Palestinians versus Tibetans - a double standard

Palestinians versus Tibetans - a double standard

By Gideon Levy

Tags: Israel

Israelis have no moral right to fight the Chinese occupation of Tibet. The
president of the Israeli Friends of the Tibetan People, the psychologist
Nahi Alon, who was involved in the murder of two Palestinians in Gaza in
1967 - as was revealed in Haaretz Magazine last weekend - chose to make
his private "atonement" by fighting to free Tibet, of all places. He is
not alone among Israelis calling to stop the occupation - but not ours. No
small number of other good Israelis have recently joined the wave of
global protest that broke out over the Olympics, set to take place in
Beijing this summer. It is easy; it engenders no controversy - who would
not be in favor of liberating Tibet? But that is not the fight that
Israeli human rights supporters should be waging.

To fight for Tibet, Israel needs no courage, because there is no price to
pay. On the contrary, this is part of a fashionable global trend, almost
as much as the fight against global warming or the poaching of sea lions.

These fights are just, and must be undertaken. But in Israel they are
deluxe fights, which are unthinkable. When one comes to the fight with
hands that are collectively, and sometimes individually, so unclean, it is
impossible to protest a Chinese occupation.

Citizens of a country that maintains a military subjugation in its
backyard that is no less cruel than that of the Chinese, and by some
parameters even more so, and against which there is practically no more
protest here, have no justification in denouncing another occupation.
Citizens of a country that is entirely tainted by the occupation - a
national, ongoing project that involves all sectors of the population to
some extent, directly or indirectly - cannot wash their hands and fight
another occupation, when a half-hour from their homes, horrors no less
terrible are taking place for which they have much greater responsibility.

The world has fallen in love with Tibet. How easy it is to do so. The
picturesque figure of the Dalai Lama and the non-violent struggle he leads
with his scarlet-robed monks is truly captivating. Indeed, the world has
smothered the leader with awards and recognition, from the Nobel Peace
Prize to an honorary doctorate at Ben-Gurion University.

The Palestinians are not as nice as the Tibetans in the eyes of the world.
But the Palestinian people deserve exactly the same rights as the occupied
Tibetan people, even if their leaders are less enchanting, they have no
scarlet robes and their fight is more violent. There is absolutely no
connection between rights and the means of protest, and from that
perspective, there is no difference between a Tibetan and a Palestinian -
they both deserve the exact same freedom.

Moreover, in the first years of the Israeli occupation, most Palestinians
accepted it submissively, with practically no violence. What did they get
as a result? Nothing. The world and Israel cloaked themselves in apathy
and callousness. Only when planes started being hijacked in the 1970s did
the world begin to notice that a Palestinian problem even existed. In
contrast, the Tibetan struggle also was tainted with violence in the past,
and it is reasonable to assume that violence will increase if the Tibetans
do not attain their goal.

There is also no point in asking which occupation is crueler, the Chinese
or the Israeli. The competition is harsh and bitter. The Chinese killed
and imprisoned more Tibetans, in Lhasa there is less freedom of expression
than in Nablus, but in general, the extent of Israeli repression in the
territories is much greater today than Chinese repression in Tibet.

Nowhere in the world today is there a region more besieged and confined
than Gaza. And what is the result? The world calls to boycott the occupier
in the case of China, while absurdly, with regard to the Palestinians, the
world is boycotting the occupied entity, or at least its elected
leadership, and not the occupier. This, it seems, has no parallel in
history.

Internationally speaking, the situation of the Palestinians is ostensibly
better, since while all governments recognize Chinese sovereignty over
Tibet, no government in the world recognizes Israeli sovereignty over the
Palestinian territories. Practically speaking, this does not help the
Palestinians much: Contemporary bon ton is to support the struggle for
Tibet, only Tibet. The Palestinians have not even one Richard Gere to
serve as a mouthpiece. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is boycotting the
Olympic games but paid an official visit to Israel, where she spoke not
one word about the shameful conditions in Gaza under Israeli occupation.
Is there any other way to describe this, except a double standard?

In a more just world, no occupation would exist - neither the Chinese nor
the Israeli. But until that time, the Israelis have to look inward at
their own home and protest what is being done there in front of the
Israeli Defense Ministry, before they present themselves with colorful
signs outside the Chinese Embassy.


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