Viewpoint
Israels crumbling democracy blocks peace
By NEVE GORDON
The redeployment agreement reached
at Wye Mills, Md., between Israelis and Palestinians does little to mitigate
the predicament of the Palestinian people, who in reality will continue to be
economically and politically oppressed by Israel.
While the memorandum gives the Palestinians authority over more
land, the right to open an airport and seaport and guarantees the release of
some 750 political prisoners, it does not constitute a real breakthrough. The
Israeli government, disregarding President Bill Clintons advice, is
unwilling to acknowledge the Palestinians right to an independent state
in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. So long as this right is denied, the political
freedom and integrity of Palestinians will also be denied.
The Israeli negotiating teams inability to make a more
courageous move during the Wye talks is intimately connected to internal
politics and thus linked to an alarming development taking place inside the
Jewish state -- the total erosion of democracy. Three groups -- the
nationalists, the ultra-orthodox and the secular individualists -- have been
instrumental in bringing about this frightful crisis.
Nationalism, in its most dangerous form, has become an integral
component of the Israeli political arena. The propaganda of power, reminiscent
of the most brutal fascist regimes, no longer manifests itself covertly but is
openly put to use by the Likud, the Israeli governing party. The people
are strong and With Netanyahu we are powerful are popular
slogans that appear on thousands of car stickers and signs all over Jerusalem.
Like Slobodan Milosevics dream of a greater Serbia, the Israeli
nationalists believe in a greater Israel and adamantly oppose the
emergence of a Palestinian state.
To augment their influence, the nationalists have formed a
sinister alliance with the ultra-orthodox, willingly putting aside their
differences. A nefarious interpretation of the biblical claim that Jews are the
chosen people holds this alliance together; both groups conceive
all non-Jews to be part of a subspecies. They espouse and institutionalize a
two-tier system that elevates the Jews, thus undermining the basic democratic
idea that unequal relations should be eliminated.
The different ultra-orthodox groups have been empowered by this
alliance and embrace the Israeli political realm, using it to disseminate their
beliefs. In the past couple of years, for example, the religious parties
representing the ultra-orthodox community have used their political clout in
order to procure government funds for establishing religious schools. These
schools are unique because they provide social support for lower-income
families.
Unlike secular public schools, which send students home in the
early afternoon, religious schools hold classes until 5 p.m. and serve free
lunch to all children. Partly because they fulfill a genuine need, these
schools have mushroomed all over Israel, catering to both the religious and
lower class secular Jew. Every child is welcome, but in order to receive the
benefits a price must be paid, and the price, in this case, is a fundamentalist
education.
A child who is sent to a religious school is indoctrinated with a
rigid, authoritarian Judaism, while Darwins teachings and the Magna Carta
have been erased from the curriculum. In other words, the religious political
parties have made social welfare conditional in Israel: The state will provide
a long school day and lunch so long as parents allow the ultra-orthodox to sow
the seed of ignorance in their childrens minds.
The lack of outcry from the majority of secular doves contributes
to this process of corrosion, since in politics silence amounts to support. The
average middle-class secular Israeli, once a member of the peace camp, is now
more entrenched than ever in his or her private life. These secular Israelis
have appropriated the liberal credo the less politics, the more
freedom and pay attention to little else but work and sybaritic
pursuits.
They consider the ultra-orthodox Jews, who through legislation
have managed to impose restrictive regulations on all Jews, to be their major
enemy. If four years ago the major slogan of the Israeli left was two
countries, two people, referring to the creation of a separate state for
the Palestinians, today these secular Israelis use the same slogan to denote a
desired separation between themselves and the orthodox Jews. The slogan,
though, is no longer chanted during street protests but rather discussed in
living rooms over coffee and cake; these Israelis have no time to participate
in politics and instead of political demonstrations resort to cynicism.
Although these three groups together currently comprise the
majority of the population, Israels predicament is not without hope.
There are still many courageous individuals who are struggling for a two-state
solution and recognize that the Wye memorandum is extremely limited. These
activists realize that ruling a people without giving them citizenship is
anathema to democracy, and since Israel does not intend to give Palestinians
citizenship, they know that Israeli democracy is dependent upon the
establishment of a Palestinian state.
Like the true prophets who on this very land were rejected and
castigated by their contemporaries, it is, I believe, the struggle of these
brave Israelis that will be remembered.
Neve Gordon writes from Jerusalem.
National Catholic Reporter, November 20,
1998
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