Palestine-Mandate

Here are some excerpts from Uri Avnery’s weekly article sent out on 17 November — this week he focuses on ANNAPOLIS:

“…As the saying goes: One fool throws a stone into the water, a dozen wise men cannot retrieve it. Once the ‘meeting’ had been announced, it became an important enterprise. The experts of all parties started to work frantically on the undefined event, each trying to steer it in the direction which would benefit them the most … The three poker players are going to sit down together, pretending to start the game, while none of them has a cent to put on the table …
First the participants were to deal with the ‘core issues’. Then it was announced that a weighty declaration of intentions was to be adopted. Then a mere collection of empty phrases was proposed. Now even that is in doubt. Not one of the three leaders is still dreaming of an achievement. All they hope for now is to minimize the damage - but how to get out of a situation like this?

“As usual, our side is the most creative at this task. After all, we are experts in building roadblocks, walls and fences. This week, an obstacle larger than the Great Wall of China appeared. Ehud Olmert demanded that, before any negotiations, the Palestinians ‘recognize Israel as a Jewish state’. He was followed by his coalition partner, the ultra-right Avigdor Liberman, who proposed staying away from Annapolis altogether if the Palestinians do not fulfill this demand in advance. Let’s examine this condition for a moment: The Palestinians are not required to recognize the state of Israel. After all, they have already done so in the Oslo agreement - in spite of the fact that Israel has yet to recognize the right of the Palestinians to a state of their own based on the Green Line borders. No, the government of Israel demands much more: the Palestinians must now recognize Israel as a ‘Jewish state’.

“Does the USA demand to be recognized as a ‘Christian’ or ‘Anglo-Saxon state’? Did Stalin demand that the US recognize the Soviet Union as a ‘Communist state’? Does Poland demand to be recognized as a ‘Catholic state’, or Pakistan as an ‘Islamic state’? Is there any precedent at all for a state to demand the recognition of its domestic regime? Te demand is ridiculous per se. But this can easily be shown by analysis ad absurdum.

“What is a ‘Jewish state’? That has never been spelled out. Is it a state with a majority of Jewish citizens? Is it ‘the state of the Jewish people’ - meaning the Jews from Brooklyn, Paris and Moscow? Is it ‘a state belonging to the Jewish religion’ - and if so, does it belong to secular Jews as well? Or perhaps it belongs only to Jews under the Law of Return - i.e. those with a Jewish mother who have not converted to another religion? These questions have not been decided. Are the Palestinians required to recognize something that is the subject of debate in Israel itself?

“According to the official doctrine, Israel is a ‘Jewish and democratic state’.  What should the Palestinians do if, according to democratic principles, some day my opinion prevails and Israel becomes an ‘Israeli state’ that belongs to all its citizens - and to them alone? (After all, the US belongs to all its citizens, including Hispanic-Americans, African-Americans, not to mention ‘Native-Americans’.)

“The sting is, of course, that this formula is quite unacceptable to Palestinians because it would hurt the million and a half Palestinians who are Israeli citizens. The definition ‘Jewish state’ turns them automatically into - at best - second class citizens. If Mahmoud Abbas and his colleagues were to accede to this demand, they would be sticking a knife in the backs of their own relatives. Olmert & Co. know this, of course. They are not posing this demand in order to get it accepted. They pose it in order that it not be accepted. By this ploy they hope to avoid any obligation to start meaningful negotiations”…

With all due deference to the great, the very great, Uri Avnery, three comments here:
(1) It is clearly true that there are differing “visions” in Israel about what is a Jewish State. The Palestinians are not obliged to say they prefer one, or the other. That is up to the Jewish citizens of Israel to decide. I wish it would be de-linked from the very ugly issue of numbers — from “demography”. In my view, this would remove any further necessity for anxious and fearful Israelis to fantasize about population transfer, or worse. And, if Israel then acts as though being a Jewish state means it can expel all non-Jews who are its citizens and residents, it will not only have international public opinion to deal with (something to which Israel has been exceedingly sensitive), it will also have international law. This will not happen. The Palestinians could, moreover, explicitly seek international guarantees that this will not happen — and those international guarantees would almost certainly then be forthcoming.

(2) As to Avnery’s suggestion that Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state would suddenly mean that Israel’s 1.25 million Arab citizens would then consequently become second class citizens — well, I can only say that this is the case already, and has been so since 1948. It is a problem that Israel NGOs and civil society have been increasingly attempting to address in a very concerted way over the past year or so.

(2a) While, as Avnery says, it is doctrine that Israel is (both) a Jewish and democratic state, it is not law.  The proclamation of the establishment of the State of Israel in May 1948 says only that Israel will be a Jewish state.

(3) The Palestinians have recognized Israel since well before the Oslo Accords. The Palestinians have also already recognized Israel as a Jewish State. This was officially done in the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence, which recognized UN General Assembly Resolution 181 that partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into two states — one Jewish and one Arab.