Israel is a failed project and it is destined to fail, despite the huge human cost paid by Palestinians, Israeli historian Ilan Pappé recently wrote in The Palestine Chronicle.
According to Pappé, Israel was born out of a “violent project” that can only be sustained by “maintaining millions of Palestinians under oppression”.
“It is quite possible that the early thinkers and leaders of the Zionist movement, back in late 19th century Europe, imagined, or at least hoped, that Palestine was an empty land and if there were people there, they were rootless nomadic tribes that, in essence, did not inhabit the land,” he wrote.
This was not the case, of course, as Palestine was inhabited by a sophisticated culture that is rooted in hundreds of years of Arab and Muslim civilians.
“These architects of Zionism were too racist and orientalist, like the rest of Europe, to realize how progressive Palestinian society was in relation to that period, with an educated and politicized urban elite and a rural community living at peace within a genuine system of co-existence and solidarity,” Pappé wrote.
“This is how the Zionist phrase ‘The Palestine Question’ or ‘The Palestine Problem’ entered the political lexicon of world politics.
“In the eyes of the Zionist leadership, this ‘problem’ could only be solved by displacing the Palestinians and replacing them with Jewish immigrants,” Pappé wrote.
For over 75 years, Israel has attempted to remedy this ‘problem,’ starting with the hope that the ethnic cleansing in Palestine would lead to having the Palestinian natives be “spirited away” to other countries.
“After the Catastrophe (Nakba), however, Palestine was still full of Palestinians, and those expelled refused to accept any other identity and fought for their return, as they do to this day,” Pappé wrote.
“By 2020, we have already marked one hundred years of an ongoing attempt to implement, by force, the vision of turning an ‘empty land’ into a Jewish entity .. Billions and billions of American taxpayers’ money was, and is still needed to maintain the dream of the empty land of Palestine – and the relentless Zionist quest to realize it .. The human cost paid by the Palestinians for this failed project has been enormous – and is around 100,000 to date.”
A Wall and a Watchtower: Why is Israel Failing? – ILAN PAPPE
Israel is Failing
But, according to Pappe, there is a ‘conundrum’, which is: “How can the West and the Global North claim that this violent project of maintaining millions of Palestinians under oppression, is carried out by the only democracy in the Middle East?”
He continues, “maybe even more importantly, why do so many supporters of Israel and the Israeli Jews themselves believe that this is a sustainable project in the 21st century?”
“The truth is, it is not sustainable,” he answers.
“The problem is that its disintegration could be a long process and a very bloody one, whose principal victims would be the Palestinians.
“It is also not clear if the Palestinians are ready to take over, as a united liberation movement, following the final stages of the disintegration of the Zionist project. Will they be able to shake off the sense of defeat and rebuild their homeland as a free country for all in the future?
“This last phase could be less violent; it could be more constructive and productive for both societies, that of the settlers and that of the colonized people, if only the region and the world intervened now.
“If some nations stopped enraging millions of people by claiming that a century-old project – aimed to empty a land from its indigenous people by force – is a project that reflects an enlightened democracy and a civilized society.
“If this happened, Americans could stop asking “Why do they hate us?
“And Jews around the world would not be forced to defend Jewish racism by weaponizing antisemitism and holocaust denial.”
“The only necessary prerequisite is that we, a naive people who still believe in morality and justice, who serve as lighthouses in this age of darkness, truly understand that stopping the attempt to empty Palestine is the beginning of a new era, of a much better world for everyone.”
(The Palestine Chronicle)
