The Israeli policy in the Occupied Territories: what
should one call it?
By: Victoria Buch- Jan 14, 2007
The State of Israel calls it “fight
for existence” or “fight against terror”. Its detractors call it “colonization”,
“apartheid”, or “ethnic cleansing”. Baruch Kimmerling coined the term
“politicide of Palestinians”. Edward Said spoke of slow bleeding. Recently, even
words such as “genocide”[1] have been used. Let us try to define the Israeli
policy, and then grapple with the question of proper naming.
It should be stated in advance, that by “policy” I mean consistent long term
developments pursued by the different Israeli governments in the Occupied Territories. Its
major element has been massive settlement construction in conjunction with land grab. By
now the number of Israeli Jewish citizens residing beyond Israel’s 1967 border nears
0.44 million (including Jerusalem). The built-up area of the settlements consists of less
than 3% of the area of the West Bank, but the area which they officially dominate
(municipal jurisdiction) constitutes over 40% [2]. Presently, more than 1/3 of the West
Bank is out of reach for most Palestinians [3]. A second element has been confinement of
West Bank Palestinians to disconnected enclaves, and attrition of the enclaves by military
invasions and economic blockade [4].
On the other hand, I shall attach little significance to the recent Olmert-Abbas meeting,
and to recent declarations by PM Olmert of forthcoming goodwill gestures towards
Palestinians. Similar declarations by Israeli leaders were made periodically in the past,
and have thus been an integral part of the Israeli policy. However, the “goodwill
gestures” were never carried through to any significant extent, for any significant
length of time [5]. Not a dent was made in the large-scale settlement and expropriation
projects noted above. Thus, the obvious significance of such declarations is a
publicity gimmick designed to make Israel look good in the eyes of the public, which is
ignorant of the reality on the ground, and mistakes the declarations for reality. Also, as
noted astutely by D. Breslau, such declarations often serve as a prelude for a major
military invasion to the Occupied Territories.
To assess the Israeli policy one needs
to face squarely the grim reality in the Occupied Territories, and to look through
periodic publicity exercises. One aspect of this reality transpires through the following
translation of a letter from a soldier, received by Yesh Gvul - an organization of Israeli
men who refuse military service in the Occupied Territories. I quote such an ugly letter,
since in my view, it is indicative of the strong current inside the IDF:
“Hello, as written above, my name is Ofir and all I have to say is that for 3 years I
have committed `war crimes` as you guys define it. I have beaten and shot Palestinians and
their belongings. I even have plenty of pictures. I really enjoyed it and I was even a
commander, a Platoon Sergeant, and later a Sergeant-Major of a company. The entire company
did similar things. I must admit that I am proud of what I did there. I don't give a damn
about those beasts you call Palestinians, and don't give a damn about you guys. I think
you should all be sent to camps, you and your friends across the border. OK, I am sure you
are nothing but a bunch of old ladies who came up with this temporary solution to your
boredom, to pass time between retirement and death... I am sure you won't bother to read
this but just in case, you should know that I am quite smart (engineering major), young
(23), secular, not some settler loonie from the OT, and yet, I think you shouldn't be
living with us. I wish you all get the worst disease there is, you and your kids. Die.
Nazi assholes.”
The adjectives applied by the author of the letter to Yesh Gvul activists are not of much
interest beyond evoking an old Jewish saying “A condemner condemns himself” (“Ha-posel
be’mumo posel”). Of much greater interest is this man’s self image –
he views himself as just a “regular guy”. Most “regular people”
acquire their value systems from the surroundings. It appears that the army leaders want
the soldiers to view Arabs as “those beasts”. The army leaders seem to view them
likewise.
And if you do not believe me – observe the current policy in Gaza, the West Bank,
and, last summer, in Lebanon. The principle is simple – “the more damage to the
Arabs, the better”. Otherwise, how can you explain spreading of millions of cluster
bombs all over South Lebanon just before the retreat from Lebanon? In view of the
commanders, the act must have been equivalent to spraying pesticide before leaving a room.
And what is the point of systematic demolition of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli army since
the beginning of the Second Intifada? You cannot seriously believe that the objective is
to stop the Qassams. In fact, there were no Qassam rockets well into the second year
of the Intifada, by which time the piece-meal destruction campaign of Gaza by military
invasions was well under way. Keeping one and a half million traumatized people imprisoned
under hellish conditions, and denying them any chance of normal life will mathematically
feed the ranks of extremists, and thus bring more Qassams. Any sensible person understands
that the Qassams will keep coming.
A second pertinent quotation follows, this time by a public figure: Arnon Sofer,
Professor of Geography at Haifa University, father of Sharon`s "separation plan"
(quotation from the Jerusalem Post weekend supplement Up Front, May 21, 2004, p.9):
"When 1.5 million people live in a
closed-off Gaza, it`s going to be a human catastrophe. Those people will become even
bigger animals than they are today, with the aid of an insane fundamentalist Islam. The
pressure at the border will 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. If we don`t
kill, we will cease to exist. The only thing that concerns me is how to ensure that the
boys and men who are going to have to do the killing will be able to return home to their
families and be normal human beings."
There was no public uproar in Israel after the above pronouncement. The author of the
above quotation remains a respectable professor in one of the major Israeli academic
institutions. You can hear him on public radio. He is a recognized specialist on “demographic
problems”. Note the kind of ideas which are currently accepted – or tolerated -
by the brain-washed Israeli mainstream.
I do not wish to convey by this that
most Jewish Israelis are blood-thirsty monsters craving Arab blood. In fact most are quite
oblivious to the existence of Palestinians and their plight. The majority of Israelis
simply don’t care. For myself, a 1968 immigrant from Poland, Palestinians used to be
an abstract entity. I became very disturbed and embarrassed by what is done to them by my
State only in the nineties, after becoming personally acquainted with some of them. Most
Israelis do not have Arab friends. Most Israelis view themselves as peace loving people,
regretfully forced to protect themselves from these Palestinian barbarians by military
force. The Israelis are desensitized to the humanity of Palestinians by daily propaganda
dispensed copiously by the media (“Arabs only want to throw us to the sea”,
“this is our fight for existence”, “we have to overcome terror before
negotiating” and the remaining worn-out mantras, which are literally believed.)
However, I think that if offered a different version of reality (“we have to seek a
compromise with Palastinians to survive”) the majority of Israeli Jews would believe
that too. The potential for peaceful coexistence still exists. You can still see Israeli
Jews and Arabs coexisting and cooperating under normal everyday conditions (although the
opportunities for such cooperation are being reduced).
However, the people in power in Israel are not interested in dispensing the other version
of reality, except as a part of occasional propaganda stints noted above. The
Israeli Jewish citizens have been harnessed by their leaders to service a Machine for
Gradual Piece-Meal Demolition and Expropriation of Palestinians. The majority of the
Israeli citizens are wonderfully unaware of what is it that they are servicing; they are
being told – and believe – that they are serving the State Security. This is
despite the evidence of massive settlement construction in the West Bank, the inefficacy
of military means to bring security, and the pauperization of the Israeli society, as the
Occupation keeps draining the resources. Discarding the media spin and grasping the big
picture seems to be beyond the capacity of an average citizen of our country. In this
respect, Israelis are not very different from any other nation.
Let us summarize the principles governing the Israeli government policy:
Principle (1) was already noted: “The
more damage to Arabs, the better”. It was not always like that, at least not
entirely. Well into the PM Barak tenure, a notion was floating among Israeli politicians
and military, that making Palestinian life bearable and keeping them gainfully employed is
in the interests of the State of Israel. No more. This notion was effectively eradicated
by that terrible old man, the epitome of Israeli colonialism, presently lingering in the
Hadassah Hospital. Since the beginning of the Occupation, Sharon was perhaps the most
important and talented of the developers and promoters of the Machine (though by far not
the only one). The Machine was greatly empowered and fine-tuned during Sharon’s
tenure as the Prime Minister. Here is just a fraction of the “methods” [4,6]:
Palestinian home and property demolitions. Unleashing “hilltop boys” from
settlements to scare off farmers from their fields, and to destroy crops. Denying
Palestinian access to water. Delaying access of Palestinian produce to markets until it
rots, while pushing Israeli products to Palestinian shops. Blocking economic investment,
confiscating money. Making Palestinian travel to any place outside one’s own town or
village a humiliating, lengthy and often impossible undertaking. Evicting foreign citizens
married to Palestinians. Evicting sympathetic foreigners. Widespread arrests. Imprisonment
in disconnected enclaves, where work is scarce and life miserable. Subjecting the enclaves
to endless military incursions. All this concurrently with a large-scale land grab and
settlement construction.
Principle (2) of the Israeli policy: Keep the violence rolling; dodge peace initiatives.
This policy is carried out in broad daylight, unnoticed by the brainwashed Israeli public.
Among the past examples, note the scorned peace overtures of Abu-Mazen, and those of the
Saudis. Perhaps the most striking example is the Israeli treatment of the Hamas government
[4]. The Israeli establishment must have sighed in relief when Abu-Mazen, with his Western
face and uncomfortable peace overtures finally lost power to Hamas. But Hanieh did not
deliver! He behaved like a respectable statesman rather than a terrorist! The political
wing of Hamas which came to power expressed interest in negotiating a settled solution
based on that anathema to the Israeli establishment – 1967 international borders!
Even worse, Hamas demonstrated the ability to maintain a ceasefire throughout the year
preceding the elections, at the time that Israel did not maintain any ceasefire. This
could not be permitted. A frantic string of Israeli provocations followed in the form of
assassinations of Palestinian leaders, which finally bore fruit – the attack on
Israeli military post, in which a soldier was taken prisoner. The poor soldier Shalit
provided the military leaders with a pretext for a large scale invasion of Gaza, for which
they have been drooling since the “disengagement” from Gaza . Much of the Hamas
political wing was carted off to jail, impairing their ability to rule, and leaving the
Palestinian street to gunmen. The latter are unlikely to make any uncomfortable peace
overtures, and can be trusted to deliver the Qassams. The latter could be stopped –
simply by negotiating with Hamas. But the Qassam salvos are convenient prerequisites for
the militaristic policy.
[Do not get confused by the recent Olmert – Abu-Mazen meeting. Support for
Abu-Mazen could have been considered an effective step towards negotiated compromise a
couple of years ago, when Abu-Mazen came to power and enjoyed support of most of the
Palestinian public. At that time Israeli government did everything in its means to pull
the rung from under his feet. The present show of support for the discredited Palestinian
leader who lost the elections can only be interpreted as an effort towards further
destabilization of the Palestinian society.]
Principle (3): Bully anybody who dares
to criticize Israel. One may note the shameless use of Holocaust, and the accusations of
anti-Semitism directed against decent people (some Jewish!) who oppose the Israeli
government.
So what should we call the above Israeli
policy in the Occupied Territories? It certainly does not answer the definition of
“fight against terror”, as claimed by the government, since one of its outcomes
is empowerment of the violent elements within the Palestinian political system. On the
other hand, the term “genocide” in its simple meaning does not sound
appropriate, since wholesale murder does not take place (however the extended definition
adopted by the UN does include elements of the OT reality [1]). “Colonial expansion”
seems to cover much, but not all, of this reality. Apartheid appears to be a fair
approximation. In fact, many of the discriminatory rulings against the Palestinians
parallel the ones employed in the past against the non-whites in South Africa . One can
only marvel, what is the point of imitating measures such as the infamous Pass Laws and
confinement to Bantustans, after these measures failed so spectacularly in South Africa !
However there is one significant difference with respect to the SA apartheid. The whites
in SA viewed the rest of the society as inferiors, designated servants and laborers, but
did not propose to exclude them totally from the society. The people in power in Israel
have a dream – a dream of Palestinians disappearing from sight – and pursue this
dream relentlessly. If you do not believe me, just look around. For example, note that
most West Bank and Gaza Palestinians were expelled from the Israeli labor market, and
laborers from Thailand, Romania, and other remote lands were imported in their stead. Or
drive along No 6 freeway, and note the grey walls of the Qalqilya ghetto. There is
not one road-sign pointing towards Qalqilya along the freeway. And trees are being planted
along the walls, which will eventually hide the ugly sight from the drivers. There are
numerous other examples, big and small.
Summarizing, I think that “ethnic
cleansing” is the most adequate description of the Israeli policy. Meaning: “(1)
Forceful dispossession of one ethnic group (Palestinians) on behalf of another (Israeli
Jews), which considers itself superior. (2) Gradual destruction of the dispossessed
society”.
So what next? Evidently, the Israeli
establishment believes that the policy of imprisonment of Palestinians in ghettoes, their
disconnection from the rest of the world, and piece-meal destruction by attrition –
can continue indefinitely. The hope seems to be that the Palestinian society will implode,
and the in-fighting will “finish the job”. However the number of Palestinians
living under Israeli rule is close to that of Israeli Jews. In the not-so-long-run, making
normal life impossible for Palestinians will result in large scale escalation of violence,
unlikely to remain confined within the walls of the ghettoes. Are the Israeli military and
militaristic leaders unable to see it? The answer may be “yes”; as
short-sightedness of military men is a well documented phenomenon in the history. But it
is also possible that some of them foresee the forthcoming paroxysm of violence and look
forward to it - their ilk thrives on bloodshed. They may consider it an opportunity for
large scale expulsion of Palestinians from the West Bank, in the 1948 fashion. Perhaps
Gaza is a designated mega-refugee camp and a destination for such mass expulsion.
Will the above succeed? Ethnic cleansing projects have been known to succeed in distant
and not-so-distant past. The Israeli government is riding the wave of newly fashionable
and acceptable Western colonialism (renamed conveniently “fight against terror”).
Also, by now everyone in the US Congress and Senate knows that saying a good word for
Palestinians is equivalent to a political suicide. Even supposedly progressive people such
as Nancy Pelosi grovel in front of AIPAC[7]. But once-upon-a-time South African apartheid
also seemed invincible, enjoying support of Reagan and Thatcher. And then it crumbled. And
the Israeli Machine does display signs of wear. Sharon, the evil genius who contributed
more than anybody to its launching, is out of political circulation. The people who
replaced him in power appear narrow-minded and predictable, by far below his league.
Israeli citizens continue to serve the Machine, but without the erstwhile ideological
zeal. During the last elections, remarkably low percentage went to the polls; and
out of those, surprisingly many chose to vote for a “Pensioners’ Party”.
I once attended a tour to the Wall (“Separation Fence”) in the Jerusalem area.
Our guide, a well known lawyer Danny Seideman described preposterous resources spent on
erecting the Wall, and equally preposterous manpower resources needed to maintain it in
future. “The thing will collapse under its own weight, like the South African
apartheid system”, he prophesized. In my view, the same will happen to the
whole Machine. Let us only hope that the two hapless nations will not end up buried under
its ruins.
* An Israeli academic, an
anti-occupation activist, and one of the editors of the Occupation Magazine: www.kibush.co.il. She can be reached via e-mail at: vvbb54@yahoo.com
Sources:
[1] Kathleen and Bill
Christianson, Counterpunch, 27.11.06 "Does it matter what you call it? Genocide or
erasure of Palestinians" http://www.counterpunch.org/christison11272006.html
One may note that the criteria that determine genocide under the UN Convention extend
beyond wholesale murder: `In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following
acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial,
or religious group, as such:
a. Killing members of the group;
b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its
physical destruction in whole or in part;
d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.`
[2] The West Bank - Facts and
Figures - June 2006
http://www.peacenow.org.il/site/en/peace.asp?pi=61&fld=191&docid=1856
[3] See, a map published in
Haaretz in March 2006 “More than a third of the West Bank - out of reach for most
Palestinians” . A copy, with legends translated to English, can be downloaded
from http://www.kibush.co.il/downloads/MAP.jpg.
[4] For an archive of pertinent
articles from the Israeli, Palestinian and international press, see the Occupation
Magazine http://www.kibush.co.il
See also compilations of UN data www.ochaopt.org
[5] See, e.g., Haaretz Editorial
25.12.06 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/805014.html
http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=18212
[6] Many of the methods of
oppression are summarized in the website of B’Tselem, http://www.btselem.org
[7] From Nancy Pelosi speech to AIPAC “`There are those who contend that the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about Israel`s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
This is absolute nonsense. In truth, the history of the conflict is not over occupation,
and never has been: it is over the fundamental right of Israel to exist.” See: http://www.kibush.co.il/show_file.asp?num=3840 |
