Justice in Israel-Palestine

Since the latest war broke out in Israel-Palestine, I have had occasion to review the history of Zionism from non-Zionist sources. I was and am dismayed to find that I had learned a Zionist version of the history, heavily whitewashed. This is an attempt to rectify my wrong thinking on the matter. As with so much of what I write these days, this is too short; a sketch of a sketch of something more thoroughly worked out.

The immediate need in Israel-Palestine, right now, is to remove Benjamin Netanyahu from power, and stop the genocide in Gaza. Afterwards, there may be time to think of solutions.

Zionism and Colonialism

If you read the early Zionist literature it had colonialist elements. Some was moderate; they wanted to buy out the people who lived in Palestine, ignoring that they’d been there for generations. Others were less so. Irgun founder Jabotinsky advocated making Arabs a minority in a Jewish state. They were also desperate. The first wave of Zionism was a relatively small number of settlers. Illegal, and resented by the local people, but they were not numerous. Then, in the 1930s, half a million Jewish refugees arrived from Europe, fleeing the Nazis and the USSR. Which must have seemed like an invasion, but they had literally nowhere else to go – the world turned them away. Then, the foundation of the state of Israeli and – I think it was around four million Jewish immigrants – and Israel became majority-Jewish. At every step on the way there were paths to peace which were not taken. The final path to peace was closed with the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

Hamas was founded as an organization of religious fanatics. It also revives a form of warfare long-dead in the West: war as revenge. Hamas is horrible and fanatical, but so is Otzma Yehudit, Itamar ben-G’vir’s party and Likud only somewhat less so. This is a conflict of fanaticisms, and neither side is willing to compromise. Biden did an extraordinary thing in negotiating even a temporary cease-fire. Perhaps this conflict can be returned to an armed truce, but once that is done there must be, despite terrorists and assassins on both sides, a peace made.

Outside Agitators

Neither side in this Likud-Hamas war would be going anywhere without support from religious fanatics outside of Israel/Palestine: on the Western (mainly US) side premillenialist evangelical Christians, on the Islamic side the radicals of Iran. Russia would a piece of the action, if they could figure out how to get it (and weren’t tied down in Ukraine.) China would like…something, but I wonder if their leadership even knows what. I suspect their leaders are very much regretting getting entangled in Putin’s neo-colonialist war and dubious about getting into this one.

Broken Treaties, Taken Land

Israel has consistently broken treaties and taken territory beyond its agreed borders and the USA has consistently backed them in this. The Zionists of the 1930s were desperate refugees, and the millions who came after 1948 were at least under threat, but none of this justifies Israeli expansionism, post-1948. Regardless of the legitimate moral claims of the Jews of Israel, this has to ring harshly in the ears of any indigenous people, who remember broken treaties and taken land.

Justice

These are some tentative conclusions from my understanding of the situation. I don’t claim any special moral knowledge, only an acceptance of history and an objection to ethnic cleansing and genocide. These conclusions, I expect, will satisfy no-one, but what is the alternative?

Premises

We may ask no people to accept their own extermination, neither the Jews of the last century, nor the Palestinians of today. The Zionists of the 1930s were fleeing what we now know was near-certain death at the hands of the Nazis and the Soviet Communists. The world turned them away. The Palestinians of today, in both Gaza and the West Bank, are persecuted by the Israelis and, again, the world is turning them away. Even their own sibling states turn them away, and have been doing so for decades.

Rights and Wrongs

1. Both Jews and Palestinians have been wronged, and are owed a homeland.
2. The Palestinians have been made stateless by Zionists. In justice they are owed a state, either in the remains of historical Palestine, or in a unified Israel/Palestine.
3. The Palestinians are also owed reparations, and these should be paid in part by the United States, which both contributed to the refugee problem of the 1930s, and has supported Israel in its violations of treaties and expansion.
4. Jews are also in justice owed a state and Israel is the historic Jewish homeland. Nor, after the Holocaust, may we reasonably expect Jews to trust the nations of the world. Jews are also owed reparations by the peoples of the world. The ethnic cleansing of Israeli Jews is not acceptable, however difficult they have made themselves.

Civil Rights

1. Palestine must have regular elections.
2. Israeli Arabs must be allowed into the governing coalitions of Israel.
3. Israel and Palestine must undertake to allow equal rights for all.

Penalties and Enforcement

1. To a large extent, much of the worst conduct of Israel has been enabled by US support, largely from fanatical Christians. Similarly, Hamas has been enabled by support from the Islamic world, partly from fanatical Muslims. All of this must stop. Support must be conditioned on good conduct, and that must be enforced.
2. The political leaders of both Israel and Palestine must be compelled to face justice.
3. The Jewish settlers of the West Bank must be punished for their violations of law, and violence against Palestinians.
4. Hamas must be punished for its crimes against humanity. We are unimpressed by the arguments that injustice done to Palestinians excuses their brutal cruelty.

In Conclusion

This is my own personal take on the matter though, I hope, one morally and historically informed. I do not (as I have written in other contexts) hope or expect to see its judgements implemented. I do hope that it will clarify matters for my readers.