Ilan Pappé minder om årsagen til de israelske forbrydelser: Den zionistiske ideologi

Ilan Pappé tilhører en lille gruppe israelske historikere, der bruger deres fag til at dekonstruere de officielle israelske narrativer om statens oprindelse og historie. Han lever nu i eksil i Storbritannien, og hans værker om den israelsk-palæstinensiske konflikt er meget anbefalelsesværdige og forbilledlig som historisk videnskab. Læs fx den vigtige: The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

I en aktuel kommentar (2.jan, 2009) gør han opmærksom på ondets rod. Skal de aktuelle forbrydelser og den israelske selvretfærdighed forstås, så kommer man ikke uden om direkte at konfrontere den zionistiske ideologi:

The self-righteousness is a powerful act of self-denial and justification. It explains why the Israeli Jewish society would not be moved by words of wisdom, logical persuasion or diplomatic dialogue. And if one does not want to endorse violence as the means of opposing it, there is only one way forward: challenging head-on this righteousness as an evil ideology meant to cover human atrocities. Another name for this ideology is Zionism and an international rebuke for Zionism, not just for particular Israeli policies, is the only way of countering this self-righteousness. We have to try and explain not only to the world, but also to the Israelis themselves, that Zionism is an ideology that endorses ethnic cleansing, occupation and now massive massacres. What is needed now is not just a condemnation of the present massacre but also delegitimization of the ideology that produced that policy and justifies it morally and politically. Let us hope that significant voices in the world will tell the Jewish state that this ideology and the overall conduct of the state are intolerable and unacceptable and as long as they persist, Israel will be boycotted and subject to sanctions.
(...)
Similarly, we may be able to find the popular, as distinct from the high brow academic, way of explaining clearly that Israel’s policy — in the last 60 years — stems from a racist hegemonic ideology called Zionism, shielded by endless layers of righteous fury. Despite the predictable accusation of anti-Semitism and what have you, it is time to associate in the public mind the Zionist ideology with the by now familiar historical landmarks of the land: the ethnic cleansing of 1948, the oppression of the Palestinians in Israel during the days of the military rule, the brutal occupation of the West Bank and now the massacre of Gaza. Very much as the Apartheid ideology explained the oppressive policies of the South African government, this ideology — in its most consensual and simplistic variety — allowed all the Israeli governments in the past and the present to dehumanize the Palestinians wherever they are and strive to destroy them. The means altered from period to period, from location to location, as did the narrative covering up these atrocities. But there is a clear pattern that cannot only be discussed in the academic ivory towers, but has to be part of the political discourse on the contemporary reality in Palestine today.(...)

Hele kommentaren kan læses på Pappé's hjemmeside: Israel’s righteous fury and its victims in Gaza