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Subject: Do You Think Palestine Has the Right to Exist?
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Do You Think
Palestine Has the Right to Exist?
________________________________________
Do You Think Palestine Has the Right to Exist?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / AlterNet [2]
May 18, 2016
On a Facebook page, a colleague accuses me of hate speech. He accuses me of
questioning Israels right to exist, which he says crosses a line and, is
I believe, tantamount to anti-Semitism. This is a serious charge. Have I
denied Israels right to exist? Certainly not. Israel exists. It is a member
state of the United Nations. Its factual basis is undeniable. Even Hamas
does not deny Israels right to exist. Its Charter, written during the
First Intifada in 1987, bears the marks of the moment. But it does not
define Hamas politics, for which a reading of its 2006 election manifesto
gives a much clearer picture. In a 2009 interview with the New York Times,
Hamas leader Khaled Meshal urged outsiders to ignore the Hamas charter,
for, in Meshals words, We are shaped by our experiences. What is the
Hamas position, the Times reporters asked Meshal? We are with a state on
the 1967 borders, based on a long-term truce. This includes East Jerusalem,
the dismantling of settlements and the right of return of the Palestinian
refugees. Nothing here is outside the international consensus. Israel is
not denied by Meshal, the leader of Hamas.
False clichés do not make for good arguments. To continue to say, as my
colleague and others do, that those who criticize Israel are hateful because
they deny its right to existence are repeating a fabrication. They should
pay attention to what the pillar of Israeli politicsthe Likud Partysays.
They will perhaps be surprised if they glance in that direction.
Israels ruling party, the Likud, flatly denies Palestines right to exist.
Evidence is easily found for this position in Likuds 1999 platform, which
says, The Jordan River will be the permanent eastern border of the State of
Israel. In other words, the West Bank cannot exist as part of Palestine.
Furthermore, it says, Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State
of Israel and only Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian
proposals to divide Jerusalem. In other words, East Jerusalempart of the
Palestinian statewill remain under Israeli occupation and will be illegally
annexed into Israel. Settlements can never be removed because the Jewish
communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist
values. These settlements were removed from Gaza, but that was it. Gaza,
under siege by Israel, is the only enclave that is not to be annexed fully.
Is Likuds politics shaped by its experiences? Has its softened its views
since 1999? In fact, the current Israeli government, led by Likuds Benjamin
Netanyahu, has pushed a harder line in defense of the settlements in the
West Bank, for the full annexation of East Jerusalem and for the tightest
control of the Gaza Strip. The policy of the current government is not for a
two-state solution, but for the suffocation of Palestine. Netanyahus
cabinet reeks of hate speech. His Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben
Dahan said of Palestinians in 2013, To me they are like animals; they
arent human. Last year, Israels Welfare Minister Haim Katz said, The
land of Israel is whole. There is no Palestine. He said that the
Palestinians should go off to Jordan. Israels Defense Minister Moshe
Yaalon denied the Palestinians the basic elements of humanity. Israelis
mourn their dead, he said earlier this year, while Palestinians seek
death, living in a society that respects nothing. Israels Justice
Minister Ayelet Shaked compared Palestinians to snakes and called for
their destruction, They have to die. Neither has Netanyahu distanced
himself from this hateful language, nor have the supporters of Israel been
called to account for such talk. It passes as normal.
On May 12th, Israel celebrated its Independence Day. My friend Raja Khalidi
drove through the Jordan Valleya landscape marked by the history of
monotheism. At one end sits the Jordan River, which is a trickle of what it
must have been in biblical times. In the heart of the Jordan Valley is the
Ghor (depression), the alluvial plain that is fertile and healthy. It is
here that the Israeli government haswith private and public money from the
United Statescreated a host of illegal settlements that control forty per
cent of the arable land in the Jordan Valley. Khalidi drove north from
Ramallah, past Halamishone of the West Bank settlement regional council
centers. What did he see there? There were maybe five hundred settler cars
parked along the sides of the roads for a km before and after the center,
with families, children, flags and good mood all come to celebrate their day
on their land, sitting in nearby forests and eating ice cream. What struck
Khalidi was that there was hardly an Uzi or military vehicle in sight.
These revelers seemingly safe and at home even as Palestinian taxis and
vehicles sped by, ferrying their passenger from one Palestinian enclave to
another.
The settlers are not pioneers, but residents of agricultural conglomerates
backed by the full might of the Israeli army and funded with donations from
around the world. A recent study by Nur Arafeh, Samia al-Botmeh and Leila
Farsakh for al-Shabaka foundfor examplethat 40 percent of date exports
from Israel come from the Jordan Valley, and that the exploitation of this
land provides Israel with an annual revenue of around $130 million. These
are resources stolen from the Palestinians under the Oslo agreement. Over
the past five years, $220 million in private US tax-free donations have
funded these settlements. That the US government allows private donations
for illegal settlements to be seen as tax-free charity is itself an official
subsidy. International law is clear that these settlements are illegal.
There is no qualification here. The United Nations has several times
indicated that these settlements are the roadblock to the peace process.
They make a mockery of any dialogue about a two-state solution.
Meanwhile, in the southern Israeli town of Rahat, in the Negev Desert,
Palestinians marched this year May 12 to commemorate their expulsionthe
Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. The organizers of this march came from the
Bedouin community, which is fiercely defending its right to the land against
the Prawer Plana mechanism to camouflage the expropriation of Palestinian
Bedouin in the name of economic development. Thousands of
Palestiniansincluding Palestinians who are part of the Joint Arab List in
the Israeli Parliamentmarched against the Prawer Plan and for the
Palestinian right of return to their country. Ayman Odeh, a socialist
leader of the Joint Arab List, said at Rahat, Recognizing the Nakba, a
terrible crime, and working to correct the injustice is the only true path
to reconciliation between our peoples. This was a powerful statement. It
represents the soul of Palestinian politics, which seeks a way forward
rather than to build cages and call them nations.
Khalidi is wistful. I thought as I drove, he said, that the settlers
visit the forest they planted to cover the traces of the villages they
destroyed on the very sites that Palestinians visit on Nakba Day on May
15th. These disappeared villages are part of the denial of the right for
Palestine to exist. Thats our story, says Khalidi. It is barely one that
is allowed to be heard.
Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring,
Libyan Winter (AK Press, 2012), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of
the Global South (Verso, 2013) and the forthcoming The Death of a Nation and
the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016).
His columns appear at AlterNet every Wednesday.
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/do-you-think-palestine-has-right-exist
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/vijay-prashad
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Do You Think Palestine
Has the Right to Exist?
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
Published on Alternet (http://www.alternet.org) Home > Do You Think
Palestine Has the Right to Exist?
Do You Think Palestine Has the Right to Exist?
By Vijay Prashad [1] / AlterNet [2]
May 18, 2016
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+More
AddThis Share optionsShare to Email On a Facebook page, a colleague accuses
me of hate speech. He accuses me of questioning Israels right to exist,
which he says crosses a line and, is I believe, tantamount to
anti-Semitism. This is a serious charge. Have I denied Israels right to
exist? Certainly not. Israel exists. It is a member state of the United
Nations. Its factual basis is undeniable. Even Hamas does not deny
Israels right to exist. Its Charter, written during the First Intifada in
1987, bears the marks of the moment. But it does not define Hamas politics,
for which a reading of its 2006 election manifesto gives a much clearer
picture. In a 2009 interview with the New York Times, Hamas leader Khaled
Meshal urged outsiders to ignore the Hamas charter, for, in Meshals
words, We are shaped by our experiences. What is the Hamas position, the
Times reporters asked Meshal? We are with a state on the 1967 borders,
based on a long-term truce. This includes East Jerusalem, the dismantling of
settlements and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees. Nothing
here is outside the international consensus. Israel is not denied by Meshal,
the leader of Hamas.
False clichés do not make for good arguments. To continue to say, as my
colleague and others do, that those who criticize Israel are hateful because
they deny its right to existence are repeating a fabrication. They should
pay attention to what the pillar of Israeli politicsthe Likud Partysays.
They will perhaps be surprised if they glance in that direction.
Israels ruling party, the Likud, flatly denies Palestines right to exist.
Evidence is easily found for this position in Likuds 1999 platform, which
says, The Jordan River will be the permanent eastern border of the State of
Israel. In other words, the West Bank cannot exist as part of Palestine.
Furthermore, it says, Jerusalem is the eternal, united capital of the State
of Israel and only Israel. The government will flatly reject Palestinian
proposals to divide Jerusalem. In other words, East Jerusalempart of the
Palestinian statewill remain under Israeli occupation and will be illegally
annexed into Israel. Settlements can never be removed because the Jewish
communities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza are the realization of Zionist
values. These settlements were removed from Gaza, but that was it. Gaza,
under siege by Israel, is the only enclave that is not to be annexed fully.
Is Likuds politics shaped by its experiences? Has its softened its views
since 1999? In fact, the current Israeli government, led by Likuds Benjamin
Netanyahu, has pushed a harder line in defense of the settlements in the
West Bank, for the full annexation of East Jerusalem and for the tightest
control of the Gaza Strip. The policy of the current government is not for a
two-state solution, but for the suffocation of Palestine. Netanyahus
cabinet reeks of hate speech. His Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben
Dahan said of Palestinians in 2013, To me they are like animals; they
arent human. Last year, Israels Welfare Minister Haim Katz said, The
land of Israel is whole. There is no Palestine. He said that the
Palestinians should go off to Jordan. Israels Defense Minister Moshe
Yaalon denied the Palestinians the basic elements of humanity. Israelis
mourn their dead, he said earlier this year, while Palestinians seek
death, living in a society that respects nothing. Israels Justice
Minister Ayelet Shaked compared Palestinians to snakes and called for
their destruction, They have to die. Neither has Netanyahu distanced
himself from this hateful language, nor have the supporters of Israel been
called to account for such talk. It passes as normal.
On May 12th, Israel celebrated its Independence Day. My friend Raja Khalidi
drove through the Jordan Valleya landscape marked by the history of
monotheism. At one end sits the Jordan River, which is a trickle of what it
must have been in biblical times. In the heart of the Jordan Valley is the
Ghor (depression), the alluvial plain that is fertile and healthy. It is
here that the Israeli government haswith private and public money from the
United Statescreated a host of illegal settlements that control forty per
cent of the arable land in the Jordan Valley. Khalidi drove north from
Ramallah, past Halamishone of the West Bank settlement regional council
centers. What did he see there? There were maybe five hundred settler cars
parked along the sides of the roads for a km before and after the center,
with families, children, flags and good mood all come to celebrate their day
on their land, sitting in nearby forests and eating ice cream. What struck
Khalidi was that there was hardly an Uzi or military vehicle in sight.
These revelers seemingly safe and at home even as Palestinian taxis and
vehicles sped by, ferrying their passenger from one Palestinian enclave to
another.
The settlers are not pioneers, but residents of agricultural conglomerates
backed by the full might of the Israeli army and funded with donations from
around the world. A recent study by Nur Arafeh, Samia al-Botmeh and Leila
Farsakh for al-Shabaka foundfor examplethat 40 percent of date exports
from Israel come from the Jordan Valley, and that the exploitation of this
land provides Israel with an annual revenue of around $130 million. These
are resources stolen from the Palestinians under the Oslo agreement. Over
the past five years, $220 million in private US tax-free donations have
funded these settlements. That the US government allows private donations
for illegal settlements to be seen as tax-free charity is itself an official
subsidy. International law is clear that these settlements are illegal.
There is no qualification here. The United Nations has several times
indicated that these settlements are the roadblock to the peace process.
They make a mockery of any dialogue about a two-state solution.
Meanwhile, in the southern Israeli town of Rahat, in the Negev Desert,
Palestinians marched this year May 12 to commemorate their expulsionthe
Nakba (Catastrophe) of 1948. The organizers of this march came from the
Bedouin community, which is fiercely defending its right to the land against
the Prawer Plana mechanism to camouflage the expropriation of Palestinian
Bedouin in the name of economic development. Thousands of
Palestiniansincluding Palestinians who are part of the Joint Arab List in
the Israeli Parliamentmarched against the Prawer Plan and for the
Palestinian right of return to their country. Ayman Odeh, a socialist
leader of the Joint Arab List, said at Rahat, Recognizing the Nakba, a
terrible crime, and working to correct the injustice is the only true path
to reconciliation between our peoples. This was a powerful statement. It
represents the soul of Palestinian politics, which seeks a way forward
rather than to build cages and call them nations.
Khalidi is wistful. I thought as I drove, he said, that the settlers
visit the forest they planted to cover the traces of the villages they
destroyed on the very sites that Palestinians visit on Nakba Day on May
15th. These disappeared villages are part of the denial of the right for
Palestine to exist. Thats our story, says Khalidi. It is barely one that
is allowed to be heard.
Vijay Prashad is professor of international studies at Trinity College in
Hartford, Connecticut. He is the author of 18 books, including Arab Spring,
Libyan Winter (AK Press, 2012), The Poorer Nations: A Possible History of
the Global South (Verso, 2013) and the forthcoming The Death of a Nation and
the Future of the Arab Revolution (University of California Press, 2016).
His columns appear at AlterNet every Wednesday.
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Error! Hyperlink reference not valid.
Report typos and corrections to 'corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx'. [3] Error!
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Source URL:
http://www.alternet.org/world/do-you-think-palestine-has-right-exist
Links:
[1] http://www.alternet.org/authors/vijay-prashad
[2] http://alternet.org
[3] mailto:corrections@xxxxxxxxxxxx?Subject=Typo on Do You Think Palestine
Has the Right to Exist?
[4] http://www.alternet.org/
[5] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B
