Democratic Palestine : 40 (ص 24)
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- Democratic Palestine : 40 (ص 24)
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Zionist Immigration
This is the conclusion of the study we printed in Democratic Palestine no. 38, entitled «Zionist Immig-
ration in Historical Perspective.»
by Ahmad Halaweh
Due to the liberalization of Soviet emigration rules and
the US decision to close the door to Jews arriving from the
USSR, hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jewish immigrants
are expected to arrive in occupied Palestine over the next
few years. This mass influx has increased Israel’s hostile pos-
ition towards the Palestinian people inside and outside the
occupied territories. In addition to threatening the future of
the Palestinians, it also paves the way for many successive
wars which could change the political, geographic and
demographic map of the whole region. Immigration on this
scale means, effectively, the elimination of the Palestinian
people and everything non-Jewish about the Israeli state, as
indicated by Theodor Herzl in his book The Jewish State: «If
we, one day, capture Jerusalem, and I am still alive and cap-
able of doing anything, then I will destroy everything in it
not sacred to the Jews»(quoted by The Arab League, Israeli
Settlements in the Occupied Arab Territories, 1985, p.170).
Immigration and Israel’s racist policy
Much has been said about immigration and the dangers
it poses to the region in general and the Palestinian people
in particular, stemming from the idea of a «Greater Israel.»
«We took an Arab country and made it a Jewish one,» thus
Moshe Dayan summarized the meaning of the whole Zionist
enterprise in 1970, adding, «Do not say, the journey is over!
It is still long...»(quoted by Ilan Halevi, A History of the
Jews: Ancient and Modern, 1987, p.233). The Zionist enter-
prise, then, has no end. For the Zionists, the road is long,
and immigration opens the door to their endless dreams. It
was not enough that Palestine was dismantled and its people
dispersed. They hope to see all the Palestinians leave the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Jewish settlers come from
all over the world. This objective remains an essential part
of Zionism’s plan to transform Palestine into «Greater
Israel,» although the rulers of Israel know in their hearts
that they have no historical rights to Palestine.
Aiming to fulfill their racist aim of a «state of all the
Jews of the world,» the Zionists, from the day Zionism
came into being, pursued a dual program of «ingathering all
Jews» and expelling the Palestinians for the simple reason
that they are not Jews. The modern day embodiment of this
goal is effectively forcing Soviet Jews to go to Israel against
their preference, while Palestinians are denied the night to
return to their own homeland. The purpose of this discrimi-
nation, of course, is to disposess the Palestinians of their
national identity. From then to the present day, racism has
been the dominant characteristic of Zionism’s theory and
practice. This is evident in Israel, where Zionism is the offi-
cial ideology shaping the political practice of the ruling par-
ties. Zionism’s racist essence is manifested in the treatment
of the Palestinians; Arabs are humiliated in the economic,
political, cultural and social spheres. Such Israeli practices
and many others forced the UN General Assembly on Nov.
10, 1975 to regard Zionism as a form of racism.
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When Israel was established in 1948, it was founded
upon a lie. Its founding declaration contained the pledge
that the «State of Israel will ensure complete equality of
social and political nights to all its inhabitants irrespective of
religion, race or sex» and appealed to «the Arab inhabitants
of the State of Israel to...participate in upbuilding the State
on the basis of full and equal citizenship...»(quoted by T.G.
Fraser, The Middle East, 1914-1979, 1980, pp.67-68). This
declaration should mean that Palestinians and Jews are
equal in the eyes of the law. But this is neither the case
in theory or practice, as revealed bv Israel’s policies in
occupied Palestine.
To prepare the way for expelling the Palestinian popu-
lation and confiscating their property, Israel passed a series
of administrative measures and laws. It opened the door for
new immigration by passing the «Law of Return» in 1950,
which gave any Jew, wherever he might live, the nght to
immigrate to Israel, settle there and acquire Israeli citizen-
ship. Jews, of whatever nationality, have the automatic right
to become citizens, while Palestinians, the nghtful owners of
the land on which the Zionists settle, are denied the same
right. Palestinians in Israel have to fulfill many conditions to
qualify for Israeli citizenship in accordance with the «Na-
tionality Law» of 1952, whereas these conditions are
automatically waived for Jews. In this regard, Alfred M.
Lilienthal wrote: «While the Arab born in Palestine is thus
deprived of equality of citizenship, the American Jew, or
the Jew from any other country residing in Israel is automat-
ically endowed with Israeli citizenship regardless of whether
or not he renounced his original citizenship»(What Price
Israel?, 1969, p.205).
Israel renamed the Palestinians who remained in 1948
occupied Palestine «Israeli Arabs,» attempting to subvert
their Palestinian identity. Those Palestinians who were
expelled or forced to flee during the 1948 war, or again in
the war of 1967, lost any chance to establish a claim for per-
manent residency. Israel has consistently prevented Palesti-
nian refugees from returning to their homeland in spite of
Democratic Palestine, July-August 1990 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 40
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