Israel should be unprivileged partner to EU?

The European Union has put off plans to declare Israel a privileged partner in trade, diplomacy and political ties on Wednesday. The falling through of this program is a blow to Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni, who had hoped to campaign on the achievement in her bid for the prime ministership (the election is Feb. 10).

Source: Al-Nahar 13 January 2009.

About the cartoon, an Israeli poet said: "I don't know anybody here (Israel) who would make a poster out of that image. but what about europe?"

There is no talk of sanctions against Israel; what has happened is only that extra privileges are not being proffered. The EU officials are clearly very disturbed by the bloodbath in Gaza. Ramiro Cibrian-Uzal, the EU ambassador to Israel, put the matter as delicately as he could: "In a war situation, in a situation in which Israel is at war, using its war means in a very dramatic way, in a powerful way in Gaza, everybody realises that it is not the appropriate time to upgrade bilateral relations."

"Using its war means in a very dramatic way" seems pretty clearly an implicit condemnation of the disproportionate use of force and the complete disregard for civilian life that has characterized Israel's massive bombardment of densely populated Gaza.

The thing I cannot understand is why it is only the war that should give Europe pause? What about the blockade on Gaza, which left 15 percent of Gazan children (and half of them are children) malnourished?

In fact, I would argue that until the 1.5 million people of Gaza are freed from Israeli control and abuse, there is no reason for the EU to reward Israel with special perquisites not given other non-European countries.

I would argue that Israel is keeping the Gazans in a state akin to slavery. Here are some similarities between the condition of the people of Gaza and classical slavery:

• They were deprived of their basic rights as a result of a military conquest. (Peoples and individuals have often been enslaved as a result of being vanquished.)
• They are stateless. In fact, US slaves at the time the constitution was written in the eighteenth century were at least counted as 3/5s of a citizen. Gazans are not counted as citizens at all by any existing state.
• They have suffered what Orlando Patterson called "social death." Most Gazans are refugees from the 1948 and 1967 wars and used to live in what is now Israel, but had their property stolen by the European Jewish settlers. They are now trapped in Gaza, and are cut off from many other members of their clan. Social death occurs when the enslaved is removed from his or her original social and geographical context. The Gazans are certainly for the most part cut off in this way.
• Gazans lack mobility, being trapped in the Gaza Strip. Israel controls their borders and their air and coastline. There is also a checkpoint on the short border with Egpt, but it is strictly policed. It is typical of the condition of slaves that they are deprived fo the liberty of movement.
• They do not control their own property. Thus, Gazans cannot own a medical clinic, e.g.,and be sure of it not being bombed by the Israelis. They can never know from day to day what the Israelis will do to their property. They cannot export their goods via their harbor on the Mediterranean because Israel does not allow it. They cannot have a functioning airport. Likewise slaves do not actually own property, since the slavemaster actually owns it and can dispose of it as he likes.
• Innocent Gazans may be killed or maimed with impunity by Israeli bombs and shells. Likewise, slavemasters in most societies can kill or beat their slaves with few repercussions.
• Gazans can be deprived of enough nutrition to be healthy at will. A free person lacking nutrition can make arrangements to get more. A slave, because of lack of freedom of movement, is forced to simply go hungry.

It may be objected that Israelis do not make Gazans work for them for free. But forced labor is only one element of slavery. The essential characteristics of any slave system have more to do with the denial of liberty than with the precise economic form of exploitation practiced on the slave. That there has been Israeli economic exploitation of Gazans and their resources is in any case undeniable.

Unless and until the Gazans are freed by the Israeli Pharoah from their debilitating bondage, the violence will go on. And the Gazans, having been deprived of their liberty as Samson was deprived of his sight, are perfectly capable of bringing down the whole structure of Levantine security if this unhealthy and outrageous denial to them of the elements of basic human dignity does not cease once and for all.

Text taken from here.