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Editorial Article

When social justice goes awry and loses meaning: Yossi Dahan

By Lee Kaplan   www.isracampus.org.il

Where men make the laws there is no justice…Tolstoy

Yossi Dahan lectures and is head in The Human Rights Division in Ramat Gan Academic College Of Law. He also teaches Philosophy in Israel's Open University. According to a bio, his major studies include: land reforms and theories of justice, theories of nationality, the opportunity to equal opportunity, foreign workers rights, and the education reform. His central theme in all his work is that he works for “social justice.”

But as missiles fall on Sderot, as Gilad Shalit and the three Hizballah prisoners (if still alive) languish in prison, as Israeli soldiers die every week protecting the people of Israel, Yossi Dahan operates in his own world, pushing his own personal interpretation of “social justice,.” that is anything but “just.”

Dahan, who is a lawyer, earned a PhD at Columbia University and is also the founder and president of the Adva Center in Israel where he is defined as “a Philosophy lecturer and Social-Democratic activist.” As his brainchild, the Adva Center allegedly serves to study policy analysis of Israel’s society from a “social justice” point of view just like his legal work.

These days, we hear the words “social justice” bandied about constantly, particularly by Marxist groups. The phrase “social justice” as words alone is meaningless as it is subject to the connotations of the user, but a good interpretation of what social justice really means is that “what belongs to someone has to be shared unquestionably with someone else who wants that particular item or status.” “Social justice" is really a contradiction in terms: Justice is for individuals. "Social justice" is by definition "justice" for arbitrarily selected groups. Why are Hispanics or Shiites or gays entitled as a group to anything at all other than individual rights before the Law? That those supporting "social justice" usually want to achieve it by injustice to individuals, such as by excusing terrorist acts or financial divestment to starve people to bend them to their will.

One thing is for certain: Those who speak the loudest for “social justice” never seem to feel it applies to the Jews of Israel who want to live peaceably in a Jewish national homeland.

The phrase was first used by Marxist professor Herbert Marcuse’ and Black revolutionary Stokely Carmichael who is now a militant Islamic imam and in prison for murdering a black Atlanta police officer. The phrase is a particularly American invention started by the radical Left. As one critic has observed, “It does a masterful job of cloaking its real agenda using the usual seductive vocabulary and terminology of the Left ("peace," "social justice," etc.), but the cultural Marxist, anti-American, anti-capitalist fervor is ever present. Calls for revolution, denigration of the military, tired worn out slogans of Marxism and socialism, repeated references to America as "evil," and of course the obligatory picture of the heavily armed American soldier threatening an innocent citizen, all right out of the Critical Theory play book.” As mentioned above, one usually finds the words “social justice” preceded by the word “peace” also, such usage generally found among the revolutionary movements of the world that encourage violence against the Establishment. It’s found as commonly used in propaganda from communist parties in several countries, even Israel, from the PLO, even from al Qaeda, and is spouted by almost every dictatorship or totalitarian movement in the world. Unfortunately, it is often used by charitable organizations like the Ford Foundation.

Another common expression is “oppression”. Those seeking “social justice” to arrive at “peace” must fight “oppression” in order to do so (and overthrowing capitalist countries is deemed a good start). America as the symbol of capitalism is the “oppressor” and Israel as a close ally is its agent.

All this fits Yossi Dahan’s views toward Israel through his work and presentations.

Dahan is also a representative as a public representative in Labor Court, lectures in the Social economic College and member of the Aisaf foundation, international education foundation. So the man is involved in serving what might be called the “proletariat”. The Socioeconomic College is not a college at all but an extra curricular propaganda seminar run by the Israeli Communist Party (the Communist Party loves to use the word “social justice” to attack Israeli self-defense). He is also a member of "Hakeshet Hademokratit Hamizrahit" and was one of the prosecutors in the "Bagatz Hakarkaot" (land control issue in Israel Supreme Court). Israeli Arabs have been successful in suing in Israel’s Supreme Court to force legally purchased Jewish Agency land be provided to Arab residents. These land purchases could be (and should be) considered affirmative action for Jews in their tiny country since other land is more than available to be legally acquired if, say, the Saudis, for instance, would use their oil wealth in a similar manner than buying guns for terrorists. In democratic Israel, Arabs are entitled to affirmative action but never Jews, and its people like Dahan with such a twisted view of things who pose a threat to the Jewish state’s existence.

Thus for Yossi Dahan, “social justice” apparently means anything that Israel does is socially unjust, at least in terms of dealing with surrounding violent Arab entities that have an undying mantra to kill Jews, and ultimately to destroy Israel. He helps Arabs claim Israeli land that may not belong to them; he also defends the “proletariat” (communists in Israel want the state replaced with a new dictatorship of the proletariat and for good measure, the Arabs dominating) that includes foreign workers inside Israel illegally.

He also condemns US support for Israel and his views have been used as a means to bolster Arab propaganda. He has condemned Professor Gerald Steinberg as a “McCarthyist” (anyone who disagrees with Marxist actions for “social justice” is a “McCarthyist” for pointing out how the Palestinian Arabs use Human Rights NGOs as a shield to undermine the Jewish state such as at Durban in 2001, you see).

A purview of Dahan’s Adva Center’s programs reveals a sizeable number of studies related to Israel’s Bedouin population. While poverty does exist among the Bedouin, mainly because many of them refuse to adapt to a more modern way of life, Israel has always been very good to its Bedouin population, many of whom even serve in the IDF. As a developing country, Israel allocated money for each child born to an Israeli citizen (many Arab Bedouin are Israeli citizens). Thus a Muslim Bedouin with four wives frequently doesn’t have to work, drawing enough of the payments to live on. The Bedouin, as well as other Israeli Arabs get preference in Israel’s colleges for admissions and in dormitories due to the distance from Israel’s colleges from the outlying communities where Arab Israelis live, particularly in the Galilee.

That Dahan wants to help and give his time to the Bedouin is praiseworthy. But if some members of the Bedouin support Arab interests who want to destroy the state of Israel, then his sense of social justice has definitely gone awry, for there is plenty of unknown poverty still for Jews in Israel that nobody wants to discuss because it is bad for Israel’s image, you see. Nearly 30% of Israel’s children and elderly are forced to eat in soup kitchens because of poverty. 13,000 Israeli children have been added to the ranks of those who must eat in soup kitchens. But in my research about Yossi Dahan, I could not find an equal dedication to “social justice” for these people. He seeks to help Arabs who want to take what little land Israel has while 22 surrounding Arab countries call for her destruction with a land ratio of 650 to 1. Where’s the social justice in that for Jews? Dahan even wants to help foreign workers who are illegally in Israel. But where is this man’s concern for Israeli Jews? He would seem to fit the mould of most Marxist-oriented academics: the Capitalist West is always the enemy and its enemies must be aided to destroy it over time. Charity, while noble, should usually begin at home.

When we go to hang the capitalist, they will sell us the rope—V. Lenin

Israel’s Supreme Court has in many instances taken land legally owned by Jews but appropriated by Arabs through planting or building domiciles without building permits or titles (ever wonder why Israel does destroy Arab buildings other than to be mean? The illegally constructed structures ((not always houses)) are another way to try and appropriate what little land Israel has for its population and security. East Jerusalem is full of such illegal building). Dahan’s activities as a lawyer on behalf of an Arab irredentist movement that is not seeking a fair settlement to the land, but to maintain that Israel is misappropriating their property regardless of true title tend to be typical of the radical and pro-Communist Left found both in Israel and abroad. So is there anything wrong with helping the poor or less advantaged in Israel society? No, not if you extend your concern to everyone, including Israel’s Jews. And it is here that Dahan’s sense of “social justice” (like so many in the Israeli far Left) goes awry. Dahan’s sense of social justice has extended into the use of his writings by Arab propagandists who might claim they are seeking to fight discrimination, but only use that as a tool to sell the gullible West on the need to dismantle the Jewish state for one similar to the Marixst ideal of a dictatorship of the proletariat and run by Arabs as the majority (they can deal with Islamic extremists later, the Jews just being along for the ride). This is because it is the West that sympathizes with the underdog and the poor is only capable of generating enough excess wealth to aid them. The Arab Nation enjoys fabulous oil wealth and even the Palestinians are wealthier than can be believed when one adds up all the foreign aid money given them (and stolen), but somehow to the mind of a Yossi Dahan, it is the Jews who must give up what little they have to placate the Arabs: land, opportunities, jobs, etc. (all the while letting the terrorist groups murder the Jews too).

Of particular note, Ha’aretz even reports of Dahan’s signing a petition in defense of Tali Fahima, Israel’s Taliban Jane, who worked to aid her Palestinian boyfriend to try and kill Israeli Jews. Dahan signed on top a list of signatroies that included Azmi Bishara who was spying for Hizballah. Does “social justice” include smuggling weapons to kill Jews?.

Dahan apparently also supports the contentions in Walt and Mearshimer’s book that it is the Israeli lobby that is controlling America and for nefarious goals. His intent, of course, is to bolster the idea of cutting off the capitalist foreign aid from the US to weaken the Jewish state for the eventual takeover. What happens next?

Who cares? Perpetuating the revolution for “social justice” is all that matters to the likes of Dahan, and it is in this regard that Yossi Dahan’s sense of “social justice” for his fellow Israelis is neither “social” nor “just.” His is a campaign that only singles out Israel as an oppressor of its minority population rather than its being an entity that is trying to help all its citizens, but must face at the same time an enormous enemy that taxes its resources and is trying to recruit among Israel’s disadvantaged to end the Jewish state’s existence.

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Op-Ed articles appearing on IsraCampus.Org.il are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the opinion of IsraCampus.Org.il