Save the Good Ones While We Can
Dec. 31st, 2008 12:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
Brasil's government has offered to intercede with Israel and try to stop the escalating atrocities in Palestine. It came to me suddenly last night that one way my country could help, at least in the short term, would be to offer asylum to those that are trapped in Israel or Palestine and wish to escape. They could offer to Israelis and Palestinians the following: "any one of you that is tired of this pointless war, of fighting for this bit of dirt, is welcome to move with your family to Brasil. A house will be provided as well as enough land to grow your own food or livestock; lessons in Portuguese will be provided for yourself and your children; and if you are already qualified in a profession, a programme will be created to help your transition into the country's equivalent field."
I can imagine many brasilians would be angry at first; with so many people living in shanty towns, below the poverty line, why is the government helping people who are not from here? (That argument so well known by Western Europeans.) The pay off for Brasil would be financial support in erecting houses and setting up programmes from countries belonging to the U.N. that wish to help the sane amongst the Palestinians and Israelis. I'm sure many people wouldn't want to leave because of their attachment to the land, but I also imagine that many would jump at the opportunity. And once here in Brasil - a country that doesn't know anything about the virulent hatred and war mentality that exists in the Middle East - they'd have a chance to lead some form of normal life.
There is a lot of land available in Brasil; the problem is that it's not well distributed, or it sits unused in the hands of a few (and I don't even mean the Amazon forest, but the vast farmlands in the South, for example.) A lot of Israelis already come here for holidays when they complete their military years because they enjoy the relaxed life and the warm weather; some even own businesses here; some stay behind and lead illegal lives as hippies, selling trinkets to tourists in Bahia's beaches. It would be easy to take families from Palestine and Israel and distribute them across coastal towns, farming communities, from North to South, mostly because brasilians are so welcoming and even ignorant of the details behind the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
I can imagine many brasilians would be angry at first; with so many people living in shanty towns, below the poverty line, why is the government helping people who are not from here? (That argument so well known by Western Europeans.) The pay off for Brasil would be financial support in erecting houses and setting up programmes from countries belonging to the U.N. that wish to help the sane amongst the Palestinians and Israelis. I'm sure many people wouldn't want to leave because of their attachment to the land, but I also imagine that many would jump at the opportunity. And once here in Brasil - a country that doesn't know anything about the virulent hatred and war mentality that exists in the Middle East - they'd have a chance to lead some form of normal life.
There is a lot of land available in Brasil; the problem is that it's not well distributed, or it sits unused in the hands of a few (and I don't even mean the Amazon forest, but the vast farmlands in the South, for example.) A lot of Israelis already come here for holidays when they complete their military years because they enjoy the relaxed life and the warm weather; some even own businesses here; some stay behind and lead illegal lives as hippies, selling trinkets to tourists in Bahia's beaches. It would be easy to take families from Palestine and Israel and distribute them across coastal towns, farming communities, from North to South, mostly because brasilians are so welcoming and even ignorant of the details behind the history of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.