Carolina Landsmann International community must help shatter distinctions between the two Israels
In
their heart of hearts, Israelis believe that the answer to the question
of who they really are is determined by, and only by, what happens
within the 1967 Green Line.
HAARETZ.COM
The European Union’s decision to adopt directives
for the labelling of products produced in Jewish settlements in a sense
exports a division that has only existed in Israeli consciousness until
now — between the “sane” Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East,
and Israel the occupier. It is this division between two Israels that
has enabled most Israelis to maintain their unblighted image of
themselves, while entrenching the occupation with every means possible
and at the expense of all moral restraint. This distinction is what
dulls the pangs of Israeli conscience that are necessary for the
liberation of the Palestinians.
In their heart of hearts,
Israelis believe that the answer to the question of who they really are
is determined by, and only by, what happens within the 1967 Green Line.
What happens in the territories stays in the territories and is not
registered in the moral notebook of their consciences. In any event,
most Israelis keep to the Green Line as a rule (except in the Jerusalem
area,) and in practice steer clear of the West Bank. Even the language
entrenches the distinction, with the term “settler” distinguishing
between the Israelis living in the West Bank and those within the Green
Line.
This imaginary dividing line
in the Israeli consciousness is what makes the maintenance of the status
quo possible. From that standpoint, the EU’s decision to punish only
the settlers and to spare the “sane Israel” will deepen belief in this
artificial division between the two entities, both of which answer to
the name Israel, and in the process simply help entrench the status quo.
In
a democratic country, citizens share responsibility for the state’s
actions and decisions. Despite the constant erosion of democratic
values, the fact that the functional procedure of general elections is
maintained, with citizens respecting electoral outcomes and the
legitimacy of decisions emanating from those outcomes, means that all
Israelis should be held accountable for the settlement enterprise. It is
wrong that the settlements alone bear the punishment for a policy that
the country as a whole decided on, just as moral (or legal)
accountability cannot be pinned on Israeli soldiers for acts that are
nothing more than the execution of Israeli policies — policies that,
from a functional standpoint at least, express the will of the people.
If the international community
does in fact have an interest in promoting the end of the occupation
and reconciliation between the two peoples, it needs to help Israel free
itself from this imaginary divide. It needs to shatter the distinction
between the two Israels and make it clear to Israelis that they all bear
responsibility, whether they voted for Yesh Atid, the Zionist Union or
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud. Until all Israelis can look
in the mirror and view themselves as the henchmen of the occupation,
they will not be imbued with the necessary self-motivation to rid
themselves of the ugly image with which they have been tarred. The
international view of Israel must reflect for Israelis how they really
look.
There is the possibility, of
course, that Europe and the international community are really
disinterested in changing the status quo and working toward the
establishment of a Palestinian state. It’s possible that, in their heart
of hearts, they have absorbed the concept of a clash of civilizations
and view Israel as it is portrayed by Netanyahu, standing on the front
lines of the Western world’s war against radical Islam.
The imposition of
sanctions on the settlements alone, as if they were a separate entity
from the State of Israel and hostile to it, creates the impression of
political action towards ending the occupation, but that’s not how it
will actually work out. After all, what will happen? The settlers will
enjoy the status of the victim and be embraced by Israeli society, while
at the same time receiving state economic compensation from tax
proceeds, most of which, of course, are paid by Israelis living within
the Green Line.
As always, the only ones who
will really be hurt, as Netanyahu has threatened, are the Palestinian
workers: “The Israeli economy is strong and will withstand it; the ones
to be harmed will actually be the Palestinians who work in Israeli
factories.” Not only do Israelis need to ask themselves what they really
want; the international community must do so too.
Haaretz Contributor
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