http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2640432.ece
General who helped redraw the borders of Israel says road map to peace is a lie
The man who commanded Gaza and the West Bank from the last day of the Six Day War talks to Donald Macintyre in Tel Aviv
Published: 10 June 2007
Immediately after the Six Day War, 40 years ago, Shlomo Gazit was put in charge of Gaza and the West Bank. Today, the retired general is in favour of talks with Hamas, describes the road map as a "pretext" for Israel not to negotiate with the Palestinians, and thinks the idea that the US can or should veto a peace process between Jerusalem and Damascus is a "nonsense".
At first sight Mr Gazit could be a classic military hawk. A tough, unsentimental man with 37 years in the Israeli Defence Forces behind him, he has never been slow in condemning Palestinian attacks on Israeli civilians. Yet he enjoys the unique distinction of having, from the heart of the Israeli military, proposed in writing a Palestinian state exactly 40 years ago yesterday - 24 hours before the war had even ended.
And he has never been more convinced than now that such a state, its negotiated borders based on those that preceded the war, and involving withdrawal from most of the West Bank Jewish settlements, remains the only answer to the conflict.
Saturday, June 9, 2007
Monday, June 4, 2007
Time to Talk Peace (thanks, Eldad)
As part of its Jewish New Year's edition Israel largest circulating newspaper, Yediot Acharonot, asked several prominent Israelis for a message for the coming year. This is from former Israeli Education Minister and long time member of Knesset Shulamit Aloni.
------------
Time to talk peace
[Hebrew heading: Time to replace the Occupation Disk]
Israel's leaders must change mindset, engage in dialogue with Palestinians
Shulamit Aloni
In a few months, we will mark 40 years of "enlightened" occupation by our famed army in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel pretends to be an enlightened state and signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" (Israel ratified the Convention in 1951).
Over the years we deported, robbed land and stole water, destroyed crops, uprooted trees, turned every village and town into a detention camp, and set up hundreds of settlements on land that doesn't belong to us.
We allowed the settlers to make a living by providing them with huge amounts of money (more than five times per capita compared to residents of Israeli southern development towns).
We paved splendid roads for Jews only, a case of blatant apartheid, while defending it using convoluted, Jewish self-righteous logic in the absence of fair and public reporting of the budgets involved, deeds committed, expropriation of land, and disregard for vandalism.
Morality, justice, law and order stopped at the Green Line [pre-67 borders- Trans]. There is no judge and no justice. Lawlessness prevailed right under the noses and protective and soothing hand of the IDF and police, as lawbreaking settlers made their own laws undisturbed, and at times with the generous help of authorities.
Every illegal settlement enjoys water, electricity, and a paved road. The indigenous inhabitants, which the Israeli regime had to take care of, became seemingly non-existent, as we call them, "present absentees." The authorities only notice them if they bother them by filing complaints.
It's no wonder that the leader of a political movement in Israel and a Knesset member can declare that we should expel the Palestinians (and also Israel's Arab citizens) in order to take over what is still left to them.
But as we usually present it ˆ we're the victim while they're the murderers with blood on their hands. We never publicise the number of Palestinians we have murdered from the sky and killed by fire - women, children, the elderly, whole families, thousands of them.
We use aerial bombings to liquidate a wanted suspect, in the process liquidating many civilians - yet the hands of the pilot are "clean" of any blood. After all, the victims were killed at the press of a button while their killers returned home safely. None of them committed suicide to kill wanted suspects, who, by the way are not a "ticking bomb" and no evidence exists against them.
At times it appears that the IDF, particularly during the last, needless Lebanon war, turns the Gaza Strip into live-fire training grounds for all defence force's branches. Is it any wonder they hate us, and is it any wonder they elected Hamas in free elections, the same Hamas whose establishment we encouraged in order to undermine the PLO?
Don‚t know and don‚t want to talk
Many peace-making windows of opportunity have been opened over the years. We thwarted all of them, because we coveted the whole of the Territories. We had the Oslo agreements. Twenty countries, which in the past had no ties with us, have recognised Israel. We had new openings, international ties were blossoming, peace was at our doorway ˆ but we didn't want to make concessions.
Rabin was murdered for the sake of the settlers, and the task of burying peace-making attempts was completed by Ehud Barak with his "There's nobody to talk to!" spin. In order to establish himself in power, Barak also allowed Arik Sharon to visit Temple Mount with armed escorts, even though he was asked by Arafat the night before not to allow this because of the frustration and fury among Palestinians this would cause.
Now, another possibility for dialogue has opened. Yet our government is again turning its back on it. They don't know how to and don't want to talk. Just recently we brutally destroyed half of Lebanon at an immense cost and turned a million civilians into refugees in their own country - yet another splendid achievement by the IDF and government of Israel. We're willing to resort to any provocation and blow any incident out of proportion, just to hold on to the regular pretext that "there's nobody to talk to", and that we don't talk to terrorists.
Yet the acts we undertake by starving, curfews, deportations, the theft of water and land, false arrests, and liquidations - all those are, of course, not terror, because the acts are undertaken by a national army through the power of decisions made by legitimate government.
Wonderful, it turns out we forget the fascist states (including Stalin's USSR) that were highly legitimate according to their own logic, while committing a plethora of terror acts.
The time has come for the government of Israel to start talking peace, and end the excuses for disqualifying and boycotting Palestinian representatives. Resorting to the use of arms does not have to be the first reaction. Starvation, imprisonment, and expropriation by an occupying force attest to an unwillingness to reach an agreement and an addiction to greed.
This is reminiscent of Benny Elon's comment: "We'll embitter their lives so that they transfer themselves elsewhere."
One cannot escape the impression that the racist and brutal declarations by Effie Eitam gave public expression to long-standing government policy. We must note that the courts - the defenders of law and order, including the High Court of Justice - have been part and parcel of the developments that led to the legitimisation of parties and Knesset members along the lines of the racist, crude words uttered by MK Eitam.
In fact, it looks as though Meir Kahane won, and we are continuing in his path - we don't talk, but rather only kill, raze homes and roads and bridges, cut off electricity, remove vegetation, fill prisons with women and children and elected officials, because all of them are the "terrorists" while we, the Jewish state, need to be defended from them. We're always the ultimate victim.
As Golda Meir said: "I don't forgive the Arabs for forcing us to kill them." There you go, she's the killer, yet she's the victim.
For our sake, the citizens of Israel, and for the sake of bringing peace and quiet - government leaders, start talking and keep doing it until you reach an agreement!
Our unruly sons will be brought back to the country, we'll be respecting UN resolutions and international conventions, we'll earnestly memorise the universal human rights declaration and our own declaration of independence, we'll rehabilitate our soul, and we'll attempt to establish a democratic country governed by law and justice. Shana Tova.
Time to talk peace
[Hebrew heading: Time to replace the Occupation Disk]
Israel's leaders must change mindset, engage in dialogue with Palestinians
Shulamit Aloni
In a few months, we will mark 40 years of "enlightened" occupation by our famed army in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel pretends to be an enlightened state and signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" (Israel ratified the Convention in 1951).
Over the years we deported, robbed land and stole water, destroyed crops, uprooted trees, turned every village and town into a detention camp, and set up hundreds of settlements on land that doesn't belong to us.
We allowed the settlers to make a living by providing them with huge amounts of money (more than five times per capita compared to residents of Israeli southern development towns).
We paved splendid roads for Jews only, a case of blatant apartheid, while defending it using convoluted, Jewish self-righteous logic in the absence of fair and public reporting of the budgets involved, deeds committed, expropriation of land, and disregard for vandalism.
Morality, justice, law and order stopped at the Green Line [pre-67 borders- Trans]. There is no judge and no justice. Lawlessness prevailed right under the noses and protective and soothing hand of the IDF and police, as lawbreaking settlers made their own laws undisturbed, and at times with the generous help of authorities.
Every illegal settlement enjoys water, electricity, and a paved road. The indigenous inhabitants, which the Israeli regime had to take care of, became seemingly non-existent, as we call them, "present absentees." The authorities only notice them if they bother them by filing complaints.
It's no wonder that the leader of a political movement in Israel and a Knesset member can declare that we should expel the Palestinians (and also Israel's Arab citizens) in order to take over what is still left to them.
But as we usually present it ˆ we're the victim while they're the murderers with blood on their hands. We never publicise the number of Palestinians we have murdered from the sky and killed by fire - women, children, the elderly, whole families, thousands of them.
We use aerial bombings to liquidate a wanted suspect, in the process liquidating many civilians - yet the hands of the pilot are "clean" of any blood. After all, the victims were killed at the press of a button while their killers returned home safely. None of them committed suicide to kill wanted suspects, who, by the way are not a "ticking bomb" and no evidence exists against them.
At times it appears that the IDF, particularly during the last, needless Lebanon war, turns the Gaza Strip into live-fire training grounds for all defence force's branches. Is it any wonder they hate us, and is it any wonder they elected Hamas in free elections, the same Hamas whose establishment we encouraged in order to undermine the PLO?
Don‚t know and don‚t want to talk
Many peace-making windows of opportunity have been opened over the years. We thwarted all of them, because we coveted the whole of the Territories. We had the Oslo agreements. Twenty countries, which in the past had no ties with us, have recognised Israel. We had new openings, international ties were blossoming, peace was at our doorway ˆ but we didn't want to make concessions.
Rabin was murdered for the sake of the settlers, and the task of burying peace-making attempts was completed by Ehud Barak with his "There's nobody to talk to!" spin. In order to establish himself in power, Barak also allowed Arik Sharon to visit Temple Mount with armed escorts, even though he was asked by Arafat the night before not to allow this because of the frustration and fury among Palestinians this would cause.
Now, another possibility for dialogue has opened. Yet our government is again turning its back on it. They don't know how to and don't want to talk. Just recently we brutally destroyed half of Lebanon at an immense cost and turned a million civilians into refugees in their own country - yet another splendid achievement by the IDF and government of Israel. We're willing to resort to any provocation and blow any incident out of proportion, just to hold on to the regular pretext that "there's nobody to talk to", and that we don't talk to terrorists.
Yet the acts we undertake by starving, curfews, deportations, the theft of water and land, false arrests, and liquidations - all those are, of course, not terror, because the acts are undertaken by a national army through the power of decisions made by legitimate government.
Wonderful, it turns out we forget the fascist states (including Stalin's USSR) that were highly legitimate according to their own logic, while committing a plethora of terror acts.
The time has come for the government of Israel to start talking peace, and end the excuses for disqualifying and boycotting Palestinian representatives. Resorting to the use of arms does not have to be the first reaction. Starvation, imprisonment, and expropriation by an occupying force attest to an unwillingness to reach an agreement and an addiction to greed.
This is reminiscent of Benny Elon's comment: "We'll embitter their lives so that they transfer themselves elsewhere."
One cannot escape the impression that the racist and brutal declarations by Effie Eitam gave public expression to long-standing government policy. We must note that the courts - the defenders of law and order, including the High Court of Justice - have been part and parcel of the developments that led to the legitimisation of parties and Knesset members along the lines of the racist, crude words uttered by MK Eitam.
In fact, it looks as though Meir Kahane won, and we are continuing in his path - we don't talk, but rather only kill, raze homes and roads and bridges, cut off electricity, remove vegetation, fill prisons with women and children and elected officials, because all of them are the "terrorists" while we, the Jewish state, need to be defended from them. We're always the ultimate victim.
As Golda Meir said: "I don't forgive the Arabs for forcing us to kill them." There you go, she's the killer, yet she's the victim.
For our sake, the citizens of Israel, and for the sake of bringing peace and quiet - government leaders, start talking and keep doing it until you reach an agreement!
Our unruly sons will be brought back to the country, we'll be respecting UN resolutions and international conventions, we'll earnestly memorise the universal human rights declaration and our own declaration of independence, we'll rehabilitate our soul, and we'll attempt to establish a democratic country governed by law and justice. Shana Tova.
------------
Time to talk peace
[Hebrew heading: Time to replace the Occupation Disk]
Israel's leaders must change mindset, engage in dialogue with Palestinians
Shulamit Aloni
In a few months, we will mark 40 years of "enlightened" occupation by our famed army in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel pretends to be an enlightened state and signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" (Israel ratified the Convention in 1951).
Over the years we deported, robbed land and stole water, destroyed crops, uprooted trees, turned every village and town into a detention camp, and set up hundreds of settlements on land that doesn't belong to us.
We allowed the settlers to make a living by providing them with huge amounts of money (more than five times per capita compared to residents of Israeli southern development towns).
We paved splendid roads for Jews only, a case of blatant apartheid, while defending it using convoluted, Jewish self-righteous logic in the absence of fair and public reporting of the budgets involved, deeds committed, expropriation of land, and disregard for vandalism.
Morality, justice, law and order stopped at the Green Line [pre-67 borders- Trans]. There is no judge and no justice. Lawlessness prevailed right under the noses and protective and soothing hand of the IDF and police, as lawbreaking settlers made their own laws undisturbed, and at times with the generous help of authorities.
Every illegal settlement enjoys water, electricity, and a paved road. The indigenous inhabitants, which the Israeli regime had to take care of, became seemingly non-existent, as we call them, "present absentees." The authorities only notice them if they bother them by filing complaints.
It's no wonder that the leader of a political movement in Israel and a Knesset member can declare that we should expel the Palestinians (and also Israel's Arab citizens) in order to take over what is still left to them.
But as we usually present it ˆ we're the victim while they're the murderers with blood on their hands. We never publicise the number of Palestinians we have murdered from the sky and killed by fire - women, children, the elderly, whole families, thousands of them.
We use aerial bombings to liquidate a wanted suspect, in the process liquidating many civilians - yet the hands of the pilot are "clean" of any blood. After all, the victims were killed at the press of a button while their killers returned home safely. None of them committed suicide to kill wanted suspects, who, by the way are not a "ticking bomb" and no evidence exists against them.
At times it appears that the IDF, particularly during the last, needless Lebanon war, turns the Gaza Strip into live-fire training grounds for all defence force's branches. Is it any wonder they hate us, and is it any wonder they elected Hamas in free elections, the same Hamas whose establishment we encouraged in order to undermine the PLO?
Don‚t know and don‚t want to talk
Many peace-making windows of opportunity have been opened over the years. We thwarted all of them, because we coveted the whole of the Territories. We had the Oslo agreements. Twenty countries, which in the past had no ties with us, have recognised Israel. We had new openings, international ties were blossoming, peace was at our doorway ˆ but we didn't want to make concessions.
Rabin was murdered for the sake of the settlers, and the task of burying peace-making attempts was completed by Ehud Barak with his "There's nobody to talk to!" spin. In order to establish himself in power, Barak also allowed Arik Sharon to visit Temple Mount with armed escorts, even though he was asked by Arafat the night before not to allow this because of the frustration and fury among Palestinians this would cause.
Now, another possibility for dialogue has opened. Yet our government is again turning its back on it. They don't know how to and don't want to talk. Just recently we brutally destroyed half of Lebanon at an immense cost and turned a million civilians into refugees in their own country - yet another splendid achievement by the IDF and government of Israel. We're willing to resort to any provocation and blow any incident out of proportion, just to hold on to the regular pretext that "there's nobody to talk to", and that we don't talk to terrorists.
Yet the acts we undertake by starving, curfews, deportations, the theft of water and land, false arrests, and liquidations - all those are, of course, not terror, because the acts are undertaken by a national army through the power of decisions made by legitimate government.
Wonderful, it turns out we forget the fascist states (including Stalin's USSR) that were highly legitimate according to their own logic, while committing a plethora of terror acts.
The time has come for the government of Israel to start talking peace, and end the excuses for disqualifying and boycotting Palestinian representatives. Resorting to the use of arms does not have to be the first reaction. Starvation, imprisonment, and expropriation by an occupying force attest to an unwillingness to reach an agreement and an addiction to greed.
This is reminiscent of Benny Elon's comment: "We'll embitter their lives so that they transfer themselves elsewhere."
One cannot escape the impression that the racist and brutal declarations by Effie Eitam gave public expression to long-standing government policy. We must note that the courts - the defenders of law and order, including the High Court of Justice - have been part and parcel of the developments that led to the legitimisation of parties and Knesset members along the lines of the racist, crude words uttered by MK Eitam.
In fact, it looks as though Meir Kahane won, and we are continuing in his path - we don't talk, but rather only kill, raze homes and roads and bridges, cut off electricity, remove vegetation, fill prisons with women and children and elected officials, because all of them are the "terrorists" while we, the Jewish state, need to be defended from them. We're always the ultimate victim.
As Golda Meir said: "I don't forgive the Arabs for forcing us to kill them." There you go, she's the killer, yet she's the victim.
For our sake, the citizens of Israel, and for the sake of bringing peace and quiet - government leaders, start talking and keep doing it until you reach an agreement!
Our unruly sons will be brought back to the country, we'll be respecting UN resolutions and international conventions, we'll earnestly memorise the universal human rights declaration and our own declaration of independence, we'll rehabilitate our soul, and we'll attempt to establish a democratic country governed by law and justice. Shana Tova.
Time to talk peace
[Hebrew heading: Time to replace the Occupation Disk]
Israel's leaders must change mindset, engage in dialogue with Palestinians
Shulamit Aloni
In a few months, we will mark 40 years of "enlightened" occupation by our famed army in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. Israel pretends to be an enlightened state and signatory of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that "the Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies" (Israel ratified the Convention in 1951).
Over the years we deported, robbed land and stole water, destroyed crops, uprooted trees, turned every village and town into a detention camp, and set up hundreds of settlements on land that doesn't belong to us.
We allowed the settlers to make a living by providing them with huge amounts of money (more than five times per capita compared to residents of Israeli southern development towns).
We paved splendid roads for Jews only, a case of blatant apartheid, while defending it using convoluted, Jewish self-righteous logic in the absence of fair and public reporting of the budgets involved, deeds committed, expropriation of land, and disregard for vandalism.
Morality, justice, law and order stopped at the Green Line [pre-67 borders- Trans]. There is no judge and no justice. Lawlessness prevailed right under the noses and protective and soothing hand of the IDF and police, as lawbreaking settlers made their own laws undisturbed, and at times with the generous help of authorities.
Every illegal settlement enjoys water, electricity, and a paved road. The indigenous inhabitants, which the Israeli regime had to take care of, became seemingly non-existent, as we call them, "present absentees." The authorities only notice them if they bother them by filing complaints.
It's no wonder that the leader of a political movement in Israel and a Knesset member can declare that we should expel the Palestinians (and also Israel's Arab citizens) in order to take over what is still left to them.
But as we usually present it ˆ we're the victim while they're the murderers with blood on their hands. We never publicise the number of Palestinians we have murdered from the sky and killed by fire - women, children, the elderly, whole families, thousands of them.
We use aerial bombings to liquidate a wanted suspect, in the process liquidating many civilians - yet the hands of the pilot are "clean" of any blood. After all, the victims were killed at the press of a button while their killers returned home safely. None of them committed suicide to kill wanted suspects, who, by the way are not a "ticking bomb" and no evidence exists against them.
At times it appears that the IDF, particularly during the last, needless Lebanon war, turns the Gaza Strip into live-fire training grounds for all defence force's branches. Is it any wonder they hate us, and is it any wonder they elected Hamas in free elections, the same Hamas whose establishment we encouraged in order to undermine the PLO?
Don‚t know and don‚t want to talk
Many peace-making windows of opportunity have been opened over the years. We thwarted all of them, because we coveted the whole of the Territories. We had the Oslo agreements. Twenty countries, which in the past had no ties with us, have recognised Israel. We had new openings, international ties were blossoming, peace was at our doorway ˆ but we didn't want to make concessions.
Rabin was murdered for the sake of the settlers, and the task of burying peace-making attempts was completed by Ehud Barak with his "There's nobody to talk to!" spin. In order to establish himself in power, Barak also allowed Arik Sharon to visit Temple Mount with armed escorts, even though he was asked by Arafat the night before not to allow this because of the frustration and fury among Palestinians this would cause.
Now, another possibility for dialogue has opened. Yet our government is again turning its back on it. They don't know how to and don't want to talk. Just recently we brutally destroyed half of Lebanon at an immense cost and turned a million civilians into refugees in their own country - yet another splendid achievement by the IDF and government of Israel. We're willing to resort to any provocation and blow any incident out of proportion, just to hold on to the regular pretext that "there's nobody to talk to", and that we don't talk to terrorists.
Yet the acts we undertake by starving, curfews, deportations, the theft of water and land, false arrests, and liquidations - all those are, of course, not terror, because the acts are undertaken by a national army through the power of decisions made by legitimate government.
Wonderful, it turns out we forget the fascist states (including Stalin's USSR) that were highly legitimate according to their own logic, while committing a plethora of terror acts.
The time has come for the government of Israel to start talking peace, and end the excuses for disqualifying and boycotting Palestinian representatives. Resorting to the use of arms does not have to be the first reaction. Starvation, imprisonment, and expropriation by an occupying force attest to an unwillingness to reach an agreement and an addiction to greed.
This is reminiscent of Benny Elon's comment: "We'll embitter their lives so that they transfer themselves elsewhere."
One cannot escape the impression that the racist and brutal declarations by Effie Eitam gave public expression to long-standing government policy. We must note that the courts - the defenders of law and order, including the High Court of Justice - have been part and parcel of the developments that led to the legitimisation of parties and Knesset members along the lines of the racist, crude words uttered by MK Eitam.
In fact, it looks as though Meir Kahane won, and we are continuing in his path - we don't talk, but rather only kill, raze homes and roads and bridges, cut off electricity, remove vegetation, fill prisons with women and children and elected officials, because all of them are the "terrorists" while we, the Jewish state, need to be defended from them. We're always the ultimate victim.
As Golda Meir said: "I don't forgive the Arabs for forcing us to kill them." There you go, she's the killer, yet she's the victim.
For our sake, the citizens of Israel, and for the sake of bringing peace and quiet - government leaders, start talking and keep doing it until you reach an agreement!
Our unruly sons will be brought back to the country, we'll be respecting UN resolutions and international conventions, we'll earnestly memorise the universal human rights declaration and our own declaration of independence, we'll rehabilitate our soul, and we'll attempt to establish a democratic country governed by law and justice. Shana Tova.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
The Jewish People, Zionism, and the Question of Justice
Mark Braverman, Ph.D. http://www.qumsiyeh.org/markbraverman/
When I was a boy in the 1950s attending Hebrew School in Philadelphia, we would receive little cardboard folders with slots for dimes distributed by the Jewish National Fund. On the cover was a picture of a tree being planted by handsome, tanned people in shorts. When the card was full, you sent it in and in return received a certificate with your name on and a bigger picture of a tree, which was the tree you had planted in Israel. It was fun and it was a thrill - I was reclaiming the homeland. I saw pictures of kibbutzim and orange groves filling the valleys and dreamt of going there someday.
Four decades later, now a middle-aged man, I saw pictures of Israeli bulldozers uprooting three hundred year-old olive trees and Jewish soldiers restraining Arab villagers crying hysterically over the destruction of their groves. I traveled to the West Bank - Israeli occupied Palestine - and saw the hillsides denuded of trees to build concrete Jewish settlement cities. I saw Arab houses leveled and gardens taken to make way for a 30 foot-high concrete wall cutting through Palestinian cities and village fields. I saw that this was wrong. I didn't buy the story that this was for defense. I could see that it was a lie.
When I returned to the United States and began to talk about my horror, sadness and deep concern over what I had seen, I was told by many of my fellow Jews that I must not talk like this. I was informed that this makes me an enemy of the Jewish people and that I was opening the way for the next Holocaust. I was told by many Jews that I was disloyal to my people, that I had "gone over" to the "Palestinian side." One Jewish rabbinical student informed his colleagues that I was obviously a convert to Christianity "masquerading" as a Jew in order to cause the destruction of the Jewish people. I have spoken about my experiences before many groups, almost all of them in churches. I have yet to speak in a synagogue. I am trying hard to make sense out of this and to figure out a way forward. Here is what I have figured out so far.
Jewish History: Survival and its Shadow
Zionism was the answer to the anti-Semitism of Christian Europe. The failure, despite the Enlightenment, to establish Jews as an emancipated, accepted group in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the rise of political anti-Semitism in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century gave birth to political Zionism under the leadership of Theodore Herzl. Zionism expressed the powerful drive of the Jewish people to establish ourselves as a nation among other nations, with a land of our own and the ability to achieve self- determination. This is why, in sermons from synagogue pulpits, in lectures on Jewish history, in classroom lessons for small children, and in spirited discussions about the Israel-Palestine question, you will so often here the preamble "throughout the centuries∑," followed by a description of the suffering of the Jews at the hands of our oppressors. Indeed, it‚s in our liturgy, notably in the Passover Seder. The story of Jewish survival despite constant persecution is in many ways our theme song -- it‚s in our cultural DNA, it‚s the mantra of our peoplehood. It runs deep.
This unique Jewish quality is not the product of some cultural aberration or collective character flaw. Developing this particular brand of "character armor" has been part of our survival throughout long ages of persecution, marginalization, and demonization. We survived, in part, by creating rituals, habits and attitudes of insularity, pride and persistence that allowed us never to forget, never to let down our guard, and to always be proud of our stubborn vitality in the face of "those who sought to destroy us." When, in our modern liturgical idiom, we talk of the State of Israel as "the First Flowering of our Redemption," we are reflecting the reality of our survival, the meaning of the achievement of political self- determination in the context of Jewish history. It is good to have survived.
But we must also see clearly the shadow that this history casts on us today. We have striven to be the masters of our fate - but, having achieved this, we must also realize that we are responsible for our actions and for the consequences of these actions. Being free, we have free choice. The tragedy of Jewish Diaspora history, in our own cultural narrative as well as in reality, is rooted in our history of powerlessness and passivity. Zionism came to correct this, and it has undeniably succeeded, indeed far beyond the expectations of Jews and non-Jews alike. But if we now become slaves to the consequences of empowerment, then we are not free, and we are not truly powerful. The Nazi Holocaust in particular casts its shadow over our modern history and the history of the State of Israel. The Nazi’s campaign to eradicate world Jewry has become part of our uniquely Jewish "Liturgy of Destruction," the way we Jews throughout the ages have made sense of our suffering by turning to the broader context of Jewish history. From this matrix of vulnerability, victimization and meaning-making comes the Zionist cry, "Never again!" But the modern State in its policies, carried out purportedly to preserve our people, and using the Holocaust as justification for unjust actions, is betraying the meaning of Jewish history. You cannot achieve your own deliverance, even from the most unspeakable evil, by the oppression of another people. Indeed, in this current era of power and self-determination for Jews in Israel, we face risks to our peoplehood that far exceed the physical perils brought by millennia of persecution.
Israel and Palestine: Reality Stood On its Head
The stormy controversy over the Israel-Palestine question today - a controversy that is splitting the Jewish community here in the United States as well as Israeli society, stands as evidence of this risk. The history of conflict and bloodshed between the State of Israel, its Arab neighbors, and the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine is the unavoidable and predictable result of the colonialist nature of the Zionist enterprise. Although Zionism, unlike the other European colonial projects, was not directed originally toward the occupation and exploitation of a subject people - the Zionists sought only to create a refuge for a themselves - it is no less a settler colonial enterprise for that. What is uncanny and tragic is that in the current discourse, the roles of the combatants are turned upside down: The Jews are portrayed as the victims, and the Palestinians as the aggressors. In truth, it is the Palestinians who are the victims: dispossessed, powerless, and pained. In every way, the Jews are victorious and all-powerful. The Jews of Israel are, to be sure, pricked by acts of popular resistance on the part of Palestinians. But in the perspective of the current power balance, these are pinpricks, no more. At the same time, this resistance, fueled by the desperation and humiliation of a displaced and occupied people, has been amplified and exploited by political forces within and outside of Palestine. As terrifying as acts of resistance such as suicide bombings and cross-border shellings are, Israel's current hegemony, power, and certainly her security are not threatened by these acts. Suicide bombings are horrible and terrorizing. But it is too easy, too convenient to tar an entire people with this brush, which is precisely what has happened. The image of the Palestinians as a violent people, as "terrorists" bent on the destruction of Israel, is not a true picture. The truth is that by and large the Palestinians are a peaceful, patient people - and at this pass an angry, humiliated and pained people. Their sin over the last 60 plus years has been their relative lack of organization - set up effectively by the British during their 30-year rule -- in the face of the highly organized and effective Zionist colonial project. They are paying for this now as they face the ongoing dismantling of their economy and their infrastructure, and the continuing program to disable their leadership and ability to self-govern. Israel has taken over where Britain left off - and with far greater efficiency and thoroughness.
The Jewish Discussion
Although it is painful and deeply troubling, I see the ferocity and depth of the current split within the Jewish community in the Diaspora as an opportunity for dialogue. This is an issue of crisis proportions for Jews, and we need to take it seriously. We must encourage this conversation -- we stifle it at our great, great peril. It is our responsibility as Jews to examine our relationship to Israel, rather than to passively accept the story fed to us by the Jewish establishment: the synagogues, Jewish Federations, lobbying organizations and the rest of the apparatus devoted to maintaining the mighty stream of financial and policy support for Israel from the US government and from private sources. We must examine our convictions and feelings about the meaning of the State to us personally, especially in relation to anti-Semitism. For example, do
I, as a Jew living in America, believe that the State of Israel is important to me as a haven if I should feel unsafe or disadvantaged in my home country? Do I personally feel that the existence of a Jewish State is an essential or part of my Jewishness, or of the religious values and beliefs that I hold as a Jew? Do I believe that the world owes a state to the Jews because of the centuries of violence against and persecution of the Jews, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust? These are all important questions - they need to be asked, confronted, and measured against the realities of contemporary life. Furthermore, as Diaspora Jews we need to question where we get our information about the history of the State of Israel and about the current political situation. What news services do we rely on, what websites do we visit? What do we know about the discussion going on inside Israel today, exemplified by the active dialogue to be found in the pages of Haaretz, the organizations voicing opposition to Israeli government policy, and the accelerated pace of revisionist Zionist history being produced by Jewish Israeli historians?
We must become willing to overcome our profound denial about the current reality and the injustices wrought by Zionism. Walter Brueggemann, the Protestant theologian, in his work on the prophetic imagination, writes about the prophetic call to grieve and to mourn, that only in this way can we hope to move on to a new and better reality. Only when we are able to cry, in Jeremiah's phrase, for our own brokenness, and to confront the implications of the suffering we have caused, can we be the beneficiaries of God's bounty. In other words, we must break through the denial about what we have done. The power structure, of course, is committed to the very opposite. The State turns the story on its head in order to paper over the truth:
"This is done in the name of national security." "These others are the terrorists, they are the obstacles to peace."
One particularly "slippery" form of denial, of this failure to grieve, is how some Jews take issue with some of the actions of the Israeli government while still avoiding confronting the fundamental issues of justice. This can take several forms. The first is the "pragmatic" approach, which can also be called the appeal to "enlightened self-interest." "The Occupation," so this position goes, "was a mistake. It's bad for Israel. Denying self-determination for Palestinians and subjecting them to the humiliation of a military administration breeds hatred and desperation, which is then visited upon Israelis in the form of violence." Some American Jewish organizations, hoping to avoid being marginalized by the mainstream community, or labeled "Pro-Palestinian" adopt this position, ignoring the issue of justice.. "Israel," they say, "should smarten up and change its policies if it wants to live in peace and limit the economic drain of unending conflict." In informal conversations with some Jewish Americans who articulate this position, I have heard confessions that their position is really much more extreme with respect to their feelings about Israeli policy, but that they feel it important to hew to this line for strategic purposes, in order to maintain credibility with the Jewish establishment as well as with government legislators.
A second kind of denial, for me more serious and more disturbing, is to be found in the ranks of what has come to be called the Jewish Progressive movement. In his critique of this element of American Judaism, Jewish Liberation theologian Marc Ellis notes that whereas this element of Jewry critiques aspects of Jewish ascendancy by recognizing the validity of Palestinian aspirations, it limits the scope of the critique by accepting the need for this same Jewish ascendancy as a solution to Jewish history. This viewpoint acknowledges the issue of justice, but attempts to do this within the context of Jewish mainstream assumptions of entitlement with respect to the rights of the Jews to historic Palestine. "If we can just clean up this messy business of the Occupation," say these people, "things will come out alright, and we will be able to enjoy the land with a clean conscience." This viewpoint limits the discourse to actions post-1967: it denies the history of Palestinian displacement prior to that. Indeed, Progressive Jewish organizations avoid discussion of the Nakba, an Arabic word meaning "catastrophe" used to describe the ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Palestinians from historic Palestine by Israeli forces between 1948 and 1949. Indeed, progressive Jews have been known to become quite irritated with fellow Jews who raise it. Finally, it avoids the fundamental question, which is how a Jewish State, founded as a haven and a homeland for Jews, can be a true democracy, providing justice and fair treatment for its non-Jewish citizenry. It avoids the related and equally fundamental question of demography - the issue that, above all others, drives Israeli foreign policy and fuels the current political and military conflict. On the whole, Jews outside of Israel across a wide spectrum from "establishment" to "progressive want to avoid these questions - indeed, they are off limits.
This is denial - it is a fundamental failure to accept the consequences of Jewish actions in pre- and post- 1948 Palestine- Israel, and thus a failure to grieve over the particularly Jewish tragedy from which we as Jews suffer today. Returning to the pre-1967 borders (as if that will ever happen) will not make everything better. It will not make Israel a just society with respect to its Palestinian citizens. It will not erase what was done to the Palestinians who were driven out of their cities, towns and villages in 1948. It does not place the issue of justice as primary. Rather, it places the interests of Israel as primary, and promotes an entitled, supremacist, paternalistic stance with respect to non- Jewish inhabitants of historic Palestine, on whichever side of the final status border they may reside when a political settlement is finally achieved. It pre-empts our horror over the crimes we are committing and the suffering we have caused. It muffles our own cries of pain over our sins and our cruelties. It squelches the agony of confronting the contradictions and the excruciating dilemmas. It blocks the discussion. It closes our hearts.
Conclusion: Christians, Jews, Anti-Semitism, and Our Accountability
The issue of anti-Semitism is complex and deeply embedded in two thousand years of Western history. Among liberal Christian theologians and religious leaders, Supercessionism - the concept that Christianity, embodied in the Gospels, came to replace Judaism as God's plan for humankind - has become the Great Evil. The argument, well supported by history, is that this idea, developed in the first centuries after Christ and central to Christian belief and doctrine, laid the groundwork for anti-Semitism. But in their zeal to correct the injustices of the past, and to in effect atone for anti-Semitism, Christian leaders and thinkers are in danger of losing sight of an important aspect of early Christian thought. Christianity, in its reframing of the relationship of God to humanity, produced a revolution -- in effect, it moved the concept of "Israel" from the tribal to the communal. In the Christian reframing, God's commitment to humanity through his election of the seed of Abraham, assigned a special role in history, was transformed into God‚s love for humankind and the invitation to all to become part of a universal spiritual community. This was a great contribution, a great step forward, and it has special relevance today, as all religions struggle to move from "Constantinian," power-based religions to communities based on a commitment to diversity, human rights and Justice. The choice between religion based on and consorting with political power and oppression, and religion grounded in a concept of community is one that must be faced by all the faiths. Jews and Christians must talk about this, indeed they must come together with their Muslim friends and colleagues to together confront what may be the central challenge of our times. We stifle this discussion at our peril.
To our Christian sisters and brothers I say - do not, out of a sense of guilt for anti-Semitism, give the Jewish people a free pass. Do not confuse anti-Semitism with critique of Israel, and in so doing fail to hold Jews accountable for our choices and our actions, as members of the human community, as individuals, and as a nation state
-- especially as a nation state. To make this mistake, to allow
yourselves to be - I will use the word - bullied by the threat of the charge of anti-Semitism, is to commit a pernicious fallacy. As Jews we sought political self-determination, and we got it. Now we must behave in accordance with principles of justice and in accordance with international law as an expression of universally agreed-upon principles of justice. As Jews, we are confronted daily with this choice as we witness the illegal and oppressive actions of the Jewish State toward the Palestinian people it is so rapidly displacing. Empowerment - political empowerment - presents a mighty challenge to values. The Prophets knew this well, continually speaking this truth to the power structures of their day. To the crushed and exiled Jewish people of his time, Second Isaiah declared that redemption and comfort was coming, but only when the people acknowledged the divine meaning of their suffering. To my coreligionists in Israel and America, I say that we will ultimately survive as a people only to the extent that we can understand how our own suffering makes us part of humankind, and responsible for suffering wherever and whenever it happens. It was Roberta Feuerlicht, the Jewish ethicist who famously wrote, "Judaism survived centuries of persecution without a state; it must now learn how to survive despite a state."
Mark Braverman lives in Bethesda, MD. He is a member of Jewish Voices for Peace and serves on the Boards of Partners for Peace and the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace. Contact:m_braverman@yahoo.com
© 2007 mbraverman@bravermangroup.com
When I was a boy in the 1950s attending Hebrew School in Philadelphia, we would receive little cardboard folders with slots for dimes distributed by the Jewish National Fund. On the cover was a picture of a tree being planted by handsome, tanned people in shorts. When the card was full, you sent it in and in return received a certificate with your name on and a bigger picture of a tree, which was the tree you had planted in Israel. It was fun and it was a thrill - I was reclaiming the homeland. I saw pictures of kibbutzim and orange groves filling the valleys and dreamt of going there someday.
Four decades later, now a middle-aged man, I saw pictures of Israeli bulldozers uprooting three hundred year-old olive trees and Jewish soldiers restraining Arab villagers crying hysterically over the destruction of their groves. I traveled to the West Bank - Israeli occupied Palestine - and saw the hillsides denuded of trees to build concrete Jewish settlement cities. I saw Arab houses leveled and gardens taken to make way for a 30 foot-high concrete wall cutting through Palestinian cities and village fields. I saw that this was wrong. I didn't buy the story that this was for defense. I could see that it was a lie.
When I returned to the United States and began to talk about my horror, sadness and deep concern over what I had seen, I was told by many of my fellow Jews that I must not talk like this. I was informed that this makes me an enemy of the Jewish people and that I was opening the way for the next Holocaust. I was told by many Jews that I was disloyal to my people, that I had "gone over" to the "Palestinian side." One Jewish rabbinical student informed his colleagues that I was obviously a convert to Christianity "masquerading" as a Jew in order to cause the destruction of the Jewish people. I have spoken about my experiences before many groups, almost all of them in churches. I have yet to speak in a synagogue. I am trying hard to make sense out of this and to figure out a way forward. Here is what I have figured out so far.
Jewish History: Survival and its Shadow
Zionism was the answer to the anti-Semitism of Christian Europe. The failure, despite the Enlightenment, to establish Jews as an emancipated, accepted group in Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries, and the rise of political anti-Semitism in the late 19th and first half of the 20th century gave birth to political Zionism under the leadership of Theodore Herzl. Zionism expressed the powerful drive of the Jewish people to establish ourselves as a nation among other nations, with a land of our own and the ability to achieve self- determination. This is why, in sermons from synagogue pulpits, in lectures on Jewish history, in classroom lessons for small children, and in spirited discussions about the Israel-Palestine question, you will so often here the preamble "throughout the centuries∑," followed by a description of the suffering of the Jews at the hands of our oppressors. Indeed, it‚s in our liturgy, notably in the Passover Seder. The story of Jewish survival despite constant persecution is in many ways our theme song -- it‚s in our cultural DNA, it‚s the mantra of our peoplehood. It runs deep.
This unique Jewish quality is not the product of some cultural aberration or collective character flaw. Developing this particular brand of "character armor" has been part of our survival throughout long ages of persecution, marginalization, and demonization. We survived, in part, by creating rituals, habits and attitudes of insularity, pride and persistence that allowed us never to forget, never to let down our guard, and to always be proud of our stubborn vitality in the face of "those who sought to destroy us." When, in our modern liturgical idiom, we talk of the State of Israel as "the First Flowering of our Redemption," we are reflecting the reality of our survival, the meaning of the achievement of political self- determination in the context of Jewish history. It is good to have survived.
But we must also see clearly the shadow that this history casts on us today. We have striven to be the masters of our fate - but, having achieved this, we must also realize that we are responsible for our actions and for the consequences of these actions. Being free, we have free choice. The tragedy of Jewish Diaspora history, in our own cultural narrative as well as in reality, is rooted in our history of powerlessness and passivity. Zionism came to correct this, and it has undeniably succeeded, indeed far beyond the expectations of Jews and non-Jews alike. But if we now become slaves to the consequences of empowerment, then we are not free, and we are not truly powerful. The Nazi Holocaust in particular casts its shadow over our modern history and the history of the State of Israel. The Nazi’s campaign to eradicate world Jewry has become part of our uniquely Jewish "Liturgy of Destruction," the way we Jews throughout the ages have made sense of our suffering by turning to the broader context of Jewish history. From this matrix of vulnerability, victimization and meaning-making comes the Zionist cry, "Never again!" But the modern State in its policies, carried out purportedly to preserve our people, and using the Holocaust as justification for unjust actions, is betraying the meaning of Jewish history. You cannot achieve your own deliverance, even from the most unspeakable evil, by the oppression of another people. Indeed, in this current era of power and self-determination for Jews in Israel, we face risks to our peoplehood that far exceed the physical perils brought by millennia of persecution.
Israel and Palestine: Reality Stood On its Head
The stormy controversy over the Israel-Palestine question today - a controversy that is splitting the Jewish community here in the United States as well as Israeli society, stands as evidence of this risk. The history of conflict and bloodshed between the State of Israel, its Arab neighbors, and the indigenous inhabitants of historic Palestine is the unavoidable and predictable result of the colonialist nature of the Zionist enterprise. Although Zionism, unlike the other European colonial projects, was not directed originally toward the occupation and exploitation of a subject people - the Zionists sought only to create a refuge for a themselves - it is no less a settler colonial enterprise for that. What is uncanny and tragic is that in the current discourse, the roles of the combatants are turned upside down: The Jews are portrayed as the victims, and the Palestinians as the aggressors. In truth, it is the Palestinians who are the victims: dispossessed, powerless, and pained. In every way, the Jews are victorious and all-powerful. The Jews of Israel are, to be sure, pricked by acts of popular resistance on the part of Palestinians. But in the perspective of the current power balance, these are pinpricks, no more. At the same time, this resistance, fueled by the desperation and humiliation of a displaced and occupied people, has been amplified and exploited by political forces within and outside of Palestine. As terrifying as acts of resistance such as suicide bombings and cross-border shellings are, Israel's current hegemony, power, and certainly her security are not threatened by these acts. Suicide bombings are horrible and terrorizing. But it is too easy, too convenient to tar an entire people with this brush, which is precisely what has happened. The image of the Palestinians as a violent people, as "terrorists" bent on the destruction of Israel, is not a true picture. The truth is that by and large the Palestinians are a peaceful, patient people - and at this pass an angry, humiliated and pained people. Their sin over the last 60 plus years has been their relative lack of organization - set up effectively by the British during their 30-year rule -- in the face of the highly organized and effective Zionist colonial project. They are paying for this now as they face the ongoing dismantling of their economy and their infrastructure, and the continuing program to disable their leadership and ability to self-govern. Israel has taken over where Britain left off - and with far greater efficiency and thoroughness.
The Jewish Discussion
Although it is painful and deeply troubling, I see the ferocity and depth of the current split within the Jewish community in the Diaspora as an opportunity for dialogue. This is an issue of crisis proportions for Jews, and we need to take it seriously. We must encourage this conversation -- we stifle it at our great, great peril. It is our responsibility as Jews to examine our relationship to Israel, rather than to passively accept the story fed to us by the Jewish establishment: the synagogues, Jewish Federations, lobbying organizations and the rest of the apparatus devoted to maintaining the mighty stream of financial and policy support for Israel from the US government and from private sources. We must examine our convictions and feelings about the meaning of the State to us personally, especially in relation to anti-Semitism. For example, do
I, as a Jew living in America, believe that the State of Israel is important to me as a haven if I should feel unsafe or disadvantaged in my home country? Do I personally feel that the existence of a Jewish State is an essential or part of my Jewishness, or of the religious values and beliefs that I hold as a Jew? Do I believe that the world owes a state to the Jews because of the centuries of violence against and persecution of the Jews, culminating in the Nazi Holocaust? These are all important questions - they need to be asked, confronted, and measured against the realities of contemporary life. Furthermore, as Diaspora Jews we need to question where we get our information about the history of the State of Israel and about the current political situation. What news services do we rely on, what websites do we visit? What do we know about the discussion going on inside Israel today, exemplified by the active dialogue to be found in the pages of Haaretz, the organizations voicing opposition to Israeli government policy, and the accelerated pace of revisionist Zionist history being produced by Jewish Israeli historians?
We must become willing to overcome our profound denial about the current reality and the injustices wrought by Zionism. Walter Brueggemann, the Protestant theologian, in his work on the prophetic imagination, writes about the prophetic call to grieve and to mourn, that only in this way can we hope to move on to a new and better reality. Only when we are able to cry, in Jeremiah's phrase, for our own brokenness, and to confront the implications of the suffering we have caused, can we be the beneficiaries of God's bounty. In other words, we must break through the denial about what we have done. The power structure, of course, is committed to the very opposite. The State turns the story on its head in order to paper over the truth:
"This is done in the name of national security." "These others are the terrorists, they are the obstacles to peace."
One particularly "slippery" form of denial, of this failure to grieve, is how some Jews take issue with some of the actions of the Israeli government while still avoiding confronting the fundamental issues of justice. This can take several forms. The first is the "pragmatic" approach, which can also be called the appeal to "enlightened self-interest." "The Occupation," so this position goes, "was a mistake. It's bad for Israel. Denying self-determination for Palestinians and subjecting them to the humiliation of a military administration breeds hatred and desperation, which is then visited upon Israelis in the form of violence." Some American Jewish organizations, hoping to avoid being marginalized by the mainstream community, or labeled "Pro-Palestinian" adopt this position, ignoring the issue of justice.. "Israel," they say, "should smarten up and change its policies if it wants to live in peace and limit the economic drain of unending conflict." In informal conversations with some Jewish Americans who articulate this position, I have heard confessions that their position is really much more extreme with respect to their feelings about Israeli policy, but that they feel it important to hew to this line for strategic purposes, in order to maintain credibility with the Jewish establishment as well as with government legislators.
A second kind of denial, for me more serious and more disturbing, is to be found in the ranks of what has come to be called the Jewish Progressive movement. In his critique of this element of American Judaism, Jewish Liberation theologian Marc Ellis notes that whereas this element of Jewry critiques aspects of Jewish ascendancy by recognizing the validity of Palestinian aspirations, it limits the scope of the critique by accepting the need for this same Jewish ascendancy as a solution to Jewish history. This viewpoint acknowledges the issue of justice, but attempts to do this within the context of Jewish mainstream assumptions of entitlement with respect to the rights of the Jews to historic Palestine. "If we can just clean up this messy business of the Occupation," say these people, "things will come out alright, and we will be able to enjoy the land with a clean conscience." This viewpoint limits the discourse to actions post-1967: it denies the history of Palestinian displacement prior to that. Indeed, Progressive Jewish organizations avoid discussion of the Nakba, an Arabic word meaning "catastrophe" used to describe the ethnic cleansing of three quarters of a million Palestinians from historic Palestine by Israeli forces between 1948 and 1949. Indeed, progressive Jews have been known to become quite irritated with fellow Jews who raise it. Finally, it avoids the fundamental question, which is how a Jewish State, founded as a haven and a homeland for Jews, can be a true democracy, providing justice and fair treatment for its non-Jewish citizenry. It avoids the related and equally fundamental question of demography - the issue that, above all others, drives Israeli foreign policy and fuels the current political and military conflict. On the whole, Jews outside of Israel across a wide spectrum from "establishment" to "progressive want to avoid these questions - indeed, they are off limits.
This is denial - it is a fundamental failure to accept the consequences of Jewish actions in pre- and post- 1948 Palestine- Israel, and thus a failure to grieve over the particularly Jewish tragedy from which we as Jews suffer today. Returning to the pre-1967 borders (as if that will ever happen) will not make everything better. It will not make Israel a just society with respect to its Palestinian citizens. It will not erase what was done to the Palestinians who were driven out of their cities, towns and villages in 1948. It does not place the issue of justice as primary. Rather, it places the interests of Israel as primary, and promotes an entitled, supremacist, paternalistic stance with respect to non- Jewish inhabitants of historic Palestine, on whichever side of the final status border they may reside when a political settlement is finally achieved. It pre-empts our horror over the crimes we are committing and the suffering we have caused. It muffles our own cries of pain over our sins and our cruelties. It squelches the agony of confronting the contradictions and the excruciating dilemmas. It blocks the discussion. It closes our hearts.
Conclusion: Christians, Jews, Anti-Semitism, and Our Accountability
The issue of anti-Semitism is complex and deeply embedded in two thousand years of Western history. Among liberal Christian theologians and religious leaders, Supercessionism - the concept that Christianity, embodied in the Gospels, came to replace Judaism as God's plan for humankind - has become the Great Evil. The argument, well supported by history, is that this idea, developed in the first centuries after Christ and central to Christian belief and doctrine, laid the groundwork for anti-Semitism. But in their zeal to correct the injustices of the past, and to in effect atone for anti-Semitism, Christian leaders and thinkers are in danger of losing sight of an important aspect of early Christian thought. Christianity, in its reframing of the relationship of God to humanity, produced a revolution -- in effect, it moved the concept of "Israel" from the tribal to the communal. In the Christian reframing, God's commitment to humanity through his election of the seed of Abraham, assigned a special role in history, was transformed into God‚s love for humankind and the invitation to all to become part of a universal spiritual community. This was a great contribution, a great step forward, and it has special relevance today, as all religions struggle to move from "Constantinian," power-based religions to communities based on a commitment to diversity, human rights and Justice. The choice between religion based on and consorting with political power and oppression, and religion grounded in a concept of community is one that must be faced by all the faiths. Jews and Christians must talk about this, indeed they must come together with their Muslim friends and colleagues to together confront what may be the central challenge of our times. We stifle this discussion at our peril.
To our Christian sisters and brothers I say - do not, out of a sense of guilt for anti-Semitism, give the Jewish people a free pass. Do not confuse anti-Semitism with critique of Israel, and in so doing fail to hold Jews accountable for our choices and our actions, as members of the human community, as individuals, and as a nation state
-- especially as a nation state. To make this mistake, to allow
yourselves to be - I will use the word - bullied by the threat of the charge of anti-Semitism, is to commit a pernicious fallacy. As Jews we sought political self-determination, and we got it. Now we must behave in accordance with principles of justice and in accordance with international law as an expression of universally agreed-upon principles of justice. As Jews, we are confronted daily with this choice as we witness the illegal and oppressive actions of the Jewish State toward the Palestinian people it is so rapidly displacing. Empowerment - political empowerment - presents a mighty challenge to values. The Prophets knew this well, continually speaking this truth to the power structures of their day. To the crushed and exiled Jewish people of his time, Second Isaiah declared that redemption and comfort was coming, but only when the people acknowledged the divine meaning of their suffering. To my coreligionists in Israel and America, I say that we will ultimately survive as a people only to the extent that we can understand how our own suffering makes us part of humankind, and responsible for suffering wherever and whenever it happens. It was Roberta Feuerlicht, the Jewish ethicist who famously wrote, "Judaism survived centuries of persecution without a state; it must now learn how to survive despite a state."
Mark Braverman lives in Bethesda, MD. He is a member of Jewish Voices for Peace and serves on the Boards of Partners for Peace and the Washington Interfaith Alliance for Middle East Peace. Contact:m_braverman@yahoo.com
© 2007 mbraverman@bravermangroup.com
Thursday, May 31, 2007
TAKE IT OUT ON THE PALESTINIANS
With Iraq a lost cause, a desperate-for-success U.S. administration is unleashing its fury on the long-demonized Palestinians. It is an open secret throughout the Middle East that the latest intra-Palestinian violence in Gaza has the hand of Israel and Washington all over it. Even the Washington Post reported (May 17) that "Israel this week allowed the Palestinian party Fatah to bring into the Gaza Strip as many as 500 fresh troops trained under a U.S.-coordinated program to counter Hamas... The troops' deployment illustrates the increasingly partisan role that Israel and the Bush administration are taking in the volatile Palestinian political situation."
Veteran South African journalist and TIME.com senior editor Tony Karon cut to the heart of what's happening under the headline "Palestinian Pinochet Makes His Move":
"The Fatah gunmen who are reported to have initiated the breakdown of the Palestinian unity government may profess fealty to President Abbas, but it's not from him that they get their orders. They answer is Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza warlord who has long been Washington's anointed favorite to play the role of a Palestinian Pinochet. Needless to say, only a U.S. administration as deluded about its ability to reorder Arab political realities in line with its own fantasies - and also, frankly, as utterly contemptuous of Arab life and of Arab democracy - as the current one would imagine that the Palestinians could be starved, battered and manipulated into choosing a Washington-approved political leadership."
Israeli government officials say outright that their own bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza (combined with support for Dahlan) is designed to destroy the Palestinian unity government and any Palestinian faction resistant to Israeli political demands. (Against this backdrop, the June 10 "The World Says No to Israeli Occupation" Mobilization - go to http://www.endtheoccupation.org/ for full information - is more important than ever.
Palestinian civilians are also the main victims of the current fighting at Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon. The U.S.-supplied Lebanese army is bombarding civilian areas in its fight with the Al-Qaeda-linked militant Sunni group Fatah al-Islam. Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee to other camps where they are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
Ironically, as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh told CNN International, it is U.S. policy that nurtured Fatah al-Islam in the first place:
"The current situation is much like that during the conflict in Afghanistan in the 1980s - which gave rise to al Qaeda - with the same people involved in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and the same pattern of the U.S. using jihadists that the Saudis assure us they can control. Since the Israelis lost the war with [the Shia-based] Hezbollah last summer, the fear of Hezbollah in the White House, is acute. As a result... we're in the business of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia... We're in the business of creating... sectarian violence."
Veteran South African journalist and TIME.com senior editor Tony Karon cut to the heart of what's happening under the headline "Palestinian Pinochet Makes His Move":
"The Fatah gunmen who are reported to have initiated the breakdown of the Palestinian unity government may profess fealty to President Abbas, but it's not from him that they get their orders. They answer is Mohammed Dahlan, the Gaza warlord who has long been Washington's anointed favorite to play the role of a Palestinian Pinochet. Needless to say, only a U.S. administration as deluded about its ability to reorder Arab political realities in line with its own fantasies - and also, frankly, as utterly contemptuous of Arab life and of Arab democracy - as the current one would imagine that the Palestinians could be starved, battered and manipulated into choosing a Washington-approved political leadership."
Israeli government officials say outright that their own bombardment of Palestinians in Gaza (combined with support for Dahlan) is designed to destroy the Palestinian unity government and any Palestinian faction resistant to Israeli political demands. (Against this backdrop, the June 10 "The World Says No to Israeli Occupation" Mobilization - go to http://www.endtheoccupation.org/ for full information - is more important than ever.
Palestinian civilians are also the main victims of the current fighting at Palestinian refugee camps in northern Lebanon. The U.S.-supplied Lebanese army is bombarding civilian areas in its fight with the Al-Qaeda-linked militant Sunni group Fatah al-Islam. Thousands of Palestinians have been forced to flee to other camps where they are in desperate need of humanitarian assistance.
Ironically, as Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh told CNN International, it is U.S. policy that nurtured Fatah al-Islam in the first place:
"The current situation is much like that during the conflict in Afghanistan in the 1980s - which gave rise to al Qaeda - with the same people involved in both the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and the same pattern of the U.S. using jihadists that the Saudis assure us they can control. Since the Israelis lost the war with [the Shia-based] Hezbollah last summer, the fear of Hezbollah in the White House, is acute. As a result... we're in the business of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia... We're in the business of creating... sectarian violence."
From War Times, May 30, 2007
Monday, May 21, 2007
Mazin Qumsiyeh reports on Boston
1) Israeli "Independence" = Palestinian Dispossession
2) Palestinian Refugees
1948 - 800,000
2007 - 6 Million +
Right of Return for all Refugees
These are the two banners we (Jews, Christians, Muslims, others) snuck by the intensive security and unfurled Sunday at an event dubbed by the organizers "New England Celebrates Israel" (ofcourse it was only a small and shrinking fraction of racist and misinformed Jews in the area who joined the "celebration"). The direct action led by conscientious Jews riled the racist festival in Foxboro, MA and raised a ruckus. Some activists were not let in (security had their car license plate numbers apparently ahead of time, see report below from Tarak, one of those who did not manage to get in). But enough of us got through (>40 plus legal observers) to make this a very successful event. Kudus to the participants. The demonstration was visually so impressive that racist Zionists tried to block us with their bodies and umbrellas so that their fellow attendees do not see the messages about Palestinian dispossession. When we took our overshirts off, the black shirts had signs for depopulated Palestinian villages: e.g.
Al-Maghar Population: 1740, destroyed 6/10/1048 1 of 531 depopulated Palestinian villages.
My video of the event is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9lsB4HVhDQ
Still Pictures and press releases posted at http://questionisrael.blogspot.com/
We will be showing a video on refugees and I will be speaking on the subject Tuesday May 22nd at 7pm at 44 Danforth St, in Jamaica Plain, Massachussetts.
Please consider writing to the media including letters to the editor. And let us all mobilize for June 10-11 in Washington DC (see endtheoccupation.org).
Below are other reports and notes on the successful action in Foxboro, MA:
-----------------------------------
Boston Does not celebrate Israel
http://www.thecornerreport.com/index.php?p=1737&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more1737
----------------------------------
Message from Tarak
Drove up to Walpole, MA today - home of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium where a 'New England Celebrates Israel' day was taking place on stadium premises indoors at the very huge Dana Farber Field house. Of course I didn't go to really do the Celebrate Israel thing but rather to be part of a very well organized counter demonstration to remember the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). The plan was for people to wear black t-shirts under their shirts - we were each given 81/2 by 11 stick on sheets printed with the name in Arabic and English of a Palestinian village destroyed in 1948 and the number of people who lived in that village. You all know that 531 villages were destroyed and/or occupied then. There were about 50 of us and the planning for this, which was in the works for 4 months, was very impressive.
All details had been covered, press, security, contingency plans, back up, etc. We had a location to meet at before the event to go over details and get the stick ons. Two women carried large banners in under their skirts. At a command, once everyone that could get in was inside, the two women would take out the banners, 14 others would help hold them up and the rest of us would take off our outer shits to reveal the stick ons. Of course we were all aware of the potential for confrontation with the thousands of pro Zionists who would be attending he event but we hoped to avoid anything like that. There was heavy security at the stadium. State Police and a private security group in black overcoats
looking very ominous. You would have to show picture ID to get in. After our initial meeting I decided to drive to the stadium with 3 of the organizers and leave my truck which has all my radical bumper stickers and would have been a dead give away that I was not really a Zionist.
We four in the car I was in, got busted anyway. Somehow they knew who we were or at least that we weren't there to "celebrate" Israel. As we were in the long line of cars waiting to get in one of
those private security guys along with some state police pulled us out of the line off to the side and started questioning us. They took our IDs and after about 15 minutes of us sitting in the car with a number of cops around us, they gave us printed sheets with our names on it saying we were not welcome and if we come back to Gillette Stadium we will be arrested for trespassing. The private security guy, who was nastier than the cops (the cops were relatively polite - but firm) before we left tried to take our pictures but we got a better shot of him than he did of us. Anyway, a few other people didn't make it in but some 40 did and the event went off well. Actually the police inside protected the demonstrators until they were told to leave - about 5 solid minutes with banners and t-shirts unfurled. Tarak
2) Palestinian Refugees
1948 - 800,000
2007 - 6 Million +
Right of Return for all Refugees
These are the two banners we (Jews, Christians, Muslims, others) snuck by the intensive security and unfurled Sunday at an event dubbed by the organizers "New England Celebrates Israel" (ofcourse it was only a small and shrinking fraction of racist and misinformed Jews in the area who joined the "celebration"). The direct action led by conscientious Jews riled the racist festival in Foxboro, MA and raised a ruckus. Some activists were not let in (security had their car license plate numbers apparently ahead of time, see report below from Tarak, one of those who did not manage to get in). But enough of us got through (>40 plus legal observers) to make this a very successful event. Kudus to the participants. The demonstration was visually so impressive that racist Zionists tried to block us with their bodies and umbrellas so that their fellow attendees do not see the messages about Palestinian dispossession. When we took our overshirts off, the black shirts had signs for depopulated Palestinian villages: e.g.
Al-Maghar Population: 1740, destroyed 6/10/1048 1 of 531 depopulated Palestinian villages.
My video of the event is posted at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9lsB4HVhDQ
Still Pictures and press releases posted at http://questionisrael.blogspot.com/
We will be showing a video on refugees and I will be speaking on the subject Tuesday May 22nd at 7pm at 44 Danforth St, in Jamaica Plain, Massachussetts.
Please consider writing to the media including letters to the editor. And let us all mobilize for June 10-11 in Washington DC (see endtheoccupation.org).
Below are other reports and notes on the successful action in Foxboro, MA:
-----------------------------------
Boston Does not celebrate Israel
http://www.thecornerreport.com/index.php?p=1737&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more1737
----------------------------------
Message from Tarak
Drove up to Walpole, MA today - home of the New England Patriots and Gillette Stadium where a 'New England Celebrates Israel' day was taking place on stadium premises indoors at the very huge Dana Farber Field house. Of course I didn't go to really do the Celebrate Israel thing but rather to be part of a very well organized counter demonstration to remember the Palestinian Nakba (catastrophe). The plan was for people to wear black t-shirts under their shirts - we were each given 81/2 by 11 stick on sheets printed with the name in Arabic and English of a Palestinian village destroyed in 1948 and the number of people who lived in that village. You all know that 531 villages were destroyed and/or occupied then. There were about 50 of us and the planning for this, which was in the works for 4 months, was very impressive.
All details had been covered, press, security, contingency plans, back up, etc. We had a location to meet at before the event to go over details and get the stick ons. Two women carried large banners in under their skirts. At a command, once everyone that could get in was inside, the two women would take out the banners, 14 others would help hold them up and the rest of us would take off our outer shits to reveal the stick ons. Of course we were all aware of the potential for confrontation with the thousands of pro Zionists who would be attending he event but we hoped to avoid anything like that. There was heavy security at the stadium. State Police and a private security group in black overcoats
looking very ominous. You would have to show picture ID to get in. After our initial meeting I decided to drive to the stadium with 3 of the organizers and leave my truck which has all my radical bumper stickers and would have been a dead give away that I was not really a Zionist.
We four in the car I was in, got busted anyway. Somehow they knew who we were or at least that we weren't there to "celebrate" Israel. As we were in the long line of cars waiting to get in one of
those private security guys along with some state police pulled us out of the line off to the side and started questioning us. They took our IDs and after about 15 minutes of us sitting in the car with a number of cops around us, they gave us printed sheets with our names on it saying we were not welcome and if we come back to Gillette Stadium we will be arrested for trespassing. The private security guy, who was nastier than the cops (the cops were relatively polite - but firm) before we left tried to take our pictures but we got a better shot of him than he did of us. Anyway, a few other people didn't make it in but some 40 did and the event went off well. Actually the police inside protected the demonstrators until they were told to leave - about 5 solid minutes with banners and t-shirts unfurled. Tarak
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Israelis plan more homes on occupied land
· Jerusalem council wants three new settlements
· Palestinians say move will sabotage two-state aim
Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Friday May 11, 2007
The Guardian
Jerusalem's city council plans to build three new Jewish settlements on land it occupied in 1967, in contravention of international law, it was announced yesterday. The estates will be built on land that has been earmarked for a future Palestinian state, close to Bethlehem and Ramallah.
International law forbids construction on land acquired by war, but since 1967 Israel has built homes for around 500,000 Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The construction is planned to link existing Jewish settlements in Jerusalem with each other and with settlements in the West Bank. Saeb Erekat, the head of negotiations for the Palestinians, said the building plans suggested that Israel had no real interest in peace. "Today it is obvious that Israel wants Jerusalem for only some of Jerusalem's people," he said. "I wish Israel would do what majorities of both Palestinians and Israelis want: accept the two-state solution and accept peace."
While Israel says that it supports the creation of a Palestinian state, its building projects - which include walls, fences, bypasses and tunnels as well as settlements - restrict the amount of land that would be available to the new state.
In 1967 Israel annexed East Jerusalem, but most of its residents are in limbo, neither residents of Israel, nor of the West Bank. To ensure its hold on East Jerusalem Israel has built a series of settlements which divide the city from its hinterland in the West Bank. The annexation was condemned by the UN and has not been recognised by any major country.
"By severing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," Mr Erekat said, "the Jerusalem-area wall and settlements mean no viable Palestinian state, no Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, and thus no viable two-state solution."
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said the government made no distinction between East Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. "There is a difference between Jerusalem, where we have sovereignty, and the West Bank where we do not and whose future will be the subject of future negotiations."
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the new communities would be aimed at housing ultra-orthodox Jews, the fastest growing sector of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The paper quoted the planning committee as saying that "the committee sees fit to announce its intention to change the district outline plan in order to allow construction in additional areas of the city: Walaja, Givat Alona, the Atarot airport area, and more."
Yehoshua Pollak, the chairman of the committee, told Haaretz that up to 10,000 homes could be built in the area of Walaja, between the south-west of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. "If you strengthen Walaja, you strengthen the connection with the Etzion bloc through the tunnel road," he said. The Etzion block is a group of settlements south of Bethlehem which Israel hopes to keep, although its official position is that their future would be discussed in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
The decision of the Jerusalem committee must be accepted by a national planning committee before construction can begin. A spokesman for Jerusalem city council said no final decision on the projects had been made, but there was an urgent need to build 20,000 new homes. "The local committee for housing and construction is considering various proposals for new neighbourhoods, all inside the municipal area of Jerusalem," he said.
· Palestinians say move will sabotage two-state aim
Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Friday May 11, 2007
The Guardian
Jerusalem's city council plans to build three new Jewish settlements on land it occupied in 1967, in contravention of international law, it was announced yesterday. The estates will be built on land that has been earmarked for a future Palestinian state, close to Bethlehem and Ramallah.
International law forbids construction on land acquired by war, but since 1967 Israel has built homes for around 500,000 Israelis in the West Bank and Jerusalem.
The construction is planned to link existing Jewish settlements in Jerusalem with each other and with settlements in the West Bank. Saeb Erekat, the head of negotiations for the Palestinians, said the building plans suggested that Israel had no real interest in peace. "Today it is obvious that Israel wants Jerusalem for only some of Jerusalem's people," he said. "I wish Israel would do what majorities of both Palestinians and Israelis want: accept the two-state solution and accept peace."
While Israel says that it supports the creation of a Palestinian state, its building projects - which include walls, fences, bypasses and tunnels as well as settlements - restrict the amount of land that would be available to the new state.
In 1967 Israel annexed East Jerusalem, but most of its residents are in limbo, neither residents of Israel, nor of the West Bank. To ensure its hold on East Jerusalem Israel has built a series of settlements which divide the city from its hinterland in the West Bank. The annexation was condemned by the UN and has not been recognised by any major country.
"By severing East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank," Mr Erekat said, "the Jerusalem-area wall and settlements mean no viable Palestinian state, no Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, and thus no viable two-state solution."
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said the government made no distinction between East Jerusalem and the rest of Israel. "There is a difference between Jerusalem, where we have sovereignty, and the West Bank where we do not and whose future will be the subject of future negotiations."
According to the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, the new communities would be aimed at housing ultra-orthodox Jews, the fastest growing sector of the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The paper quoted the planning committee as saying that "the committee sees fit to announce its intention to change the district outline plan in order to allow construction in additional areas of the city: Walaja, Givat Alona, the Atarot airport area, and more."
Yehoshua Pollak, the chairman of the committee, told Haaretz that up to 10,000 homes could be built in the area of Walaja, between the south-west of Jerusalem and Bethlehem. "If you strengthen Walaja, you strengthen the connection with the Etzion bloc through the tunnel road," he said. The Etzion block is a group of settlements south of Bethlehem which Israel hopes to keep, although its official position is that their future would be discussed in peace negotiations with the Palestinians.
The decision of the Jerusalem committee must be accepted by a national planning committee before construction can begin. A spokesman for Jerusalem city council said no final decision on the projects had been made, but there was an urgent need to build 20,000 new homes. "The local committee for housing and construction is considering various proposals for new neighbourhoods, all inside the municipal area of Jerusalem," he said.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
Checkpoints hurt Israeli security, says World Bank
· Restrictions 'devastating Palestinian economy'
· Prosperity would benefit both sides, report claims
Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Thursday May 10, 2007
The Guardian
Israel's system of controls on the Palestinian territories is preventing a revival of their economies and damaging Israel's security, according to a report published by the World Bank yesterday.
The report finds that freedom of movement for Palestinians is the exception rather than the norm, in spite of a series of commitments by Israel to ensure the opposite. David Craig, the World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza, said Israeli restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza had devastated the Palestinian economy.
"The restriction system has caused a rise in transaction costs, making Palestinian goods increasingly uncompetitive. Even more importantly, the system has created such a high level of uncertainty and inefficiency that the normal conduct of business in the West Bank has become exceedingly difficult and investment has been stymie," he said.
The report said both societies would benefit from Palestinian prosperity, which it says would lead to a decrease in violence. According to the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, there should be free movement of people and vehicles.
But the rise in the number of settlers in the West Bank, not including Jerusalem, from 125,000 in 1993 to 250,000 now, combined with the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, has led to Israel placing Palestinians under severe restrictions.
Even as the violence has subsided, the number of roadblocks has increased. The World Bank notes that in 2006 there were 44% more roadblocks than in 2005.
The report describes the array of restrictions imposed on every Palestinian. As well as the physical barriers, Israel limits freedom through the use of administrative practices and permit policies which prevent Palestinians from moving home, getting work, investing in business and moving outside their immediate locality.
A Palestinian wanting to move from one area to another must get a permit and a separate one for any vehicle.
The report said that there is no transparency in the way permits are granted and they can be revoked at any time.
Some permits insist on a return to the holder's home town by 7pm.
The World Bank estimates that more than 50% of the West Bank is closed off to Palestinians without a permit.
Israel's security concerns should be addressed, the report said, but security tended to mean the restriction of Palestinian life to protect the freedom of settlers.
Sarit Arbell, a spokeswoman for the Israeli organisation Checkpoint Watch, said that Israeli policies were pushing Palestinians "into poverty and third-world living conditions ... the checkpoint and barrier regime that the state of Israel imposes on Palestinian towns and villages deep inside Palestinian territory prevents them from living a normal everyday life, humiliating them on a daily basis and intensifying despair and extremism."
The report says that the restrictions on Palestinians must be eased if their economy is to improve.
"Palestinian economic revival is predicated on an integrated economic entity with freedom of movement between the West bank and Gaza and within the West Bank, unfettered Palestinian access to West Bank land for economic purposes, and reliable access to world markets," said Mr Craig. "The restriction system has significantly undermined these conditions. Restoring sustainable Palestinian economic growth is dependent on its dismantling."
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said that Israel could not be blamed for all the problems of the Palestinians.
"We have no interest in seeing Palestinian hardship but our measures are defensive. There have been times when we have removed checkpoints only to put them back after a terrorist attack," he said.
"I can understand that Palestinians see some of the measures as arbitrary but when we have made efforts to liberalise this has been exploited by extremists."
· Prosperity would benefit both sides, report claims
Conal Urquhart in Tel Aviv
Thursday May 10, 2007
The Guardian
Israel's system of controls on the Palestinian territories is preventing a revival of their economies and damaging Israel's security, according to a report published by the World Bank yesterday.
The report finds that freedom of movement for Palestinians is the exception rather than the norm, in spite of a series of commitments by Israel to ensure the opposite. David Craig, the World Bank country director for the West Bank and Gaza, said Israeli restrictions in the West Bank and Gaza had devastated the Palestinian economy.
"The restriction system has caused a rise in transaction costs, making Palestinian goods increasingly uncompetitive. Even more importantly, the system has created such a high level of uncertainty and inefficiency that the normal conduct of business in the West Bank has become exceedingly difficult and investment has been stymie," he said.
The report said both societies would benefit from Palestinian prosperity, which it says would lead to a decrease in violence. According to the 1993 Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestinians, there should be free movement of people and vehicles.
But the rise in the number of settlers in the West Bank, not including Jerusalem, from 125,000 in 1993 to 250,000 now, combined with the outbreak of the second intifada in 2000, has led to Israel placing Palestinians under severe restrictions.
Even as the violence has subsided, the number of roadblocks has increased. The World Bank notes that in 2006 there were 44% more roadblocks than in 2005.
The report describes the array of restrictions imposed on every Palestinian. As well as the physical barriers, Israel limits freedom through the use of administrative practices and permit policies which prevent Palestinians from moving home, getting work, investing in business and moving outside their immediate locality.
A Palestinian wanting to move from one area to another must get a permit and a separate one for any vehicle.
The report said that there is no transparency in the way permits are granted and they can be revoked at any time.
Some permits insist on a return to the holder's home town by 7pm.
The World Bank estimates that more than 50% of the West Bank is closed off to Palestinians without a permit.
Israel's security concerns should be addressed, the report said, but security tended to mean the restriction of Palestinian life to protect the freedom of settlers.
Sarit Arbell, a spokeswoman for the Israeli organisation Checkpoint Watch, said that Israeli policies were pushing Palestinians "into poverty and third-world living conditions ... the checkpoint and barrier regime that the state of Israel imposes on Palestinian towns and villages deep inside Palestinian territory prevents them from living a normal everyday life, humiliating them on a daily basis and intensifying despair and extremism."
The report says that the restrictions on Palestinians must be eased if their economy is to improve.
"Palestinian economic revival is predicated on an integrated economic entity with freedom of movement between the West bank and Gaza and within the West Bank, unfettered Palestinian access to West Bank land for economic purposes, and reliable access to world markets," said Mr Craig. "The restriction system has significantly undermined these conditions. Restoring sustainable Palestinian economic growth is dependent on its dismantling."
Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli foreign ministry, said that Israel could not be blamed for all the problems of the Palestinians.
"We have no interest in seeing Palestinian hardship but our measures are defensive. There have been times when we have removed checkpoints only to put them back after a terrorist attack," he said.
"I can understand that Palestinians see some of the measures as arbitrary but when we have made efforts to liberalise this has been exploited by extremists."
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Why Israel is after me
Subject: [ePalestine] LA TIMES: Why Israel is after me (By Azmi Bishara) - A MUST READ
Dear friends,
Please take a minute to thank the Los Angeles Times for running his powerful opinion at a time when Israel and its supporters are smearing him.
Write to letters@latimes.com. Letters should be 200 words or less and include your name, address and telephone (for identification purposes only).
Enough is enough!
Sam
-------------------------
Why Israel is after me
By Azmi Bishara
AZMI BISHARA was a member of the Knesset until his resignation in April.
May 3, 2007
Amman, Jordan ˜ I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.
But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France's Dreyfus affair ˜ in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state ˜ the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel's failed war against Lebanon in July.
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone ˜ a journalist or a personal friend ˜ can be defined as a "foreign agent" by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah ˜ Israel's enemy in Lebanon ˜ has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What's more, unlike those in Israel's parliament who have been involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and speeches.
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-Jews.
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country.
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens, lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed Palestinian villages.
Today we make up 20% of Israel's population. We do not drink at separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty ˜ Israel's "Bill of Rights" ˜ defines the state as "Jewish" rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.
Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.
Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequal. According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to live next to an Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian into their home.
I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking out on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel's illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.
This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify my political party from participating in elections ˜ all because I believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have spoken out against Israeli military occupation. Last year, Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman ˜ an immigrant from Moldova ˜ declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel "have no place here," that we should "take our bundles and get lost." After I met with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called for my execution.
The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We will not bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to being severed from our natural connections to the Arab world. Our community leaders joined together recently to issue a blueprint for a state free of ethnic and religious discrimination in all spheres. If we turn back from our path to freedom now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we have faced for six decades.
Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These include telephone bugging, police surveillance, political delegitimization and criminalization of dissent through false accusations. Israel is continuing to use these tactics at a time when the world no longer tolerates such practices as compatible with democracy.
Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country whose very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious discrimination that victimize its own citizens?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bishara3may03,0,2351340.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
Dear friends,
Please take a minute to thank the Los Angeles Times for running his powerful opinion at a time when Israel and its supporters are smearing him.
Write to letters@latimes.com. Letters should be 200 words or less and include your name, address and telephone (for identification purposes only).
Enough is enough!
Sam
-------------------------
Why Israel is after me
By Azmi Bishara
AZMI BISHARA was a member of the Knesset until his resignation in April.
May 3, 2007
Amman, Jordan ˜ I AM A PALESTINIAN from Nazareth, a citizen of Israel and was, until last month, a member of the Israeli parliament.
But now, in an ironic twist reminiscent of France's Dreyfus affair ˜ in which a French Jew was accused of disloyalty to the state ˜ the government of Israel is accusing me of aiding the enemy during Israel's failed war against Lebanon in July.
Israeli police apparently suspect me of passing information to a foreign agent and of receiving money in return. Under Israeli law, anyone ˜ a journalist or a personal friend ˜ can be defined as a "foreign agent" by the Israeli security apparatus. Such charges can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
The allegations are ridiculous. Needless to say, Hezbollah ˜ Israel's enemy in Lebanon ˜ has independently gathered more security information about Israel than any Arab Knesset member could possibly provide. What's more, unlike those in Israel's parliament who have been involved in acts of violence, I have never used violence or participated in wars. My instruments of persuasion, in contrast, are simply words in books, articles and speeches.
These trumped-up charges, which I firmly reject and deny, are only the latest in a series of attempts to silence me and others involved in the struggle of the Palestinian Arab citizens of Israel to live in a state of all its citizens, not one that grants rights and privileges to Jews that it denies to non-Jews.
When Israel was established in 1948, more than 700,000 Palestinians were expelled or fled in fear. My family was among the minority that escaped that fate, remaining instead on the land where we had long lived. The Israeli state, established exclusively for Jews, embarked immediately on transforming us into foreigners in our own country.
For the first 18 years of Israeli statehood, we, as Israeli citizens, lived under military rule with pass laws that controlled our every movement. We watched Jewish Israeli towns spring up over destroyed Palestinian villages.
Today we make up 20% of Israel's population. We do not drink at separate water fountains or sit at the back of the bus. We vote and can serve in the parliament. But we face legal, institutional and informal discrimination in all spheres of life.
More than 20 Israeli laws explicitly privilege Jews over non-Jews. The Law of Return, for example, grants automatic citizenship to Jews from anywhere in the world. Yet Palestinian refugees are denied the right to return to the country they were forced to leave in 1948. The Basic Law of Human Dignity and Liberty ˜ Israel's "Bill of Rights" ˜ defines the state as "Jewish" rather than a state for all its citizens. Thus Israel is more for Jews living in Los Angeles or Paris than it is for native Palestinians.
Israel acknowledges itself to be a state of one particular religious group. Anyone committed to democracy will readily admit that equal citizenship cannot exist under such conditions.
Most of our children attend schools that are separate but unequal. According to recent polls, two-thirds of Israeli Jews would refuse to live next to an Arab and nearly half would not allow a Palestinian into their home.
I have certainly ruffled feathers in Israel. In addition to speaking out on the subjects above, I have also asserted the right of the Lebanese people, and of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, to resist Israel's illegal military occupation. I do not see those who fight for freedom as my enemies.
This may discomfort Jewish Israelis, but they cannot deny us our history and identity any more than we can negate the ties that bind them to world Jewry. After all, it is not we, but Israeli Jews who immigrated to this land. Immigrants might be asked to give up their former identity in exchange for equal citizenship, but we are not immigrants.
During my years in the Knesset, the attorney general indicted me for voicing my political opinions (the charges were dropped), lobbied to have my parliamentary immunity revoked and sought unsuccessfully to disqualify my political party from participating in elections ˜ all because I believe Israel should be a state for all its citizens and because I have spoken out against Israeli military occupation. Last year, Cabinet member Avigdor Lieberman ˜ an immigrant from Moldova ˜ declared that Palestinian citizens of Israel "have no place here," that we should "take our bundles and get lost." After I met with a leader of the Palestinian Authority from Hamas, Lieberman called for my execution.
The Israeli authorities are trying to intimidate not just me but all Palestinian citizens of Israel. But we will not be intimidated. We will not bow to permanent servitude in the land of our ancestors or to being severed from our natural connections to the Arab world. Our community leaders joined together recently to issue a blueprint for a state free of ethnic and religious discrimination in all spheres. If we turn back from our path to freedom now, we will consign future generations to the discrimination we have faced for six decades.
Americans know from their own history of institutional discrimination the tactics that have been used against civil rights leaders. These include telephone bugging, police surveillance, political delegitimization and criminalization of dissent through false accusations. Israel is continuing to use these tactics at a time when the world no longer tolerates such practices as compatible with democracy.
Why then does the U.S. government continue to fully support a country whose very identity and institutions are based on ethnic and religious discrimination that victimize its own citizens?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-bishara3may03,0,2351340.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail
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