Native North American Indians…..They Also Hate Us?

Native North American Indians…..They Also Hate Us?

By Sherwin Pomerantz

As if we don’t have enough people critical of Israel these days it now seems as if the North American native Indian population is also categorizing Israel as an apartheid state worthy of isolation.

From all we can tell there has been an upsurge of anti-Israel sentiment by a very small but very vocal contingent in "Indian country" within the last two weeks, most notably in opposition both (a) to the visit to Israel this month by Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly, and (b) because of Muscogee Creek scholar Joy Harjo's visit to Tel Aviv University.

The response has included very negative, vitriolic letters to The Navajo Times (http://www.navajotimes.com/) against President Shelly's visit  and a similarly negative and vitriolic op-ed piece in Indian Country Today, the largest circulation weekly in "Indian Country" (http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/) opposing Joy Harjo's visit, sponsored by supporters of the BDS movement.  

Janene Yazzie, CEO of Sixth World Solutions in Lupton, Arizona writes in the Navajo Times:

It should not shock or surprise us that our Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly has taken an unexpected trip to visit Israel, a government that has committed itself to carrying out genocidal practices against its population of indigenous Palestinian peoples.  To hear that our president believes the apartheid government of Israel has more to offer than the Diné people in his homeland fighting against his policies is hurtful and unbelievably ignorant.  I stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and those indigenous nations and non-indigenous peoples fighting against continued corporate, religious, and political exploitation.

Or this piece by Dina Gilio-Whitaker in the largest circulation weekly, “Indian Country:”

This week Muscogee Creek scholar and literary diva Joy Harjo ignited a firestorm of controversy when she announced on Facebook that she was leaving for a trip to Israel where she was scheduled to perform on Monday, December 10 At Tel Aviv University. The controversy came when friends and fans challenged her decision to go in light of the US Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI) and the Palestine Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), as part of a larger boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.  Critics contend that her actions are equivalent to crossing a picket line and are tantamount to tacit support of the Israeli apartheid state.  It is hard to know what Harjo is thinking and where her loyalties lie in the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. It is also hard to know how President Shelley would justify his alliance with Israel in light of its ongoing genocide and theft of Palestinian lands.  The problem with someone as high profile as Joy Harjo collaborating with an institution like Tel Aviv University (which is built on top of an ethnically cleansed Palestinian village) is that it sends a message that she as a Native American represents all Native Americans in support of apartheid Israel’s domination of Palestinians. I, for one, don’t want to be associated with that.

Dr Harjo received so much vile commentary on her Facebook page that she considered shutting it down.  However, she did take the opposition into account, writing both an eloquent response to her critics and taking an overnight visit to Ramallah.  As a result, she now opposes the security fence.

It seems sometimes that the whole world is against us and one of my readers of yesterday’s blog told me that the core problem of maintaining such a perspective is that it often becomes an excuse for eschewing self-evaluation and introspection. 

Yet I maintain that when it comes to self-evaluation and introspection, there is probably no nation on earth that engages in these two activities more than Israel as these traits are ingrained in us with our mother’s milk.  After all, most of us grew up being constantly evaluated by our parents, encouraged to achieve more, to do better, to be a mensch and to remember who we are and where we came from.

Internalizing those traits have made us question everything we do, both individually and communally and, in my opinion, is actually one major reason this society is as dynamic as it is, in spite of the continuous threats to our survival.  So while there is, of course, always a risk that thinking that the whole world is against us will cause us to act a bit irrationally, given the facts as we know them, who could blame us?

As far as American Indians are concerned, that nation certainly knows the risks of yielding land for peace.  It has itself been discriminated against and confined to “reservations” to the eternal shame of both the United States and Canada, and, as such, should be the last ones to accuse Israel of being an apartheid state.  But then again, why let facts get in the way of emotions?  To insure against that one also has to think.