Crisis in Zionism—Opportunity for Palestine?

 

A talk by Ilan Pappé 

Reviewed by Steve Halpern

Last evening, I listened to a talk by Israeli historian Ilan Pappé on Youtube. This lecture was given on October 19, 2023 at the University of California at Berkley. Although Pappé was born and raised in Israel, his political views in solidarity with Palestinian liberation have made it difficult for him to live in the land of his birth. Currently is a history professor at the University of Exeter. 

Pappé started his talk with a description of recent large Israeli demonstrations protesting Benjamin Natanyahu’s effort to take powers away from the Israeli judicial authorities. He emphasized that in the Israeli discussions about those demonstrations, the word Palestinians was never mentioned. 

Then Pappé spoke about the party in Southern Israel that was attacked by supporters of Hamas who lived in the Gaza Strip. He said that the theme of that party was peace and love. Two miles away from that party was the Gaza Strip where Palestinians have been brutalized for decades. 

Pappé also talked about the status of the two million Palestinians who are citizens of Israel. They have been routinely attacked by street gangs and many fear going out of their homes. 

Then, there are the Palestinians who live in the Israeli occupied West Bank. Much of the land in the West Bank has been confiscated by Israeli settlers. Now about ten percent of the population of Israel lives in the West Bank. Those settlers have been murdering Palestinians and those murders have been assisted by the Israeli armed forces. 

Pappé argues that the attack by supporters of Hamas, and the current Israeli genocide against Palestinians need to be placed in context. This context is the Palestinian struggle for liberation that has been going on since 1929, well before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. This context is the struggle against colonialism, slavery, and the rights of indigenous people all over the world.

Pappé also pointed to the significance of the fact that the apartheid state of South Africa and the Zionist state of Israel both came about in the year 1948. This was at a time when the United Nations became an entity. The United Nations argued that all the people of the world were entitled to certain rights. However, the Black people of South Africa and the Palestinians were routinely denied those rights. 

Given this history, Pappé concluded that the struggle against colonialism in the world has been messy and fraught with atrocities. Clearly the Palestinian struggle for liberation has also been fraught with atrocities.

Today there are about six-million Palestinians who live in Israel and the Occupied Territories. Out of that number about one-million have served time in Israeli prisons over the years. The one issue that has united all Palestinians is the demand that Israel release all Palestinian prisoners. 

So, Pappé views the source of the problems of the Middle East as the political philosophy of Zionism. He argues that Zionism has always been a racist political movement. In order to begin to move away from the current unimaginable horror, the world needs to confront the fact that Zionism has always been a racist movement.

Pappé's vision of a rational future for the Middle East comes from his examination of the reality of Palestine before the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. In those years, Jews, Moslems, and Christians lived together in relative peace. At that time, Palestine had no problem with its Arabic neighbors. Pappé's vision of a rational future for the Middle East is a return to the reality of those years. 

For me, this is a powerful message by Ilan Pappé. For me, this message has resonance with people all over the world who are protesting against the continued Israeli genocide against the Palestinian people.

I believe there is one limitation to Pappé's argument. The existence of the state of Israel has always been an outgrowth of imperialism. Imperialism didn't come about because of a mistake in judgement or insensitivity. No, imperialism is the necessary outgrowth of the capitalist system. 

Today, there are about 3,000 billionaires in the world, while about 30,000 children die every day of preventable diseases. This gross, and in my opinion criminal disparity of wealth, isn't with us because of a mistake in judgement. No this disparity of wealth reflects the very essence of what the capitalist system is. 

However, if Ilan Pappé were to make this argument, many people wouldn't be listening to what he had to say. So I highly recommend listening to Pappé in his own words and draw you own conclusions.