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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