CULTURE OF HATE

An unofficial commentary on the IsraeliSettler's

distribution of provocative graphic imagesinsulting Moslems and Christians.

Recently, Israeli settlers in the occupied Palestinian territory have inaugurated a new chapter in their all-out war on the Palestinian people: they have engaged in a new campaign of racist and religious provocations, distributing, and also spreading on the web, outrageous and obscene drawings aimed at insulting and defiling Moslems and Christians in Palestine and elsewhere.One Russian new immigrant from among the settlers, who claimed authorship over the first profanation, is currently the objectof an Israeli police inquiry, but does not seem to be under arrest.Hardly had this piece of filth been withdrawn from circulation that new profanities appeared. A new drawing was circulated, apparently from a US-based source, while press sources reported and published another graphic outrage, this time against Christians.

What was sent by Email

The distorted image of Virgin Mary that was distributed

These, therefore, cannot be dismissed as isolated, marginal incidences. This is a new development, an element in the overall escalation caused by the Israeli government's deliberate sabotaging of the peace process, and by its militant stance in favor of Israeli settlers.

This is part of the growth and strengthening, under the shade of occupation and with official encouragement, of a culture of hate which had until now remained marginal, while lip-service to universal human values, or least to tolerance, remained the rule in Israel.

Because the present Israeli government's policy consists      in relying upon the extremists - the settlers' organized movements- hate culture is now coming up above the ground, gaining confidence, invading the mainstream.

Hate-culture was behind Rabin's assassination. Books and films have been produced in Israel itself, showing the importance of the psychological-cultural maturation that made the murder possible.

This is a subculture built upon hate of Peace, hate of the Arabs, hate of Moslems, of Christians, of "gentiles"in general, but also of those Israelis and Jews who do not think like them, live like them, or have different practices.

Hate, just sheer blind racist hatred, had been behind the Rishon Le-Zion massacre, several years ago. Hate was behind the February 1994 massacre in the Hebron Mosque. Overt, unabashed hate unites periodically crowds of Israeli demonstrators shouting"Death to the Arabs ! "in front of TV cameras. The Hebron assassin, Baroukh Goldstein, is considered "a saint"by tens of thousands of such fanatics, who have made him the object of a cult, and Israeli governments have never interfered in theiractivities.

So now this cancer has grown.

In the case of Rabin's assassination, however, there was a political logic at work: kill not only the man, but also process. Hence the unsolved question of responsibilities. Who, now, wants to fan hate?

Moslems and Christians in Palestine have too much experience in Zionist provocations to jump headright into this one. They are disgusted and outraged, but also understand the obvious design. The aim is, literally to provoke. If the Palestinian leadership can be expected to answer provocation by political  efforts and peaceful mass protestation, maybe the people themselves can be provoked into uncontrolled violence, which would retroactivelyprovide Israeli policies with the international legitimacy they lack? Thus goes the logic of provoking: and is there any better way to provoke than to attack people in their religious identity- one rooted, not in contemporaneous history, but in centuriesof tradition?

In Beyrouth, in Damascus, in Teheran, thousands have taken to the streets. The graphic provocations of the racist settlers,their pathological craving to insult and humiliate others, have succeeded, at least there, to feed and reinforce the idea, daily materialized by Israeli occupation and aggression in South Lebanon, that peace with Israel is, at best, a tragic lure. Which is precisely what the Israeli extremists want them to think.

Does the Israeli government really want anythingelse?

This nauseating hate campaign, which prepares the ground for more violence, should incite peace-loving Israelis of all convictions, but also citizens throughout the world, to raise and draw a borderline. If nobody challenges this truly criminal trend, how can the ideas of peace, mutual respect, equality and tolerance prevail?

Protest: write, speak, call, incite. Demand that the full rigor of the Law be applied to hate-mongers. Ban their obscenities from the web, tell them to go to hell, where they belong.