60 Years of Denial
The systematic and brutal ethnic cleaning of the majority of
Palestinian Christians and Muslims from 1947 to 1948 is what produced
a Jewish majority in Palestine and subsequently the 'Jewish state' of
Israel. But Palestinians have not yet forgotten who they are, says
Ramzy Baroud.
Don't ask for what you never had,' is the underlying message made by
sup****ters of Israel when they claim Palestine was never a state to
begin with.
The contention is, of course, easily refutable. Following the
disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century,
colonial powers plotted to divide the spoils. When Britain and France
signed the secretive Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916, which divided the
spheres of influence in west Asia, there were hardly any 'nation-
states' in the region which would fit contem****ary definitions of the
term.
All borders were colonial concoctions that served the interests of the
powerful countries seeking strategic control, political influence and
raw material. Most of Africa and much of Asia were victims of the
colonial scrambles, which disfigured their geo-political and
subsequently socio-economic compositions.
But Palestinians, like many other people, did see themselves as a
unique group linked historically to a specific geographic entity. All
That Remains by Professor Walid Khalidi is one leading volume which
do***ents a thriving pre-Israel history of Palestine and the
Palestinian people. Such history is often overlooked, if not entirely
dismissed. Some choose to believe that no other civilization ever
existed in Palestine, neither prior to nor between the assumed
destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in 70 CE until the
founding of Israel in 1948. But what about irrefutable facts? For
example, the Israeli Jerusalem Post was called the Palestine Post when
it was founded in 1932. Why Palestine and not Israel? Whose existence,
as a definable political entity, preceded the other? The answer is
obvious.
It isn't the denial or acceptance of Israel's existence that concerns
me. Israel does exist, even if it refuses to define its borders, or
acknowledge the historic injustices committed against the Palestinian
people. The systematic and brutal ethnic cleaning of the majority of
Palestinian Christians and Muslims from 1947 to 1948 is what produced
a Jewish majority in Palestine and subsequently the 'Jewish state' of
Israel.
Also worth remembering are the equally systematic attempts at
dehumanising Palestinians and denying them any rights. When Ehud
Barak, Prime Minister of Israel at the time, compared Palestinians in
a Jerusalem Post interview (August 2000) to "crocodiles, the more you
give them meat, they want more," he was hardly diverting from a
consistent Zionist tradition that equated Palestinians with animals
and vermin. Another Prime Minister, Menahim Begin referred to
Palestinians in a Knesset speech as "beasts walking on two legs." They
have also been described as "grasshoppers", "cockroaches" and more by
famed Israeli statesmen.
Disturbingly, such references might be seen as an improvement from
former Prime Minister Golda Meir's claim that "there were no such
thing as Palestinians...they did not exist." (June 15, 1969)
To justify its own existence, Israel has long subjugated its citizens
to a kind of collective amnesia. Do Israelis realise they live on the
rubble of hundreds of Palestinian villages and towns, each destroyed
during a most tragic history of blood, pain and tears, resulting in an
ethnic cleansing of nearly 800,000 Palestinians?
As Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, nothing is allowed to blemish
the supposed heroism of its founding fathers or those who fought in
its name. Palestine, the Palestinians, and an immeasurably long
relation****p between a people and their land hardly merit a pause as
Israeli officials and their Western counterparts carry on with their
festivities.
While some conveniently forgot many historic chapters pertinent to the
suffering of Palestinians, Israeli leaders - especially those who took
part in the colonization of Palestine - were fully aware of what they
did. David Ben Gurion, the first Prime Minister of Israel, warned in
1948, "We must do everything to insure they (the Palestinians) never
do return." By ensuring that Palestinians were cut off from their
land, Ben Gurion has hoped that time will take care of the rest. "The
old will die and the young will forget," he said.
Moshe Dayan, a former Israeli Defence Minister also had no illusions
regarding the real history beneath Israel's momentous achievements.
His speech at the Technion in Haifa (April 4, 1969) was quoted in the
Israeli daily Haaretz thus: "We came here to a country that was
populated by Arabs and we are building here a Hebrew, a Jewish state;
instead of the Arab villages, Jewish villages were established. You
even do not know the names of those villages, and I do not blame you
because these villages no longer exist. There is not a single Jewish
settlement that was not established in the place of a former Arab
village."
Israel has, since its foundation, laboured to undermine any sense of
Palestinian identity. Without most of their historic land, the
relation****p between Palestinians and Palestine could only exist in
memory. Eventually though, memory managed to morph into a collective
identity that has proved more durable than the physical existence on
the land. "It is a testimony to the tenacity of Palestinians that they
have kept alive a sense of nationhood in the face of so much
adversity. Yet the obstacles to sustaining their cohesiveness as a
people are today greater than ever," re****ted the Economist (May 8,
2008).
Living in so many disconnected areas, removed from their land,
detached from one another, fought with at every corner, Palestinians
have not just been oppressed physically by Israel, but physiologically
as well. There are attempts from all angles to force them to simply
concede, forget, and move on. It is the Palestinian people's rejection
of such notions that makes Israel's victory and 'independence'
superficial and unconvincing.
Sixty years after their Catastrophe (****ba), Palestinians still
remember their past and present injustices. Of course more than mere
remembrance is necessary; Palestinians need to find a common ground
for unity - Christians and Muslims, poor and rich, secularist and the
religious - in order to stop Israel from eagerly exploiting their own
disunity, factionalism and political tribalism.
But, despite Israel's hopes and best efforts, Palestinians have not
yet forgotten who they are. And no amount of denial can change this.
Ramzy Baroud is a Palestinian-American author and editor of
PalestineChronicle.com. His work has been published in numerous
newspapers and journals worldwide, including the Wa****ngton Post,
Japan Times, Al Ahram Weekly and Lemonde Diplomatique. His latest book
is The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle
(Pluto Press, London). Read more about him on his website:
RamzyBaroud.net
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