Story of a Colonial Settlement and Praxis of a Palestinian State

Story of a colonial settlement and praxis of a Palestinian state?

The Arab-Jewish conflict over the ownership of the so-called Holy Land, which is believed sacred equally among the three Semitic religions, is not as old as ancient, as it is widely misunderstood by the public. The root cause of all problems started just in the late 19th century since the organized immigration of the persecuted Jews from all over the world increasingly flowed to Palestine. After that, through the gradual annexation and usurping of the lands from the Arabs, they finally built up a state parting the whole Land into two.

And even it is still true, that these all happened through the worst kind of deceiving some people, systemic ethnic cleansing. This article tries to make an unbiased attempt to find out the ownership of the Land on who deserves it at present.

Colonial settlement

Like the US, Australia, and the Anglosphere, Jews’ settlement in Palestine was also certainly a settler-colonial movement. Their gradual and structural settlement in Palestine led to ousting the indigenous people who lived there for thousands of years and finally dominating the whole land by the Jews.

It was after the inception of Zionism, a need for a Jewish state sprouted. In 1896, an Austro-Hungarian journalist, Theodor Herzl, the founder of Modern Zionism, published a pamphlet named “Jewish state” which argued that the Jewish problem can be solved only by setting up a Jewish state in Palestine, or somewhere else so that Jews can live freely without fear of persecution. And a year later, he organized the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, to promote immigration to Palestine.

In that congress, Nahman Syrikin, the founder of socialist Zionism, called for a home for Jews in “Palestine pamphlet” saying that Palestine must be evacuated for the Jews.  Thus, the World Zionist Organisation was founded (WZO).

In 1901, Jewish National Fund (JNF) was set up to acquire lands in Palestine for WZO, aiming for the land is to be used and worked solely by Jews. And in 1904, 40,000 Zionist immigrants arrived in Palestine resulting in a rise of six percent in their total population. And it was quite ironic, that 6 percent of Jews were living then in Palestine when the Balfour declaration was issued.

With the end of the First World War, Ottoman Empire had fallen and the Anglosphere took over the Land. With their complete cooperation, Jewish immigrates consistently flowed to Palestine until a Jewish state was founded in 1948 with 36 percent of the Jewish population.

It was through five Aliyah –the collective immigration of Jews to Palestine- the basic tenet of Zionism, they dominated the land of Palestine. In the first two Aliyah, Jews around thirty-five thousand came, and gradually the numbers rose to two and three lakhs in the next three Aliyah. This was how they gradually settled in Palestine.

Post-1948

In 1947, When the ‘two-state solution’ was recommended by the United States, Arabs denied the proposal and Jews accepted it and they built a state which was named Israel. seven decades later, if we are examining that proposal now, we will have to agree that the Arabs were mistaken, that each incident was adverse for them in aftermath of their decision to remain not accepting the solution and being stateless. They have lost everything now, even the lands UN had once recommended to them to build a state.

The lone reason for losing the Palestinians their half land was the interference of Arab countries and their war against Israel. In 1948, even though the army of Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and a modest number of military troops from Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Sudan, were all deployed for the war against Israel, surprisingly the Jewish state won the battle. After the war, thousands of Palestinians were displaced, some important lands were annexed and they were finally confined to two strips; the West Bank and Gaza.

In the second Arab-Israel war in 1967, Palestinians were forced to pay a bigger cost than before by losing their two strips, Gaza and West Bank, to Israel and an estimated 300000 people were forcefully displaced.

In 1973, when Egypt, the prominent power among the Arab countries, signed in a peace pact with Israel, to get back their lost Sinai Mountains in return to recognize them as a state, Palestinians were cheated and they completely lost what they had in 1947, the year UN recommended them to form a state.

In fact, the unnecessary interference of Arab countries in this issue had led to worsen the situation of the Palestinians and to leave them landless. Ironically, All Arab countries who had once allied to destroy Israel, have currently recognized them as a state.

Ethnic Cleansing

The Jewish state was built by pursuing a systematic ethnic cleansing of the indigenous people of Palestine. Expulsion and dislocation were the preferred methods used by them to execute this vision. As a part of this, a historical exodus was taken place leaving 750,000 people homeless and compelling them to migrate from their homeland (half of the region’s population.)

With the strong support of Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi, the three Zionist terrorist organizations, they have also carried out many heinous expulsion, atrocities, destruction of myriads of villages, and the demolitions of dozens of towns till 1948.

In his co-authored book (with Noam Chomsky) “On Palestine” Ilan Pappe, an expatriate Israel historian, says that if they cannot expel someone, the second-best option is not to allow him or her to move. Enclaving people in villages and towns and disallowing any spatial expansion of human habitats, became the hallmark of Israel’s ethnic cleansing after 1948, and it is still used effectively, even today.

The Historical replacement

In his book, Islam and Peace, Wahidudheen Khan, a renowned Islamic scholar and theologian in the Indian subcontinent has argued that the Arabs should accept the reality that the Jews are the real owners of the Land since they have dominated it, and they must agree with this historical replacement.

To underscore his argument, he cites the verses of both the Quran and the Bible. According to a verse in the Quran, Moses says to the Children of Israel: “O my people! Enter the holy land which God has assigned for you.” (5:21) The Bible also refers to Palestine as the Promised Land for the Jews.

So, according to the Quran, Palestine is the assigned Land for the Jews, and to the Bible too, it is the Promised Land for the Jews.

He says that the Arabs have no basis on why they are demanding the whole land to be allotted for them. Because they have ruled it for nearly 8000 years. And now it is the turn of Jews. And the Quran also tells that political rule is not the monopoly of any nation (3:140). Even this issue is more ethnical than it is religious, his argument is focused on the idea that the status quo domination of Jews cannot be viewed as a historical replacement in the course of time.

For him, the denial of the Balfour declaration was a blunder for Arabs. “If the Arabs had accepted the Balfour verdict, they would have been much better off than they are today because Israel is a democratic country, not a kingship. And under a democratic system, Arabs could have lived as equal citizens. Had they accepted the Balfour verdict, they could have been able to establish their own rule in half of Palestine, and in the other half, they could have lived as equal citizens along with Jews. It would have been good for them in both parts of Palestine.”

He cites, the Arabs committed a mistake in 1948 when they refused to accept the Balfour verdict. Then, again they committed a mistake with the nationalization of the Suez Canal, and then the 1967 Israel-Arab war. And now they’ve lost everything in Palestine. And so, they have to accept Israel as it is, because if they try to change the status quo, Israel may wipe them out.

Praxis of a state

Today, the state of Israel is the biggest military power in the world. To fight them with stones, pellets, and limited weapons, won’t ever help Palestinians than to have them wiped out through and through. Because even an ally of four Arab countries couldn’t destroy them even when that state had not completed one year after it was formed.

Globally, Israel is becoming an indispensable component in both the political and economic structure of the world, even the Arab countries, who had once fought a three-time war to destroy them, have recognized their legitimacy for being a state. And to be noted that the countries like India are softening their stand to form a state for Palestinians and they are less interested in it. So, they are also lacking big global support to form a state even from Arab countries.

Moreover, it is hard to answer that how can it be possible for a much politically divided community to move unitedly for a vision for a state, and if it comes true, how will be the future of a country which is now politically dominated by a religious-motivated and a globally designated terrorist organization? In recent history too, we have the worst example of such countries which have supported the religious militant groups and those which have been built based on a single race, religion and ethnicity.

Conclusion

If we cross-examine the fact that, given the obtained evidence from the historical texts and archeological findings, different Semitic religions have dominated in Palestine over different periods in the course of its history, and all of them have been also ousted in different historical times. As Wahidudheen khan cited, the two verses from Quran and Bible also strengthen that it is the Jews’ turn now to be owned the Land. So, Palestinians should have to accept the reality that this is also a historical change in the course of time.

As long as Israel is a democratic country, where secular elections are held, and run with a parliamentary and judicial system, for Palestinians, the best option is to recognize them as a state and to be a part of them. So that, they can enjoy all privileges of citizens having in a state.

References:

“ON PALESTINE”

co-authored by NOAM CHOMSKY and ILAN PAPPE

published by Haymarket Books, Chicago, 2015

The prophet of peace

Authored by WAHIDUDHEEN KHAN

published by Penguin India, India, 2009

FROM BEIRUT TO JERUSALEM

Authored by THOMAS L FREIDMAN

Published by Picador, London, 2012

THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE

Authored by ILAN PAPPE

Published by one world publications, London,  2011

Interview of Wahidudheen Khan with Thomas Lindgren, a Swedish Academic, (March 1, 2014)

The opinions expressed within the content are solely the author's