Israeli Mayor: If I'm Racist, So Is Israel
The recent brouhaha over comments made by Upper Nazareth mayor Shimon Gapso has intensified with a tongue-in-cheek op-ed Gapso published yesterday in Haaretz. Of course, anti-Zionists—for an array of reasons (moral, ethical, hateful or ignorant)—have long charged Israel’s governing ideology with being racist at its core. So is Gapso any more racist than Zionism would predict from a holder of public office in Israel?
Gapso first came under fire for campaign posters declaring that “Upper Nazareth will be Jewish forever; no more shutting our eyes, no more grabbing on to the law allowing every citizen to live where he wants. This is the time to defend our home.” And, "I will not allow the city’s Jewish character to be changed. I will block the establishment of an Arab school and will build neighborhoods for Jewish residents ... Upper Nazareth is a Jewish city!"
Defenders of Israel will be quick to point to the fact that Israel has the kind of vibrant civil society that would lead two human rights organizations to demand that the attorney general investigate Gapso, and that the Israeli media would in turn report on the saga. These Israel defenders would use these facts to try to demonstrate that Israel’s democracy is alive and well. As appealing as that line of argument is to many (full disclosure: I have been the target of such comments on my blog in that same Israeli daily), it’s distracting from the issues.
In some ways, it’s a blogger’s dream when a public figure doesn’t deny a label thrust on him (on charges of racism, Gapso may be all the wiser thanks to the musical Avenue Q), but instead cuts right to the chase: if he’s a racist, so is the entire Zionist project.
In addition to railing against “flaky types,” “hypocrisy and bleeding-heart sanctimoniousness,” Gapso defends his beliefs by breathlessly journeying from supposed divine promises granted to Abraham, to the title of Herzl’s tract, to Balfour, Ben-Gurion and the U.N., to the character of the kibbutz project, to the lyrics of Hatikvah. In a final flourish, he suggests that if “not for all that 'racism,' it’s doubtful we could live here, and doubtful that we could live at all.”
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/08/israeli-mayor-if-i-m-racist-so-is-israel.html
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