Palestinian, Israeli – and Jew
Daniel Barenboim makes some remarkable comments in his article in the International Herald Tribute of Jan 30, 2008, entitled “Israeli and Palestinian”. What he fails to do is to anchor these comments in either fact or logic.
Having immigrated from Argentina, he is of course entitled to refer to himself as an Israeli and a Palestinian if he so wishes. After all, hundreds of thousands of Arabs flocked to Palestine looking for work in the Yishuv – the forerunner to the Jewish State of Israel – and even if they only lived there for two years the UN granted them the right to call themselves Palestinians and has been giving them huge cash grants ever since, provided they abstain from working. One of the often underrated benefits of living in a democracy such as Israel is that Daniel Barenboim too can title himself as he pleases, although as a Jew no UN body is going to offer him cash grants for doing nothing. But then neither is any Israeli going to kill him for what many might regard as an act of high treason during a time of war. It’s all part of what we term democracy and freedom of expression.
What’s in a name?
Like Barenboim, I too am Palestinian and Israeli. And Jewish. Palestinian because my maternal grandmother was born in Jerusalem into a highly religious Mizrachi Jewish family, at a time when the entire territory including today’s Jordan was known as Palestine. Her husband was an Iraqi Jew, both my parents are Jewish. I have my father’s Palestinian ID card from the period before the 1948 War of Independence. Even though I didn’t come to Israel from as far away as Argentina, my Palestinian and Israeli credentials are thus clear, so perhaps I will be allowed to debate with Daniel Barenboim on an equal footing.
Fact versus fiction
There is much to comment on in his article, but perhaps most astonishing in its departure from fact is the following (the emphasis is mine):
“A true citizen of Israel must also ask himself why the Palestinians have been condemned to live in slums … rather than being provided by the occupying force with decent, dignified and liveable conditions … in any occupied territory, the occupiers are responsible for the quality of life of the occupied, and in the case of the Palestinians, the different Israeli governments over the last 40 years have failed miserably.”
Set against this unsubstantiated claim is the truth: that the PLO and Arab League forced the UN to ensure that Palestinian Arab refugees from the war instigated against the Palestinian Jews by the Arab League would remain incarcerated in refugee camps. They were to be used as political pawns in the pan-Arab geo-strategic drive to rid Palestine of Jews from the Jordan River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
UN demanded that Israel stop helping the refugees
The only nation that took any steps to alleviate the situation of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza was the Palestinian Jewish nation, Israel. This Jewish country built not only proper housing and then donated that housing to the predominantly Muslim (but also Christian) Palestinian Arabs, it also created the proper infrastructure to service that housing.
This, however, was anathema to the PLO, which represented the Palestinian Arabs. It worked through the Arab League to force the United Nations to demand the destruction of the housing and the adoption of the following resolution:
The UN General Assembly Resolution 31/15 from November 23, 1976:
Calls once more upon Israel:
(a) To take effective steps immediately for the return of the refugees concerned to the camps from which they were removed in the Gaza Strip and to provide adequate shelters for their accommodation;
(b) To desist from further removal of refugees and destruction of their shelters.
Acknowledging the truth is an essential stepping-stone to reconciliation. Daniel Barenboim’s article ignores the truth.
Racism as official government policy
Barenboim writes rather naively that “in the sense that we share one land and one destiny, we should all have dual citizenship”. He might care to re-examine that sentiment against the oft-repeated statement of the Palestinian Hamas government – most recently on the 60th anniversary of the UN decision to partition Palestine into two states – that “Palestine is Arab Islamic land, from the river to the sea, including Jerusalem ... there is no room in it for the Jews.” Barenboim might wish to use his new-found Palestinian citizenship to persuade his government that racism is not really politically correct in 2008.
Having said that, it might be safer for him not to. In Israel, criticism of the state is commonplace in a country characterized by the Jewish ideals of debate, democracy and equality. Daniel Barenboim might find these traits somewhat lacking in his adopted country of Palestine, where political dissidents and religious minorities are routinely murdered by official sanction.
Better then for Daniel Barenboim not to voice an opinion in Gaza. After all, he can still be published in Jerusalem or New York.
And live to tell the tale.
Having immigrated from Argentina, he is of course entitled to refer to himself as an Israeli and a Palestinian if he so wishes. After all, hundreds of thousands of Arabs flocked to Palestine looking for work in the Yishuv – the forerunner to the Jewish State of Israel – and even if they only lived there for two years the UN granted them the right to call themselves Palestinians and has been giving them huge cash grants ever since, provided they abstain from working. One of the often underrated benefits of living in a democracy such as Israel is that Daniel Barenboim too can title himself as he pleases, although as a Jew no UN body is going to offer him cash grants for doing nothing. But then neither is any Israeli going to kill him for what many might regard as an act of high treason during a time of war. It’s all part of what we term democracy and freedom of expression.
What’s in a name?
Like Barenboim, I too am Palestinian and Israeli. And Jewish. Palestinian because my maternal grandmother was born in Jerusalem into a highly religious Mizrachi Jewish family, at a time when the entire territory including today’s Jordan was known as Palestine. Her husband was an Iraqi Jew, both my parents are Jewish. I have my father’s Palestinian ID card from the period before the 1948 War of Independence. Even though I didn’t come to Israel from as far away as Argentina, my Palestinian and Israeli credentials are thus clear, so perhaps I will be allowed to debate with Daniel Barenboim on an equal footing.
Fact versus fiction
There is much to comment on in his article, but perhaps most astonishing in its departure from fact is the following (the emphasis is mine):
“A true citizen of Israel must also ask himself why the Palestinians have been condemned to live in slums … rather than being provided by the occupying force with decent, dignified and liveable conditions … in any occupied territory, the occupiers are responsible for the quality of life of the occupied, and in the case of the Palestinians, the different Israeli governments over the last 40 years have failed miserably.”
Set against this unsubstantiated claim is the truth: that the PLO and Arab League forced the UN to ensure that Palestinian Arab refugees from the war instigated against the Palestinian Jews by the Arab League would remain incarcerated in refugee camps. They were to be used as political pawns in the pan-Arab geo-strategic drive to rid Palestine of Jews from the Jordan River all the way to the Mediterranean Sea.
UN demanded that Israel stop helping the refugees
The only nation that took any steps to alleviate the situation of the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza was the Palestinian Jewish nation, Israel. This Jewish country built not only proper housing and then donated that housing to the predominantly Muslim (but also Christian) Palestinian Arabs, it also created the proper infrastructure to service that housing.
This, however, was anathema to the PLO, which represented the Palestinian Arabs. It worked through the Arab League to force the United Nations to demand the destruction of the housing and the adoption of the following resolution:
The UN General Assembly Resolution 31/15 from November 23, 1976:
Calls once more upon Israel:
(a) To take effective steps immediately for the return of the refugees concerned to the camps from which they were removed in the Gaza Strip and to provide adequate shelters for their accommodation;
(b) To desist from further removal of refugees and destruction of their shelters.
Acknowledging the truth is an essential stepping-stone to reconciliation. Daniel Barenboim’s article ignores the truth.
Racism as official government policy
Barenboim writes rather naively that “in the sense that we share one land and one destiny, we should all have dual citizenship”. He might care to re-examine that sentiment against the oft-repeated statement of the Palestinian Hamas government – most recently on the 60th anniversary of the UN decision to partition Palestine into two states – that “Palestine is Arab Islamic land, from the river to the sea, including Jerusalem ... there is no room in it for the Jews.” Barenboim might wish to use his new-found Palestinian citizenship to persuade his government that racism is not really politically correct in 2008.
Having said that, it might be safer for him not to. In Israel, criticism of the state is commonplace in a country characterized by the Jewish ideals of debate, democracy and equality. Daniel Barenboim might find these traits somewhat lacking in his adopted country of Palestine, where political dissidents and religious minorities are routinely murdered by official sanction.
Better then for Daniel Barenboim not to voice an opinion in Gaza. After all, he can still be published in Jerusalem or New York.
And live to tell the tale.
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