Sharing the Land of Canaan

Mazin B. Qumsiyeh

Description

There is no more compelling and dramatic unfolding story, with more profound international ramifications, than the conflict in the Middle East.



Sharing the Land of Canaan is a critical examination of the core issues of the conflict that dares to put forward a radical but logical solution: that a shared state is the best way to achieve justice and peace for Israelis and Palestinians. Mazin B. Qumsiyeh, offers an overview of the issues at stake, and outlines his vision for a lasting peace based on upholding the principles of human rights for all. Tackling taboo subjects, myths and obstacles, he argues convincingly that apartheid in the form of a two-state solution is no longer a feasible way to achieve enduring peace.



At this critical time, when the 'road map' to peace looks more uncertain than ever, this book provides a refreshing counterpoint to the failed strategies of the past. It is a direct and accessible account of the history - and mythology - of the fabled 'Land of Canaan', which lays out hopeful ideas for the future of this truly multiethnic and multicultural region.
Foreword by Dr. Salman Abu Sitta

Glossary

1. Introduction

2. People of the Land

3. Biology and Ideology

4. Palestinian Refugees and Their Right to Return

5. Jerusalem (Ur-Salem. Yerushalaym, Al-Qods) as a Pluralistic City

6. Zionism

7. Is Israel a Democracy?

8. Terrorism and Violence

9. Human Rights

10. The Conflict and Sustainable Development

11. Political Context

12. International Context and International Law

13. Peace can be Based on Human Rights and International Law

Notes

Index

Sujets

• Human Rights
• Political Science
• Palestine

Informations

• Publié par: Pluto Press
• Date de parution: 20 juin 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783719389
• Langue: English

Extrait

Sharing the Land of Canaan
Human Rights and the Israeli–Palestinian Struggle
Mazin B. Qumsiyeh
First published 2004 by Pluto Press
345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA
USA: University of Michigan Press, 839 Greene Street,
Ann Arbor, M14 8106
www.plutobooks.com
Copyright © Mazin B. Qumsiyeh 2004
The right of Mazin B. Qumsiyeh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 0 7453 2249 2 hardback
ISBN 0 7453 2248 4 paperback
ISBN 978 1 7837 1938 9 Epub
ISBN 978 1 7837 1939 6 Kindle
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data applied for
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Designed and produced for Pluto Press by
Chase Publishing Services, Fortescue, Sidmouth, EX10 9QG, England
Typeset from disk by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England
Printed and bound in Canada by Transcontinental Printing
Contents
List of Tables, Exhibits, and Figures
Acknowledgements
Foreword by Dr Salman Abu Sitta
About the Author
Glossary
1.
Introduction
2.
People and the Land
 
Ancient Peoples and Culture
 
The Nabateans
 
Cultural and Religious Symbiosis in Canaan
 
A ‘Melting-Pot’ Origin of Native People
 
Palestinians
3.
Biology and Ideology
 
Eugenics, Population Genetics, and Political Ideology
 
Genetics and the Bible
 
Genetics versus Zionist Mythology
4.
Palestinian Refugees and Their Right to Return
 
Early Proposals for Population Removal
 
Why Did the Palestinians Leave?
 
Intention, Rhetoric, and Reality
 
The Consequences of Al-Nakba
 
Continued Ethnic Cleansing versus Justice and Repatriation
 
The Desirability and Feasibility of Return
5.
Jerusalem (Ur-Salem, Jebus, Yerushalaym, Al-Qods): A Pluralistic City
 
Jebusites and Jerusalemites
 
Changing Powers, Eternal People
 
Jerusalem under Islamic Rule
 
Twentieth-century Nationalism
 
Reunification or Apartheid and Exclusion
 
The Future: A City of Peace
6.
Zionism
 
Christian Zionism and Colonialism
 
Zionism Taking Root among European Jewish Communities
 
Zionism after 1948
 
Is Zionism the Mirror Image of Anti-Semitism?
 
A Post-Zionist Discourse
7.
Is Israel a Democracy?
 
A Basic Analysis of the ‘Basic Laws’
 
The ‘Absentee Laws’
 
Institutionalized Discrimination
8.
Violence and Terrorism
 
The Seeds and Roots of Terrorism
 
Fear
 
Terrorism in the Land of Canaan
 
Resistance versus Terrorism
 
Justice Brings Peace, Injustice Perpetuates Violence
9.
Human Rights
 
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
 
Torture
 
Targeting Civilians
 
Human Rights as the Cornerstone for Peace
10.
The Conflict and Sustainable Development
 
The Palestinian and Israeli Economies and Societies: Separate and Unequal
 
Changes since 1991
 
Water
 
Environmental Degradation
 
Prosperity with Equality and Sustainability
11.
The Political Contex t
 
Natives and Zionists: An Inevitable Clash?
 
Britain and France and the Zionist Program
 
Britain Hands the Torch to the US
 
Israeli Political Discourse
 
An Era of Peace?
 
Palestinian Political Discourse
 
The Oslo Accords
 
Might Makes Right?
12.
The International Context and International Law
 
Early International Failures
 
An Illegal Partition
 
The Fourth Geneva Convention
 
UNSC Resolutions 242, 338, and More
13.
Peace Can be Based on Human Rights and International Law
 
Zionist Discourse
 
Reality is not Conducive to a Two-State Solution
 
The Politics of Justice
 
Altruism is Pragmatic
 
We Have Been There, Done That
 
The Power of Coexistence and Non-violent Direct Action
 
Psychological and Physical Apartheid
 
An Inevitable Solution
Notes
Index
List of Tables, Exhibits, and Figures
Table 1.
Growth of the Jewish Population of Palestine
Table 2.
Christian and Muslim Palestinian Population
Exhibit 1.
Arguments against the Right to Return
Exhibit 2.
Ten Principles that Amnesty International Articulated for a Durable Peace Based on Human Rights (press release, March 26 2001)
Exhibit 3.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations (1948)
Exhibit 4.
Other Relevant UN General Assembly Resolutions Passed by Overwhelming Majorities
Exhibit 5.
Draft Framework
Figure 1.
Evolution of the Semitic Alphabet
Figure 2.
The History of Map Changes in the Land of Canaan for the Past 83 Years
To my father whose body died in his birthplace, but whose spirit lives on among his people.
To people of all faiths, who sacrificed so much to bring us closer to peace and justice in this Holy Land.
Acknowledgements
To write a book of this nature is really not a project that is done in isolation. As a Palestinian American, I was first and foremost influenced by my upbringing under Israeli occupation, in my undergraduate studies at Jordan University, among Palestinian refugees in Jordan, and in my 24 years in the United States. I am grateful to those people who have touched my life, whether their intent towards me or others was positive or negative. Thus, I am grateful to the Israeli soldier who threw a tear gas bomb into my class, as I am grateful to the Israeli university employee who kindly apologized to me, a young and naive Palestinian student, for her country’s actions. I am also grateful to the journalists and editors we tried to educate, with varying degrees of success. These experiences, good and bad, helped shape my life. I feel privileged to have been alive at this moment in world history and I appreciate the opportunity to learn and grow from interactions with so many people of so many varied persuasions, ethnicity, and religions. I am thus grateful to all those whose paths have crossed mine. More specifically, in the last three years, as the idea for this book crystallized and evolved, I received significant help and encouragement from many people – to name a few key ones: Roman Bystrianyk, Justine McCabe, Salman Abu Sitta, David Kirsh, Bob Hartman, Hassan Fouda, Jess Ghannam, Stanley Heller, and members of the Palestine Right to Return Coalition and the Middle East Crisis Committee. I am also grateful to Pluto Press and, in particular, Julie Stoll and Roger van Zwanenberg for their efforts. My wife, Jessie Chang, and son, Dany, have given me significant positive influence, work, and encouragement. To those and many others, I am deeply grateful. I take responsibility for any mistakes, whether of omission or commission. Finally, I am grateful to you the reader for reading this book with an open mind. I would consider it a success if it makes some readers want to find out more, and would consider it an even greater success if the book prompts some to work harder for peace in the troubled land of Canaan.
Esse cuam videri
[To be rather than to seem]
Foreword
Dr Salman Abu Sitta
On the evening of Wednesday, October 31, 1917, Allenby’s army, known as the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, encircled Beer Sheba in a surprise move and overcame the small Turkish garrison. The British flag was raised and Palestine lay open to Allenby’s conquest. Thus ended 1,400 years of Arab and Muslim rule (with the exception of the brief Crusades period). The British military handed over Palestine to the Civil Administration headed by the Zionist High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel. His mission was to put into effect the Balfour Declaration and plant a Jewish state on Arab soil.
Thus, Palestine came under foreign rule, first British, then Israeli, which has lasted to this day. Palestine entered a century of wars, bloodshed, and suffering; the victims were the national majority of the country.
Why? European colonialism of the nineteenth century found its belated expression among European Jews in colonizing Palestine, for a complexity of historical and financial reasons, first riding on the shoulders of the British Empire, then on its home-grown strength, still supplied generously by Western resources.
One of the little known facts is that Zionism, which took a socialist character, is in fact a capitalist movement aiming to secure a territory from which it would express its ambitions, instead of manipulating European policies and wars. In other words, the Zionist capitalist movement aimed to exercise its power openly and with the recognition of the Western world, not indirectly by proxy.
Some examples to illustrate this will suffice. One of the first colonial settlements in Palestine was established by the French financial tycoon Rothchilde in Caesaria. Affluent bourgeois families became Israel’s ruling class. The Hacohen, Ruppin, Shertok, and Elyashar are all related or intermarried. From this ‘family’ emerged Rosa Cohen, Yitzhak Rabin, Pinchas Sapir, Yigal Yadin, Uzi Narkis, Arthur Ruppin, Asher Yadlin, Eliahu Golomb, Moshe Dayan, Ezer Weitzman, Lord Mund, Ya’akov Meridor, and many others who created and ran the military-financial-industrial complex of Israel.
They have no time for international law or human rights. They forged ahead assured of the support of the British Empire and now of the new US imperial power.
The image conveyed in the West is of a peaceful ingathering of exiles in the ‘Promised Land’. To achieve this end, they fabricated a web of myths, all of which have proved to be false, but only after they achieved their purpose: Palestine is a country without a people; the old will die and the young will forget Palestine; the refugees left on Arab orders; the Palestinians are terrorists, … etc.
Even the specter of coexistence was falsely marketed in the pre- Nakba . A Zionist agent would scout for land for sale among Palestinian villagers. He would approach them saying: ‘ sawa, sawa, ya khabibi ’ (together, together, my friend), ru