By SALEM NASSER*

The settlements are just the most visible end of the machine that operates to clear the land of Palestinians.

1.

Benjamin Netanyahu's recent visit to the United States and his speech before the Congress of that country reminded me of an article I wrote several years ago and the figures I evoked at the time, the lame duck and the rabbit from a certain fable.

Rereading the text, I thought it could be republished as it appeared then. Not only are the parallels with what we experience today present, but there is a lot to learn, going back to past discussions, about what has been happening in Palestine and in the world.

If the reader reads seeking this light on current affairs, I think they will see interesting things.

2.

Fables are full of encounters between rabbits and lions.

Mine Favorite imagine an academic rabbit preparing a thesis whose central argument says that rabbits are the true predators of foxes, wolves and other carnivorous animals; one by one, foxes and wolves, attracted by the prospect of a fine meal, but intrigued by the composed air with which the rabbit writes, and soon amused by the absurdity of the thesis, are led to the den or behind a bush where the lion hunts them down. devours and distributes its bones in piles around it.

The intended message is that the theoretical validity or coherence of the thesis being defended does not matter; The important thing is the advisor or godparent you have.

The short story does not detail the nature of the arrangement that unites rabbit and lion and that leads them to cooperate in the hunting endeavor. The conclusion that the lion would be the guide only eliminates, in principle, the possibility of it being a mere instrument in the hands of the rabbit, the outsourced prey that would allow it to transform itself into a predator, even if it was not for the love of meat.

The feline's greatest power, which allows the rabbit to defend its thesis, is also the element that falsifies and denies the thesis itself: the partnership with the lion does not make the rabbit a predator of wolves and foxes; rather, it makes any power of the rabbit dependent on the will of the lion.

Thus, if the day came when the king of the beasts decided to review the terms of the agreement and withdraw his unconditional support for the rabbit thesis – either because he would have had enough of meat, or because the disappearance of so many wolves and so many foxes would compromise the natural balance , or because the news of the excessive power of that long-eared being would compromise the image of the lion and cast shadows on the legitimacy of his government over the forest and everything in it – what would be our surprise if we suddenly saw the rabbit advance on the lion, with the left, grab his mane and with the right, violently slap his face and then, with his paws on his waist and his eyes bulging, red, shouting with immense anger and infinite evil: who do you think you are?! I'm the one in charge of this forest! This crown is mine!!

3.

It was something similar that happened a few days ago, when the United States let it pass in the UN Security Council – vile betrayal! – a resolution, which perhaps helped to cook behind the scenes – supreme betrayal! infamy! – which condemned the continued construction of settlements in illegally occupied Palestinian territories. And the fury only increased when John Kerry spoke pointing out the same settlements as the main obstacle to peace.

Not that anyone has come to denounce the true nature of the settlements. The most that can be said is that they constitute steps that will make the existence or viability of a Palestinian State impossible. Even violations of Palestinians' fundamental rights are only remembered in an accessory way.

The true face of the colonization of the West Bank and, above all, of the surroundings of Jerusalem, that of land theft and ethnic cleansing, is never evoked (reader pause for a moment before judging whether the use of the strong expression is justified or whether it is mere stridency rhetoric that invites some to abandon reading).

Everything that is said is actually for the good of the rabbit. What we want, ultimately, is to protect Israel from itself, to prevent, in the extreme, from committing suicide. The intended meaning of this is that, without the two States, the vaunted project of a country that is both Jewish and democratic will be hindered – intelligent people do not hesitate to sometimes torture words, combining opposites, to make them say the impossible .

If the settlements continue, say some friends of Israel, without the recognition of a Palestine where all Palestinians can be concentrated, their incorporation into a single State will compromise the chances of this State being Jewish, that is, more of its Jewish citizens. and other Jews of the world than its non-Jewish citizens, even though natural to the land, and to a large extent genetically pure because it is intended that the territory should belong to the beneficiaries of a divine promise and their descendants only.

4.

On the other hand, they say, this State cannot be democratic, especially if it really wants to be Jewish. This is because it will have to control demographics to prevent non-Jewish minorities from becoming a majority and it will have to establish differences between its citizens that could ultimately lead to an apartheid system.

What they forget to say is that the apartheid is largely installed in the occupied territories and in Israel, and that it also participates in a continuous effort to change demography and its control. The settlements are just the most visible end of the machine that operates to clear the land of Palestinians.

(So, about vocabulary, when someone settles on other people's land, they replace the natural inhabitants and prevent their access to growing parts of their territory, their water, their crops and other works and, therefore, invite them to leave , this is called ethnic cleansing, no matter how much one wants to drown the name in regulatory complexities and rhetorical turns).

Even so, let us celebrate the first Security Council resolution in a long time to censure Israel and the first speech by a Secretary of State who openly criticizes the greatest of allies, the best of friends, even if the Americans soon rush to tell us that Kerry's speech cannot be engraved in stone: don't even think about proposing a vote in the same Security Council on its content; the United States would veto!

It is common to say that the American President is, in the last year of his second term, a lame duck, no longer capable of much. Barack Obama waited until he was a lame duck on both legs to make a more significant gesture of censorship against Israel.

Perhaps this final criticism will leave some legacy, and perhaps it is a sign that the Israeli position is approaching the limit to which its very generous supporters – those who today, along with the lion, are furiously slapped by the rabbit – can go.

But perhaps the central message is darker: only an American president who no longer has a future political career – which could be crushed by the claws of the all-powerful rabbit – can make the smallest of gestures.

If the lion doesn't correct its course soon, we can only wait, either for a revolution of animals to come, some tired of the unfair arrangement, others tired of serving a capricious rabbit, or for nature to establish a new balance. And nature, as we know, is not committed to justice, but is always ruthless.

* Salem Nasser He is a professor at the Faculty of Law at FGV-SP. Author of, among other books, Global law: norms and their relationships (Alamedina) [https://amzn.to/3s3s64E]

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