UN Needs to Reexamine Its Strategy for Ending Israeli Apartheid

Palestinians throughout the globe are marking the seventy fifth anniversary of the Nakba (“disaster” in Arabic), when some 700,000 Palestinians fled from or have been violently expelled from their properties upon Israel’s founding in 1948. The event comes as 5 days of preventing, that killed 33 Palestinians in Gaza and two individuals in Israel, was dropped at a cease this weekend after the Israeli military and the militant group Islamic Jihad agreed to a Egyptian-brokered ceasefire. At the moment the United Nations is holding its first-ever high-level particular assembly to commemorate the Nakba. We host a roundtable dialogue with Munir Nuseibah, a human rights lawyer and director of Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic in Jerusalem; Saleh Hijazi, a member of the Palestinian Boycott Nationwide Committee; and Peter Beinart, editor-at-large for Jewish Currents.

This can be a rush transcript. Copy might not be in its ultimate type.

AMY GOODMAN: That is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The Conflict and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.

We flip now to the Occupied Palestinian Territories. On Saturday, the Israeli military and the militant group Islamic Jihad agreed to an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire following 5 days of preventing in Gaza, which has been below an Israeli blockade for the previous 16 years. Previous to the ceasefire, Israeli forces killed 33 Palestinians in Gaza, together with girls and youngsters, and at the very least 147 Palestinians have been injured. In the meantime, Palestinian militants fired over a thousand rockets into Israel, killing two individuals: an Israeli lady and a Palestinian man from Gaza working in Israel. The newest violence started Tuesday, when Israel broke a earlier ceasefire.

This all comes as Palestinians throughout the globe are marking in the present day the seventy fifth anniversary of what they name the Nakba, the Arabic phrase for “disaster,” when properly over 700,000 Palestinians fled or have been violently expelled from their properties in 1948 when Israel was based. For the primary time, the United Nations is holding a high-level particular assembly to commemorate the Nakba in the present day. In the meantime, in Washington, D.C., Democratic Congressmember Rashida Tlaib launched a decision final week to acknowledge what she calls the continued Nakba and the rights of Palestinian refugees.

We’re joined by three company. Peter Beinart is editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. His current piece is headlined, “Might Israel Carry Out One other Nakba?” He’s a professor of journalism and political science on the Newmark Graduate College of Journalism on the Metropolis College of New York, CUNY. Additionally with us, Saleh Hijazi, a part of the Palestinian Boycott Nationwide Committee. He’s the previous deputy regional director for the Center East at Amnesty Worldwide. He was a key researcher on their report, “Israel’s Apartheid In opposition to Palestinians.” He’s visiting New York from Ramallah within the occupied West Financial institution. Munir Nuseibah can also be with us, a human rights lawyer and director of Al-Quds Human Rights Clinic in Jerusalem. Saleh and Munir each arrived in New York on Sunday to attend in the present day’s assembly on the United Nations on the Nakba.

We welcome you all to Democracy Now! I need to begin with professor Munir Nuseibah. If you happen to can discuss in regards to the Egyptian-brokered ceasefire and what this violence of the final weeks has meant?

MUNIR NUSEIBAH: The violence of the final week is the unlucky continuation of impunity in Israel. Over the previous few a long time, for the reason that Nakba, really, till the present day, Israel has been in a position to maintain an apartheid regime in Palestine and shut Gaza in a siege, stop individuals from transferring, stop items from transferring, but additionally preserve the occupation working, preserve the displacement and the demolition and the continued Nakba, which you talked about earlier in your introduction, and on the identical time proceed with a coverage of assassinations, of imprisonment, arbitrary imprisonment. And all of those components have — proceed inflicting these small armed conflicts that occur from time to time. However the issue is that with impunity, with no punishment for many who perpetrate warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity, we are able to solely anticipate these occasions to proceed and to come back again many times and once more.

Sure, each time there may be an escalation like this one, there will likely be intervention from neighboring international locations, like Egypt, to cease such a army battle. Nevertheless, the primary issues stay. Gaza remains to be below siege and collective punishment of each one that lives in there and each one that additionally lives exterior and who needs to go to Gaza. The West Financial institution remains to be occupied. The Israeli regime is making use of apartheid in all the territory of Palestine-Israel. So, sadly, whereas I can say that we’re comfy and blissful that the army motion has stopped, I’d say that there’s, you already know — this would possibly come again sooner or later, so long as there are not any elementary treatments for the present state of affairs.

AMY GOODMAN: In 2018, I interviewed Mahmoud Salah, a Nakba survivor who was compelled out of his residence village of Sar’a in 1948. On the time he spoke to us, he was 86 years outdated. He was born in a village simply exterior Jerusalem that was bombed and invaded when he was a youngster in 1948. He described how his household sought refuge in what’s now the West Financial institution. He slept in caves, below timber, transferring from refugee camp to refugee camp, earlier than the U.N. ultimately despatched him on a ship to South America, to Venezuela. Then he went to Colombia. I spoke to him in Chicago, the place he lived, and I requested him what that phrase “Nakba,” Arabic for “disaster,” means to him.

MAHMOUD SALAH: Nakba means it’s a catastrophe of my coronary heart, a catastrophe of my household, a catastrophe of my soul, a catastrophe of my nation, as a result of it’s — the Nakba, it’s the historical past of my nation, of my grandfather, grandmother, the catastrophe of my even religion, my faith, my college. It was destroyed. The Nakba, it’s — Nakba, it’s a phrase that may be a very, very unusual phrase, a tough phrase. It’s nonetheless in my coronary heart. And I give it to my sons. I give it to my — all people I do know from the household.

AMY GOODMAN: Saleh Hijazi, if you happen to might discuss in regards to the significance of in the present day on the United Nations, the primary time they’ll commemorate the Nakba? And likewise speak about your earlier work at Amnesty Worldwide, when final 12 months, for the primary time, they talked about Israel as an apartheid state.

SALEH HIJAZI: Sure. So, really, the 2, each the U.N. commemorating the Nakba for the primary time and Amnesty Worldwide coming and recognizing that the regime that Israel imposes on Palestinians is that of apartheid, is a regime that treats Palestinians as an inferior racial group and imposes a system of oppression and domination on them with the intention of making a Jewish supremacist state, with as little Palestinians, ideally no Palestinians, throughout the land of Palestine — each these are coming to acknowledge what Palestinians have been saying for a lot of, a few years. It’s a recognition of the Palestinian narrative that in 1948 we have been victims of a deliberate ethnic cleaning of the indigenous inhabitants, the Palestinians, in Palestine, and that that occasion in 1948 continues till in the present day, that we’re nonetheless going through the identical systematic dispossession, displacement, systematic killing.

You realize, you have been mentioning Gaza and the assault on Gaza just lately. That is the sixth assault of such gravity in opposition to Gaza for the reason that blockade, the prison blockade, that was imposed on the Gaza Strip since 2007. Final 12 months, in response to the U.N., over the past 12 months, we’ve seen the sharpest rise within the killing of Palestinians within the occupied West Financial institution, together with many, many youngsters. So, these are all signs of this method of oppression and domination, of forceable displacement.

Now, they’re late, however they’re, after all, very welcome, although a recognition just isn’t sufficient. What we want is to sort out the foundation causes of what’s taking place. We’d like the dismantling of this method of oppression and domination. The U.N. has a accountability. It has dedicated itself to addressing the query of Palestine, however it solely does that in a form of a partial method, in a humanitarian method. We’d like a political addressing of the state of affairs in Palestine. We’d like the dismantling of settler colonialism and — Zionist settler colonialism and apartheid. And it begins with ending complicity relating to states, establishments, firms, to isolate the apartheid regime, related — similar to what occurred in southern Africa, when the world stood as much as the apartheid regimes that have been there in Namibia, in South Africa and in Zimbabwe, remoted these regimes, imposed boycotts and sanctions in opposition to them. That is what we would like the world to do. We would like the U.N. to go down that route of motion, and we would like additionally particular person states to additionally finish their complicity with the system of oppression and domination in Palestine.

AMY GOODMAN: Palestinian American Congressmember Rashida Tlaib, who represents Detroit, just lately launched a decision to acknowledge the Nakba. The decision reads, quote, “The Nakba just isn’t solely a historic occasion, but additionally an ongoing course of characterised by Israel’s separate-and-unequal legal guidelines and insurance policies towards Palestinians, together with the destruction of Palestinian properties, the development and growth of unlawful settlements, and Israel’s confinement of Palestinians to ever-shrinking areas of land,” she writes.

Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy tried to quash a deliberate occasion by Tlaib commemorating the Nakba by stopping it from going forward within the U.S. Capitol. As a substitute, she hosted the occasion in a packed Senate committee room full of Palestinian rights supporters. The group Democratic Majority for Israel tweeted in response, quote, “The basis of the disaster: the Arab world refused to just accept the UN plan for a Jewish & Arab state in what was left of the UK’s Palestine Mandate after Jordan’s creation. As a substitute, 5 Arab armies invaded Israel, making an attempt to destroy it & push the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea,” they stated.

I wished to convey Peter Beinart into this dialog. Peter is editor-at-large of Jewish Currents. You lately wrote a piece, “Might Israel Carry Out One other Nakba?” First, might you reply to each the decision, what’s taking place in Israel, in addition to that response I simply learn, after which speak about what you recommend in your piece, “Might Israel Carry Out One other Nakba?” the place you say, “Expulsionist sentiment is frequent in Israeli society and politics. To disregard the warning indicators is to abdicate accountability,” you write, Peter?

PETER BEINART: Certain. I believe the truth that there may be even a dialog, an argument, in regards to the Nakba happening in Washington is itself progress. And it owes an incredible deal to the determine of Rashida Tlaib, who I believe is the primary American politician in a very long time who’s been prepared to actually make an effort to get this commemorated. So it requires individuals like Kevin McCarthy and teams like Democratic Majority for Israel to should argue again and attempt to cancel these occasions, which previously they didn’t even have to do. And he or she discovered an vital ally in Bernie Sanders, who’s the one who allowed her to make use of that room within the Senate.

The issue with making an attempt to form of blame Palestinians for their very own expulsion and declare it solely was a results of Arab armies attacking Israel is, initially, {that a} vital variety of the roughly 750,000 Palestinians who have been expelled or fled in worry between 1947 and 1949 did so earlier than the Arab armies attacked, earlier than Israel declared independence in Could 1948, and likewise as a result of these expulsions didn’t finish when the warfare ended. If you happen to learn — if you happen to can simply learn Israeli historians, like Benny Morris in his e-book Israel’s Border Wars, he talks about how Israel continued expulsions, albeit at a smaller scale, by means of into the Nineteen Fifties. Then Israel expelled a lot of Palestinians once more in 1967. So the purpose of my essay is that whereas there have been fluctuations within the tempo at which Palestinians have been expelled, this has been a steady course of since Israel’s creation, as a result of Palestinians have been an issue for Israel. After which, the essential guiding notion in Israeli politics has been: You need to management as a lot land as attainable with as few Palestinians as attainable.

What I believe could also be completely different and worrying about this second is that you’ve got a vital mass of individuals on this Israeli authorities who’re on the report as suggesting that they want to discover a way of convincing or coercing massive numbers of Palestinians to go away the West Financial institution, if not Israel correct. It begins with Bezalel Smotrich, the finance minister, who’s accountable for civil administration, who wrote very explicitly in 2017, primarily, that Palestinians ought to be given a alternative both to just accept residing below Israeli management with out fundamental rights or to go away. Itamar Ben-Gvir additionally has spoken in these phrases, however a few of the Likud ministers, as properly. Yoav Gallant, the protection minister; Tzachi Hanegbi, the nationwide safety adviser; Avi Dichter, the agricultural minister, former head of Shin Guess, the home safety company — all of them have primarily recommended — paradoxically, they don’t deny that the Nakba passed off in 1948; they acknowledge it and say that it could have to occur once more. And I believe if Israel feels utter impunity from the US and from the remainder of the world, it makes it extra seemingly, particularly in a context of rising Palestinian armed resistance within the West Financial institution, that we might get to that horrible second.

AMY GOODMAN: You additionally wrote a piece in your Substack titled “Is Denying the Nakba Antisemitism?” Clarify what you imply.

PETER BEINART: Properly, that was a play on a speech that Yair Lapid made, when he primarily stated that antisemitism — any type of racism ought to be thought-about antisemitism. I believe the purpose that I’ve tried to make in a few of my writing is there’s, to me, a really profound irony and tragic irony in the truth that Jews, who — we all know, deeply, that preserving reminiscence is the way in which you preserve a individuals. The rationale that the Jewish individuals have survived, in massive measure, is as a result of we inform the tales of our historical past, and we protect a nationwide reminiscence. So, when Jewish leaders, in Israel or the US, primarily inform Palestinians to neglect the Nakba, to recover from it, what they’re doing just isn’t making a transfer — that isn’t a suggestion of peace. That can be a proposal of extinction, as a result of if you happen to inform a individuals to neglect its historical past, you might be actually inviting it to stop to exist. And that’s what I discover, as a Jew, so disturbing about this continuous Nakba denial that we see in our mainstream American Jewish organizations.

AMY GOODMAN: I need to convey Saleh Hijazi and professor Munir Nuseibah again into this dialog. Professor Nuseibah, as you come to the U.N. in the present day, what do you suppose really must occur, and the function of the United Nations on this?

MUNIR NUSEIBAH: The United Nations had an vital function in creating the Nakba, sadly. Again in 1947, the United Nations Common Meeting advisable the partition of Palestine into two states, responding apparently to the political ambiance that the UK, the colonial energy current in Palestine on the time — responding to the ambiance that it created. After that, the Nakba occurred, and Israel displaced 80% of the overwhelming — you already know, of the Palestinian inhabitants that lived within the space that it conquered throughout that warfare. These Palestinians have turn out to be refugees in numerous refugee camps, within the West Financial institution, in Gaza, in Jordan, in Egypt, in Lebanon, in Syria and different locations all over the world.

The Common Meeting has resolved already, again in 1948 in a decision, that the Palestine refugees ought to have the best to return. And it has been protecting this decision and calling for it repeatedly since then; nevertheless — and there been many different resolutions that contributed to calling for various Palestinian rights. We have now a variety of literature, a variety of resolutions from the Common Meeting, some resolutions from the Safety Council, that push for Palestinian rights. Nevertheless, we haven’t been in a position to see precise measures taken in opposition to Israel to be able to pressure Israel to abide by worldwide regulation and U.N. resolutions.

And so, what we anticipate and what we hope is that by commemorating the Nakba and by wanting and responding to the work of the human rights attorneys and activists, but additionally the U.N. particular rapporteurs, who’re carefully documenting the state of affairs in Palestine, that the U.N. will begin taking measures at a sure level, measures that may be translated into insurance policies which might be taken each by the U.N. but additionally by particular person states. This has been lacking. The U.N. has been additionally concerned on this lengthy, unending so-called peace course of that began again in — within the early ’90s. And sadly, it’s evident to us now that this peace course of is simply serving as a drug for everybody. Everyone is saying, “Ah, there’s a peace course of taking place now. We don’t have to do any intervention. Let’s invite all of the events to take a seat on a desk.” The events have sat on tables for very lengthy intervals of time. They haven’t gotten anyplace. There’s a colonial mission that’s persevering with to develop, to construct Jewish-only settlements, to implement an apartheid regime between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. And this wants to finish. So, you can’t persuade them to surrender supremacy solely on a negotiating desk. Negotiating tables, sadly, aren’t sufficient for that. What we really need is concrete actions by the United Nations and by member states of the United Nations, by the Worldwide Felony Court docket, which has jurisdiction over the West Financial institution, together with East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, which might begin appearing. So, we want this. We’d like motion.

AMY GOODMAN: Let me ask Saleh Hijazi. The Israeli diaspora affairs and combating antisemitism minister, Amichai Chikli, just lately despatched a letter to the United Nations demanding that Francesca Albanese, the United Nations particular rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, be fired, claiming she continues to spew hatred, antisemitism, and incite violence. Are you able to speak about how Israel continues to problem the U.N. and its selections in the present day?

SALEH HIJAZI: Sure. It’s each by utilizing these techniques of accusations of antisemitism in opposition to U.N. mechanisms, just like the particular rapporteur on the human rights state of affairs within the Occupied Territories — now Francesca Albanese, however earlier than it, professor Michael Lynk, and earlier than it, professor Richard Falk, and earlier than it, Decide Dugard, John Dugard — it does so in opposition to Human Rights Watch, Amnesty Worldwide, once they come out with detailed documentation and authorized evaluation of the state of affairs in Palestine as that of apartheid, which is a criminal offense in opposition to humanity, that each states and the United Nations have a accountability, an obligation to sort out. It does so in opposition to, for instance, Palestinian human rights defenders and organizations, accusing them of antisemitism due to respectable, factual criticism, factually based mostly criticism of Israel’s insurance policies of systematic human rights violations, or relating to Palestinians, like us, in civil society, additionally accusations of terrorism, that each time there may be criticism of Israel, it’s both antisemitic or it’s supportive of terrorism.

And I believe this tactic wants — it’s uncovered. It’s, in my opinion, now not working. And that the United Nations, on the highest degree, from the secretary-general, together with to member states, ought to actually stand agency in opposition to these techniques. They need to stand agency in supporting the mechanisms which might be there, just like the particular rapporteurs, Francesca Albanese being certainly one of them, however there are additionally others that come out and produce documentation and reviews exposing Israel’s human rights violations. It ought to stand agency with the Worldwide Felony Court docket in finishing up this open investigation, that has been open for a very long time with none form of motion, versus then the prosecutor transferring on different conditions in a short time when there are proof produced of warfare crimes and crimes in opposition to humanity.

So, I believe, in response to this, that — you already know, let me say, Palestine is the litmus check of this worldwide world order, of the rule of regulation, of human rights, of worldwide regulation. If the world fails Palestine by giving in into these scare, bullying techniques by Israel, then it has failed in lots of, many different locations all over the world. If worldwide regulation doesn’t stand in Israel and in Palestine and for Palestinians, if the crimes of apartheid, if systematic human rights violations are allowed to proceed with none accountability, then they will proceed with none form of accountability anyplace all over the world. So, actually, I believe it’s that the worldwide neighborhood wants to face for the rights of Palestinians, however it additionally, when it does so, it does so stand for this worldwide order that’s the rule-based, worldwide law-based world order.

AMY GOODMAN: Lastly, Peter Beinart, you didn’t all the time maintain the views you will have. You haven’t all the time been as vital of Israel as you might be in the present day. We really solely have 30 seconds, however if you happen to might clarify what modified you?

PETER BEINART: I believe it was simply going and seeing for myself. I believe, like many American Jews, I’ve been to Israel many instances, and I nonetheless really feel an incredible sense of connection and affection for Israeli Jews, a few of whom are my many family and friends. However after I first — too late in life, however began to truly see some realities on the West Financial institution of Palestinian existence, it simply turned — it started a course of for me of realizing that, for me, as somebody who believes in liberal democracy and equality below the regulation and believes in Jewish beliefs as I perceive them, this was one thing — not one thing I might help.

AMY GOODMAN: Peter Beinart, we need to thanks for being with us, editor-at-large of Jewish Currents; Saleh Hijazi of the Palestinian Boycott Nationwide Committee, previously with Amnesty Worldwide; and Munir Nuseibah, director of Human Rights Clinic at Al-Quds College in Jerusalem, right here for what the U.N. is asking Nakba Day. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks for becoming a member of us.