Having recently returned from three
weeks in Israel/Palestine I am struck by the changes on the ground since I last
visited. The Jewish settlements have become much more ubiquitous and are now
built alongside and between Arab towns. The Jewish settlements that were once
only a group of caravans with no services and utilities have now developed into
fully functional towns. The major settlement blocs have expanded to the point
that they border and surround Palestinian towns. As a result of this development
and expansion Jews and Arabs now live alongside each other in separate communities
behind walls and barbwire fences. This intermingling of Jewish settlements and
Arab towns now means that Israelis and Palestinians use many of the same roads.
There are no longer enough bypass roads to completely separate Jews and Arabs.
The result has been that many of the roads in the West Bank have been upgraded
and many of the checkpoints are no longer manned. In Palestinian cities such as
Jenin and Nablus one sees, despite the ominous warnings on the
red signs, a number
Arab Israeli shoppers. Some tours are now being offered for Israeli Jews to
visit the Ramallah, the seat of government for the Palestinian Authority.
Despite the efforts of the Israeli
government to maintain an apartheid state, the reality on the ground may be
gradually breaking this down. I found Jews and Arabs on both sides of the wall
beginning to recognize that the “two state solution” is no longer possible and that
it is now becoming OK to talk about a bi-national state in polite company. Whether
this state is “Palreal” or “Isrestine”, it is becoming the way forward. Even
western media outlets are beginning to examine this option. (See here)
As usual the politicians are late
to recognize the reality on the ground. The first step in addressing any
problem is to recognize the brutal reality. Denying this reality will get us
nowhere. Government leaders on all sides need to begin to prepare their
citizens for the fact that they will need to learn to live alongside their
neighbors in peace. Will the Jews who now have a privileged position like this
reality? No! Did the whites in South Africa want to give up their privileged
position? No! Did the whites in the American South want to give up “Jim Crow”?
No! The changes just had to happen.
Currently leaders are prone to say
that the “two state solution” is on “life support”. What they fail to recognize
is that the patient is already dead. Leaders need to emphasize what brings
Palestinians and Jews together, language, culture and religious traditions,
rather than what divides them. The brutal reality is that Zionism has to go and
be replaced by justice, democracy and equal rights.
Photo by Brooks Cato
Photo by Brooks Cato
