Susan Abulhawa – Does Israel Really Have a Right to Exist?
By Guest Post • Jun 15th, 2009 at 19:10 • Category: Analysis, Counter-terrorism, No thanks!, Culture and Heritage, Features, Israel, Newswire, Palestine, Resistance, Somoud: Arab Voices of Resistance, War, Zionism
Following Netanyahu’s much anticipated policy speech, politicians and journalists, like mindless automatons, have set about repeating Israel’s tired mantra that Palestinians should recognize Israel’s right to exist. Never mind the fact that the PLO and Palestine Authority have obliged this ludicrous call, not once, but four times. And never mind that Israel has always denied Palestine’s right to exist, not only as a nation, but as individuals seeking a dignified life in our own homeland.
Does anyone find it interesting that Israel is the only country on the planet going around with this incessant insistence that everyone recognize her right to exist? Given that we Palestinians are the ones who have been dispossessed, occupied, and oppressed, one might expect that we should be the ones making such a demand. But that isn’t the case. Why? Because our right to exist as a nation is self-evident. We are the natives of that land! We know we have that right. The world knows it. That’s why Palestine doesn’t need Israel or any other country to recognize her right to exist. We are the rightful heirs to that land and this can be verified legally, historically, culturally, and even genetically. And as such, the only true legitimacy Israel will ever have must come from us abdicating our inheritance, our history, and our culture to Israel. That’s why Israel insists we declare she had a right to take everything we ever had – from home and property, cemeteries, churches and mosques, to culture and history and hope.
Israel is a country that was founded by Europeans who came to Palestine, formed terrorist gangs which set about a systematic ethnic cleansing of the native Palestinians from their homes on 78% of Historic Palestine in 1948. Those Palestinians and their descendants still languish in refugee camps. Israel attempted a similar scenario in 1967 when they conquered the remainder of Palestine, but Palestinians then couldn’t be dislodged from their homes as easily. This remains true, despite 40 years of Israel’s violent and oppressive military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Despite home demolitions, land confiscations, rapacious building of Jewish-only colonies, endless checkpoints, targeted assassinations, bombings of schools, hospitals, municipal buildings and malls, closures and denials; despite the massive human rights abuses, the imprisonment and torture of men women and children alike, the separation of families, the daily humiliations; despite the massive killings – Palestinians remain. We still resist. We still live, love, and have babies. As much as we can, we rebuild what Israel destroys. Such are rights!
Rights are inherent and inherently just, like the right to live with dignity and to be masters of one’s own fate. It is a human right not be persecuted and oppressed because you happen to belong to one religion and not another.
That Israelis simply take property belonging to Palestinians is not a right. That is theft. That Israel cut off the movement of food, medicine and other basic goods to the Gaza strip, causing massive malnutrition, economic collapse and misery because Palestinians elected particular leaders is not a right. That is an affront to humanity. That Israel rains death from the skies on an already battered and starved Gaza, murdering over 1000 human beings and maiming thousands more in a single month is not a right. It’s a war crime. That Israel has employed every imperialistic tactic to subjugate, humiliate, break, and expel an entire nation of principally unarmed civilians because of their religion is not a right. It is a moral obscenity. That every Jew from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Americas, and Australia be entitled to dual citizenship, one in their native country and one in Israel, while the rightful heirs to the land linger as refugees without citizenship anywhere is not a right. It is an outrage.
I’m sure my words will be twisted in some way to imply that I’m advocating pushing Israelis “into the sea” or some other asinine claim. So let me be explicit: We all have the right to exist, to live, to be masters of our own destiny. We all have the right not to be oppressed by others. Such rights are inherent to every individual living in that land: Jew, Muslim, or Christian. But Israelis do not have the right to create particular religious demographics by causing the demise of the natives. To be a Jewish [or Muslim or Christian] state, where privilege is accorded to those belonging to a particular religion at the expense of those who do not is not a right.
A nation that discriminates against and oppresses those who do not belong to a particular religious, racial, or ethnic group is not a light onto nations. It is a blight. And to recognize such racism as a human or national right goes against every tenet of international law. It defies the basic sense that the worth of a human being should not be measured by their religion, any more than it should be measured by the color of their skin or the language they speak.
Susan Abulhawa is the author of The Scar of David, a work of historic fiction. She is also the founder of Playgrounds for Palestine, www.PlaygroundsforPalestine.org and Board Member of Deir Yassin Remembered. She can be reached at: sjabulhawa@yahoo.com.
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neither israel nor 'jewish' state has the right to exist. But people now living in expalestine have the right to exist and to live in palestina.
One state solution appears better. We cannnot give up on the second-dearest panhuman right because others may emulate 'jews' and rob other peoples' of their land.
in any case, 5mn cultists in israel cannot forever dictate to the rest of the world terms of war and peace.
above all, people want to survive and wld do anything in order to ensure survival.
and israel or 'jewish' state is threat to much of the ME.
s'mthing's gotta give.
Well said, Ms. Abulhawa. Palestine is the ancestral homeland of the Palestinian people, no one else. The Jewish inhabitants of that country are newcomers having no connection to the land of any kind.
israel has not right whatsoever to exist and the League of Nations did not have the right to hand the Partitioned land to them.
What we need is another vote in the UN with no right of VETO and send the Israelis to their homeland
in Biribidijan which has existed since 1924. There was no need for them to settle in Palestine. This is the worst crime against humanity of the last 80yrs. The previous one was when the Jews starved 11 million Ukrainian men, women and children to death deliberately in 1932/33 under the guise of Communism.
They do not deserve to live amongst other people – they need to live somewhere totally alone so that they do not have to mix or harm anyone else.
Before Jews leave Israel they need to be stripped of every single thing they own – I was in Haifa in 1948 when they came to Shari AlQuds and I will never forget what I witness. LONG LIVE PALESTINE AND PALESTINIAN MOTHERS.
Actually in law Israel does not exist and never has. Just the people who are living there are squatters and illegal immigrants, thieves and barbarians with tiny ideas dressed up as grand plans.
Dear Ms Abulhawa
Come on guys! it is time to start thinking in finding a solution to this horrible problem.
What abaout disolve Israel present state and creat a new country called the "Mana Republic". This new country sould embrace the Palestinian territory and ofcourse it should embrace the human rights and democracy.
Lets start from today to think in how to relate to some body without connecting the past and find a better style of life rather than been thinking in war and destruction.
Mana Republic? that sounds as a israeli republic. We can think, we can write in blog, in web, but the solution will became from palestinians, and that it seemed to be so far…..
Thanks Susan for your words, I agree with them all.
VIVA PALESTINA LIBRE!
Oh, yes, deny everyone everyone's tights except those of the Palestinians is a sure way of solving the problem. The Jewish people also have roots in the land. The only workable solution must recognize the right of everyone. Solving one problem by creating another is the root of the present situation. Won't solve the problem by beating your head against a stone wall. The presence of Israel is a fact. Israeli possession of the land is a fact. Rejectionism only plays into the hands of Israeli rejectionists, and serves to legitimize the situation in their eyes. Both peoples have rights. Now, start from there.
To Nicholas
The israel presence is a fact, yes, given by UN. But they get more and more lando every day, That is illegal, and invasion.
So when they go back to their borders , and the allow humanity help, perhaps we can find a solution.
Do you know the fleet Free Gaza can ´t departure from Chipre because of israeli ´s authorities. What is that ? Where are the rights of palestinian?
Makes me ill to hear the propaganda in the US. It is one giant scam.
@Nicholas Dunne-Lynch – "Israel" will never have a right to exist… The only workable solution, is the complete dismantling of the Jewish State. Jews can live as adherents of the religion Judaism, but the Land is Palestine and the People are Palestinian.
If a man comes from another town, to your neighbourhood, goes to your neighbour, kills half of his family,forcibly evicts some of the family, takes the house as his own and now expects us to accept him as a neighbour. The Jewish State wants the debate to start from this point.
i.e. forget how he came to be the neighbour, rather focus on what type of neighbour he is …..