Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 19)
غرض
- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 38 (ص 19)
- المحتوى
-
WI
settlement. He is a consistent, long-term advocate of «Gre-
ater Israel,» meaning at a minimum that the West Bank,
Gaza Strip and Golan Heights be included in the Zionist
state. In his words: «For a large immigration we need the
land of Israel, a large and strong Israel. We will need a lot
of place to absorb everybody»(Associated Press, January
16th). His statement represents the very essence of Zionism
and its expansionist strategy.
Israeli leaders have consistently considered Israel a
country without borders, and in fact its borders have been
defined by aggression, war and occupation, rather than by
internationally acceptable geographical boundaries. In 1937,
in the name of «historical rights over the whole of the ter-
ritory,» the majority of delegates to the World Congress of
the Workers of Zion, in Zurich, rejected the partition of
Palestine as had been proposed by the Peel Commission, as
it didn’t allot sufficient land for Zionist ambitions. At this
congress, Golda Meyerson(later Meir), who became Israeli
prime minister in 1969, said: «War alone can change bor-
ders. Perhaps there will be a war in the near future»(quoted
by Halevi, p.188).
Ten years later, Zionist leaders initially rejected the UN
General Assembly resolution 181 of November 1947, which
called for partitioning Palestine into two seperate states -
one Jewish and one Arab state. The drive for more land was
one of the main reasons for their rejection. The records of
the UNO Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Ques-
tion(October 1947) give some idea of the Zionist move-
ment’s conditions for accepting the partition plan. Rabbi
Abba Hillel, Jewish Agency representative at the fourth
meeting of the committee, emphasized the following
requirements: «an immediate influx of immigrants, which
would be possible only in a Jewish State... a Jewish State
must have in its own hands those instruments of financing
and economic control necessary to carry out largexscale
Jewish immigration and the related economic develop-
ment...»(Fraser, p.53).
Though the Zionists tactically accepted the UN parti-
tion resolution, no. 181, they immediately set out to torpedo
it in the field. While the Palestinians protested the division
of their country, the Zionists embarked on their military
plan to enlarge the territory allotted for their state, expand-
ing into the areas designated for an Arab state. Accordingly,
in May 1948, the lines had already changed and the State of
Israel was established. Israeli objectives vis-a-vis the 1967
occupied territories stem from this same strategy practiced
with the original occupation of Palestine in 1948.
Aiming to make the new occupation a fait accompli,
Israeli leaders have continually tried to get more Jews to
immigrate to Palestine, for this would play a decisive role in
shaping the Israeli annexation policy by tightening their grip
on the occupied territories. Five weeks after the June 1967
war, Moshe Dayan, then defense minister, declared: «The
settlements established in the (occupied) territories are there
forever and the future frontiers will include these settle-
ments as part of Israel»(The Arab League, Israeli Settle-
ments in the Occupied Arab Territories, 1985, p.346). «It is
not enough to occupy land,» said Abba Eban, foreign minis-
ter at that time, «but it should be settled»(Davar, Sep-
tember 11th, 1967). Immigration, coupled with settlement,
Democratic Palestine, March-April 1990
is also part of the Zionist strategy of establishing Israel as
a regional power which could control the area as a whole,
and expand according to its ambitions.
On September 24th, 1967, Yitzhak Rabin represented
Israel at the European Zionist Council’s conference in
Basel, where he stated: «The main task of the Zionist move-
ment is to find new methods aimed to get more immigrants.
When the population of Israel reaches four or five million
Jews, nothing will be able to frighten it or to question its
existence»(Jerusalem Post, September 25th, 1967). In this
view, securing Israel’s power via more immigration means
enabling it not only to retain the West Bank, Gaza Strip and
Golan Heights but to expand further. This unending process
of expansion was clearly spelled out by Moshe Dayan to a
group of US Jewish students visiting the Golan Heights in
1968, when he said that the creation of the Zionist state was
«a process of building up, of expansion, of getting more
Jews and settlements and of colonization, in order to expand
the borders here... Let there be no Jew who says that we
are near the end of the road»(Maariv, July 7th, 1968).
Another leading Zionist was quoted in The New York
Times, August 31st, 1975, as saying: «Israel is a country
without borders... The people feel that by coming here they
have made this border.»
The vital issue, then, is the overall growth of Israel as
a regional power able to change the situation at will, includ-
ing its own borders. «In five years we won’t be able to rec-
ognize this country,» said Shamir. «Everything will change,
everything will be bigger, stronger»(Time, February 12th,
1990). Such recent statements by the Israeli prime minister
have been encouraged by the new influx of the Soviet Jews.
The massive immigration of Soviet Jews to Palestine is
aimed at changing the political, military, economic, geog-
raphic and demographic constellation in the region.
Strengthening Israel militarily and economically will increase
the threat it poses to the Palestinian people and to the Arab
states’ sovereignty. One of the main results will be a new
drive to annex the occupied Palestinian and Arab territories,
with future expansion to be expected at the expense of
neighboring countries, aimed at realizing the dream of «Gre-
ater Israel.» The massive new immigration also inevitably
involves the displacement of more Palestinians, as well as
increased repression and other means of pressuring them to
emigrate.
The «transfer» idea
To encourage Jewish immigration to Palestine, the
Zionist leaders emphasized Israel Zangwill’s famous slogan:
«A land without a people for a people without a land.» In
addition to denying the existence of the Palestinian people,
they claimed Palestine as the «historic land of Israel,» jus-
tifying the alleged right of Jews to settle there and establish
their state. The aftermath of this great lie was extensive
immigration and the establishment of Israel. However,
many of the immigrants were to realize that they had been
misled by the Zionist movement in terms of the land being
uninhabited. The Zionist leaders, for their part, were from
the start aware of the deception.
In an article written in 1893, «Truth about the Land of
Israel,» Asher Ginsberg, leader of the Lovers of Zion, who >
19 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 38
- تاريخ
- أبريل ١٩٩٠
- المنشئ
- الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين
Contribute
Not viewed