In a recent post, Irene Lancaster, quoting James Parkes, sees Zionism in terms of the Jewish people’s ancient connections with and desire to return to what is now Israel. Fair enough. However, I’m inclined think that by accepting the fact that it’s necessary to provide explanations and justification for how Israel came to be a state tends to play into the hands of its enemies. It implicitly accepts that there’s a case to answer.
And anyway, arguing in these terms has weaknesses. If amazing new archeological findings were to prove that Israel had been inhabited by people from, say, present day Albania before the Jews and that the Albanians of today were their descendents, would that mean that Israel ought to be dissolved and that the Palestinians ought to give up their own struggle for a state? Of course it wouldn’t. The Albanians already have a state where they can develop their national life and their historical connections with another piece of real estate wouldn’t justify that right being taken away from two other peoples. It’s clear that if we go down this road then we will soon be in Pythoneseque “give Tunisia back to the Carthaginians” territory.
Israel exists because the Jews, like all other peoples, have the right to self-determination and because they had the skills, bravery, intelligence and luck to bring it into existence in 1948 and sustain it since. And that’s it. The same goes for Ireland, another state which was brought into being by violent methods and by trampling on the rights of some the country’s existing inhabitants. The same goes for dozens of other states that have come into existence since 1945. And going back further; the same goes for almost every single state in North and South America.
The way forward for Israelis and those sympathetic to Israel, as well as those who support the Palestinians’ right to their own state, is to focus on the self determination of peoples argument. It can’t be rebutted without a very obvious resort to double standards – if the Palestinians have the right to their own state, why not the Jews?, if the Jews have the right to one, why not the Palestinians? – and it doesn’t rely on getting into pointless debates about who “really” belongs where and whose connections with a particular place are older, deeper or more important to them.
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