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To be sure, the implementation of this
Return Plan shall encounter many difficulties, most are readily
solvable. The rewards however far outweigh any cost and sacrifices
likely to be made. Indeed the return would discharge the old debt of
53 years of war, strife and suffering and bring an era of permanent
peace.
The essential point to remember is that we are here talking about
rights, not politics, about inalienable non-negotiable rights, not
about political bargaining, about fundamental freedom, not about
territory or sovereignty.
The right to return home is akin to the right to live, work, get
education, speak and worship freely. The question therefore is not a
matter of compromise or political bargaining. Political rights may
be won or lost, but Inalienable Rights are intrinsic.
In the domain of practical considerations, it is possible to argue
that the return is practical, possible and politically necessary
because it can bring peace and, more importantly, can avert war.
First: the problem of water. No matter who will live in
Palestine/Israel in the 21st century, there will be a severe water
shortage. It has already been shown that Israel has exhausted all
available water resources at 2,000 million cubic metres per year,
more than two-thirds of it is illegally seized Arab water. With the
increase of population, there will be two ways to acquire more
water: by war or in peace. If more Jewish immigrants are brought to
Israel in the absence of peace, Israel may be tempted to occupy
Syria and Lebanon and seize their water resources. We know the folly
of this adventure, but some Israeli leaders may not. On the other
hand, if the refugees return and true peace based on international
law prevails, then all kinds of regional agreements with open
borders and free movement may be possible. It is worthwhile noting
that neither desalination, treatment of used water or importing
water from Turkey will be sufficient to solve the water problem.
Second, Israel’s claim that old boundaries are lost, or that the
country is full, has been shown to be patently false. Retaining a
Jewish majority at all times and in all places is shown to be a pipe
dream. The only way to achieve this Jewish majority at all times is
to keep shrinking the land under Jewish possession. That is the
price one pays for exclusivity.
The fanciful idea of a homogenous Jewish society is another myth.
None other than Sharon admits that Jewish immigrants in Israel speak
82 languages and come from 102 countries, united only in their
enmity of the Arabs, a less than noble objective.
On the practical side, it is shown that there is enough Palestinian
labour to complete the refugees’ rehabilitation process. The
construction activity will act as a major generator for the economy
at least for the first 10 years. Not only can it be funded by
reparations, donations and investments, but the absorption of new
labour would greatly increase GDP for the new Palestine. When peace
prevails, the labour for building the future is available.
Israel has an ambitious plan for the 21st Century. Israel’s master
plan for the year 2020 envisages a GDP of $220 billion, more than
double the present. To do that, Israel needs a workforce of
3,200,000, of which only a tiny minority are employed in agriculture
(2% or 60,000), almost the same number as of today. Its growth is
envisaged in areas other than agriculture, such as industry and
infrastructure.
The booming high-tech industry in Israel is part of the
globalization process. Almost half of Israel high-tech companies are
registered in the US. They could be anywhere, in an industrial park
in Haifa or on an aircraft carrier. Globalized high-tech is
non-territorial. It does not contradict in any way with the return
of the refugees.
It is abundantly clear that the ambitious Israeli master plan of
2020 does need the cooperation of its neighbours. All the various
scenarios in the plan point out that Israel is bursting and it needs
proper channels to release its force. War generals may be tempted to
do this by military force which will be disastrous for all
concerned. The other alternative would be a true and just peace.
Replaying another Oslo will be a disaster. A cornerstone of this
peace is the return of the refugees.
When the refugees return, they can revive the agriculture and make
use of wasted resources of land and water, which is theirs in the
first place. They will augment or replace only 60,000 agricultural
labour in Israel, mostly foreign anyway.
The refugees can generate 1,000,000 workers at the present level of
participation, which could be doubled to match Israel’s
participation. This will be essential for further development of the
infrastructure, trade, hospitality and services which account for
61% of the GDP producing labour for the new Palestine.
Therefore there is no economic reason to deny the right of the
refugees to return.
Having reviewed geographic, agricultural, demographic and economic
aspects of the refugees return, we cannot find a logical or
practical reason for the denial of the Right of Return.
It is absolutely clear that the only remaining obstacle to permanent
peace is Israel’s racist policies. These policies have not been
implemented as a single event in 1948, they have been practised ever
since. It is a sad reflection on the Israeli state of mind, when the
learned professionals of Israel come up with ethnic cleansing or
apartheid policies as the only way to ensure their own view of
Israel’s future. This is an explosive formula which is likely to
bring total destruction of the region.
One particularly sad example of such mentality is what the poet Ilan
Sheinfeld wrote:
“We will not go away. We will not leave this place. Not Jaffa, not
Acre, not Nazareth, not Givat Shaml B, which was one Deir Yassin and
not Ein Hod, which was one Ein Haud. We will not give you back your
land. We will not give back the houses you abandoned in the 1948
war, and we will not grant you your right of return, because your
right of return is our eviction. And we no longer have any place to
go.” (my italics).
These are honest words in that they describe the Israeli state of
mind, and admit the take-over of the Palestinians’ land and homes.
The refusal to give them back is based on the fear of ‘eviction’ of
Jews in which case, it is claimed, they will have no place to go to.
If there is any conclusion to be drawn from this paper, it is that
the return of the refugees does not require ‘eviction’ of the Jews.
And, it is the Palestinians who have no where else to go, as has
been demonstrated in the last 53 years. It is the Jews, who come
from 102 countries, many carry double nationality, are the ones who
see in Israel a second home, an insurance against possible bad
times.
It is indeed amazing that Israelis, who appeal to the sense of
justice in the West for the atonement of past evil deeds and for
moral and material compensation for the injustice inflicted upon
them should at once resort to pure force and bloodshed in Palestine
to deny the right of Palestinians to return to their homes and
property. This indeed is and has been a recipe for perpetual war and
suffering.
The only way for Israelis to live in peace is to end the
Palestinian-Israeli conflict forever. This can only be with justice.
Force is likely to win wars but will never win permanent peace.
International law, Israel’s geography and demography will not enable
Israel to prevail by force in the long term. If Israeli leaders and
society see their future in a non-military context, they will
realize that the much-coveted ‘peace’ can only be achieved through
justice. This then will be peace for all time.
The qualifications for a just peace is that Israel must shed its
racist policies, must respect and adhere to international law,
particularly Human Rights law. The return of the refugees to their
homes becomes then a natural corollary. It can come about simply by
removing the racist stigma from the Israeli Law of Return, which
restricts its applicability to Jews or those who claim to be. It can
come about by removing all vestiges of racism, exclusivity and
apartheid from Israeli laws. Only then can Israel become a ‘normal’
country and cease to be the pariah of the world.
Israel must then dismantle its weapons of mass destruction as both
unnecessary and dangerous. The funds now poured into destructive
weapons and military hardware (highest percentage of GDP in the
world) could be put into development projects.
The US and Europe must cease, in dealing with the Middle East, to
base their policies on pressures from a vociferous minority or on
grounds of political expediency. Europe must cease to pay for its
guilt in the Second World War by Palestinian lives and blood.
Otherwise, Europe will be morally obliged to atone for the same
guilt twice. The US must see that its blind support for Israel
brought war and destruction to the area and caused serious harm to
its own interests.
This Return Plan is not Utopia. It is practical in absolute terms.
All the short-cuts, all the forced solutions, all the military
might, all the deception and misinformation campaigns, all the
connivance of the politicians, have brought nothing but destruction
of life and property. It has deprived the region of the tranquillity
it deserves for over half a century. Now it is time to chart a new
course, that of international law.
The return of the refugees may be a long way ahead, but it is the
only way to reach a lasting peace. Let us make it short
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