By George Erebara
I read a mediocre article with mediocre logic by the Israeli ambassador in Tirana, which would not deserve a response, but the logical mediocrity is also illuminating in understanding what is driving a part of the Israeli people to commit the crime of genocide.
First, the division of humanity into us and them, the false consideration of the protesters in a bloc, is the mediocre rhetoric that was used, among others, by the Nazis to justify the Holocaust and to deny it as well. Identifying the protesters as a single group, without considering the natural complexity of all societies, including the countless Israelis who are protesting in Israel against the war and against the genocide, is a continuation of the logic of denial of the other, the logic that supported the Holocaust.
Second, and perhaps most importantly, equating pro-Palestinian protesters with anti-Semites is a big lie. To say that pro-Palestinian protesters are seeking to destroy the state of Israel is a lie. I myself, and many citizens around the world, including many Jews, support the two-state solution. Because it is not possible to choose just one without denying the other. You cannot support the state of Israel and deny the state of Palestine, nor can you support Palestine and deny Israel. Because denying the other is genocide. But the government that the ambassador represents is the one that rejects the state of Palestine and has been accused by many, including Israeli activists, of committing genocide. It is the government that holds Palestinians in a massive prison and systematically builds settlements in the West Bank.
Third, the ambassador is very right when she says that in this world full of crimes, we must protest against crimes, whether the victims are Uighurs in China, Druze in Syria, or Darfurians in Sudan. We should not protest because they are Muslims, but because they are human. For these reasons, I invite the ambassador herself to call a protest.
