Two weeks ago, Jeff Halper, the human rights activist, drove me south through the West Bank and I asked him about the blessed kibbutzes of my childhood memory, the Jewish agricultural cooperatives that were transforming Jewish identity and making the desert bloom; and he exploded the myth with a simple truth: Palestinians were not welcome to join kibbutzes, in fact kibbutzes played a role in ethnically cleansing Palestine.
In the video above, Halper tells a disgusting story about the Palestinian who wanted to join the kibbutz he had worked for for many years. It's in the first couple minutes.
As you listen to this story, remember that Palestinians make up 20 percent of Israeli society. They don't get drafted, they can't join kibbutzes, and their political parties are barred from the room, even by Labor, when ruling coalitions are formed, in favor of rightwing Jewish parties. So Israel is much like the South during the time of segregation; and as Yonatan Shapira told an American audience some weeks ago, Palestinians can't found new towns inside Israel, even as Jews have founded hundreds of new towns since 1948. Did you know that? I sure didn't.
Also, watch this video to see the geography of the colonies in the occupied West Bank. We're driving to Hebron, south from Jerusalem. We're passing Efrat, the "Scarsdale of the West Bank." Now and then the videographer manages to capture the scene. The video ends with a crushing revelation about Israelis depriving Palestinians of water for some of the richest farmland in the Judean hills.
And watch it too for, starting at 4 minutes or so, Halper's memories of his rabbinical school buddies. They're all rabbis now. And you'd think that they'd have him in to their synagogues, to learn about the oppressive occupation that is taking place in the name of all Jews, right?
(Now let me amend, and say that Halper transformed my myth of the kibbutz. I honor Jewish collective awareness; and I can still think of the kibbutz as a hallowed artifact in Jewish history-- on the path to discovering the Other we oppressed. The late Tony Judt had this very awakening on his kibbutz back in the 60s.)
>> The video ends with a crushing revelation about Israelis depriving Palestinians of water for some of the richest farmland in the Judean hills.
Palestinians? Who’re they?
link to mondoweiss.net
The kibbutzes were active agents of ethnic cleansing, not just its beneficiaries. Kibbutzniks were first in line when it came to seizing Palestinian land during 1947-8.
Not only stealing the land but mass looting also. Simha Flapan in The Birth of Israel writes about the looting that took place in Lyddah [Lod] and Ramla after the population had been driven out (page 100):
With the population gone, the Israeli soldiers proceeded to loot the two towns in an outbreak of mass pillaging that the officers could neither prevent nor control. In those days there was no military machinery able to deal with the problem. Even soldiers from the Palmach – most of whom came from or were preparing to join kibbutzim – took part, stealing mechanical and agricultural equipment. One must remember that soldiers from the Palmach had a reputation for maintaining a high moral code, even in the thick of fighting. However mythical, this code, known as “purity of arms”, is still considered the educational basis of Israeli military conduct. That they stole not so much for themselves as for their kibbutzim may have provided them with some justification, but only a marginal one.
This was not the first time that Israeli soldiers had engaged in looting. Not was looting a problem confined to the army. Jewish civilians also rushed to plunder arab towns and villages once they were emptied of their inhabitants.
Flapan goes on to write that Ben Gurion expressed outrage at this but did almost nothing to prevent or stop it, and that “very few soldiers and civilians were tried for looting or indiscriminate killing”.
Eyewitness accounts of the Ramla/Lyddah expulsion are horrific, any nazi would be proud:
The Arab refugees were systematically stripped of all their belongings before they were sent on their trek to the frontier. Household belongings, stores, clothing, all had to be left behind.
When we entered this gate, we saw Jewish soldiers spreading sheets on the ground and each who passed there had to place whatever they had on the ground or be killed. I remember that there was a man I knew from the Hanhan family from Lod who had just been married barely six weeks and there was with him a basket which contained money. When they asked him to place the basket on the sheet he refused—so they shot him dead before my eyes.
And another account of possibly the same event:
The Israelis were rounding everyone up and searching us. People were driven from every quarter and subjected to complete and rough body searches. You can’t imagine the savagery with which people were treated. Everything was taken — watches, jewellery, wedding rings, wallets, gold. One young neighbor of ours, a man in his late twenties, not more, Amin Hanhan, had secreted some money in his shirt to care for his family on the journey. The soldier who searched him demanded that he surrender the money and he resisted. He was shot dead in front of us. One of his sisters, a young married woman, also a neighbor of our family, was present: she saw her brother shot dead before her eyes. She was so shocked that, as we made our way toward Birzeit, she died of shock, exposure, and lack of water on the way.
Citizens of Ramleh were mostly evacuated by IDF buses, but those expelled from Lyddah (about 50,000 – the population had swollen by 30k as other Nakba refugees had fled to Lyddah, including 15k from Jaffa) were forced out on foot and had to walk 10 miles in the summer heat over three days – with as many 350 people dying along the way. This is now known as the Lydda death march.
The kibbutz land theft (later compounded by allowing the kibbutzim to rezone and speculate on what was in fact state land) is part and parcel of “AHUSAL” (Ashkenazi Labour-Zionist) hegemony and privilege, reflected in the liberal-Zionist refusal to address the Nakba.
Palestinians can’t found new towns inside Israel, even as Jews have founded hundreds of new towns since 1948. Did you know that?
yes, i did. and it’s been like that since the beginning of israel. i saw a map of the ‘olmert plan’ and there were these 2 long fingers poking way into the WB that almost touched at the end leaving about a mile across at the end to access the land in between. i wonder if you were traveling down one of those fingers.
Jeff Halper is so clear, honest damn brave. He must be under attack at all times. Amazing person
Phil
“They don’t get drafted, they can’t join kibbutzes, and their political parties are barred from the room, even by Labor, when ruling coalitions are formed, in favor of rightwing Jewish parties. So Israel is much like the South during the time of segregation; and as Yonatan Shapira told an American audience some weeks ago, Palestinians can’t found new towns inside Israel, even as Jews have founded hundreds of new towns since 1948.”
I did know much of this because of reading a great deal about the situation and because of Art Gish sharing so much information with so many of us. And this is what the I lobby, Aipac, Jinsa and the Israels leaders and so many more like to repeat is the only democracy in that part of the world. This is a democracy? Hogwash.
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In my early 20′s (early 70′s) several of my Jewish friends went and lived and worked on a Kibbutz. I remember thinking how wonderful.
They both had empowering experiences. At that time I knew little about the allegedly legal, violent, and illegal means used to confiscate Palestinian lands. After reading quite a bit of information 20 or so years ago about the PA and all the ways that this land was confiscated, set up to only be accessed or owned by Jews I was in shock. The whole legal system is set up as an apartheid system.
It’s an ethnocracy, not a democracy. Have you ever seen it in action, Kathleen? I’ll never forget the first time I travelled from East Jerusalem to Ramallah. The trash by the side of the road and the poverty compared to the prosperityI saw on the road from the airport to West Jerusalem. Israel is a sham democracy.
‘Palestinians can’t found new towns inside Israel, even as Jews have founded hundreds of new towns since 1948.’
This situation is closely analogous to apartheid South Africa’s notorious Group Areas Act. Coloureds, Asians, and blacks were relegated to their own townships, usually in less desirable parts of urban areas which entailed lengthy commutes to the business center.
Later, rural blacks were zoned into bantustans in an attempt to denationalize them entirely. This was necessary because whites were never more than a fifth of the population. Therefore, constant attempts were made to increase white European immigration, to denationalize black South Africans, and (later still) to create coloured and Asian ‘junior parliaments.’ All of this was done in a forlorn attempt to somehow engineer a white-controlled majority, using less crude legal methods than simply denying blacks the franchise.
Does this South African history sound familiar to Israelis? It ought to! There, too, Jewish overseas immigration is encouraged, Palestinians are mostly restricted to their towns and restricted from building, borders are moved for ethnic engineering purposes, and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have no vote in Israel, though Jewish settlers do.
No matter how you spin it, this is ‘apartheid, Jewish style.’ It’s kosher Jim Crow. And it stinks.
phil, i’m a little surprised about what you said about this myth ‘exploding’. i’ve known for a long time many of the kibbutzs were on stolen that land. when i went on one of the alternate tours inside israel, i forget exactly where we were up north, north of haifa. our guide took us to the area adjacent his old village he remembered as a child. he remembered being kicked out when he was 6. they put a big kibbutz there. he said to him ‘right of return’ is about going just a couple miles down the street back to his families land.
the old mosque was still standing but had barbed wire around it and completely overgrown adjacent to the kibbutz. he tried turning it back into a place of worship but they threw him in jail for 6 months and when he got out they’d barbwired t and told him if he tried that again he’d go back to jail. then we went down the road aways to this bottled water company selling spring water. we got out of the car and took this little trail around and in back of it and he showed us the old spring that used to water all the farmland in the area. the old technology was still there. very said.
well i didnt see that. i did see the palestinian land stolen to make way for megiddo. i posted about that in january. very wrenching. but im always re reminded of these crimes…. as halper did
the old mosque was still standing but had barbed wire around it and completely overgrown adjacent to the kibbutz. he tried turning it back into a place of worship but they threw him in jail for 6 months and when he got out they’d barbwired t and told him if he tried that again he’d go back to jail.
Yet some people still try to peddle the lie that Israel respects all places of worship.
Annie,
Are you sure you are not referring to the church in the village of Biram (adjacent to Kibbutz Baram)?
Check out this Zochrot video of a visit to the destroyed village of al Ghabbayat
link to youtube.com
I find it disgusting and degrading that these things, which are really little more than ethnically segregated, gated communities, find themselves falsely associated with socialism.
“making the desert bloom :”
PALESTINE.
Report on
Immigration, Land Settlement and Development.
By
SIR JOHN HOPE SIMPSON, C.I.E.
1930
Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty.
October, 1930 :
“”Results of Jewish Settlement.
The results of Jewish colonisation of the Vale of Esdraelon are varied. In some villages there are clear signs of success; in others, the opposite is the case. The village of Afuleh, which the American Zionist Commonwealth boomed as the Chicago of Palestine, is a sea of thistles through which one travels for long distances. A plague of field mice, which has done extensive damage to both Jewish and Arab cultivation in the Vale during the present year was officially stated to be due to the fact that 30,000 dunams of the land held by the Jews are derelict and covered with weeds. It is also a fact that in a number of villages the tithes paid by the Jews are considerably below those paid by the Arabs who formerly cultivated those villages.
Its Past.
It is a mistake to assume that the Vale of Esdraelon was a wilderness before the arrival of the Jewish settlers and that it is now a paradise. A very large amount of money has been spent by the various Jewish agencies, and great improvements have been made. The work that has been done, especially in the direction of drainage and the introduction of new and improved methods of agriculture is highly valuable. There can be little doubt that in time, the application of capital, science, and labour will result in general success. It is, however, unjust to the povertystricken fellah’ who has been removed from these lands that the suggestion should continually be made that he was a useless cumberer of the ground and produced nothing from it. It should be quite obvious that this is not the fact.
In ancient times Esdraelon was the granary, and by the Arabs is still regarded as the most fertile tract of Palestine. The soreness felt owing to the sale of large areas by the absentee Sursock family to the Jews and the displacement of the Arab tenants is still acute. It was evident on every occasion of discussion with the Arabs, both effendi and fellahin.”"
and he exploded the myth with a simple truth: Palestinians were not welcome to join kibbutzes, in fact kibbutzes played a role in ethnically cleansing Palestine. :
“” (iii) THE EFFECT OF THE JEWISH SETTLEMENT ON THE ARAB.
P.I.C.A.’s relations with the Arab.In discussing the question of the effect of Jewish Settlement on the Arab it is essential to differentiate between the P.I.C.A. colonisation and that of the Zionist Organisation.
In so far as the past policy of the P.I.C.A. is concerned, there can be no doubt that the Arab has profited largely by the installation of the colonies. Relations between the colonists and their Arab neighbours were excellent. In many cases, when land was bought by the P.I.C.A. for settlement, they combined with the development of the land for their own settlers similar development for the Arabs who previously occupied the land. All the cases which are now quoted by the Jewish authorities to establish the advantageous effect of Jewish colonisation on the Arabs of the neighbourhood, and which have been brought to notice forcibly and frequently during the course of this enquiry, are cases relating to colonies established by the P.I.C.A., before the KerenHayesod came into existence. In fact, the policy of the P.I.C.A. was one of great friendship for the Arab. Not only did they develop the Arab lands simultaneously with their own, when founding their colonies, but they employed the Arab to tend their plantations, cultivate their fields, to pluck their grapes and their oranges. As a general rule the P.I.C.A. colonisation was of unquestionable benefit to the Arabs of the vicinity.
It is also very noticeable, in travelling through the P.I.C.A. villages, to see the friendliness of the relations which exist between Jew and Arab. It is quite a common sight to see an Arab sitting in the verandah of a Jewish house. The position is entirely different in the Zionist colonies.”"
“”53
The Constitution of the Jewish Agency: Land Holding and Employment Clauses.The Constitution of the Jewish Agency for Palestine was signed at Zurich on 14th August, 1920. Article 3 (d) and (e) read as follows :
” (d) Land is to be acquired as Jewish property and subject to the provisions of Article 10 of this Agreement, the title to the lands acquired is to be taken in the name of the Jewish National Fund, to the end that the same shall be held as the inalienable property of the Jewish people.
” (e) The Agency shall promote agricultural colonisation based on Jewish labour, and in all works or undertakings carried out or furthered by the Agency, it shall be deemed to be a matter of principle that Jewish labour shall be employed . . . .”
KerenKayemeth draft lease: Employment of Jewish labour only. I have been favoured with copies of the draft of the lease which it is proposed to execute in respect of all holdings granted by the KerenKayemeth (Jewish National Fund). The following is Article 23 of this lease :
” . . . . The lessee undertakes to execute all works connected with the cultivation of the holding only with Jewish labour. Failure to comply with this duty by the employment of nonJewish labour shall render the lessee liable to the payment of a compensation of ten Palestinian pounds for each default. The fact of the employment of nonJewish labour shall constitute adequate proof as to the damages and the amount thereof, and the right of the Fund to be paid the compensation referred to, and it shall not be necessary to serve on the lessee any notarial or other notice. Where the lessee has contravened the provisions of this Article three times the Fund may apply the right of restitution of the holding, without paying any compensation whatever.”
The lease also provides that the holding shall never be held by any but a Jew. If the holder, being a Jew, dies, leaving as his heir a nonJew, the Fund shall obtain the right of restitution. Prior to the enforcement of the right of restitution, the Fund must give the heir three months’ notice, within which period the heir shall transfer his rights to a Jew, otherwise the Fund may enforce the right of restitution and the heir may not oppose such enforcement.
KerenHayesod Agreements: Employment of labour.In the agreement for the repayment of advances made by the KerenHayesod (Palestine Foundation Fund) to settlers in the colonies in the Maritime Plain the following provisions are included :
” Article 7.The settler hereby undertakes that he will during the continuance of any of the said advances, reside upon the said agricultural holding and do all his farm work by himself or with the aid of his family, and that, if and whenever he may be obliged to hire help, he will hire Jewish workmen only.”
In the similar agreement for the Emek colonies there is a provision as follows :
” Article 11.The settler undertakes to work the said holding personally, or with the aid of his family, and not to hire any outside labour except Jewish labourers.”"
“”54
Zionist policy in regard to Arabs in their colonies.The abovequoted provisions sufficiently illustrate the Zionist policy with regard to the Arabs in their colonies. Attempts are constantly being made to establish the advantage which Jewish settlement has brought to the Arab. The most lofty sentiments are ventilated at public meetings and in Zionist propaganda. At the time of the Zionist Congress in 1921 a resolution was passed which ” solemnly declared the desire of the Jewish people to live with the Arab people in relations of friendship and mutual respect, and, together with the Arab people, to develop the homeland common to both into a prosperous community which would ensure the growth of the peoples.” This resolution is frequently quoted in proof of the excellent sentiments which Zionism cherishes towards the people of Palestine. The provisions quoted above, which are included in legal documents binding on every settler in a Zionist colony, are not compatible with the sentiments publicly expressed.”"
“”The effect of the Zionist colonisation policy on the Arab. Actually the result of the purchase of land in Palestine by the Jewish National Fund has been that land has been extraterritorialised. It ceases to be land from which the Arab can gain any advantage either now or at any time in the future. Not only can he never hope to lease or to cultivate it, but, by the stringent provisions of the lease of the Jewish National Fund, he is deprived for ever from employment on that land. Nor can anyone help him by purchasing the land and restoring it to common use. The land is in mortmain and inalienable. It is for this reason that Arabs discount the professions of friendship and good will on the part of the Zionists in view of the policy which the Zionist Organisation deliberately adopted.”"
link to unispal.un.org
I do love documents!
I’m not sure how anyone could hold romantic notions about how land was acquired for kibbutzim. Shouldn’t it be assumed that the land was stolen? How else could so much land in Palestine have been acquired?
I can understand that there could be confusion about the role of the kibbutzim in securing land, but one visit to any of the kibbutzim that I saw would clear things up pretty quickly. From what I saw, barbed wire-topped fences, heavy perimeter lighting, guarded gates, bomb shelters, a central armory and towers are common. The members actually stated that the kibbutzim are the first line of defense against attack. Even if the kibbutzim weren’t militarily useful, they are still a part of the Israeli system that displaced Palestinians.
I don’t know if it is true or not, but I was told that many kibbutzim no longer accept volunteers. Instead, they depend on cheap labor from the third-world. It’s my understanding that Guatemalans and Mexicans are doing the work on at least one of the kibbutzim I visited.
I assume that the volunteer housing is still located at the far corner of the kibbutz, next to the stables and the “pub,” which was only open around payday.
You may be right about the volunteer thing, I don’t know.
Anecdotally: the one rocket from Gaza that’s actually killed someone in the almost two year since the Gaza Massacre was a Thai worker on a kibbutz:
‘Rocket fire from Gaza kills man in southern Israel’
link to news.bbc.co.uk
Since Halper is only talking about the occupation here, I’ll link to icahd’s BDS statement at link to icahd.org to point out that it’s not limited to the occupation :
Ending Israel’s occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
Such a formulation addresses the fundamental issues underlying the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians; it targets Israel’s Occupation policy and its structured discrimination against its Arab-Palestinian citizens rather than Israel per se. Without specifying a particular solution to the conflict, a BDS campaign will be in effect either until Israel becomes a truly democratic state of all its citizens living peacefully alongside a Palestinian state or a single state, bi-national or unitary, which encompasses both peoples.
A letter to the Guardian reminds us of another anti-Palestinian institution.
The Guardian, Thursday 7 October 2010
We welcome Ed Miliband’s statement that Labour’s foreign policy should be “based on values, not just alliances” (Leader’s speech, 29 September). For too long Britain has blindly followed the US in supporting Israel, right or wrong. There is one, immediate decision Ed Miliband can make which will show that these are not empty words. Both Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were patrons of the Jewish National Fund. We urge Ed Miliband to break from this tradition.
The JNF is actively complicit in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. For example, it established the Canada Park in the West Bank on the ruins of the villages of Imwas, Yalu and Beit Nuba. Today in Israel’s Negev region it plays a major role in the establishment of exclusively Jewish settlements and the demolition of “unrecognised” Arab villages.
The JNF was founded in 1901 with the aim of purchasing land “for the purpose of settling Jews on such lands and properties”. To this day it refuses to lease or rent land to anyone who is not Jewish. In 1953 and 1961, Israeli legislation made the JNF responsible for the land allocation policies of the state itself. In 1995 the Israeli supreme court, in the Ka’adan case, ruled that the JNF’s partner, the Israeli Lands Administration, could no longer discriminate against Israeli Arabs by refusing to lease or rent state lands to them. This was held to be equally applicable to the JNF. The response of the JNF was that Israel was first and foremost a Jewish state not a state of its own citizens. Ed Miliband stood as the candidate of change in the Labour party. Now is the time to show that these weren’t just words of spin
link to guardian.co.uk