The following video is a discussion by Israeli professor, Shlomo Sand , about his book, The Invention of the Jewish People(Verso, 2009), which critically examines and deconstructs the idea of a Jewish nationality (“the Jewish People”) and consequently the Zionist claim for a Jewish homeland (Israel) in Palestine. The video is interesting in its exploration of the national question.
Joseph Stalin gave the Marxist-Leninist definition of a nation as a “historically constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-up manifested in a common culture“. He goes on to say, regarding Jews,
Bauer speaks of the Jews as a nation, although they “have no common language”; but what “common destiny” and national cohesion is there, for instance, between the Georgian, Daghestanian, Russian and American Jews, who are completely separated from one another, inhabit different territories and speak different languages?
The above-mentioned Jews undoubtedly lead their economic and political life in common with the Georgians, Daghestanians, Russians and Americans respectively, and they live in the same cultural atmosphere as these; this is bound to leave a definite impress on their national character; if there is anything common to them left, it is their religion, their common origin and certain relics of the national character. All this is beyond question. But how can it be seriously maintained that petrified religious rites and fading psychological relics affect the “destiny” of these Jews more powerfully than the living social, economic and cultural environment that surrounds them? And it is only on this assumption that it is possible to speak of the Jews as a single nation at all. (Marxism and the National Question)
The point of this argument is to say that Jews of course have the right to full equality, but not to territorial self-determination (i.e. in Palestine). This is very similar to the argument that Professor Sand makes in this video. I would also suggest the book One Country by Ali Abunimah on the need for single, secular and democratic state in all of historic Palestine. As Ahmad Saadat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine has argued in an interview with Fight Back! News,
Some have argued that the current reality is pushing towards a two-state solution – an Israeli state next to a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders. Of course, this solution involves ignoring the Right of Return, or replacing it with reparations. We in the PFLP argue that forcing such a solution on the Palestinian people will not end the struggle, because the facts and reality contradict such a solution. The two-state solution that is based on the racist notion of ‘a national, homogeneous Jewish state’ totally disregards the fact that over 1.3 million Palestinians – 20% of the entire population – live inside ‘Israel.’ This will continue to permit the causes of conflict to remain inside Israel. Therefore, the solution based on two states is a myth.
Our people’s quest, like any other people, is a democratic and free society. This democratic state – the only state form that can produce social and economic development – cannot be led or dominated by the parasitic and comprador bourgeoisie, but by a unity of the popular forces that share structural interests in national independence, return to the homeland, popular democracy and economic development. This is, simply, our view in the PFLP, and the view of the national, democratic liberation movement.
The following is from the website of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a Marxist-Leninist organization in Palestine fighting for national liberation and socialism:
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on November 3, 2009 that the Palestinian Authority, and all Palestinian parties, must immediately end any and all illusions about the United States or its president, Barack Obama, and instead reject its “negotiations” based on surrender and rely on the Palestinian people and their resistance, unity and national rights.
Minnesotans detained in and deported from Israel return home, denounce, “the tight grip of the Israeli occupation of Palestine”
By staff
Katrina Plotz, center speaking at airport press conference. Sara Martin to her left.
Bloomington, MN – Israeli security forces refused entry to three U.S. solidarity activists for attempting to participate in a human rights delegation organized by the Palestine Solidarity Group. Sarah Martin, member of Women Against Military Madness, and Katrina Plotz, of the Anti-War Committee, refused voluntary deportation and were forcibly deported Sunday evening, August 2. It was an emotional reunion at the airport on Monday afternoon, as Martin and Plotz were greeted with cheers and embraces by dozens of friends and supporters, carrying signs reading “Free Palestine!” and “End the occupation!”
URGENT ALERT: Minnesota activists jailed in Israel
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We have just learned that Israeli security forces have refused entry to three U.S. activists attempting to visit the Palestinian Territories. One of them, Karen Sullivan, is being sent home on a flight tonight, and two others, Sarah Martin and Katrina Plotz have refused to leave, and are being taken into custody. They are being treated as criminals, while their only goal was to learn about the reality of life for the Palestinian people. All three should be allowed to enter the country, as millions of tourists do every year.
Ahmad Sa’adat, the imprisoned General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, has entered the second week of his hunger strike to protest the policy of isolation and solitary confinement practiced by the Israeli prison administration against Palestinian prisoners.
Israeli right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, who stated that Israel did not “go far enough” in its 22-day invasion and massacre of 1400 Palestinians in Gaza earlier this year and who has never accepted even the possibility of an independent state for the Palestinians, is now the new prime minister. He was sworn in on April 1, after being asked in February by President Shimon Peres to form a coalition government.
Why South African Trade Unions Favor Sanctions and Boycotts Of Apartheid Israel
Address to Lenasia (near Johannesburg) Rally on Palestine 14th January 2009, by Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary, Congress of South African Trade Unions [COSATU]
From our own experience, we know how painful and dehumanizing is the system of segregation, otherwise known as apartheid. Apartheid is a system based on the assumption that one group or race is superior to others and therefore has a right to all the privileges and virtues associated with that particular status. It has a right to run and determine the lives of others, excluding them from certain privileges, merely because they do not belong to the “chosen” group.
What other definition would so fittingly define a system based on different rights and privileges for Jews and Arabs in the Middle East? The bantustanization of Palestine into pieces or strips — West Bank, Ramallah, Gaza Strip and so on — run by Israel and with no rights whatsoever for the Palestinians, is definitely an apartheid system. Israel occupied the land of the Palestinian people and created settler communities of Jews who enjoy a different lifestyle and privileges than those experienced by Palestinians. Palestinians are packed like Sardines in a tin throughout the Bantustans, with Gaza being acknowledged as the world’s biggest open-air prison.
Fight Back News Service is circulating the following statement from the Campaign to Free Ahmad Sa’adat. Ahmad Sa’adat is a Palestinian political prisoner and the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He is being held by the Israeli authorities. Fight Back!’s 2003 interview with Ahmad Sa’adat can be read at: http://www.fightbacknews.org/2003-3-summer/pflp.htm
Ahmad Sa’adat transferred to isolation in Asqelan prison!
On March 19, 2009, Ahmad Sa’adat was suddenly transferred from Hadarim prison to Asqelan prison, where he is being held in solitary confinement.
Ahmad Sa’adat, alongside 11,000 other Palestinian prisoners, has been repeatedly subjected to solitary confinement and punitive measures at the behest of the Israeli regime. Sa’adat has been moved repeatedly from prison to prison ,and often placed in solitary confinement or isolation.
This is a video of a speech by Palestinian Liberation Movement activist and organizer, Hatem Abudayyeh, in Chicago on March 14th. Read Abudayyeh’s recent article, The Gaza War: Victory for the Palestinian People.
Israel’s 22-day assault on the Palestinian people in Gaza, starting Dec. 27, 2008, ended when Israel acknowledged defeat – declaring a unilateral ‘ceasefire’ Jan. 17. Israel’s political and military goals were not met and, as in the summer of 2006, when the Lebanese resistance defeated Israel’s military, the Palestinians and their resistance emerged victorious.
PFLP affirms that PLO membership does not mean acceptance of the “two-state solution”
The PFLP does not accept the “two-state solution” as the final goal for the Palestinian people or the Palestinian cause, but instead views the strategic goal as the liberation of all of Palestine, said Comrade Marwan Fahoum, “Abu Sami,” a member of the Political Bureau of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said on March 2, 2009.
Israeli riot police argue with Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel protesting against racism outside a polling station in Um al-Fahem during the Israeli elections, 10 February 2009. (Oren Ziv/ActiveStills)
Whenever Israel has an election, pundits begin the usual refrain that hopes for peace depend on the “peace camp” — formerly represented by the Labor party, but now by Tzipi Livni’s Kadima — prevailing over the anti-peace right, led by the Likud.
This has never been true, and makes even less sense as Israeli parties begin coalition talks after Tuesday’s election. Yes, the “peace camp” helped launch the “peace process,” but it did much more to undermine the chances for a just settlement.
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