It is surely shocking to hear advertisements for racial separation in an American progressive space, but last weekend’s J Street conference featured an Israeli politician, Yair Golan, putting forward a frank description of Jim Crow Israel as the only solution to the Palestinian problem:
“Israel’s only chance is to choose the option of separation… The fulfillment of the Zionist vision is a homeland for the Jewish people with a solid Jewish majority– and we need to admit that. This is the only route to a free, equal and democratic state.”
Golan, a retired general, is on the far left of Israeli Jewish politics, a former member of parliament in the Meretz Party, which did not even make the cut in the last Israeli election.
So this is your leftwing Zionist argument in Israel, hosted by liberal Zionist cheerleaders in America; and it’s the ideal of segregation.
In his speech from the main stage of the conference Sunday, Golan described the Palestinian issue as an “existential threat” to Israel.
“The Palestinian issue threatens to tear up Israeli society from within. There is no more controversial issue than the future of the territories. No other issue has caused so much political violence in Israel, and no issue requires reaching decisions as tough as those required by the Palestinian issue.
“In fact, Israel has two options, one destructive and the second very difficult. Israel must choose– the sooner, the better– annexation or separation.
“Remember that, annexation or separation. These are the only two options looking ahead to the future. Annexation will destroy the Zionist dream. Between 2.6 to 3.2 million Palestinian people live in Judea and Samaria [biblical term for the West Bank]. 2.1 million Palestinians live in the Gaza Strip. The messianic right in Israel aims to annex Judea and Samaria, reoccupy Gaza and rebuild Gush Khatif [settlements in Gaza]. It’s crazy.
“This messianic vision is a complete madness. Israel’s only chance is to choose the option of separation. I will not explain now, but separation can be implemented practically…
“The fulfillment of the Zionist vision is a homeland for the Jewish people with a solid Jewish majority– and we need to admit that. This is the only route to a free, equal and democratic state. All other attempts to force together two different populations, roughly the same size with a long history of animosity and war, is destined to fail. The challenge of creating a true and equal partnership with a large Arab minority, the Arab citizens of Israel, is challenging and difficult enough.
“Separation won’t be easy to carry out either but it is the only chance for a future of security and peace for Israel. The process of executing the separation may have to involve unilateral, bilateral and multilateral actions, and Israel as original power must take initiative and lead the cause.
Ladies and gentlemen, it’s all about initiative, and I am shamed to say that we lost this ability to take initiative.
Meretz fell below the 3.25 percent threshhold for representation in the parliament after a political campaign in which the Palestinian issue was never even discussed by Israeli parties.
Golan’s appeal for segregation is consistent with other such arguments offered at J Street, like the late Amos Oz’s prescription for separation of the Palestinian and Jewish communities.
Liberal Zionist speakers often relate their fears of the violence that would ensue if there was one state, with Jews and Palestinians vying for power. Those fears are understandable, but there is a one-state reality now and a lot of violence is being meted out to Palestinians that is not addressed by liberal Zionists. And maybe they should stop speaking of the “dream” of Zionism as something to be preserved, when Zionism is surely responsible for “a regime of Jewish supremacy” from the river to the sea (as the country’s leading human rights group labels the apartheid reality).
Golan did acknowledge the power of American Jews over these matters:
Israel is the homeland of all Jewish people. As a devoted servant of Israel and a true Israel patriot I ask you to continue to take all action possible. We in Israel need your wisdom, your insight, your unique Jewish culture, your organizational capabilities, your political knowledge, and all other means you may commit and share. I thank you for your incredible work you have done already.
It seems to me that liberal and leftwing American Jews need to assert themselves, and stop deferring to Israelis, and be honest about apartheid, and offer the civil rights movement in America as a model for change. Not the segregationist south. Palestinian politician Ayman Odeh did just that at the J Street conference, called on Americans to help Israel and Palestine experience a great transformation akin to the unfinished civil rights work in the U.S.
Separation is clearly part of the agenda.
You don’t build an apartheid wall without the intention of keeping it.
You don’t start importing laborers from the Philippines and Thailand (twenty years ago) to replace Palestinians without the intention of disconnecting from them.
You don’t build separate highways and an an entire road system in the occupied West Bank without planning on separation.
You don’t bulldoze, corral, demolish, disposes and ghettoize entire towns and villages without the intention of creating a reality that is conducive to annexation AND dispossession, all at the same time. The idea is bringing Palestinians to full economic collapse and strangulation. No schools, no income, no prospects, no freedoms.
That Labor which has historically supported and propped up the colonial project in the occupied West Bank is pretending now to have had no hand in it is typical of Israel. Mind you, all these protestations are focused on “What’s good for the Jews/Zionism”. They do not care one iota about people they claim to one day be neighbors with.
How can one inflict so much pain and suffering and repeated injustices on a neighbor and claim to one day hope to live peacefully side by side?! Through what means?! What’s the incentive?!
At least in Europe now — compared to WWI and WWII – the incentive is economic prosperity AND full rights and freedoms for all.
There is no such plan for the Israeli – Palestinian issue because the two parties are not seen as equal humans by their patron, the US.
The US has a long colonial history in the Middle East — having picked up the baton from Britain — as it continues to pit one power against another in order to maintain control. THAT is the bigger picture.
American Jews are roughly equal in number to Israeli Jews, perhaps slightly more than Israeli Jews.
But so long as they repeatedly view Israel as the underdog, they will continue to support it. The propaganda that Israel was the weaker party in 1948, and ever since, has reinforced a lot of myths over the decades.
And on a different note, so long as they view Israel as a solely Jewish land that has simply been redeemed — a narrative no different than that of European crusaders — then the myths and unconditional support will continue.
Besides, it must be nice to have a summer country — one you’ve been groomed to believe is your second home — to visit in some exotic land when you live most of the time in the US.
Oh those wonderful liberal zionists.
Zionism has right wing extremists and racists as well as genocidal right wing extremsists and racists.
Zionism is racism. Israel is a racist endeavour loved by racial supremacists world wide.
“liberal and leftwing American Jews need to assert themselves….offer the civil rights movement in America as a model for change…. help Israel and Palestine experience a great transformation akin to the unfinished civil rights work in the U.S.”
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Great wrap to an important article. Greater to also call on Palestine supporters to facilitate that great transformation.
Hamas Founder, Sheik Yassine’s call for a stand down to allow matters to sort out was prescient.
Palestinian citizens of Israel are uniquely positioned to head up the civil rights movement.
Mr. Golan did not use the terms “racial” or “segregation”.
He used the term “separation”: Meaning ending the Occupation and separating into two states.