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| Volume VIII, March 2001, Number 1 |
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| ABSTRACT: The Next Expulsion of the Palestinians: One Step Closer? |
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| Ronald Bleier |
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Mr. Bleier lives in New York City and edits the Demographic,
Environmental and Securities Issues Project (DESIP), an online
journal (rbleier@igc.org).
The effect of the al-Aqsa intifada, which began at the end of
September 2000 (and was four months old at the time of writing) has been to
polarize all sides and so has created as dangerous a situation for the
Palestinian people as they have ever faced. The Palestinians have undergone two
great episodes of expulsion during the wars of 1948 and 1967.
Now that formerly moderate voices inside and
outside of Israel have been marginalized or stilled completely, a broad
consensus is being strengthened that may lead to drastic action by the
Israeli government if and when the opportunity presents itself.
Another Middle East war might serve as a screen for such action. Since the focus of the
dispute is over the question of sharing the land between two peoples,
historical precedents point to the possibility that the Israelis may once again
drive the Palestinians out of the former Palestine. In the end, only a
rectification of the disparity in the power balance between the two sides will
enable the Palestinians to hold firm. In the meantime, the Palestinians must
depend in great measure on the international community to restrain the Israelis.
The article goes into some detail concerning the expulsion of 750,000 Arabs from
the former Palestine during the 1948-49 war. The myth that the fighting began
as a result of Arab intransigence has been addressed by Simha Flapan, a Labor
party leader at the time and a member of the school of New Historians. He has
pointed out that it was Ben Gurion and the Jewish leadership who decided to go
to war by illegally declaring an Israeli state on May 14, 1948.
The Jewish leadership chose a military course
of action because they could not be satisfied with the borders of the new state
that the U.N. Partition Resolution had granted. They understood that without a
rectification of the map by force, they would have had to incorporate almost as
many Arabs into the new state as there would have been
Jews.
The advent of Ariel Sharon to the post of prime minister as a result of the
February 2001 elections makes it somewhat easier to conjecture that former
Prime Minister Ehud Barak's main concern, over and above remaining in power,
had been to reinforce Israel's rejectionist policy, which has not changed in
its essentials since the very beginning of the state. Once in office, Ariel
Sharon has thus far given every sign that his views with regard to the
Palestinians have not changed and that he will take any and every opportunity
to carry out the Zionist dream of a Land of Israel free of Arabs. And if that
cannot be accomplished during his tenure, he will do his best to pave the way
for its ultimate realization.
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