Let us return to the land between the sea and the river

In an article published in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, an Israeli analyst presents all the signs and characteristics of the Zionist project state, which has been planned since 1948, and poses the question: What is new about the “law” approved by Netanyahu’s government and what does this government want exactly?

Former Jerusalem Post editor-in-chief Jeff Barak said that the population in Israel is approximately nine million, 75 per cent of which are Jews, Hebrew is the dominant language, and the weekends and holidays are mostly Jewish, as the people rest on Saturdays and remain silent on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). In addition to this, all of the supermarkets and restaurants only sell Kosher food, i.e. meat slaughters in accordance with Jewish law. During the state’s national holidays, the first row usually seats the two Chief Rabbinates of Israel, one for the Ashkenazi Jews and the other for the Sephardi Jews.

We also find that the Declaration of Establishment of State of Israel begins by declaring that the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel will be known as the State of Israel. Jeff adds: “As a result, over 60 years later, anyone with one Jewish grandparent automatically has the right to Israeli citizenship, regardless of where they were born, their knowledge of Hebrew or previous affiliation with any Jewish organization, be it synagogue, cultural club or sporting team. The country’s national anthem, Hatikva, is exclusively Jewish-focused, talking of the ‘Jewish spirit yearning… to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem’. Israel is very clearly the Jewish state; there is no other country like it.”

The writer asks: “Why the need for a new basic law defining Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people? And the answer is that there is no need. Unless, of course, you want to make 20% of Israel’s citizens (some 1.7 million people) feel unwelcome in their own country, which is precisely the intention of right-wing Knesset members Ayelet Shaked, Yariv Levin and Ze’ev Elkin.”

The latter, a Member of the Knesset from the Likud party, downgrades the status of Arabic as one of the country’s two official languages. This Ukrainian man, who was born in 1971 and didn’t step foot into our land until 1990, wants to erase a language that has been around for dozens of centuries and was used by our ancestors to record their history. Elkin also says that the settlers must root themselves all over the country, which has no limits.

However, Netanyahu responded to the proposal regarding the language with an even harsher proposal that implicitly degrades the Arabic language implicitly, but avoids being a blatant proposal due to the fact that the Israeli state claims to be a democracy and therefore it cannot ignore the right of the people to cultural equality. In terms of culture and language, Netanyahu wants to appear tolerant at this time and appear to be fine with it as long as the law regarding the Jewishness of Israel is passed and motivates the settlers to spread throughout the occupied territories. He will also appear tolerant as long the law ratified by his government regarding the allowance of daily practices that have exclusionary and settlement implications makes the territories occupied in 1948 an area from which the Arab population can be expelled, either by allowing crackdowns and racism on every level or through proposals that suggest land swaps in the areas where the Arabs are concentrated as a part of a settlement the Palestinians are deluded into believing will actually be reached.

We are in need of a national and popular Palestinian and Arab conference that is not related to political work that determines that the Palestinians and the Arab nations will have nothing to do with the recognition of the state of Israel. The purpose for considering recognising Israel was for the occupier to recognise some of its victims’ rights, but we no longer have any other choice other than to go back to claiming that Palestine extends from the river to the sea.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.