Monday, June 17, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
In the zero-sum world of BDS politics, last month’s
Eurovision Song Contest could not be perceived as anything but a massive defeat
for the boycotters. Their extreme
efforts to get the program moved from Israel, their strong-arming of artists to
now show up, and their incessant calls for boycott could not prevent the
thousands of people who visited Israel for the event or millions watching the
song contest on TV from seeing the actual Israel, rather than the dystopia of
BDS fantasies and *gasp* making up their own minds, rather than let the BDSers
think for them.
The one bright spot for the boycotters were the antics of
the Islandic band Hatrio Mun Sigra which did not misbehave during their
performance, but did engage in politics by sneaking out a Palestinian flag
during the announcement of the winner (it wasn’t them, BTW).
What little heat their “reveal” generated was soon forgotten,
except for some BDSers looking for a fix and the Icelandic government which may
punish the band for not playing by the rules.
But I got re-interested in the controversy when this
piece appeared in Tablet revealing that – for all their goth, outsider posing,
the members of Hatrio Mun Sigra are part of a hereditary caste of Iceland’s
elite – the sons of diplomats and bankers – playing at punk while demonstrating
their wokeness in the way all European aristocrats do these days: by dissing
the Jewish state.
One need only look at the pale, scrawny members of the band
to combine their appearance and background into a single well-worn phrase:
white privilege. In fact, if that term
had any meaning among the people who use it the most, one might be led to think
that anti-Zionism is the touchstone of the most melanin-deprived elite.
This fits nicely with the concept of Palestinian privilege
that titles this piece. For example,
sixty million of the world’s refugees (including those from Syria for whom the
world shows such concern) is supported by the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) whose budget is comparable to the money spent on a UN
agency, UNWRA, dedicated solely to not solving the problem of five million
Palestinian “refugees.”
Many commentators describe Palestinian behavior such as refusing
tax revenue from Israel unless it includes sums they have committed to pay
those who killed Israelis or doing everything possible to derail an economic
conference dedicated to their economic improvement as the acts of “spoiled
children.” But another way to look at those choices is as the acts of an
outraged elite doing everything in their power to preserve their wealth, power
and position in society.
The poverty such choices might cause the average Palestinian
might seem to counter any discussion of privilege, but keep in mind that the
elite making these decisions are not impacted by them. The wealth they have skimmed off foreign
donors is not likely to be seized, and their positions of power is not
threatened by those below them (unless the masses organize under the rule of a new
elite of fanatical Islamists). Similarly, the privileged Palestinian elite
has no fear that parents of members of Hatrio Mun Sigra or their pals in the
European diplomatic core will hold Palestinian members of their caste to
account.
The privilege model also helps explain why members of this
elite in “Palestine” are so quick to lash out at fellow Arab tyrants who seem
to be distancing themselves from “the sacred cause.” After all, with dozens of Arab nations allied
with even more Islamic ones within the halls of the United Nations, having
their way internationally has been taken as a given by Abbas and Company. So condemning Arab leaders for not sacrificing
their own interests is the equivalent of the rich and powerful condemning
President Roosevelt as a traitor to his class.
Given how much our own intersectional elite demands they get
to decide who gets to speak and who does not based on their own ever-changing
ranking of privilege, it’s interesting how the power relationships described
above: where European hereditary castes prove their progressive bone fides by
embracing the anti-Israel cause, all in support of the least progressive
regimes on the planet, is not mentioned (or shouted down when someone else
brings it up).
Interesting, but not surprising. After all, rank does have its privilege.
