Debunking the myths of Israel’s Declaration of Independence
JVL Introduction
It’s fine to cite Israel’s Declaration of Independence to prove its commitment to equality, as many protestors currently are doing, but better first look at this statement in context, says Tom Pessah.
The declaration opens with 12 paragraphs on the connection between the Jewish people and the Land of Israel, then a clause calling for equal rights, a prerequisite for the following clause calling on the UN to recognise Israel and only then, in passing, do “Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel” suddenly appear out of nowhere.
The Declaration came at a time when over 400,00 Palestinians had already fled or been expelled, soon to become part of the three-quarters of a million permanent refugees when Israel decided not to allow them to return and to confiscate and reallocate their possessions to new Jewish immigrants.
So, if Israel’s democracy starts from the Declaration, it has already erased the Palestinians.
This article was originally published by +972 Magazine on Mon 10 Apr 2023. Read the original here.
Debunking the myths of Israel’s Declaration of Independence
If Israeli protesters want to cite Israel’s founding document as a moral guide, they first need to acknowledge its failings.
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Yuval Noah Harari is a fairly useful ally for those driving this re-writing of history as he has managed to amass a big reputation for modern, fairly progressive and critical thinking in social history, politics and a bit of anthropology…Why not single him out for committing yet another trahison des clercs? or even better, use this to get him to change his mind?
It has to be true, because there it is in black and white……so it is written. So too the Nation State Laws.