By Rabbi Dow Marmur
JERUSALEM–The heading of a recent article by the British journalist Brendan O’Neill is significant: “Palestine an obsession of the radical West, not Arabs” (www.theaustralian.com.au). He draws our attention to the fact that during the demonstrations in Egypt and elsewhere there were very few pro-Palestinian slogans: “Instead, this revolt was about Egyptian people’s own freedom and living conditions.”
But that’s not how its ostensible supporters in the West chose to see it. For example, the only way the pro-Egyptian demonstration in London could pick up steam was by plastering it with “Free Palestine” and “End the Israeli occupation” placards. This is, writes O’Neill, because in recent years the Palestinian issue “has moved from the realm of Arab radicalism” to “become almost the exclusive property of Western middle-class radicals.”
Palestine is the only issue these radicals seem to get excited about. I was sad to read O’Neill’s observation that the plight of the Palestinians “is not driven by future-oriented demands for economic development in a Palestinian homeland in the West Bank or Gaza. Instead it is driven by a view of Palestinians as the ultimate victims, the hapless and pathetic children of the new world order, who need kindly Westerners to protect them from Big Bad Israel.”
That writes O’Neill “is the politics of pity rather than solidarity.” It was like that in the aftermath of the Holocaust when Jewish survivors, also in Sweden where I grew up, were regarded as cases to be helped less into a healthy return to normal life than into a sick dependence on the kindness of strangers.
As a result of the remarkable, indeed miraculous, revival of Jewish life, epitomized by the sovereign State of Israel, Jews are now cast in the role of oppressors of the hapless Palestinians. Not infrequently they’re compared to their Nazi tormentors.
It behooves us all, Jews and non-Jews alike, to support Palestinians toward their own state and to make sure Israel’s Arab citizens have full equality. But it’s by no means obvious that they’ll get it by the shrill slogans of radicalized students on university campuses in Europe and North America, because, to cite O’Neill again, “today’s pro-Palestinian leftism is more anthropological than political.” It doesn’t really appear to be very concerned with those they identify as victims but to treat them “as an intriguing tribe to be prodded and preserved.” It’s Western romanticism at its cheapest.
That’s probably also why the UN Security Council, instead of addressing the pressing and dramatic issues that currently confront many countries in the Middle East and North Africa, chose to focus on the Palestinians and the Israeli settlements. Indeed, the settlements are bad not only for the Palestinians but, in the long run, also for Israel. However, in view of what else is happening in the world, the Palestinian issue, though always very important, doesn’t seem to be the most urgent at this very moment.
Even those who’ve no reason to object to the now aborted UN resolution should be deeply concerned about what the Security Council chose to be silent about. To fall into the trap of what O’Neill has described as the Western obsession is to do a profound injustice to all the ordinary citizens of the many countries now in turmoil by saying nothing, neither about them nor to them. It’s hypocrisy we must all expose and condemn.
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Rabbi Marmur is spiritual leader emeritus of Holy Blossom Temple in Toronto. Henow divides his year between Canada and Israel. He may be contacted at dow.marmur@sdjewishworld.com