Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 18)
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- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 18)
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focused on Soviet Jews. At the same time, a significant
number of Israelis began to emigrate. This terrified Israeli
leaders. Official statements show the extent of the Zionists’
fear of this phenomenon, while also revealing some of the
reasons behind the problem. As was written in Davar,
August 10th, 1973: «We are facing a very dangerous matter.
The number of Soviet Jewish immigrants to Israel is declin-
ing. And that of those emigrating from Israel is increasing.
It is happenning in a disturbing way.»
It appeared that most Jews had lost interest in immig-
rating to Israel. At the same time, for many of those who
did settle there, the so-called land of milk and honey no
longer satisfied their aspirations, and many new immigrants
discovered that the promise of a better life was nothing but
a lie. Minister of Immigrant Absorption Shlemo Razon
noted: «The decline in immigration resulted from the possi-
bility of new wars erupting, the lack of a feeling of security
and economic difficulties... 4,000 Soviet Jews have obtained
permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union in the last
year(1974), but they went to the US, not to Israe!»(quoted
by Kanaan, p.133). With the lessened interest in immigra-
tion, the preference for other relocation places and
accumulating problems in Israel, the emigration of Jews
from Israel began to exceed immigration by the late seven-
ties and early eighties.
If many Zionist leaders cited economic difficulties and
insecurity as reasons for tipping the immigration-emigration
ratio, World Jewish Congress and WZO President Nahum
Goldman viewed that the main reason was to be found
within Zionism and its concepts. He proposed a renewal of
Zionism: «If we add human meanings to the national con-
cept, and if we have the ability to convince a Jew that here
we are establishing a civilization and new society with deep
meaning and values for the human being at large, then it is
possible to have this Jew in Israel»(Kanaan, p.151).
Goldman’s words indirectly confirmed that Jews were
becoming less fervent in their belief in the Zionist cause, at
least in terms of deciding to settle in Israel. As the Ameri-
can author Roberta Feuerlicht wrote: «If Zionism is a
national liberation movement, many Jews do not wish to be
liberated; 75 per cent of the world Jewish population do not
live in Israel... The Jewish population of Israel is actually
shrinking»(Yuri Andreyev, Zionism: Preaching and Practice,
1988, p.17).
An article in Maariv, December Ist, 1978, cited another
factor which is connected to both the concern of Goldman
about lacking conviction in Zionism, and the econamic fac-
tor: «The majority of Soviet Jews who are leaving the Soviet
Union are not Zionist idealists. They are only concerned
with improving their living standard... To them, Israel is a
theocratic state... They believe that Israel cannot exist with-
out the US, so it is better for them to go directly there(the
US).»
All these statements challenge the Zionist myths of the
«unity of the Jewish people» and «return to the fatherland.»
The majority of Jews in the world have actually assimilated
into the society of their own country; thus they lack the
common characteristics of a people or nation. This fact of
assimilation has often been noted in Israeli leaders’ state-
ments, and they consider it as one of the greatest dangers
18
LL
facing Israel and Zionism, due to the role it plays in hinder-
ing immigration. «Assimilation is the greatest danger facing
Jews of the diaspora,» said Levi Eshkol, Israeli prime minis-
ter in the sixties. «In the Western countries, the Jewish
identity is going to disappear through assimilation»(quoted
by Kanaan, p.156).
A basic fact which Zionist leaders try to gloss over is
the lack of homogeneity in Israeli society itself. Being
immigrants from different parts of the world, each group has
its own traditions, language, cultural background and
beliefs. This has caused many contradictions among Jews in
Israel, as social and ethnic differences overlap with class
divisions, as is most apparent in the differences between
Ashkenazi and Oriental(or Arab) Jews. Ilan Halevi cites a
telling incident in his book: «In 1972, a group of new immig-
rants from the USSR demonstrated at Nevi Sharett, in the
suburbs of Tel Aviv, to protest against being housed right
next to a Yemenite Jewish quarter. ‘We did not come from
the USSR,’ they said, ‘to live with Blacks!’»(p.225).
Immigration and expansion
It is necessary to understand the dangers Zionist immig-
ration poses, as it is an undisputed fact that the greatest
threat to peace in the Middle East stems from Zionist
expansionism which is only fueled by immigration. This
expansionism has been practiced since the emergence of the
Zionist movement and current developments show that
today’s Israeli leaders have not and will not give up their
expansionist plans. The State of Israel as recognized by the
UN is not enough for the Zionists. Their ultimate objective
is «Greater Israel» - optimally with frontiers extending from
the Nile to the Euphrates. Any modifications of this goal
are due to limitations imposed by concrete realities, not lack
of ambition.
The dialectics between immigration and expansion have
been continuously reiterated by Zionist leaders. Herzl was
the first to express this dialectical relation; when asked by
the imperial counsellor of Germany about the borders of the
land needed for a Jewish state, he said: «Whenever the
number of immigrants increases, our need for land
increases»(quoted by Kanaan, p.127). Herzl was fully aware
that the ‘ingathering’ of Jews from all over the world was a
prerequisite for establishing the Zionist state. His colleague,
the French Zionist Max Nordau, called for immediate prac-
tical steps to ensure a Jewish majority in Palestine, and
proposed a solution to the «Jewish problem» via «large-scale
immigration of Jewish youth to Palestine aiming at coloniz-
ing the fatherland»(quoted by Kanaan, p.112). In 1899, the
German Zionist Davis Trich, wrote to Theodor Herzl say-
ing: «Since it is beyond your ability to gather 10 million
Jews in a piece of land not more than 25,000 square
kilometers, I suggest you to take interest in the program of
‘Greater Palestine’ or ‘Palestine and the neighboring coun-
tries’.» Since the Zionist movement was seeking to establish
a «national home for all the Jewish people,» Trich called for
amending the Zionist program whereby its aim would be
specified as the «colonization of Palestine and the neighbor-
ing countries»(quoted by Kanaan, p.16).
Most recently, Prime Minister Shamir made the link
between a big immigration and the need for more land for
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990 - هو جزء من
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