In Focus: Pricking the Western conscience he West needs to be constantly reminded that it is not just complicit in the persecution of Palestinians but that it bears much of the responsibility for stripping them of the most basic human rights, writes Galal Nassar The West was instrumental in helping the Zionist movement create a state in Palestine. Israel was established at the expense of the Palestinians who have, as a result, lived for decades in unspeakable horror. To this day there is not a glimmer of hope for a just solution in Palestine. The assistance the West furnishes Israel grows constantly. Sixty years after the creation of the state Washington provides Tel Aviv with $3 billion every year, in addition to substantial loans and donations. Israel receives the highest per capital financial assistance in the world, although the Israelis boast of their vibrant economy. Since Israel was but a twinkle in the eyes of Zionist leaders, the West has embraced its cause, helped it along and offered it steady material and moral support. As a consequence a peaceful people has been displaced and deprived of the most basic human rights, while Arab and Islamic nations now view the West with suspicion. The Arabs often speak about the duplicity of Western values. When it comes to human rights and self-determination, they have a point. How can the West live with the damage its lop-sided policies have caused? The answer to this question is simple and has to do with the symbiotic relationship between Israel and the West. Several factors have helped strengthen the ties between Western society and the Zionist movement, of which two are worth mentioning here. First, the Zionist movement, through its literature and its policies, presented itself as a loyal supporter of Western schemes of expansion, for which it has been rewarded with money, expertise and information. Secondly, the Zionist movement succeeded in infiltrating Western religious and political structures, invading its academic, cultural and financial institutions and influencing decision-making, legal and moral considerations notwithstanding. This symbiotic relationship has limited Western freedom to act even at times when it whimpered about Israel's actions. The West, as a political, cultural and military organism, remains responsible for empowering the Zionist movement in its persecution of the Palestinians and neighbouring Arab nations. The West keeps justifying its policies through any number of arguments, most of which are blatantly racist. The West also continues to pressure the Palestinian people to give up their historical rights, including the right of return and self-determination. The West knows that much of what Israel does contravenes international law and undermines the decisions of international organisations, but does nothing. The US consistently vetoes any UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel for its mistreatment of Palestinians or for its settlements, built on land expropriated from the original inhabitants. The West will talk about human rights in Arab countries, including pro-Western Arab states. Yet it turns a blind eye when Israel commits human rights violations. This double- dealing is what allows Israel to pursue its racist policies against the Palestinians with impunity. Look at what's happening in and around Jerusalem. Despite the Annapolis principles, Israel is determined to Judaise Jerusalem, the city it describes as its eternal capital. When quizzed about the future of Jerusalem's Palestinian inhabitants, Israeli officials say the latter can remain as long as they recognise Israel's sovereignty and abide by its laws. But something much more sinister is going on. Israel has built the apartheid running 640km around the West Bank and Jerusalem. This wall, which has turned the life of many Palestinians into hell, will force 120,000 Palestinians in Jerusalem to leave the city since their work and livelihood are on the other side of the wall. When the occupation forces cut off Jerusalem from other Palestinian areas the Palestinians rightly see this as a death sentence for the holy city. The international community decided at one point to turn Jerusalem into a city with special status and place it under UN supervision, a decision all but forgotten. Western powers may dominate the UN, but they implement its resolutions selectively. Right now the West is watching as Israel remakes Jerusalem, changing its religious and cultural traits, and distorting its historic and social legacy. UNESCO has more than once denounced Israeli measures in Jerusalem. So has the Vatican, some European countries, and a host of other nations and institutions. Undaunted, Israel continued building illegal settlements. Israel acts as if American support, vetoes and dollars free it from any obligation. Today, Israel continues its excavations under and around Al-Aqsa Mosque, paying no heed to the protests from world capitals. Those protests, however sincere, haven't produced any action that might deter Israel, let alone punish it. Israel continues its plans to demolish Al-Aqsa and rebuild the temple on its site undeterred. Since the arson attempt at Al-Aqsa in August 1969, assaults on the holy city have been constant. In 1990, 23 people were killed and dozens were wounded by Israeli bullets at the mosque. The Dome of the Rock also came under attack in April and July 1982. Churches, Greek orthodox and Ethiopian, have been attacked. The more Israel oppresses the Palestinians and defies international resolutions -- even those resolutions formulated in part by the US -- the more assistance the US offers. The US defends Israel at the UN Security Council, recognises Jerusalem as its capital, and continues to give it financial assistance. The US is giving Israel sophisticated weapons, although it knows that these weapons will be used to kill Palestinian children. US military assistance to Israel grew after the latter's defeat by the Lebanese resistance in summer 2006, leading analysts to conclude that the decision by the US administration to increase military aid to Israel after the Lebanese war constituted a tacit endorsement of Israeli military activities in the region. Most of the weapons the US is giving Israel are offensive, clearly sent to help the Israelis subjugate the region and bring it under dual US-Israeli hegemony. Successive US administrations are responsible, therefore, for what happens in Jerusalem and what happens to the Palestinians. The US is giving unlimited aid to a racist state, a state that made violence a way of life, a state that boasts a long record of massacres -- from Kafr Qasem to Sabra, Shatila, Jenin, Nablus and Gaza. US support began long ago. In 1952 Washington pressured west Germany into paying $3 billion to Israel over 12 years in compensation for Nazi crimes against Europe's Jews. Israel used the funds to buy weapons, seize more Palestinian land and build settlements. The German assistance continues to this day. Germany is still supplying Israel with Dolphin submarines. The US has always tried to tilt the balance of power in Israel's favour. Four events come to mind: the day president Wilson gave Britain the green light to issue the Balfour Declaration; the day president Johnson threw American might behind Israel during the 1967 War; the day president Nixon -- encouraged by Henry Kissinger -- ordered the US army to help Israel during the 1973 War, and the day the US urged Arab and Lebanese officials to denounce the Lebanese resistance during the July 2006 confrontation. Condoleezza Rice considered the war on Lebanon part of the birth pangs of a new Middle East. All this clearly indicates that the partnership between the West and Israel is a full and active one. Even before the US took the mantle of aiding and abetting Israel, France and Britain were engaged in similar policies. France supplied the Israeli air force with Mirage fighters and built the Dimona reactor in the 1950s and 1960s. It did so in retaliation for its defeat in Algeria and Suez. Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, which paved the way to the creation of Israel. At the time, Britain and France had plans to divide the Middle East, although they promised Sharif Hussein they would recognise a united Arab state following the end of WWI. Britain broke its promises to the Arabs but kept its promises to the Zionists. During its mandate in Palestine Britain gave the Jewish Agency the privileges usually accorded to a favoured nation, while repressing the Palestinians. Herbert Samuel, then high commissioner of Palestine, helped the Jewish Agency build up its political, financial and housing institutions. British officers trained and armed Zionist militia, turning them into a modern army that outnumbered Arab troops by four to one in 1948. Records show that some British officers actually led Zionist gangs in attacks on Palestinian villages. During its mandate in Palestine, Britain honoured in full the first provision of the Balfour Declaration, calling for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. But it forgot all about the second provision, the one calling for the protection of civil and religious rights of other groups. The British government, typically, failed to match its words with deeds. The encouraging remarks British officials made to the Palestinians were designed to deceive. The deception, coupled with repression of the Palestinians, paved the way for the implementation of the Zionist scheme, and to one of the worst political and humanitarian disasters of modern times. When Weisman was propagating the idea of Jewish settlement in Palestine, he met Arab leaders and assured them that the Jews would come as refugees, not invaders. This was the same man who, decades later, proclaimed a state dedicated to invasion and terror, a state that turned the original inhabitants of Palestine into refugees. Weisman knew full well that his colonialist plan wouldn't materialise without symbiotic ties with Western imperialist interests. His policy is still alive today. Israel is in a strategic alliance with the US. And the two countries are trying to divide the region and ultimately dominate it. This is why they are fomenting sectarian strife all over the region in an attempt to rip apart the social fabric of Arab countries. With the blessing of the current US president, Israel is trying to Judaise Jerusalem by emptying it of Palestinians. This scheme can only have catastrophic repercussions for the Palestinian issue and the region. Lebanon, which is coming under immense pressure to settle Palestinians permanently on its soil, is a case in point. To please the Americans, some Arab leaders are now looking into a way of skirting the Palestinians' right of return. Meanwhile Israel -- with full support from the US -- is trying to expel the Palestinians from their land, especially from Jerusalem, a city that is part and parcel of Palestinian life. Israel knows that its schemes cannot be achieved without undermining the Palestinian presence in Jerusalem. This is why it is encircling Jerusalem with settlements, hoping to isolate it from its Palestinian surroundings. This is happening not only with US knowledge, but also with Washington's financial, political and military assistance. And what is the world doing? What are the Arabs doing? Apart from paying the usual lip service, nothing. Western, especially American, support of the Zionist scheme in Jerusalem is far from abating. This support has moral and political repercussions, ones that we should not let the world forget. In international forums, conferences and the media, we must point out to the responsibility of the West, especially the US, for the injustice done to the Palestinians. Somehow people find it easier to champion democracy and human rights than to help the Palestinians which is why, apart from organising international conferences, such as the one in Annapolis, little is being done to redress the injustice.
