warn of a "great catastrophe". For whom, they do not say - but they don't need to. Anyone who has seen Schindler's List will know that the Shoah was redeemed in Israel, and its redemption is still not safe with all those barbarians at the gates.