THE HOLOCAUST IS OVER WE MUST RISE FROM ITS ASHES

Fanon is an expert witness worth listening to. He forced the old, bloated, andhollow France to stand up against the oppression of blacks and to assumeresponsibility for white crimes against nonwhites, and through France he reached theWest. His book Black Skin, White Masks became one of the twentieth century’smost important texts. It explains the origins and the extent of modern conf licts thatinvolve racism, oppression, independence, and cultural liberation. Some consideredFanon the prophet of modern violence, because he opined that violence must beintegral to struggles for liberation. Fanon deserves credit for being one of the first toargue that language is the white man’s major tool of oppression, as the nuances ofthe white man’s language express the profound belief that blacks are inferior and evilwhile reinforcing ideas of white superiority.Some of the trials and travails that Fanon attributed to blacks can also beattributed to the Jews, who were considered inferior for hundreds of years, and mostdefinitely to the innocent Jews who were slaughtered in the name of racist, Aryanpolicy. For this reason, it is much more difficult to confront the situation in Israel. Yetwe must not ignore the fact that the modern Hebrew language employs wordlaundering to mask an arrogant, violent and even racist attitude toward the Arabenemy.In everyday spoken Hebrew, the adjective Arab has a bad connotation. “Arablabor” expresses low-quality work. An “Arab worker” means a cheap worker. An“Arab army” is a derogatory term for a defeated army (the late president EzerWeizman once told me that the “IDF was the best Arab army in the Middle East”).Such examples are plentiful. The derogatory connotation makes the Arabs the heirsof the Jews and blacks as perceived inferiors. Yet there are two exceptions to thisrule, two terms that express much appreciation to the word Arab. “An Arab House”in the Jerusalem real estate market is a highly sought after property; it is a high qualityhome, beautiful, well-built, large, and spacious. It is a house that will last forever. Theother term relates to food. An “Arab Salad” is a dish in the great family of Arabcuisine. It is authentic, local, fresh, and wholesome. Hummus and falafel are muchmore well regarded here than Ashkenazi gefilte fish or the Moroccan dish hreime.The exceptions regarding the words for these two very basic personal necessitiestestify that Israelis accept Arab presence as a fact of life. The barbed-wire fencesand walls will not change the fact that when we look for food and shelter, we look forthe Arab. A good Arab, according to this language, is an Arab of home and food. It