A New Palestine

By Steven Halpern

This is a work of fiction as well as science fiction. I imagined a new nation of Palestine the day after the state of Israel is no more. There is a Liberation Army that came from the imaginary nation of La Lucha Continua (The struggle continues.) This army had the ability to totally disarm the Israeli Defense Force, as well as the armed forces of the United States. The Liberation Army also disarmed all the nuclear weapons of the world.

There is a new provisional government of the nation that will now be called Palestine. 100 of the leading members of the former Israeli government and military were arrested. The Provisional government released the 10,000 Palestinians who had been living in Israeli jails. 

The new government evicted all Israelis who live in the illegal settlements of the West Bank and Jerusalem. They have also evicted many residents of Israeli housing built before the year 1948. 

This story starts with a press conference that announces the establishment of the new Provisional Palestinian government. 

Mitchell Bernstein—A representative of the new Provisional Palestinian Government—"Today marks the first day in a new history of the Middle East. I want to thank all the representatives of the international news media for attending this conference. 

“The first question you might ask is: Why did the nation of La Lucha Continua organize to put in place a new provisional government in the nation that used to be called Israel?

“The Jewish people of Europe and the United States experienced a long history of vicious discrimination. The German Nazi government murdered about 40% of all Jews in the world. For the most part, that hostility towards the Jewish people was not the case in the nation called Palestine.

“So, many Jewish people gravitated to the idea of setting up a homeland in the nation that was then called Palestine. However, at that time, the large majority of land was the homeland the Palestinian people.

“This was the contradiction that started the problem we are rectifying today. The Jews who immigrated to Palestine called themselves Zionists. Instead of attempting to live with the Palestinians, they organized to remove them from their homeland.

“Terrorist organizations known as the Hagenah, the Stern Gang, and the Irgun murdered thousands of Palestinians and destroyed their homes. 700,000 Palestinians escaped this terror and the Israeli government never compensated them for their loss. Before 1948 about 80,000 Palestinians lived in the Gaza Strip. Because of the forced emigration from their homes, today about 2.3 million Palestinians live in Gaza.

“Then in 1967, Israel was not satisfied with the land they stole, so they occupied the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. They never gave the Palestinians who lived in these areas citizenship rights in Israel. To the contrary, the United Nations sent in relief agencies because the residents of the occupied territories had no nation they could call their own. 

“About 700,000 Israelis moved into the West Bank and Jerusalem. These Israelis had all kinds of rights that the government routinely denied Palestinians. Just to travel to their former homeland, Palestinians needed to wait at checkpoints while Israeli soldiers routinely humiliated them. 

“In the Gaza Strip, about 90% of the population lacked employment or clean water. The majority didn’t even have enough food to eat.

“Palestinians endured those conditions for almost twenty years. Then the inevitable explosion happened. The organization Hamas carried out a raid that murdered nearly 1,200 people. Close to 400 of those were soldiers in the Israeli military. 

“While we might see how this explosion was inevitable, those who carried out this raid committed horrendous crimes. The people of La Lucha Continua condemn those crimes in the strongest terms.

“The Israeli government responded by murdering over 24,000 people. They denied 2.3 million residents of Gaza food, water, health care, and shelter. The Israeli armed forces destroyed most of the homes in Gaza. The South African government documented all of this vicious destruction before the World Court of Justice.

“So, when we look at these facts, there is one inescapable conclusion. The state of Israel was never a legitimate homeland for the Jewish people. Israel never provided a safe haven for Jews. The routine actions of the Israeli government only made the Jewish and Palestinian people more vulnerable to violence.

“Now, you might ask another question. Why did the Liberation Army violate international law and overthrow the Israeli government?

“Over a period of 75 years Israel violated all kinds of international laws. They murdered, brutalized, and stole the homes of Palestinians. They illegally occupied the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. Yet the governments of the world did nothing to enforce the international law.

“So, the government of La Lucha Continua decided to enforce the international law that no one else was enforcing. Now you might argue that two wrongs do not make one right.

“The world will see that by removing the Israeli government from power we will have an enduring peace in the Middle East. Jews and Palestinians will now have a nation where they will all be treated with dignity and not have to worry about their security. The world can then judge if our removal of the Israeli government was justified. 

“Now there is one more question that I will deal with. What will happen to the Jewish and Palestinian people?

“The Jewish citizens of the former state of Israel will need to apply to the Provisional Government in order to gain employment. We will have good jobs for anyone who accepts the new Palestinian government. 

“For those who do not choose not apply for work, they will be provided with top quality food, clothing, health care, housing, and education. We might consider that the former Israeli government routinely denied residents of Gaza all these things.

“The former Israeli residents of the occupied territories of the West Bank, and Jerusalem lived in illegally occupied territories. Those residents have been evicted from their illegal residences. The residents who lived in housing built before the year 1948 in the former nation of Israel have also been evicted from the homes they illegally occupied. 

“Since those former residents lived in illegal housing, they were only allowed to take with them the clothes they were wearing. If those former residents want their personal effects, they will need to ask, in writing, the Palestinians who are moving in for their things. So, those residents who have been evicted from their homes are making way for the Palestinians who are moving in. 

“Today the office buildings in Palestine no longer contribute to the functioning of the Palestinian economy. So those office buildings have been converted into apartments where the former residents of the occupied territories can live. 

“The Israeli armed forces destroyed about 85% of the homes in Gaza. So, the residents of Gaza will now have the right to move into the homes that had been illegally occupied.

“The Palestinians living in the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip will now, for the first time, have their own government in a sovereign nation. That nation will be able to freely trade with the nations of the world. The Liberation Army’s top priority will be to rebuild the homes in Gaza that the Israeli armed forces destroyed. 

“We expect that these measures will create an environment where the Israeli hostages held by Hamas will be immediately released. Clearly those hostages could have been released long ago had the Israeli government been serious in their negotiations with Palestinians.

“Approximately 10,000 Palestinians who were held in the horrendous Israeli jails have all been released. The 100 top Israeli government and military officials were arrested. In the next few weeks, they will go on trial. Palestinians from Gaza will serve as their jurors. The former Israeli government and military officials will need to beg Palestinians for mercy, and I don’t envy them in that endeavor. 

“If those officials are convicted, they might serve time in prison for the rest of their lives. No one will receive the death sentence.”   

      

One year later

As time went on, the Liberation Army maintained control of the Provisional Government. Although there was growing acceptance of the transformation, the reality continued to be too volatile for them to leave. 

On the one hand, Palestinians needed to grieve for the thousands the Israeli armed forces murdered. They also needed to recover from the seventy-five years of Israeli organized genocide. This was a long and painful process. 

But there was another side to this story. The Palestinian people all over the world experienced a new sense of rebirth. Now they had their own nation where they are being treated with the human dignity they deserve. This new reality has made it a bit easier to deal with the horrendous loss and brutalization of their people.

Part of this process were the trials of the 100 government and military officials in the former state of Israel. Those former officials needed to face the genocidal practices they diligently organized. Their attempts to defend that horror by saying they were only fighting terrorism appeared to be criminally insane. The public opinion of the world began to see that these officials were some of the worst criminals humanity has ever seen. 

For the citizens of the former state of Israel, they had a different experience. In the past, they lived in an environment where the press, the government, and the military rationalized the genocide and mass murder of Palestinians. For the past year, they have experienced a completely different reality.

The current news media and educational system has presented the reality of the horrors Palestinians experienced over the past 75 years. Most of the former citizens of Israel dealt with this new reality with the five stages of grief. These are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and finally acceptance.

At first the former Israelis could not believe what happened. Then they began to realize that the only way to escape the new reality would be to leave the country. Most former Israelis elected to stay.

Then, when they realized that the new state of affairs would not change, they became angry and enraged. In the past, the Israeli government used the anger of the people as a justification to murder and brutalize Palestinians. Those days are now over. Eventually the former Israelis began to understand that the new Provisional Government would remain until there was an environment that would accept full equality of Jews and Palestinians.

Then the former Israelis attempted to bargain with the government in order to reestablish some of the apartheid-like measures they enforced in the past. They wanted to return to homes they occupied in the illegal settlements. 

While the new government supported their human rights, they did not allow the former residents of the illegally occupied territories to return to homes where they once lived. Palestinians now lived in those homes.

Then the former Israeli citizens experienced depression knowing that their former way of life was over. The government no longer viewed Palestinians as “animals” or less than human. Now the government viewed Palestinians with the human dignity they deserve.

After millions of the former Israelis experienced these emotions, they finally accepted the new government and applied for employment in the new nation. The former Israelis who began working at those jobs discovered that their worst nightmare of the past, became a pleasant experience.

The former Israelis began to see how a rational economy worked. They participated in the sustained effort of working to end poverty throughout the Middle East. The people of the region began to appreciate those efforts in spite of the horrors of the past.

Ava Cohen asks for her personal things

Ava Cohen was one of the Israeli residents who was evicted from the home she illegally occupied in the West Bank. Dalia Elamin is the Palestinian who lives in that home today.

Ava went through the five stages of grief that most of the former Israelis experienced. She now works as a nurse in a hospital and has made friends with her Palestinian coworkers, but she has a problem. 

Because she once occupied illegal housing, all her personal belongings now are the property of Dalia Elamin. In order to recover those things, that include photos of her family, she now needs to ask Elamin for permission to have those items returned.

So, Ava sent Dalia a letter where she apologized for the horrors the former Israeli government carried out against Palestinians. She asked that Dalia return her personal belongings.

Dalia Elamin read that letter and was touched by this initiative. However, Elamin didn’t feel that this letter was a sufficient apology for the horrors Palestinians experienced over a period of 75 years. So, she contacted the provisional government and said that if Ava Cohen wants her personal effects, she could meet with Elamin and ask for them in person.

The Provisional Government representative was impressed by this note and felt that the kind of meeting Dalia asked for might work to ease the tensions between Palestinians and the former Israelis. So, the government arranged a meeting and asked if Ava and Dalia would allow that meeting to be televised. They both agreed to this.

Ava Cohen and Dalia Elamin meet

Pepita Lopez was the Provisional Government representative who moderated this meeting. 

“My name is Pepita Lopez and I will be moderating this meeting. I want to thank both Ava Cohen and Dalia Elamin for agreeing to have this meeting and allowing it to be televised. As you both know, the Provisional Government has been working to establish a genuinely democratic Palestine that respects the human dignity of everyone who lives here. In doing this, we need to work out the feelings of hostility that people have had for one another in the past. Perhaps this meeting will help in advancing that process.

“So, Ava Cohen you sent a letter to Dalia asking for your personal effects. In that letter you apologized for the horrors Israel inflicted on Palestinians in the past. 

“Dalia Elamin you were touched by that letter but felt it was an inadequate letter of apology. Perhaps now you can explain why you feel that way.”

Elamin—"Thank you Pepita. In truth it is difficult for me to imagine the horrors my people experienced. However, in order to deal with those horrors, I believe they need to be faced.

“Back in 1948, Israeli terrorist gangs murdered, raped, and stole the land of the Palestinian people. The Israelis manufactured flame-throwers that burned Palestinian homes to the ground. Oftentimes Palestinians were living in the homes the terrorist burned down.

“Then, in 2023 the Zionists used phosphorous bombs that burned Palestinians to death. In all, they massacred over 24,000 human beings. The large majority were women and children.  They denied our people food, water, fuel, and health care. They held 10,000 Palestinians under horrendous conditions in prisons. They even tortured Palestinian children who were prisoners.

“I can appreciate why Ava Cohen wants her personal belongings. The mementos of our past are important. However, before the Liberation Army removed the Israeli government from power, my history was an unimaginable horror story. However, in order to apologize for what happened, I think we need to have an unvarnished view of what happened.”

Ava Cohen—“Dalia, thank you for meeting with me. Clearly, I would like to have my personal effects returned. Over the past year, I’ve discovered things about the Israeli government I once supported that I now find reprehensible. 

“In the past, everyone I knew thought about how Jewish people needed a homeland. This was because of the unimaginable horrors Jews experienced in the world. The German Nazis murdered about 40% of the Jews in the world. In Eastern Europe racist gangs raided Jewish communities and murdered thousands. That history convinced many Jewish people that we needed a homeland.

“I didn’t know of anyone in the Jewish community who argued for equal rights for Palestinians in the past. So, we felt that people like yourself Dalia were our enemies. Now we are both sitting here, and I see that you are not my enemy. You are someone who is considering returning my things that I value very much.” 

Elamin—"Ava, I see that you are making an effort to apologize for what happened in the past. My problem is that I don’t see that you fully understand the full extent of the destruction carried out by the government you supported.

“You talk about how the Jewish people needed a homeland because of the anti-Semitism and the holocaust. Don’t all people need a homeland? How did the desire for a homeland rationalize the genocide Israel carried out against Palestinians for 75 years? I think these are questions you need to consider.”

Cohen—"Dalia, as you might imagine this is difficult for me. Now I have a good job as a nurse. Every day there is fresh food and I have a nice place to live. I’ve also made friends with Palestinians. This reality, for me was unthinkable before the Provisional Government took power. This reality gradually has convinced me that the beliefs I once had that supported the Israeli government were nothing more than a collection of lies.

“Clearly, I would like my personal effects returned. However, I now see that what is more important is the future of the Palestinian nation we now live in. I also see how the place that I once called my home was nothing more than an illegal settlement. So, given the horrors that Palestinians endured for many years in the past, I understand why you might want to prevent me from having my personal things.”

Elamin—"Thank you Ava. Now I see how you are making a genuine attempt to apologize for the past. Clearly no apology can make up for the horrors Palestinians experienced for 75 years. But there is no way anyone can change the past. 

“So, these are your things. I hope they bring some joy to your life. I only ask that when you look at these things that you understand that it was a Palestinian woman who allowed you access to what you once considered to be your own.”