Presentation by Israeli intellectual Meron Benvenisti
Event Featuring:
Overview
Meron Benvenisti presented the underlying logic behind his new book “Son of the Cypresses: Memories, Reflections and Regrets from a Political Life.” Arguing that the complex settlement grid in the West Bank, the disengagement from Gaza, and the Separation Barrier have all fundamentally created a de facto bi-national state between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, he stressed that only when both the Israelis and Palestinians — and perhaps most critically the international community — acknowledge this reality can a viable strategy to resolve the conflict be produced.
Event Summary
Mr. Benvenisti began his presentation by dismissing the continuous efforts of various international organizations and NGOs to halt Jewish settlement in the West Bank. According to Mr. Benvenisti, this focus on settlements should be “thrown into the garbage bin of Zionist ideas, together with the Kibbutz.” Describing the current situation rather than prescribing a solution to the conflict, he explained that the territorial and social fragmentation caused by the settlements has already created the geography of a bi-national state. No longer a reflection of the situation on the ground, the issue of settlement deconstruction should therefore be shifted to dealing with the Separation Barrier, also known in Israel as “the wall.”
Describing himself as a Zionist aspiring to retain a Jewish homeland, Mr. Benvenisti explained why it is important to reformulate the discussion on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather than succumbing to the fear of a demographic threat — which leads to the idea that separation from the Palestinians is essential to ensuring a Jewish majority in Israel — he suggested that the two sides accept the current demographics and geography, and embark on a new type of dialogue: Given that even the most liberal Israelis, backed by the international community, are willing to give the Palestinians barely 20% of pre-1948 historical Palestine, the two parties ought to start thinking of how to live side by side rather than apart.
Mr. Benvenisti stressed that Israel’s 2005 unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip had not deserved the applause it had received. Rather than returning land to the Palestinians, he characterized this act as merely a means of subtracting some 1.5 million Palestinians from the formal demography between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The disengagement, coupled with the installation of “the wall,” implies a continuous occupation of the Palestinian Territories rather than a respectful partition. According to Mr. Benvenisti, Israel benefits from using the definition of military occupation since this term is temporary in nature, a condition that the international community tolerates.
Moreover, Israel has managed to divide the Palestinians into five sub-groups, all alienated from each other. Detailing these specific groups, Mr. Benvenisti first mentioned the Israeli-Palestinians, the label given to all Palestinians who did not leave the land in 1948 and who thus now have Israeli citizenship. Recently, this group has for the first time demanded minority rights and acknowledgement of their status as “present absentees.” However, many Israeli-Palestinians are reluctant to promote the interests of Palestinians residing outside of Israel proper, fearing accusations of treachery. The second group is the Gazan Palestinians, geographically secluded and represented politically by Hamas. Third are the Palestinians of the West Bank, who face a complex reality of settlements, restricted roads, checkpoints, and the Separation Barrier. The 250,000 Palestinians of East Jerusalem who live west of “the wall” and the Diaspora Palestinians constitute the final two sub-groups.
International actors such as the US and the EU are also active participants in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. These global players donate $1-1.5 billion annually, a sum which merely sustains the status quo. In the current climate, most international actors fear the high costs that unknown developments may incur. Mr. Benvenisti asserted that Israelis and Palestinians must stop pretending to reside in two different lands separated by the ambiguous “Green Line” and come to terms with the fact that they share the same bi-national geographic space. Once this conceptual change occurs, the impracticality of a two-state solution will become apparent and policy-makers will be able to use this newly re-defined geographical concept to brainstorm, fund, and eventually implement new ideas to resolve the conflict.
In response to questions addressing the practicality of his ideas, Mr. Benvenisti answered that he can only describe the current situation, and that it will be the role of future generations of policy makers to bring about new ideas. However, alluding to the case of Cyprus, he emphasized that the concepts of “soft boundaries” and collective rights for minorities must be more carefully scrutinized by those looking for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
About this Event
Mr. Benvenisti offered these remarks at the Middle East Institute’s Boardman Room in Washington, DC on April 17, 2007.
Speaker Details
Meron Benvenisti is one of Israel’s most distinguished public intellectuals, who for decades has been a leading commentator on the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma. Mr. Benvenisti was Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem in the 1970s and served as director of the West Bank Database Project in the 1980s. He has published many books, including City of Stone, The Hidden History of Jerusalem, Conflicts and Contradictions, Sacred Landscape, and others. He is a frequent contributor to Ha’aretz.
Attributions
This event summary was written by Shira Efron, publications intern at the Middle East Institute. She recently completed a Masters at New York University in Political Economy. The summary was peer edited by fellow publications intern Peter White, a recent graduate of Princeton's Near East Studies concentration.
