Friday 22 April 2011

Gilad Atzmon: The Israeli So-Called ‘Left’


We learned today that some 300 prominent Israeli left-wingers, including some cultural leaders, gathered in Tel Aviv to call for the Jewish state to embrace the creation of a Palestinian State.
Among the petition's signatories were 17 winners of the Israel Prize and other leding intellectuals and artists.

"We are here to welcome the expected announcement of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, according to the borders of our independence, fixed during the 1949 armistice," the petition reads.

The Israeli so-called ‘Leftists’ are welcoming the expected Palestinian State as long as the Palestinians stay behind the wall and do not exercise their right of return. The Israeli humanists basically endorse the Palestinian diplomatic initiative so they can keep dwelling on Palestinian land forever. I am not impressed at all.

"The complete end of the occupation is an essential condition of the liberation of the two peoples," the petition says. Someone should remind the Israeli ‘doves’ that the whole of Israel is located on historic Palestine.

I would actually expect the Israeli so-called ‘Left’ to be far more radical, to stand up and say, enough is enough, we are now calling all Palestinians to return to their homes, villages, cities, fields and orchards. Such a declaration would prove for the first time that the Israeli so-called ‘Left’ has internalised the real meaning of peace and harmony.

Don’t hold your breath, this is not going to happen soon.

What we saw in Tel Aviv today is an exercise in Jewish identity politics. A few so-called ‘Leftists’ engaged in a superficial self-loving pseudo ethical Hasbara campaign.

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