8/6/2019 Frankenthaler_Louis_The Tortured Reasoning of Oppression

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8/6/2019 Frankenthaler_Louis_The Tortured Reasoning of Oppression

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The oppression we witness in Iran, in the Israeli Occupation and elsewhere, assumesa similar mechanism of control. The master in the relationship is interested inmaintaining the regime as unhealthy and counterproductive as it may be. To do soviolence becomes the core of control and is seen as valid, essential and logical. Thoseagainst whom violence is employed, (torture, the violent suppression ofdemonstrations, the institutional violence of building settlements or falsifyingdemocracy), are seen by the regime not as victims but as criminals. Thus oppressioncriminalizes that which is fundamentally just. Victims of torture and organized stateviolence are more than representatives of resistance. They remind us that behindstruggles there are political and moral agents who want nothing more than to beallowed to live. This understanding should inform our discussion and, correspondingly,it should guide us in achieving a principled and political commitment to opposingoppression absolutely.

Louis Frankenthaler lives in West Jerusalem with his partner and their two children. He is a human rights worker and a doctoral student.