Israel: 60 Years Without Self-Criticism

Madrid Platform for Peace

ccun.org, May 21, 2008

These days Israel’s government celebrates the 60th anniversary of its foundation. During this period Israel has reached an unprecedented technological, agricultural and economical development.

It has a parliamentary democracy regime with 7.000.000 inhabitants and has the highest literacy rate in Middle East. Its income per capita rises to 26.200 USD, and has a GDP that fills the 38 place between all the world economies.

Its development and well-being achievements contrast abruptly with the fact that a quarter of its population lives in poverty.

Israel’s society is fragmented, not just because its population was coming from 70 different nationalities and origins and arrived to their coasts in such brief period, but also because of the difficulties of each group to hold an intercultural way of life.

A unifying factor of Israel’s national common identity is based in the mythical territoriality of its biblical past, another factor was their common external enemy which has always persecuted jews during the millenary period in the Diaspora: the “Goim” (non Jewish) and nowadays the Palestinians who are fighting also for their land and which denied at the same time in the political negotiations that are taking place nowadays.

Israel’s identity pretends to be built through a military nationalist and iron education, in which their young girls invest two years invest and boys three years of their lives, reinforcing in this way the idea of a survival only can be assure by military power. This approach leads to the israelies to an imaginary collective that they will be protected of danger and therefore they get the idea of an endless conflict and they are not seeking the way for its resolution.

How much does Israel’s government invest in education to meet the “enemy” that they are living with? How much does Israel invest to develop tolerance and intercultural dialogue in its own population while the Army and their politicians don’t respect Human Rights and International Law? Does Israel make enough efforts in its population to drive them to peace and understanding actions with their neighbors, instead of teaching them in the way of confrontation?

Economical and well-being development contrast with the non-compliance of the condemnatory resolutions of  UN, while the blockade is affecting more than 1.500.000 Gaza inhabitants, condemning them to a slow and assured death, denying again their right to exist, in spite of Annapolis.

Economical and well-being development contrast with the denying and the distortion of history what has been a constant from Israel until present days, against Palestinians interests. Israel’s governments have been showing that they don’t have a real and authentic peace willing which could bring a fair succeed to the Conflict. Its trick consists in saying to the world: “We want to change, but we don’t want to change anything”.

The Peace Process started in Annapolis, with the Bush Administration discredited as sponsor, and has ruined a possible peace plan for both nations.

When President Bush arrives to Israel the present week in order to celebrate the 60 anniversary of Israel’s foundation, maybe some gullible people will still expect a miracle. But the truth is that, according to his statements we can conclude that there isn’t any vocation to drive Annapolis to the end of the Conflict in his last press conference to call the departure to Israel he declares: the borders and the other problems of the Conflict depends on both sides, israelies and palestinians .

Benvenisti, an israeli historian and former Jerusalem vice-mayor, declared recently to the Spanish newspaper “El País”: “The world is bribing Palestinian with thousand millions of dollars to keep the illusion of a peace process. Palestinian Authority does not exist; they are just a thief’s band. And Israel’s government uses its superiority above the inferiors carrying out an apartheid system”.

On November 29th of 1947 the United Nations declared the Partition of Palestine in two states, one for palestinians and the other for jews, resolution that Arabians didn’t accepted. 

On May 14th, one day before the British Mandate over Palestine came to its end, the state of Israel was created unilaterally and the day after, five Arabic countries reject its foundation and declare war to the new state. This war lasted 15 months with intermittent truces arbitrated by the UN.

As a consequence of the war, Israel gets the 26 per cent of the land that the British term of office left. Then, 500 Arabic-Palestinian villages were eliminated and their inhabitants were expelled (estimated in more than 700.000 people), this is known as the Naqba (a catastrophe for Palestinian) and was the beginning of the serious problem of Palestinian refugees who are exiled in Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

In the same way, a big amount of palestinians were displaced by force to Gaza, the former Transjordan; lots of them became refugees too.

We cannot forget that a significant number of Jewish that remained in Arabic land were expelled too, including some Jewish communities established in Palestine from ancient times; among them, it is especially important the one from East Jerusalem.

During the decade after, about 600.000 eastern Jewish, an equivalent figure to the one of Palestinian refugees, ran away or were ejected from Arabic countries.

Denial of a fact, is a psychological defense mechanism that allow us not to assume our responsibilities, uneasiness and obligations, that usually causes a progressive deterioration in individuals and a deep disorder in their relationships with the others.

Refusal, projection and distortion are the most pathological defense mechanisms developed by humans not to assume its responsibilities.

Political and human behavior of every Israeli government denies historical reality, ignoring the other’s rights, justifying the apartheid’s crime that reigns in Palestine and Gaza’s blockade.

The background of this behavior is justified by the suffering of the Holocaust in the collective imaginary of Jewish people and Israel jewish people. This idea and reality of jewish persecution brought among the world’s public opinion related to the israeli-palestinian Conflict the idea that not only Hamas is a terrorist organization, but every palestinian it is so, except those who are inside the Palestinian National Authority.

Israel reinforces its attitude and remains in its bunker, using the Palestinian division between Hamas and Fattah to deny any possibility of a global agreement, in spite of the two truces that Hamas offered counting on Egypt mediation.

Hamas, Syria and Arabic League’s exclusion damaged any intend of peace negotiations in Middle East and they must be taken into account to achieve a peace agreement, although we do not share their political positions. Fattah did not recognize Israel at the beginning of the negotiating contacts.

Israel would look to the future with dignity and sincerity only if it is able to look at the present making a deep self-critic about its current peace politics.

Giving huge amounts of money to ANP leaders or investing in the West Bank is not enough while check points are blocking making impossible normal life almost in the occupied Palestine. Meanwhile, housing keeps growing in the settlements and retaliation operations continues in Gaza as the Palestinian attacks from Gaza to Israel go on.

60th anniversary can not be celebrated if Annapolis negotiations mean nothing to palestinians and while settlements keep growing, the wall continuous its construction and Gaza’s blockade persists.

We can only celebrate if a fair and lasting solution is reached in the main subjects: Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements, Palestinian state; and if all injustices committed are repaired.

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Plataforma de Madrid por la Paz en el Conflicto Palestino- Israelí

Madrid Platform for Peace in the Palestinian – Israeli Conflict

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Tel. (+34) 91 429 9400 –Fax (+ 34) 91 369 3613 E- mail: madrid@palestinaisraelporlapaz.es Web: www.palestinaisraelporlapaz.es