Saturday, April 29, 2017

The Jewish Question: Part Five


The Second World War ended in 1945 with a big bang made by two nuclear bombs. Seventy-two years later we continue to live in the shadow of that war.

World War Victors
United Nations Security Council is the UN arm responsible for world peace and security. It can pass resolutions to condemn the unacceptable behaviour of nations, order UN sanctions, send peacekeeping forces, or announce UN military actions. These resolutions, once passed, are binding on all UN members, and there are 193 of them. However, five members; USA, UK, France, Russia and China enjoy special powers called ‘veto’. A ‘no’ from any one of these countries means the resolution is sent to the dustbin. Why do they have such an extraordinary privilege? Because they won the Second World War.

The Axis powers- Germany (Hitler), Italy (Mussolini) and Japan (Emperor Hirohito) were soundly defeated. USA (Truman), UK (Churchill), USSR (Stalin) and China (Chiang Kai-Shek) declared themselves as the four policemen for future global peace. At Churchill’s insistence, France, a fellow colonial power, was added to this exclusive club. These five countries are the only ones allowed to freely and officially develop, build up, proliferate, test and use nuclear weapons. An equally devastating weapon in their possession is veto power.

The Veto Power
UK and France haven’t used a veto since the end of the Cold War. Before that, UK primarily used it to protect the interests of the ruling Whites in South Africa. Since 1970, China has used it 11 times, USSR/Russia 23 times and the USA 79 times. Veto power makes these countries immune to any UN actions or criticism. When the USA invaded Panama (1989), the USA/UK/France blocked the resolution to condemn the USA and order withdrawal of its forces. Similarly, when Russia attacked Georgia (2009) and took over Crimea (2014), UN could neither condemn nor act because Russia vetoed the resolutions. In theory; USA, Russia, China, UK and France can - with impunity - invade other countries, indulge in war crimes, or commit genocides and the UN Security Council can’t even condemn them.

The great powers, the bullies who won the Second World War, can also protect their “clients” by use of a veto. This month, on 12 April, Russia blocked a UN resolution to condemn Assad over the chemical gas incident, just as it has vetoed every resolution on Syria since 2011. Not surprisingly, the UN can’t condemn, impose sanctions, begin UN military action or punish Assad’s regime in any manner. Syria is Russia’s client.

Since 1982, USA has used its veto power on 32 occasions to block resolutions concerning Israel. All attempts of UN to declare sanctions or initiate action to remove illegal settlements have been frustrated by the USA veto. Not only that, USA has blocked all UN attempts to bring Israel’s nuclear arsenal on the International Atomic Energy Agency’s agenda. Israel is America’s client.

America’s Israel obsession
Since World War II, Israel is the largest recipient of US Aid, having received more than 140 billion USD. Currently, it receives 3 billion USD per annum, equivalent of a 500 USD per year subsidy to each Israeli citizen. (Another 38 billion US Dollars are committed in aid between 2019-2028). In addition, the USA promises to raise 500 million $ per annum for joint US-Israeli missile defense programs.

*****
In May 1998, I was attending an international conference in the UK. At the breakfast table I was surrounded by my colleagues, many of them British and Americans. India’s nuclear tests the previous day were the headlines in the British newspapers. I was the only Indian in that gathering. I remember some of them looking at me with scorn, as if I was responsible for the crime of testing a nuclear weapon. One British guy had the nerve to ask me if I was not ashamed. I said I am a pacifist, and denounce all weapons. However, I denounce discrimination and double standards as well. I’m glad, I said, that India has reduced the possibility of you guys launching a nuclear attack against us.

This hypocrisy continues, as we have seen in the last few years, with Iran and North Korea. One country’s privilege is another country’s crime.

Against this backdrop, is it not strange that we rarely hear about Israel being a nuclear state? Israel has nuclear capacity for more than fifty years, having conducted its first tests in the 1960s. In fact, Iran, over the years, has attempted to develop nuclear capabilities because of the nuclear Israel.

*****
Israel is the USA’s most pampered protégé with financial aid, diplomatic support (veto power) and secret backing for its nuclear programme. What could be the reasons for such an obsession?

During the Cold War, one could argue such support was justified. Syria and Egypt were Soviet clients. To counter that, America thought Israel to be the right base in the Middle East. Israel is modern, fairly prosperous and the only country in the Middle East that may be called a western democracy.

Once the Cold War was over, the War on Terror began. America’s military establishment always needs a long-term enemy for its survival and growth. Islamic terrorism replaced communism as America’s arch-enemy. USA and Israel share that enemy (their combined effort possibly created Islamic terrorism, but that’s another issue). However, this collaboration doesn’t excuse Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, its unstoppable illegal settlements, its inhuman blockade of the Gaza strip. Also, Israel’s actual help in any Middle East war is minimal. It is the USA which has taken upon itself the job of protecting and subsidizing Israel.  That support is vastly disproportionate to what the USA gets out of it.

An obsession practised for a long time turns into an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). The OCD patient can’t control the obsession, even when he knows it’s wrong. As I write these words, the American senate has published a letter to the UN secretary-general signed by each of the 100 senators individually. The letter complains about the UN’s anti-Israel bias, agenda, and actions of certain UN bodies reinforcing anti-Semitism. The US Senate urges the UN to improve UN’s treatment of Israel. UN should eliminate or reform funds and committees that criticise Israel. Ask UNESCO to not criticise Israel and stop doubting the Jewish and Christian connection to Jerusalem. UN’s Human Rights Council (UNHRC) targeting Israel must stop. It’s worth reading this letter in its entirety to understand America’s OCD with Israel. Writing a letter to the UN demanding better treatment of Israel was the most important item for one hundred US senators on the 100th day of Trump in office.

Israel’s position
Israel, full of clever and intelligent people, has conceived a brilliant equation.

Criticism of Israel = Anti-Semitism

This equation has been propagated worldwide, and anybody criticising Israel’s policy or America’s supporting it is reminded of the historical persecution of Jews and the holocaust. The above letter also threatens the UN with this equation.

Israel’s position is very clear and unambiguous. Israel wants for itself every inch of land between the Jordan River and Mediterranean Sea. It would love for all Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to disappear by magic. It’s a difficult task in the 21st century; earlier they could have been killed or expelled. Israel’s strategy is to keep the Palestinian territories occupied, continue building of settlements, raise Iran as a bogey, lobby the USA for continued support, give lip service to the universal condemnation and in case of a rare US criticism, sulk and build more settlements. Israel prefers to live with a chronic virus rather than go for an unpleasant surgery.  

In February, Donald Trump took a U-turn on the two-state solution, and asked Netanyahu to sort out the issue with the Palestinians. Trump said he likes the solution both parties like. A bully and his victim go to the school director. The school director tells the bully and the victim to sort out the bullying problem themselves.

South Africa and Israel
The reason the US senators united to write a letter to the UN was a UNHRC report applying the word apartheid to Israel. I can imagine Netanyahu, on reading the report, calling Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner angrily. Kushner immediately demanding Nikki Haley (the US ambassador to the UN) write a protest letter, and reminding the senators that not signing such a letter would be tantamount to anti-Semitism.  

Indeed, using the word apartheid to the Israel situation would be a devaluation of that word. Israel, inside its boundaries, has a democratic framework. One fifth of its population is Arabs who mingle with the Israelis and have several legal rights. In the occupied territories, West Bank and Gaza, Israel can be accused of segregation but the intent seems to be land-grabbing rather than racial apartheid.

However, the South African case is important when we talk of a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. South African apartheid was so inhuman and blatantly cruel that most of the world had boycotted and isolated them. From 1973 to 1988, for fifteen valuable years, USA and UK (and on some resolutions France) used their veto power to block every UN resolution demanding action against South Africa. USA and UK continued trading with South Africa to preserve their business interests. The White rulers of South Africa needed protection from black masses intent on resisting apartheid. Nelson Mandela was portrayed as a Marxist and imprisoned for 27 years. In the Cold War years, it was important for Reagan and Thatcher to ensure South Africa doesn’t turn communist.

Once America understood the imminent collapse of communism, it lost interest in South Africa. USA’s withdrawal of support spelt an end to the apartheid. Mandela was released and became the first black president.

South Africa’s outgoing president F.W.de Klerk said: “I apologise in my capacity as leader of the NP to the millions who suffered wrenching disruption of forced removals; who suffered the shame of being arrested for pass law offences; who over the decades suffered the indignities and humiliation of racial discrimination.”

Adriaan Vlok, the outgoing law minister, washed the feet of apartheid victim Frank Chikane (whom Vlok had plotted to assassinate earlier) in an act of public apology for the wrongs of the apartheid regime.

Despite the whole world sensing the injustice and cruelty in South African apartheid, it continued from 1948 to 1991- for forty four years, partly due to the diplomatic support of the U.S. through its veto power.

Israel Palestine solution
Israel or Palestinians are incapable of resolving their problems, because one is a settler colonialist and the others are in the occupied territory. The UN is incapable because of the veto power wielded by the World War II victory. United States of America is the only party which can resolve the issue. South Africa is not the only case study. USA (Clinton) withdrew its support for Suharto, the Indonesian dictator, and East Timor became independent quickly.

Though many analysts think the one-state solution as the only possibility, I disagree. If two-state solution is improbable, one-state solution is impossible. For Jews to live as a minority in a Jewish state is an oxymoron. Arabs outnumbering the Jews in a single state is a much bigger existential threat for Israel than a nuclear Iran. In my view, the one-state solution is an impractical fantasy.

If not for the USA veto shield, the two-state solution could have happened long ago. At the end of the Cold War, USA withdrew support for many client states. At some point, USA will realise the folly of continuing the War in the Middle East. Maybe that point will be reached when oil loses its historical importance. When that happens, USA simply needs to withdraw its support to Israel, stop giving aid and stop using its veto protection. Israel will then be forced to abandon all the settlements, accept a new Palestinian State, accept the partition of Jerusalem, free the Gaza strip. If the unimaginable could happen in South Africa, it also can in Israel.

That point, though, is unlikely to be reached while Donald Trump is the president of the USA.

Ravi  

Select Bibliography
Jewish virtual library: Anything you need to know from Anti-Semitism to Zionism. The Jew perspective. By American-Israeli Cooperative enterprise (AICE)
In defence of Zionism and Israel
The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign policy. An interesting document that says how the Jewish lobby in the US has systematically made the two countries the closest friends.
In this New York Times op-ed from last month, Benjamin Portgrud, a black South African who lives in Jerusalem, compares South Africa and Israel and says Israel is no apartheid state.
Occupation, colonialism, Apartheid? A re-assessment of Israeli practices in the occupied Palestinian territories under international law.
Noam Chomsky: lecture at the Brown University: US Israeli crimes against Palestinians
A strong-worded letter signed by all 100 senators on 27 April, 2017 asking UN to not criticize Israel.
R. 

Saturday, April 22, 2017

The Jewish Question: Part Four


Whose problem is it?
It may be true that every problem has a solution. In international politics, every problem has a solution provided those capable of solving it are willing to solve it. Whose problem is the Israel-Palestine conflict?

It is definitely the primary problem of the Palestinians. Since 1948, they are either refugees in exile, citizens with no civil rights in occupied territories or open-air prisoners in Gaza. With the growing anti-Islam sentiment in the non-Muslim world, rift between Iran and other Arab nations, and burning Syria next door; media space for the Palestine problem is shrinking.

It’s also Israel’s problem. The state of Israel is only partially recognised and partially legal. Jerusalem, its supposed capital, does not have a single embassy. Israel is prone to attacks from suicide bombers and smuggled rockets. When a democratic nation requires the continued presence of an army to maintain peace, there is something terribly wrong with it.

Americans may not realise it, but Israel is their self-inflicted problem created by its global interference strategy. On 09/11, nearly 3000 Americans- most of them civilians- lost their lives partly as a consequence of America’s support for Israel. Before planning the attack, Usama Bin Laden, a fairly logical man for a terrorist, had opened all his cards in a 1998 fatwa. Talking about the Crusader-Zionist alliance, the fatwa said: “If the Americans’ aims behind these wars are religious and economic, the aim is also to serve the Jews’ petty state and divert attention from its occupation of Jerusalem and murder of Muslims there.” UBL went on to accuse America of destroying and fragmenting Iraq and other Arab states in the neighbourhood to guarantee Israel’s survival. The fatwa asked the followers of Allah to kill Americans, civilian and military, to liberate the mosque in Jerusalem and to kick out American armies from the land of Islam. (In 2003, America quietly complied with one of the Fatwa conditions by removing its military bases from Saudi Arabia). Though UBL is dead, and Al-Qaeda weak, this anger and sentiment is shared by millions of Muslims.

Israel-Palestine is everybody’s problem, including yours and mine. We are now an indivisible part of the international community. Our daily lives are affected by international politics as never before. Some foreign power decides if I can carry my laptop or a bottle of water on a flight. All of us live in places which can be targeted by nuclear or ‘mother-of-all bombs’. Just because the Israel-Palestine issue is not located next door; our willingness to ignore it or pass superficial judgement based on whichever biased media we are exposed to, may result in our silent support for injustice. Mute (or dumb) support allows a precedent to be set. And then a similar injustice may be perpetrated on us. By then it will be too late to wake up and begin protesting.

Opinions are formed by a vocal minority, not by a silent majority.

Two-state solution
Since 1947, a two-state solution has been discussed for the Israel-Palestine issue. As mentioned in an earlier part, the UN had offered to split Palestine into three parts. (a) A Jewish state (b) An Arab state and (c) Jerusalem governed by an international body. This partition would have happened at the same time as the birth of Israel. In 1948, the offer, to give the Palestinians 44% of the land that was essentially theirs, was considered so outrageous that Palestinians had refused it. With the passage of time, and Israel’s continuous capture of land through war conquests, military encroachment, annexation and settlements, Palestinians regretted not accepting the 1948 offer.  When a thief tries to rob you, you must first try to recover whatever you can. In hindsight, Palestinians would have been better off accepting the 1948 partition, and then fighting for the remaining stolen land. Yasser Arafat woke up to that fact, pointed to the 1948 partition proposal, and declared Palestinian independence in 1988. This was only symbolic, as Arafat, Palestine’s first president, had to form a government in exile. The flip side of acknowledging the 40-year old partition proposal was that for the first time the Palestinians unwittingly accepted the existence, if not legitimacy, of the state of Israel. In 2012, the United Nations offered a “non-member observer status” to Palestine, a state that governs no geography.

What is the two-state solution?
The two-state solution has three critical elements:
a.      Return to pre-1967 borders
b.      East Jerusalem in Palestine
c.       Palestinians’ right of return.

Return to pre-1967 borders
Acceptance of the original partition plan (1948) means drawing the borders as they were in 1948. However, that is considered more unrealistic than a return to the 1967 borders. Since the six-day war in June 1967, Israel occupied the Palestinian territories including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The occupation and the settlements are termed illegal. Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories and evacuate the settlements. This is the view of the United Nations and the Palestinians. Israel doesn’t agree with it.

In 1948, the population of Israel was 800,000. By 1967, it had grown to 2.7 million. Today, it is 8.7 million.

Israel has the highest fertility rate (3.1 children per woman) in the developed world. This, of course, can’t be an excuse for settling on Palestinian territories, where fertility rates are much higher. However, for Israel, immigration is as big a factor as biological growth. Since 1989, following the collapse of communism, nearly 1 million Jews have migrated to Israel from the former USSR. Between 1967 and today, Israel’s population has grown by 6 million. The West Bank has 600,000 settlers, with an enjoyable life. The settlements are not in tents or temporary housing. They contain posh apartments, shopping malls, schools, theatres, and clubs. Most Jewish immigrants have moved there because of the quality of life; a West Bank settlement looks like New Jersey, even better. Israelis and Palestinians are not clearly separated like East Berlin and West Berlin were. Israeli settlements are spread throughout the West Bank, many criss-cross with Palestinian villages. The notion of evacuating the settlements is scary for Israel. Where do you place the 600,000 residents of the West Bank?

Over the decades, the settler population has grown dramatically (settler colonialism), and Israel continues to build more settlements. It has now reached a number where the potential re-settling of the settlers may produce an unmanageable crisis for Israel. Ariel Sharon had once said: “Our finest youth live there. They are already the third generation, contributing to the state and serving in elite army units. They return home and get married, so then they can’t build a house and have children? What do you want, for a pregnant woman to have an abortion just because she is a settler?”

East Jerusalem in Palestine
The 1949 Armistice agreement at the end of the Arab-Israeli war split Jerusalem, keeping its west part with Israel and the East with Jordan (now Palestine). Israel occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, and it must be returned to the state of Palestine. East Jerusalem will become the capital of Palestine. The Muslim and Christian quarters and the temple mount (Haram esh-Sharif) will be under Palestinian sovereignty. This is the view of the United Nations and the Palestinians. Israel doesn’t agree with it.

From Israel’s viewpoint, Jerusalem is indivisible. It belongs to Israel. Jerusalem is the basis of the birth of Israel. Undivided Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. No question of giving part of it to the Palestinians.

Palestinians’ right of return
UN considers the right of return to the home from which you were expelled a natural human right. In the 1948 and 1967 wars an estimated 900,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homes. They and their descendents have been living as refugees abroad- many without any citizenship. The total number (surviving refugees plus descendents) is estimated to be 5 million. They have a right to return to their homes seized by Israel. Those who opt not to return should be monetarily compensated by Israel. This is the view of the United Nations and the Palestinians. Israel doesn’t agree with it. 

Israel thinks the notion of accommodating or compensating 5 million Palestinians is a fantasy, a blue sky negotiation tactic. It’s impractical to bring back to their homes people expelled fifty or seventy years ago. (It’s perfectly practical and legitimate to return to a land from which you were expelled 3000 years ago as stated in a story, but the same can’t be done if it happened factually 50-70 years ago).

The other argument is that 900,000 Jews were also expelled from the Arab lands during the Arab-Israel war. Nobody is talking about compensating them. This is, indeed, a valid argument – with one difference. Jewish refugees are now citizens of Israel (or USA), the Palestine refugees remain stateless.

*****
In relation to American politics, you may have recently heard the term “filibuster”, the right to an endless debate. You keep talking about a bill for so long, that it dies before it can be voted on. The two-state solution has been filibustered.

One state solution
If you can’t separate them, why not unite them?

The name of the unified state is not known or discussed. It could be called “Israelopalestine” (like Czechoslovakia), who knows. Palestinians are so desperate; I think they will accept Israel as a name for the combined state. In a single state, two of the three problems narrated above - going back to the 1967 borders and splitting of Jerusalem disappear. The Jewish settlers in the West Bank can continue to live in their settlements. Jerusalem becomes the capital of the unified state. Fences and walls can be removed; people can start moving freely across the entire territory of Israel and occupied territories. Israel is sandwiched between Gaza and the West Bank. That matters in a two state theory, where the Palestine state is split. A single state solves that problem.

Many supporters of this solution point out, de facto it’s a single state today, entirely controlled by Israel. This de facto single state and the one state solution are quite different, though.

Today, Arabs in West Bank and Gaza are under occupation. They have no voting rights, no citizenship, and no access to Israeli courts. The West Bank Palestinian villages don’t get permits to build gyms, whereas their illegal Jewish neighbours have posh sports facilities.

What is the one state solution?
a.      Israel and the Palestine territories (occupied by Israel) form a single bi-national democratic state.
b.      All citizens - Jews, Arabs or others, would be equal citizens of the state with equal voting rights.

Bi-national democratic state
Israel calls itself a “Jewish democratic state.”

By the end of 2017, the combined state will have 6.9 million Jews (Israel), and believe it or not 6.9 million Arabs (Israel+ West Bank+ Gaza strip). The fertility rate of Arabs is higher than that of Jews. In future years, Israel fears, Jews will be in minority. Israel can’t continue to be a Jewish state.

Equal rights
The alternative is to deny the Arabs equal rights, treat them as second-class citizens. Israel currently has 20% Arabs who are Israeli citizens. Though Israel claims to be a western democracy, it has no “civil” marriages; all marriages are “religious”. The groom and bride must belong to the same religion if they wish to get married. (Irish women must go abroad to get abortions done and mixed-faith Israelis must go abroad to get married). In this sense, the Jewish laws are stronger than secularism or democracy.

One state solution, therefore, dictates that Israel can be either Jewish (by denying Arabs equal rights) or democratic (no longer a dominant majority) but not both. Can Israel accept that?

*****  
In the final chapter next week, I will discuss why the Israel-Palestine problem is not solved till date, and whether it can be solved at all.

Ravi











Saturday, April 15, 2017

The Jewish Question: Part Three


In 30 years from 7% to 33%
One hundred years ago, through the Balfour declaration, the British declared Palestine to be the national home for Jews. At that time, 93% of the population were Arabs and only 7% were Jews. Following the announcement, 40,000 Jews migrated to Palestine from Eastern Europe (1919-23). Another 82,000 Jews came from Poland and Hungary following the introduction of Jew immigration quotas by the USA (1924-1929). In the following fifteen years, 250,000 more Jews (including 174,000 illegal immigrants) moved to Palestine to save themselves from the Nazi atrocities. They were mainly from Poland, Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia. The proportion of Jews in Palestine had rapidly grown from 7% in 1918 to 33% in 1947.

The local Arabs, stunned by this development, had revolted (1936-39), but they were no match for the British army and Jewish police. During the revolt, the British and Jews lost fewer than 500 soldiers whereas Arab casualties were high: 5000 Arabs died and 15,000 wounded.

The story of two partitions
After the Second World War, the weakened British Empire decided to finally leave the colonies. In 1947, two parallel processes were taking place. One was the formation of a new Jewish nation on Palestinian land, and a new Muslim nation on the Indian continent. Both India and Palestine would gain independence from Britain, but each would be partitioned on the same day while becoming independent.

I am always baffled by this “Rule and Divide” interpretation by the British. You first rule an area for a long time, and then break it up when leaving. Create a mess and let someone else manage it. Like a dying father, through his will, breaking up his family house for each of his two sons to lead an independent but bellicose existence.

India’s last viceroy Mountbatten, when asked about the safety of the Indian division, answered:
“At least on this question I shall give you complete assurance. I shall see to it that there is no bloodshed and riot. I am a soldier and not a civilian. Once partition is accepted in principle, I shall issue orders to see that there are no communal disturbances anywhere in the country. If there should be the slightest agitation, I shall adopt the sternest measures to nip the trouble in the bud.”

Following this assurance, the Indian continent witnessed Hindu-Muslim clashes on an unprecedented scale, an estimated 14.5 million were displaced, 1.5 million died, more than 100,000 women were abducted and raped.

*****
While announcing the Palestine partition between an Arab state and a Jew state, the UN Special committee on Palestine (UNSCOP) said the fundamental objective in the solution of the Palestine problem was to achieve a reasonable prospect for the preservation of peaceful relations in the Middle East.

Following this, in November 1947, a civil war started between the Jews and Arabs of Palestine. Some 5000 people died.

This was followed by a nine-month long Arab-Israel War in which Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen joined hands to fight against Israel. More than 25,000 people were killed. More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs fled or were expelled from their homes. 900,000 Jews were expelled from Arab countries.

The Partition formula
The partition experiment was conducted earlier with Ireland. In 1921, the British had partitioned Ireland into Catholic (Republic of Ireland) and Protestant (Northern Ireland) while granting independence.

In all three cases; Ireland, India and Palestine, partition was ostensibly done to ensure peace. All three were followed by huge civil wars. All three partitions created chronic, violent conflicts. Divisions on religious or ethnic grounds don’t work, because free movement between the partitioned States stops. ‘Us’ and ‘them’ are created, giving rise to hatred and violence; minorities are displaced or killed.

Despite the three case studies, Britain has now initiated Brexit, a 21st century partition. If free movement of people between EU and UK is stopped as its result, Brexit will inevitably create another international conflict, more than 4 million people are likely to be expelled, Scotland may leave the UK, Good Friday agreement may go bad by IRA becoming violent again. Why is it so difficult to learn from history?

But then, I am digressing. Let me return to the history of the Palestine land.

Arabs reject the partition
The 1947 partition of Palestine proposed (a) A Jewish state (b) an Arab state and (c) Jerusalem, governed by a special international trusteeship. For the Jewish state, the name Israel didn’t yet exist, it was conceived in 1948.

The Jew state was given 56% of the Palestine land, and the Arab State 44%. Only thirty years before this proposal, this land had 93% Arabs.

Reminds me of a joke where a robber holds a millionaire at gunpoint. I am a gentleman, the robber says, I would like to strike an ethical deal with you. Let us split all your money 50:50 between you and me.

Partitions of India and Palestine were both illogical, but the partition of Palestine was far more absurd.

India had 25% Muslims before the creation of Pakistan, and Palestine had 33% Jews before the creation of Israel. Just imagine if Pakistan were given 56% of the Indian continent (instead of the 25% actually given), and Muslims from all over the world were authorised to migrate to Pakistan. Hindus would have been horrified. Well, the Arabs were horrified, and rejected the partition plan. Paradoxically, the state of Israel was formed. The Palestinians are still waiting for their full-fledged UN membership, proposed 70 years ago.

Jerusalem: Holy land of three religions  
Currently, three areas constitute the unofficial State of Palestine. (1) East Jerusalem (2) West Bank (3) Gaza strip.

Let’s first look at the city of Jerusalem, one of the world’s most historic and fascinating places. Jerusalem is the Holy city for all three: Jews, Christians and Muslims. I don’t know of any other such place.

Judaism was born seven centuries before Christ and Islam founded seven centuries after Christ. Though all three religions have violently fought one another, they have much in common. The Hebrew bible (Tanakh), Bible and Quran contain surprisingly similar stories. Abraham (Ibrahim), Moses (Musa), John the Baptist (Yahya ibn Zakariya) and Jesus (Isa) appear in all three scriptures. Broadly speaking, the Old Testament is a copy-paste of the Hebrew bible, whereas the New Testament has stories from the AD era. Since Islam was formed seven centuries after Jesus, Quran had even more material available to copy from.

Jerusalem is the holiest city and spiritual centre for the Jews. Like Muslims face Mecca, Jews face Jerusalem while praying. The historical Holy Temple in the old city was the birthplace of Adam, the first man. The altar in that temple was rebuilt by Noah after the floods. It was here that Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, and was instead allowed to kill a ram. [Note: My short story BaqriId: Open diary week 50 (2008) was set in a Muslim household and referred to the Quran. I later learnt the same story exists in the Bible and Hebrew bible]. If justification must be found for Jews to establish a Jew State on Arab lands, the holy land of Jerusalem is that justification.

For Christians, Jerusalem is equally important. Jesus was brought here as a child to be presented to the same Holy temple. He preached, healed in the temple courts of this city. The famous Last Supper was in a room in a Jerusalem building. Crusades were Holy Wars sanctioned by the Christian church to recover Jerusalem from Islamic rule.

For Muslims, Jerusalem is the third holiest place after Mecca and Medina. Temple Mount, a hill located in Jerusalem’s old city is known to Muslims as the Haram esh-Sharif. The Quran tells a story about a flying horse taking Prophet Muhammad to a mosque in Jerusalem, where he prayed. After that he was flown to heaven, the entire journey to Jerusalem and from there to heaven happening in a single night.

Christians don’t appear to have political ambitions on Jerusalem any more. 1917 was the last year, when the British forces captured it by defeating the Ottoman Empire. Since the time the British left the territory in 1948, Jews and Arabs have fought over it.

In the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli war, Israel captured the West Jerusalem and Arabs held on to the East Jerusalem. In the June 1967 Six Day War, fought on a grander scale, between the same parties, Israel occupied East Jerusalem, and in 1980 annexed it. The world community condemned it, but condemnation rarely changes the ground realities.

Jerusalem (West and East combined) is the capital of Israel, according to Israel. However, because it is a disputed geography, Jerusalem doesn’t have any embassies. (Embassies are in Tel Aviv).

East Jerusalem is the purported capital of the State of Palestine. However, when the status of the state itself is ambiguous, who will recognise its capital? East Jerusalem is considered an Israeli occupied territory.

Donald Trump now wishes to make a statement by moving the USA embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. That endorsement, when it happens, is likely to ignite another Israel-Arab confrontation.

West Bank
West bank lies on the western bank of the Jordan river. In the 1948-49 war, Jordan annexed it and ruled over it until 1967. In the 1967 Six Day War, Israel won it back and established its military control. Since the 1993 Oslo peace accords, only 11% of the West Bank is officially controlled by the Palestinian Authority (with periodic Israeli incursions). In the first part of this article, I talked about the film five broken cameras. That film is a Palestinian narrative from the West Bank. Israel incessantly attempts to capture more land from West Bank to establish new settlements. Palestinian villages struggle to get enough water for their basic domestic needs. Next door, the unlawful Israeli settlements have swimming pools, well watered lush lawns and large irrigated farms. 

The population of the West Bank is nearly 3 million including 2.6 million Palestinians and 400,000 Israeli settlers. For economic reasons, many Palestinians work in Israel, legally or illegally. Many construction workers who build Israeli settlements are Palestinians. Israel offers them higher wages and more opportunities than the West Bank.

Gaza strip
West Bank and Jerusalem are adjoining areas. Geographically, if not politically, Jerusalem is part of the West Bank. Gaza Strip is away from it, on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, to Egypt’s north. Its area is 365 sq kms, with a 51 km border with Israel and an 11 km border with Egypt.

Since 1959, Egypt had occupied the Gaza strip and administered it through its military governor. In the 1967 war, Israel captured it from Egypt. Israel military administered Gaza until 1994. After the Oslo peace accords, it was handed over to PLO, the Palestine Liberation Organisation. (Remember Yasser Arafat? He was its chairman for 35 years. His headquarters were in Gaza city).

Hamas, a fundamentalist organisation founded in 1987, makes PLO look like secular and saintly.  In the 2000 Second Intifada (uprising against Israel), Hamas used suicide bombing and rocket attacks. Hamas had a capacity to launch rockets to attack Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities. Sick of the Hamas terrorism, Israel evacuated all Jews from the Gaza strip and withdrew its military troops in 2005. In 2006, Hamas won the elections and threw off whatever remained of the PLO. Hamas continued the rocket attacks. Israel sealed the borders, and launched a massive air, land, naval coordinated counterattack in 2008-9.  Some 1400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis were killed in that war.

2014 saw another war between Israel and Hamas. Hamas was joined by Islamic Jihad, and received armaments from Iran. Some 2300 Palestinians and 73 Israelis were killed.

Israel and Egypt have both created a blockade of the Gaza strip. Land, sea borders and air space are strictly controlled by Israel. On land, on both sides, there is a no-man buffer zone. Israel decides the quantities of food, fuel and medicines that can go in. Electricity supply (from Israel) is interrupted for seven hours a day on average. The sea blockade has significantly damaged Gaza’s fishing industry. The Gaza strip is variously described as a concentration camp, a crime against humanity, a collective punishment.

The Gaza strip has about 1.9 million residents, ever growing with a fertility rate of 4.4 children per woman. More than half the residents are UN-registered refugees, descendents of Palestinians driven out of their homes in the 1948 war.

The State of Palestine
The State of Palestine, therefore, consists of (a) East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel, (b) West Bank, occupied by Israel which builds settlements there. And (c) Gaza strip blocked on all but one sides by Israel. On the other border, Egypt has created a blockade.

The world, certainly the Muslim world, wants this 70-year old conflict to end. Two solutions, with not so innovative names, have been debated over the years. A one-state solution and a two-state solution. Next week, I will discuss what they mean.


Ravi 

Saturday, April 8, 2017

The Jewish Question: Part Two


Some people wrongly think Israel was created as a Jew homeland because of the holocaust in the Second World War. As part of Hitler’s strategy brutally named the ‘final solution’ to the Jewish question, 6 million out of 9 million European Jews were killed; many of them ghettoed, starved, tortured and gassed. It is natural to imagine the creation of Israel as a goodwill gesture to Jews who survived the holocaust. However, as we saw earlier, the Jew homeland was announced through the Balfour declaration in 1917, much before the rise of Hitler. Jews had been persecuted everywhere, for nearly 2000 years.

This is curious. I can understand the big religions wholeheartedly and militarily hating one another. But Jews are and have always been too small a number. Today Christianity has more than 2 billion followers, Islam more than 1.5 billion; there are more than 1 billion Hindus, but only 14 million Jews worldwide. At its peak, before the holocaust, Judaism had 17 million adherents, minuscule in comparison to the three big religions. Why, then, such strong feelings towards a minor community - so much so as to profile, persecute and annihilate it? Why create a special word, Anti-Semitism, to articulate Jew hatred. In my reading, I found four key reasons.

Responsible for the death of Jesus
For centuries, provoked by their religious zealots, Christians have believed that the Jewish people were collectively responsible for the death of Jesus Christ. The crucifixion story talks about Pontius Pilate who could have stopped the execution, but instead washed his hands – literally and metaphorically – to let Jesus be killed.

Saint Hippolytus (170-236 AD) in his Expository Treatise against the Jews has this to say:
“Now then, incline thine ear to me and hear my words, and give heed, thou Jew. Many a time does thou boast thyself, in that thou didst condemn Jesus of Nazareth to death, and didst give him vinegar and gall to drink; and thou dost vaunt thyself because of this. Come, therefore, and let us consider together whether perchance thou dost boast unrighteously, O, Israel, and whether thou small portion of vinegar and all has not brought down this fearful threatening upon thee and whether this is not the cause of thy present condition involved in these myriad of troubles.”

The king of Jews was crucified, and the religion formed in his name declared Jews to be responsible for the crucifixion.

Blood libel
The blood libel superstition insists that Jews kidnap and kill pre-pubertal Christian boys to bake special bread (Matzoth). This is a religious ritual during the Jewish holidays. An American historian Walter Laqueur says there have been 150 such cases (not to talk about thousands of rumours) reported in the Middle Ages. In those cases, Jews were arrested and usually killed by a mob.

My favourite author Fyodor Dostoevsky, in The Brothers Karamazov, has this passage. The girl is asking Alexie Karamazov (Alyosha), the priest:

“Alyosha, is it true that at Easter the Jews steal a child and kill it?”
“I don’t know.”
“There’s a book here in which I read about the trial of a Jew, who took a child of four years old and cut off the fingers from both hands, and then crucified him on the wall, hammered nails into him and crucified him, and afterwards, when he was tried, he said that the child died soon, within four hours. That was ‘soon’! He said the child moaned, kept on moaning and he stood admiring it...”

Conspiracy theories, when propagated by a Church, can influence masses for generations. Parents pass on these beliefs to their children. The beliefs are reinforced by what you read and trust. If you are told that a community executed the founder of your religion, you get a lifelong licence to hate that community.

Racial prejudice
Just by looking at a person, we can’t pinpoint his religion or language, because both are man-made phenomena. However, we can tell the gender and broadly speaking the race of a person. Sometimes, race and religion can be visibly distinct, e.g. the Bangladeshi Muslims and the Arab Muslims or the European Christians and the African Christians. Christianity and Islam, the two biggest religions, have expanded through large-scale conversions. Judaism is a small religion, and in most cases Jews were identified as belonging to another race.

Somerset Maugham, another favourite writer of mine, in his celebrated story Mr Know-all, describes the main character Mr Kelada as having a “hooked nose”. In the 17th century, English theatre often presented Jews as hideous caricatures with hooked noses and bright red wigs. In 17th century Venice, Jews were required to wear a red hat at all times in public. The punishment for not wearing a red hat was the death penalty. As we know, the Nazis required them to wear armbands. In short, the haters made sure Jews could always be identified so as to persecute them.

Moneylenders and usury
Christianity and Islam traditionally prohibited money lending for profit. Charging interest was a sin, if not a crime. Money lending for profit was the exclusive territory of Jews. Here again we can quote from literature, a well known example in Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice.  The character of Shylock is capable of creating hatred towards Jewish moneylenders for ever.

The profiteering by the Jewish moneylenders seems like a realistic reason for the money-borrowers to hate them. (Even today, most of us distrust bankers).

Money and commerce are a part of the Jewish blood. When I lived in Poland, I took friends and relatives who visited me to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Feeling miserable and gloomy, we would then return to Krakow and visit the Jewish Kazimierz- the historical district of Krakow. (Spielberg’s Schindler’s list was shot here). In the synagogues, I was shocked by the crass commercialism shown by the Rabbi - pay for entry, pay for viewing of documentaries, pay exorbitant prices for the DVDs. Commerce rather than religion was the raison d'être of that synagogue, and its custodians didn’t hide it. 

Settler colonialism
Hated, ostracised and persecuted for 2000 years, later facing the threat of extinction in concentration camps, the Jews naturally fought for their own home. Zionism succeeded in getting that home in Palestine, and the settlements started.

Colonialism is of two types. When the British Empire ruled over India, it was only to plunder India’s wealth and exploit its labour, rather than for the British people to settle there by kicking the Indians off. This type of colonialism generally ends, as it ended in the case of India in 1947.

The settler colonialism, on the other hand, is to capture the land so as to settle there by throwing or destroying the original residents off that land. The United States of America and Australia are two well-known examples of settler colonialism.

The settlers go to the new place, depopulate the locals, start living there, and give the place names borrowed from their home country. Today’s New York was first captured by the Dutch in the 17th century. They named today’s Manhattan ‘New Amsterdam’ and the larger area ‘New Netherland’. At the end of the second Anglo-Dutch war of 1665-1667, the English captured it. They renamed New Amsterdam as ‘New York’ to honour the then Duke of York (who later became King James II). (Any place that has new in its name smells of settler colonialism). Over the next couple of centuries, Christian Europeans of all kinds emigrated and settled in America. Today, except a few historians and Wikipedia, nobody knows who the original people in that land were. It was as if a new (or additional) national home was declared for Europeans, and they all flocked to the new land called America.

The story of Israel is similar – the only difference being that it happened in the 20th century. Next week, in the third part, I will argue why this issue is important in predicting the Israel-Palestine future.

(Continued next week)

Ravi