Solidarity
and Realpolitik: My Response to Jeff Halper
By Susan
Abulhawa
O5.04.12
Some years
ago, I was on a panel with three men, Jeff Halper among them, at a Sabeel
conference in Pennsylvania. Each panelist was asked to give their vision for a
solution to the 'Palestine/Israel conflict'.
Because I was sitting at the end of the table, I was the last to
speak. I listened to each one of my
fellow participants lay out different versions of a two-state solution, each
more depressing than the other, each with irrelevant nuances (all previously
articulated by Israel, by the way) on how to make the refugee problem just go
away. They spoke the tired talk of land
swaps, compromise, several surreal highways that bypass humanity for miles on
end, and more creative solutions designed to circumvent the application of
human rights where Palestinians are concerned.
When my turn
came, I spoke of Palestinians being accorded the same basic rights that apply
to the rest of humanity, including the right to return to one’s home after fleeing
a conflict. I spoke of equality under
the law regardless of religion. I spoke
of a construct that would prevent one group from systematically oppressing
another. I spoke of human dignity and
the universal right to it. I spoke of
equal access to resources, including water, regardless of religion.
I will never
forget Jeff Halper’s response, which he was eager to voice even before I had
finished speaking. He began with a
smile, the way an adult might smile at the naive remarks of a small child. He needed to give me a lesson in reality, and
proceed to tell me, in the patronizing way of someone who knows best, that my
vision lacked “how shall I say it…Realpolitik”.
I did not
waiver then, nor have I since, on my position that Palestinians are not a lesser
species who should be required to aspire to compromised human dignity in order
to accommodate someone else’s racist notions of divine entitlement.
That said, I
do not consider Jeff Halper racist and I acknowledge the mostly positive impact
he has had in bringing attention to one of Israel’s enduring cruelties, namely
the systematic demolition of Palestinian homes as a tool to effectuate ethnic
cleansing of the native non-Jewish population.
But in my view, that does not entitle him to speak of what Palestinians
should or shouldn’t do. I also don’t
think it qualifies him as an anti-zionist when he clearly accepts the privilege
accorded to Jews only. After all, Jeff
Halper is an American from Minnesota who made aliyah (Israel’s entitlement
program that allows Jews from all over the world to take up residence in my
homeland, ultimately in place of the expelled natives). Perhaps is it my lack
of Realpolitik, but I cannot reconcile embracing the very foundation of zionism
on one hand, and calling oneself an anti-zionist on the other.
In a recent
interview on Al Jazeera’s website with Frank Barat, he did just that. He also laid out a dismal scenario for the
future of Palestinians, based on what Israel is very likely plotting, namely
the annexation of Area C and the pacifying of the Palestinian Authority (also
likely) with economic incentives and mini Bantustans they can call a
state. But he missed the mark,
repeatedly, when it came to Palestinians themselves, as if he sized us all up
with a glance and decided he was not impressed. Despite the burgeoning
nonviolent resistance taking place all over Palestine, in various forms ranging
from demonstrations, significant solidarity campaigns, hunger strikes, and
more, he says that “[Palestinian] resistance is impossible” now. At best, he trivializes the Boycott,
Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, which is the first coordinated
nonviolent movement of Palestinians inside and outside of Palestine that has
also managed to inspire and capture imaginations of individuals and
organizations all over the world to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian
struggle for freedom. Again, my lack of
Realpolitik here, but to me, creating a situation where it is possible to force
the implementation of human rights and restore dignity to Palestinian society
is in itself an end. Jeff Halper seems
unable to consider anything other than a negotiated agreement to be an end.
He
enumerates all that is wrong with internal Palestinian issues. Of course there are problems. We know our
leadership is doing little more than pick up the trash and keep people in line
while Israel steals more and more of our land.
We are not happy about it either.
But he seems to suggest that he, along with other Israelis I presume,
have been carrying the burden of resolving this conflict.
In one instance he says:
“We’ve (I
assume Israeli leftists?) brought this to governments, we've raised public
awareness, we've had campaigns, we've done this for decades, we've made this
collectively, one of two or three really global issues. But without
Palestinians we can only take it so far.”
Then he
adds:
“I am trying
to challenge a little bit my Palestinian counterparts. Where are you guys?”
If I read
this correctly (and I will grant the benefit of the doubt that it was not meant
as it reads), then he clearly sees himself at the forefront of the Palestinian
struggle where his Palestinians counterparts are disorganized, haphazard, or
not present. He even suggests that at
this crucial time, “Palestinians have to take over,” further supporting the
suggestion that Palestinians are not at the helm of the resistance.
He also
asserts that importing Jews from all over the world to live in colonies built
on land confiscated from private Palestinian owners is “not settler colonialism”. What is it then?
But back to
his strange assertion that Palestinians “should take over” (from whom?), he
describes an instance where he refused to participate in the global march to
Jerusalem because the Palestinian organizers (who took over?) did not want to
include the world “Israel,” the name of the country that denies our very
existence and seeks in every way to eradicate us. Is it that Jeff Halper wants “Palestinians to
take over” as long as Palestinians do so in a way that does not offend the
sensitivities of the very people deriving privilege at their expense? That is not how solidarity works.
I don’t
presume to tell Israelis what they should or should not do but I would like to
see Israelis concentrate on their own failures rather than ours. I would sure like to hear those who have made
aliyah acknowledge that it was not their right to do so; that making aliyah is
a crime against the native people who have been and continue to be forcibly
expelled to make way for those making aliyah. I would like to hear an apology.
The trauma that Palestinians feel is very much part of the Realpolitik and it
is not unlike the trauma in the Jewish psyche.
It comes from the same humiliation and anguish of not being considered
fully human. Of being treated like vermin by those with the guns.
If Halper
truly understood that, perhaps dropping the word “Israel” – a word that hovers
over the rubble of our destroyed homes and suffuses the pain at our collective
core – would have been a no brainer expression of solidarity.
Note: This article appeared on May 4 in
Palestine Chronicle
Susan Abulhawa is the
author of Mornings in Jenin (Bloomsbury 2010) and the founder of Playgrounds
for Palestine (www.playgroundsforpalestine.org).
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