Palestine and Israel since 1948
The Diaspora
Apartheid
As a consequence of the Nakba
The ‘catastrophe’ of 1948,
Over seven million Palestinians
Are currently displaced; many are exiled
In refugee camps in Lebanon,
Syria and Jordan;
Their right to return to their homes
Is enshrined in international law;
But such law is ignored by Israeli governments.
Nearly two million Palestinians
Currently reside in Israel:
This one fifth of the country’s population
Live subject to an apparatus
Of discriminatory
And oppressive laws.
Over two million Palestinians
Live under Israeli army occupation
In the West Bank.
Some two million Palestinians
Reside in East Jerusalem
With second-class status.
Nearly two million Palestinians
Live in a state of siege in Gaza;
Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem
Comprise the Occupied Palestinian Territories,
And UN Resolution 242
Calls for Israeli withdrawal from these lands;
Israel has ignored the UN for nearly sixty years;
In consequence, Palestinian land today
Amounts to one tenth of that of 1948.
Underpinning these facts lies this narrative:
1. Illegal Israel settlements
(Despite US attempts to broker steps
Towards some Palestinian self-rule);
2. Intifada (uprisings) occur periodically
As a response to this, together with
Non-violent action such as
Boycotts, disinvestment etc;
The narrative continues thus:
3. Israel cites national security
As a justification and ignores
The International Court of Justice,
With, inter alia, the building of an apartheid wall
(And the annexation of Jerusalem),
And imposition, instead, of the following:
Checkpoints, ID control, road blocks,
Demolition, detention and then …
4. Hamas wins elections and this follows:
5. Israel blockades and bombs and 6. Hamas responds.
The narrative was both broken
and yet accentuated by Donald Trump,
When the USA transferred its embassy
To Jerusalem, which, de facto,
Recognised the illegal annexation of the city;
The President of the United States,
Also stopped humanitarian Palestinian aid;
De facto apartheid then became de jure
With the passing of the Jewish Nation State Law;
I conclude this overview of the diaspora
And this overview of apartheid
With these criteria of apartheid:
Ethnic cleansing, settler colonialism
and systematic discrimination:
All of these have been present since 1948
And are present today.
Apartheid
The word ‘apartheid’ is not grounded in time and space;
Even though it is associated with South Africa,
Between 1948 and 1994,
Apartheid is a system of course,
It is not confined to one historic example,
It is a system, a structure, a totality,
Defined by criteria, conditions and attributes:
Systematic dispossession,
Racist discrimination,
And physical separation,
So as to ensure the dominance
Of one (racial) group over another.
It is defined in International Law:
As ‘inhuman acts committed for the purpose
of establishing and maintaining
domination of one racial group
of persons over any other
racial group of persons
and systematically
oppressing them’;
Such a system is viewed as a crime
Against humanity and consequently,
A case for the purview of the International Criminal Court.
Israeli examples that could be examined:
The laws passed in 1948
To prevent the dispossessed
from returning to their lands and homes,
while giving Jewish people the right
To migrate to Israel with citizenship;
And further laws to allow confiscation
Of Palestinian land;
In addition, in Israel,
Palestinian citizens
are second-class citizens, at best,
Compared with Israeli citizens
Defined as ‘Jewish’;
Thus, an ethnic distinction determines rights;
And determines rights to inclusion and consequent exclusion;
Access; ownership; leasing-rights are again determined,
As is, in consequence, demolition of homes,
And insanitary overcrowding;
The Basic (Constitutional) Law,
The Nation-State Law,
Explicitly defines Israel as a state
For Jewish citizens and
‘further codifies the exclusion of Palestinian citizens of Israel’.
This ethnic cleansing and racial discrimination
Is, of course, also practised in the
Occupied Palestinian Territories
Of Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem,
With a similar pattern of dispossession,
Demolition, segregation,
And the application of military law.
Gaza
On to Gaza.
Gaza has been described as
‘the world’s largest open-air prison’;
The prisoner is Israel.
The prison is formed by an illegal
Blockade to prevent the free movement
Of goods and services and people;
This is by land and air and sea;
Nearly two million people inhabit this coastal strip,
The majority of whom are refugees,
Pre-1948 inhabitants,
And their descendants;
Palestinian industry,
Farming, fishing, health, power, fuel,
Construction, building, water, employment,
Electricity, hospitals, medicine
Are all at or near crisis points,
Because of the siege;
Israel ignores international opinion
As expressed by the United Nations,
Instead it presides over
‘the world’s largest open-air prison’.
This is Gaza.
And this is the United Kingdom,
Whose Minister for the Union, Michael Gove,
Appears to be a keen supporter of Israel,
As does the Home Secretary, Priti Patel,
And this is the United Kingdom,
Exporting arms to this country
that breaks international law;
And where UK companies buy arms from Israel,
Arms that have been and are, as it were,
Tested in the field and, as it were,
Tested in combat too,
In illegally occupied lands,
Where human rights are systematically violated.
More than one hundred companies
Are involved in this duality,
Here is a brief alphabet of signifiers:
BAE Systems, Babcock, Boeing, Caterpillar,
Elbit Systems, Lockheed Martin, Rolls Royce …
Banks such as Barclays and HSBC …
But I conclude with some words
From Adam Shatz’s essay
‘Ghosts in the Land’ in the LRB:
‘Jewish structural supremacy over the state and its resources, which has always existed, is now enshrined by the 2018 Basic Law. In the words of the law, “the right to exercise national self-determination in the state of Israel is unique to the Jewish people.” (Netanyahu’s father, Benzion, put it more bluntly in 2012: “This land is Jewish, it is not for the Arabs. There is no place here for the Arabs, and there will be no place for them.”) The presence of Palestinians is merely tolerated and generally ignored, as though they were ghosts in the land …’
(May 2021)
I wrote all of the after joining the Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Their information leaflets are so helpful. I wrote the above as a personal aide memoire.
