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支持巴勒斯坦难民返乡权,便是向种族主义说“不”

艾兰·佩普 · 2012-01-29 · 来源:纪念若雪巴勒斯坦资讯网
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首先我要感谢这场会议所有的筹办者,他们花了很大的工夫才使我们能够聚在这里。但是由于以色列的控制,我们不能在巴勒斯坦会面,我希望有一天我们能在那儿见面,而不是专程跑到德国斯图加特(Stuttgart)冰冷的山丘来。


(2008年爱丁堡“魂之归”展览,Jane Frere作品,描绘的是巴勒斯坦种族清洗。)
 
首先我要感谢这场会议所有的筹办者,他们花了很大的工夫才使我们能够聚在这里。但是由于以色列的控制,我们不能在巴勒斯坦会面,我希望有一天我们能在那儿见面,而不是专程跑到德国斯图加特(Stuttgart)冰冷的山丘来。

但这也正好告诉我们犹太复国主义(Zionism;另一常见译名为锡安主义)是怎么一回事了,它不允许一般人过着普通生活或者建立正常友谊,人们必须艰辛地通过层层障碍,才能满足共同生活这最基本的人类欲望。

我们存活在一个诡异的年代。一方面我们无法如改革者一般诉诸一个更好的以色列政府。我认为这个政府的一切作为早已让任何对犹太复国主义之复杂分析都 显得 多余。我们非常容易揭穿以色列之政策,以及其背后种族歧视(racism)的意识型态。另一方面,以色列是过去三年里西方世界最为成功的经济体,表现比起 德国还好上许多;它有稳定的银行体系,它的货币是世界上最为强势的货币之一,西方经济体近三年来所遭遇的困境,以色列也完全没有。

这结果是一般西方人与以色列人,特别是以色列犹太人,在看待以色列这件事情上,有着令人困惑的落差,后者自认为生活在一个非常成功的社会,他们相信以阿冲 突基本上已经结束,巴勒斯坦的问题已经不存在,他们会说:“噢,是的,是还有些加沙的问题,或者黎巴嫩真主党的问题,但这些都不是以色列独有的问 题,这 些只不过是所谓反恐战争的一部份。”

我们存活在一个诡异的年代,因为尽管以色列的政策经常遭受外界严厉的批评,也不断有示威游行,抗议发生在加沙的屠杀,或是抗议以军对开往加沙船队之袭击, 然而却没有人敢挑明以色列这些政策背后之意识型态。我们的抗议行动从来不直指犹太复国主义,因为欧洲议会甚至曾将反犹太复国主义的示威抗议谴责为反犹主 义。

想象一下,南非也发生过种族隔离,倘若在当时我们被禁止针对种族隔离进行示威抗议,而只被允许抗议发生在索韦托(Soweto)的屠杀,南非的种族隔离会 有消解的一天吗?……相比之下,以色列似乎颇为成功地规避了对其真正罪行之批判。而德国对以色列这项胜利也有相当大的贡献。以色列的主要问题、主要国家犯 罪之因素并没有被切实分析、没有被碰触,也没有被讨论过;众所触及到的,只有表面症状。我不是个医师,也不具医疗专业,但至少我晓得,仅仅处理表面症状而 非从病因处着手,病人是无法痊愈的。

因此我认为,作为改革行动者,我们必须要改变我们的行动策略。这并不是说我们必须要改变我们那颇为成功的抵制以色列商品的运动,或是我们在德国以及世界各 地声援巴勒斯坦人民的活动,这些都是欧洲公民社会令人动容的力量之展现,丝毫不比昔日反对种族隔离的抗争运动逊色。但是我们,我们之中大部分的人,并没有 使用最恰当的语言来描述我们所面临的问题,这使得我们无法直指并成功传达问题的核心究竟是什么。

外界对以巴问题最大误解之一在于,一来,以巴问题绝不如他们想象中的复杂难懂,我们对这类事件应该感到熟悉才对:外来的欧洲殖民者对于当地原住民不只加以 屠杀也加以驱离,在这点上,以色列复国主义者绝非首例。另一方面,以色列在包括德国在内的盟友的纵容之下,发展出一个对以巴问题的非常复杂的诠释, 复杂 到只有他们自己才能理解,其他人不懂于是也就不容置喙,尤其你如果是德国人的话,你不被允许插手这件事,因为事情非常复杂。

但事情不是这样的,问题并不复杂。这也是为什么了解历史是那么地重要。去了解那段并不复杂的、关于犹太复国主义者向来如何对待那些原生居民的历史是 理解 的关键。是的,我同意,还有其它事件也有关系:欧洲犹太人的悲剧、纳粹大屠杀,还有像是……基督教与犹太教之间超过两千年的关系等。但是这些都只是以巴问 题的题外话,这些都不是故事的主轴,它们也许是故事的一部份,但不应从它们去理解以巴问题。

这也是为什么以色列人,甚至是那些身为以色列公民的巴勒斯坦裔学生,当他们开始学习他们自己国家的历史时,他们得先从敖德萨屠杀(译注:十九世纪下半期至 二十世纪初期,俄国境内多地,包括Odessa地区,发生数波迫害与屠杀犹太人之事件,促发了日后之犹太建国运动。)开始。我记得我在以色列大学任教时, 我的一位巴勒斯坦裔学生问我:“你能解释为什么像我们这些出生在拉…、萨…、或是内盖夫(Negev)的人,学习自己的历史,得要从发生在敖德萨的事件开 始呢?”他们甚至不知道敖德萨在哪里。于是我告诉他们,这是因为即便身在以色列,他们也如同身处在西岸地区或者是加沙走廊的巴勒斯坦人一样,处于被占领之 状态。以色列国内的巴勒斯坦人也同样被占领、同时被殖民。假使我们不明白这点,我们将无法打开问题的症结。

因为那始于1967年的所谓的“和平进程”实际有如发生在火星上、月球上……因为这是我所知道的历史上唯一与待解决之问题毫不相关的和平进程。无论是 1977年的日内瓦、1991年的马德里,还是1993年奥斯陆的和平进程,都甚少涉及以巴问题的本质。我同意它们或许处理了表面症状,但是并未触碰到问 题的核心。

这便是以色列的另外一项重大胜利:“和平进程”同公众舆论一样,都无法处理到以巴问题的核心。所以当我们回溯历史,并寻找描述事件的恰当当代用语时,这不 表示我们是不合时宜的(anachronistic)—因为我们使用了十九世纪之词汇如“殖民主义”,描绘了二十、二十一世纪的现象。我们不但并非不合时 宜,而且实际上还恰好符合当代需求。接下来我将进一步阐明。

犹太复国主义就是殖民主义。你若能有此理解,你就是我遇过的最年轻且成功掌握时代脉动的历史研究者。任何威吓你不准这么说,并且告诉你这是无助于现况的过 时说法,或者说这是反犹主义的人,他们才是真正不合时宜之人、是住在月球或是火星上的人,而且执意以偏离现实世界之方式,谈论现实问题。的确,你如果懂希 伯来语,你会知道在希伯来语一而再、再而三用来指称1882年至今的复国主义运动的单字 “hityachwut、hituachahut”,只能有一种 翻译,那就是“殖民化”(to colonize)。再没有别的意思了。

十九世纪末,当殖民主义受到公开支持的时候,犹太复国主义运动是非常乐意使用“殖民化”这个译名的。但是之后,当他们发现殖民主义不再那么受欢迎时,他们 改变了译法。他们发现英文里“定居、屯垦”(settlement)这个单字带有其它含义,于是他们采用这个单字来替换原先的殖民一词。复国主义者会这么 说:“是的,我们是来这里‘定居、屯垦’的,我们不是来‘殖民’的。两者有所不同,这是相当复杂的,而且只有我们以色列犹太人才能理解,理解为什么以色列 在巴勒斯坦的殖民与白人在非洲的殖民是不一样的。”

依照犹太复国主义者的说法:你若不是以色列犹太人,你就不能理解,尤其你若不是犹太复国主义者的话,你当然更不能理解为什么两者之间有所差别。所以我认为 非常重要的是,无论我们是在课堂授课、公开辩论,或是与西方的政治精英交涉时,我们都要明确地告诉他们:你们是在对付现代最后一个殖民主义运动。这词汇听 来虽然让人感到不合时宜,但是即便处在二十一世纪,他们确实依然实行着如同十九世纪殖民主义者的手段。

所以我认为西方社会所有秉持良知的人,如同那些在殖民时代里曾挺身反对殖民主义的先人一样,是无法站在殖民主义阵营这一方的。我相信我们能够说服他们,但 首先我们必须厘清我们的用字、还有厘清思考上的干扰,并且不要在意不明就理的人怎么说。他们怎么说都无关紧要……因为即便你表示支持以巴“两国共存”之方 案,他们也会把你当做反犹份子,因为他们会说你理解问题的方式与他们不同。因为你不理解问题,所以你以为这两国方案应该包含让加沙及西岸建立成一 个主权 独立的国家……但他们仍然会说你不懂的,这是错误的理解。

现在巴勒斯坦人住的地方就像两个南非的班图斯坦,西岸地区被切成12块、加沙地区则像个集中营,两者间完全无法通行,并且仅在拉马 拉 (Ramallah)有基本统治雏型的“政府”,而以色列犹太人或是复国主义者会说,“这就是巴勒斯坦人的国家,如果你并不明白这就是个国家,这就显 示了 你显然还并不明白以巴问题的复杂性”。

我希望大家能够明白,殖民主义是描述今天以巴问题最为恰当的概念。以巴冲突的两造不是两个独立自主的国家,而是殖民者与被殖民者的关系。 我们也应该持续 吸引那些曾经对抗过殖民主义的老将,或者是年轻的改革者,共同对抗这应该是普世所谴责的殖民主义,抗议这个破坏原生居民生活的外来势力。犹太复国主义者在 1882年以及1948年就已经持续着殖民活动了,甚至昨日在内盖夫和西岸就这么做了,如果我们持续偏离现实,谈论着所谓的和平协商、两国论、以及其他与 实际现实毫无关联的概念,殖民主义的暴行将持续下去。

第二个我认为以巴问题上很重要、并且必须持续传达出去的观点是:无论是当下持续暴行下的受害者,或者是每年一月我们都会追悼的在2009年加沙遇难的受害 者,或是每年五月都会追悼的1948年以军暴行的受害者,他们全都是种族净化(ethnic cleansing)的受害者。

种族净化虽然是晚近才发展出来的概念,起源自九零年代的南斯拉夫战争。但是更早之前,这类意识型态及政策已经为国际社会所谴责;与之相比,只有种族灭绝 (genocide)才更为严重,而且如同我们在其它地方所见到,两者间经常存有关联。当一个政权实行种族净化或是种族灭绝之政策时,两者所一贯诉诸的手 段,就是将驱离或是杀戮的目标“非人化”(dehumanization)。如同我在以色列控制下之巴勒斯坦所看到的那样,普通的巴勒斯坦人被彻底地非人 化。

任何人像我一样在以色列住得够久的人,都晓得在以色列服役会使得士兵变得麻木不仁。一位以色列士兵看到一个巴勒斯坦的婴儿,他不是看到婴儿,而是看到一个 潜在敌人或者未来的炸弹客,倘若哪天那个士兵把婴儿丢出房子或是直接杀害,我们也用不着吃惊。因为即便是幼童,也同样彻底遭到非人化。发生在巴勒斯坦的种 族净化暴行进一步转变成种族灭绝的那天已不远矣。
这就是为什么我认为种族净化政策就是严重的国家犯罪,我们不能将之简单理解成以色列政权的政策问题,而是应视之为严重的以色列政权的犯行。

我们应该这么做是因为只有法西斯式的思考才会宣称在所有历史情境中政权与国家乃是同一回事。不,他们是不一样的。有时候一个政权可能是发生在一个国 家中 最糟糕的一件事。对于巴勒斯坦的人民来说,最糟糕的一件事便是以色列这个政权。如果我们想要给巴勒斯坦带来和平,并使生活其中之人都能够享有平等,使他们 在各方面都能比中东其它地区更好,甚至超过欧洲某些地方,便是去改变以色列国家之政权。我知道这并不容易,而且这也并非在质疑任何国家存在的权利。

我们是个别的行动者,我们没有能力去挑战任何国家存在的权利,我们更无法去消灭一个国家(以色列才有能力,我们没有)。我们拥有的只是道德力量来告诉他 们,他们所建立的国家是什么样子的,并且告诉他们,他们所维持的国家是会如何严重伤害其人民的。这个创立于1948年的以色列国将半数巴勒斯坦原住民 驱 离了家园。请告诉我,历史上还有哪些时期或哪些地方,有国际小区是这么打着和平的口号并且高论著:“为了使这个国家成为和平之地,我们必须把此地一半的居 民赶走”?

只有在以色列和巴勒斯坦,我们才得以见证到这诡异的历史发展,代表国际社会集体意志的联合国,竟然告诉全世界,它允许以色列以和平之名赶走半数巴勒斯坦的 原住民。如果你一旦这么开始述说以色列的历史,那么一切就变很难溯往与改变了,你必须劝对方好好去读读历史,告诉他们1947年领土分割的想法是不 道德 的,尽管你在1947年也许还不能确定这并非是个良好、现实的政治构想。我能理解在1947到1948年间,你也许会说:“让我们试试看吧,看看把这块土 地分割成两块会是什么样。”这想法也许可以成功,又有谁能未卜先知呢?

但是六十年已经过去了,我们还能争辩当初把婴儿(领土)分割为两部分的决定是否为妥当的吗?你们都知道所罗门王针对两个母亲争夺一个婴儿所做之判决 的典 故,对吧?所罗门王知道,只有真正的母亲才不希望她的孩子被切成两半,所以故意提议将孩子切割。在以色列和巴勒斯坦的状况中,我们大概知道谁总是想分割婴 儿,另外谁才是孩子真正的母亲。所以我们可以见出种族净化的发生与国际之默许与纵容有着莫大关联。从联合国决议到后来的欧洲共同体和美国都说巴勒斯坦唯一 可能获致和平的方式就是让以色列驱逐足够多的巴勒斯坦人,以及取得足够多的巴勒斯坦领土,然后再建立所谓“中东地区唯一的民主政体”。

犹太复国主义者的计划,彻底颠覆了西方在四零年代末到五零年代初的所有常见用语。让我们看看他们是如何建立“民主”政权的。难道为了建立一个犹太人占多数 的国家,便可以驱离当地的原住民?但这也正是目前以色列年轻人心中所相信的。他们在政治学科中学到,为了建立一个多数决的民主社会,你有必要先界定谁是 “多数人”--亦即犹太人,即使必须先屠杀另一半人口来获致也无所谓,然后你才可能确信谁能在民主选举中胜出。

以色列人对于透过种族净化或种族灭绝政策以创造出来民主所需之“正确选民”这回事,一点也不感到奇怪。许多西方人称以色列为民主国家,因为他们只看到多数 决的那一面。而事实是,以色列为了维持他们心中认定该有的多数,而对巴勒斯坦人持续进行着种族净化、殖民、残杀,或囚禁他们于加沙这样一个巨大贫民窟之 地……这些都是当外人谈到以色列民主时,从来不视之为其问题的一部份。

所以我认为我们应该挑明白、讲清楚的是:依照犹太复国主义的思维,唯一能够维持他们民主政体的办法,就是不惜采用种族清洗的手段,持续作为一个罪犯国家。这如同让恶贯满盈的一群罪犯,握有一个民主体系,然后以真枪实弹、暴力,以及绝对的权力,维持着这个体系。

在谈过殖民主义和种族净化这两个概念之后,我最后要谈的概念与这两者也都有着很大的关联,那就是:驱动以色列这样一个犹太国家背后最主要的意识形态,其实 就是殖民主义和种族净化。当然,不管是作为生长在以色列的人,或是世界各地支持以色列的人们,我们向来不是这样被教导的。我们被灌输了另外两套意识形态: 其一,犹太人为了寻找一块能够安全生活的地方,而选择来到了以色列/巴勒斯坦。但实际上我们知道以色列对犹太人来说并不是一块安全之地,相反地,自 1948年之后,犹太人在此地丧生的人数远比在世界其它各地都还要多。另一个说法是,以色列是犹太人唯一能够展开民族运动、重新界定民族身份的地方,在这 儿,他们才能够实践其民族自决权。

但是我们知道以色列对于犹太民族自决权其实并不感兴趣,这是为什么还有为数众多来自世界各地的非犹太人移居以色列。因为对于以色列来说,最重要的是确保这 里是一个非阿拉伯国家。所以如果你是巴哈伊教徒、你住在喜马拉雅山,但你确定不是个阿拉伯人,那么你将可以立即获得以色列犹太公民的身份。只要你愿意来的 话,犹太拉比会担保你是一个犹太人,只是你得经过痛苦的割礼就是。总之只要你不是阿拉伯人,你将因此而受到欢迎。但如果你是一个阿拉伯化的犹太人, 你得 先“去阿拉伯化”,否则你在以色列犹太人的社会是不可能受到欢迎的。

我要谈的关于以色列的第三个、也是最后一个问题,就是种族纯净(ethnic purity)。以色列对于种族纯净的追求也与难民返乡权有着很大的关联。 大部份的人,包括我们最好的朋友如Noam Chomsky(他和Uri Avnery,还有其他人都是我的好朋友,我不是在嘲讽他们,我和 Noam Chomsky 最近才合写了一本书,但是我在这点上完全不同意他们的观点。)他们反对公开拥护难民回归的权利。他们认为基于现实考虑,告诉那 些难民有一天能够回归故土是不切实际的,他们认为应该鼓励难民替自己设想不同的未来。但我会说,如果你的分析只受制于强权政治之操控的话,那么这种漠视道 德原则的分析才真正是不切实际的,不会是好的政治诉求。因为假使这种分析的基础所派生出的论点是有效的政治诉求,那么这似乎是在说权力平衡的考虑决定了我 们的态度。

但是就我们目前所看到的,权力天平的两端分别是掌握中东最强大军事力的政权和全世界最弱小的武力。如果我们仍然让权力平衡的想法影响我们的态度,我们甚至 无须为了解决以巴问题在这里聚会,只要让事况任由以色列摆布就好了。但我们晓得以色列非常清楚知道自己想要什么,他们想要尽可能地占领巴勒斯坦,并且使这 片土地上愈少巴勒斯坦人愈好。复国主义者早在1882年就这么想了,直到2010年他们还是这么想。他们从没有改变,只是手段有了些改变,因为现实环境也 改变了,但是那个成功、繁荣的以色列远景—愈少阿拉伯人愈好、愈多巴勒斯坦土地愈好—从来没有改变。所以假使政治现实应该决定我们的态度,那么我们只须屈 服于现状即可。

所以当我们主张难民返乡权时,我们不只是把它当作一个政治诉求来提到它,我们还要藉此来挑战以色列政策背后的真正意图。因 为以色列人至今以来始终拒绝谈 论难民回归权利的原因,并非如某些人所想的那样,是因为他们有着严重的良心愧疚,不愿意承认他们在纳粹大屠杀终结不过三年后,就在巴勒斯坦同样犯下驱逐及 屠杀原住民的罪行。我必须承认,我也曾经这么认为,当时我是满怀希望的,因为我天性乐观,加上我也不高,只能看到丛林的下半部,看不到全景。所以我以为以 色列人不想谈论难民之返乡权是因为像Uri Avnery这样的犹太人,直接经历种族净化那段不太愉快的历史。所以当你谈到返乡权时,他们会极不愉快,因 为你挑起了他们所不愿面对的记忆……压抑这记忆成为了这疾病的解药,成了一种万灵丹。

不过很遗憾的,事情并不是这么一回事。避谈难民回归权对于复国主义者来说有很大的意义。因为他们并不欢迎阿拉伯人,无论是那些被以色列人驱逐的巴勒斯坦 人,还是我们从未接触的阿拉伯人,或者是那些不愿“去阿拉伯化”的阿拉伯犹太人,复国主义者都不欢迎他们!一个民主政体是应该接纳多元民族的,但是犹太复 国主义者尽管嚷着要民主,却希望维持国族的纯净,这就是问题主要的症结,这也就是为什么以色列始终拒绝谈论难民回归的权利。

所以当你们公开主张巴勒斯坦难民的返乡权时,你们不只是支持了那些被驱逐之难民如果他们想要选择回归故土时的权利;你们不只是清楚认识到以色列 在 1948年所犯下的种族净化罪行;也不只是遵守了联合国决议中所清楚明载的返乡权;而且,你们同时也是非常明确地向中东唯一奉行种族主义的政权说 “不”。

我同意中东国家的政体都不是很好,没什么特别值得称许的地方,我不会将他们宣传为未来社会发展的雏形,但很重要的是,其中除了主张犹太人之国度的以色列 外,没有一个是种族歧视的国家。而我们若要有效对付这个种族歧视之国,方式之一便是公开主张难民返乡的权利。这无关政治现实,但它却能够触碰到这犹太国家 的敏感神经。我们要借着这主张告诉他们—种族主义不是什么新鲜事,但是在二十一世纪的今天,持续地公开殖民以维持种族歧视之国家政策,是不被国际社会所接 受的,尤其是在今日我们所聚会的这个国家(德国)。谢谢各位。

讲稿原出处:2010.11.26,Stuttgart Conference
(责任编辑:aishaHS)
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Supporting The Refugees’ Right Of Return Is Saying NO To Israeli Racism

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

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I begin by thanking all the organizers; I know it took quite a lot of efforts to bring us all together. It is a great achievement, and as Mazin Qumsiyeh and Haidar Eid, mentioned, and Lubna Masarwa, yesterday, you also provided a great opportunity for us to meet and we are very grateful to you for this opportunity to meet you and to meet each other. It is easier because of the Israeli oppression to meet here than to meet in Palestine where we should meet and hopefully one day we will all be there without the need to go to the frozen hills of Stuttgart to create a joint life!
And I think that’s the gist of the Zionist story that it does not allow people to meet normal life and to be normal friends that they need to go through all that hardship in order to fulfill a very elementary human impulse to live together.
We live in very bizarre times. On the one hand, we could not have wished as activists for a better Israeli government. I think that this particular government makes any sophisticated analysis about what Zionism in Israel is all about quite redundant. It is very easy to expose not only the Israeli policies, but also the racist ideology behind them. On the other hand, Israel is the most successful economy in the West in the last three years; it has done much better than the Germany, much better than most of the economic powers of the West; its banking system is very stable, its currency is one of the strongest in the world and it doesn’t suffer at all from all the hardships that had affected the Western capitalist economies in the last three years.
The result is a very bewildering gap between what average and decent people in the West think about Israel and the way the Israelis, specially the Israeli Jews, think about themselves. They think that they live in a very successful society, they believe that the Arab-Israeli conflict is over, that the Palestinian question has ended, yes, you have a problem in Gaza, yes you have a problem with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but this is a global problem, this is not a particular Israeli problem; this is part of the so-called war against terror.
We also live in bizarre times because despite of the – and Mazin Qumsiyeh talked about it yesterday in very details way, so I don’t have to repeat it - , we also live in a time where particular and specific Israeli policies are severely criticized. People go and demonstrate against the massacre in Gaza, people go and demonstrate against the attack of the flotilla to Gaza, and yet, nobody dares to attack the ideology that is behind these policies. There is no demonstration against Zionism, because the European parliament even regards a demonstration against Zionism as anti-Semitism.
Imagine, in the days of apartheid in South Africa, if you were not allowed to demonstrate against the apartheid in South Africa, but only against the Soweto massacre... And this is still a great Israeli success. And Germany plays a very important role in this success, that the main problem and the main reason for the criminal policies is not analyzed, is not discussed, is not touched upon, only the symptoms. I am not a doctor, I am not a physician, but I know that if you deal with the symptoms and not with the cause of the illness, you don’t cure the patient.
So, I think that what we really need as activists, and it’s easier to talk to you than I think to people who know nothing about the conflict or are totally on the other side of the coin, that we have to change a little bit what we are doing. Not in terms of our very successful BDS campaign, or the kind of things that we do in Germany and elsewhere in solidarity with the Palestinian people. I think this is an impressive chapter in European civil society activity, nonetheless impressive as was pointed out yesterday than the chapter in the struggle against apartheid, but we are still most of us, are still not using the right language. We, most of us, are still not employing the kind of dictionary that we should employ in order to drive the message home of what are we dealing with.
Because one of the greatest paradoxes of what goes on in Israel and Palestine, is that on one hand it is not a complicated story – we have been there before, European settlers coming either genociding or kicking out the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this. And on the other hand, Israel succeeded with the help of its allies everywhere, including in this country, to build this complex explanation that is so complex that only they can understand it. And you are not allowed to interfere, especially if you are Germans, you are not allowed to interfere in this analysis, because it is very complex.
No, it is not, it is really not complex. And this is why history is so important. Understanding the not so complex history of what the Zionist movement was and is doing to the indigenous, native people of Palestine is what the story is all about. Yes, there are other stories connected to it, I agree, the fate of the Jews in Europe, the holocaust,… I don’t know, the relations between Christianity and Judaism over the last 2’000 years, but these are sidebars. These are not the main story, they belong to the story, but you don’t begin with these.
This is why in Israel, even unfortunately Palestinian students who are Israeli citizens, when they learn about the history of their own country, they begin in Odessa. I remember my Palestinian student in the university saying “can you explain to us why we were born in R...or S... or in the Negev, have to begin our history in Odessa?” They did not even know where Odessa was. And I said, that is because you are under occupation even inside Israel, not just in the West Bank, not just in the Gaza strip, Palestinians inside Israel are also under occupation, and are also under colonization, and if we don’t understand this, we will not break the deadlock.
Because what is called the “peace process” that began in 1967 is taking place on Mars, on the moon...This is the only peace process in history that I know of that had no relevance whatsoever with the problem it was supposed to solve. What they were talking about in Geneva in 1977, in Madrid in 1991, in Oslo in 1993, had very little to do with the essence of the problem. It dealt with the symptoms, I agree, but not with the essence.
And this is the second greatest Israeli success. That not only the public opinion does not deal with the essence, but also the peace process very successfully succeeds in avoiding it. So if you go back to history, and you are using today the right language, you are not anachronistic, as someone was trying to say this morning, you are not anachronistic, you are actually a very relevant updated person. I will explain what I mean.
If you say that Zionism is colonialism, you are the youngest and most updated student of history I have met. Anyone who would try to deter you by saying this is anachronism, this is not helpful, this is anti-Semitism... is anachronistic. And lives on the moon or in Mars, and can continue to talk about something which has nothing to do with what is going on the ground. Actually, if you know Hebrew, you know that the whole Hebrew language, from 1882 until today, which was constructed to describe what the Zionist movement is doing in Palestine, uses, again and again, the word “hityachwut, hituachahut”, and the only way of translating these words is TO COLONIZE. There is no other translation.
So, the Zionist movement in the late 19th century, when colonialism had very good public relations, was very gladly using the word to colonize. But then, they learnt that colonialism was not so popular, so they translated it differently, they found the word settlement, which means something else in English, and they found the word “yes, it is colonized, but it is not like “colonize”, it is a different kind. Again, it is complex, and only we, the Israeli Jews understand why Israeli colonization and why white colonialism in Africa is not the same.”
But if you are not an Israeli Jew, you cannot understand it, if you are not a Zionist Israeli Jew, of course you cannot understand it! And I think this is important to bring back in our teaching, in schools, in our approach to the public, in our negotiations with the political elite in this country, and in the West, to say to them: you are dealing with the last colonialist project and as bizarre as it sounds, even in the XXI century, this colonialist project employs the same tactics of colonialism in the XIX century.
And I think that every decent person in the West, like in the time of colonialism, will not stand on the side of colonialism. But you have to clean your language, you have to clean your mind and you have to think that it is totally irrelevant what people say about what you say. It does not matter what they say... they will regard you as anti-Semitic even if you support the two-state solution because it means you don’t support the two-state solution as they understand it. Because you don’t understand the problem, you think that the two-state solution is a sovereign, independent state over the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, no, you don’t understand it.
The state for the Palestinians are two Bantustans, divided to twelve in the West Bank, contained like in a concentration camp in Gaza, has no connection between it, has a little municipality in Ramallah which will be called the government, this is a state. And if you don’t understand that this is a state, it shows that you still have to learn about the complexity of the conflict.
Now, colonialism is one message from the past that we should accept and we should deal with, and we should recruit the veterans as well as the younger cohorts of activists to work for something which universally should be very easy to recruit people for : the fight against colonialism, the fight against the idea that someone from the outside has the right to demolish the life of people in the inside. And they have done it in 1882, in 1948, and they have done it yesterday in the Negev, or in the West Bank and they are going to do it next week if we will continue to talk about peace negotiations, two-state solutions, all kind of irrelevant concepts that have nothing to do with the realities on the ground.
The second concept from the past which I think we should insist on conveying to people, whether we try to protest against something Israel is doing today or whether we will commemorate in January what Israeli had done in the Gaza Strip or when we commemorate in May the crime that Israel committed in 1948, and this is the ethnic cleansing.
It is a concept of course which was developed in the 1990s, clearly because of what happened in the Balkans wars, but even before that, this was regarded by the international community as an unacceptable ideology and policy. Only genocide is regarded by the international community as worst than ethnic cleansing. And quite often the two are interconnected, as we can see in other places, and as we can see in Israel and Palestine. When you are allowed to pursue a policy of ethnic cleansing, don’t be surprised if these perpetrators would one day move to genocide. Because in both cases you have to totally dehumanize the people you are expelling or massacring, even if they are children, they have to be totally dehumanized.
And anybody who lived in Israel long enough as I did, knows that the main corruption of people through military service is the total dehumanization of the Palestinians. That is why a soldier when he sees a Palestinian baby, he does not see a baby, he sees a potential enemy. The road from kicking out the baby from the house, or killing the baby, is not very long. And I think, the message of ethnic cleansing is the message of criminalizing, not the policies of the state of Israel, but criminalizing the state of Israel. And we should do this.
We should do this because only a fascist approach to life would say that in every historical condition a state and a country is the same thing. No, it is not. Sometimes the state is the worst thing that can happen to a country. And the worst thing that happened to Palestine is the state of Israel. If we want to make the country of Palestine a place where people could live as equals, in fact live in many ways better than in other parts of the Middle East, may be even better than in some parts of Europe, is to bring the country back at the expense of the state. I know this is not easy, and this is not about questioning the right of states to exist.
We are individuals, we are activists, we don’t have the power to challenge the right of a state to exist, we cannot eliminate states (Israel has the power to eliminate states, we don’t have the power to eliminate states), what we have is a moral power to say to the people that the kind of state you have founded, and that the kind of state that you are maintaining, is destructive to the country in which you exist. The creation of that state led in 1948 to the expulsion of half of the native population of Palestine. Show me any other situation in history where the international community, under the slogan of peace, would come and say: in order to make this country a peaceful place, I have to kick out half of the people who lived there.
Only in Israel and Palestine we have this bizarre historical moment where the United Nations, embodying the international community’s will, is telling the world that it allows Israel to kick out half of Palestine population in the name of peace. And once you start like this, the history of Israel, it is very difficult to retract; you have to explain that actually you have to study history, and go back to 1947 and 1948, and say that partition, or the idea of partition is an immoral idea. It’s not even a good real politic idea, but that of course you could not know in 1947. I can understand that in 1947-1948, you would have said “let’s see, if we divide the country into two” it might work. Who would have known?
But 60 years later, can you argue that dividing this baby, if you want, is different from the Salomon trial? It is not surprising, you know about the Salomon trial, right? You know about the baby and the two mothers, and that the real mother does not want the baby to be cut into two. We know who is the real mother in the case of Israel and Palestine, we know who is willing all the time, supposedly, to partition it. So I think that the whole idea of the ethnic cleansing is connected to the international support for it, not direct support for it. But the agreement, and the consent of the United Nations, and later on the European community, and later on the United States, to say that this is the way peace can only be possible in Palestine, that the Israelis kicked out enough Palestinians, and took over enough of Palestine to create the “only democracy in the Middle East”.
They corrupted every common sense languages that we had in the West in the late 1940s and early 1950s, with the Zionist project. That’s how you create a democracy? By kicking out the indigenous population, so that you can have a Jewish majority? But that’s what all the young Israelis believe. They learn in the political science departments that in order to build a democratic society, where the majority can decide what to do, you are entitled first to define who are the majority, even by means of killing the other side, so that you will be sure what would be the result of the democratic elections.
Israelis don’t find it at all bizarre that if you create a democracy, you can also perpetrate ethnic cleansing, and genocide, so that you get the right electorate for the future democracy. But a lot of people in the West will talk about Israel as a democratic state; because they would say the majority votes and decides what to do. The fact that the majority has to be kept all the time by ethnic cleansing people, by massacring them, by colonizing them, by putting them in great ghettos like in Gaza, is never discussed as part of the Israeli democracy.
And I think we should bring that to the fore. The only way to keep Israel as a democratic state, according to the Zionist ideology, is to continue to be a criminal state. It is almost like allowing people in the worst kind of prison, the worst kind of criminals to have a democratic system, by the force of the guns, by the force of the brutality, by the force of their sheer power.
Now the third and last concept I would like to talk about is, which comes out of colonialism and ethnic cleansing – which are the main driving ideologies behind the Jewish state -, ethnic cleansing and colonialism are the reasons that we have a Jewish state in Israel. This is not what we are taught of course, either as Israelis who were born there, or people who support Israel around the world, we are not told. We are told about two different ideologies : we are told about the need to find the Jews a safe place, and we know it’s not a very safe place for Jews, it’s the opposite (the only unsafe place for Jews is to be in Israel, that’s there most of the Jews have been dying in great numbers since 1948), and this is the place where Jews can recreate themselves as a national movement where they can exercise their rights for self-determination.
But we know that Israel is not interested in the right of self-determination for the Jews, this is why it brings hundreds and thousands of non-Jews from all other the world, to settle in Israel, because what is important for Israel is not self-determination for the Jewish people, what is important for Israel is not make sure that it is not an Arab state. And if you are a Baha’i, and you live on a mountain in the Himalaya, but you are definitely not an Arab, you will become an Israeli Jewish citizen in no time, if you are willing to come over. There is no problem. The rabbis will make sure that you are a Jew, and they may cause you to go through some painful operations – if you are a man -, but all in all, you are welcome because you are not an Arab. And if you are an Arab Jew, you will have to “dearabize” yourself, otherwise you will not be welcome in the Israeli Jewish society.
Now, the third and last concept, and I reach to the end in a few minutes, is the ethnic purity. The ethnic purity of the state and this is related to the right of return. Most of the people, and specially some of our best friends, and I mean it not ironically as I just published a book with Noam Chomsky, I am including him in this, some of our best friends are against the right of return. And their practical explanations, they would say it is unrealistic to tell the refugees that they should look forward for the possibility of returning, that they should be encouraged to think about a different kind of future, and I would say that the departure point for this analysis is not practicality, is not real politic. Because if their basis for analyzing, as Uri Avnery does, as Noam Chomsky does and all out very – and I am not cynically saying our good friends, they are my good friends - , but I totally disagree with them on this, if the basis for analyzing the situation is real politic, then it means that the balance of power determines your attitude.
Well, the balance of power, as we heard yesterday, between the largest and strongest army in the Middle East, and the weakest military powers in the world, right, if this balance of power determines our attitudes, we should not even meet here today. We should give in to the Israeli dictate. We know the Israelis are very clear to what they want, they want to have as much as Palestine as possible, with as few Palestinians as possible, they wanted in 1882 and they want it in 2010. This has not changed. The means have changed, the historical circumstances have changed, but the vision of what would be a thriving successful Israeli society is a society which has as few Arabs as possible, and as much of Palestine as possible. That has not changed. So if real politic determines our attitude, we should give in to this vision.
So in any case, we are not dealing with real politic when we are challenging what Israel wants. And the reason the Israelis refuse even to acknowledge the right of return, let alone practically implementing the right of return, is not because as some people would think because they have a very serious consciousness problem of admitting that they have kicked out and massacred people three years after the holocaust. I once thought that this was the main problem, I admit it. I once thought so, I was hopeful because I am an optimistic, I am not very tall, I would see the bottom half of the glass. So I thought the Israelis don’t want to talk about the right of return because people who were, like Uri Avnery for instance, involved in the ethnic cleansing itself, feel unhappy about it. And if you talk about the right of return, you bring back … this is kind of the panacea, the remedy for the illness.
No, I don’t think this has anything to do with it, unfortunately. It makes a lot of sense from the Zionist point of view, Arabs are not welcome. Whether these are Arabs we kicked out, whether these are Arabs we have never touched, whether these are Arab Jews who want to insist to remain Arabs even if they are Jews, they are not welcome because we want to be a democracy! And this people would want to come in. That’s the major thing, which is behind the Israeli refusal for the right of return.
So when you support the Palestinian, and with this I will end, when you support the Palestinians right of return, you are not only supporting, which I understand we all do, the right of the people who were kicked out to come back if they want to. You are not only acknowledging the crime of the ethnic cleansing in 1948, you are not only abiding by the United Nations resolutions that very clearly support the right of the people to return, and you are saying a very simple NO to racism. That’s what you are doing. You would just say NO to the only racist state we have in the Middle East.
We have not very nice regimes in the Middle East, I agree, the political regimes in the Middle East are nothing to write home about, I would not publicize them as recommendations for future societies to build their politics on this basis, but not one of them is racist. The only racist state is the Jewish state of Israel. One of the only ways of engaging with this racist state is to challenge it on the right of the refugees to return. Not because it is practical, or not practical, because it deals with the genetic code of the Jewish state. The idea that you can colonize is not new, but the idea in the XXI century that you can maintain this colonization by openly maintaining a racist state, should not be acceptable, especially not in this country. THANK YOU.
The text of this lecture has been established by Claudine Faendrich on the basis of the video recording of the Stuttgart Conference, November 2010.

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