Israel
09 Apr '24 11:16On Nov 9th, 1917, Britain gave European Zionists permission to set up a colony in Palestine. Naturally, none of the people living in Palestine at the time were asked if they wanted to be colonized.
Over the next 31 years, migrants arriving mostly from Poland and Russia but also the rest of Europe, America and elsewhere caused tensions to rise in Palestine. Finally, in 1948 a full-scale ethnic cleansing was carried out in which over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were moved out of Jewish sectors (i.e. the Nakba). This allowed the new colony declaring independence as the state of Israel to be ruled by a Jewish migrant majority. Many early Israeli prime ministers like David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, and Golda Meir were foreign-born, typically in Poland, Ukraine, or Russia.
This ethnic cleansing continues relentlessly to this day with settlers occupying more and more lands in the West Bank; Palestinian Arabs still living in camps in Lebanon and Jordan where they were exiled; and Palestinians in the occupied territories living under military rule with no civil or human right to speak of for the last 75 years.
Many nations and anti-colonialists worldwide have opposed the project of creating a Jewish colony in the Middle East. It is widely recognized that the colonial period of human history was horribly unjust to indigenous peoples. In America and Australia, ethnic cleansing by Europeans was genocidal, with entire indigenous cultures being replaced by European ones with only vestiges of the previous cultures remaining. African and Asian colonies were treated brutally and unfairly (e.g. apartheid), but did not experience the same level of genocide and replacement and have by now all reverted to indigenous rule.
The current situation is that the Jewish colony-now-state of Israel is an established and prosperous democracy, but with indigenous peoples living next door under an apartheid-like system.
So what is a just solution for the Israeli problem?
Unwinding all of colonial occupation is impossible. Colonial migrants of European descent have for many generations been born in countries which even from a theoretical perspective they could not leave because there is nowhere for them to go. Many Israelis are by now in that situation. They did not migrate to Israel but were born there (e.g. Netanyahu).
Kicking Jewish descendants of migrants out of Palestine is no longer an option. Too much time has passed for that event to be reversed. Apart from a few wild-eyed extremists, most Arabs are not proposing that.
What Palestinians want is full human rights. They want the right to vote to determine their government – a right which was denied to them under the Ottomans, then the British, and now the Israelis.
THIS ABUSE MUST END.
Palestinians are fighting for freedom. They have not stopped and there is no indication they will stop – nor should they. The descendants of the people who were ethnically cleansed to make way for Jews still sit in camps. They must be repatriated.
Whether there is ultimately one state or two states in Palestine remains to be seen, but either way, Arabs must have full equal citizenship rights including travel and engaging in international relations the same as any Israeli.
Palestinian Arabs must be able to vote either in Israel or in their own sovereign nation where Israel has no control – military control over the West Bank and Gaza has always denied sovereignty to those areas. Rights cannot be denied to millions of people because ‘they are terrorists’ or ‘they don’t accept some condition.’ That’s not how rights work. Human rights must be restored regardless of ongoing conflict and without any conditions.
People’s right to vote for or against those that govern them is an absolute right and can never be denied for any reason anywhere in the world. This is not negotiable. It must happen NOW. It cannot wait one more hour. Israel has tried to postpone justice for more than 70 years – that is wrong. It is hopefully the last example the world will ever see and tolerate of colonial oppression of an indigenous people.
No Israelis or Palestinians need to die or move anywhere for this to happen. Once equal rights are established, we will see what happens next.
The end of the last gasp of colonialism in human history is long overdue.
Over the next 31 years, migrants arriving mostly from Poland and Russia but also the rest of Europe, America and elsewhere caused tensions to rise in Palestine. Finally, in 1948 a full-scale ethnic cleansing was carried out in which over 700,000 Palestinian Arabs were moved out of Jewish sectors (i.e. the Nakba). This allowed the new colony declaring independence as the state of Israel to be ruled by a Jewish migrant majority. Many early Israeli prime ministers like David Ben-Gurion, Menachem Begin, and Golda Meir were foreign-born, typically in Poland, Ukraine, or Russia.
This ethnic cleansing continues relentlessly to this day with settlers occupying more and more lands in the West Bank; Palestinian Arabs still living in camps in Lebanon and Jordan where they were exiled; and Palestinians in the occupied territories living under military rule with no civil or human right to speak of for the last 75 years.
Many nations and anti-colonialists worldwide have opposed the project of creating a Jewish colony in the Middle East. It is widely recognized that the colonial period of human history was horribly unjust to indigenous peoples. In America and Australia, ethnic cleansing by Europeans was genocidal, with entire indigenous cultures being replaced by European ones with only vestiges of the previous cultures remaining. African and Asian colonies were treated brutally and unfairly (e.g. apartheid), but did not experience the same level of genocide and replacement and have by now all reverted to indigenous rule.
The current situation is that the Jewish colony-now-state of Israel is an established and prosperous democracy, but with indigenous peoples living next door under an apartheid-like system.
So what is a just solution for the Israeli problem?
Unwinding all of colonial occupation is impossible. Colonial migrants of European descent have for many generations been born in countries which even from a theoretical perspective they could not leave because there is nowhere for them to go. Many Israelis are by now in that situation. They did not migrate to Israel but were born there (e.g. Netanyahu).
Kicking Jewish descendants of migrants out of Palestine is no longer an option. Too much time has passed for that event to be reversed. Apart from a few wild-eyed extremists, most Arabs are not proposing that.
What Palestinians want is full human rights. They want the right to vote to determine their government – a right which was denied to them under the Ottomans, then the British, and now the Israelis.
THIS ABUSE MUST END.
Palestinians are fighting for freedom. They have not stopped and there is no indication they will stop – nor should they. The descendants of the people who were ethnically cleansed to make way for Jews still sit in camps. They must be repatriated.
Whether there is ultimately one state or two states in Palestine remains to be seen, but either way, Arabs must have full equal citizenship rights including travel and engaging in international relations the same as any Israeli.
Palestinian Arabs must be able to vote either in Israel or in their own sovereign nation where Israel has no control – military control over the West Bank and Gaza has always denied sovereignty to those areas. Rights cannot be denied to millions of people because ‘they are terrorists’ or ‘they don’t accept some condition.’ That’s not how rights work. Human rights must be restored regardless of ongoing conflict and without any conditions.
People’s right to vote for or against those that govern them is an absolute right and can never be denied for any reason anywhere in the world. This is not negotiable. It must happen NOW. It cannot wait one more hour. Israel has tried to postpone justice for more than 70 years – that is wrong. It is hopefully the last example the world will ever see and tolerate of colonial oppression of an indigenous people.
No Israelis or Palestinians need to die or move anywhere for this to happen. Once equal rights are established, we will see what happens next.
The end of the last gasp of colonialism in human history is long overdue.
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