The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict by Sury Kotliar

Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: A Personal Reflection on Western Intervention

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

-- Martin Niemöller, July 1st, 1937

It’s easy to criticize a nation, or stand by silently as one group of people is scrutinized, denigrated, and ostracized from the world economy, if that nation is not your homeland. But bare with me, because you’ll never know when your country will be the subject of the public eye. Today, and for thousands of years, it’s been my homeland. I’m Israeli.

Having not only lived in Israel, but also having spent my last academic year in an Israeli University, I’ve had many first hand experiences of the political controversy of the region. This is my narrative on how academic institutions outside of the Eastern world perceive Israel and Zionism. This is a subjective understanding of material covered in a claiming unbiased, public University, and my personal response as both an American and Israeli citizen.

As I sat through my Modern Middle Eastern course at Rutger University and it’s attempt to explain the Israeli-Palestine conflict and it’s origins, I was off spoken. It became apparent to me how Israel is the subject of a common tale. Despite the fact that I often found myself incapable of differentiating between an Israeli man an Arab man; since many of both ethnicities have similar dark complexions, from similar geographical heritages. In this tale, Israelis are depicted as Western, white men storming into an indigenous people's homeland. Equipped with raw resources, man-power, and Western education, and a goal of gaining wealth and power; These Westerners colonized the region by disregarding the original owners humanitarian rights and imposing their own Capitalistic agenda. Westerners destroyed the population that previously existed there, and build a new civilization on the old nation’s grave. Only once the population has been demolished, either by mass murder, or the destruction their unique cultural identity, does white man rise as victor, and the new controller of the land. Unfortunately, this sad tale is true in many cases, such as the British colonization of the Americans, and the European/New American’s treatment of Native Americans (even in present day,) or many other regions around the world that had been colonized during the Age of Exploration. I understand that Prior to World War I, the world was made of Empires that ruled in their best interest, over various region from afar. But I can’t fathom how Israel, which has extraordinary historical ties to the land, and many similar secular traditions as the people we perceive as Palestine's, is viewed as a modern day continuation of colonialism.

It is through this narrative that Israel has been wrongfully demonized, as powerful colonialists oppressing the helpless, Palestinian refugees. It is important to remember that whenever a narrative is presented, especially a political one, it is often subjective and driven by instive. Knowing that, as the reader, I’d like you to take a moment and attempt to clear all prior connotations you may have the words Zionism, Judaism, and Palestinians. Let’s reapproach history without a tainted eye.

This narrative originates from distorted claim that Zionism was proposed in the West, and imposed on the Eastern land as a means of furthering Western Anti-Semitic interests of eliminating Jewish life from the Western world. Which proposes the famous question if it is fair to make the Arab Palestine population pay with their land for a Holocaust they were not involved with? This question was also the claim made by 5 Arab states as justification of the war against Israel in 1948, just one day after it declared its independence. This argument also bare fault of inaccuracy with the region's history, since though there are a small group of Palestine's that can trace their roots back for centuries, for much of history the Arab population has been in a constant state of fluctuation, and only came to blossom only after the beginning of Jewish migration in the late 1800's and the subsequent improvements in economic conditions, infrastructure, and agricultural technique.

The Balfour of Declaration of 1917 proposed by the United Kingdom's Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Walter Rothschild, was the first non-biblical documentation, of the promise of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This is where the idea that Zionism originated from the West begins. Though this is the first time Zionism was legitimized in the Western world it does not mark its beginning of Zionism as a movement. Theodore Herzl, a Jewish idealist, founded Zionism as a political organization in 1879. Plus, I’d like to make the claim the ideals of Zionism did not start in 1917, nor did they start in 1879, but rather they are deeply rooted in Judaism. Though, it is important to understand there are differences between Judaism and Zionism, and there are Jews that are not Zionists, aswell Zionists that aren’t Jewish, The ideals, and desires for one unified Jewish Statehood, has been preached for thousands of years. Zionism is not an outright rejection of assimilation, or a criticism of any other country, or even a glorification of Judaism. Like any other region in the world, when people have a shared history they tend to form an “imagined community,” and that sense of similarity between strangers, and geographical unification is what ultimately forms a nation. That imagined community formed when Jews got the Torah, or the Old testament, on Mount Sinai, a biblical location in modern day Saudi Arabia, and has been passed down alside the religion. Therefore since Judaism is a religion of East, organization in land of Canaan, a region within Modern day Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel, I don’t see how the claim of Western imposteriation is fitting.

Regardless of where this narrative originates, or the accuracy of it, it’s important to remember the effects of this ideology are tremendous on individual lives. Boycott Divestment Sanction movements against Israel, or claiming Israel is an apartheid state, are more of a Western intrusion in the the Middle East than Zionism ever was. These seemingly effortless statements to make, about one’s individual stance on Israel have a bold effect on the Israeli economy and the individual lives of hardworking people. These people- my peers; the victims of terrorism, the Israeli Soldiers, the Jewish, Muslim, and Christian residents of Jerusalem, the cab drivers, the teachers, students, and so on, are all people. People who do not deserve to be generalized, or characterized in a narrative created for controversial political gain, or any other reason.

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