I didn’t see it coming, but this has been a momentous month in the U.S. discourse of Israel and Palestine, for a simple reason: The Nakba has gained a foothold inside American public life. Mainstream figures are talking about the Palestinian dispossession of 1948. Some are acknowledging the Nakba. Others are denying it.
The denial was surprising in its intensity. Leading officials in the Israel lobby — ADL, AIPAC, and Democratic Majority for Israel– have responded to historical commemorations with “venomous hate.”
Their venom compelled a liberal Zionist, Jeremy Ben-Ami of J Street, to publish an essay denouncing the reaction. Ben-Ami tried to hold the Zionist story in one hand and the Nakba in the other. Israel’s founding was a “miracle,” in which he takes “pride and joy,” he said, but we must acknowledge that it came at a great price: “the tragedy and suffering endured by the Palestinian people.”
There must be a “reckoning” if there is to be a shared, peaceful future, Ben-Ami said.
That’s where it gets misty. If there is to be a reckoning, well, doesn’t that mean we should advocate measures to rectify the injustice? Doesn’t that mean accepting that Palestinians have the right of return to villages from which they were illegally expelled? And while many of us would accept Ben-Ami’s declaration that Jews’ have a “meaningful and deep connection to the land of Israel,” when he asserts that “the Jewish people too have a right to self-determination,” he’s rationalizing the Zionist ongoing obsession, the need for a Jewish majority at whatever cost.
This is the problem: Zionism and Reckoning appear to be incompatible. It seems that you can’t be a Zionist and at the same time stand up for basic Palestinian rights. Maybe some Zionists are capable of actually balancing the claims. I haven’t seen it.
And that contradiction makes the vicious stance of AIPAC, and the ADL, and Democratic Majority for Israel more understandable. They know that if they acknowledge the Nakba, it doesn’t just undermine the miracle of Israel– it undermines the state’s legitimacy too. The knowledge that Israel wants “more land with fewer Arabs” makes supporting a Jewish state highly problematic to idealistic Americans. So Zionists need to deny the Nakba to maintain their respected place among liberal Democrats.
Indeed, they’re terrified of the Nakba. They lose the battle for Israel’s legitimacy when people see that the ethnic cleansing and persecution of 1948 continues today, and seems bound up in the ideology of the state– Jewish nationalism.
So I say, it’s been a great month. The Nakba has landed in the United States. It will never leave. It will only grow in importance.
Thanks for reading!
One of the weirder aspects of the American discourse on the Nakba – and there are so many weird aspects it’s hard to choose from – is that Israeli media often displays greater awareness than U.S. media. This article appeared in Haaretz a few days ago – ( delete Haaretz cookies for access ), must read in my opinion:
https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-05-18/ty-article-magazine/.premium/six-basic-facts-about-the-nakba-everyone-should-know/00000188-2e5d-d6e4-ab9d-eefdb0fe0000
Six Basic Facts About the Nakba Everyone Should Know…
4. Causes of the Nakba: Did Palestinians bring the 1948 catastrophe upon themselves by opposing the 1947 UN Partition Plan? This question has a normative answer and a practical answer.
Normatively, it needs to be asked honestly: If, today, a community of immigrants was to come to Israel, claim historical ownership of the land, and propose that we Jewish Israelis share it, would we think it was justified and be prepared to “compromise” on a partition of the land? For Palestinians, the Partition Plan was akin to saying, “You invaded my house, and now you’re willing to compromise on how to divide the rooms.”
A clear majority among Palestinians and their political leadership was ready to accept the Jewish immigrants in Palestine as a minority with equal rights within a future state with an Arab majority. However, even for the minority that was prepared to compromise on a partition of the land, the 1947 UN Partition Plan constituted an unfair division of territory and resources.
“If there is to be a reckoning, well, doesn’t that mean we should advocate measures to rectify the injustice?”____________Elemental to any political plan or vision. Down Mondoweiss’ alley!
“The Nakba has landed in the United States. It will never leave. It will only grow in importance.”____________I doubt it can outgrow the need for a reparation plan and a political plan on how to make lemonade in a secular state.