Sunday, October 15, 2023

ISRAEL and PALESTINE: Can They Ever Co-Exist?

 

I begin with two foundational statements which undergird my approach.

First, Israel has the right to exist and to live in security within its borders. This must be accepted by all parties–including those Arab states (and other nations, e.g. Iran, Pakistan) who still hold out against its existence. It seems to me, however, that for a number of Arab states, for a variety reasons, some self-interested no doubt, have come to that conclusion (see e.g. “the Abraham Accords”). Jordan, whom some consider should be the “Palestinian State”, has had a peace treaty with Israel since 1994. Interestingly, I have in my files a newspaper clipping headed “Arabs ‘ready to admit Israel’s right to exist’”. The clipping comes from The Christchurch Press, dated 16/9/1983 following a UN conference which ended with a final declaration the acknowledged “the right of all States in the region to existence with secure and internationally recognised boundaries, with justice and security for all the people.” The writer, Liesl Graz, wrote: “Decoded that means the Arab States and the Palestine Liberation Organisation are ready, for the first time in a formal document, to admit Israel’s right to exist with the quid pro quo of the right to exist of a Palestinian state.” What happened to that “olive branch”, I wonder?

Nonetheless, my second foundational statement, Palestine as a homeland for Palestinians also needs to be recognised as a legitimate state. Palestinians lived there–and many still do–for generations. There needs, therefore, to be a “Two-State” solution (more of this anon).

The past is the past: it cannot be changed, but it need not continually cripple the future. The creation of Israel is a complex and mixed story. There were injustices, outright subterfuges and duplicity from the beginning (think the “Balfour Declaration” and the Sykes-Picot Agreement). But very few nations have a “pure” genesis. My own country, Aotearoa New Zealand has its own shady bits in its history of creation and subsequent story. And most countries have suffered from the effects of colonisation. So Israel’s history is no more and no less a reason to say that it should not exist.

Over the intervening years, in the decades since 1948, there have been missed opportunities, and exercises in bad faith on both sides. Perhaps the aftermath of the conference reported on above was one missed opportunity. The continued occupation and the establishment of Israeli settlements on the West Bank is an instance of bad faith. Arguably, a missed opportunity and an instance of bad faith on the Palestinian side, came with the refusal of Yasser Arafat to accept the conditions offered by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at the Camp David meeting hosted by President Bill Clinton in December 2000. Although the different assessments of the genuineness and fairness of those proposals indicates how difficult and complex, and often quite partisan, attempts at peace settlement are.[1]

On the other hand, there have been, and there are stories of goodwill and efforts at mutual understanding on both sides. Many Israelis, and Jews outside of Israel, recognise and support the Palestinian right to their own homeland, and oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. A heartwarming account by Izzeldin Abuelaish tells of his experiences as a doctor living in Gaza who was able to work alongside Jewish colleagues in a hospital in Israel. His friends and colleagues in the hospital were genuinely and deeply concerned about the privations he experienced trying to cross the border from Gaza into Israel, and also for his and his family’s safety when the Israeli Defence Force shelled their home on one of its incursions into Gaza. Despite the fact that three of his daughters and a neice were killed when Israeli shells hit their home, Abuelaish believes Israelis and Palestinians can live together in peace if they can only get to know one another. Co-operation and co-existence are possible but politicians must take a lead in become “humanitarians”. [2]

We should not forget, too, that there are Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. There are, perhaps, sometimes questions to be asked about whether or not they are treated as “second class” citizens. That is an issue for Israeli society to determine and to fix if necessary. As an aside, I note that it was reported that Palestinian Israelis were among the first of those who rushed to help the vicitms of the Hamas militants’ recent incursion into Israel.[3]

The Two-State Solution.

A two-state solution, Israel and the State of Palestine, based on the 1967 borders should be established. A corridor for safe travel between the West Bank and Gaza will need to be enabled at a minimum, but I would hope that my suggestion of a Schengen-style arrangement outlined below would remove the need for that. Interestingly, Phyllis Bennis canvassing the possibilities for “an independent, viable, and sovereign State of Palestine in the West Bank, Gaza, and East Jerusalem” goes on to write this:

   But as the construction of the Apartheid Wall and the continued expansion of the 440,000 settlers in huge city-sized settlements throughout the West Bank and East Jerusalem seem to make the creation of a viable Palestinian state impossible, more and more Palestinians are reconsidering the goal of creating a democratic secular or bi-national state in all of historic Palestine–encompassing what is now Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and Jerusalem. Many, perhaps most Palestinians and at least a few Israelis, believe that over the long-term it is in the best interests of both peoples, even if there were an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, to create a single state, based on absolute equality for both nationalities and equal rights for all its citizens.[4]

For the present, it is perhaps a more realistic, though difficult enough objective to obtain a Palestinian State alongside Israel. I would suggest if such a state were to be created, the following parameters should obtain.

1.      Settlements: Of course, no new settlement should be built or begun in the West Bank, (nor within Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem). However, residents of the existing settlements should not be required to move, and existing settlements should not be dismantled. What should happen is that the Jewish residents there should become citizens of the Palestinian state just as there are Arab Israelis. They could, if they wished, choose to relocate within the borders of Israel. Hopefully, by adopting this policy, the angst, anger, and disruption that would likely ensue if settlements were dismantled, or residents evicted forcibly, would be avoided.

2.      There should be a common defence force, committed to the security of both states. Of course, each state could have its own police force, though there would be advantages to having a close cooperation between the two. Hopefully a common defence force would remove the possibility, or lessen the likelihood, of conflict between the two states.

3.      There should be a “Schengen-Area” type arrangement for travel and movement between the two states. That is, Israelis and Palestinians should be able to travel freely into each territory on  their passports or identification papers.

4.      The two states should work towards establishing a common economic zone and market (like the EU), but perhaps without the political structure (i.e. an EU-style parliament). The arrangement would be more of an economic-treaty affair. This would hopefully be also extended over time to include the whole region, and certainly including Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Egypt.

This will only really be workable if there is at the same time (both before and alongside) the creation of a two-state solution, a concerted effort by Israelis and Palestinians of goodwill to get to know one another.  Building up trust will be a long process. I imagine it may take several generations. There may need to be structural mechanisms (e.g. “Truth and Reconciliation Commissions”?) to address past hurts, injustices and misunderstandings. Certainly movements within civil society (some of which already exist) that promote peace and mutual understanding will need to be strengthened and broadened.

Finally, I know that it is always easy for those on the outside, and faraway to think they see where the problems lie and how to address them. Israelis and Palestinians will have to work this out themselves. Peace and mutual understanding, not to mention that ability to live together in close proximity, will be best achieved when they work out the strategies and processes that will enable a better future.

[Note: Phyllis Bennis, Inside Israel-Palestine: The Conflict Explained. Oxford: New Internationalist, 2007, provides a good question-and-answer introduction to the issue.  This is a good book to start with. A blog I wrote earlier, which appears below: "Israel/Palestine: A Lenten Course of Reading" (published April 22, 2020) contains a description of some other books, including the one by Izzeldin Abuelaish, and another by a Jewish American Rabbi Michael Lerner that includes some interesting proposals or "strategies" for dealing with the situation 

Leslie Stein, an Australian academic has written three books on the history of the creation and history of the State of Israel until 2014. They are: The Hope Fulfilled: The Rise of  Modern Israel. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003; The Making of Modern Israel 1948-1967. Cambridge, UK/Malden, MA: Polity, 2009; and Israel Since the Six-Day War: Tears of Joy, Tears of Sorrow. Polity, 2014.

Two excellent histories are: 
Anton La Guardia, Holy Land, Unholy War: Israelis and Palestinians. 3rd Edition; London: Penguin, 2007.
David Fromkin, A Peace to End All Peace: The Fall of the Ottoman Empire and the Creation of the Modern Middle East. New York: Henry Holt, 1989.

Paul Danahar, The New Middle East: The World After the Arab Spring. London: Bloomsbury, 2013, has a couple of very interesting chapters on Israel, including one that gives an insight into the complexities of Israeli society.

Finally, Mitri Raheb, The Politics of Persecution: Middle Eastern Christians in an Age of Empire. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, has written an important book from a Palestinian Christian perspective, which covers the plight of Christians in the Middle East from 1799 until the Arab Spring. It includes an argument that the story of "persecuted Christians" is a Western construct to serve Western national interests.]

[1] For such different assessments, and, indeed, descriptions of the nature of the negotiations, see e.g. Leslie Stein, Israel Since the Six-Day War: Tears of Joy, Tears of Sorrow (Cambridge, UK; Malden, MA: Polity, 2014), 245–47, where he writes of the Palestinians missing “an historic opportunity” because they insisted on Israel coming their way “on all the issues on which it procrastinates” (his emphasis) including the right of Palestinians to return to their former homes. Anton La Guardia, Holy Land, Unholy War: Israelis and Palestinians (3rd edition; London: Penguin, 2007) describes how “Prince Bandar, the Saudi ambassador in Washington, told Arafat his refusal to accept the Clinton parameters was ‘a crime’ against Palestinians and the Arab world.” (300). Phyliss Bennis, however, in Inside Israel-Palestine: The Conflict Explained (Oxford: New Internationalist, 2007), writes that Barak’s “‘generous offer’ was a myth” because it did not meet “the requirements of international law”, and because of that fact that “the disparity of power that had long characterized Israel-Palestinian negotiations remained unchallenged”, (see pp. 145–46). Assessments of bad faith often depend upon whose side one is on: or on perspectives determined by a particular stance.

[2] Izzeldin Abuelaish, I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity (London: Bloomsbury, 2011).

[3] The New Zealand Herald,  11/10/2023, A 17.

[4] Bennis, Inside Israel-Palestine: the Conflict Explained, 183–84; main quote on p. 184.

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