RACIAL PROFILING ~~ PRELUDE TO GENOCIDE?A DesertPeace Editorial
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Interesting how racial profiling takes on different venues in different countries. My own observations in Israel are as follows.... There has ALWAYS been a separation of sorts between the Jewish and Palestinian population here. In the 80's all Arab taxi drivers had license plates that began with the numbers 666.... this was interesting as the concept is taken from the New Testament, not the Old. Coincidence? I think not... It was a way to 'alert' prospective Jewish passengers that the driver was 'one of them'....'not one of us' very subtle, but very damaging to the person trying to earn a living.
There was also a colour scheme used on Identity Cards; Jewish Israelis had theirs in a plastic folio that was blue, Palestinians from the territories had theirs in an orange folio. This was a 'quick' way to distinguish the Jew from the Palestinian. On the card itself, it identified the bearer as Jew or Arab. (brings to mind one of the complaints Jews in the Former Soviet Union had, they resented the fact that they were 'forced' to carry ID cards identifying them as Jews, I don't hear them complaining here...)
The words Jew or Arab were recently replaced by a series of asterisks, the number of which identifies the bearer in the same way.
The above methods of separation or profiling eventually led to the building of a wall to completely separate the two peoples. This was done under the guise of security.... it was actually done to be able to have complete control over those occupied including the facilitation of their slaughter. In other words, genocide was the eventual plan.
Another example of profiling comes from wartime Denmark. The occupying nazis order all of the Jews living there to wear a yellow star on their arm. It is believed that the first Danish citizen to put on that star was the King of Denmark himself, followed by thousands of his subjects, making it impossible for the nazis to determine who was a Jew and who wasn't. This is one of the most brilliant acts of resistance to profiling. Unlike other countries in Eastern Europe, the Jews of Denmark were not rounded up and slaughtered.
Profiling continues today. The most recent example occurred in Los Angeles just the other day when the local police force starting 'mapping out' Muslim communities. On Thursday, Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing stated that "We want to know where the Pakistanis, Iranians and Chechens are so we can reach out to those communities."
He also said he wanted to "take a deeper look at the history, demographics, language, culture, ethnic breakdown, socioeconomic status and social interactions of the city's Muslim communities."
Also on Thursday, several Muslim groups and the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sent Downing a letter expressing "grave concerns" about the program.
"Singling out individuals for investigation, surveillance, and data-gathering based on their religion constitutes religious profiling that is just as unlawful, ill-advised and deeply offensive as racial profiling," said the letter.
Once the areas are 'mapped out' will a wall be built to separate them from the rest of society? Will the residents within the wall be asked to wear a yellow crescent on their arm? Where will it stop??
My question is will the American people allow this to happen to a section of their population? 'Security' at the expense of another's rights is not security. No one is free unless we all are, that is security.
The examples I gave at the start of this post might seem exaggerated to some of my readers, I can assure you that they are all based on fact. There is no doubt in my mind that profiling is a prelude to genocide... DON'T ALLOW IT TO HAPPEN!
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