Israelis, Palestinians and the Myth of Identity

[tom]

I met an old Israeli friend the other day and though we hadn't seen each other for a year we got into an argument about politics within minutes.

He had been in Australia for a year and was now heading back to Israel and was lamenting that people thought there might be another war with Lebanon that summer. He just wanted to be with his girlfriend, get a good job and do some surfing. Now he wondered if he might be called to go and fight.

I gave him my view that the Israelis need to stop pretending they're part of Europe and wake up to the fact that they're in the Middle East. That if they want any peace with the Arabs they need to start recognizing what happened in 1947/8 and also learning some Arabic, to tear down some of the cultural and physical walls that separate them.

After all, Hebrew is pretty similar to Arabic, linguistically speaking and Arabs and Jews share ancient geographical, religious and cultural roots.

"Why should we have to do that?" he growled, "Why should we have to make all the effort? Why's it up to us to make all the concessions? Every time we do make concessions they always come back and make war soon afterwards."

Why is it up to the Israelis? Because they have most of the power. Because they control the roads, the borders, the water, the electric, the economy. Because they have the physical power and also the moral debt of all the homes destroyed, the olive trees cut down, the tens of thousands of Palestinians arrested and held without evidence in prison camps, many of whom were tortured, some to death.

Besides, a minute ago he was telling me how much he wanted to live in peace. To refuse to do anything about what you want, to refuse to make any concessions is distinctly adolescent.

"But it's not all one side!" he protested, "Why do their leaders steal all the money that comes in? Why do they blow themselves up on our buses?"

The Palestinian leaders are definitely corrupt. They siphon off aid money from the UN to their own Swiss bank accounts instead of building schools and hospitals. No doubt. But in any conflict, each side has to deal with their own responsibilites and karma, never mind what the other side does.

And although both sides suffer, the Palestinians suffer a great deal more. Around 3 times more Palestinians have died since the current intifada began in 2000.

And let's not forget, the Palestinians were living in their land quite happily until Jewish settlers arrived in the 1890's and then en masse after the second world war. But the dispossession of the Palestinians set against the holocaust was like a candle against the sun.

But a candle can still burn.

"But whose land is this?" he insisted, "We were here 2000 years ago..."

That old chestnut. Presumably then the Israeli government would be happy to extend military support to the Mayas in Mexico, the Native Americans, the Bushmen in South Africa and the Aboriginals in Australia, all of whom had settled and civilised their countries long before Abraham.

Tribal and religous identities are attractive to those who belong. They bind people together, provide economic and cultural security and allow the whole to be greater than the sum of its parts.

The trouble comes when one tribe meets another, when one religion meets another. Then those identities conflict, fight over resources and wars of one form or another are started.

If there's any hope to resolving conflicts in this world, we have to meet as people. We're not Jews, Muslims, Israelis or Arabs - we're human beings who all breathe, bleed, eat, sleep, fall in love and someday die.

That day will be much sooner for many of us if we persist in believing the myths of tribal culture and religion. They're sacred cows that are behind almost every conflict on the planet.

That's maybe the beauty of travel, that you can leave your tribe behind.

[glitter]

""But whose land is this?" he insisted, "We were here 2000 years ago..."

That old chestnut. Presumably then the Israeli government would be happy to extend military support to the Mayas in Mexico, the Native Americans, the Bushmen in South Africa and the Aboriginals in Australia, all of whom had settled and civilised their countries long before Abraham.
"

thank you.
I live in israel every time I bring up this point someone makes me
feel like a traitor...

it's a tough situation because both sides have their points... back
then there was antisemitism in other countries so the jews needed
a place where they would be safe, but the palestinians already lived there and it's wrong to take a person's land like that...
but now generations of israelis live here too...

just growing up here I've witnessed a lot
of discriminating opinions against the arab population.
it's just wrong. you're right, we're all human
beings and it still surprises me when people behave
otherwise...

[olddog]

Yeah, that bit about generatons of israelis living there since the original sin is true. How can you tell someone that they've no right to be where they were born and grew up, even if it is stolen land?

I always like to ask Israelis what they would do if they had been born palestinian. I once got a right wing Moroccan Israeli to step in their shoes.

"I would probably be throwing rocks at soldiers." he admitted, being the kind of person to fight for his friends and family. And for a moment there was this contemplative pause as he saw the big picture. Then it snapped back down and the brainwashed reaction kicked in.

"But still, they blow themselves up on our buses! They don't want peace, they want to throw us all in the sea! They don't respect human life. They..." and he went on until i wished i hadn't asked.

[Redslinger]

"I gave him my view that the Israelis need to stop pretending they're part of Europe and wake up to the fact that they're in the Middle East. That if they want any peace with the Arabs they need to start recognizing what happened in 1947/8 and also learning some Arabic, to tear down some of the cultural and physical walls that separate them."

Agreed. How the Isrealis distinguish themselves culturally is due to the religions, the geographic position is just unfortunate.

It gets bigger,
The fact that they're strong allies with the United states could cause larger unnessary problems concerning much of the world (Iran)- Of course the prevention of potential problems would mean no American influence with Isreal what-so-ever, which again is tied into religion.

The mere location of Isreal demands cooperation with the Arabs if any peace is to exsist, not just in the middle east.

Any war regarding religion will take generations to settle.

[illylu]

Hello Tom

Just a few notes,

I am an Israeli. I travelled alone in SE Asia some 7 years ago. During my travels, I oftem relied on my western appearance and over heard some of the Israeli jokes (which means jokes about Isralies) the snearing and the overall condesending approach.

I heard it in India Nepal and Thiland, which were british colonies, in Vietnam, Loas and Cambodia - former french colonnies and uptill recent years, dwelled in cival wars induces by the cold war between USA and the former USSR.

I will leave to Cameroon in september for a six month volenteer work. Cameroon, by the way had her intire rain forest cut down by western demand for wood, her natural recourses plandured by western grid, and that happand only after it freed itself from England and France (only 40 years ago). Come to think about it, the entire continent was divided by veries european contries, lotted at will, its inhabitants reduced to poverty and civil wars.

But it seems, Tom, that your major concern in the world today is the Israelies. Not the jenoside in the Sudan, or the Iran funded terrorists in Iraq and the war in Congo. All these events, in which thousands of peaple lose their life every day, are far less important then the suffering of the palenstiens.

I myself, being an Israeli and also a left wing Israeli, was all for the peace process buck in 2000. Until one night at October 2000, going to a party in Jaffa, I saw sighns in arabic (not all of us Isralies don't know arabic) "Intifada el Aqsa". Jaffa is 5 km from Tel Aviv. I thought that the palastiens should have their own country, I thought that it is my fault that they are poor and miserable and I should fix it. However, 4 days after I saw that sign, in the midst of peace talks and when prime minister Barak offered palastiens everthing but Jerusalem, the Intifada began. And as so nicely put by Arafat- The palestiens want Jerusalem (el Aqsa means Jeruasalem) and whoever doesn't like it - can drink the water of the Dead Sea!

A nation is judge by it leaders and by the ones they elect to govern them. If the leader is unwilling to comparmise then no agriment can be achieved. The palestinien elected goverment of today - Hamas doesn't even recognize the right of Israel to exist.

Israel was established in 1948, nearly 60 years ago. Palestiniens allready born abroad are now claiming the right to return to the town and villeges their families left in 1948.

Suppose I was to bomb myself on a trum in Krakoff, poland for my murdered relatives, my stolen property and my right to return??

Suppose I demand a portion of every country in Europe that was once owned by a Jaw??

In the sad hystory of this world, sometimes political and religion refugees came and inhabitat countries (sometimes with no past settelment of their own race)

This is how the USA and most of the nations of south America where formed.
This is how france was formed
This is how GB was formed
Refugees dislocated from their homes came to live in other countries and after a few generations, became a part of the local society.

Palestiniens could have had a country of their own for the last 60 years, if they have not demanded the entire country and they can have one still. But the sad truth is that palestinien leadrs are arogant and full of pride and whold not compremise a single demand.
The sad truth is that losing face is much more important to them then solving their people's misery and every dolar earo or shekel is imidietly converted into a weapon.

Israel is not war thirsty nor it is interested in conquests. Its a small county (very small country) with enemies from every end.
Israel is also a very tired country, its people are tired from constantly explaining this world why they have a right to exsists. Why they have a right to their own capital - Jerusalem. Why it has to defend itself.

So all of you ever so all knowing and smart europiens please let us be.
If you need to fill bad, fill bad for all those countries you once plandered, all those nations that now relay on your cherity to survive.
Fill bad for those murdered peaple in Darphur, Congo and Iraq.

I can say for us Israelies that we will try not to kill or injure eny innocent people when we go after terorists. We will assist the population in eny way we can and we will allways try and make peace.
However I also promiss you that we will not give away our right to be a sovereign country, and a Jewish country with Jerusalem as its capital.

And as one graet palestinien leader once said -If you don't like it, you can drink the water of the Dead Sea!