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Problems in Palestine Get Passionate ‘Debate’ at Henry Ford Community College
A guest lecture at Henry Ford Community College on problems in Palestine turned into a passionate discussion with no clear answers for the future.
Author and Middle East scholar, Norman Finkelstein, presented “Eyeless in Gaza: What Americans Aren’t Seeing in the Middle East,” at the college on Tuesday.
Looking over the crowd of more than 120 people, most of them young adults, Finkelstein said he could talk about more recent events, but he preferred to give a brief overview of the history of the area’s conflict.
“I do think a lot of people don’t know the basic picture. As I go along, I’m going to try to be fair,” he said.
Meanwhile, he asked those present to consider “Where is the justice and how do you strike a balance?” But at the end of the lecture, several in the audience clearly were disappointed Finkelstein had not said more against Israel or the American government’s support of that country’s abuses against what is left of Palestine.
One angry older man yelled out that the presentation had been unfair and did not offer any hope to Palestinians still in refugee camps around that region, or who have fled to other parts of the world.
“You want them to stay in the camps forever,” he shouted before leaving the lecture hall.
Finkelstein said he had hoped to present the views of both sides so the young people in the room could ponder how to reach a “just and practical” solution.
Still, toward the end of the extended comment period, he made it clear the American government continues to support Israel as it clearly violates international law in the occupied areas. Continued…
“Every single white phosphorus shell dropped on Gaza was made in the U.S.,” he said.
He also cited an Amnesty International report that said the atrocities in Gaza “could not have happened without U.S. taxpayer money.” Asked about the current administration, he noted, “The Obama Administration has been as awful as every preceding administration.” Finkelstein’s visit was sponsored by HFCC’s Arab Cultural Studies program, which offers two-year degrees.
During the course of his talk, Finkelstein made it clear he did not see any easy solutions for the area that so many people seem to have a right to call home.
Today’s conflicts have roots stretching back to the late 1900s, he said during his talk. Anti-Semitism was growing in Europe in some areas, while in a few pockets Jews were so openly accepted the community worried it would eventually lose its identity, including its religion.
A group called Zionists saw a solution to both problems in creating a new Jewish state in the Biblical land of the Jews, then Palestine, Finkelstein said. A small migration of Jews into Palestine began.
By about 1910, Palestine had 600,000 Arab Christians and Muslims to roughly 50,000 or 60,000 Jews. The number of Jews had grown large enough Arabic officials worried and began to react.
Zionists felt those native to Palestine should be “transferred” elsewhere, Finkelstein said. Leaders, like Theodor Herzl, looked for support from a larger government to help create a Jewish state. In November 1917, Britain backed the movement, Finkelstein said.
As anti-Semitism continued growing in Europe over the next decade, more Jews fled, but typically to the United States or other countries where they had family connections.
When the Depression hit in 1929, countries closed their borders to immigrants. Over the next several years, anti-Semitic groups gained power in parts of Europe. Jews wanting to flee had few choices besides Palestine. Continued…
In 1939, the Arab Revolt was intended to stop the growing influence of Jews in the region, Finkelstein said. About that same time, England backed down from supporting a separate Jewish state because it sensed war looming and did not want Arab countries to join its enemies.
Then the Holocaust happened in Europe. Many of the Jews who survived were even more determined to create a homeland where they would be safe from persecution.
After the war, England was broke and began to withdraw from the many countries it occupied. It handed over the Palestine issue to the newly formed United Nations, Finkelstein said.
In response to a professor who said Zionist conspiracies dominated those discussions, Finkelstein disagreed.
“It’s not just tricks and politics. It was a real problem,” he said, noting he has read extensively through information from that time period.
“It was not an easy problem. Everyone seemed to have a convincing point,” he said.
One idea was to create a two-state nation, with a Jewish state and an Arab state functioning under a single federal government. But no one really felt that would work, given the tension between the two groups.
Instead, the United Nations opted to give the new Jewish country, Israel, with its 600,000 people about 56 percent of the land. The 1.3 million Arabs in the region received 44 percent of the area.
Jews received more because it was expected that more people would immigrate there, he said.
Finkelstein said neither side liked the solution, but Jewish leaders opted to bide their time until they could seize more. Continued…
In the 1948 war between Israel and the Arabs, Israel grabbed 80 percent of the area that had once been Palestine, leaving the Gaza Strip, West Bank and East Jerusalem. About 700,000 to 750,000 Arabs were expelled from Israel’s new borders, and thousands today, with their children and grandchildren, continue to live in camps in Palestinian areas or surrounding countries, he said.
In 1967, Israel also claimed the remaining Palestinian areas, but this time the United Nations said no. That group struggled again to find a practical way to create peace.
“That’s not always so easy, to be principled and just and produce peace,” Finkelstein noted. Displaced Palestinians still felt all the land was theirs, but now an entire generation or two of Jews had grown up in the region and knew no other home.
Some estimate more than 7 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants still live around the world. That is roughly equal to the 7.5 million people in Israel. Arguing all those people should be allowed to return to what was once Palestine is not a practical solution, he said.
Also some refugee descendants, like HFCC Professor Nabeel Abraham who introduced Finkelstein, have assimilated into their new countries and have no interest in returning to a place they never lived.
Finkelstein agreed with speakers, including students with Amnesty International, who said Israel is violating national law by blockading Gaza and building settlements in Palestinians areas.
But he shied away from some immigrant speakers from the region who said the land should be returned to the Palestinians. He did not offer a solution on how to help refugees still in camps, but said one could be created if the appropriate people truly worked at it.
“Sometimes, you get so carried away with a principle you forget what’s right and what’s just,” he said.
Katie Hetrick
Press & Guide Newspapers