Jeff Halper's An Israeli in Palestine (Part I) - by Stephen Lendman
Jeff Halper is an American-born Israeli Professor of Anthropology as well as a peace and human rights activist for over three decades. In 1997, he co-founded the Israeli Committee Against Home Demolitions (ICAHD), and as its Coordinating Director "organized and led nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience against Israel's occupation policies and authorities."
ICAHD's mission is now expanded well beyond home demolitions. It helps rebuild them and resists "land expropriation, settlement expansion, by-pass road construction, policies of 'closure' and 'separation," and much more. Its aim is simple, yet hard to achieve - to end decades of Israeli-Palestinian conflict equitably and return the region to peace. For his work, Halper was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
Besides his full-time work, he writes many articles, position papers, and authored several books. His latest and subject of this review is An Israeli in Palestine: Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel. Israeli-based journalist Jonathan Cook (jkcook.net) authored two insightful books on the conflict that are highly recommended. Information can be found on his web site and much more. He calls Halper's book "one of the most insightful analyses of the Occupation I've read. His voice cries out to be heard" on the region's longest and most intractable conflict.
Halper is a "critical insider" and insightful commentator of events on the ground that he witnesses first hand. This review covers his analysis in-depth - in two parts for easier reading. It exposes Israeli repression and proposes remedial solutions. It provides another invaluable resource on the conflict's cause, history, why it continues, and a just and equitable resolution.
Introduction
Halper's observation about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is accurate. Knowing how to end it isn't the issue. Overcoming fear and Israeli obstruction is at its heart. There are "no sides," and Halper stresses that as a "chief claim of (his) book." Critical discussion and effective action must involve everyone this conflict affects as the way to "get out of this mess" and achieve justice.
Thinking "out of the Box" is key, reframing the issue, offering an alternative way, and using it to open "possibilities for resolution foreclosed (by) security framing." Halper has a "clear, empowering message: if we the people lead, our governments will follow." But it takes empowering ourselves to do it and a commitment for the task. The goal - a "win-win" peace for all parties on a global scale taking into account "equality, human rights, international law, justice, peace and development." Make no mistake. Israel bears most responsibility for the conflict, continuing it, and preventing its just resolution. Overcoming that is no small task, and 60 years of trying so far have failed.
Part I: Comprehending Oppression - The Making of a Critical Israeli
One home demolition transformed Halper from a progressive, liberal-left Zionist to his post-Zionist state. It was a year after ICAHD's creation, but he'd yet to see demolitions firsthand. He described his background and values - third-generation American, small town midwest, Conservative Jew (as differentiated from Orthodox or Reformed), not religious, but believing in the "essential rules of life" that he learned as a child: play fair, don't hit other kids, ask forgiveness when fall short, and take nothing belonging to others. He's now lived in Israel for 35 years, arrived as a young doctoral student, is very much an Israeli, and saw his Jewishness transform into "Israeliness."
He was never a committed Zionist, then over time saw how destructive and racist it is. It made Israel a colonial state and redemption requires that it "transverse a long and painful trail from de-colonization through reconciliation" to a new political form that's just, equitable and inclusive for all its inhabitants.
Conflict was never inevitable, but a combination of "exclusivist nationalism" and high-level ideologues led pre-1948 Jews to be confrontational, not conciliatory toward Arabs. Conflict resulted and normalcy was sacrificed. Sixty years later, Israel is deeply polarized, a colonial enterprise, hugely repressive to Palestinians, including Israeli Arab citizens. In Halper's judgment and many others, "the present situation is untenable." His task is "hasten a just peace and, in the process, help Israel" transcend Zionism and "redeem itself from (its) worse-than-colonial situation...." He begins with a vital question. "Why in the hell did (Israel) demolish (one) family's home" that he witnessed with horror.
The Message of the Bulldozers
What bulldozers destroy, 200 settlements restored for 500,000 Jews in 150,000 housing units. It's on Palestinian agricultural land where zoning restrictions deny them building permits. Since 1967, Israel demolished over 18,000 Palestinian homes, a process now routine, and nearly always for no security reason. Halper calls it a "national obsession," collective punishment, in defiance of international law that Israel disdains. For Palestinians, it's traumatic and devastating. It renders men powerless and emasculating for being unable to provide a family home.
For women, it's worse - dispossession and loss of one's life that's like losing loved ones. Children as well are affected, traumatized, and rendered scared and insecure. It causes bed-wetting, nightmares, fear of abandonment, a drop in grades, leaving school, and exposure to domestic violence that results from parents' emotional upheaval.
Palestinians have no recourse. They get demolition notices. No formal legal, administrative process or orders accompany them. No warning or time to remove belongings. Barely time enough to escape alive, and at times not that when army policy destroys homes on top of residents suspected of being "wanted." Demolitions may be carried out immediately, months later or even years, and nearly always in early morning when inhabitants may be sleeping or at other times when they're most vulnerable.
I am a 72 year old, retired, progressive small businessman concerned about all the major national and world issues, committed to speak out and write about them.
"An Israeli in Palestine" - (Part I) by Stephen Lendman
Born in British India in 1942, I was 5 when the Brits sailed away , 6 when Israel was thrust upon the Arabs (as a STATE) by the United Nations, 11 when King Farouk of Egypt was ousted and 14 when the Brits, the French and the Israelis (for the 1st time) invaded Egypt and I was 23 when the Indians invaded Pakistan. By the time Israel invaded Egypt (for the 2nd time) + Jordan & Syria, I was 25 and 'just arrived' in Middle East on employment, where I have stayed ever since. The shameful routing of the Egyptians, Jordanians and Syrians in 1967 Six Day War and the LOSS of Al Aqsa Mosque still hurts me to this day and I am not a Palestinian, neither am I an Arab. The urge to liberate the Mosque has lived with me and I have made sure it will live on with my children and grand-children and may be their children and grandchildren, so help us God! During my childhood, my grandmother used to tell us about a time when the Jews from around the World would come back to Palestine, all Jews, only to be slaughtered by the Believers but before this day arrived, there would be wars/battles between the Jews and the Arabs in which the Jews will prevail. Then in the final battle the Believers would fight the Jews and WIN, big time and get rid of the Jews, forever! My grandmother was illiterate and must have picked this tale from her likewise illiterate grandmother, ad infinitum. As I was growing up I used to remember this oft repeated bed time story in utter dismay. Okay, the Believers would win their final battle. Okay, if having won they would disperse the Jews to wherever they came from but to massacre them instead? This last was too much for me. I had lived through the 1946-1947 communal massacres in the Indian sub-continent and I could testify to their barbarity. Many a time I used to ask myself the whys and hows of massacres. Now, after 60 years of Jewish Occupation of Palestine extremely LATE NEWS of what the Palestinians have suffered during these six decades is creeping out from all sorts of expected and unexpected sources. What the Israelis are doing now in Gaza and the West Bank on a daily basis is also creeping out, some of it ON CAMERA. Add to this the legacy the Israelis have left behind in Lebanon and Sinai. Q.E.D nothing has changed nor expected to change. Jeff Halper has listed only what he witnessed on a short trip to the West Bank. He should have gone to Gaza to make his report more meaningful. The "Believers" in my grandmother's tales are already sprouting up all over the Arab and Islamic nations. It now remains to be seen whether my grandmother's tales were tales or predictions! Add to this the Evangelical yarn of 'RENDITION' and just, may be ........
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syed mahdi (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 125 comments)
on Monday, July 21, 2008 at 10:57:54 AM
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