Israel has always faced a choice between being a Jewish
State or a Democratic State – what it can't be is both
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Uri Avnery was one of the
few Zionists who were genuine peace activists. Indeed it is arguable whether he
was a Zionist. Although he believed in a
Jewish state he also believed in a state of equality. Avnery argued in Talking Zionism that
Zionism was the scaffolding that made the building
of the state possible, but once the house is built, the scaffolding becomes a
hindrance and must be removed.
Uri Avnery and Yasser Arafat
Avnery went on to describe
those who ‘dreamt of normality’ as the
Canaanites. They were those who believed that Israel should cut itself off from
the idea that it doesn’t form a separate nation and instead embrace their Arab citizens.
A demand for a state where
each citizen, regardless of religion or colour, is equal is taken as the
minimum requirements for a country to be considered democratic. Yet if you
raised such a demand in relation to Israel, for a State of Equal Rights, then
you will be accused of ‘anti-Semitism’. After all opposition to ‘the only Jewish
state in the world’ is now defined as ‘anti-Semitic’ by the IHRA.
As Netanyahu declared, when
reprimanding Israeli actress Rotem Sala:
“Israel is not a state of all its citizens,” he
wrote in response to criticism from an Israeli actor, Rotem Sela. “According to
the basic nationality law we passed, Israel is the nation state of the Jewish
people – and only it.
We have just learnt tonight of a violent
demonstration by the Jewish fascist group Lehava, in Israel, which took to the
streets chanting ‘Death to the Arab’s
– a carbon copy of the slogan of the anti-Semites in Germany and Poland – ‘Death
to the Jews’ (yet such a comparison is termed anti-Semitic by the IHRA).
The present Israeli Ambassador
to Britain, Tzipi Hotoveli, was personally responsible
as a member of the Knesset Committee for the State of Women and Gender Equality
for channeling funds to Lehava’s ‘charitable’ wing.
I will argue in my talk
that Zionism far from being the
scaffolding for the Israeli state was the building itself. Zionism represented a particular form of
architecture, otherwise known as ethno-nationalism. Having been born in
original sin it was hardly capable of changing itself when it approached
adulthood.
Israel was given
legitimacy by United Nations Resolution 181 which partitioned Mandate Palestine
into a Jewish and Arab state. This was
achieved by a combination of US pressure on recalcitrant states like Liberia and
the treacherous decision of the Soviet Union to back a Jewish state as a means
of being rid of British imperialism from the Middle East.
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| Simha Flapan |
This gave birth to a whole
series of myths surrounding Israel’s founding.
They are best summed up in a book by Simha Flapan, The Birth of Israel: Myths and Realities.
For example when I grew up
in a Zionist family I was told that the only reason there were Arab refugees
(the word ‘Palestinian’ was never used) was that the Arabs of Israel had been
instructed to leave by the Arab regimes so that they could invade and destroy
the fledgling Jewish state.
We were told that Israel had
been the victim of a simultaneous assault by the surrounding Arab countries and
it was only a miracle that had saved it (actually it was Czechoslovakian
weaponry!).
We were told that the Zionists
accepted the UN partition but the Arabs rejected it.
That it was a case of
David v Goliath in 1948 and subsequently.
And of course Israel had
always sought peace but the Arabs refused to sit down and talk with it.
All of these and more were
myths. Israel had a guerilla force, led by
Haganah that had been created by the British.
In fact Walid Khalidi and
Erskin Childers in 1961 had demonstrated
beyond doubt, by examining CIA and BBC transcripts, that there had been no Arab
orders to evacuate. On the contrary
there were orders to stay!
Rabbi Meir Kahane
When Meir Kahane of Kach,
a party that demanded the expulsion of Israel’s Palestinians was elected in 1984
to the Knesset, every other party boycotted him. Members of the Knesset walked out when he was
speaking. Today Itamar Gvir of Otzma Yehudit has been invited in by the
Prime Minister Netanyahu as part of the governing coalition. Gvir’s view that Israel’s
Palestinians do not belong are part of a growing and open right-wing consensus.
I want to look at a number
of questions:about the formation of the Israeli state.
First and foremost is the
role of Zionism in the creation of an apartheid state.
In particular laws such as
the 1953 JNF law and 1950 Absentee Property Law
The role of imperialism. E.g.
the Suez War, the alliance with France, relations with Apartheid in South
Africa.
Was there a Zionist left
in reference to Mapam?
These and more questions
will be discussed tomorrow
And then to look at that
thorny question, can a Jewish State and a Democratic State be reconciled?
When Kahane first burst on
the scene he was quite clear. You can
have a Jewish state or a Democratic state but you can’t have both. Was he right?
Tony Greenstein
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