Kesher Talk

"The right of return" is being turned on its head: Dr. Avi Becker, secretary-general of the World Jewish Congress, complains in Ha'aretz that discussion of any "right to return" always ignores the Jewish exodus from Arab lands when Israel was founded. More importantly, Israel has the moral high ground without ever acknowledging it, because Israel looked after its refugees, rather than turning them into a permanent homeless cadre encouraged to take back lands they feel belong to them by force.

The number of Jews who left the Arab states and were absorbed, for the most part, by Israel is far greater than the number of Palestinians who left during a long war (18 months), mostly in response to the calls and incitement of Arab leaders.

Drawing an analogy between the stories of the Jewish and Palestinian refugees gives rise to a moral and just argument against the Palestinian demand for "the right of return"; and it is difficult to understand why no consistent use is made of this argument.

... The Israeli left finds it difficult to cultivate an explanatory argument that appears to emphasize moral supremacy for the Jewish side, which absorbed and rehabilitated the Jewish refugees, over the Arabs, who worked to perpetuate the suffering and nurture it as an anti-Israeli tool. Among the left, the Zionist ethos was learned with much guilt feelings about us being the cause of the refugee problem; while the radical left voices sweeping (false) accusations that the Israel Defense Forces, the Haganah, the Palmach and the Irgun were involved in the systematic massacre and deportation of the Palestinians.

... The Israeli right has seen the development of inhibitions of a different kind. Right-wingers and government representatives, too, believed that we shouldn't use the term "Jewish refugees," because it is antagonist and doesn't reflect the Zionist revival. As far as they are concerned, we should emphasize that most of the Jews from the Arab states were drawn to Israel by Zionist ideals and did not come here as refugees. Many of Israel's Jews from the Arab states chose to adopt the Zionist interpretation.

The Zionist ethos doesn't accept the fact that the vast majority of Israeli residents, Ashkenazim and Sephardim, came to the Promised Land as persecuted or deported refugees. There was, of course, an active Zionist elite in Europe or the Arab states; but as is the case with a pioneering leadership, it was limited. The masses arrived by means of a far less heroic process. This does not detract from the historical justification for the Zionist revolution.

The battle against "the right of return" rages on, and it requires us to adopt a realistic and see-right approach to the Zionist ethos and the Zionist justice.

posted by William @ 8/06/2003 09:04:01 AM