- Jeff Halper is an American-born Israeli Professor of
Anthropology as well as a peace and human rights activist for over three
decades. In 1997, he co-founded the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions
(ICAHD), and as its Coordinating Director "organized and led nonviolent
direct action and civil disobedience against Israel's occupation policies
and authorities."
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- ICAHD's mission is now expanded well beyond home demolitions.
It helps rebuild them and resists "land expropriation, settlement
expansion, by-pass road construction, policies of 'closure' and 'separation,"
and much more. Its aim is simple, yet hard to achieve - to end decades
of Israeli-Palestinian conflict equitably and return the region to peace.
For his work, Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
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- Besides his full-time work, he writes many articles,
position papers, and authored several books. His latest and subject of
this review is An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming
Israel. Israeli-based journalist Jonathan Cook (jkcook.net) authored two
insightful books on the conflict that are highly recommended. Information
can be found on his web site and much more. He calls Halper's book "one
of the most insightful analyses of the Occupation I've read. His voice
cries out to be heard" on the region's longest and most intractable
conflict.
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- Halper is a "critical insider" and insightful
commentator of events on the ground that he witnesses first hand. This
review covers his analysis in-depth - in two parts for easier reading.
It exposes Israeli repression and proposes remedial solutions. It provides
another invaluable resource on the conflict's cause, history, why it continues,
and a just and equitable resolution.
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- Introduction
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- Halper's observation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
is accurate. Knowing how to end it isn't the issue. Overcoming fear and
Israeli obstruction is at its heart. There are "no sides," and
Halper stresses that as a "chief claim of (his) book." Critical
discussion and effective action must involve everyone this conflict affects
as the way to "get out of this mess" and achieve justice.
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- Thinking "out of the Box" is key, reframing
the issue, offering an alternative way, and using it to open "possibilities
for resolution foreclosed (by) security framing." Halper has a "clear,
empowering message: if we the people lead, our governments will follow."
But it takes empowering ourselves to do it and a commitment for the task.
The goal - a "win-win" peace for all parties on a global scale
taking into account "equality, human rights, international law, justice,
peace and development." Make no mistake. Israel bears most responsibility
for the conflict, continuing it, and preventing its just resolution. Overcoming
that is no small task, and 60 years of trying so far have failed.
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- Part I: Comprehending Oppression - The Making of a Critical
Israeli
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- One home demolition transformed Halper from a progressive,
liberal-left Zionist to his post-Zionist state. It was a year after ICAHD's
creation, but he'd yet to see demolitions firsthand. He described his background
and values - third-generation American, small town midwest, Conservative
Jew (as differentiated from Orthodox or Reformed), not religious, but believing
in the "essential rules of life" that he learned as a child:
play fair, don't hit other kids, ask forgiveness when fall short, and take
nothing belonging to others. He's now lived in Israel for 35 years, arrived
as a young doctoral student, is very much an Israeli, and saw his Jewishness
transform into "Israeliness."
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- He was never a committed Zionist, then over time saw
how destructive and racist it is. It made Israel a colonial state and redemption
requires that it "transverse a long and painful trail from de-colonization
through reconciliation" to a new political form that's just, equitable
and inclusive for all its inhabitants.
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- Conflict was never inevitable, but a combination of "exclusivist
nationalism" and high-level ideologues led pre-1948 Jews to be confrontational,
not conciliatory toward Arabs. Conflict resulted and normalcy was sacrificed.
Sixty years later, Israel is deeply polarized, a colonial enterprise, hugely
repressive to Palestinians, including Israeli Arab citizens. In Halper's
judgment and many others, "the present situation is untenable."
His task is "hasten a just peace and, in the process, help Israel"
transcend Zionism and "redeem itself from (its) worse-than-colonial
situation...." He begins with a vital question. "Why in the hell
did (Israel) demolish (one) family's home" that he witnessed with
horror.
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- The Message of the Bulldozers
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- What bulldozers destroy, 200 settlements restored for
500,000 Jews in 150,000 housing units. It's on Palestinian agricultural
land where zoning restrictions deny them building permits. Since 1967,
Israel demolished over 18,000 Palestinian homes, a process now routine,
and nearly always for no security reason. Halper calls it a "national
obsession," collective punishment, in defiance of international law
that Israel disdains. For Palestinians, it's traumatic and devastating.
It renders men powerless and emasculating for being unable to provide a
family home.
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- For women, it's worse - dispossession and loss of one's
life that's like losing loved ones. Children as well are affected, traumatized,
and rendered scared and insecure. It causes bed-wetting, nightmares, fear
of abandonment, a drop in grades, leaving school, and exposure to domestic
violence that results from parents' emotional upheaval.
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- Palestinians have no recourse. They get demolition notices.
No formal legal, administrative process or orders accompany them. No warning
or time to remove belongings. Barely time enough to escape alive, and at
times not that when army policy destroys homes on top of residents suspected
of being "wanted." Demolitions may be carried out immediately,
months later or even years, and nearly always in early morning when inhabitants
may be sleeping or at other times when they're most vulnerable.
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- Five government bodies control the process on both sides
of the Green Line:
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- -- the Civil Administration under the Ministry of Defense
in the West Bank and formerly in Gaza;
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- -- the Ministry of Interior and Jerusalem municipality
in the city; and
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- -- the Ministry of Interior, Israel Lands Authority and
Ministry of Agriculture inside Israel with jurisdiction over Bedouin homes;
in addition, Jewish-dominated municipalities control the process in "mixed"
cities like Lod, Ramle and Jaffe.
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- It affects Palestinians, never Jews and is part of a
process to "de-Arabize" lands and confine their inhabitants to
small disconnected enclaves (Sharon's "cantons") on about 15%
of the entire country. It encompasses Areas A and B in 42% of the West
Bank and 3.5% of Israel where Arabs are confined by zoning, social pressure
and plain fear if they show defiance. Another 1% is in East Jerusalem.
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- Israeli zoning and master plans authorize demolitions
and deny building permits in ways to seem non-discriminatory. It's hardly
so in a country where Jews control 95% of the land from which Palestinians
are barred.
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- Take Jerusalem for example. West Jerusalem is for Jews
and its East portion maintains an artificial 72-28% Jewish majority over
Arabs for a 220,000 Palestinian population. They're in highly circumscribed
enclaves. Israeli settlements took 35% of their land, and over half of
East Jerusalem is designated "open green space." Palestinians
can own but not build on it. The result: Palestinian housing and communal
needs are confined to 11% of East Jerusalem and only 7% of all Jerusalem
as Palestinians can't live in Jewish West Jerusalem. Here's how it works:
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- -- Palestinian Jerusalem residents can't get building
permits; the result is a 25,000 housing unit shortage;
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- -- fewer homes mean higher prices; impoverished Palestinians
can't afford them; not even cheaper ones unless they build their own;
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- -- unlike Jews - to retain their Jerusalem residency,
Palestinians must continually prove that the city is their "center
of life;"
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- -- in spite of inadequate housing, Israel's Municipality
grants Arabs only around 150 to 350 building permits a year, yet demolishes
150 or more existing homes at the same time;
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- -- even when obtainable, permits are too expensive for
most Palestinians to afford; for Jews, however, fees are often waved or
subsidized;
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- -- even with a permit, Palestinians may only build on
25% of their land; the result is severe overcrowding;
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- -- Jews, in contrast, have spacious accommodations in
West and East Jerusalem;
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- -- Palestinians also face discrimination for municipal
services; they're marginalized on budgets and essential needs like water,
sewage, roads, parks, lighting, post offices, schools and other services;
and
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- -- East Jerusalem "neighborhoods" serve isolated
Palestinian populations in disconnected enclaves, and the city is being
transformed "into a region dominating the entire central portion of
the West Bank."
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- A similar system exists for the West Bank and for the
same reasons - confinement, induced emigration and continued Israeli expansion.
Civil Administration "Master Plans" zone 70% of the West Bank
as "agricultural land" and prohibit Palestinian building. The
1995 Oslo II agreement also divided the Territory into Areas A, B, C and
D (for Jerusalem) and H-1 and H-2 in Hebron. Further division established
reserves for Jews only; security zones; closed military areas; "open
green spaces" for Jewish-only housing developments in over half of
East Jerusalem leaving Palestinians confined to unconnected cantons surrounded
by Israeli settlements, restricted roads and hundreds of permanent and
"flying" checkpoints.
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- A restricted interconnected highway and bypass road system
links settlements and effectively incorporates them into Israel proper
like suburbs are to downtown cities. These and other Israeli measures violate
international law under which home demolitions constitute war crimes. They
violate Fourth Geneva Convention provisions, especially Article 53 that
states: "Any destruction by an Occupying Power of real or personal
property belonging individually or collectively to private persons....is
prohibited."
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- UN Resolution 1544 (May 2004) obligates Israel to observe
Fourth Geneva law and deplores the deteriorating conditions on the ground.
Israel remains defiant. Creating a Jewish "ethnocracy" on both
sides of the Green Line takes precedence. Home demotions continue, and
Israel's "nishul" displacement policy advances it overall. Halper
refers to "the Message of the Bulldozers: Get out. You do not belong
here." We uprooted you in 1948, and we'll do it again throughout the
"Land of Israel." Palestinians have no right to claim a home
in "our" country.
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- Part II: The Sources of Oppression - The Impossible Dream,
Constructing a Jewish Ethnocracy in Palestine
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- War or peace. Conflict or resolution. What do Israelis
think? Halper believes most "want to get on with their lives. 'Peace
and quiet' best describes (their) aspirations." But things are never
that simple in the "Holy Land." Most Jews think ending the conflict
is unattainable and accept Ehud Barak's notion that we have "no partner
for peace." What then? Confrontation is inevitable, "hunker down,
get on with our lives," and let the army and government keep us safe.
Everything comes down to personal security, so let the devil take the hindmost.
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- Barak's contention and the second Intifada's (September
2000) onset highlight the issue. Israelis also "live in a bubble,"
much like Americans. Their perceptions and opinions are formed. They don't
grasp political realities, and affairs of state aren't their thing. Nor
do they care. They have their own lives to get on with, but Halper asks
why can't they "break out of the Box?" Three elements explain
it:
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- -- a national ideology - an ethnocracy and its political
system;
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- -- an obsession with security; and
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- -- "small group decision-making."
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- Understanding Zionism is important; its reliance on suppression,
violence and dispossession; its belief in exclusivity and privilege; and
how politics derives from ideology. It purports to be democracy but won't
countenance it for non-Jews. It demands an ethnically pure state where
half of its inhabitants aren't Jewish and have few rights afforded Jews
and virtually none that matter most.
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- Zionism justifies it, and its roots explain. The Jewish
Diaspora "maintained an ethno-nationalism within a (religious) framework."
Especially for 1000 years in Europe, mostly Eastern and Central. Jews were
poor and lived apart from Christians in segregated communities. They embraced
nationalism that was "organic, tribal as opposed to (western) civil
nationalism." From this crucible, Zionism emerged and the notion that
Jews deserve a homeland. Palestine was chosen to be returned to its rightful
owner. Arabs have no claim to a land exclusively for Jews. It explains
the "Israeli bubble," an ideological myopia, and an inability
to admit any shortcomings when it comes to relations with Arabs.
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- Israel is an ethnocracy. It's the antithesis of democracy.
Israelis won't admit it, but its leaders refer to a "Jewish democracy."
A notion right out of Orwell. Structural inequalities highlight it. Israeli
Arabs may vote, sit in Parliament, but government decisions aren't "legitimate"
without a "Jewish majority." The Law of Return affords it to
Jews alone. Then there's land, housing, education and many other examples
of Jewish favoritism compared to discrimination and denial to Arabs. On
virtually everything, even small things. What holidays are celebrated,
having Jewish (not civil) law regulate marriages, citizenship, death, inheritance,
and so forth. It's forbidden to bury non-Jews (even soldiers) in Jewish
cemeteries.
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- The Ciitizenship and Entry into Israel Law prohibits
Israeli Arab spouses from the West Bank, Gaza or any Arab country from
entering Israel, getting residency rights or citizenship. It's to counter
the "demographic problem" or the threat that a faster-growing
Palestinian population will one day outnumber Jews in the land of Israel
and change its Jewish character.
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- Policy stems from this and the notion of a two-state
solution, one unacceptable to Palestinians, because it's based on an unworkable
idea - keeping Arabs out of "our land" and having all of greater
Israel's best parts for Jews. Palestinians get what's left, what's least
valued, with settlement blocs kept untouchable, and expanding them as well.
So some kind of Palestinian state will be finessed that by definition will
amount to separated cantons in an "artificially supported prison-state."
It can't work and assures no end to conflict.
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- It's so untenable, yet Israelis buy it. How so? Because
security framing sells it. Jews are isolated and endangered, Arabs hostile,
conflict inevitable, and everything comes down to "either we 'win'
or 'they' do" - a clash of civilizations with no political solution
and "civilian militarism" essential in daily life. This justifies
"tribal nationalism and ethnocracy," and Halper lists its main
elements:
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- -- Israel the victim; fighting to survive; Arabs are
permanent enemies; reject peace; are bent on Israel's destruction; conflict
is inevitable;
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- -- Palestinian "terrorism" is the core of the
problem; Israel's not responsible and acts only in self-defense;
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- -- no Occupation exists; the Territories are "disputed;"
and
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- -- no political solution is possible; Israel must retain
total control; maintain "Fortress Israel;" allow a separate Palestinian
state; bantustan-style only, non-viable, semi-sovereign, encircled by Israel,
and subject to the will of its powerful neighbor.
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- These notions are untenable. They foreclose any chance
for peace, reconciliation, real security, and a fair and equitable solution
to the region's longest and most intractable conflict. Yet Israel continues
it for its own purposes, blames the victims for its own transgressions,
and gets away with it because of western backing, mostly by America, and
Palestinians have to fend for themselves.
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- Repeatedly through the years, Israel spurned compromise,
avoided peace, and opted for conflict and repression. Halper cites examples.
There are many, but few in the West know them:
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- -- Israel met with Arab states in 1949; it rejected territorial
concessions and refused to let 100,000 Palestinian refugees return - a
small percent of those displaced;
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- -- also in 1949, Israel refused Syria's peace treaty
offer;
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- -- before his assassination, Jordan's King Abdullah negotiated,
but Israel rejected his peace overtures;
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- -- in 1952-53, Syria's pro-American leader tried and
failed as well;
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- -- so did Egypt's Nasser; -- overall, Israel remained
inflexible; it felt empowered by its successful armistice negotiations
that left it politically, territorially and militarily superior to its
neighbors;
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- -- in 1965, Egypt extended peace overtures and was rejected;
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- -- after the 1967 war, Palestinians wanted peace, an
independent state, but were rebuffed as well;
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- -- so was Sadat in 1971;
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- -- Arafat as well in the early 1970s; Henry Kissinger
flat turned him down and rejected all contact;
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- -- Sadat was again rebuffed in 1978, a year before Camp
David;
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- -- in 1988, the PLO publicly recognized an Israeli state
within the Green Line;
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- -- in 1993, the PLO did again;
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- -- doubling the settler population between 1993-2000
foreclosed a viable two-state solution;
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- -- Sharon was uncompromisingly rejectionist;
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- -- in 2006, Olmert dismissed the Prisoners' Document
whereby all Palestinian factions (Hamas included) sought a politically-crafted
two-state solution;
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- -- since fall 2006, Syria's Assad made repeated peace
overtures; Israel dismissed them and remains hostile to Syria, Hezbollah
in Lebanon, and Hamas' democratically elected government; it's confined
to Gaza; kept under siege; relentlessly targeted for removal; and since
June 19 sticking to an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire that may in the end
prove tenuous.
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- Israel chooses conflict over peace. It continues its
settlement program. Palestinians are shut out, and something has to give.
Without rethinking Zionism and reframing an obsession with security, nothing
will. Things will keep worsening, resolution will get harder, and global
fallout greater. There's a bad ending out there unless decisive measures
counteract it far greater than a momentary letup in fighting.
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- Dispossession (Nishul): Ethnocracy's Handmaiden
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- Security alone can't explain decades of Israeli policy.
"Something else was going on," according to Halper - Nishul,
dispossession, transfer, "de-Arabization," "Judaization"
ethnocracy's "natural extension." Its logic is simple. A Jewish
state can't be viable with a sizable Arab population. Worse still is a
majority one even more able to demand equality. Preventing it and empowering
Jews is thus policy. It defines Zionism's agenda, its roots go back over
100 years, and nishul is at its core. In seven stages according to Halper:
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- -- localized from 1904-1914; early Zionist arrivals began
it; they saw themselves as "returning natives" and used terms
like "conquest" and "colonization;" buying land from
absentee Arab landlords and removing Palestinian peasants began the process;
resistance to the idea began early; nishul progressed slowly;
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- -- from 1918-1947, systematic Jewish expansion along
with nishul; the 1917 Balfour Declaration spurred it; it gave Arabs assurances
but betrayed them; Jewish population grew; it was 17% of Palestine by 1932;
grew faster in the 1930s; Arabs revolted from 1936-1939; Zionists adopted
a "compulsory transfer" policy to counter it; Jewish sovereignty
over all Palestine became a priority; accommodation with Arabs was rejected;
the 1942 Biltmore Program was firm - "Palestine (would) be constituted
as a Jewish Commonwealth;" Palestinians were left out entirely;
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- -- active nishul - 1948; post-war, Jews were one-third
of the population; partition was considered; the UN's 1947 resolution gave
Jews 56% of the land, the Arab majority 42% with 2% left under internationalized
trusteeship (including Jerusalem); nishul became necessary; at minimum,
Gen Gurion wanted 80% of Palestine; the 1948 war secured 78%; ethnic cleansing
(mass-nishul) out of which Israel was created; born in blood; thereafter
immersed in it; all the while blaming the victims;
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- -- from 1948-1966 - consolidating nishul; most Arabs
were removed (up to 80%); the problem was how to keep them out; as a condition
for its creation, Israel agreed to UN Resolution 194 and international
law guaranteeing the Right of Return; on June 16, 1948, its Cabinet barred
it; it remains policy today; Kafkaesque laws let Israel appropriate Palestinian
land, bar them from owning it, and give refugees no rights in perpetuity;
Halper cites four policy stages from other sources he quotes:
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- (1) Israel claims sovereignty - the "Abandoned Areas
Ordinance" Section 1 (A) defines them as "any area captured by
the armed forces or surrendered to them" or land abandoned;
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- (2) freezing the 'lack of ownership" - the (1948)
Provisional Council of State created a "Custodian" for "abandoned
areas;" various laws, regulations, military orders, and extra-legal
means facilitated the expropriation of Palestinian land;
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- (3) "Israelification" - from "lack of
ownership" to Israeli ownership; various laws and legal maneuvers
empowered government agency seizures; and
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- (4) De-Arabization - land was nationalized to protect
its "Jewish character;" by 1962, 92.6% of the land belonged either
to the state or Jewish National Fund; Palestinians got the remaining 7.3%;
they were classified "internal refugees" (more Orwell) and prohibited
from returning to their homes; laws were strengthened; the "Basic
Law: Israel Lands - 1960" prevents lands or houses built on State
Lands or on Jewish National Agency-controlled ones from being sold, leased
or rented to Israeli Arabs; they've seen their ownership shrink from 93%
pre-1948 to 25% in the immediate aftermath to 4% in 2007;
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- -- from 1967 to the present - occupation, colonization,
and a permanent "Matrix of Control;" it defines the Palestinian
dilemma today;
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- -- from 1993-2000 - post-Oslo attempts to complete nishul;
de-Arabization and Judaization formalized an apartheid system; permanent
domination defines it; from 1948 to 1966, the military administered it;
thereafter, a mixed regime replaced it - martial law for Arabs; expansive
space exclusively for Jews with generous subsidies for enticements; and
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- -- from 2001 to the present, adopting unilateral "separation"
- completing the nishul process; de-Arabization shifted to confinement;
nishul proceeds in the Territories as well; its goal is to expand Israeli
control over the entire country and confine Palestinians to isolated bantustans
under Israeli control.
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- The Narrative of Exodus
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- It refers to Leon Uris' novel about a "heroic little
Israel standing bravely against hoards of bad Arabs....(a) familiar colonial
narrative (portraying) an idealized image of Israel" that boils down
to bad fiction. Arabs are villainous while Jews come off as "righteous
victims" after centuries of persecution. They were "attacked
by five Arab armies" bent on their destruction, and have fought to
survive ever since. Powerful stuff and in hardcover sold over 550,000 copies
in more than 40 printings. In paperback it topped seven millions sales
by the late 1980s, still sells, and became a hit film in 1960.
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- Poor little Israel. It's the world's fourth most powerful
military power, has a formidable nuclear arsenal, yet it still casts itself
as victim. Against what must be asked as no regional country threatens
it nor do the Palestinians with light arms and crude homemade rockets for
protection.
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- Halper says he's often asked: "How can Jews (treat
Arabs so harshly) after what they have been through? It does not come from
Jewish culture." Biblical times perhaps but not thereafter. But some
believe a "latent manifestation of power, violence, exclusivity and
cruelty," surfaced as an ethnocracy after 2000 years of latency. Palestinian
rights are denied, and showing compassion is seen as "weakness."
Israel's existence as an ethnically-defined state requires it to be hard
line against adversaries, external enemies and internal ones. Otherwise,
its whole colonial enterprise is jeopardized. Unless victims come off as
unworthy, Israel can't justify its actions. Maintaining the Exodus spirit
allows them. It filters out reality with a reverse narrative of truth.
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- Part II will continue the story. Watch for it on this
site.
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- Stephen Lendman is a Research Associate of the Centre
for Research on Globalization. He lives in Chicago and can be reached at
lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
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- Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com
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