[lbo-talk] Yousef Munayyer: Levy is Right

Joseph Catron jncatron at gmail.com
Sat Jul 14 16:00:10 PDT 2012


Those interested in this analysis should read Darryl Li's fantastic "Occupation Law and the One-State Reality" ( http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2295/occupation-law-and-the-one-state-reality), as well as the ensuing exchange in Jadaliyya ( http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/2705/roundtable-on-occupation-law_part-of-the-conflict- ).

Munayyer writes:

Israel is routinely flaunting (sic) international law and has done so for
> decades. The truth about the Levy Committee report is that even if it is
> adopted by the government, it changes very little about Israel’s behavior.
> The situation will remain the same: Israel will continue to illegally
> colonize just as it has for decades. But the guise created by the
> insufficient terminology to which we’ve become so accustomed would give way
> to a different terminology with the descriptive power to match the reality
> of Israel’s de facto annexation of the West Bank.
>
> Perhaps this is why those<http://jstreet.org/blog/post/levy-committee-recommendations-disastrous-for-prospects-of-twostate-solution>who have a near dogmatic attachment to the notion of a two-state solution,
> and others who pay it lip service<http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/the-west-bank-if-its-not-occupation-then-what-is-it/259562/>without ever advocating for serious sanctions to change Israel’s colonial
> behavior, have been the most disturbed by the possibility that the Levy
> report could be adopted. They argue that if Israel no longer labels its
> military presence an occupation, it suddenly becomes a de facto annexation<http://content/dailybeast/articles/2012/07/10/the-anti-balfour-declaration>.
> But if Israel does not adopt the report, the situation remains the same.
> Such approaches errantly and inexcusably afford Israel a monopoly on
> defining reality.
>
> The New York Times editorial<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/11/opinion/wrong-time-for-new-settlements-in-the-west-bank.html?_r=1&ref=opinion>on this issue said that if the Levy report is adopted it would “ draw
> attention to a dispiriting anomaly: that a state founded as a democratic
> homeland for the Jewish people is determined to continue ruling 2.5 million
> Palestinians under an unequal system of laws and rights.” But drawing
> attention to this anomaly is not something we should be afraid of, it is
> something we should be exposing vigorously. Doing otherwise is tantamount
> to yearning to reside in Plato’s cave after learning what’s causing the
> shadows ...
>

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/07/13/levy-is-right.html

-- "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure mægen lytlað."



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