The current conflict in Gaza has caused me to
read a couple of books on the long-standing issue of the relations between Jews
and Arabs, or Israel and the Palestinian territories. One is by David K.
Shipler, Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land (Revised and
updated edition; New York/London: Penguin Books, 2002; first edition Random
House, 1986; Penguin 1987). The other is by Anna Baltzer, Witness in
Palestine: A Jewish American Woman in the Occupied Territories (Revised and
updated; Boulder, CO: Paradigm, 2007).
In his book David Shipler, who states at the
outset that he is “neither Arab nor Jew” (xxi), puts his finger on where any
hopes of peace and co-existence between Arabs and Jews, and between Israelis
and Palestinians, must start. They must look into each other’s eyes: and see a
fellow human being. He writes:
Whatever happens in war of
diplomacy, whatever territory is won of lost, whatever accommodations or
compromises are finally made, the future guarantees that Arabs and Jews will remain close
neighbors in this weary land, entangled in each other’s fears. They will not
escape from one another. They will not find peace in treaties, or in victories.
They will find it, if at all, by looking into each other’s eyes. (xxxviii)
The notion of looking into each
others eyes surfaces several times in the final chapters of the book.
The
book is divided into three sections. The first one, Part One, is called
“Aversion.” It outlines four factors that have led to the way in which Israelis
(or Israeli Jews) and Palestinians (and in many ways, Israeli Arabs, as well)
have comes to exist in the way that they have: in a state of hatred and fear,
with sometimes tentative and febrile accommodation and even friendship and
love. These factors are: war, nationalisms, terrorism, and religious
absolutism. Shipler takes a largely anecdotal approach to these topics, but
references various events e.g. the massacre at Deir Yassin, or that annual “Day
of Remembrance” when Israeli Jews remember those who have died in wars.
The
second part, “Images”, outlines the various stereotypes that each group has of
the other: the Jews who see Arabs as craven, violent, primitive, “dirty”,
exotic, sexually dangerous and lustful. Arabs who also see Jews as craven,
violent, alien, superior or arrogant, and aggressive. There are stories
interspersed with depictions of the way in which these stereotypes are
portrayed, or believed, of Jews and Arabs who do have good relations with each
other. But, as Shipler points out, these are isolated and individual cases,
and, of themselves cannot do much to break down the suspicion, and alienation
that exists within the wider societies. It should be said that neither the
Jewish nor the Arab societies are monoliths. Within each there is a wide
variety of types: for the Jew, there are the disparaties between Askenazi and
Sephardi. The Sephardi, coming as they do from societies where many of the
customs and social mores are similar to many Arabs. On the Arab side, there are
differences in religion, as there are Christian as well as Muslim Arabs; and
also one must distinguish between Israeli Arabs and Palestinians.
In
the third part, “Interaction”, Shipler examines some of the ways in which the
two groups interact with one another. These are both positive and negative.
There is, for instance, on the negative side, the way in which Arabs are
harassed and treated by the secret police, or the surveillance and suspicion
that Israeli Arabs are subject to, especially when they wish to travel abroad.
A negative, but interesting example of co-operation between Jews and Arabs
occurs in the criminal world, where Arabs will engage in burglary, while Jews
then act as “fences” to on sell the stolen goods. Another is the finding that
“40 percent of all pimps in Israel were Arabs managing Jewish prostitutes”
(342).
On
the positive side, there is the instance of the relationship built up between
an American Jewish academic, Dr. Clinton Bailey, who had become “one of the
Western world’s foremost experts on the Bedouin tribesmen who live in the Negev
and Sinai deserts” (358), and worked to protect their interests. Another
chapter details some instances of intermarriage between an Arab and a Jew, in
many cases it seems that the woman is the Jew. One chapter, entitled, “The
Violent, Craven Jew”, includes a heartwarming interaction between a young Lebanese
Arab woman and an Israeli army colonel, which ends with the young woman, who
began defiantly, saying “I’m happy to meet you”, and the colonel saying, “You
have touched my heart.” (200). In the penultimate chapter, titled “The Dream”,
Shipler spends quite a bit of time describing the interaction between Jewish
and Arab young people, eleventh and twelfth graders, who take part in a
four-day “workshop” run at “the hilltop community of Neve Shalom” (457). They
will play games together, and have “trust building” exercises before discussing
their lives and their attitudes to each other, and to the circumstances of
living in Israel. This chapter also relates some of the efforts taken within
the school system to expose and break down stereotypes.
Overall,
there is much in this book to make one despair of the situation of mistrust, of
hatred and of conflict ever being overcome. And one wonders how many
generations the current military action in Gaza (since October 7, 2023) will
set back any hopes for a peaceful, and just solution to the divisions in the
region. Nonetheless, there are sufficiently hopeful signs within the book that
suggest that progress is possible. However, it will require a change in the
political, social, and institutional arrangements of the region. To begin with,
Arabs (and especially the politically-driven groups, such as Hamas) will have
to recognise the right of Israel to exist in security and permanently. On the
other side, Israel will have to take its foot off the throat of the
Palestinians, and genuinely support and work towards their political
self-determination. A two-state solution is probably the best way forward: and
this will mean that Israel and Palestine will both have to give up any idea
that the whole of the territory belongs solely to Jews or Arabs.
Anna Baltzer, a young American Jewish woman, provides in her book a personal account of some of her experiences during several visits to the West Bank, as a volunteer with the International Women’s Peace Service. This is “a grassroots peace organization dedicated to documenting and non-violently intervening in human rights abuses in the West Bank, and to supporting Palestinian and Israeli nonviolent resistance to the Occupation.” (11) Her book is largely a kind of journal (a series of dated entries) on her experiences, interactions with Palestinians, participation in protest actions, experiences of Israeli Defence Force brutality in 2003, 2004, 2005 and lastly 2007. She includes testimony from various Palestinians along the way, together with some analysis, and occasional background information or commentary drawn from other sources.
This is the book to read to get a sense of what it means to have the Israeli foot on the throat of Palestinians. It is full of horrifying and, at times, unbelievable accounts. She details the everyday harassment of Palestinians by the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and often by Jewish settlers living in illegal settlements, along with the frustrations of having to pass through checkpoints. Beyond that there are stories of the detention of (mostly young) Palestinian men, the demolition of homes, unbelievably, in some cases while the residents are still inside. There is no doubt that there have been many instances of “extrajudicial” killing, with the perpetrators able to act with impunity and the connivance of the IDF; members of the IDF, as well as settlers, have been the perpetrators.
It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the IDF, with the support of the government, has been tacitly conducting a policy to try and empty the West Bank of Palestinians by making their lives unbearable and infeasible. The word “genocide” has been bandied about in the light of the current conflict: this, I think, is too strong a word, and cannot be proven. It is not likely that the Israelis intend to completely wipe out the Palestinians. However, Baltzer several times refers to a policy of “ethnic cleansing”, and this may be true to the extent that much Israeli policy and IDF practice is designed to deprive Palestinians of their land, and livelihoods, and to provide Jewish settlers with security of tenure in illegal settlements.
Can Israelis and Palestinians live together in peace? Can Arabs and Jews co-exist (not forgetting that some Arabs are Israelis, that is, citizens, though second-class citizens and subject to some of the same harassment as their non-Israeli counterparts)? Both these books suggest that the answer can be “Yes”, and there are those, both Arab and Jew, Israeli and Palestinian who are prepared to do so. But in order for that to happen there need to be changes at the societal, institutional, governmental level: and, perhaps hardest of all, an ideology will need to change, on both sides.
