New Historian Ilan Pappe

Dr. Ilan Pappe met us at Haifa University. Short with gray hair and slightly rounded shoulders, Pappe looks like the academic he is. He directs an Israeli organization for Palestinian studies, which is related to a partner organization in Ramallah where Palestinians pursue Israeli studies. His work benefited from the law in Israel allowing access to government records after 30 years. For in the 1970s, he and other historians began to research the records of the 1948 war and its immediate aftermath. Because of their critical work, they are known in Israeli society as "new historians."

Records from the war allowed Pappe, Benny Morris, and other researchers to verify that what we would today call "ethnic cleansing" not only occurred during the war, but was part of the Zionist plan that continued to guide Israeli government policies. Arabs did not flee during the war because they were told to by Arab governments to do so, but because they were driven out by Israeli armed forces acting on orders from Israeli political leaders.

The facts of 1948 have been concealed from the Israeli public, and when exposed by him and other historians have been fiercely resisted. Yet, these facts are verifiable from the historical records. As Palestinians were unjustly removed from their land and driven from their homes, under international law they have a right to return (or at least should have that right recognized as part of the negotiations for a political settlement).

Pappe argues that Jews in Israel must come to terms with these facts from 1948, if there is to be any possibility for peace. He believes, however, that the facts on the ground created by the Israeli government after the 1967 war and its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza have made a two-state solution to the conflict impossible. "There are 12 million people between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea," he said, and half of these are indigenous (known first as Arabs, and then as Palestinians) and half newcomers (Jews who are now Israeli citizens). 

The "best offer" made by Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 2000 is seen by Jewish Israelis as better than any offer they would make now, after the second Intifada. But this "best offer" would only have given half the people (the Palestinians) 20% of the land, and so it is not surprising that the Palestinians rejected it. The peace process and its unjust conclusion, which the Clinton administration pushed Yassar Arafat to accept, was the direct cause of the second Intifada.

As Jewish Israelis do not understand their government’s oppression of the Palestinians, and have no sympathy for the suffering of Palestinians, because Palestinian terrorists targeted Israeli civilians during the second Intifada, there is no genuine peace movement in Israel that can support a solution acceptable to the Palestinians.

There are several factors that might change Israeli public opinion in the long run: 1) 75% of the Israelis are poor, 2) insecurity will return when the "two-state solution" proves unworkable, and 3) pressure from the international community. The last is essential, as the two peoples are unable to secure a just peace on their own, but this seems unlikely in the short run.

Zionist Israel began as a secular and socialist vision, involving a colonial act at the end of the international period of colonialism. The Palestinian response to Zionism was also secular and socialist. More recently, religion has been used on both sides of the conflict to manipulate people and provide energy for what is essentially a political struggle.

Islamic fundamentalists motivate suicide bombers with their ideology, and Jewish settlers demand Israeli policies that disregard human rights law and simply assert the right of Israelis to the land. After the second Intifida began in 2000, the "new historians" were labeled traitors for their critical view of Israel. As a consequence, the University tried twice in 2002 to dismiss him.

In 1948 70,000 of the 75,000 Arabs of Haifa were expelled in a single day. Today, despite the good relations in Haifa between Jews and Arabs, the Jews refuse to accept this history. His Institute commemorates this expulsion annually, but Jewish leaders in Haifa oppose such a commemoration event.

Pappe made the following suggestions for trying to communicate the facts on the ground.

1) Remind people that they read almost nothing about the oppression of Palestinians by Israel, but see in the media regular reports about Palestinian terrorism.

2) Talk about the taking of the land from Palestinians, as the Americans can understand this.

3) Speak of the Israeli crime in 1948, and explain that the partition proposed then would have given 85% of the land to Jews when they were a small minority of the population.

4) Acknowledge that the Jews were victimized horrifically in the 20th century, but assert that this does not give Jews the right to victimize Palestinians, which they have done.

5) Schedule more than one meeting with a group, as he finds one meeting isn’t enough to persuade them of the facts he presents.

6) Talk about the Palestinian refugees, who were promised by the UN that they would be able to return to their land, as international law requires, but whose right to return has been denied by Israel. Admit that the Arab nations have not treated the Palestinian refugees well.

7) Explain that Arab Israelis and Palestinians now have no right to the land. 93% of the land of Israel belongs to the Israeli people, and even on their own land Arab Israelis and Palestinians are not given permission to build or expand their homes. Use examples of home demolitions.

Pappe believes the only way to restore human rights to Palestinians is to change the nature of the Israeli state. The Israeli trauma over disengagement from Gaza will not do this, as it will convince most Israelis that they have suffered enough for Palestinians. It will make it harder to disengage from settlements on the West Bank.

I am writing as a participant in the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel, which is sponsored by the World Council of Churches. The views expressed above are my own and do not necessarily represent the World Council of Churches. If you wish to publish or disseminate this letter beyond personal friends, please contact the EAPPI Communications Officer (eappi-co@jrol.com) for permission to do so. Thank you.

Bob Traer, 8 April 2005

For other Letters from Jerusalem, go to http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/lj.letters.2005.htm.

For photos from Acre (Akko), which is just north of Haifa, go to http://christian-bible.com/Ethics/photos.acre.htm. 

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