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Last update - 13:28 14/05/2008
We owe the Palestinians a state
By Bradley Burston
Tags: Israel, Jaffa, Burston 

I was walking the dog in Jaffa early the morning after Independence Day when, contrary to all seasonal expectation, it began to rain. We took cover by the old Turkish government building, the Sarai. Beautiful as it surely is, though, it is barely skin deep. The Sarai is a freshly reconstructed false front.

The facade is framed by two plaques, eloquent precisely for what they do not say. On the right, a somber, weathered howitzer-bronze tablet states that the building - less than 30 steps from Jaffa's landmark Clock Tower - once served as a headquarters for "Arab rioters" and an Iraqi army expeditionary force. It adds with evident pride that on January 4, 1948, the Lehi Jewish underground drove a truck laden with explosives to the structure, and demolished it.

The plaque says nothing about what happened next."Dozens killed and wounded in explosion in Jaffa," read Haaretz' front-page headline the next day. The blast was such that it also destroyed part of the adjacent Barclay's bank and a number of homes and stores in the area.
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In 2004, the Tourism Ministry and the Tel Aviv municipality put up a second plaque to the left of the first, this one done in cheerful colors, celebrating the building's rehabilitation. But the restoration leaves most of the building to the imagination. Monumental columns hold up a non-existent roof. A locked door guards the entrance to a non-existent building.

This curious remnant of colonial rule was, in retrospect, just the place to seek shelter during this period, the modern Days of Repentance from Independence Day last week, to the Friday observance of Palestinian Naqba Day.

It was a day to look anew at the past. It was a day to consider the tragic success that is Israel at 60. It was a day to consider that many of the strengths that made Israel a success, also mandated that our lives would be indelibly marked by tragedy.

It was, all in all, a day to consider what we owe the Palestinians.

Before all else, we owe the Palestinians our respect. They could have rolled over long ago, packed up and headed for Australia, given up. They know that their leaders are execrable, their institutions corrupt and impotent, their ideology self-destructive, their economy in ruin, their international prestige at a nadir.

Still, they are here. Still, they are our occupiers. After 60 years, powerless, in disarray, they occupy our imagination and our politics and our nightmares.

We owe the Palestinians for keeping us honest. We owe the Palestinians for reminding us that we were never alone in this place. We owe the Palestinians what we expect from them: the recognition that they deserve, as a real people.

We owe the Palestinians a state.

It is all too easy for us to decide that we owe them nothing, for us to see them as foreigners here, brutal aliens, usurpers. As easy as it is for them to see us exactly the same way. The last thing we want to believe is the truth: that we resemble each other too much to be able to agree.

Like any people which has suffered tragedy, displacement, injustice, oppression, we want more than we can realistically expect. So do they.

Do they lie to us? Of course they do. Just as they lie to themselves. Just as we lie to ourselves. Are they the hostages of their own extremists? Of course they are. Just as we are the hostages of our extremists, the settlers who threaten to make our lives hell if we try to move them.

We believe that we have a right to more than we can realistically expect, because we know ourselves to be morally superior. So do they. We know ourselves to be morally superior because we see our armed actions as self-defense.

So do they.

We know our claim to the land to be incontestable, owing to who we are, our ancient history, the bitterness of our recent past, our willingness to sacrifice for this soil, and the stubbornness of our refusal to part with it. So do they.

We will never be able to give them their fair share of this land, nor will they ever be able to give us ours. In the end, the extremists on both sides are right: we do deserve everything, the Mediterranean to the Jordan, the Lebanon border to the Red Sea, and all of Jerusalem in between. We can claim all of it. And so can they.

Or, alternatively, we can find a way to live here. To look at our past with honesty, and our present also. To renounce our extremists and their fantasies, in which our unwanted enemy simply gives up, caves in, clears out. We will not give the Palestinians back Jaffa, nor Acre, just as they will not give us back Hebron, nor Shechem.

After 60 years, it is time for us to start acting contrary to all ingrained expectation. It is time for us to stop being remnants of colonial rule. After 60 years, it is time to stop seeking shelter in facades.

_______________


Previous blogs:


Sixty years of Nakba, 60 years of nothing
Our Defense Forces, our war crimes, our terrorism
For our worst enemy, Hamas, just two words
The New 12 Tribes of Israel
A place at the table
I want the Palestinians to win



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  1.   Palestinians Owe Themselves A State- We Don`t 13:45  |  dyinglikeflies 13/05/08
  2.   Question 14:05  |  ERSB 13/05/08
  3.   Dear Sir, 14:11  |  zeev 13/05/08
  4.   the philistines are certainly not owed a state 14:40  |  augustine e johnson 13/05/08
  5.   palestinian state 15:20  |  mark Greenberg 13/05/08
  6.   Winners write History 15:20  |  Manolo 13/05/08
  7.   Palestinian State 15:29  |  Adrianne 13/05/08
  8.   The X per cent of Y per cent is not acceptable 15:30  |  Manolo 13/05/08
  9.   by negotiate 15:37  |  Manolo 13/05/08
  10.   "Palis deserving a state "; NO 15:38  |  trumpeldor 13/05/08
  11.   Why don`t you start by surrendering Ha`aretz to them 15:39  |  Ben Menachem 13/05/08
  12.   We owe them 15:41  |  Yakov 13/05/08
  13.   We owe them the chance for a new life elsewhere. 15:51  |  Chaim 13/05/08
  14.   Some heroes missed 15:54  |  Manolo 13/05/08
  15.   chaim 17:15  |  tim 13/05/08
  16.   Manolo, Read a history book 17:33  |  dyinglikeflies 13/05/08
  17.   Earn It 17:51  |  RON 13/05/08
  18.   Well done, Mr. Burston 18:28  |  Aaron Levitt 13/05/08
  19.   I don`t get it! 18:28  |  Tali 13/05/08
  20.   What the Pals think they are "owed" is most of the problem 18:35  |  Jordan 13/05/08
  21.   These were legitimate targets 18:40  |  Jordan 13/05/08
  22.   Israel owes what???? 19:10  |  David Hickson 13/05/08
  23.   Different way to look at it. 21:04  |  not important 13/05/08
  24.   to Jordan #20 21:28  |  zeev 13/05/08
  25.   Stop chaning subject, it is only One state Now for all people 21:30  |  omolll 13/05/08
  26.   No 13, just like nazism 21:45  |  Marilyn 13/05/08
  27.   to Tali #19 21:59  |  zeev 13/05/08
  28.   Missing Opportunities 22:15  |  Clay Rowe 13/05/08
  29.   to omolll #25 22:18  |  zeev 13/05/08
  30.   to David Hickson #22 23:18  |  zeev 13/05/08
  31.   We owe gratitude to Hashem 23:31  |  Herbert Kaine 13/05/08
  32.   We owe gratitude to Hashem 23:31  |  Herbert Kaine 13/05/08
  33.   We owe gratitude to Hashem 23:31  |  Herbert Kaine 13/05/08
  34.   We owe gratitude to Hashem 23:31  |  Herbert Kaine 13/05/08
  35.   The partition ... 23:32  |  Morris Valentine 13/05/08
  36.   declare independence...please 02:31  |  s mezritch 14/05/08
  37.   #15 Tim. Your equation of Zionism and Nazism is despicable. 02:49  |  Chaim 14/05/08
  38.   #30 Zeev. So we owe ourselves the "gift" of endless terror. 03:01  |  Chaim 14/05/08
  39.   very true... 05:34  |  John 14/05/08
  40.   Blind symmetry: Extremists on both sides 06:19  |  Steve 14/05/08
  41.   Misplaced Guilt 07:02  |  Steve 14/05/08
  42.   Morris Valentine #35 Bingo! 08:28  |  Tim R 14/05/08
  43.   Bradley Burston`s perfect balance 09:31  |  Clickfool 14/05/08
  44.   #4 Augustine e Johnson. Just the sand? 09:34  |  Maureen Ann 14/05/08
  45.   to Chaim #38 - on warped logic 09:41  |  zeev 14/05/08
  46.   We owe the Palestinians nothing, zero, klum, wallaishi!! 09:41  |  Dr Eric 14/05/08
  47.   If the Israeli people would be a "smart" people...... 09:44  |  Swiss (Dino) 14/05/08
  48.   For Ben Menachem, who needs soothing pap # 11 09:52  |  Clickfool 14/05/08
  49.   A land without thieves for thieves without a land 10:01  |  Chanalau, Tova 14/05/08
  50.   u have proven that u do not deserve any thing 10:10  |  Imad 14/05/08
  51.   You gave them a state 10:14  |  Ben Menachem 14/05/08
  52.   I Just Hate Nazis And Taliban 10:26  |  Yosemite 14/05/08
  53.   Stop the ethnocentric rhetoric and make a deal 10:34  |  Scott 14/05/08
  54.   Burston, I salute you 10:38  |  Yaz 14/05/08
  55.   Dino 10:57  |  Linichka 14/05/08
  56.   thank you 11:15  |  rebecka 14/05/08
  57.   Gaza is a Palestinian state -what about the 11:34  |  Arthur 14/05/08
  58.   Thank you Mr. Burston, but need to see the response 11:47  |  El-Birawi 14/05/08
  59.   #48 Scott 11:56  |  Question Mark 14/05/08
  60.   "we" owe HaShem a repentance, "we" owe the forefathers an apology 12:12  |  mary for jews 14/05/08
  61.   NOT ONLY A STATE 12:19  |  indrajaya 14/05/08
  62.   #48 Scott Part 2 12:35  |  Question Mark 14/05/08
  63.   Rubbish. The Arabs owe the Palestinians a state 12:37  |  SystemF 14/05/08
  64.   I agree with Mark Greenberg (Post No. 5) 12:48  |  Johnny Weintraub 14/05/08
  65.   sounds nice; well, some of us have been willing to do this - 12:49  |  ivo 14/05/08
  66.   The Palestinians owe us sixty years of peace 12:54  |  Margie in Tel Aviv 14/05/08
  67.   Clickfool-You and the Moslems are very moral 12:56  |  Arthur 14/05/08
  68.   Israel won`t listen to Bradley until it`s too late. 12:59  |  Michael 14/05/08
  69.   El-Birawi: Jews were killed in Palestine 1929 13:04  |  Arthur