Israel peace camp : who became irrelevant ? response to Dr. Gershon Baskin

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Contrary to what Dr. Gershon Baskin claims, Palestinian nationalists are talking (and working) with Israelis, if and when the Israelis fulfill the conditions set by the Palestinian national leadership. It is not and should not be a matter of negotiation between the Palestinian national movement and the tiny minority of Israelis supporting their rights. Israeli anti-occupation activists are not the UN, working between the two camps : either Israelis are with the Palestinian national struggle, or they are a kind of cover-up for the Israeli colonial occupation.

Demonstration in the West Bank village of Bil’in, where "co-resistance" is practiced

(Photo : Wikipedia)

For several decades, we have been listening to a mantra dividing the "Israeli peace camp" into "realistic" and "extremists", the realistic being able to influence real politics, while the "extremists" limit themselves to nice impractical principles. The realistic camp was mainly represented by Peace Now whilst the Alternative Information Center was defined as one component of the sterile, utopian camp.

Even in the good old days (1982-1995), when Peace Now was able to mobilize tens of thousands, the picture was much more complicated than the over simplified dichotomy above : without the permanent pressure and activity of the "small wheel of the bicycle", as Uri Avnery described the coalition of more radical organizations, one can assume that the "big wheel" would have taken much more time to mobilize itself, if at all. Indeed there was a fruitful and efficient competition between these two components.

A long time ago, in the 1980s, Gershon Baskin was a militant in the "small wheel", and very active in the Committee Confronting the Iron Fist, a Palestinian-Israeli group around the late Palestinian leader Faisal Husseini.

A few years later he decided to be "realistic", and to have direct connections with the US administration (through USAID, for example, an agency boycotted by every decent Palestinian organization). Under this new hat, he became a self-appointed adviser for the US administration and, according to his own testimony, he is the one who arranged the exchange of prisoners [sic] leading to the release of Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit.

Since the good old days of the Committee Confronting the Iron Fist, neither Baskin nor any one from IPCRI participated in the [Israeli] Coalition against the War/Occupation which, during the last fifteen years, has been the united leadership and organizer of almost every Israeli (and sometimes Palestinian-Israeli) mobilization against war and colonial occupation.

For Baskin the small wheel has become irrelevant, replaced by "NGO-diplomacy" which often speaks on behalf of the "big wheel", i.e. Peace Now. I will not argue against this legitimate choice based on "realism", and turning one’s back on uncompromising lunatics. In the last decade, however, such a choice has become irrelevant, pathetic even : the Israeli mainstream peace movement (Peace Now in particular, but also its political representation in the Knesset) vanished, evaporated. To avoid any misreading, I must add that such a fate makes me extremely sad : a small wheel without a big one cannot make Uri Avnery’s bicycle move, and though one has to be proud that a few thousands, belonging to the small wheel, are still actively denouncing Israel’s war policies, colonial occupation, repression and the Wall, one must confess that, unlike in the years 1982-1999, these mobilizations do not anymore have an impact on the decision making processes.

In a speech given in Geneva at the International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, Gershon Baskin tried to explain the reasons for the death of the (mainstream) Israeli peace movement. Instead of blaming our own mistakes (and sometimes even treasons), Baskin is accusing… the Palestinians. What typically colonialist behaviour ! The victim of the colonial policy of our state is to be blamed for its own oppression, and for our own failures. How ? By rejecting normalization with people like Baskin. "I want to help them, but they reject my offered hand !" says, in substance, a deeply offended IPCRI founding member. A modern version of Golda Meir’s "the never loose an opportunity to loose an opportunity", the usual "own goal” of the Palestinians.

My colleague and friend Sergio Yahni already answered the arguments raised by Baskin in his intervention, and I have nothing to add to that answer. Baskin, however, was hurt by Sergio’s remarks and reacted in our website : “You guys are pathetic - how about once getting your quote right. I did not blame the Palestinians for the demise of the left in Israel. I did say that by not talking to Israel those who advocate the so-called anti normalization campaigns which vetos talking to Israelis don’t help us or themselves to end the occupation. But you guys are so arrogant, only you have the right to decide who is a good guy and who is bad. So go on, continue to talk to yourselves and influence no one.”

A few weeks ago there was a very interesting programme on television concerning Paul Simon’s decision to break the South African boycott – out of solidarity with the South African people, of course. One can learn a lot from that experience, especially from the answers of South African activists and artists to this “progressive” kind of breaking the (almost) unanimous strategy of the South African people for boycott. Among others, one of the South African artists put it, more or less, this way : “Middle class artists should bypass their individualism and learn to replace me by us. The struggle against apartheid is a collective struggle, with a national leadership : either you are with the movement or you are against it, independently of your good intentions. [“the way to hell etc…]”

Contrary to what Baskin claims, Palestinian nationalists are talking (and working) with Israelis, if and when the Israelis fulfill the conditions set by the Palestinian national leadership. It is not and should not be a matter of negotiation between the Palestinian national movement and the tiny minority of Israelis supporting their rights. Israeli anti-occupation activists are not the UN, working between the two camps : either Israelis are with the Palestinian national struggle, or they are a kind of cover-up for the Israeli colonial occupation.

You are dead wrong, Gershon Baskin, when you say ironically : “you [AIC and others] have the right to decide who is good guy and who is bad”. We advocate precisely the opposite : the Palestinian national movement sets the agenda of cooperation with Israeli activists, and we will respect their decision. This is the South African model. And we are definitely proud that the whole of the Palestinian movement accepts us as partners – the Hebron Conference last year is a vivid example of that kind of success – precisely because we made the obvious choice of letting the Palestinians decide the conditions of cooperation with members of the settler-colonial society.

As for “talking to yourselves and influencing no one”, we are well aware of our weakness. But the voice of the “small wheel” is still, and unfortunately, much louder than Israel’s so-called peace mainstream, which completely vanished due to its “realism”. Our influence is limited – around 1000 demonstrators commemorated 45 years of occupation in Tel Aviv earlier this month – but our voice is heard and remains a hope for progressive Palestinians, as well as an address for the ones who are looking for joint struggle. We, the unrealistic lunatic left, are mobilizing our modest forces on a daily basis – against Israeli occupation, repression, colonialism and war – out of moral duty and political commitment to our Palestinian comrades. I must add, to your merit, that your own commitment to the struggle against occupation brings you regularly, by default, to the political initiatives of those unrealistic lunatics, like in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah.

Michael Warschawski, Alternative Information Center (AIC)