OT11111, VIEWS
Striving For Coexistence
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6/ 2
2005
54
page 3
inally after 50 years, the
Palestinian Arabs and Jews of
the State of Israel are coming
to terms with each other. Yet deep at
the root of the conflict, are the names
they call the land — the land of Israel
and Palestine.
After a bitter struggle with Jewish
insurgents, Jews were exiled from
Jerusalem in 70 C.E. by the Romans,
who renamed the province Palestine.
Islamic armies claimed the land in
the seventh century and called it
Palestine. What was the land of
Israel, the homeland of the Jewish
people, became the part of the
Islamic Arab homeland.
Over the centuries, Jews returned.
They accepted the restrictions of the
Islamic authorities as long as they
were allowed to conduct their lives
peaceably in their holy communities.
Toward the end of the 19th century,
secular European Jews came onto the
scene, bringing progress and liberal
ideas to this desolate corner of the
eastern Mediterranean region.
Arabs of the province of Palestine
were suspicious of the new Jewish set-
tlers. In contrast to the old Yishuv
(Palestine's Jewish community), the
Jews of the holy communities organ-
ized around traditional values, the
new Yishuv brought ideas that went
against the grain of the traditional
Arab-Palestinian leadership.
Young Jews came to Palestine from
Eastern Europe with the message of
Socialism and formed trade unions
and collective settlements. As long as
the Islamic Ottoman Turks ruled
from Istanbul, the old order survived
the so-called onslaught of progress.
After the British took the province
over in 1917, Jewish Socialists, armed
with the promise of a national home
in the Mandate of Palestine — land
of Israel, organized the Jewish work-
ing people into a general union
known in Hebrew as the Histadrut.
Eventually, the leadership of the
Yishuv passed onto the Labor Party,
forming the infrastructure of what
was to become the State of Israel.
Alarmed at the changes, the tradi-
tional Arab Palestinian leaders feared
the influence of the newcomers, who
spoke to the needs of young educated
Arabs that sought to make changes in
.
Zev Davis is a native Detroiter who
made aliyah in 1981 and lives with his
wife, Miriam, in Israel's Central Galilee,
Detroit Jewish community's Partnership
2000 region. They have four adult chil-
dren, all Israelis. His e-mail address is
d2343@012.net.il.
their society.
The elders
called upon
the Arab
Palestinians
to rise up
against the
Yishuv. In
ZEV DAVIS
1921, in
Special
1929 and
Commentary
from 1936-
1939, the
Arabs of
Mandatory Palestine — land of Israel
attacked Jewish settlements and
neighborhoods. In spite of these
efforts, the State of Israel came into
being and the Jewish state established
a social welfare program that provid-
ed that caught the imagination of the
developing world.
The Arab bloc fought back using
its economic clout, placing a boycott
on any foreign companies that did
business with the Jewish state.
Toward the end of the 1960s, leading
politicians suggested that it was time
to try a little capitalism. Israeli capi-
talists were given an opportunity to
prove what they could do for the
Jewish state. The State of Israel over-
came the obstacles and joined the list
of the top 20 industrialized nations in
the world.
Changing Tides
After [the Six-Day War in] 1967,
when the land of Israel encompassed
what was Mandatory Palestine, Israeli
industrialists outsourced work to
Arab Palestinian labor to produce
goods for the Israeli market. Those
goods filled the shelves of Israeli
shops. After the peace treaty with
Jordan, the outsourcing spread across
the river. Later, the Oslo agreements
further improved the climate for
cooperation between Jewish and Arab
entrepreneurs.
All through the Palestinian intifada,
manufactured goods kept flowing
from Judea, Samara and Gaza. This
outsourcing created a rash of layoffs
in the industrial sector in Israel.
When the border was open, the
wages in the Palestinian Authority for
a 12-hour day were on a par with the
going rates in Israel.
During the closures, however,
Palestinians, prevented from entering
the Israel, were paid less; local capi-
talists pocketed the difference.
Currently, the leaders of the Arab
Palestinian movement are seeking a
peaceful settlement. And as the neo-
con economic theology is fast becom-
ing an article of faith in the Middle
East, it is grand how the money pass-
es hands, carrying the banner of coex-
istence. Indeed, Egyptian President
Hosni Mubarak offered his services to
the Palestinian Authority, giving jobs
to Gazans.
However, the poor don't see the
money. They perceive the conflict as
the struggle between Israeli Jews and
Palestinian Arabs.
It's easy for Arabs to talk money
with the Israelis. The Jews of Israel
and the Arab Palestinians in the State
of Israel are used to outsourcing.
Egyptian workers, suspicious of the
current peace initiatives, fear that
their jobs will go to branch plants in
Gaza. With or without a wall, Israel
is a modern industrial nation stand-
ing alongside a poor Palestinian state.
As in the days when Cleopatra, the
queen of Egypt, and Herod, the king
of Judea, sought to share the wealth,
Mubarak, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon and P.A. President Abu Mazen
and their industrialist friends are eager
to reap the benefits of peace.
Any industrial peace is bound to be
followed by the next negotiation, and
the next, as the rich grow rich. And
so it goes in a land with two names,
where Palestinian Arabs and the Jews
of the land of Israel share the material
and human resources. Peace is more
than an agreement between nations;
it is people living together, accepting
each other. Li
Auswerimg
Israel's Critics
The Charge
Israel's new security barrier is an
"apartheid wall" that steals
Palestinian land, separates
Palestinians from their livelihoods
and limits travel.
The Answer
The new security barrier is an anti-
terror measure that is temporary,
non-violent and saves both Israeli
and Palestinian lives. Israel's courts
have ruled that its construction is
legal as long as the concerns of
those living along its route are
being considered and reasonably
accommodated.
— Allan Gale, Jewish Community
Council of Metropolitan Detroit