Exile and the Prophetic: When the Russell Tribunal leaves town the machinations of the powerful remain

This post is part of Marc H. Ellis’s “Exile and the Prophetic” feature for Mondoweiss. To read the entire series visit the archive page.

The Russell Tribunal on Palestine has completed its New York sessions. Its forgone conclusion: Israel “has achieved a status of immunity and impunity by [its] complete disregard for the norms and standards of international law facilitated by the US.” On the United Nations: “The UN’s failure to take action proportionate to the duration and severity of Israel’s violations of international law (war crimes, crimes against humanity, crime of Apartheid, genocide), and by not exhausting all peaceful means of pressure available to it, the UN does not comply with the obligations that States have conferred on the UN.”

Meanwhile, the New York Times reports that the United States military has secretly sent more than 150 “planners and other specialists” to Jordan to “help the armed forces there handle a flood of Syrian refugees, prepare for the possibility that Syria will lose control of its chemical weapons and be positioned should the turmoil in Syria expand into a wider conflict.” Seems like a pretty expansive mission, don’t you think?

On the Israel front – or are US advisors in Jordan already on the Israel front? – Netanyahu has announced new elections for January of February. Netanyahu becomes the first Prime Minister in more than two decades to complete a four year term. This means the Israeli right has stabilized and represents the consensus of Israel’s political culture. There doesn’t seem to be any doubt about his reelection either.

Nothing new here. Any change on the ground?

The breaking news about the Free Gaza movement is that its present leadership seems to be rather free in the way it tosses around the relationship between Zionism and the Holocaust. Now it seems that Zionists controlled concentration camps. These are the reports. Some of these conspiracy claims boggle the mind. Perhaps the reports are incorrect.

Nonetheless, on the anti-Semitism front under the guise of critiques of Zionism, we don’t seem to learn much.

Most political change comes slower than we want and need. Thoughts about Jews change slowly, too. If change is occurring, the results aren’t immediately obvious.

One of the Four Rules of the Prophetic is that the prophetic is connected to everything else. Then why doesn’t the prophetic change everything it encounters?

Once looked at from the perspective of the prophetic, history changes. Like the flags flown by every nation, including Israel. The flags may stay the same. They may change. The content of the nation changes. Even if the political leaders opine original intent and let it go at that.

Where does the prophetic go? Going “somewhere” doesn’t offer a sufficient explanation. While the prophetic can’t be explained primarily by where it goes, it can be explained by its core principles.

The prophetic originates with the widow, orphan, the poor and the stranger – as a voice protesting their marginalization. The indictment is registered against the system that produces this injustice. The faces of the marginalized are the indictment. Everything else is commentary.

The prophetic, then, does travel somewhere – to the powerful that are responsible for injustice. Yet even this “somewhere” is less specific than we might like. Though shouted at the top of its lungs, the prophetic voice is weak and exiled. If “somewhere” is success, a seat at the table of the powerful, the prophetic isn’t anywhere.

In the Four Rules of the Prophetic, the prophetic knows best. I have my doubts. True, the prophetic knows its origins best. That’s its strength. After that, the prophetic farms out the details to others.

Farming out the details seems unfair, especially to the powerful. If I had a dollar for every time I’ve been lectured on how utopian thought is for armchair intellectuals and activists that have never run a health care system, university, business, an economy, let alone a state, I’d be wealthy.

I remember the South African air force flyover at Nelson Mandela’s inauguration. It symbolized the transition from apartheid South Africa to the new South Africa. The prophetic would have asked the right question: Can South Africa truly be transformed if the military symbolizes the transfer of power? As the President of South Africa, that wasn’t Mandela’s question. A flyover signals that the armed forces are loyal to the new government. The means of violence continue to be at the state’s disposal.

Surveying the new South Africa, who had the right question? Almost everything that was in place under apartheid remains in the new South Africa, though in different configurations. Huge change has occurred. Huge change hasn’t occurred.

If the prophetic doesn’t know best, the prophetic knows its essence. A (really) new South Africa is a nation that has one person, one vote and justice for all. A (really) new South Africa is a nation that has ended ethnic divisions and socio-economic divisions. As yet, the new South Africa is stillborn.

A new Israel/Palestine? It’s a lot more complicated than two-states, one state or a third way confederation. Maybe Israel/Palestine needs a combination of all three. Maybe the answer is none of the above. When a new Israel-Palestine is born there will have to be an air force flyover, won’t there?

Any solution accepted by political parties to the conflict will be opposed by elements of the engaged prophetic community. Even if initially supported by the majority of the engaged prophetic community – a scenario I can’t imagine – any political solution will be full of contradictions. Successes will be offset by failures.

Though the promise of the new Israel/Palestine is full cooperation and integration of Jews and Palestinians, their context, support systems and institutional power is unbalanced. The competition for a place within the new entity will be fierce within and between both communities. Loyalty within each community and loyalty toward the new configuration will be balanced by self-interest.

That’s just the beginning. Does anyone really believe that Israel/Palestine will be left on its own to pursue a proposed new direction? Israel/Palestine has been a regional and global battleground over the millennia. Though the Israel-Palestinian conflict is recent and particular, the interest of other political and religious entities is longstanding and global.

As in the new South Africa, even the steps to carry the initial compromise decisions to fulfillment will be difficult. The early disappointment inherent in such an enterprise, coupled with the less than rosy future as it begins to work itself out, will ultimately drive a majority of the engaged prophetic into a renewed exile. Or, if the veterans make a political deal and benefit from it, thus becoming the administrators and litigators of the new Israel/Palestine as they did in the new South Africa, the conscientious of the next generation will become their critics.

Who believes that the dissidents from the Israeli or the Palestinian communities will be invited to share power in the new Israel/Palestine? On the Jewish side we know that no dissident will be so offered. On the Palestinian side, some may be asked but, since many of the vocal and articulate critics live outside Palestine and, indeed, the Arab world, that will mean a resettlement in Palestine. If the experience of Palestinians returning after Oslo is any guide, the results will be mixed at best. Many of the Palestinians who returned to Palestine during the Oslo years were scandalized by the workings of Palestinian politics. More than a few were unable to adjust to the cultural and religious situation they found upon their return.

When the Russell Tribunal on Palestine leaves town the machinations of the powerful remain. We are left with the same situation on the ground and in our minds. When the will the land of Israel/Palestine take a turn the corner toward justice and peace?