A DIFFERENT BREED
A voice for peace has gone silent with the death of Avnery, one of the first Israelis to call for the creation of a Palestinian state
THERE is only one name that I go for when I want to read about the Israeli mind — Uri Avnery. Well, maybe two. The other is Amira Hass of the Haaretz newspaper.
Avnery is a well-known name for those enamoured about the Israel and Palestine conflict. That includes Hass. They are what I'd like to term as the Israeli peace promoters. In fact, during the Palestinian Intifada in 2003, Avnery travelled with other Israeli activists to Palestine Liberation Organisation headquarters in the occupied West Bank, to act as a human shield against what they said were Israeli plans to assassinate PLO leader, Yasser Arafat.
Hass herself has not done too shabbily when it comes to upholding Palestinian rights. Starting from 2003, she is the only Jewish Israeli journalist who lived full-time among the Palestinians. She did her reporting in Gaza from 1993 and in Ramallah from 1997.
As for Avnery, every time he writes on the Israeli-Palestinian problem, I can only say “well said, sir”, as he explains and elaborates, taking into account the history and context of the issue. I see him as an even-handed writer and opinionist, juggling between fantasy and reality, wanting an Israeli state that really practises democracy with an equally democratic Palestinian state. I believe he meant well, but I think he knows too, that talking about how to achieve peace is one thing, but actually achieving it is another. He had even admitted that it would be impossible after the approval of the “Basic Law: Israel the Nation State of the Jewish People”.
So, peace between Israel and Palestine? Maybe not in my lifetime. Certainly not in his, as Avnery died on Monday, Aug 20, at the ripe old age of 94, of heart attack.
The editor of Counterpunch website, Jeffrey St Clair, sums up Avnery nicely with a short eulogy titled, “A Mighty Voice for Peace Has Gone Silent: Uri Avnery, 1923-2018”:
“Avnery, who was one of the first Israelis to call for the creation of a Palestinian state, was 94. He lived a sprawling life. He was born in Germany in 1923 and his family fled to British Palestine a few months after Hitler came to power. As a young man, he dispersed leaflets for the Irgun, a terrorist Zionist organisation, and it haunted him for most of his life. Avnery would later play chess with Yasser Arafat and become one of PLO’s most ardent Israeli defenders.”
Quite a transformation. Born in Germany during the Hitler era. Fled to Palestine then helped out a terrorist group that purged thousands of Palestinians before changing to a peace activist. Avnery did tell about an interesting exchange of words with former Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, most pertinent to nonJewish people too, in a column titled, “Who the hell are we” in his last article to Counterpunch.
He said: “Years ago, I had a friendly discussion with Ariel Sharon. I told him: “I am first of all an Israeli. After that I am a Jew.” He (Sharon) responded heatedly: “I am first of all a Jew, and only after that an Israeli!”
The classic chicken and egg question. Chicken first or egg first, or is it the other way around? Whichever way one thinks, Avnery clearly interprets the “Basic Law” as the final nail in the coffin for a democratic Israel. He asks what is new about the new law? It contains two important omissions of a “Jewish and Democratic” state, and full equality between all its citizens, without regard to religion, ethnicity or sex.
“All this has disappeared. No democracy. No equality. A state of the Jews, for the Jews, by the Jews.” It is this attitude of showing what the Israel state is doing wrong that makes Avnery and Hass a different breed.
Consider Hass’ recent article titled, “Israel Conducts Mass Psychological Experiment on Gaza”, which essentially tell Israelis that they're also being experimented on by the Zionist rulers, not just the Gazans. It is an experiment in obedience and cruelty. While Gazans are being forced to accept every Israeli cruelty, among them including not enough clean water, only four hours of electricity daily, lacking medical care, not permitted to study abroad and being bombed from time to time.
How long can the Gazans hold on and suffer? And, how long will the Israelis wait to no longer be afraid about retaliatory actions from the people there, the biggest prison in the world?
“From the moment in 1991 when we cut the Gazans off from the West Bank, we’ve been declaring that the enclave should develop as a separate entity, and we’ve hoped that Egypt would swallow it up or that it would be declared an independent Palestinian state. To our chagrin, that hasn’t happened”, said Hass.
Avnery and Hass, therefore, are going against the flow when it comes to the issue of peace in the occupied Palestinian land.
Now, we are being told about the “deal of the century” by the new American administration of Donald Trump. However, Palestinians may not be surprised anyway, as the American linguist, historian and thinker Noam Chomsky rubbished Trump's initiative which has not been fully explained to the public yet, and one reason being that Trump is only thinking about Iran.
Avnery does have a simple advice to Israelis and Palestinians alike. In September 2013, he wrote: “There are two nations in this country, and they must choose to live together or die together. I hope they choose life.”
Well said, sir. Wise words, indeed.
The classic chicken and egg question. Chicken first or egg first, or is it the other way around? Whichever way one thinks, Avnery clearly interprets the ‘Basic Law’ as the final nail in the coffin for a democratic Israel.