[Gush Shalom] Avnery on demography + weekend action updates

[Gush Shalom (Israeli Peace Bloc)]

GUSH SHALOM - pob 3322, Tel-Aviv 61033 - http://www.gush-shalom.org/

[After the article follow some anti-occupation updates.]

Uri Avnery
12.10.02

                                  A Jewish Demographic State

   It sounds like a bad joke, but it really happened: A rabbi went from Israel to Peru, 
converted a group of Native Americans to Judaism, brought them to this country and 
put them in a settlement, on land taken away from its Palestinian owners. There they 
receive, as all settlers do, generous government subsidies, paid for with money taken 
away from thousands of Israelis living below the poverty line. There they can live  
happily ever after (unless they leave the settlement in an unarmored car, in which case 
they may be ambushed by the original Palestinian owners.)
    What causes a state to bring total strangers from another hemisphere in order to 
displace the native people, who gave lived there for many centuries, at the price of an 
eternal bloody conflict? The answer touches the foundations of Israel.
    Since the founding of the state, its emissaries have been searching for "Jews". In 
the former Soviet Union, Jews were discovered either by finding Christians with remote 
Jewish family connections (the "Jewish grandmother") or by simply forging documents. 
Nobody knows how many non-Jews were thus brought to Israel by the Jewish Agency 
and other organizations - at least 200 thousand, perhaps 400 thousand. According to 
the laws of Israel, they were automatically accorded  citizenship.
    A few days ago, the "National Demographic Council" was revived, after being 
condemned to inactivity for some years. This is an institution that is supposed to deal 
with what many Israelis consider the state's most important problem - more important 
than the war with the Palestinians, Saddam's weapons of annihilation, growing 
unemployment and the economic crisis. 
    The "demographic problem" is being pondered in universities, talked about in the 
media, expounded by politicians and commentators.
    "Experts" with computers are calculating what will be the percentage of Jews in 
Israel in 10, 25, 50 or a hundred years time. Will they be less than 78%? Or - God 
forbid! - only 75%? Will the womb of the orthodox Jewish woman, in addition to 
expected immigration, balance the production of the Arab uterus?
    And if not, what can be done? Some propose encouraging Jewish births while 
resolutely discouraging Arab natural increase. Some suggest preventing Jewish 
immigrants from Russia from bringing with them Christian family members (allowed by 
the Law of Return in its present form.) Some demand the immediate expulsion of all 
foreign workers, before they settle down and establish families. Some pray for a wave 
of anti-Semitism in France or Argentina (but definitely not in the United States), that 
will push multitudes of Jews towards Israel. Many, including members of Sharon's 
government, support the simplest solution: driving all Arabs out of the country. The 
"new historian", Benny Morris, recently hinted that Ben-Gurion should have done this 
in 1948.
    The attitude of the state to it Arab citizens, who now number 19% of the population, 
reminds one of Pharaoh, who - according to the Bible - told his people how to deal with 
another national minority: "Come on, let us deal wisely with them, lest they multiply." 
And of the method employed: "They made their lives bitter." (Exodus, 1) 
    According to the official definition, Israel is a "Jewish Democratic State". This was 
enshrined in law and endorsed by the Supreme Court. In theory, there is no 
contradiction between the two adjectives: The state is Jewish, but democracy 
safeguards equality for non-Jews, too. Or, alternatively, the state is democratic, but 
safeguards its Jewish character.
    In reality, this is not a "Jewish democratic state" but a "Jewish demographic state". 
Demography overcomes democracy in all fields of action. An Arab citizen feels at 
every turn, since childhood, that he has no part in the state, that he is, at most, a 
tolerated resident. In every government office, police station or place of work, even in 
the Knesset, he is treated differently from a Jew, even in times of quiet. True, apart 
from the Law of Return, which gives a "Jew" and his family (but not to Arab refugees) 
the absolute right to come to Israel, no law discriminates between a "Jew" and a non-
Jew. But this is only make-believe: numerous laws accord special privileges to 
persons "to whom the Law of Return applies", without mentioning "Jews" specifically.
    This is so self evident, that all state officials act accordingly without even being 
aware of it. The "Israel Land Authority" distributes land to Jews, not to Arabs. All state 
development projects include Jews only. Among the hundreds of new towns and 
villages set up since the founding of Israel, not a single one was established for Arabs. 
There is no Arab minister in the Government, no Arab judge on the Supreme Court 
bench.
    Usually, all these omissions are explained away by the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict. After all, Israel's Arab citizens are Palestinians, too. But the question is what 
causes what: does the conflict create the anti-Arab attitude or does the anti-Arab 
attitude prolong the conflict?
    Critics of Israel accuse it of practicing "Apartheid", the South African racist doctrine. 
This analogy may be partly misleading. Unlike Apartheid, Zionism is not based on 
race, but on a mixture of ghetto mentality and 19th century European nationalism.
    Ghetto mentality is the spirit of a persecuted, isolated community, which saw the 
whole world as divided between Jews and Goyim (gentiles). European nationalism 
strove for a homogeneous national-ethnic state. The Jewish demographic state has 
absorbed both these elements: a homogeneous Jewish national-ethnic state, with as 
few non-Jews as possible. 
    In Europe, where classical nationalism was born, it is giving way to the modern 
American outlook, which considers that every holder of a US passport belongs to the 
American nation, irrespective of race and ethnic origin. This has helped it becoming 
the most powerful state in the world, culturally, economically, and militarily.  European 
nation-states are gradually ceding sovereignty to the European Union, and their 
citizenship is accorded to foreign immigrants, too, who contribute to their economy 
and safeguard their social welfare system. In Germany, children of immigrants born in 
the country receive citizenship, Britain and France are even more liberal.
    Israel is faced with a historical choice: to go back to being a Jewish ghetto, with 
demographic anxieties and state trappings, or to go forwards towards a new national 
outlook, on the American-European model.
    Zionism was the last European national movement. Israeli colonialism, too, has 
come 200 years too late. So it is perhaps natural that the challenge of adopting a new 
national outlook comes rather late. But in the end, I hope, the Jewish Demographic 
State will be replaced by the Israeli Democratic Republic, for the welfare and security 
of its citizens.
            

P.S. Anti-occupation updates.

[for more full forwarded messages, subscribe to the billboard - mail to:
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- Ta'ayush this Saturday October 12 in Abu Dis.
    Demo together with Palestinians against the fence which cuts through Abu Dis

Transportation:
Tel Aviv 8:00 Rakevet Zaphon : Ronen 067-579509
Haifa: 7:00 Solel Boneh : Yoav 054-790989
Jerusalem : 9:15 The Supermarket at Hagivaa Hazrfatit: Ive 055-226436
N.B.: Bring with you: Water, Something to Eat, I.D and comfortable shoes.

- Saturday night Peace Now Tel-Aviv (demanding immediate end to policy of 
assassinations) returns to the Defence Ministry, 7 pm


Index of billboard, October 9, 2002
   
   re Gaza, Oct. 8   
[] Same place as always - report of an immediate protest
[] Worse than a conspiracy - Yediot Aharonot
[] Akiva Eldar in Ha'aretz - Winner takes out the garbage
   + Reminder: Akiva Eldar's lecture 
[] Not only Gush Shalom calls for investigation.
[] Report " Israeli troops killed thirteen, including four children and a woman"
[] Day 108 of Amer Abdelhadi's Nablus curfew diary

   other reports + upcoming action
[] Friends stand together - report by Rabbi Arik Asherman 
[] Bat Shalom:  Tour of the Fence, this Thursday at 10:00
[] Protest at Abu-Dis Sturday, October 12, 2002 - Ta'ayush invites other groups
[] Yesh Gvul's refuser update + forum debate "Who's Afraid of Freedom of Speech"
[] Israeli Embassy's answer re jailed CO Jonathan Ben-Artzi
[] Request for volunteer Israeli drivers from Hares


	----
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Also on the site:
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    the weekly Gush Shalom ad - in Hebrew and English 
    the columns of Uri Avnery - in Hebrew, Arab and English	
    (and a lot more) 
		http://www.gush-shalom.org

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