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It doesn't happen very often that one stands before a truly historic moment; a pivotal time when things as they were will never be the same again. I felt that watching the Yugoslavian people storm Parliament, the stronghold of Milosevic, in the year 2000 was like watching the last act of 1989. It is a similar feeling tonight, October 8th, as we wait for Barak's 48-hour ultimatum to expire. It is almost surreal sitting at home in quiet West Jerusalem; we hear on the news of street battles raging between the Palestinian neighborhood of Shuafat and the north Jerusalem settlement of Pisgat Ze'ev, with the army providing armed support for the Pisgat Ze'ev rioters. It is the night of Yom Kippur, so no TV, and we have to rely on CNN or BBC to provide coverage of what is happening a mile or two away.
We are also receiving reports of mobs of Israeli Jews from Upper Nazareth attacking Palestinian neighborhoods in Nazareth proper - with the police intervening on the side of the Jews (one dead so far) - as well as settlers bombarding Arab villages like Kifl Harith, Dir Istiya, Salfit, Bidiya and other villages near Ariel like al-Azariya and Ma'aleh Adumim, to name a few. What makes attacks by the settlers especially deadly is that they are occurring in Area C of the West Bank, where the army has heavily armed the settlers, for their "protection." The Palestinians, however, hold no arms, and have no recourse to aid from the Palestinian Authority. The army patrols on the side of the settlers.
I have the feeling that whatever happens tomorrow night or the next day - whether Israel opens an all-out assault on the Palestinians in the Occupied Territories or whether international pressure forestalls it - all the old framework, ideologies and relationships will be demolished. Both the Oslo peace process and the myth of a state that is both Jewish AND democratic are gone. I don't know what's going to replace them. The struggle and bloodshed is far from over. For sure, the old framework is shattered and can never be put together again.
Although I fear for the loss of life looming before us, I have hope that the uprising on both sides of the "Green Line" will, in the end, give birth to new possibilities for a just and viable peace deal between Israel and the emerging Palestinian State. This includes a new overall post-Zionist framework and perhaps the eventual emergence of a bi-national state in all of Palestine/Israel.
Many forces have played a role in sparking the uprising. Some of them are: religious sentiments aroused by Sharon's provocation at Al Aqsa/Temple Mount; the feeling that only a Lebanon-style armed resistance will lead to true independence; the Johnny-come-lately entry of the Palestinian Authority; the pressures exerted on Arafat to accept an imposed settlement before the end of Clinton's term of office; and the overwhelming feelings of frustration, anger, deprivation and humiliation being directed at the suffocating Israeli Occupation. The great underlying force, however, was and is, in my opinion, the popular rejection by the Palestinian "Street" of the Oslo
process and, in particular, the Camp David "solution." These agreements would have led to a Bantustan-type state for Palestinians, truncated with large Israeli settlements, disconnected from Jerusalem and resulting in a meaningless sovereignty.
The same forces prompted the popular uprising of the Palestinian citizens of Israel. They are known as "Israeli Arabs," as their very Palestinian identity is denied in the Israeli civil framework.
Liberal commentators claim that their protests turned violent, after lethal police intervention, due to frustrations generated by long-standing economic and social deprivation, but the fact is that despite their Israeli citizenship, Palestinians in Israel live under a form of occupation. The
vast majority of their land has been taken for Jewish kibbutzim, towns, cities, outposts and even parks and forests. Because the law reserves 92% of the land in Israel exclusively for Jewish use, Israeli-Palestinians live in crowded conditions without adequate infrastructure, and some are in dozens of "unrecognized villages" that receive no urban services whatsoever. They constitute the vast majority of the unemployed, suffering from substandard education and, as "non-Jews," excluded from virtually all places of employment that offer any kind of upward mobility. They have been effectively locked out of Israeli society.
The Israeli flag and national anthem contain only Jewish symbols; official Israeli policy "Judaizes" parts of the country that have heavy Arab populations. In a poll taken after the confrontations of the past week, 74% of Jewish Israelis consider Israeli Arabs as "traitors" - a figure that encompasses far more than the usual right-wing sectors of society.
I fear a much greater level of violence approaching in the coming weeks and months. Israeli Jews have never allowed themselves to even consider alternatives to an exclusively Jewish state that includes the West Bank settlement and a Jerusalem under effective Israeli sovereignty. Barak's ultimatum and the escalation of organized massacres against Palestinians, both within Israel and the Occupied Territories, portend that Israeli Jews are liable to react like the Serbs when their reality abruptly changes.
I fear a resurgence of Israeli Jewish tribalism that will lash out violently at any attempt to tamper with the status quo. This explains why Israel's response to the uprising has been so ferocious. Why has it employed much greater firepower on a largely unarmed (or lightly armed) civilian population than it did during the Intifada? Firepower in the form of helicopter gunships, tanks, anti-tank missiles, high-velocity arms, laser projectiles, snipers, a particularly dangerous form of tear gas and more.
The fact that the Palestinians have greater firepower themselves, and they have clear targets (the Netzarim settlement in Gaza, Joseph's Tomb in Nablus and many others) explains this to a degree. But a more substantial answer has to do with their desire to assert control than to put down an uprising. The Intifada demonstrated that outright occupation or an administration on Israeli terms was untenable, but it did not actually threaten their control. The current uprising constitutes a much more serious threat. It is completely rejecting control, and insisting on genuine sovereignty and viability. As such, it challenges Israeli domination, or as Barak would say, Israeli "security;" therefore, they feel it has to be decisively stopped.
Back in June, the Israeli Chief of Staff, Shaul Mofaz, publicly threatened the use of tanks and assault helicopters against Palestinians if they dared an uprising, or unilaterally declared a state. Thus, demands that Arafat end the fighting and return to the negotiating table have less to do with ending the violence (which Israel can do otherwise), and more to do with reasserting the Oslo framework for maintaining control.
The events of the past ten days have irrevocably altered the status quo. Israeli intellectuals face the task of helping to formulate alternatives to traditional Zionism, occupation and domination so as to offer a substitute to the Israeli Jewish public.
As an Israeli, I do not fear alternatives such as a bi-national state where everyone would be permitted to live wherever they wish in the entire Land of Israel/Palestine. The Israeli society, culture and economy are strong enough to survive, and even thrive, as an integral part of a larger political entity. One of Israel's visionaries, Aryeh Lova Eliav, even gave a name to this promising new entity: ISFALUR (Israel-Syria-Falastine-Arabia-Lebanon-URdan/Jordan).
We have a long way to go in the process of changing a paradigm, political negotiations, the construction of interim political frameworks, and reconciliation. Violence will only delay this necessary process and make it all the more difficult. In these harrowing hours before Barak's ultimatum expires - as Oslo lies in rubble and new negotiating frameworks have yet to emerge - I allow myself to be cautiously optimistic.
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