Unitarian Universalists for
Justice in the Middle East
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Statement on Gaza by Don McInnes, President of UUJMEGAZA AND THE MORAL FAILURE OF ZIONISM Much of the world is focused on the Gaza tragedy --- immense destruction and death in the Gaza Strip and some in nearby Israeli cities and towns. There is constant discussion of whether the Israeli action is disproportionate or is a justified reaction to Hamas rocket attacks.But the focus is much too narrow. The attack on Gaza didn't start on December 27. In a very real sense it began in the 1890's, when Theodor Herzl, the father of modern political Zionism, first expounded his views about establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine. In 1895 he wrote in his diary: 'We must expropriate gently the private property on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country.' One must sympathize with Herzl's efforts to enable Jews to escape Europe's harsh and widespread anti-Semitism. But his diary entry shows that from the beginning Zionism, in espousing what today we call 'ethnic cleansing,' was racist and morally corrupt, as evidenced by succeeding Zionist and Israeli policies and actions to and including the present time. The most dramatic example of this ethnic cleansing occurred in the two years from late 1947 to late 1949. Under the active leadership of David Ben Gurion, the Zionist organization as early as the 1930s began to develop plans for the forcible explusion of the Palestinian population. Shortly after the United Nations voted in November 1947 for the partition of Mandate Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state, implementation of the Zionist ethnic cleansing program began. Details and refinements of the plan continued, with the final plan being adopted on March 10, 1948, labeled Plan D, Plan 'Dalet' in Hebrew. From 1947 to 1949the Zionist and then the Israeli military forces brutally expelled almost 800,000 Palestinians, comprising over half the Palestinian population of the time. Many of the Palestinians simply fled out of terror, without waiting for Jewish forces to push them out. To prevent the return of the Palestinians Israel then destroyed 531 villages and 11 urban neighborhoods from which the Palestinians had been expelled. All this is described in great detail in the book, 'The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine,' by Israeli historian Ilan Pappe. Again in 1967, in the Six Day War, in taking control of East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces pushed some 200,000 more Palestinians from their homes and villages. Israel confiscated all the property left behind by the refugees, which for most of them was everything they owned except the little bit they could carry with them. Israel has given them no compensation. Large numbers of the refugees ended up in the Gaza Strip. Today approximately 60% of the total of 1.4 million people in Gaza, or about 850,000 people, are refugees and their descendents. Others of the refugees and their descendents live in the West Bank and in various nearby Arab countries. Most of the Gaza refugees live in one of the eight crowded refugee camps maintained by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinians in the Near East (UNRWA). The largest financial contributor to UNRWA is the United States. Israel, which created the refugee problem, contributes nothing. Unfortunately, however, that Agency does not have the funds to provide a normal life for the camp population, much less an enriched life. The UNRWA schools are crowded, with class sizes about twice what would be considered appropriate in the U.S., and operate on two shifts per day. I have personally visited some of the camps. None that I saw had one square foot of developed playground or athletic facilities for the children. Even in the best of times, the unemployment rate in Gaza has been high, and consequently poverty is high. For most of the time since 1967 Israel had a deliberate and again racist policy of prohibiting the development of teh Gaza Strip economy, instead using the population as a source of cheap labor for businesses in Israel and requiring that most goods be imported from Israel. More recently, the anti-Hamas closure imposed by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union has of course sharply increased the already high rates of unemployment and poverty, and has reduced the availability of electric power, drinking water and health services. In these circumstances, it is understandable that many and possibly most of the people in the Gaza Strip, and especially those in the camps, would detest Israel. It is understandable that some of them would turn to violence against Israel, engaging in actions they otherwise would not consider. How ironic that the camps, a product of Israel's racist, ethnic cleansing policies, are now the principal breeding ground of the extremist groups against which Israel 'has a right to defend itself.' The overwhelming military power of Israel will bring at least temporary relief from rocket fire on Israeli cities and towns, but will also result in even greater resentment, anger, hopelessness and extremism within the Gaza population. When Israel abandons its racist policies and treats the Palestinians with the same dignity the Israelis rightfully expect for themselves, and respects the civil and economic rights of the Palestinian people in the Gaza Stip (and the rest of the Occupied Territories), Palestinian violence will sharply drop, and a meaningful and lasting cease fire and peace can take hold. Until then it absolutely will not happen, just as it has not happened in the last 60 years. Donald K. McInnes, President Unitarian Universalists for Justice in the Middle East Cambridge, Massachusetts UUJME is an independent organization of Unitarian Universalists and does not speak for the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations. This article was sumitted to the Boston Globe on January 7, 2009, for consideration as an op-ed. Click here for a pdf version. |