AAARGH
Arab Knesset members have denounced Israeli attempts to control
Palestinian demographic growth in Israel and the occupied territories
as "naked racism."
Khaled Amayreh reports from Hebron Israeli law-makers, intellectuals
and even government officials are becoming increasingly open about
exploring "prospective solutions" for Palestinian demographic
growth in Israel and the occupied territories, with the suggested
solutions ranging from collective deportation to institutionalised
apartheid.
Meetings, seminars, symposia and workshops are springing up throughout
the Jewish state, all bearing, more or less, the same message:
unless Israel does something to curb Palestinian population growth,
Jews will become a minority in the area of the pre-1948 Palestine
mandate (Israel and the occupied territories) within 19 years.
On Monday, 16 July, the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee
held an "exploratory session," in which participants
discussed "the Arab demographic threat" and the "dangers
facing the survival of Israel as a Jewish state."
The meeting was attended by several experts, including Haifa University's
Arnon Sofer, who advocates "radical solutions for solving
the looming demographic problem" facing Israel.
Calling the current demographic situation a threat to Israel's
existence, Sofer pointed out that, by the year 2020, and if the
present demographic trends were not reversed, Jews in mandated
Palestine would be a minority, outnumbered by Arabs by 20 per
cent.
He said that there were already equal numbers of Arabs and Jews
in the combined Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with
the Jewish population reaching 4.9 million and the Arabs 4.8 million.
The number of Jews, he added, would grow to 6.4 million in 2020,
with the corresponding figure for non-Jews topping 8.8 million.
Arab Knesset members denounced the meeting as "naked racism,"
and a "big scandal in a state that claims to be civilised
and democratic."
"It is racist, just racist, there is no other name for it,"
said Arab Knesset member Hashem Mohamed, who boycotted the meeting.
Knesset member Isam Makhoul of the Democratic Front for Peace
and Equality also castigated the meeting. "If anything like
this were discussed anywhere in the world, it would be condemned
as brash racism, but here, in a state that claims to be the only
democracy in the Middle East, we see dignified lawmakers candidly
discussing ways and means to curb the birth rate of a given segment
of society on the grounds that they don't have the right race
and religion. It's racism, it's disgusting."
Israeli lawmaker and former Justice minister Dan Meridor, who
chaired the meeting, sought to defend the discussion.
He argued that it was imperative that Knesset members understand
the demographic situation which, he said, was crucial for the
continuation of the Zionist enterprise and a Jewish majority.
However, when asked why only Arab demographic growth was under
discussion, Meridor had nothing to say except repeating the old
Zionist mantra that Israel was a Jewish state and that it was
inadmissible for non-Jews to be allowed to make up a majority
of the population in the state.
The Knesset meeting was only the latest in a plethora of secret,
semi-secret and public discussions on the sensitive subject which
have been taking place of late.
A few months ago, a number of Israeli strategic planners, former
army generals and scholars met behind closed doors in Hertzlya
in northern Israel to discuss "adequate solutions for dealing
with the demographic threat." The Hebrew press reported that
the "expulsion idea" loomed large during the meeting
in Hertzlya and enjoyed "unprecedented acceptance" among
participants.
In addition to "transferring" a significant number of
the non-Jewish population out of "Eretz Israel," participants
also reportedly discussed other alternatives, including institutionalised
apartheid (whereby non-Jews would be granted civil rights while
denied political rights), forced sterilisation, induced immigration
(through economic pressure), and "other solutions."
According to Israeli sources, and in light of permeating political
trends in Israel, many Israelis who object to adopting "transfer"
as official policy are not really opposed to the principle of
expelling the Palestinians, but are rather discouraged by what
they call "the logistical difficulties impeding the execution
of the idea."
Indeed, the bulk of religious and right-wing Israeli parties,
including Likud, support in varied degrees "the expulsion
alternative" and only differ on whether it would be realistic
to carry it out successfully.
Furthermore, some right-wing and religious elements in Israel
believe their government should seek to induce an all-out regional
war in the hope of creating conditions conducive to expelling
a significant number of Palestinians. Such thinking is gaining
a modicum of pre- eminence in the Israeli media, especially in
the so-called national camp.
The Palestinians, for their part, are aware of discussions to
that effect in Israel and are reasserting their resolve not to
repeat the 1948 disaster. "We will not allow them (Israel)
to drive us away again. The worst they would be able to do is
to murder us, but we shall not leave again," Palestinian
Authority official Ahmed Abdel-Rahman said in a recent interview.
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