Peter Beinart Is Wrong
It is amazing to see what manages to bubble up to the attention of the mainstream media. An article written by Peter Beinart in Forward describing his detention at Ben Gurion airport during a visit with his wife in children to Israel went viral and has now prompted a story in the NY Times. Beinart is an American journalist and frequent critic of the Israeli occupation, especially its alienating effect on younger liberal Jews and the long-term damage that will create for the Israeli state.
Beinart describes the detention as focusing on his political beliefs, asking what objectionable organizations Beinart belonged to, with the interrogators definition of objectionable constantly changing. Beinart was also never given any legal basis for his detention. In the end, Beinart was able to contact a renowned Israeli human rights lawyer and his detention miraculously ended.
As Beinart makes clear, he “never felt scared or victimized” but he also “felt entirely protected by my national, religious and class privilege.” He also knew that he could contact a competent Israeli lawyer to help him. But he admits that his “situation wasn’t remotely comparable to the black, brown and non-Jewish visitors with whom I shared the holding room.”
Beinart has subsequently received a quasi-apology from Israel which blamed the incident on “an error of judgement” by the Shin Bet officer. What that really means is that they wouldn’t have stopped him if they had known the negative publicity it would create.
Beinart’s article prompted Reza Aslan, the Iranian-American author and scholar, to post a description of what happened to him when he crossed from Jordan into Israel two weeks ago. He was similarly detained and threatened by Shin Bet who told him “We can make it so you don’t see your kids for a long time”. His interrogator knew all about his travels and threatened him again by saying “You think because you’re a public person I can’t do whatever I want with you?” Aslan was forced to write down the names of Palestinians and journalists he knew and Palestinian organizations he supported. After hours of questioning, he was released with a final threat, “I may let you into Israel but, who knows, I may not let you out. I will keep you here and kick out your family. It depends on you. You would miss your kids yes?…We are watching you”. As Aslan states, “This was my 4th trip to Israel in ten years and every time it’s gotten worse. It’s becoming unrecognizable as a democracy. It is becoming a full-blown police state”.
The Times notes that other high-profile American Jews who have also been critical of the occupation have also been detained recently. They include Meyer G. Koplow, the chairman of Brandeis University and a pro-Israel philanthropist, Moriel Rothman-Zecher, a volunteer in two anti-occupation groups, and Simone Zimmerman, a co-founder of another anti-occupation group. Mr Koplow was detained ostensible because he had a Palestinian travel brochure in his luggage.
Beinart believes that these recent detentions are a result of the freedom Netanyahu feels with Donald Trump in power. “My detention is one more, not particularly significant, example of how Trump has emboldened Netanyahu. An Israeli government led by men who respect neither liberal democracy nor the rule of law now knows it has kindred spirits in Washington.” There is no doubt that Netanyahu has become more autocratic recently as he stokes the demographic fear of a coming Jewish minority and cracks down on the rights of Israeli non-Jews. And he has consistently undermined the democratic and institutional checks on his power as he desperately fights off corruption allegations.
Increasingly, opposition to the policies of Israel are treated as attacks on the state itself. It is now legal for Israel to bar anyone who simply supports the boycott of Israel over the settlements issue. In addition, it is also clear that the Israelis or groups fronting for them inside the US are actively monitoring regular and social media to track anyone remotely indicating pro-Palestinian views (and probably this writer now).
Of course, it has become far worse for the Palestinians themselves as Kushner conspires with Israel, the Saudis, and the Emiratis to write them out of any say in the solution to the “Palestinian problem” and isolate the Iranians.
But Beinart is wrong to believe that this all started with Trump. Harassment of those simply visiting the occupied territories and those who are supportive of the anti-occupation movement has been going on for years. Matt Yglesias writes about being detained eight years ago after meetings in the West Bank. Perhaps the Israelis feel more comfortable about detaining more high-profile American Jews like Beinart and Koplow because of the Trump effect, but it is hardly new for those with less of a public platform. What’s more interesting is that it took Beinart’s article to get the Times and other mainstream outlets to focus on it, at least for a day or so.
