by Dr. Hisham Bustani
No for “Israel” on 1967-stolen Land,
Yes for “Israel” on 1948-stolen Land!!
Critique of the Palestinian Civil Societies` Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against “Israel” Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights
Dr. Hisham Bustani*
On July 9, 2005, 171 Palestinian Organizations, Refugee Rights Associations, Unions, Political Parties and Campaigns endorsed and released a “Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against “Israel” Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights” (full text: http://www.badil.org/Boycott-Statement.htm).
This call represent one of the main issues of misconception and deformation that are being more and more marketed as a “national consensus opinion” by NGOs and NGO-supported organizations and associations, and represent a huge set-back to the Arab popular struggle against Zionism and Imperialism.
Acknowledging the legitimacy of the Zionist entity:
Although the introduction of the call clearly states that it comes “Fifty years after the state of Israel was built mainly on land ethnically cleansed of its Palestinian owners..” (i.e. dates the “problem” back to 1948), it deviates completely from this issue when the same call does NOT consider any of the territories occupied before 1967 “occupied territories”.
Within the call, the territories deemed occupied are stated in the line: “Thirty years into Israel`s occupation of the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza (including East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip, and the Syrian Golan Heights…” (i.e. 1967).
So basically, what the statement clearly says is: although the Palestinian Civil Society groups KNOW that “Israel” was a “state” built on stolen ethnically-cleansed land in 1948, they are OKAY with this fact and they have NO PROBLEM with acknowledging it as such, even WITHOUT getting anywhere their polite and humble demand of having a Palestinian state on only the lands occupied in 1967.
This free and volunteer recognition of the “state” that was build on ethnically-cleansed stolen land by the Palestinian Civil Society manifests itself all over the call by:
a- NOT questioning the ethical and historic validity of the Zionist entity and considering it a “finished issue” and an ultimate given fact in a region where its people have, generation after generation, been part of a non-stop resistance to the Colonial, Imperialist and Zionist aspirations and projects since the dawn of the 20th century!
b- Acknowledging “Israel`s” statehood by demanding that implementation of so-called “International Law resolutions” that definitely recognizes the rights of the state that was established on stolen ethnically-cleansed land!
c- Calling for “recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality”, implying that the “problem” of the Arab Palestinians who decided to “stay no matter what” during the 1948 massacres, aggression and ethnic-cleansing is a problem of “an Arab minority” struggling for “equal rights” within “Israel”!
d- Inviting “conscientious Israelis to support this call”, disregarding that those “Israelis” who oppose occupying Arab Palestinian land after 1967 are THEMSELVES occupying the Arab Palestinian lands of 1948, and are themselves an integral part of the Zionist entity which the call rightfully described as a state built on stolen ethnically-cleansed land!!!
The Palestinian Civil Society has NO RIGHT whatsoever to give away Haifa, Yafa, Akka, and a long list of Arab cities, villages, farms, land and territory that was occupied/demolished/wiped-out of existence by the Zionists in 1948 which was a culmination of Zionist activity from the 19th century and the materialization of Zionist aspirations..
What is now called “Palestine” was historically the southern part of Syria detached by the renowned Sykes-Picot agreement in 1916. “Palestine” is Arab Syrian land and belongs to all the Arab people (past, present and future generations), and the Palestinian Civil Society HAS NO RIGHT to confiscate the struggle of generations and the land of an entire nation for the favor of a PR campaign that is designed within the “accepted limits” of the US and European NGOs that fund the Palestinian Civil Society, obviously for a reason.
I would also want to point the attention of the Palestinian Civil Society to the following paragraphs from the ReReport of the King-Crane Commission that dates back to August 28, 1919:
1. The largest percentage for any one request is that of 1,500 petitions (80.4 per cent) for United Syria, including Cilicia, the Syrian Desert, and Palestine. The boundaries of this area are usually defined as “The Taurus Mountains on the north- the Euphrates and Khabur Rivers, and the line extending east of Abu Kamal to the east of Al Juf on the east; Rafa and the line running from Al Juf to the south of Aqaba on the south, and the Mediterranean Sea on the West.” In addition to being the first plank of the Damascus program, a United Syria received strong support from many Christians in all the O. E. T. As., as the number of petitions indicates.
2. In opposition to Syrian Unity, six of the nineteen pro-Zionist petitions ask for a separate Palestine, and presumably it is implied in the others.
(for full text of the King-Crane Commission Report: http://www.damascusonline.com/history/documents/king_crane.htm)
Deforming the “Core” of the Struggle:
The Palestinian Civil Society thinks (or wants us to think) that if “Israel” met its “obligations to recognize the Palestinian people`s inalienable right to self-determination” and fully complied “with the precepts on international law” (i.e. the establishment of an “Independent Palestinian state” in the West Bank and Gaza alongside a state of “Israel”), the issue will be resolved!!
Is that true?
Let`s presume, just for the sake of argument, that the above scenario became a reality.
Does that mean that such an “Israel” will not be a “colonial settler state”?? Does that mean that “Israel” will stop being a “state built on stolen ethnically-cleansed” land? Does that mean that Israeli`s (who came from Poland or Russia or Argentina or the USA or…. or….) and currently reside in Haifa (for example) are now NOT occupiers but the rightful owners of the place?? Does that mean that “Israel” will loose its Imperialist function in the Arab region?? Does that mean that “Israel” will stop being Imperialism`s watchdog over the region`s oil and other resources?? Does that mean “Israel” will stop being a “preventive measure” against any possible Arab liberation and unification effort? Does that mean that “Israel” will disarm itself of the 200 or more nuclear war-head it owns? Does that mean that “Israel” will stop providing logistical, military and intelligence support to US “crusades” in Iraq and the region?? Does that mean that “Israel” will stop its project of becoming the main economic center for the “greater middle east” with all the Arab and non-Arab countries of the region being nothing more than its “satellite” subordinate countries??
How many “yes” answers did we have?? None!
Isolationism: The “Anti-Globalize Resistance” Formula for Defeat
Such calls deform the nature of the Arab-Zionist struggle, oversimplify it, and confiscate the Arab and even Internationalist dimension and perspective for a dogma that has two main untrue statements: a)”The struggle is for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state” and b)”We are the Palestinians, we are the people concerned, we decide, you support”!!
Some points to be stressed:
The struggle with Zionism in the Arab region is an Arab-Zionist struggle that cannot be comprehended outside the scope of the Arab and even global struggle against the Imperialist phenomena. It is NOT merely a Palestinian-Israeli “conflict”. It was deformed to this level to acknowledge the Zionist project of establishing a “Jewish state” on stolen Arab land by default, facilitate political manipulation, detach the Arab depth, strengthen and stabilize the division of the Arab land and people, and isolate the Palestinians.
The result of all of the above mentioned factors will be that the Palestinians will feel that the Arabs (and the world) have “abandoned them”, thus they`ll feel very weak and vulnerable, thus they`ll be ready to agree to any proposal put-up by the US/Zionist side, and they`ll side-line any Arab popular opposition on the basis of “where were you when we needed you?”.
This is how Zionism/Imperialism, with the aid of the Arab Regimes and the PLO, achieved the disasters of Oslo and the following catastrophes by inaugurating the PLO as the “legitimate and sole representative of the Palestinian people”!!! thus paving the way for the Arab regimes to “accept what the Palestinians would accept” and say “who are we to oppose? Are we more Palestinian than the Palestinians??”. And, this will reflect the same way globally, forgetting that this position does NOT represent the Arab people`s choice but is rather the official position of the regimes and Imperialism.
As an outcome, the PLO signed Oslo, followingly almost all the Arab regimes opened official channels with the Israelis. “Israel” was recognized by the Arab regimes as a legitimate state and a normal part of the region, same went for the PLO which modified its charter to acknowledge “Israel`s right to exist”, and then it all went down the drains.
The Arab people and the Internationalists with principled analysis are now being wedged between the isolationist Palestinians in the official channels who promote this position to remain in power and who have actually succeeded in building a semi-“popular opinion” around it; the puppet Arab Regimes that finally found the “magical potion” to detach itself from the Palestinian question and run “under the open sky” to the “arms of America” and Israel; the hard fist of Imperialism/Zionism and the Soft Fist of the UN and its resolutions that does not tolerate any “questioning” of the legitimacy of the Zionist entity and its existence under the threat of being labeled “anti-Semitic” at the best option and “terrorist” at the worst; and last but not least the infiltrative rhetoric of the NGOs that reconciles with Zionist thievery in 1948 and does not tolerate anything more that a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank and -through its financial power- have sucked all the Palestinian Civil Society into its web of misconceptions and deformed presentations!!
An Alternative to the “NGO approach”
The alternative is discussed in a previous article/letter I sent out to the Anti-Globalization movement in 2003 under the title: “It`s Time to Radicalize the Concepts on the Arab/Zionist Struggle” (http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2003/11/274840.shtml), from that article I`ll take the following excerpts with some modifications:
There is NO alternative but resisting Imperialism in an Internationalist approach, where real political/active solidarity is delivered rather than distributing humanitarian sympathy.
It is also important to formulate a position regarding the Imperialist/Zionist project in the Arab region. The resistance to eliminate the occupation in Iraq using all means should be supported, same applies to the fight against the Zionist entity until the defeat of the Zionist project and the elimination of the Zionist entity in a dialectic that looks at the establishment of a free Arab Palestine as a preliminary stage towards the unification of the Arab Homeland and its transformation to independent development and Socialism and visa versa.
Our international comrades should understand that halfway solutions will strengthen the Imperialist/Zionist structures and mechanisms. The two-state solution, the bi-national state solution and even the “one-democratic-state” solution without the Arab dimension will not resolve the contradiction between the Arab masses and the Zionist/Imperialist project in the Arab region.
Another issue on which the movement should have a firm position: There are no “progressive Israelis”. Those who are part of the Zionist/Imperialist project, even if they “oppose” the Zionist policies, are, whether they like it or not and whether they know it or not, part of “Israel`s” structure and mechanisms. One can not be progressive and at the same time be part of the Zionist entity/project.
The movement should be well aware of this and should NOT fall in the NGO trap of “getting both sides to sit and talk” as if the main issue of “Israel`s existence” is settled. “Israel” is not a legitimate state, and it is not a normal state, so as ALL the individuals/organizations that represent it or recognize it.
Thus, and to emphasize this illegitimacy, all ties with all “Israelis” should be deleted. i.e. Normalization with Zionists should be resisted globally, not only in the Arab Homeland.
It is time for the international Anti-Globalization movement to take up a more concrete analysis instead of clinging to stereo-typed “reasoning”. One cannot accept any part of the Zionist/Imperialist project; otherwise, it`ll only be a slow process of self-consumption, while the enemy gets stronger.
*Dr. Hisham Bustani is a Leftist writer and activist. He is a member of the Anti-Normalization Committee of the Union of Professional Associations in Jordan as well as the Resistant Arab People`s Alliance.
