> > January 26, 2005 > > An Iron Wall of Colonization > > Fantasies and Realities About the Prospects for Peace Between Israelis > and > Palestinians > > By SAREE MAKDISI > > The recent election of Mahmoud Abbas as the new President of the > Palestinian > Authority has renewed speculation that 2005 will bring genuine peace > between > Palestinians and Israelis. Insofar as it depends on Israel's own > intentions, > however, such hope is entirely misplaced. > > Israel has made it clear that the first thing it expects of the new > Palestinian leader is for him to bring the Palestinian population under > control: a mission that, in order to demonstrate his good behavior, he > has > already zealously taken up by deploying his security forces in order to > protect Israel from attack by Palestinians (rather than the other way > around). If he is successful in that mission, Abbas will likely be > invited > to agree to a political settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle > whose > terms will be essentially dictated by Israel. Such an arrangement would > allow Palestinians a severely limited form of self-rule in those > (disconnected) parts of the territories occupied in 1967 that Israel no > longer intends to keep for itself. The rest of the West Bank would be > dominated by Israeli colonies, bypass roads, and military outposts. > Even in > the unlikely event that the colonies there would actually be > dismantled, > Gaza would become-even more than it is now-essentially a gigantic > open-air > prison, as would large areas in the West Bank, which would be > encircled and > completely cut off by the various layers of Israel's separation > barrier, > much as the city of Qalqilya (population 60,000) already is today. The > process of Judaizing Jerusalem would continue, and the city itself > would be > encircled by an iron wall of Jewish colonization extending toward the > Dead > Sea. > > There is nothing new here. Most of the plans proposed since Israel > conquered > the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem in 1967 have been variations on > a > theme originally devised by Yigal Allon, then Israel's Deputy Prime > Minister. Allon called for Israel to colonize strategically important > parts > of the West Bank (and east Jerusalem), to maintain control over natural > resources, borders and airspace, and to grant a kind of autonomy to > densely > populated Palestinian areas where colonization would prove difficult. > In > fact, despite all the talk about a "peace process," Israel's basic > position > (which has been gradually translated into realities on the ground for > almost > forty years now) has not budged an inch since 1967. > > The Oslo agreements of the 1990s reiterated the principle behind > Allon's > plan by dividing the occupied territories into Area A (nominal > Palestinian > control, which at its maximum extent amounted to 18 percent of the West > Bank), Area B (Palestinian administration, but Israeli security > control, > about 22 percent of the West Bank) and Area C (total continued Israeli > control, about 60 percent of the West Bank, and more or less the same > proportion of Gaza). So did Israel's proposal at Camp David in 2000, > which > offered Palestinians "sovereignty" over disjointed territories to be > dominated by a reinforced network of Israeli colonies and roads-that > is, > sovereignty in name only, while Israel continued to control not only > most of > the territory itself, but also the borders, the airspace and the > invaluable > water resources. Yasser Arafat was only dismissed as an obstacle to > peace > when he proved incapable of selling these terms to the Palestinian > people. > Now Abbas is supposed to continue where Arafat left off. > > If, however, the so-called disengagement proposal advanced by Ariel > Sharon > last year is the most forceful reiteration of the original Allon Plan, > that > is so because for the first time the Israeli scheme now has US support. > Reversing decades of US policy-and dismissing key principles of > international law in the process-President Bush last April validated > Israel's territorial ambitions. "The understandings between the US > President > and me protect Israel's most essential interests," Sharon gloated in a > speech he made in December 2004. "First and foremost, not demanding a > return > to the '67 borders; allowing Israel to permanently keep large > settlement > blocs which have high Israeli populations; and the total refusal of > allowing > Palestinian refugees to return to Israel." > > But if Israel's present policy amounts to a reiteration of an old > formula, > what's driving it forward is a form of racism that has been dressed up > as > merely a kind of demographic paranoia. This racism is, and has always > been, > at the heart of what Israel stands for as a state, and what Zionism has > always represented as a political movement: the idea that an empty land > could be found in which an exclusively Jewish state might be > established: a > land without a people for a people without a land. The problem with > this > idea is that Zionists were unable to find a suitably empty land. So > they > took someone else's land instead. And ever since taking over Palestine > and > arranging the expulsion of much of its native population in 1948, > Israelis > have been acting paradoxically-on the one hand, acting as though they > really > do inhabit a Jewish state, and, on the other hand, panicking about the > fact > that their state really is not Jewish, that it never has been, and > that it > is set to become even less Jewish in the years to come. > > In fact, the land Israel rules today includes almost equal populations > of > Jews and Palestinians. Under Israeli rule, however, only Jews enjoy > complete > rights of citizenship, as well as the ability to circulate in freedom, > and, > in principle, to live (almost) wherever they like. Palestinians living > under > Israeli rule in the occupied territories, on the other hand, face > extreme > difficulties in moving around even in their own territories, and the > vast > majority of them are barred from entering Israel and even Jerusalem, > and are > routinely and systematically deprived of their most fundamental human > and > political rights. Palestinian citizens of Israel proper enjoy certain > privileges denied to their compatriots in the occupied territories, but > their rights fall far short of those enjoyed by Jewish citizens of the > state > (for example, in matters of marriage, naturalization, and land use, > among > others). > > Such naked injustice is difficult to defend; when it is noticed, it > makes > for bad public relations with the rest of the world. It also gives the > lie > to Israel's claim of being a Jewish state, which it certainly is not > (even > leaving aside the occupied territories, Palestinian Arabs constitute a > fifth > of the population living within Israel's pre-1967 boundaries). > > Mainstream Zionists have never been able to tolerate the possibility of > having a significant Palestinian Arab presence inside the borders of > what > was supposed (by them) to be their Jewish state. Recent work by Israeli > historians has revealed the extent to which, long before the UN's 1947 > Partition Plan, Zionists were eagerly preparing for what they called > the > "transfer" of the indigenous Palestinian population from as much as > possible > of its native land, an ambition which the outbreak of war in 1947-48 > allowed > them to accomplish. Benny Morris, one of the Israeli historians who > has done > much to reveal the realities of what happened in 1948, is unabashed > about > both the necessity and the desirability of what he frankly admits was > a form > of ethnic cleansing. "There are circumstances that justify ethnic > cleansing," Morris has claimed since he wrote his famous book on the > Palestinian refugee "problem." Just as "the great American democracy > could > not have been created without the annihilation of the Indians," he > argues in > an interview with Ha'aretz, in 1948 "a Jewish state would not have > come into > being without the uprooting of 700,000 Palestinians. Therefore it was > necessary to uproot them. There was no choice but to expel that > population. > It was necessary to cleanse the hinterland and cleanse the border > areas and > cleanse the main roads. It was necessary to cleanse the villages from > which > our convoys and our settlements were being fired on." The only problem > Morris has with what happened in 1948 is that Israel did not go far > enough. > Even though Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, > "understood the > demographic issue and the need to establish a Jewish state without a > large > Arab minority, he got cold feet during the war. In the end, he > faltered." > Perhaps, Morris adds, "if he was already engaged in expulsion, he > should > have done a complete job." For "if the end of the story turns out to > be a > gloomy one for the Jews, it will be because Ben-Gurion did not > complete the > transfer in 1948. Because he left a large and volatile demographic > reserve > in the West Bank and Gaza and within Israel itself." > > The existential "threat" that seems to be posed by this "volatile > demographic reserve" (that is, a group of people merely trying as best > they > can to go about their daily lives under the most trying circumstances) > is > what is driving current Israeli policy toward the Palestinians. Israel > has > chosen to respond to this "threat" through what it calls a policy of > "separation," or, in other words, by removing as many Palestinians as > possible from the land officially under Israeli control. Granting > nominal > sovereignty to areas with dense Palestinian populations-while > absorbing as > much other territory as possible into Israel itself-is the easiest way > to do > this. > > With precisely this in mind, the original logic of Yigal Allon has > thus been > reformulated and repackaged for our own times by Haifa University > geographer > Arnon Soffer, a prime intellectual force behind Sharon's policy. Soffer > states bluntly that his aim is not peace but power. Separation, he > points > out, "doesn't guaranteee 'peace'-it guarantees a Zionist-Jewish state > with > an overwhelming majority of Jews," he argues. "And it guarantees one > other > important thing. Between 1948 and 1967, the fence was a fence, and > 400,000 > people left the West Bank voluntarily. This is what will happen after > separation. If a Palestinian cannot come to Tel Aviv for work, he will > look > in Iraq, or Kuwait, or London. I believe there will be movement out of > the > area." > > The mechanisms prompting such movement are obvious. "When 2.5 million > people > live in a closed-off Gaza, it's going to be a human catastrophe," > Soffer > predicts. "Those people will become even bigger animals than they are > today, > with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The pressure at the > border > is going to be awful. It's going to be a terrible war. So, if we want > to > remain alive , we will have to kill and kill and kill. All day, every > day." > All this killing, Soffer adds, will force Palestinians to realize that > "we're here and they're there." > > The declared aim of Sharon's plan is thus to maintain the fantasy of > Israel's Jewishness-regardless, of course, of the cost to > Palestinians. If > Abbas refuses these terms, Israel has made it clear that it will > proceed > without him. And as long as it enjoys unconditional American support, > there > is little standing in its way. > > But, even according to its own logic, Sharon's plan is flawed. A > quarter of > the schoolchildren of Israel (excluding the occupied territories) are > today > Palestinian. Even if Israel rids itself of unwanted Palestinian > territories, > it still must contend with the fact that within decades its own > population > will include a Palestinian majority. Separation today, unilateral or > otherwise, will be of little use then. If in an age of global > multicultural > connectedness (and continued Palestinian resistance) it turns out to be > difficult for Israel to transformits current apartheid policy from a > weapon > used against a minority to one used against an eventual majority > (which is > by no means certain, of course), Israel will at last face two remaining > choices. It must either persist with its violent fantasy of Jewishness > and > continue the ethnic cleansing initiated in 1947-48 by expelling all the > remaining Palestinians living within its borders, or at least enough > of them > to artificially maintain-according to the same obscene demographic > calculus > that keeps people like Soffer and Sharon up at night-some kind of > Jewish > edge, for however long it takes until the process has to be repeated > again. > Or Israel must abandon fantasy for reality and see what chances might > be > left to come to a genuine and just peace with a people that it will by > then > have brutalized for decades on end. Assuming, of course, that that > people--the Palestinians--are still interested in peace. But by then it > might already be too late. > > Saree Makdisi, a professor of English Literature at UCLA, can be > reached at: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
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