Apartheid

297
There is an enormous potential in this situation to form a kind of ‘Canaanite National
Congress (CNC)’ modeled after South Africa’s ANC, a non-exclusive coalition of
Palestinians and Israelis, i.e. Arabs, Jews and others, to scrap the binational idea and build a
new, secular, democratic and non-discriminatory unitary state and society instead of Israel and
the Occupied Territories and instead of Israel and Palestine. This idea has been promoted
recently by people as different as the Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi, and the director of
the London-based Middle East Institute, Robert Springborg. 740 In any case, it would be
exactly what the resistance movement to South African apartheid insisted upon and finally
achieved after the Bantustans had been created there. The parallel is in fact so perfect, that it
becomes difficult to believe that liberation will not happen soon. Just as young Israelis are
deserting from their oppressive and murderous army, others could be interested in deserting
from other institutions upholding Israeli apartheid oppression. In a self-critical moment,
however, Edward Said reflects:
We have never addressed the Israeli public – particularly those
citizens disturbed by current developments, which in effect condemn
Israel to unending strife – nor, unfortunately, do we now have
anything to say, for example, to the hundreds of reservists who have
refused military service during the Intifada. There is a constituency
inside Israel which we must find a way to engage, exactly as the ANC
made it a point of policy to engage whites in the struggle against
apartheid. 741
The ANC was open to Whites from the beginning, and it actively sought out Whites
and other non-Blacks to join. Said also remarked with regard to the failure of the Oslo ‘Peace
Process’ and the renewed outbreak of widespread violence: ‘A new sense may actually be
dawning that only a mass movement against Israeli apartheid (similar to the South African
variety) will work.’ 742 It is not yet so similar, but that should not be a discouraging sign.
Palestinians all speak Arabic, whereas the South African black opposition alone spoke a
dozen languages. For them, English and Afrikaans were just two more languages. Palestinians
are already utilizing English and other languages, Hebrew among them.
It is in the last resort irrelevant if the PLO or a coalition of existing organizations,
domestic or foreign, or a new organization such as the proposed CNC, or perhaps another
form of coalition brings about the demise of Israeli apartheid. In my opinion, outsiders can
help through encouraging desertion in the ranks of the Israeli army, as well as divestment and
comprehensive or even partial boycotts. To support Palestinian terrorist activities or a guerilla
war, however, at this stage, is in my opinion much more likely to end up being counterproductive.
740 Ashby: Gaddafi Sees New Mideast “Road Map”, Unified State, 2003. My proposed Canaanite National
Congress should not be confused with the Israeli Jewish literary movement around Yonatan Ratosh, the
‘Cana’anite Movement’, which was anti-Zionist, proposing a radical break with Jewish traditions, yet also
wanting to replace it with a re-invented ‘Hebrew nation and Hebrew identity’, with a program to ‘assimilate’
Palestinians. See Ramras-Rauch: The Arab in Israeli Literature, 1989: 117f. On another strategy of modeling the
organization of Palestinian resistance on the previously successful South African ANC, see Kassis: Fatah
Chapter Closed: Creating a Palestinian National Congress, 2006.
741 Said: Palestine: Present and Clear Reality, 2001. On February 18, 2002, a group of fourteen Palestinian civil
society organizations finally signed a proclamation in solidarity with Israeli soldiers refusing to serve in the
occupied territories. See LAW Society: Statement of Solidarity with Conscientious Objectors, 2002. By this time
251 Israeli soldiers had signed the Yesh Gvul statement (see footnote 739). Jews have also joined hands with
Palestinians in several peace initiatives and in acting as ‘human shields’ against Israeli threats to kill or expel
Palestinian president Yasser Arafat. See Ass’adi: Thirty Foreigners, Israelis Vow to Protect Arafat, 2003.
742 Said: Double Standards, 2000. Said is hinting here at the end of the two-state solution and the adoption of a
single, unitary state for Jews and for Palestinians. Cf. Shavit: Interview with Edward Said, 2000, for further
elaborations on this theme.