katalog-overlapping voices - Ritesinstitute

lebratory event, the attempt in israel represents a
consolidation of a problematic status quo involving
prolonged occupation. israel in its 60th anniversary
year still has no recognized borders, holds out a problematic
frame of citizenship and pursues a continuous
state of occupation and colonization. at such
a stage of israel’s history the Palestinians in general,
and the citizens of the Jewish state in particular,
have nothing to gain. any consent from their
side giving legitimacy to the suggested israeli constitution
will hinder their struggle for equality. the
current suggested constitution legitimizes the status
quo and consolidates the definition of israel as
a Jewish and democratic state. such a definition of
israel in the constitution is totally unacceptable for
the arab citizens. hence, the political and intellectual
leaderships of the arab minority decided to
publish their own vision of Jewish-arab relations.
the first document called “the future vision” was
published in December 2006 by a group of political
activists and leading arab academics under the
auspices of shawqi khatib, the head of the high
follow-up committee. then, in march 2007, ‚adala,
the legal centre for arab minority rights in israel,
published their “Democratic constitution”. this document
has much in common with the previous
future vision, but focuses on legal issues. it is actually
a kind of bill of rights representing the arab
minority point of view. the last publication of this
kind was in may 2007 and titled the “Document of
haifa”. this document was written and signed by
dozens of intellectuals and civil society activists.
the meetings of the group were held in haifa at
the “mada” applied social research centre.
the three documents complement each other and
represent the views of the political mainstream of
the Palestinians in israel. it is worth noting in this
concluding chapter that the documents and their
publication in hebrew and english, in addition to
arabic, represent a new trend among the leadership
of the arab minority in israel. this leadership
took the initiative to open a dialogue with the Jewish
majority, rather than just responding to the majority’s
views. in addition to the contents, this is a very important
development which all sides concerned
should take into account. the arabs in israel outlined
in these documents their terms for equal partnership
with the Jewish majority. this new challenge
to the Jewish state from its arab minority represents
a dramatic transformation, which the hegemonic
majority will have to deal with in the future. transforming
israel into a normal state of all its citizens
could also normalize the relations of the Jews with
the arab peoples in the middle east.
The Palestinian Catastrophe (Nakba)
israel was established as a Jewish state on may 15,
1948 in the midst of a war with the Palestinians
and the neighbouring arab countries. at the end
of that war and the signing of the ceasefire agreements
in 1949, the magnitude of the arab defeat
44 OVERLAPPING VOICES
and the Palestinian disaster became clear to all
sides concerned. the tiny Jewish community in
Palestine (about 650,000 persons) was able to defeat
the Palestinians (1,350,000) and the arab armies
who came to their help. the arabs failed to
prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. furthermore,
israel was established on a larger territory
from the one allocated to it by the U.n. partition
plan. as for the arab state allocated for the
Palestinians, it has not been established to this
day, and the Palestinian people became stateless
as of 1948.
israel was established on about 77% of the territory
of historical Palestine. the rest of the country
was divided between Jordan (the west Bank) and
egypt (the gaza strip). thus, Zionism was able to
celebrate the achievement of its main goal (a Jewish
state), while the Palestinians began commemorating
the loss of their homeland. the name of
Palestine was removed from the world atlas and
maps of the middle east. the Palestinians lost their
country and became a stateless people dismembered
into separate and marginalized communities.
this is, in a nutshell, the meaning and implication
of the Palestinian catastrophe in 1948.
Palestinian society was shattered and over half
of it (about 750,000) became refugees who lost
home, lands and other properties. most of the refugees
embarked on new life from scratch in refugee
camps. the stateless Palestinians were marginalized
and discriminated against by israel and
arab countries hosting them. the name of the
game for the traumatized Palestinians at least during
the first decade of the nakba (1948-1958)
was survival. however, from the 1960s on they reorganized
themselves and started a new military
and political struggle for liberating the homeland
and establishing an independent state.
Unlike many traumatic events, the nakba and its
implications are not a one-time event. it is rather
the accumulation of the initial disaster in 1948 with
successive plights of the Palestinians over the past
six decades. from the Palestinians’ perspective
they are the victims of the Zionists who solved the
Jewish problem at their expense. the Jews who
suffered from anti-semitism in europe and from
becoming stateless communities established a
state for themselves in Palestine and turned the
Palestinians into a stateless people. hence, the Palestinians
are struggling for self-determination and
seek to put an end to the injustices inflicted on
them. Being victimized by the victims of europe
complicates the Palestinian quest for a just solution
to their tragedy. Unfortunately, sixty years after
their disaster in 1948, new chapters of Palestinian
sufferings continue to plague the realities of
the middle east.
adel manna is a historian and director of the center for the study of
israeli arab society at the Jerusalem van leer institute.