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Saturday, February 2, 2013

Racism in Israel: but what if it happened in Europe?

 http://www.forbes.com/sites/eliseknutsen/2013/01/28/israel-foribly-injected-african-immigrant-women-with-birth-control/


While the World is shocked by Berlusconi's ridiculous claims recently, giving support to Mussolini and his fascist regime, somehow the same outrage does not focus for an incident happening in Israel! In the article posted with a link above, we read that Ethiopian immigrants were subjected to mandatory contraceptive injections, effectively amounting to forced (if temporary) sterilization according to news that broke out last weekend. 

Yet somehow, the state of Israel seems to escape once more the global community's condemnation or action against its immoral policies. Note that I mention Israel and not "the Jews", as my criticism goes directly to the Israeli state and government, not the Jewish ethnic group.

The article above uses the Nazi atrocities committed on the Jewish nation as a parallelism and an example. Such practices the article claims, echo the birth control practices of the European Eugenics and of course the Nazis. Many readers reacted badly.

But I believe that the best way to criticize them is to remind them what has been done to them. Why not? They bring the "race" card and the Holocaust each time someone speaks against them. If anything else they should be an example to all of us on human rights, not do similar things to others.

They should be in the front line on making sure such outrageous things do not happen again in our planet, but not only against them but on any ethnic group. They should never ever do to others what it was done to them. That is the best way to honor all those who died and set an example for the rest of us.

If what is said in the article is true, then it is simply shameful and it must be reported and criticized. Every other country is criticized for its mistakes: Greece for its economy, Turkey on its record on human rights, Britain in its stance in the EU, all former colonial European powers for the atrocities they committed during the colonization era.

No one should escape criticism when is in the wrong and it should not matter if the country that must face the music was once the victim. Each country can be the victim at one point in time and the aggressor at another. Each time it must be dealt accordingly.

So if this is true I think that the international community should intervene and make sure Israel complies. Imagine if such practices were happening in Europe? Imagine if Germany, Sweden or other European countries practiced what Israel is practicing on the Ethiopians?

The whole international community, the Africans and the Israelis themselves would be up in arms about it. And so now they should be for Israel. I do not hate Israel, I am once again terribly disappointed in them. If they break human rights then who should we use as an example to defend them?