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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is one of the most bitter conflicts of modern times. It involves two peoples, each with a right to self-determination, and has produced immense suffering on both sides.
However, the overall situation is not symmetrical. The persistence of the conflict is a result of the continuing dispossession and occupation of one nation by the other.
In 1968, soon after the beginning of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the veteran Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery predicted that the occupation would bring about a “steep spiral of terror and counter-terror, killing and retaliation, sabotage and mass deportation.” This would cause “undreamt-of misery to the Palestinian people” while turning Israel into “an armed and beleaguered camp.”
Avnery's fears have been borne out. Israeli state oppression against the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza has taken various forms, many of them described in this booklet.They include such brutal practices as demolition of Palestinian homes, confiscation of land, harassment of Palestinians at Israeli military checkpoints, and “retaliatory” military attacks on Palestinian civilians.
This regime of occupation has been rapidly turning Israel into what the late Argentine-Jewish journalist Jacobo Timerman called “the South Africa of the Middle East.” Added to this, and to a great extent in reaction to it, are the vicious attacks on Israeli civilians by such groups as Hamas, further deepening the misery and loss of hope on both sides.
Far too often, the Israeli state is portrayed by mainstream Jewish organizations as synonymous with Judaism or the Jewish people, so that any forthright criticism of it is characterized as anti- Semitic.This false equation effectively places the Israeli state beyond serious criticism and does no good to the Israeli people themselves, let alone the Palestinians.
However, many Jews, both inside and outside Israel, have challenged this uncritical and defensive view of Israeli reality. Many of them are involved in left-wing and progressive movements. These include groups like the United Jewish People's Order, Jews for a Just Peace in Vancouver and Winnipeg, and prominent intellectuals such as Noam Chomsky and I.F. Stone.
In particular, the Israeli government’s systemic oppression of the Palestinians has been condemned by Israeli-Jewish dissidents such as Uri Avnery, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem Meron Benvenisti, and members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament) such as feminist Shulamit Aloni.
Others include various peace and justice movements such as Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), Bat Shalom (a feminist peace group), the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions, and the Israeli “refuseniks” who refuse to serve in the occupied territories.
Such voices of dissent represent “the other Israel”, the alternative to the Israeli establishment, which in North America is often presented as virtually synonymous with Israel as a whole. These diverse voices show that the conflicting worldviews do not run along “ethnic” lines, between Jews and Arabs, but between value systems.They represent the values of equality of rights for both peoples versus those of unthinking “my-country-right-or-wrong” nationalism.
This CUPE BC booklet is part of a growing educational effort meant to build a solidarity campaign similar to the one created to fight against the apartheid regime in South Africa. It is a campaign that takes a stand against one of the longest post-war military occupations of a civilian population.
It is especially welcome to see this campaign gaining support among the trade union movement, which has so often supported other progressive movements.
Only if there is an end to the Israeli state’s brutal occupation of the West Bank and Gaza can there be a humane future for both Israelis and Palestinians.This can only come about through an international awareness of the situation. This booklet is an important step in that direction.
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