5 July 2017
What happens if just one Jew leaves to go on vacation, giving the Palestinians a majority?
It lampoons – while at the same time reinforcing – the Israeli obsession with demographics and controlling the Palestinian population.
It also throws light on a liberal Zionist conceit that all of Israel’s racist discrimination can be overlooked, explained away or even justified as “democratic” as long as Jews maintain a majority, however slender. It’s only when Jews become a minority ruling over a majority that we will be permitted to begin talking about “apartheid.”
Fretting about the births of too many Palestinian babies – who are said to constitute a “demographic threat” to Israel – is a staple of liberal Zionist discourse.
Amusing as it is though, this sketch does not escape the prevailing racism. It presents a “binational” state as a nightmare which Israelis would always be on the edge of fleeing, and at the same time it posits the failed two-state solution – in effect ethnic segregation – as the obvious and better alternative.
In the comedy sketch, Israel’s control of demography is achieved by comparatively benign means.
Reality is already much uglier: today, Israel attempts to control the Palestinian population with a host of racist laws and practices – up to and including periodic massacres such as the most recent one in Gaza whose third anniversary will be marked this week.
What the comedy reveals is Israeli anxiety and knowledge that Israel’s claimed “right to exist as a Jewish state” can only be enforced with the crudest forms of discrimination. It is, in effect, an admission that Zionism is racism.
Comments
Satire?
Permalink Mark replied on
Satire of the first order in my opinion. Is there a countervailing video to enlighten the world?
Nice piece. The key point, as
Permalink James Holstun replied on
Nice piece. The key point, as Ali says, is that it doesn't matter whether the victims of racist discrimination are in the majority or not. Putting that aside, the Jewish and democratic state is extraordinarily coy about its demographics--for instance, about whether and for how long those hundreds of thousands of nauseous Israeli Jews fleeing abroad (to the US, Germany, etc.) are to be considered Israeli. Here, as in those other areas of "strategic ambiguity" (i.e., Israel's borders, its nuclear arsenal), true friends of Israel must demonstrate their trueness and their friendliness by not asking questions. But given that a Jewish majority would be at the top of the hasbara list if it existed, the reasonable assumption is that, even by Israeli standards, Israel has lost the majority between the river and the sea. And if we add in the camps in Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, and all the Palestinian exiles living further abroad, as we should, of course. . . .
that villa in the jungle
Permalink tom hall replied on
Comedy, particularly the variety which purports to have no ambition other than to prompt unthinking laughter, is often a barometer of tensions and anxieties which cannot be addressed in more sophisticated settings. Nevertheless, many countries and cultures indulge in a tradition of serious satirical conjecture regarding the future of society, as a means of commenting on present-day realities. In the case of Israel, futuristic satire runs into its own unscalable Wall, since the Jewish State is posited as a trans-historical achievement which brings to an end the processes by which it was accomplished. The fundamental precepts of the state cannot be altered, and its destiny is fixed. Satire, which questions such an arrangement, becomes heretical, especially inasmuch as the state is invested with a theological force. How do you project a future for a nation which cannot entertain the prospect of real change? In this respect, Israelis aren't dissembling when they complain that the demand for democracy represents an existential threat. They're being truthful with us, though not with themselves.
Zionism is Racism
Permalink tammi burk replied on
While this comedy provides a taste of zionist paranoia, it doesn't come close to describing the reality on the ground for the indigenous people of Palestine.The true narrative on the ground in occupied Palestine is one of Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing and Apartheid, non of which are in harmony with Jewish Values. zionism has hijacked Judaism to justify its crime against the Palestinian People and gain and keep the support of American and worldwide Jews. The Jewish community need to examine zionism, the policies of israel against the Palestinians. and we need to honestly answer the question:What connection do we have to Palestine to justify the occupation? As a Polish American Jew, if I decide to practice Buddhism, does this mean I have the right to lay claim to Nepal as my homeland? Indonesian Muslims are not laying claim to Saudi Arabia as a homeland just because it houses Muslim holy sites.
If Americans Jews stop giving the zionist money, we'll see how quickly they will attack and disown us.
Zionist don't care for jews. Prior to the zionist occupation of Palestine 60,000 Palestinian Jews lived in peace with their Muslim and Christian countrymen, it was not until zionism came in that the Palestinian jews fled to the UK due to being terrorized by the zionist. Thats right many palestinian jews were killed by the zionist. pls if you think zionist represent jews, you better wake up