Growing Up Privileged in Apartheid, Colonial Israel — Interview Shir Hever, Israeli Citizen Interviewed by Paul Jay on The Real News Network – Reality Asserts Itself

Click to see the outstanding Video and Article on The Real News

SHIR HEVER = Israeli with a Progressive belief in the Need for Fairness to Palestinians

Political Economist Shir Hever of the Alternative Information Center, a Palestinian-Israeli organization active in Jerusalem and Beit-Sahour = He became politically active after the Second Intifada was repressed with extreme violence by the Israeli military = Hever researches the economic aspect of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territory including the effects of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories on the Israeli economy + The political economy of the Israeli national security state (his PhD dissertation on the privatization of security in Israel) + He focuses on impact of international aid to the Palestinians and to Israel. He researches the privatization of security in Israel. His first book: “Political Economy of Israel’s Occupation: Repression Beyond Exploitation,” was published by Pluto Press in 2010 = A young man who speaks with the maturity. He grew up Privileged in Jerusalem, Israel in an well educated home that discussed moral and ethical questions at the dinner table – examining the Israeli psyche and the results of that on Palestinians. = He came to be a progressive anti-Zionist.

UNITED NATIONS RESOLUTION 3013 from 1973 States = DEFINES ISRAEL AND ITS RACIST IMPACT ON PALESTINIANS:

“The struggles of people under colonial and alien determination and racist regimes for the implementation of their right to self-determination and independence is legitimate and in full accordance with the principals of international law.”

“ISRAEL SCHOOLS TEACH RACISM IN A VERY SUTTLE WAY” — Miko Peled, Israeli Jew Seattle Oct. 1, 2012

“ISRAELI ARMY IS THE BEST ONE OF THE BEST TRAINED, BEST EQUIPPED, BEST FED, BEST TERRORIST ORGANIZATION IN THE WORLD.” — Miko Peled, Israeli Jew Seattle Oct. 1, 2012 – See Video below

“MOST SHAMEFUL DAY IN JEWISH HISTORY, ISRAEL BEGAN ITS ATTACK ON GAZA SEPTEMBER 27, 2008 11:25 IN THE MORNING IS WHAT I REFER TO AS THE MOST SHAMEFUL DAY IN JEWISH HISTORY ISRAEL BEGAN CARPET BOMBING GAZA AND ON THE FIRST DAY OF WHAT WAS TO BE A 21 DAY ATTACK THEY DROPPED 100 TONS OF BOMBS.”

— Miko Peled, Israeli Jew in speech in Seattle on Oct. 1, 2012 – Timed for maximum number of children in the street – 21 day slaughter

SHIR HEVER = My parents (father University Professor specialized a lot on political poetry of fascists, of Zionist fascists + mother is a pacifist government employee very critical of the government from a family of early radical fighters that helped commit the Nakba) raised me with the idea of being aware of my own privileges and to take responsibility for them, because Israeli society is extremely divided and extremely hierarchical, and I am lucky to have been born male, white, Jewish, Ashkenazi, so in all of these categories in which I had an advantage, and my parents told me this is an unfair advantage.

FACT: 2 Kinds of Zionist fascists = Very aggressive against Palestinians + Those who loved Mussolini.

HEVER: My father studied more the Zionists that loved Mussolini = Fascist ideology that the state is above everything + All must conform to a certain idea + Honor the great leader. Not the mainstream Zionism that is in power now in Israel. = There’s a difference between fascism and other kinds of repressive regimes = Israel is now a colonial regime of apartheid with very deep entrenched repression. = Colonialist system of constant great fear while you grow up = Constant feeling of fear. = Example: Fear of a taxi ride with a Palestinian driver = Question as a child: How come you taught me that everybody’s equal but you’re still afraid of Palestinians? We were never afraid of the Israeli government even though my father’s opinions and later my opinions were a small minority in Israel against racism and aggression against Palestinians. Israeli GOV was never aggressive against privileged people like me. = They might attack with great, vicious level of rhetoric but violence was not a concern. = If you speak your mind at a right-wing demonstration you could be severely beaten up.

HEVER: Israel is extremely dependent on the US and West so we must present the image of a liberal democracy for One group in Israel has freedom of speech = My special group (male, white, Jewish, Ashkenazi) = I was able to write what I wanted to write and say what I wanted to say without being harassed by the authorities. BUT Palestinian citizens of Israel are not able to do that.

HEVER: My grandparents on my mother’s side, who were radical Zionist fighters in Palmach, were not supportive of my opinions = Most of the family on my mother’s side stopped speaking with me after I decided not to go to the army. = Very Zionist right-wing perspective against Palestinians and felt completely justified. = They came to Palestine before the Holocaust, before the Second World War, and participated in the Nakba against Palestinians (1920s and 1930s) + My father’s family came right after the war escaping the Nazis in Poland, but most of the family were exterminated by the Nazis. My father’s family escaped to the Soviet Union and lived pretty harsh years during the war and then my father’s part of the family chose to go to Palestine.

JAY: During the ’20s and the ’30s progressive Jews around the world wrote stories of factories that had been purchased by Jews would take over the factory and fire all the Palestinians.

HEVER: Verified that is true! A concept called Hebrew labor, and it was done very openly and without shame = No concept of racism – it wasn’t even in people’s minds = Palestinians were part of the scenery or background = NOT treated as the native inhabitants of Palestine.

HEVER: It wasn’t clear if Zionists were going to succeed or not until 1948 = So they saw themselves as heroes overcoming a great adversity. = This was their chance to have their own piece of land like the colonial powers of Europe operated. = Colonialism was the Accepted Norm! = The winners win = Force of the growth of civilization and they’re civilizing uncivilized peoples. = Jewish state would be a beacon for other nations. = Sounds like Reagan.

HEVER: My parents were critical of Zionists, but they were Zionists that wanted the state of Israel to be a Jewish state. My parents supported, during the 1990s, the Oslo process = A coalition between Yitzhak Rabin (Labor Party) and Meretz (liberal party for human rights, but a Zionist party) that negotiated with Yasser Arafat = Completely undemocratic policies of 400 people members of the Hamas Party deported without a trial. = My parents and I as a teen had a crisis of faith and stop supporting Zionism as no longer acceptable. My parents never went to Palestinians as such a privilege would be on the bayonets of the Israeli army. We will however go to a separate Palestinian state as tourists. = We believe the opposite of most of Israeli Society. It would be easier to be on that side just and play the privileged game – regular career path. But after I decided not to go into the army (BIG DECISION) and after I decided to go to university, I experienced something that changed my mind. I was lucky to be do this when Netanyahu just became prime minister and was extremely bombastic so a lot of people started doubting the good sense of going into the army. = It was relatively easy to get out even though I went to a very militaristic school. In my entire school there was nobody who even contemplated not going into the army = Wasn’t possible = Nobody decided not to go to the army. = So I did volunteer work for year in an impoverished town of Israel called Sderot = And during that year in Sderot, I saw other aspects of the Israeli society. And that’s when I decided I’m not going into the army and instead I’m going to university directly.

As I was starting my bachelor’s in 2000, the Second Intifada (a very strong reaction to Ariel Sharon’s Occupation Policies and violation of a Mosque caused an uprising of Palestinians) started = A group of students and professors in Tel Aviv University brought witnesses from the occupied territory to say what’s going on during the intifada = Not in newspapers = It was possible then but today it’s no longer possible. = World Health Organization said that the water in Gaza was not fit for human beings to drink = Intifada soon started = NOT JUST RELIGION BUT QUALITY OF LIFE and the economy + the standard of living that caused great frustration of Palestinians as Oslo process failed them. = Israeli newspapers made it seem like Israel was being very generous and willing to negotiate, when in fact my mother, working for the government, brought home documents about WATER ALLOCATION + LAND ALLOCATION = SO UNFAIR to Palestinians = Created Second Intifada that was repressed with extreme violence by the Israeli military and Israeli police. = I felt that even living in Israel is becoming unbearable for me. Immediate tendency is to compare it with the ’30s in Germany = Overt racism is became OK = Israelis dropped the pretense being emphatic. I became politically activeand join various joint-struggle (Jews and Palestinian) organizations = Demonstrations + Became more aware of my privileges and responsibility in society = Working for social justice.

QUESTION: How does a people who have suffered so much from racism and repression and a people that have such a history all over the world of fighting for progressive ideals, how does it end up a society which seems on the whole to be contrary to all of those progressive ideals?

NOTE: Brevity and clarity was the goal and words were changed but every effort was made not to change the meanings. See the source video or article to see the original wording!

ANOTHER ISRAELI THAT IS HONEST AND TRUTHFUL: