Ma'aln reports that the Israeli High Court ruled against an army plan to construct a section of the wall in the West Bank village of Battir (west of Bethlehem; http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=751709).  This is being celebrated as a "victory for Palestine as whole."

Not so fast.  Battir is famous for its ancient terraces and Roman-era irrigation system.  The site is a UNESCO World Heritage site recognized in 2014 as "in danger."   

It seems that the Israeli court ruled in favor of the historic landscape.

This ruling is good for Palestinians, but it does not indicate that the Israeli High Court is any more inclined to respect Palestinian rights than it was last week. 

To does us no good to self-delude.  

Israel Wants to be Western

Israel commonly complains that protest against it should be directed toward worse human rights offenders, and because worse offenders are not protested, the anti-Israel protests are anti-Semitic.

The first thing to note that that by pointing to worse offenders, Israel is tacitly admitting that it too offends.

There are clearly worse offenders of human rights than Israel.  Besides non-state actors like the Islamic State, Taliban, Al-Shabaab, and Boko Haran, all states violate human rights to some extent.  Among the worst (https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/freedom-world-2014#.VKoyJivF-u8) are Saudi Arabia and Syria in the Middle East, Somalia, Eritrea, and others in Africa, and Turkmenistan and others in Asia. 

But there is an important difference between Israel and the other human rights offenders – Israel pretends to be a Western state.  And even if the right-wing Israeli government does not necessarily want to be considered Western, the Israeli people do.  None of the other human rights offenders have any hope of being considered Western.

What that means is that Israel essentially demands to be judged by a different standard.  Central to these enhanced standards is to honor human rights.  And that is exactly what Israel did not do in the Nakba, and does not do in the 47-year occupation that systematically dispossesses and oppresses Palestinians in the occupied territories and even in Israel within the Green Line. 

The flip side of Israel pretending to be Western is that is something that ultimately controls and limits Israeli actions.  Israel knows that if it offends too much, it loses its Western status. 

An example is the number of Palestinians Israel killed.  Israel killed almost 2,400 Palestinians during Protective Edge.  That is 2,400 too many deaths that are unforgivable.  But consider how many of the 1.8 million Palestinian trapped in the 139 square miles of the Gaza Strip Israel with its massive, modern weapons could have killed if it was unencumbered by a desire to be Western.  Easily 10 or even 100 times as many.

In fact, Israel stands out by the relitevely few Palestinians it killed in a violent conflict that has gone on for almost 50 years.  Israel killed less than 0.2% of the Gaza population in the three recent bombardments (2008-09. 2012, and 2014).  In contrast, 1% of the Israeli population was killed in the 1948 war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_casualties_of_war ).  Other episodes with a high fractions of victims include 5% of the Chechnya population killed in each of the First and Second Chechen war (1994-96 & 1999-2009; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Chechen_War & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Chechen_War ), 20% of the population was killed during the 1994 Rwanda genocide (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rwandan_Genocide ), 25% of the Cambodia population killed by the Khmer Rouge in the 1975 “killing fields,” and 30-35% of the population killed in the 1937-8 Nanking Massacre (Rape of Nanking; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanking_Massacre ).

We might speculate how it was that Israel killed less than 0.2% of the Gaza population considering the people were trapped in a small area and the Israeli soldiers were propagandized that the ‘Arabs” were evil and wanted nothing but to kill Israelis, the Israeli religious authorities ruled that killing Palestinians was righteous, the Israelis had effectively infinite firepower, and much of the Israeli population wanted the army to kill more Palestinians.  I suggest that the Israeli rules of engagement, established to keep Israel Western, limited the Killing.

This analysis does not excuse any of the 4 thousand Palestinian deaths in the three bombardments.  Nevertheless, Israel’s desire to be considered Western is the ultimate power that limits Palestinian deaths.

Palestinian Recognition

We all would love a stable, single, democratic state between the river and the sea.  The problem is that is not in the cards in the foreseeable future.  Here is what Uri Avnery wrote today (http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en/channels/avnery/1419008088/)

These, then, are the battle lines:

A Palestinian state in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital, an Israeli-Palestinian peace treaty, the end of the occupation, peace between Israel and the entire Arab and Muslim world,

or a Greater Israel, continuous occupation or annexation, more settlements and ethnic cleansing, permanent war.

That is the choice we face. 
    1.  Support the Palestinian drive for diplomatic recognition that is supported by all significant Palestinian political groups in the West Bank and Gaza Strip; that will end the Israeli imposed suffering of the 4.5 million people living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip (that includes over 2 million refugees) giving those people a state to back their identity and protect their security and remove the Israeli book from their neck; and likely improve the already OK situation for the over 2 million refugees in Jordan.   
    2.  Reject a Palestinian state either because it leaves Israel with all its internal sins in place, and/or it does nothing directly for the 1 million refugees in Lebanon and Syria (including those recently fled).

I think our task as people of peace is to reduce suffering.  The 9 million Palestinians suffering are those in Israel, West Bank, Gaza Strip, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.  A Palestinian state will go some distance in doing that for almost 90% of them.  Note that I understand that Palestinian refugees living midle-class lives in Europe and the U.S. and almost every other state in the world have rights, but those people are not suffering like the Palestinian close to home, and I give their rights low priority.

These considerations tell me that Ali Abunimah (http://electronicintifada.net/blogs/ali-abunimah/why-i-want-obama-veto-abbas-un-resolution-palestine) and Joseph Massad (http://electronicintifada.net/content/recognizing-palestine-bds-and-survival-israel/14123) are on the wrong side of history by opposing Palestinian recognition.