Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace | Page 22

Israel-Palestine: For Human Values in the Absence of a Just Peace

Table 1 shows that, with the partial exception of Gaza, the Israeli Government is
the de facto state authority in almost all respects throughout the Israeli-Palestine territory.
In other words, there is effectively almost a one-state situation now, although no one
considers this status quo as a solution. Box 2 discusses some common misperceptions
about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
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Box 2: Common misperceptions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Many misconceptions distort the discussions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Some examples
include:
Palestine before 1948 was a land without a people for a people without a land.
Palestine was a predominantly Arab and Islamic country by the end of the seventh century, and in
1516, it became a province of the Ottoman Empire. Following the steady arrival of Jewish
colonists after 1882, by 1946 around 600,000 Jews were living in Palestine, with over 1,300,000
Muslims and Christians.xlii
“God promised the Land of Israel to the Jewish people.”
The Israel envisioned in the Old Testament and modern Israel are not the same. They are shaped
by different political systems, comprised of different people, contain different religious groups,
have different histories, and play different roles in their larger geopolitical contexts. As Walter
Brueggemann writes, “It is simply not credible to make any direct appeal from the ancient
promises of land to the state of Israel. That is so for two reasons. First, much has happened
between text and contemporary political practice that resists such innocent simplicity. Second,
because the state of Israel, perhaps of necessity, has opted to be a military power engaged in
power politics among with the other nation-states of the world, it cannot at the same time appeal
to an old faith tradition.”xliii
“There has to be a Jewish state, where Jews can find refuge.”
Israel’s declaration of independence states that the country ‘will ensure complete equality of
social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will
guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture, it will safeguard the
Holy places of all religions, and it will be faithful to the principles of the charter of the United
Nations.’ Insuring political and social rights for all religions includes the Jews and provides them
refuge; it does not require that Jews become a privileged caste.
“Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Democracies exist along a continuum defined by questions about who is allowed to vote, the
freedom and choice that persons have in voting, the range of persons who can hold office, the
power of citizens to shape governance, and the basic governmental structures and documents that
ensure such matters. Nor does the existence of a democracy guarantee rights for all citizens.
Israel, for instance, may be a democracy but it lacks a formal constitution, and Palestinian citizens
in Israel are restricted from owning land and from many government benefits. Measures enacted
since 2009 undermine the ability of Arab citizens of Israel and their parliamentary representatives
to participate in the political life of the country; they criminalize political expression or acts that
question the alleged Jewish or Zionist nature of the state. Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, West
Bank, Gaza—ruled to varying degrees by Israel—have no voting rights in Israel. Palestinians in
the West Bank (except in East Jerusalem) and Gaza vote in competitive multiparty elections,
although the U.S., Israel and the PA have kept Hamas, the winner of the only Palestinian-wide

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