Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 16)
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- Democratic Palestine : 45 (ص 16)
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In continuation of our series about the Palestinian right of return and the concept of a secular, democratic
Palestine, we print the following contribution sent to us by Dr. Uri Davis in May.
by Uri Davis, May 1991
The continued existence of the State of Israel in the next
decade is not secure. This is the case, not because of a fiction of
anti— Semitic gentile hatred of anything Jewish, but because
the political pretensions of political Zionism can not be realised
except through the means of mass expulsion and continued
occupation. Such policies are unstable cornerstones for any
political and state system, so much more so for a political and
state system whose economic foundation is flawed. The
fragility of the pretensions of political Zionism and _ its
weakness are apparent todav on the surface. This article has
been written in the shadow of the danger of a devastating war in
the region. The lie of the Zionist claim that the State of Israel as
a Jewish state is a solution to the Holocaust is evident today for
all to see: the state that was purportedly established in order to
rescue Jews from gas chambers almost celebrated its
anniversary with the face of its citizens covered with gas masks.
The State of Israel is the strongest military power in the
Middle East; yet, it is a power whose political and social
foundations are unstable and its material base forever on the
verge of collapse. A relatively small change of the balance of
power in the region or in the international political climate is
sufficient to cause real damage to the capability of the State of
Israel to sustain the political agenda which is at the basis of its
existence, namely, to sustain the effort required to guarantee a
demographic majority for such of its inhabitants as are
recognised by the State as Jews.
The hegemonious ideological perspective in the State of
Israel is the political Zionist perspective. It is possible to focus
the political pretension of political Zionism at its aspiration to
establish and secure the continued existence of a sovereign
Jewish State in Palestine where a demographic majority be
guaranteed for such of its residents whose citizenship is Jewish
(Israeli), whose nationality is Jewish (according to the Israeli
Law of Return, 1950) and whose religion is Jewish (offsprings
of a Jewish mother or properly converted to Judaism by
orthodox procedure). Neturei Karta, for instance, were correct
when they argued that this political aspiration is a crime: an
original sin, in orthodox religious terms, the work of the devil.
And the secular critics of political Zionism were right in their
argument that the aspiration to establish a sovereign Jewish
state in Palestine can not be realized in a world of human beings
who wish to found their political and social existence in
democratic values; that the attempt to establish a sovereign
Jewish state in Palestine necessarily leads to policies based on
crimes against humanity (e.g. transfer 1948), continued
occupation (e.g. Galilee 1948, West Bank 1967) and a regime of
apartheid racism.
Indeed it was clear to all who had eyes to see that the
attempt to establish a sovereign Jewish state in 1948 in the
territories allocated by the United Nations General Assembly
Resolution 181 (II) of 29 November 1947, recommending a
Partition Plan for Palestine where half of the population was
Muslim and Christian, was an attempt that necessarily invites
false solutions of mass expulsion: transfer. The representatives
16
of the Palestinian Arab people and the governments of the
Arab states were right in their opposition to the UN Partition
Plan of 1947.
The State of Israel as formulated in the UN Partition Plan
of November 1947 was not designated to be a Jewish State in its
political Zionist meaning, namely, a state with a guaranteed
demographic Jewish majority. The State of Israel was
designated in the said UN resolution to be a bi— national state,
and likewise the State of Palestine which was to be established
alongside the State of Israel by force of the same resolution.
Despite the mass expulsion of the Palestinian Arab people,
which was carried out under the cover of the 1948 war, the State
of Israel is not a Jewish state. It is a bi— national state.
* Some 17% of the citizens of the State of Israel are
Palestinian Arabs (approx. 750,000).
* Some 30% of the inhabitants of the territory of Mandate
Palestine who are under Israeli rule (approx. 2,000,000) are
organised in the framework of the intifada against the
occupation and declare in their vast majority that the Palestine
Liberation Organization (PLO) is their sole legitimate
representative.
* Some 30% of the total of the Palestinian Arab people who are
defined by the laws of the State of Israel as «absentees,»
namely, refugees and deportees (approx. 2,000,000) are
organised in the framework of the PLO in order to implement
their right to return and live in all parts of their homeland,
either as citizens of the State of Palestine or as citizens of the
State of Israel, or as inhabitants of dual citizenship.
The efforts to secure the continued existence of the State of
Israel as a Jewish State in its political Zionist meaning, namely,
Democratic Palestine, August 1991 - هو جزء من
- Democratic Palestine : 45
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