An ideological nakba

Editorial

While Israelis and Zionists worldwide were celebrating the miracle of 60 years of Israeli independence, opponents were ostentatiously marking al-Nakba, the Catastrophe.

The catastrophe, of course, refers to the creation of the state of Israel and the subsequent failure of the Palestinian Arab population to obtain self-determination. The causes of this Palestinian catastrophe relate in great measure to the overarching ideology of the entire Arab world vis-a-vis Israel, which has been to reject any form of Jewish self-determination in the Middle East. By refusing to compromise – in 1947, 1948, 1967 and 2000 – the Palestinian and Arab leadership seems to be trying to ensure that no Palestinian state will ever stand in peace alongside a Jewish state.

Nonetheless, the narrative that now drives the anti-Israel movement – that Israel alone is responsible for the catastrophic situation facing Palestinians – is as vibrant as it has ever been. An excellent example appeared recently in the Georgia Straight. The usual suspects have signed a condemnation of Israel, which was run as an advertisement in the alternative weekly.

Among the signatories is a range of individuals, representing a spectrum from thoughtful, well-intentioned critics of Israeli positions to this country's foremost Jew-baiters. Most of these individuals have been barking up this tree since at least 2000, when they should have used whatever influence they may have had to press their Palestinian allies to remain at the negotiating table rather than revert to violence. They didn't. They encouraged and rewarded violence, while dishonorably claiming the mantle of "peace."

The advertisement specifically identifies UN Resolution 194, which includes a call for the "right" of Palestinians who left the new state of Israel – and their millions of descendants – to return to the exact homes they abandoned 60 years ago. The speciousness of this position is perhaps the most damning position these "activists" take. They take no similar conscientious position for the rights of the similar number of Jews who were forced from their homes in Arab countries. And they insist on a form of "justice" that would eliminate the Jewish identity of Israel.

Moreover, the destruction of Israel's unique Jewish identity is coupled with the demand for an end to Jewish settlements in the West Bank, as if these settlements were a precursor to any just negotiation, and not an issue to be determined at a negotiating table. Worse still, the unfulfilled "right" for Palestinians to return to their ancestral homes is held up as justice denied even as, on the other hand, the demand for an immediate end to settlements is an acknowledgement that a multiracial Arab-majority Israel is to be created alongside an independent Palestine that is 100 per cent Jew-free.

The advertisement's signatories include an artist who, under a pseudonym, produces cartoons that depict young Israeli soldiers as innately bloodthirsty killers who will shoot at anything that moves. The petition includes gays and lesbians who do not care enough about their sisters and brothers to ensure the survival of the only tiny oasis where lesbians and gay men from around the Middle East can escape the panoramic repression, torture and death they face. The "petition" is rife with trade unionists who have abandoned the Histadrut and legitimate independent workers' organizations and sided irrationally and immorally with the co-opted syndicates that claim to represent Palestinian workers.

The advertisement uses the irresistible "apartheid" libel, even though the apartheid analogy fails on not one crux but two. The African National Congress, which led the fight against South African apartheid, fought for multiracial tolerance and for democracy. The anti-Israel activists are fighting for a racially exclusive Palestine and an Israel where Jews would be as imperiled as they are everywhere else in the Arab world. And there is no legitimate reason to believe that democracy, in any form we might recognize, would take hold in Palestine – a reality that does not seem to concern the signatories. The apartheid libel is all the more despicable because the only place in the Middle East where genuine multiculturalism exists and thrives is in Israel.

These signatories are not peace activists. These are individuals and groups that have rewarded violence and defended its perpetrators, standing by an ideology that is intolerant, angry, unjust and false.

The nakba – the catastrophe – is not a half a world away in the war zone of Israel and Palestine. The real catastrophe is an ideological one, right here in Canada, exemplified by the moral chaos of those who defend violence, advocate an end to Israel's Jewish character and seek yet another Arab state completely free of Jews.

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