The members of Jews Against the Occupation-Sydney feel there is little to celebrate or cause for joy when considering contemporary events in Israel/Palestine. No matter what day of the year.
Every day of the year, the military occupation of Palestine continues. Every day of the year Palestinians are denied fundamental human rights. Every day of the year, the government of Israel continues to ignore United Nations’ resolutions and international law which forbid the Occupation and require its immediate end. Every day of the year, the government of Israel sponsors the expansion of illegal settlements in Palestinian lands. Every day of the year, hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Palestinian refugees remain a diaspora with no homeland.
Every day of the year, civilians across Israel/Palestine suffer the consequences of violent attacks–a clear majority of whom are Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
Every day of the year, the possibility of a just and fair resolution of the Israel/Palestine conflict recedes.
As Jewish Australians, we ask: what are we to celebrate?
We know that our own country was built on an historical experience of colonial dispossession. Only in recent years have the true consequences of the dispossession of Indigenous Australians become more widely acknowledged. Australia’s national day, January 26, marking the establishment of the first permanent European settlement in Australia, is a day of mixed meaning. January 26 marks the beginning of the Aboriginal peoples’ loss of land and the creation of a brutal gulag designed to contain the victims of Britain’s industrial revolution who chose not to accept their lot in life.
The great irony of Australian history, is that in spite of these conditions people in Australia worked together to build alternatives. Pewulwuy, the first Aboriginal resistance leader who fought British colonialism. The workers of the Eureka stockade who rebelled against British control of the Australian gold fields and sought democratic representation. The activists (among them Socialists, Communists and Catholics) during the First World War who successfully opposed conscription and the brutal carnage in Europe. The trade unionists who helped organise the first strike activity by Aboriginal workers in the rural industry for equal wages. The modern land rights movement, led by Aborigines, but joined by Australians of all colours and creeds. Eddie Mabo, the Torres Strait Islander whose name will perpetually signify the High Court decision in 1992 which finally destroyed the legal fiction that Australia was a country without original owners.
If there is something to celebrate in the history of Australia, then it is these kinds of cases where people refused to accept the denial of their rights and were prepared to struggle for universal equality and justice.
We, as Jewish Australians, believe that if the Australian government wishes to communicate to the government of Israel on behalf of Australians, then the message must include all who have ties to that land and should acknowledge that the establishment of Israel in 1948 caused enormous suffering and hardship to Palestinians. Similarly, as non-Indigenous Australians we must do no less in our relations with Indigenous Australians-precisely as the government did on our behalf, a few short weeks ago, in acknowledging the suffering of the stolen generations.
What does that mean practically? It means we should celebrate those in Israel/Palestine who work for real peace and justice.
These are people of Israeli and Palestinian backgrounds who struggle against injustice, fight for civil rights and campaign against arbitrary arrest, torture and detention. People who act to stop the destruction of Palestinian homes and agricultural resources. Israelis who refuse to serve in the military and Israeli Defence Force personnel who refuse to serve in the Occupied Territories. Those trade unionists who organise all workers, irrespective of national origin, for decent wages and conditions. Rabbis, imams and priests who promote human rights. Doctors and nurses who treat the victims of violent attacks. Civil disobedience groups who disrupt the construction of the Separation Wall. Women who act as independent observers monitoring Israeli military check-points. Hebrew and Arabic speaking journalists who risk life and limb to reveal atrocities, military and otherwise.
These are the heroes of contemporary Israel/Palestine. These are the people who have the potential to create societies of universal justice and peace in that land.
We believe that the governments of Israel and Australia have a duty to defend and extend human rights first and foremost. We believe the governments of Australia and Israel have to date failed to do this in regard to the question of Palestine.
We believe that those who do not control governments, like ourselves, can most effectively change politics through supporting and working with those who would seek to collectively challenge injustice on the basis of rights, not on the basis of nationality, creed, colour or religion.
The parliamentary motion initiated by the Australian government on the 60th anniversary of Israel’s establishment was a lost opportunity. A lost opportunity to debate the real issues confronting Israel/Palestine. A lost opportunity for the Australian government to articulate a clear human rights perspective on Israel/Palestine. Perhaps most significantly, a lost opportunity to build a more united coalition working for peace and justice in Israel/Palestine.
The peoples of Israel and Palestine are confronted with too many lost opportunities. Darkness seems to shroud all that is ahead.
Next year, instead, let us, those of us genuinely concerned for peace and rights in Israel/Palestine, take the opportunity to shine a light of celebration upon those Israelis and Palestinians who acknowledge the human consequences of Israel’s creation and understand a secure future can only be built with reconciliation and justice.
Jews Against the Occupation-Sydney
19 March 2008
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