On Passover, Israel and "Demographic Threats"
Thursday, 28 April 2016 00:00 By Brant Rosen, Truthout | Op-Ed
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)
Stories like this only get published because of reader support. Want to see
more of them? Donate to Truthout today to ensure we have a future!
The weeklong Jewish festival of Passover is coming to a close, but like many
Jews around the world I'm still digesting the myriad questions, answers and
discussions that ensued as we retold the biblical story of the Exodus at our
seder. While it's a story our community returns to over and over again, I'm
continually astonished at the ways it provides a frame for understanding
struggles for liberation past and present.
This year, I've been contemplating one aspect of the story in particular:
when a new pharaoh arises over Egypt "who did not know Joseph." We
immediately learn in no uncertain terms that this new ruler was considerably
more xenophobic than his predecessor:
And (Pharaoh) said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are much too
numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not
increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in
fighting against us." (Exodus 1:8-9)
To use contemporary parlance, Pharaoh clearly views the Israelites as a
"demographic threat" to the Egyptians.
The demographic threat meme, of course, has been played out countless times
since the age of the pharaohs. It has certainly been a deeply woven thread
in the fabric of American culture from our very origins. To cite but one
example: Centuries before Donald Trump started railing against Mexican
"criminals" and "rapists," Benjamin Franklin wrote a 1751 essay in which he
bemoaned the influx of "Palatine Boors" into the colonies who would "shortly
be so numerous as to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will
never adopt our language or customs, any more than they can acquire our
complexion."
So yes, as an American, I can't read these words from the Exodus story
without connecting it to an ignoble aspect of my own country's legacy -- one
that is all too real even today.
And as an American Jew, I can't help but connect it to another country that
also purports to act in my name.
DEMOCRACY AND DEMOGRAPHIC ENGINEERING SIMPLY DO NOT GO HAND IN HAND.
Indeed, ever since Israel's establishment, Zionist leaders knew well that
the future Jewish state would only be "viable" if it could create and
maintain a demographic Jewish majority in historic Palestine. In the late
19th century, this must surely have seemed like a tall order, since Jews
constituted but 2 to 5 percent of the population. By 1947, following decades
of Zionist colonization and Jewish immigration, their number had swelled to
32 percent. Under the UN-sponsored partition plan, the percentage of Jews
allotted to the new Jewish state would have been 55 percent.
During the 1948 war -- known as the War of Independence by Zionists and the
Nakba ("catastrophe") by Palestinians -- the issue of demographics was
solved through the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and
Israel's refusal to allow them to return. However, the demographic stakes
were raised once again in 1967, when Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza
and began a military occupation that exists to this day.
In 2010, Jews officially become a minority population from the Jordan River
to the Mediterranean Sea; around the same time, it was determined that the
Jewish majority in Israel proper was slowly diminishing. For some time now,
Zionists have been warning that the Palestinians' birth rate poses a
"demographic threat" to the future of the Jewish state.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this rhetoric is that it doesn't only
come from Israel's far right, but from liberal Zionists, who use the
demographic argument to advocate for a two-state solution. Witness, for
instance, the words of J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami:
When it comes to Israeli-Palestinian peace, the two-state solution and the
inexorable demographic threat to Israel's future as a democratic state that
remains the homeland for the Jewish people, our position is the same as that
of the Israeli government, the Obama administration and the vast bulk of the
American Jewish community.
Leaving aside the issues of whether or not the two-state solution actually
is the policy of the Israeli government, let's unpack this statement for a
moment. The liberal Zionist argument for a "democratic Jewish state" is
predicated on a view of Palestinians as a "demographic threat." As an
American, if I referred to any other ethnic group in this country with such
a term, I would surely be viewed as a bigot or a racist. But as a Jew, I can
refer to Palestinians with this epithet and still remain a member in good
standing of the liberal peace camp.
Thus the inherent contradiction of liberal Zionism: democracy and
demographic engineering simply do not go hand in hand. At the end of the
day, there is nothing liberal about supporting an ethno-national project
predicated upon the identity of one group over another. The late Meir
Kahane, revered by Israel's ultra right, loved to make liberal Zionists
squirm by repeatedly articulating this point: "A western democracy and
Zionism are not compatible. You can't have both."
Kahane's solution, of course, was "forced transfer" of the Palestinian
population. The current government of Israel is accomplishing this goal
through more subtle means: home demolitions, land expropriation and the
revocation of Palestinians' residency and citizenship. In truth, Israel has
been dealing with its demographic threat under cover of US support for
years, all the while claiming the mantle of "the only democracy in the
Middle East."
This, along with its massive settlement expansion has brought Israel's
demographic problem home to roost. The real decision before them is not
between a one-state or two-state solution, but between two one-state
solutions: an apartheid Jewish state or one state of all its citizens,
regardless of religion or ethnicity.
As I watch this tragic process unfold this Passover, I find myself returning
to the universal lesson this festival imparts on the corrupt abuse of state
power. Although the Exodus story is considered sacred in Jewish tradition,
it would be a mistake to assume that the contemporary state of Israel must
be seen as equivalent to the biblical Israelites.
On the contrary, any people who suffer under oppressive government policies
are, in a sense, Israelites. And any state -- even a Jewish state -- that
views a people in its midst as a demographic threat can become a Pharaoh.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
BRANT ROSEN
Brant Rosen is the rabbi of Tzedek Chicago and the Midwest regional director
of the American World Service Committee.
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On Passover, Israel and "Demographic Threats"
Thursday, 28 April 2016 00:00 By Brant Rosen, Truthout | Op-Ed
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reference not valid.
(Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)
Stories like this only get published because of reader support. Want
to see more of them? Donate to Truthout today to ensure we have a future!
The weeklong Jewish festival of Passover is coming to a close, but like many
Jews around the world I'm still digesting the myriad questions, answers and
discussions that ensued as we retold the biblical story of the Exodus at our
seder. While it's a story our community returns to over and over again, I'm
continually astonished at the ways it provides a frame for understanding
struggles for liberation past and present.
This year, I've been contemplating one aspect of the story in particular:
when a new pharaoh arises over Egypt "who did not know Joseph." We
immediately learn in no uncertain terms that this new ruler was considerably
more xenophobic than his predecessor:
And (Pharaoh) said to his people, "Look, the Israelite people are much too
numerous for us. Let us deal shrewdly with them, so that they may not
increase; otherwise in the event of war they may join our enemies in
fighting against us." (Exodus 1:8-9)
To use contemporary parlance, Pharaoh clearly views the Israelites as a
"demographic threat" to the Egyptians.
The demographic threat meme, of course, has been played out countless times
since the age of the pharaohs. It has certainly been a deeply woven thread
in the fabric of American culture from our very origins. To cite but one
example: Centuries before Donald Trump started railing against Mexican
"criminals" and "rapists," Benjamin Franklin wrote
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Observations_Concerning_the_Increase_of_Mankin
d,_Peopling_of_Countries,_etc.a 1751 essay in which he bemoaned the influx
of "Palatine Boors" into the colonies who would "shortly be so numerous as
to Germanize us instead of our Anglifying them, and will never adopt our
language or customs, any more than they can acquire our complexion."
So yes, as an American, I can't read these words from the Exodus story
without connecting it to an ignoble aspect of my own country's legacy -- one
that is all too real even today.
And as an American Jew, I can't help but connect it to another country that
also purports to act in my name.
Democracy and demographic engineering simply do not go hand in hand.
Indeed, ever since Israel's establishment, Zionist leaders knew well that
the future Jewish state would only be "viable" if it could create and
maintain a demographic Jewish majority in historic Palestine. In the late
19th century, this must surely have seemed like a tall order, since Jews
constituted but 2 to 5 percent of the population. By 1947, following decades
of Zionist colonization and Jewish immigration, their number had swelled to
32 percent. Under the UN-sponsored partition plan, the percentage of Jews
allotted to the new Jewish state would have been 55 percent.
During the 1948 war -- known as the War of Independence by Zionists and the
Nakba ("catastrophe") by Palestinians -- the issue of demographics was
solved through the forced expulsion of Palestinians from their homes and
Israel's refusal to allow them to return. However, the demographic stakes
were raised once again in 1967, when Israel conquered the West Bank and Gaza
and began a military occupation that exists to this day.
In 2010, Jews officially become a minority population from the Jordan River
to the Mediterranean Sea; around the same time, it was determined that the
Jewish majority in Israel proper was slowly diminishing. For some time now,
Zionists have been warning that the Palestinians' birth rate poses a
"demographic threat" to the future of the Jewish state.
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this rhetoric is that it doesn't only
come from Israel's far right, but from liberal Zionists, who use the
demographic argument to advocate for a two-state solution. Witness, for
instance, the words of J Street executive director Jeremy Ben-Ami:
When it comes to Israeli-Palestinian peace, the two-state solution and the
inexorable demographic threat to Israel's future as a democratic state that
remains the homeland for the Jewish people, our position is the same as that
of the Israeli government, the Obama administration and the vast bulk of the
American Jewish community.
Leaving aside the issues of whether or not the two-state solution actually
is the policy of the Israeli government, let's unpack this statement for a
moment. The liberal Zionist argument for a "democratic Jewish state" is
predicated on a view of Palestinians as a "demographic threat." As an
American, if I referred to any other ethnic group in this country with such
a term, I would surely be viewed as a bigot or a racist. But as a Jew, I can
refer to Palestinians with this epithet and still remain a member in good
standing of the liberal peace camp.
Thus the inherent contradiction of liberal Zionism: democracy and
demographic engineering simply do not go hand in hand. At the end of the
day, there is nothing liberal about supporting an ethno-national project
predicated upon the identity of one group over another. The late Meir
Kahane, revered by Israel's ultra right, loved to make liberal Zionists
squirm by repeatedly articulating this point: "A western democracy and
Zionism are not compatible. You can't have both."
Kahane's solution, of course, was "forced transfer" of the Palestinian
population. The current government of Israel is accomplishing this goal
through more subtle means: home demolitions, land expropriation and the
revocation of Palestinians' residency and citizenship. In truth, Israel has
been dealing with its demographic threat under cover of US support for
years, all the while claiming the mantle of "the only democracy in the
Middle East."
This, along with its massive settlement expansion has brought Israel's
demographic problem home to roost. The real decision before them is not
between a one-state or two-state solution, but between two one-state
solutions: an apartheid Jewish state or one state of all its citizens,
regardless of religion or ethnicity.
As I watch this tragic process unfold this Passover, I find myself returning
to the universal lesson this festival imparts on the corrupt abuse of state
power. Although the Exodus story is considered sacred in Jewish tradition,
it would be a mistake to assume that the contemporary state of Israel must
be seen as equivalent to the biblical Israelites.
On the contrary, any people who suffer under oppressive government policies
are, in a sense, Israelites. And any state -- even a Jewish state -- that
views a people in its midst as a demographic threat can become a Pharaoh.
Copyright, Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.
Brant Rosen
Brant Rosen is the rabbi of Tzedek Chicago and the Midwest regional director
of the American World Service Committee.
