[Marxism] A Response to the Proposal to Ban Commemoration of the Nakba

[Dennis Brasky]

A Response to the Proposal to Ban Commemoration of the Nakba on Independence
Day

by Eitan Bronstein / May 30th, 2009

The proposal to legally bar the commemoration of the Nakba on Israel’s
Independence Day reflects growing trepidation in Israel about the inevitable
encounter with the Palestinian Nakba and the understanding that the Nakba is
a foundational part of Israeli identity. Until recently, the threat of
exposing the Nakba was barely felt. There was no need to fight this
repressed demon, which might suddenly reveal itself and disrupt the seeming
calm of a harmonious Jewish democracy. But the Nakba is not a demon, not the
fruit of deceptive imagination, and therefore we should not underestimate
the challenge facing Israeli society: to recognize Israel’s part in the
expulsion of most of the Palestinian inhabitants of the land in 1948, the
destruction of most of their localities (upwards of five hundred), the
annihilation of urban Palestinian culture, and tens of massacres, rapes,
incidents of looting, and dispossession. Looking into so dark a mirror takes
courage and maturity, demonstrated in the research of such scholars as
Morris, Gelber, Milstein, Khalidi, Pappe, and others, as well as in the
diaries of Netiva Ben Yehuda and Yosef Nahmani.

It is not surprising that the “appropriate Zionist response,” to inscribe
the forgetting of this human horror into law, comes from the circles of the
political right-wing. They have always been more sincere in their racist
attitudes toward Arabs in Israel, compared to the Left, which marketed to
the world and to us its honest (yet illusory) longing for peace.

More than eighty years ago, it was clear to Jabotinsky, the leader of the
historic Right and perhaps the most realistic Zionist thinker, that the
establishment of the Jewish state required citizens to be forever soldiers
under the protection of the “Iron Wall.” Jabotinsky understood that Jewish
existence depended upon violent strength, on killing and being killed in a
predominantly Arab region that would never accept them. A year ago his
student, Tzipi Livni, suggested that Palestinians remove the word ‘Nakba’
from their lexicon as part of a comprehensive peace deal. Our current Prime
Minister announced during his recent campaign that he would expunge the
Nakba from educational curricula (since when has the Nakba been taught
anyway?) and would order the teaching of Jabotinsky’s legacy.

The Greek philosopher Thrasymachus taught us that “the law is what is good
for the stronger,” but no law, not even that of the democratic Jewish
Knesset, can erase the horrors of history. Traces of these horrors will
always be visible, in both personal and collective memory and forgetfulness.
In Israel, the sabras, prickly cactus bushes, have become vivid and thorny
monuments of the Palestinian Nakba. This obstinate plant was brought by the
Palestinians from Mexico to mark and defend their territory. The sabra not
only persists in the landscape long after Israel expelled those who planted
it, it also grows wild despite attempts to eradicate it. Perhaps, in
response, the Israeli government should make it unlawful to eat its fruit?

At the same time, remembrance of the Nakba is growing and takes root in the
deepening fissures in the Iron Wall. The Palestinian refugees – the majority
of Palestinians are, indeed, refugees – have mourned the Nakba from the
moment it occurred and demand justice. After the Oslo Accords, when they
realized their concerns would be pushed aside indefinitely, they began to
struggle effectively against the worldwide disregard for their tragedy.
However, the proposed law to forget the Nakba is in actuality a response to
cultural shifts in Jewish-Israeli society to coping with this disaster. The
real threat to the colonialist Iron Wall occurs as the majority of its
soldiers refuse to obey the commandment not to remember. In the last few
years, hundreds of Jews in Israel (and around the world) have participated
in events commemorating the Nakba during Israel’s Independence Day. In
recent years hundreds of Israelis have turned to Zochrot – an organization
working to bring the Nakba to the consciousness of Jews in Israel – to
request information on the topic. Journalists, writers, architects, as well
as people in film, television, and theater who grew up on the good old
stories of Israel seek to discover their repressed past. Educators are
requesting the educational packet on the Nakba developed by Zochrot.
Soldiers from the Palmach are turning to Zochrot towards the end of their
lives to share stories of what they did and saw in 1948.

Who knows, maybe the day is not far off when the choice at the center of the
political debate will be the State of Israel as it is today versus
recognition of the Nakba and the right of return of the Palestinian
refugees. When this day comes, the citizens of Israel will be able to choose
between two clear visions: separation and perpetual violence versus a life
of equality for all the country’s residents and refugees. To hurry this day
forward, maybe we should make up another Hebrew word: “de-colonization.”

Eitan Bronstein founded
Zochrot<http://www.nakbainhebrew.org/index.php?id=49&search_word=english>(Remember)
which tries to educate Israelis about the history of 1948,
including Israeli attacks on unarmed Palestinians and the destruction of
more than 400 Palestinian towns and villages.

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"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."- Voltaire