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The Prejudice and Double Standards of Israel's Critics

(Mail and Guardian-South Africa) Asher Susser - Prejudice is recognized by its three constituent practices: it singles out the subject; it then applies a double standard; and, of course, the subject is always guilty. Israel is indeed singled out for special treatment and the double standard is also reflected in a specific vocabulary that is applied only to Israel. Since 2006 the UN Human Rights Council has adopted 40 condemnations of countries, of which 33 have focused on Israel. This is perverse. Israel is a country locked in conflict with some of its neighbors. It is not the epitome of evil on earth. Oddly enough no international outrage and demand for explanations was evident in reference to other even more tragic events: not when Iran again hanged political dissidents, bringing the total to nearly 300 since early 2009; nor when the North Koreans sunk a South Korean ship killing 46 seamen; nor when attacks on two Ahmadi mosques in Lahore killed at least 93 worshipers. International outrage is awfully selective. As a rule and long before the recent events, just about every Israeli act of self-defense has been criminalized. When Israel targeted operatives responsible for the dispatch of suicide bombers or for the rocketing of Israeli civilians, it was frequently condemned for what was described as extra-judicial killing, assassination or murder. The U.S. currently carries out identical operations against its enemies in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but these are charitably described by the media as drone operations. Only the Israelis face international commissions of inquiry and charges of war crimes, even though the civilian losses in both Iraq and Afghanistan have continued over a longer period of time and are far higher than in Gaza. Israel is not above the law, but the law should apply to Israel just as it applies to all other countries. Israel should be judged just like everybody else, rather than constantly having to face selective prosecution. Prof. Asher Susser is a Senior Fellow at the Dayan Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Tel Aviv University.
2010-06-11 09:16:59
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