Editor’s note: David Frank is the director of the University’s Robert D. Clark Honors College and will be one of the speakers at today’s “After September 11” teach-in, which is sponsored by the political science department and ASUO. Frank is completing a book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which will be published in December. He spoke to the Emerald about his presentation. His words have been edited for brevity and clarity.
You say that to fully understand issues in Palestinian-Israeli relations, you must look back to 1948. Why is that?
The Zionists were responding to the holocaust in Europe between 1933 and 1945, where Jews experienced a loss of more than a third of their people in Europe. Some Jews decided to go to Palestine, and many Jews had no choice but to go to Palestine, because they were not welcome anywhere in the world. The Palestinians who lived in Palestine did not welcome the attempt by Jewish nationalists to establish a Jewish state in that area. So, in 1948, the Zionists were able to establish a Jewish state, and Palestinians were unable to prevent them from doing so.
As a result, 800,000 Palestinians were dispersed, lost their lands, lost their homes, many of them became refugees, living in horrible refugee camps. There is failure on the Palestinians to acknowledge the fact that Jews see themselves as going home, their ancestral home. At the same time, the Zionists refused to acknowledge that there was an indigenous people there, or if they did, they saw them as obstacles to be removed. The Palestinians like to portray themselves as victims – which they have been. Israelis portray themselves as victims – which they are. Both play a role in the current situation.
Shaul Cohen, a geography professor at the University, will be one of the speakers at today’s “After September 11” teach-in. Cohen has conducted research on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, concentrating on land, territory and environment. He spoke to the Emerald about his presentation. His words have been edited for brevity and clarity.
What is life like for Palestinians living on the West Bank?
In general terms, life is fairly grim: raging unemployment, difficulty traveling from place to place. People are concerned about the threat of violence erupting, whether the violence is being initiated by Palestinians or by the Israeli army or by Israeli settlers. Many Palestinians are intimidated by their own security forces. They have been cheated out of the aid that has been promised to them from the United States and Europe and by Arab nations.
Did the peace process make life better for Palestinians?
In some symbolic ways, the answer can be yes. And those ways aren’t insignificant. But in practical and tangible ways, the answer is no. Even in those places where they enjoy Palestinian rule, where there is no Israeli presence. The Palestinian cause is not progressing at the speed it needs to progress. People are paying a significant price because of that in Palestinian society. They lack some of the optimism they had in earlier phases of the political processes. Right now, they are operating on the inadequate energy of frustration, rage, disillusionment. It is not where they want to be, and it is not where they should have to be.
Explain life in Israel over the past 10 years.
Israelis have been riding some real peaks and valleys in the last decade, and I think they are weary. There are periods in the last 10 years when things were fairly euphoric, when the peace process was going well, the Palestinians were partners and the tension was diminished. But that is no longer the case. Today, many people are focused on the cycle of violence, on the downturn in the economy, on the hostility and suspicion between the two communities. In Israel there is broad perception that an awful lot was done to promote peace with the Palestinians – that they Israelis extended themselves in reasonable way beyond what many Israelis considered reasonable – and the Palestinians turned them down.
John Liebhardt is the higher education editor for the Oregon Daily Emerald. He can be reached at [email protected].