42 years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis Tennessee by James Earl Ray. Although the identity of his killer (or who paid his killer) was not apparent at the time, the death and its historic importance was immediately clear. I was watching "Bewitched" when the episode was interrupted by the news of the assassination. Robert Kennedy, who had just announced his candidacy for the president, was in Indianapolis and told a black crowd the bad news. Chicago, where I lived at the time, erupted in riots, which hurt the Jewish store owners in black neighborhoods. RFK was killed two months later by a Palestinian, which can be blamed on Israel.
MLK was about to embark upon a poor people's march on Washington and some of his advisers were opposed because unlike previous marches this one did not have a clear legislative objective. In fact in the 42 years since that time the gap between rich and poor in America has widened, although as far as lifting certain populations from certain types of poverty (malnutrition) the record is not as clear. In the world as well there have been major changes in the distribution of wealth, with India and China specifically creating new middle classes where there was no middle class before.
Still MLK stands for equal rights before the law and it is his name (and my allegiance or prejudice in favor of what he stood for) that comes to mind when confronting Israel's spotty record in regards to its Palestinian population in the 48 borders and its rather terrible record in regards to the Palestinian population outside those borders.
There are two problems involved with my personal position vis a vis the Palestinians (both those within and those without). Firstly what is my position. Secondly since I am not in power, what should be my position vis a vis the government's position. Must I demonstrate, must I voice my positions at Shabbat tables. Since I am still very much an outsider in Israel (unemployment adds at least one "very" to that description) this effects my openness to fully commit myself to the struggle for Palestinian rights.
Tonight my uncle's brother in law who lives in the overwhelmingly Arab Galilee will be present and he of the opinion that Israel must attempt to convince its Arabs to move elsewhere, a position that might be reasonable if it were feasible, but I doubt its feasibility. I have spent the meals of the last two holidays or holiday and a Shabbat where the overwhelming attitude has been anti Obama and also anti Arab. This does not increase my love for Israel or decrease my desire to leave Israel or at the very least to find some intoxicant to give some permission to my freak flag to fly.
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