Good afternoon folks,
While I prefer to confine my blog posts to issues that are clearly identifiable as sustainable, one current event has moved me to the point where I feel I have to discuss it. Human rights must be a cornerstone of sustainability, so I do not apologize to people who are navigating here to read about composting and solar panels.
The event I am talking about was the boarding and seizing of humanitarian aid ships attempting to break the Gaza Strip blockade by Israeli armed forces, and the subsequent deaths of 10 peace activists. This action was the latest episode in the tragic string of violence that has continued since Israel declared its independence in 1948. This particular event seems to have changed the fundamental dynamic of the greater Israeli-Palestinian issue in some way that I am sure will be clearer in the days and weeks ahead.
What I find most interesting are the parallels of this maritime encounter with other events in Israel’s history. 65 years ago, thousands of Jewish immigrants desperate to build a new life in their ancient homeland attempted to run the British blockade of the Palestine Mandate, which was the name of the British -controlled Palestinian territory at the time. These refugees may have been on the wrong side of British law, but they were on the right side of the moral imperative, and there actions helped change an unjust law and found a nation. Unfortunately their descendants are now the blockaders and their aggressive actions are just as morally unjustifiable as those of the British from in the 30s and 40s.
I don’t have any Jewish blood, but when I was a kid I had tremendous admiration for Israel, and I loved their underdog story of reviving an extinct nation after 2000 years. I think I read Exodus 7 times. The story of the birth of Israel against tremendous odds is truly amazing, and the Jews’ courageous blockade running was a key turning point on their road to independence.
The modern repopulation of Palestine by the Jews took places in waves, which in Hebrew are referred to as Aliyahs. The First Aliyah is considered to be from 1882-1903, and until the beginning of World War II in 1939 there were four more. These five immigration waves raised the Jewish population of the Palestine to over 450,000.
In the mid-1930’s Britain placed increased restrictions on the immigration of Jews to Palestine, and from 1933-48 much of the population movement was illegal and clandestine. This underground human pipeline was facilitated mostly by ship, using old, overcrowded vessels, and was referred to as the Aliyah Bet. Aliyah Aleph describes the limited legal immigration that was allowed by the British at this time.
The Aliyah Bet had two phases. Between 1934 and 1942, in the first phase of the Aliyah Bet, several Jewish organizations attempted to get as many Jews out of the way of the Nazis as possible. As German discrimination and atrocities increased, these efforts became more desperate and overwhelmed, as people wanting to avoid the death camps of Hitler sought refuge in a land the Bible said was their ancestral home.
In the second phase, from 1945-1948, thousands of Jews who had survived Nazi crimes found themselves in the tide of displaced persons in refugee camps in post-war occupied Germany. Many refugees who attempted the voyage to freedom ended up in British detention camps. Nevertheless Jewish attempts to settle Palestine saved lives and was entirely justified. It was very unfortunate that British law turned desperate but honest men and women seeking asylum into criminals, and the policy of strict quotas was morally indefensible.
Yet the greatest success of the Aliyah Bet was not in the number of people it transported to Palestine, but its tremendous propaganda value. Bear in mind that at the time the state of Israel was far from a given. There was significant political opposition, particularly in the Arab nations. World opinion became focused on this small patch of the Middle East, as well as the refugees who had already survived the holocaust rather piteously trying to get into the Mandate. The British were made to look like a heartless Goliath to the Jewish immigrants’ David. The Aliyah Bet was wildly successful as a propaganda tool, a fact that was not lost on the Jewish leadership, and its importance in the push to create the Jewish nation cannot be overstated.
It is indeed ironic that it may be a peaceful blockade breaking campaign that will decisively turn the tide in favor of today’s David, the Palestinian people of Gaza. While they do not have the financial resources or the blind support of an inconsistent superpower that the Israelis have, in many respects their story is just as compelling as Jewish one, and they certainly have every right to an independent homeland. I just pray now that the people of Gaza and all the Arabs of Palestine will get out of their own way and cease all violence. No more suicide bombers, or rocket attacks or mortar attacks. Aside from the immorality of violence, these senseless attacks will only hurt your cause.
While my heart breaks at the loss of life in the waters off the Gaza shore, I feel strongly that the people on those boats accomplished more for lasting peace in the Middle East than all of the military and guerrilla actions, on both sides of this conflict, since the founding of Israel, combined. I sincerely hope Free Gaza is brave enough to continue to peacefully break this illegal and immoral blockade, because I strongly feel this campaign will turn the tide. Frankly, the majority of Israelis, Palestinians and the rest of the world are completely sick of assholes with guns in their hands telling us that their guns will bring us peace, when all war and violence has ever brought us is more war and violence.
I salute peaceful resistance to unjust power.
Love to all,
Millard
