Just because enough time has passed, a wrong does not become a right
“Of all the sombre ironies of history none throws a more sinister light on human nature than the fact that the new-style nationalist Jews, on the morrow of the most appalling of the many persecutions that their race had endured, should at once proceed to demonstrate, at the expense of Palestinian Arabs whose only offence against the Jews was that Palestine was their ancestral home, that the lesson learnt by Zionists from the sufferings which Nazis had inflicted on Jews was, not to forbear from committing the crime of which they themselves had been victims, but to persecute, in their turn, a people weaker than they were. The Israeli Jews did not follow in the Nazis’ footsteps to the extent of exterminating the Palestinian Arabs in concentration camps and gas chambers; but they did dispossess the majority of them, to the number of more than half a million, of the lands which they and their fathers had occupied and cultivated for generations, and of the property that they were unable to carry with them in their flight, and thereby they reduced them to destitution as ‘displaced persons’.”- Arnold J Toynbee in ‘A Study of History’.
Killing is bad. We all agree. Okay, most of us agree on that. But let me create a hypothetical scenario and then we can talk about killing again.
Muslims from all over the world adore Makkah. It is the house of their Lord, the centre of their belief, the epitome of the Prophet’s memory. But it is a city; it has a physical space along with an ideological one. People live there, a state controls it, manages it, handles everything that goes on there. Now one day, a group of Muslims, in a corner of the world far, far away from Makkah, starts believing that it is their divine right to inhabit Makkah, that it is their promised land and that they should be the ones running its affairs instead of the Sauds. They start propagating their belief, backed by a pretentious ideological stance and their movement gains momentum in other areas as more and more Muslims join their ranks. One day their leader decides that all members of the group should eventually go and settle in Makkah and start a life there. So slowly and steadily, people from the group start landing there, coming from all corners of the world. They come in groups of dozens, form a community, buy land, start businesses and live peacefully with the natives. All good? But soon their numbers start increasing, the local population starts itching, the immigrants form an armed militia to protect themselves, there are a few schisms but nothing too serious. As time passes, the international community starts propagating for the immigrants’ rights while more and more come to Makah to settle down.
Now they claim Makkah belongs to them and not to the Sauds. They don’t keep other Muslims from coming and worshipping there, for of course it is their right to do so. All they want is to run the state’s affairs, protect their rights, and strengthen their community. Too much to ask for? By now their numbers are almost equal to the native population and the UN declares Makkah as a separate state, run by the immigrants who migrated and settled there over the years, who were nowhere to be seen a few decades ago but are now at the heart of the affairs. But at least they are Muslims, not kafirs or infidels who want to oust the Kaabah or damage its sanctity. They welcome other Muslim brothers for Haj. They just needed a country for themselves because God said so, and because no other state recognised their religious authority.
Now replace Makkah with Jerusalem and the Muslim immigrants with Jews. Welcome to Violence 101, an introduction to killing in present day Palestine and Israel.
Some 64 years have gone by since Israel’s creation and with time more and more people want to accept it as a genuine state with all its rights and privileges. But why does no one ever think about the natives? What did they do wrong? Were they wrong in allowing homeless people to settle on their lands? To let them make a living, buy land, run businesses? In all the fuss, where did their right to rule their land go? Just because enough time has passed, a wrong does not become a right. You have to accept that the creation of Israel was a fraud, an illegal move by all international standards. Today it exists – even if on a fraudulent structure – it is there and no one can deny it. But the least anyone can do is accept that it wasn’t their land to claim even if their God had promised it to them. One must accept that the settlement of Jews and the establishment of their state was an infringement, of the highest degree, of the Palestinians’ right to live and govern their lands and if there exists a counter movement that wants to eliminate the settlers and regain what was theirs to start with, how can you blame them? Is there any brand of justice that would deny them this?
Since many would claim that the issue pre-dates 1948 and that Jerusalem has been the centre of religious violence for thousands of years (and I don’t disagree), let me remind you all that the Jews had NEVER, and I want to emphasise on this, never formed a state/empire in Jerusalem since 70 CE when the Romans ousted them into exile, not even once.
History unfolded in its own mysterious ways since then and it was not until the seventh century that Islam made its mark on the world. By then, the status of the Jews had worsened and they had, for centuries, become accustomed to living away from their ‘promised land’.
The Zionist Aliyah, or the return to ‘Eretz Yisrael’, did not start for another 1,812 years after 70 CE – a gap of almost two millenniums. It basically signifies a self-fulfilling prophecy. God promised Abraham the land of Canaan around 4,000 years ago, which the Zionist ideology claims to be the basis of this return to the Promised Land. The first Aliyah is documented to have taken place in 1882 following which scores of Jews, deeming it their religious responsibility, rather a divine order, started returning to the Promised Land which by then had been inhabited by Arabs for centuries. By 1948, when the imperial powers were unable to hold on to their captured lands, God’s promise to the Jews eventually materialised into modern day Israel. So yes, by all means accept Israel as a nation-state, a reality that cannot be undone. But please don’t say that it was an assertion of their right and please don’t deny the undeniable encroachment of the native populations’ rights.
I’m not here to point fingers. Neither am I motivated by a religious responsibility to prove that Hamas’ cause is greater. I despise killing, in all forms and for whatever reasons. Hamas was formed in 1987 and till then the resistance was secular in nature. It is a written in stone fact that the Arab resistance towards the Zionist settlers, in early 20th century, was not based on sentiments of anti-Semitism but originated out of a rational and legitimate fear of displacement. Zionist leaders such as Ben Gurion, however, through their rhetoric, presented this resistance as a prevalence of the historic Western Gentile attitude towards Jews which was an easy card to play in the post-Nazi world. The bare truth which is reflected in Tom Segev’s words was: “Disappearing the Arabs lay at the heart of the Zionist dream, and was also a necessary condition of its existence… With a few exceptions, none of the Zionists disputed the possibility of forced transfer-or its morality.”
Israeli atrocities on populations in Gaza and West Bank as documented do not jump start in the ’80s. A plethora of literature is available that will present in excruciating detail, the problems faced by the indigenous population at the hands of the settlers.
My solution to the problem is not another holocaust which in any case is impossible given the might of present day Israel and the fragility of the Palestinians. Perhaps a two-state solution is the only realistic political settlement at this point, though not an optimal one as Chomsky suggests. But I find it a manipulation of history and ignorance of the highest order to deny that the creation of Israel was a scam and an atrocity on the Palestinians.
The writer is a staff member and can be contacted at m.omerhayat@gmail.com