Book Review: Palestinians in Israel: Segregation, Discrimination and Democracy

Ben White in his recent book ‘ Palestinians in Israel’ takes a stand to explain how the Israeli gaze has turned towards to the unfinished war of 1948.
Palestinians in Israel suffer from ‘segregation, discrimination and democracy‘. The Jewish National Fund, Jewish Agency and new umbrella council of NGOs have deliberately curtailed the ‘Bedouin Expansion‘. “Judaising Negev and Galilee‘ is one of the prime agendas of Israel’s ethnocracy. Upper Nazreth scares the government for being the largest Palestinian city inside the pre 1967 borders. That’s exactly why Menachem Begin’s government planned for a series of settlements called Mitzpim to be placed at the higher topographical points in Upper Nazreth.

Ben White has dedicated this book to Ameer Markhoul, his wife Janin and their 2 daughters. Markhoul, the director of Arab NGO Network Ittijah was arrested in May 2010. He was convicted of espionage for Hezbollah and has been detained for the past 2 years without any legal trial.

A brief glimpse is provided into Haneen Zoabi‘s life and how she has become object of hatred, along with being physically assaulted for her pro-Palestinian views in the Knesset. MK Yarin Levin, the Head of House Committe has even called her a disgrace in the Knesset. Haneen wrote the preface for this book and she describes how Palestinians being called as ‘Arabs in Israel’ or “Israel Arab’s is creating a new Israeli Arab identity, ie, one of the tacit goals of the state.’

The 15th Knesset (1999-2002) has played an active role in redrawing the boundaries of Arab citizenship, enacting a number of discriminatory laws affecting Palestinian citizens political expression, family life and economic status. Also, Netanyahu’s government replaced all Arab names on road sides with Jewish ones and the Palestinian citizens were forbidden to teach Nakba.

In just 100 pages, White has produced an interesting account of how Israel has been using the ‘exclusionary land regime‘ game to discriminate Palestinians. The three main tools include dispossession, the regime for ownership and privatisation of non-private land and system regulating land development and land use planning. The passing of ‘Absentee Property Law’ in 1950 made it even more difficult for Palestinians to claim ownership of their own land.

The ‘Green Patrol’, a paramilitary enforcement unity has removed 900 Bedouin villages in the past years. As a result, Palestinian minority that makes 20% of the population, holds only 3.5% of the states land.  The Palestinians face the deliberate discrimination in education and job markets also. Israel has been intelligently imparting low-class education and investment on Palestinian students so that there is a huge gap between them and Israeli students in the later job market stage.

In the last chapter, ‘Rethink and Re-imagine’, White explains how Palestinian people know from decades that even the smallest gains in their struggle for liberation are not achieved without a fight or a cost. He urges the readers to ‘think that how as a result of Israeli policies and legislation, one in seven Palestinians is a 2nd class citizen, a third are under military rule without citizenship and half of all Palestinians are outside the borders, disposed and forbidden from returning.’

He concludes with the words of Ameer Markhoul from the prison, ‘For in a dictatorship, everything goes well until the last 15 minutes’

Book Review: Seeking Mandela-Peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians

Shimon Peres, after meeting Mandela in 1993 wrote, ‘Two persecuted people, the black South Africans and the Jews, celebrate a new future.’
Starting with this arresting analogy, the book ‘Seeking Mandela- peacemaking between Israelis and Palestinians’ tries to test if the ideology of ‘One Man, One Vote‘ can ever operate in Israel/Palestine Conflict.

This is the fourth co-authored book of the couple Heribert Adam and Kogila Moodley. The writing is in-depth, flawless and portrayed in a very appealing manner. The authors give a political, psychological, emotional, physical and above all, spiritual peep into the daily lives of the people involved in the conflict. The book does not limit itself to just Israel, Palestine and South Africa but touches India, Latin America, United States European countries, while detailing its various case studies.

The authors believe that Israel Palestine conflict is further worsening as both sides are involved in moralising, theologising, medicalising and personalising the conflict. They also expose other issues including Palestinians being politically seduced to act as traitors, existence of refuseniks from Israeli military who disobey to follow the mandatory conscription in the occupied territories. The question if Hamas and Fatah adopt ‘civil disobedience’ and ‘non-violence’ as their key mantras like Mahatma Gandhi did in India’s freedom struggle is also raised. But the real narrative and interview pieces of the victims reveals the abysmal reality, since the Israel-Palestine conflict has already passed that point.

As both South Africa and Israel are colonial settler societies, the book states that the South African model of post conflict reconciliation may inspire revision of certain workable policies. The Truth Commission and its flaws are heavily criticised, like the absence of academics or members of anti-ANC party in the 17 member body.

It is also revealed that increased polarisation with Israel/Palestine could spill over into inter-group relations in South Africa, especially between the Muslim Judicial Council And Jewish Board of Deputees. Though, both South Africa and Israel have fostered relationships because of the growing urge in SA politicians to teach peaceful conflict resolution techniques and hosting of international conferences in post-apartheid state.
A brief history of South Africa is also included in the book which allows the reader to develop a relationship with the country, further understanding its foundations. But is just acts as a tool intelligently used by the authors to differentiate South Africa from Israel.

Both these countries are also different in terms of economic power balance. Israeli economy can function without Palestinian labour but the same was not true in South Africa. Black population was necessary, giving rise to migration from the Bantustans.  Over and over, the authors state that Israel/Palestine conflict would never end till a third party intervention takes place. Both Adam and Moodely have done a brilliant job by stating the views of well know historians, journalists, academics, political leaders, army generals and even innocent civilians. Every page is educating though eventually, the entire hypothesis falls flat when they both suggest that there’s no need to seek Palestinian Mandela as his presence would not solve the issue.