Israel’s part in the execution of the right of return, without it committing suicide

By Dr. Yair Boimel

5/2010

Already in the beginning, in order to prevent misunderstandings of any kind, I will emphasize that I oppose the full physical and geographical return of the refugees and their descendants to the territories that are today under the sovereignty of the state of Israel (the borders of March 1949 or June 4, 1967).
The events of the Nakba of 1948 occurred, mainly, because of the attack of the Jewish fighting forces (the IDF, since June 1948) against the Palestinian people. Certainly there were failures, mistakes and mainly a lack of unity among the Palestinian leadership and other Arab forces, but all these pale in comparison to the diplomatic and military activities of the Zionists, who took maximal advantage of the announcement that most Palestinians and most Arabs had refused to accept the partition plan and the beginning of the hateful actions that occurred the day after the decision. On the basis of this refusal, and in coordination and cooperation between the Zionists and the Jordanians (in most cases) the Palestinian state was cancelled and of the territory that turned into the state of Israel between 700 and 800 thousand Palestinians were expelled from the territory that would be Israel in the year of the Nakba, which comprised 60% of the Palestinian people as a whole.

The most meaningful act in the Zionist military forces was not the expulsion of the Palestinians, but rather the prevention of their return following the cessation of hostilities. The flight of the residents of the war-affected areas was a thing long known in the history of humanity and of Palestine. The new phenomenon here was the prevention of return and the destruction of the villages. The Nakba was not just the destruction of the villages and the expulsions but also the destruction of the Palestinian nationalism and its collective achievements, like Palestinian modernization under 1948.

Against the indigenous Palestinian project that was defeated and destroyed, in great measure because of us, the immigrant Zionist project achieved a complete victory. Zionism has the right to exist and the Jewish people has the right to self-determination in Palestine. But the Zionist project was achievable beside  and not instead of the Palestinian project. The historical research teaches us that despite the fact that the peaceful alternative existed on both sides, the dominant and more nationalistic leaderships, on both sides, did not want to cooperate and did not accept the mutual legitimacy of the existence of the other people. But Zionism, which succeeded in translating its economic, organizational, industrial, intellectual and diplomatic superiority into an established, determined, unrestrained army, won.

In order to repair but a small part of the injustice done against the Palestinians, the Jewish state of Israel must, as long as it seeks to remain this way and not volunteer itself to decide by submitting to a geographical return of the refugees to their places of residence from before the Nakba, carry out four acts that will help the Palestinians to return to the constructive process of building the state of the Palestinian nation.
The first action and the most difficult of all is accepting on itself the dominant and central share of the creation of the Nakba. Until today, Israel formally refuses to accept responsibility for the Palestinian Nakba. That is the most difficult step that is required of Israel. The other three steps stem from the first.
The second action is payment of compensation to the Palestinians. A number of years ago there was a measure of the damages and expropriation. I think that the dollar amount is close to 100 billion dollars. A part of it Israel will have to pay.
The third action will be achieving a peace agreement with the PLO or with the PA and a complete Israeli withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967 in order to establish there a Palestinian state. In the framework of this action it is necessary that Israel see the progress and growth of the Palestinian state as an existential requirement for the state of Israel.

The fourth action that Israel will have to undertake is to grant full citizenship to all Palestinians citizens of Israel, while leaving only one racist law, and that is the Jewish law of return.
I do not see myself writing a summary of what the Palestinians need to do. But it seems to me that if it is their will to actualize their right of return to a process of building a nation, which was stopped in 1948, without ending the state of Israel, a thing that might lead to another Nakba, they will find partners on the Israeli side.