by Israel Shamir
JAFFA, Israel --
The Russian discotheque Dolphi, devastated by the Friday night blast, stands on the shore of Manshieh, a destroyed Palestinian neighborhood of Jaffa, not far from my home. Teenage friends of my sons used to frequent the place. It is an innocent crowd, brought to the shores of Palestine by their parents after disintegration of the Soviet Union. Kids speak Russian, their contacts with Israeli boys and girls of the same age are quite limited, as is their interest in local affairs. Many of them are blond and blue-eyed, some dress in the outmoded punk style, they drink more than it is good for them. A Lost Generation, they call themselves. Few of them are Jews by any reasonable criteria, and Israeli radio informed that it would be quite impossible to bury the victims in the hallowed ground of the Jewish cemetery. Their fate is not an easy one in the Jewish state: they are supposed to serve in the army, but the army makes it difficult for them to swear the oath of allegiance on the Gospel. If they perish, they are buried beyond the fence, together with suicides.
Like the Druse and Circassian minorities, one million strong Russian community is not an obvious partner of the Jewish supremacists. The Russians are subject to discrimination. They have low paid jobs, which provide no security of income. They pay huge interest (three times higher than in the US) on loans they are given as ‘a settlement grant’ or ‘a mortgage help’. Many Russians baptize their children, pretty Russian girls often marry Palestinians. Actually, despite separation rules, Russians marry Palestinians as often as they marry Israelis. The blast is liable to enforce their tentative ties with Israelis. That is why it is important to stress that the circumstances of the explosion are still surrounded by a cloud of mystery.
INFOPAL expressed doubts whether “any Islamic movement is able to carry out
such a strong attack, given that most of the recent suicide bombings have
failed to cause significant harm or damage”. On the other hand, Israeli
security services have know-how and facilities needed to cause by one blast the
major shift of alliance of the Russian community. They proved their lack of
scruples in 1949, when they bombed the Baghdad synagogue and sent the Iraqi Jews
running to Israel. In 1990s they instigated rumors of impending pogroms in
Moscow and sent the parents of Dolphi kids on the way to Tel Aviv. Killing of
non-Jewish children was already declared a ‘justifiable means’ by Madeleine
Albright. She spoke about Iraqi children, dying because of the US-imposed
blockade, but her Tel Aviv friends could make their own conclusions.
Many years from now, Palestinians will unravel the mystery of the botched
suicide bomber wave 2001. They will discover who targeted the Russian
disco, or the poorest Hassidic area of Jerusalem, or other marginal sites, and why, as if
trying to enforce the elusive Jewish unity. They will find out why the only
‘successful’ attack was made on predominantly non-Jewish kids.
But it is not the only doubt. Susanne Scheidt from Italy posited a
legitimate query: "How come that last summer, when there was no Palestinian
uprising in sight, we read about numerous cases in which Palestinians,
as soon as they showed up on the beach of Tel Aviv with a bathing suit in
their bag, were instantly spotted by Israeli police and sent away from the
beach?" Could a Palestinian with a backpack get as far as the queue to the
discotheque, without a connivance of the security services? Until now, there are
doubts. Let us move to a certainty.
Last year we witnessed a severe gang warfare for the control of Russian night clubs. The warring parties used to throw hand-grenades into the competing clubs, with some human casualties. Russian discos of Tel Aviv are fighting for the same market. Their methods are not too gentle. It would not be impossible to suggest that the fatal attack at the entrance of the Russian discotheque was caused by the gang war, rather than by a Palestinian bomber. A year ago there was a dreadful explosion in Moscow underground station Pushkinskaya, that was immediately ascribed to Chechen terrorists. Afterwards it became known that the station was bombed by the racketeers, as the vendors did not pay the protection money.
Now, if it will be found out that the explosion was actually caused by a
rival gang from, say, neighboring Netania, would the IDF planes bomb Netania?
Would the army besiege Netania? Would Netania city council be denounced as a
terrorist organization? No, this way of collective punishment is meted out only
to Palestinians. That is wrong. Gaza should be treated in the same way as
Netania, Mahmud and Anton should have the same rights as Doron and Boris. Then,
probably, there will be no reason even for suspicions and doubts.
We should object both to the premature presumption of a Palestinian involvement, and to the racist style of collective punishment. Israelis are too fast in this game. When a single Jewish terrorist shot a German diplomat in Paris in 1938, the Nazi government replied with the Kristallhacht, a massive pogrom that carried away one hundred lives. When a single pro-Iraqi terrorist shot an Israeli diplomat in London in 1982, Israeli government unleashed the invasion of Lebanon and killed forty thousand people. Maybe it was the thing to do in the days of Genghis Khan, but not any more.
Next day after the bombing, Jewish mob tried to lynch Palestinians and destroy the mosques in Jaffa. The police blocked their advance. Israeli press made a lot of profit out of this action. But I see no reason to congratulate the police: they knew, as we all know, that the work of the lynching mob will be done by the Israeli army. Surely they will target Palestinians just because they belong to the same ethnic group as the supposed bomber.
Nobody demands ‘the Jews’ to pay for the dirty dealings of Milken, Rich and Maxwell, or for Sharon massacres. ‘The Palestinians’ should not pay for excesses of individuals. While there are still reasonable doubts as to the identity of the bombers, one thing is certain: collective ethnic-based punishment is a crime against humanity.
Copyright © 2001 Israel Shamir. Israel Shamir is an Israeli writer and
journalist, living in Jaffa.
