Palestinians are forbidden to travel in cars with Israelis.

Next Friday, January 19, 2007, if the High Court of Justice does not save us from the shame in time—the most disgraceful regulation that the military dictatorship in the territories wishes to inflict on its subjects, and on all the citizens of Israel, will go into effect. On this day, so orders OC Central Command Maj. Gen. Yair Naveh, Israelis will be forbidden to drive Palestinians in their cars, throughout the West Bank. Anyone who wishes to transport a Palestinian will be forced to ask for a permission slip from the clerks of the occupation. {josquote}Palestinians are forbidden to travel in cars with Israelis.{/josquote}

The feeble, time-worn, false excuse is, as usual, security.

Nonsense. There is no connection between this abomination and security. This new decree of the kingdom of evil in Judea and Samaria is nothing more than further proof that there is no limit to the depths of bestiality to which the occupation bureaucracy can sink, when there is no one to put a stop to it. And this racist regulation is no more than another bolt, a particularly repulsive one, in the machine that is engaged diligently and efficiently in stripping the Palestinians of their human dignity, isolating them, separating them, trampling them and grinding the remnants of their rights into dust.

The details of the Naveh regulation should be presented accurately: It does not deal with the prohibition to transport Palestinians into the State of Israel. The entry of Palestinians into Israel has been forbidden for a long time, in any way, shape or form. It also does not seek to prevent attempts to “smuggle” Palestinians into a settlement, heaven forefend. After all, they are forbidden to enter there too. Maj. Gen. Naveh simply wishes to forbid any joint travel. Including a social gathering inside the West Bank. Or helping a friend transport a load of goods to his home. Or just a trip. Even a 200-meter drive to a coffee shop in order to sit together and talk. And needless to say, a joint ride to a demonstration against the occupation, or to any other threatening event of rapport and reconciliation, will be forbidden from now on.

There are, of course, exceptions: The feudal lords from the settlements will be able to continue to drive their native slaves to their places of employment. After all, it is unthinkable that the comfortable routine of the masters should be disturbed. Certainly not by a general who permits these dregs of humanity to do as they please in any case (see the performance of the despicable character from the “Jewish settlement in Hebron,” who starred on the television screens this week).

The State of Israel has an abundance of laws, temporary rules and military administration orders from which a foul odor arises. But such a blatant trampling of basic democratic norms, of all the rules of war and all the values of human dignity and freedoms, has not yet been here.

To tell the truth, even the word “apartheid” is too moderate to describe this abomination. There is no choice but to search for historical precedents in other places as well. Places where the Jews themselves suffered from such unjust laws. Not the blacks in South Africa, the Indians in America, the Arabs in Algeria or the untouchables in India. We can also learn from our own experience. We can also be alarmed by our history and the history of our forefathers, learn from it and draw conclusions and morals.

After all, the laws that were scorched into our flesh were frequently grounded in excuses of “the people’s security,” and defense against the Jewish enemy that is scheming to sabotage the state and contaminate its demographic purity with its seed.

My forefathers were also forbidden to travel with the members of the ruling nation in the same car. My forefathers were also barred from using means of transportation, save for the purpose of reaching their job with the rulers. My forefathers were also barred from moving around, working, studying, healing, vacationing or worshipping their God, unless the ruling masters had granted them permission.

And now I hold the order of OC Central Command, stare at it with helpless eyes and a contracted stomach, and read: Palestinians are forbidden to travel in cars with Israelis.

Palestinians are permitted to drive in an Israeli car only for the sake of reaching their job. Woe is the shame. Woe is the disgrace. Woe is the short memory. Woe is the Judaism that thus tramples itself to the ground.

A flag blacker than black marks this order. And every civilized person and every law-abiding person must beware of obeying it. For it is not only patently illegal, it is also malignant.

 

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