Why the Palestinians Fight
I have always felt an affinity for liberal-minded Israeli’s.
They seem to share my own view of what’s right and wrong. No scintilla of Anti-Semitism infects my brain and although I grew up in a racist family, I somehow managed to avoid a racist outlook. In fact as a Canadian and as a human being I deplore the fact that my country engaged in overt racist behaviour by denying Jews entry to Canada during the most traumatic time of their long history of persecution. So why am I tarred with the brush of anti-Jewish sentiment? It may be that many Israeli’s and their most ardent supporters in Canada and the United States are in denial. I guess one of my professional disappointments is that CBC.ca has in some way agreed with my critics.
So it is with some sense of satisfaction that periodically I find that many Jews and Israeli’s agree with my point of view on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
The best explanation as to why the Palestinians fight against Israel can be found in the English translation of a book originally published in Israel in Hebrew. The book – written by Akiva Eldar and Edith Zertal – is called "Lords of the Land: The War for Israel’s Settlements in the Occupied Territories 1967 to 2007" It was a best-seller in Israel and sparked a long-overdue debate about Israel’s moral and ethical behaviour as an occupier. It raises questions of right and wrong and goes to the very heart of what the Israeli authorities have been doing to the Palestinians over these past 40 years. It puts forth in excruciating detail, the brutality of the occupiers, the terrorist behaviour of Jewish settlers and the immorality of collective punishment. And it does so in terms that many Jews can understand and appreciate from the experience of their own bitter history.
The book points out that prior to 1967, a kind of "detente" situation existed between Palestinians and Israelis. But it also points out that when Israel invaded the West Bank and Gaza in 1967 and occupied the land, took control of Palestinian daily life and allowed settlers to construct illegal towns, everything changed.
The occupation of the West Bank, which religious Zionists call Judaea and Samaria marked the beginning of a decline in official Israeli moral conduct. The Arabs were often treated as less than human by Israeli soldiers and when Palestinians protested the construction of illegal settlements on their land, religious Jews created terrorist groups, which attacked Palestinians with guns and firebombs.
According to the book, Israeli governments and courts looked the other way when zealous settlers seized Palestinian-owned land to build towns and outposts in violation of international law. (And as we know, the international community, which allowed the division of Palestine in the first place, ignored what was happening). It was all reminiscent of Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s philosophy of "benign neglect" toward African Americans…but in this case, on a global scale.
Gradually, the Zionist settlers – with protection from the Israeli armed forces – established what the Americans and others now call "facts on the ground"…that is to say the settlements…which the U.S. and others now consider to be permanent, even though – under international law, they are illegal. The Palestinians, who were controlled and closely watched were helpless to prevent this.
The book points out that the settlers, along with their enablers in government, justified their actions by claiming that they were simply fulfilling God’s will by taking back what God had always intended them to have.
The Palestinians, of course disagreed. They naively expected the international community to step in and stop the Israeli encroachment on their land and on their rights. And while it’s true that the United Nations passed several resolutions admonishing Israel to stop the illegal confiscation of land, successive Israeli governments simply thumbed their noses.
Eventually, the Palestinians took matters into their own hands and began to resist. They protested against the occupation and confiscation of their land…often in violent ways. The Israeli response was to tighten the occupation. The settler response was to form terrorist groups to put uppity Palestinians firmly in their place.
Inevitably the violence increased and – according to the Israeli authors of this very important book – in 2001 an Israeli group called "The Committee for the Defense of Roads", claimed responsibility for several drive-by shootings. One of those killed a six-month old baby and her family. The Israeli settler group touted this as a victory.
The book documents scores of examples of Jewish terror unleashed against Palestinians and demolishes the popular concept of what "terrorism" is all about.
The books shows quite clearly that there is a link…an inextricable link…between injustice and terrorist activity. For example, it points out that there is a direct connection between the brutality of the occupation and the rise of Palestinian suicide bombings. Israeli counter terrorist activity has created more terror not less and has promoted more resistance not less.
In the process of all this, the two authors…both respected Israeli intellectuals…suggest that the very heart and soul of Israel have been badly damaged by the nation’s behaviour. The occupation and the violence have wounded the psyche of the Jewish state and damaged its own image of itself and its image in the world.
"The prolonged military occupation and the Jewish settlements that are perpetuating it have toppled Israeli governments," write the authors, "and have brought Israel’s democracy and its political culture to the brink of an abyss."
My own view is that the world’s callous indifference to the Palestinian plight over the 60 years since we divided Palestine, has brought about an exponential increase in the number of angry Muslims around the world.
The occupation has fueled hatred in Iran, in Saudi Arabia, in Lebanon, as well as in many other countries. It has frustrated the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees and it has caused deep anger amongst young Arabs. It has inspired the formation of terror groups that otherwise may never have existed. It may even have been an indirect cause of the events of 9/11.
In other writings, I have pointed out that it was U.S. President Harry Truman who said way back in March of 1948, that the departure of British forces from Palestine, and the temporary absence of any lawful authority there, would lead to violence and bloodshed. Truman pointed out in no uncertain terms that the situation in Palestine would lead to a Middle Eastern war that would affect the entire world, including the United States of America.
However, let me make one thing clear, I do not hold Israelis themselves or Palestinians responsible.
The roots of responsibility for international terror can be found not in Israeli actions or in Palestinian re-actions, but in the international community, which nurtured and developed it – by ignorance, apathy and a deep sense of guilt.
If you care about this, you can read more here.
Excellent article Jim and you are so right. We are all responsible for the suffering of others in this World. I am glad that you are a Canadian and speak out of these things we are all in denial over. It still shocks me sometimes when I read the blogs on the Globe and Mail that there is so much racism in this Country.
How right you are Sherry.
Denial, wilfull blindness, call it what you will…somebody is setting an agenda that is definitely not in the world’s best interests.