Tuesday 18 August 2009

Israel/Palestine- Glimpses from the Ground

Israel is one of those utterly insoluble human problems created by politicians with an agenda at a particular time which then creates strife and misery for generations upon generations afterward. Not unlike Northern Ireland.

On the one hand, the Jews ought to have a land of their own, after so many centuries dispersed (and still, amazingly, retaining a uniform cultural identity!) and especially after their ordeals during the first half of last century. On the other hand, the Palestinians also ought to have a land of their own, and the tragic thing is that they did up until fifty years ago. After the events of the last fifty years, and having dispensed with the anger and recriminations on both sides, the insoluble question remains, how can one recognise the rights of the one group without impinging on those of the other?

I have a former student with whom I have maintained touch for a while now (we take tea together- he practices English and I practice Arabic) for whom these are burning questions. He is from Jordan but his family originally lived in Jerusalem, and had for as far back as they could trace their family (several generations, so at least a century or more) until they were expelled after the 1967 war. Curious, I asked him once what he thought about the issue of Israel and what should be done, given his family's own experience. He thought for a moment and then told me that he can't see why they can't live together in one sovereign state with a party system, etc. although he admitted the Israelis would never go for that because, in that scenario, they wouldn't have a political majority, hence their political autonomy (the whole point of having a land of their own) would be compromised.

I become increasingly interested in these questions, and in what those touched by them think about it all, particularly since I will be spending some time in Egypt from next month, a country which has figured prominently in the whole debacle. Not so much because I have a vested interest (I have little sympathy with all those Leftist "Free Palestine" protestors, whose anti-imperial stance, I feel sure, obscures the endless ambiguities of the reality; nor, on the other hand, with those many Christians who see the state of Israel as some kind of fulfilled prophecy), but because behind the politics are human realities and human suffering on both sides, families and cultures and mutually exclusive histories and cultural narratives rudely and abruptly thrown into conflict with one another.

In that connection, while looking up some details about my upcoming trip to Egypt (specifically transport to monasteries in the Eastern Desert) I stumbled across this travel video by (apparently) an Israeli Jew posing as a British journalist. Of particular interest to me were the opinions of the man in the car at the beginning.

9 comments:

Kiran said...

I think part of the problem is that, in the current situation, we seem to have gotten ourselves into a rut in a lot of political matters, by hammering our fists on the table, and saying obviously there is no other way than what we are doing. Similar considerations apply in the realm of economics. And again in the various sciences, up to a point.

matthias said...

I think that the biggest problem to any Palerael state are the Askenazi jews,from the former Soviet union,who hav ebeen the driver behind the settlements,who appear to have the majoritym over the Sephardim who emigrated from arabic countries and who thus had an understanding of the Arabic mind.

Kiran said...

Matthias, I personally know several jews of all kinds who are non- (and anti-) Zionistic, and I think we we need to keep from blaming individual groups. I think the problem is much much wider, and it has several roots: Internal image issues, international politics, tribal rivalries, a fear of muslims, all sorts of things play a part. But above all, the general problem is the inability to think outside the square.

matthias said...

I was not denigrating them as such ,but rather from the viewpoint as a sociologist-which i am ,and which i should have made clear-but i think the Ashkenazim are thinking about their experiences under the Soviets,and with the holocaust and they ,particular do never wish to be in positions of being threatened. Hence i think their different approach to the Palestinians. I know Sephardic Jews who do think outside the square ,and who do want to see israel living in peace,but they also do not think it is a possibility until the Palestinians actually accept Officially israel's right to exist. But you are right it is a melting pot of historical proportions

Kiran said...

Matthias, I think you are the first real live sociologist I have ever met. :-). But it is not just "the Jews" at fault here, though. It is the entire international community, and I think we are in some kind of odd place on a whole heap of issues - economics (Capitalism), scientism (universal anti-supernaturalism), and so on. We are tied to a particular world-view, and if you doubt it, you are a heretic, and will be blotted out from the book of the living dead. I hate this. Nay more, I loathe it, with a passion.

matthias said...

oIL, Non recognition of the Living God,politics-both Zionists and non Zionist. Racism,British and French messing about after the peace treaties of 1919. i always maintain that we are living still with the unfinished business of the War-First World war

Kiran said...

Matthias, or even better, we are living with unfinished business of the reformation, and the enlightenment: Technocracy, non-recognition of the living God, emotionalism in ethics, a belief in the secular/pelagian notion of progress which entails a non-recognition of having gone wrong... I don't know if I should put a smiley face here, but I am tempted to do.

matth said...

Yes too true. Progress being all supreme,yet we have 15000 people dying of preventaable diseases in the developing world;drug companies wanting to charge excessively for anti AIDS and anti malarial drugs. Civil War in Uganda and Sudan. Just returned from church sermon was on Hosea and the first verse read out deals with the faithlessness of Israel at that time. NO COMPASSION,murders ,the environment affected. gee almost sounds like now but worldwide. Here is a link to a story with a good outcome and a really good example of brotherly love by a RC priest and diocese. We need more of these

http://www.anglican-mainstream.net/?p=14192

matthias said...

and that should be 15,000 per day dying of diarrhea and gastric illness