N° 23 Dialogue issue (April 2009)
Introduction
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The acknowledgement of these facts, which we repeat over and over again in our review, as do many militants and democratic groups, brings up an essential question: why should it be incompatible with the existence, along with the Jewish populations, and with equal rights, in a single State, for the Palestinian populations to also be granted their rights? And by Palestinian populations we mean not only those enclosed in the refugee camps, but also those living within the Hebrew State, those living in the "occupied territories" since 1967, and also the entire Diaspora.
You can read hereunder some extracts of a book by the historian Arno J. Mayer, published recently . One has to admit that the reflections, remarks and analyses of this author, which are founded on facts that nobody can deny, fit in perfectly with the discussion that the review Dialogue is proposing to organise?
Mayer writes: "One can assert that Israel has become a terrorist or rogue State". In the historian's opinion, as he sees the ever-increasing disillusions within the State of Israel, "(…) it is estimated that in 2006 almost 650,000 Israelis, i.e. 12.5% of the Jewish population to be found in Israel, actually live abroad, of whom 60% in North America and 25% in Europe. In that same year, 4,500 Israelis chose to become German citizens; with at least 100,000 Jews in Germany, the Jewish population there has now reached the third position in Europe. The brain drain has brought 20% of the Israeli university professors to leave for the United States and one also sees many doctors, as also specialists in physics, chemistry, IT and economy, emigrating. Jerusalem is being transfigured and both the lack of democracy and the shrinking of the intellectual horizons are contributing to an unexpected yerida (the departure of Jews from the State of Israel. The opposite of the alyia — Editor's note), which, rather like the refusal to do one's military service, seems to be getting less and less stigmatised".
Arno J. Mayer, who describes himself as "a non-Jewish Jew, with a Zionist family background ", goes on to describe the powerful grip that militarism has on the Jewish populations and points out that "it is no longer possible for the country to survive without its unlimited American credit card, which guarantees its oversized military budget (one can significantly note that that account is currently administrated by Stanley Fischer, an American executive who previously had high-level jobs within the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and Citigroup — until 2005, at which time he became governor of the Bank of Israel). Debates at the time of elections also very largely exclude topics such as the absolute priority given to guns rather than butter, the total indifference with which the Mizrahim (Jews of Eastern origins — Editor's note) are treated and the ever-lasting discrimination which is the lot of the Arab-Palestinian minority. The fact that Israel is totally dependent on the United States from a political standpoint is absolutely never mentioned (…). If you calculate military expenditure per capita, Israel is the worldwide no. 1 — ahead of the United States, who only comes third. Even though it is largely financed by the United States and by the Jewish Diaspora, the exorbitant military expenditure — 10% of the GDP — stifles the social budget (…). In 2005, nearly 34% of Israelis, among which the Palestinian Israelis (who describe themselves as "the inside Palestinians" — Editor's note) were either earning the minimum wage or even less; nearly 50% of the students ceased their studies without having acquired any degree. The politicians divert the social discontent by exacerbating the eternal "struggle for survival again"st the Palestinians, while a large number of Israelis lend an ear to the noisy ultra-nationalist, religious, anti-Arab and Muslim-phobic sirens".
Since he wrote this book, the offensive against the Gaza Strip, with its wake of barbaric acts, has brought about an unprecedented movement of rejection of the State of Israel, by Jewish militants and intellectuals who cannot stand the coldly murderous politics of a State which is supposed to represent them.
You will read in this issue of Dialogue contributions that explain why it is necessary to organise this debate and to pursue it at an international level. The debate needs to be brought to those — and their number is ever-increasing — who refuse to let crimes be committed in their name. And also to Palestinian militants and youth who are at the moment trying to regain the democratic foundations of their movement of national liberation, while they are confronted with the dislocating crisis within their traditional political representation, which is a consequence of the Oslo Agreement. For all of them, peace is not possible without justice. And justice is not possible without starting with the democratic demands of the region's populations.
That is the debate to which Dialogue proposes that militants of the labour and democratic movement should contribute.
Content :
- p.3
- Introduction
- p.5
-
Israeli politics and the West:
the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
by Haim Bresheeth - p.11
- Palestinian Youth Network :
Interview with a young Palestinian - p.12
- The Palestinian question, the Kurdish movement and the Turkish left. By Kenan Kalyon
- p.14
- On Zionism. By Ben Ehrenreich
- p.17
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The consequences of Gaza's resistance on Palestinian policies.
by Salah Mohamed - p.19
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About the debate on "solutions".
by François Lazar - p.22
- A Declaration of the Fath (1st January 1969).
