Israel at 70 A Darkness Unto The Nations

AL NAKBA YEARS ON
Israel at 70
A Darkness
unto the
Nations
By Sam Bahour
The Destroyed Villages of Palestine
U.S. Letter of Recognition of the State of Israel, with the words “Jewish
state” crossed out by President Truman.i
S
everal years ago, the late Polish mathematician from
Youngstown State University (my alma mater in
Ohio), Dr. Zbigniew Piotrowski, walked up to me at
the Youngstown Arab-American Community Center
Al-Bassa
and shared a bold observation after I delivered

a talk on the Palestinians’ desire for freedom and
independence. He said the silver lining of the WWII tragedy,
and in particular the Jewish loss thereof, was that the world
reset how it operates; post-WWII, international law became
48
Artwork by Sliman Mansour.
the order of the day to avert a repeat boldly claimed: “In our country there
of history. It was as if all the nations is room only for the Jews. We shall
of the world pressed the reset button say to the Arabs: Get out! If they don’t
and rebooted with this new operating agree, if they resist, we shall drive
system, one that obligated all states them out by force.”ii With this theme
to respect a set of collective rules as the explicit backdrop of the newly
and regulations. Dr. Piotrowski rightly established state, it is no wonder that
questioned how Israel, which claims Israel, 70 years later, has had little
to be built on Jewish values, could chance of being a normal member of
be so utterly disrespectful of this new the community of nations, let alone a
reference point. light unto anything.
This disrespect was exemplified by Individual Israeli achievements in fields
one of Israel’s founding ministers such as science and technology are
of education and culture, Professor impressive. However, for all modern
Ben-Zion Dinur (1954), when he intents and purposes, the State of
49
Artwork by Asad ‘Azzi.
Israel, as a state-building model, is The lead-up to the establishment of

a failed experiment – ideologically, Israel witnessed the expulsion of well
religiously, politically, socially, and, over half the indigenous Palestinian
if US-favored-nation status were population by May 1948, not to mention
removed, possibly economically as the scores murdered in the process.
well. Without immediate and decisive Ever since, Israel has assumed a
intervention from the international policy of structural discrimination,
community to stop the ongoing Israeli political imprisonment, torture,
aggression towards Palestinians, deportations, beatings, collective
Israel’s intransigence and US- punishment, political assassinations,
equipped regional hegemony will settlement building, economic
not only fuel another generation of dominance – the list is endless; and
Palestinians willing to sacrifice their measures were intensified after the
lives to achieve their freedom and Israeli military occupation of the West
independence but will also further Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem
jeopardize Israel’s future as a state. in 1967. This “empty” land that was
Israel was founded on the infamous filled with Palestinians overwhelmingly
fallacy of “a land without a people complicated the efforts to implant
for a people without a land.” Israel’s a Western state in the midst of the
attempt to persuade the world that this Middle East.
was a valid premise for statehood has Since its inception, Israel has
been a colossal failure, even among a arrogantly refused to address the most
growing number of Jews worldwide. crucial prerequisite of its establishment
Given the fact that historical [British- as a conventional state: accepting the
mandated] Palestine was inhabited Palestinians – those people who just
prior to Israel’s creation, Israel has happened to be inconveniently living in
gone to great lengths, at huge costs, that “empty” land. As a matter of fact,
to bury this racist fallacy. Israel’s membership in the UN was
50
It was totally in the hands
of Israel – the occupying
power – at the time of the
signing of the Oslo Accords
in 1993, as it is today, to
end the military occupation
of the Palestinian territory
and start the bitter process
of reconciliation.
pre-conditioned on respecting past UN As recently reported in the Associated

resolutions, including the one calling Press,vi Israel’s leading demographics
for Palestinian refugees to be allowed expert, Sergio Della Pergola, a
to return home, as well as the one demographer at Hebrew University,
calling for Israel to define its borders.iii defended Israeli military figures
To date, Israel has respected neither, indicating that the number of Arabs
to its own detriment. will soon equal that of Jews between
After nearly seven decades of conflict, the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan
and after two decades of explicit River. Thus, any Israeli illusion that
Palestinian political recognition of Palestinians will one day vanish into
Israel on part of their lands, Israel thin air is merely a hallucination of a
continues to choose to sustain the people driving drunk on power.
conflict. The Palestinians, those who Today, Israel seems more determined
were forcefully expelled from their than ever to forcefully prove the
homes in 1948, 1967, and more original fallacy of its statehood – an
recently, have ever since been living Israel with expandable, unilaterally
in squalid refugee camps throughout defined borders and a Jewish-only
the region. Those Palestinians who population. Twelve Israeli prime
did not flee Israel proper in 1948 are ministers before Netanyahu, six of
today fourth-class Israeli citizens. The them after the signing of the Oslo
Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza agreements, all failed. If Israel cannot
Strip, and East Jerusalem who have produce a leader to move the country
lived under Israeli military occupation from a rogue state to a member state
for 50 years, and counting, will of the Middle East, no one but Jewish-
continue to haunt the international Israeli citizens themselves will be
community until justice is served and to blame for the consequences, no
the Israeli occupation is ended, in matter how severe.
its entirety.
51
Survival-Return, artwork detail by John Halaka.
It should be no surprise that the late in the world during a Cold War that
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin marred common sense has rapidly
rushed to sign the infamous Oslo digressed into a liability in an age of
Peace Accords after calculating the globalization that the United States
historic ramifications of the political alone is spearheading.
earthquake that took place when the Today, on the 70th remembrance of the
late Palestinian representative, Yasser Palestinian Nakba (Catastrophe), Israel
Arafat, politically recognized the State must choose between continuing
of Israel. Rabin paid for that signature an illegal occupation and preserving
with his life, which was taken by one itself as a state. To think that both can
of his own citizens, a fanatic Jewish peacefully co-exist is utter ignorance
student. This was as close as Israel of history and human development.
has ever been to overcoming its never- Also, for Israel to believe that the
ending birth pangs. United States will always be willing to
Every step of the way, the United jeopardize its own strategic interests
States has rewarded Israel as it further for the sake of fulfilling an Israeli
entrenched its illegal occupation of illusion of Palestinian submission is a
the Palestinian territory. Israel has miscalculation to the nth degree.
been propped up financially, politically, Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American
and diplomatically by every single businessman living in Israeli-
US administration at the expense of occupied Palestine and is co-editor of
US taxpayers. The entire US political Homeland: Oral Histories of Palestine
system has been fully obedient to the and Palestinians (1994). He blogs
far-reaching Israeli lobby and narrow at www.epalestine.com and may be
electoral and commercial interests. found at @SamBahour.
What started as a US strategic ally
in one of the most sensitive spots
i
Truman: Timeline, Truman Library Institute, available at http://www.trumanlibraryinstitute.org/truman/
timeline/.
ii
Cited in Jeff Halper, “Palestinian displacement: a case apart? – The message of the bulldozers,” Forced
Migration Review, FMR 26, August 2006, available at http://www.fmreview.org/palestine/halper.html.
iii
https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/0B3AB8D2A7C0273D8525694B00726D1B and https://
unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/83E8C29DB812A4E9852560E50067A5AC.
iv
Aron Heller/AP, “Israeli demographer: Arabs nearly equal Jews in Holy Land,” Los Angeles Times, March 29,
2018, available at http://www.latimes.com/sns-bc-ml--israel-palestinians-20180327-story.html.
52

Israel at 70 A Darkness Unto The Nations

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AL NAKBA YEARS ON

and shared a bold observation after I delivered

Israel, as a state-building model, is The lead-up to the establishment of

pre-conditioned on respecting past UN As recently reported in the Associated

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