I would like to take a moment to respond to some of the statements made by Devaka Gunawardena in a Wespeak on Nov. 3. Since I am currently studying in Egypt, I have no firsthand knowledge of Alison Weir’s talk and will not discuss it in any way. My disagreement is instead with Gunawardena’s statements about the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
His initial declaration that “Concerning the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the first thing to recognize is that Israel is a colonial state,” is misrepresentative. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a colony is “a body of people who settle in a new locality, forming a community subject to or connected with their parent state.”* This definition precludes Israel from being described as such on two counts. First, there is no parent state for this immigration. While the land was first controlled by the Ottoman Empire and later the British Empire, almost none of the immigrants came from either Empire. Second, the fact that these immigrant communities existed through two different empires contradicts the allegation that they were “subject to or connected with their parent state.” Additionally, I believe that for something to be defined as colonial, immigration must be supported by the central state. This directly contradicts the British practice during the Mandate period, when they placed quotas limiting the number of immigrants and either deported or imprisoned those who attempted to immigrate illegally. No one state can be said to have created the “colonial state” of Israel. I have heard the argument that it is a European, or Western European, colony; but such a designation requires some type of unified European government in the era when intra-European wars cost tens of millions of lives.
My second point of contention is entirely factual. Gunawardena argues that “It [Israel] was founded by Western Jews.” While a Frenchman, Theodor Herzl, is considered to be the father of modern Zionism, the Jews that immigrated to the land were not Western European. Some history: prior to World War II, immigration of Jews to the land that would later become the State of Israel is generally divided into five separate waves. The first two occurred while the land was under the control of the Ottoman Empire and was part of the Vilayet (province) of Syria, and the rest when it was under British control and called the Mandate of Palestine. During the Ottoman period, the immigration was almost exclusively from Eastern, not Western, Europe, and Russia in particular. Following the addition of the Palestinian Mandate to the British Empire, this trend of Eastern European immigration continued, and was only significantly altered when German Jews immigrated because of the Nazi regime.** While Germany is now often considered to be part of Western Europe, this did not occur until the division of the continent during the Cold War; prior to that, Germany was considered to be part of Central Europe. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, non-Western European countries continued to account for most of the immigrants. First, Eastern European refugees from the Holocaust, then those from Arab states, later a major wave of Ethiopians, and, most recently, Russians after the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The history of the reason and the current political situation are clearly related; but it is vital to be able to discriminate between the past and the present, and avoid blanket condemnation or support of either side. Leaving the realm of history, I would like to mention the tragedy that occurred in Gaza early Wednesday morning. Due to an apparent miscommunication within the army, Israeli artillery shelled a densely populated residential neighborhood instead of the empty fields used to fire Kassam rockets at Israeli towns. This simple miscommunication led to the deaths of nineteen truly innocent civilians and the injuring of many more. Such events cannot be allowed to occur, and the Israeli government and army command must take the necessary steps to ensure that it does not happen again. In response, the Israeli defense minister called an immediate halt on the shelling of the Gaza Strip, and an inquiry into the cause of the miscommunication. This reaction, as well as the sincere regret and condolences of the Israeli government should be recognized, and I call on the Palestinian government to react similarly after the killing of Israeli civilians.
* www.oed.com “colony”
**www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Modern+History/Centenary+of+Zionism/Aliya+and+Absorption.htm
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