Eskişehir, Turkey
Saturday 30 March 2024
“Started reading Goebbels’ diary.
Interested to note that he, too, was a writer manqué who had begun by producing a bad novel and a play which no theatre would put on.
Above: German Chancellor Joseph Goebbels (1897 – 1945)
Most men of action seem to be writers manqué, and correspondingly most writers, men of action manqué.
Interesting theme.”
(30 March 1948, Malcolm Muggeridge)
Above: English journalist / satirist Malcolm Muggeridge (1903 – 1990)
I am far removed from the arena of events that capture the world’s headlines.
Much of what happens in the world is outside my circle of competence and beyond my personal control.
I may have opinions, but only those who are truly a part of world events have opinions that truly matter.
Muggeridge is absolutely right.
I am a man of action manqué.
Swiss philosopher Rolf Dobelli, author of Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life, writes:
What does relevance mean in concrete terms?
There are two definitions.
In the narrower hard sense, something is relevant when it enables you to make better decisions.
In the wider sense, anything that allows you to understand the world better is relevant.
The legendary investor Warren Buffet uses the wonderful term circle of competence.
Anything inside this circle is an area of expertise.
Anything outside it is something you don’t understand or fully understand.
Buffet’s motto is as follows:
“Know your circle of competence and stick within it.
The size of that circle is not very important.
Knowing its boundaries, however, is vital.”
Above: Warren Buffet
I will be honest here.
I do not claim to fully understand the Middle East.
That being said, I am trying to understand.
So, please, gentle reader, see what follows as merely my feeble attempts to wrap my head around a complex conundrum:
The Israel – Hamas War.
Above: The Thinker, Auguste Rodin, 1904
The Arabs of Mandatory Palestine (1920 – 1948) were a largely agrarian people.
Above: Arab peasant women (fellahat) from Battir, a village between Jerusalem and Bethlehem taking produce to market (1910)
75% of whom made their living off the land before the establishment of the Israeli state.
Above: Map of Arabic speaking localities in the State of Israel (including East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights).
Striped represent officially mixed cities (by law, at least 2% Arabs in a Jewish majority city).
Note: Jerusalem is officially a mixed city but the map shows the boundaries of Arab and Jewish neighborhoods.
After the Palestinian exodus – (More than 700,000 Palestinian Arabs – about half of Mandatory Palestine’s Arab population – fled from their homes or were expelled.) – and the effects of the 1948 Arab – Israeli War (15 May 1948 – 10 March 1949), land continued to play an important role in the lives of the 156,000 Palestinian Arabs who remained inside what became the state of Israel, serving as the source of communal identity, honour and purpose.
Above: Map of Mandatory Palestine
The Israeli government adopted in 1950 the Law of Return to facilitate Jewish immigration to Israel and the absorption of Jewish refugees.
Israel’s Absentees’ Property Law of March 1950 transferred the property rights of absentee owners to a government-appointed Custodian of Absentee Property.
It was also used to confiscate the lands of Arab citizens of Israel who “are present inside the state, yet classified in law as ‘absent’.”
Above: Flag of Israel
The number of “present absentees” or internally displaced Palestinians from among the 1.2 million Arab citizens of Israel is estimated (in 2001) to be 200,000, or some 20% of the total Palestinian Arab population in Israel.
Between 1948 and 2003 more than 1,000 square kilometers (390 sq mi) of land was expropriated from Arab citizens of Israel (present-absentees and otherwise).
Above: Flag of Palestine
Public protest against state policies and practices from among the Arabs in Israel was rare prior to the mid-1970s, owing to a combination of factors including military rule over their localities, poverty, isolation, fragmentation, and their peripheral position in the new Israeli state.
Those protests that did take place against land expropriations and the restrictions Arab citizens were subject to under military rule (1948–1966) were sporadic and limited, due to restrictions on rights to freedom of movement, expression and assembly characteristic of that period.
While the political movement Al-Ard (“The Land“) was active for about a decade, it was declared illegal in 1964.
The most notable anti-government occasions otherwise were the May Day protests staged annually by the Communist Party.
The government of Israel declared its intention to expropriate lands in the Galilee for official use, affecting some 20,000 dunams of land between the Arab villages of Sakhnin and Arraba, of which 6,300 dunams was Arab-owned.
On 11 March 1976, the government published the expropriation plan.
Above: A view of Arraba from the road leading to its northern limit
The land confisications and expansion of Jewish settlements in the northern Galilee formed part of the government’s continuing strategy aimed at the Judaization of the Galilee which itself constituted both a response to and catalyst for “Palestinian resistance“, culminating in the events of Land Day.
The land was to be used to construct eight Jewish industrial villages, in implementation of the Galilee Development Plan of 1975.
In hailing this plan, the Ministry of Agriculture openly declared that its primary purpose was to alter the demographic nature of Galilee in order to create a Jewish majority in the area.
Israel claimed that the lands were confiscated by the government for security purposes.
They were subsequently used to build a military training camp as well as new Jewish settlements.
Above: Government compound named after Itzhak Rabin in Nazerat Illit, Israel
Some 1,900 dunams of privately owned Arab land were to be expropriated to expand the Jewish town of Karmiel.
The plan envisaged the establishment between 1977 and 1981 of 50 new Jewish settlements known as mitzpim (singular: mitzpe) which would consist of fewer than 20 families each.
The plan called for these to be located between clusters of Arab villages in the central Galilee affecting some 20,000 dunams (30% of which were to be expropriated from Arabs, 15% from Jews, with the remainder constituting state-owned land).
The resumption of land seizures in the Galilee and the acceleration of land expropriations in the West Bank in the mid-1970s was the immediate catalyst for both the Land Day demonstration and similar demonstrations that were taking place contemporaneously in the West Bank.
Nothing served to bring the two Palestinian communities together politically more than the question of land.
Above: Karmiel, Israel
The government decision to confiscate the land was accompanied by the declaration of a curfew to be imposed on the villages of Sakhnin, Arraba, Deir Hanna, Tur’an, Tamra and Kabul, effective from 5 p.m. on 29 March 1976.
Local Arab leaders from the Rakah Party (the Israeli Communist Party) responded by calling for a day of general strikes and protests against the confiscation of lands to be held on 30 March.
Above: Logo of the Communist Party of Israel
On 18 March 1976, the heads of the local Arab councils, members of the Labour Party, met in Shefa-Amr and voted against supporting the day of action.
Above: Logo of HaAvoda, the Israeli Labour Party
When news of the decision became public a demonstration developed outside the municipal buildings and was dispersed with tear gas.
The government declared all demonstrations illegal and threatened to fire ‘agitators’, such as schoolteachers who encouraged their students to participate, from their jobs.
The threats were not effective, however, and many teachers led their students out of the classrooms to join the general strike and marches that took place throughout the Arab towns in Israel, from the Galilee in the north to the Negev in the south.
Solidarity strikes were also held almost simultaneously in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and in most of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.
Above: Shefa-Amr, Israel
The events of the day were unprecedented.
To preempt incidents inside Israel on Land Day, about 4,000 policemen, including a helicopter-borne tactical unit and army units, were deployed in the Galilee.
During the protests, four unarmed demonstrators were shot dead by the Israel Defense Forves (IDF) and two more by police.
Three of the dead were women.
The army was allowed to drive armoured vehicles and tanks along the unpaved roads of various villages of the Galilee.
About 100 Arabs were wounded and hundreds arrested.
The killings were carried out by police during riots in the Galilee region to protest over Israeli expropriation of Arab land.
The riots started the night before, with Israeli-Arabs throwing rocks and firebombs at police and soldiers.
The riots continued the next day and intensified, resulting in many wounded members of Israeli security forces and the death of the six Arab rioters.
What actually set off the rioting that led to the deaths was a wild attack by hundreds of inflamed young Arabs on an unsuspecting IDF convoy driving on the road by the villages of Sakhnin, Arrabe and Deir Hanna.
There was no prior provocation on the part of that IDF convoy, unless one insists on seeing a provocation in the very presence of an Israeli army unit in the heart of Israeli Galilee.
Arab public figures tried to limit the protests, but lost control over the events.
The protestors burnt tires, blocked roads, and threw rocks and Molotov cocktails.
Placing the six fatalities within the context of “severe clashes” between protestors and security forces, it is also noted that there were many injuries on both sides.
Land Day differed in that the Palestinians in Israel exhibited a daring confidence and political awareness totally lacking before.
This time Arab citizens were not passive and submissive.
Instead they initiated and coordinated political activity at the national level, responding to police brutality with their own violence.
During the Land Day events, a new sense of national pride, together with anger toward the state and police and sorrow over the dead protesters, developed among the Arab community in Israel.
A split erupted between the Arab political parties of Rakah and Abnaa al-Balad.
Committed to a two-state solution to the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, Rakah held major reservations about the involvement of Palestinians from the West Bank.
Conversely, Abnaa al-Balad’s commitment to the establishment of a single democratic Palestine saw the issues of land, equality, the refugees and the occupation as a comprehensive, integral and indivisible whole.
While Rakah remained committed to a two-state solution, it charted a delicate balance, expressing a Palestinian identity more clearly so as to be more in tune with community sentiment.
From then on there will be no communities and religious groups but only a single Arab minority, part of the Palestinian nation.
Land Day also resulted in the Arabs gaining a presence in Israeli politics in that they could no longer be ignored.
Arab civil society in Israel began coordinating with one another more and protests against government policies became more frequent with a focus on three major issues:
- land and planning policies
- socio-economic conditions
- Palestinian national rights
The protest did little to stop the 1975 land expropriation plan.
The number of mitzpim established reached 26 in 1981 and 52 in 1988.
These mitzpim and the “development towns” of Upper Nazareth, Ma’alot, Migdal Ha’emeq and Carmiel significantly altered the demographic composition of the Galilee.
While Arabs had comprised 92% of the population of the Galilee in the years following Israel’s establishment, by 1994, that number was reduced to 72% out of a regional population of 680,000, with Jews making up the remaining 28%.
Large-scale expropriations of land in the Galilee have generally been avoided by Israeli governments since the 1980s.
Israeli media coverage of Land Day has been analyzed and critiqued by Israeli academics.
A 1994 study of seven major Israeli newspapers found that coverage of the preparations and outcome of the day was extensive in March – April 1976, with reports relying almost entirely on statements from official Israeli information sources such as ministers, advisers or “experts on Arabs“.
Hardly any space was devoted to the voices of Arab organizers and participants.
All of the newspapers examined, whatever their ideological differences, minimized the causes, emphasizing instead two main themes:
- portraying the demonstrations as the work of a marginal and unrepresentative minority
- describing them as a potential threat to state security and law and order
Of special importance is the finding that all the newspapers delegitimized the participants, as Communists, nationalists, extremists, agitators, inciters, enemies or violent people.
Above: Emblem of Israel
A 2000 study that analyzed coverage of the annual commemorations between 1977 and 1997 found that reports prior to the event each year also relied heavily on news items from the police and military sources.
The focus was on security preparations, with reports on Arabs limited to the agitation and incitement put forward by their leadership.
Information on the reasons for the protest was provided in between 6% and 7% of the stories published.
Almost all of the reporters were Jewish, and only Haaretz had a reporter specially assigned to cover the Arab population.
The event was framed within the context of the Arab – Israeli conflict with Arab demonstrators defined as enemies, rather than citizens making demands of their government.
“The right to protest does not include the right to run riot, to close roads, to throw stones at passing vehicles.
Again, it has to be made clear to Israeli Arabs that most of their Israeliness is based on their loyalty that they owe to their country and its laws.
If they don’t want these laws no one is preventing them from leaving.“
For Palestinians, Land Day has since become a day of commemoration and tribute to those who have fallen in the struggle to hold onto their land and identity.
Often serving as a day for the expression of political discontent for Arab citizens of Israel, particularly surrounding issues of equal land and citizenship rights, in 1988, they declared that Land Day should serve as “a Palestinian-Israeli civil national day of commemoration and a day of identification with Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, to be marked by yearly demonstrations and general strikes.”
Above: Land Day poster (1984)
Not only did Land Day work to forge political solidarity among Arab citizens of Israel, but it also worked “in cementing the acceptance of Arabs back into the larger Palestinian world and into the heart of mainstream Palestinian nationalism.”
The day is commemorated annually by Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, and further afield in refugee camps and among the Palestinians diaspora worldwide.
In 2007, the Press Center of the Palestinian National Authority described Land Day “…as a remarkable day in the history of the Palestinian people’s struggle, as the Palestinians in such a particular day embrace the land of their ancestors, their identity and their existence.”
However, in recent years, many observers have noted that the Arab population inside Israel seems less enthusiastic about the protests, despite the organizers’ efforts to promote hype. Many see this as a sign of growing reconciliation on the grass-roots level.
Above: A Palestinian child holds a sign during an activity to mark Land Day in Beit Hanoun, Gaza Strip, 2009
The general strike and marches carried out in Israel during the annual commemoration of 2000 generally proceeded peacefully, with the exception of the protest in Sakhnin.
There, hundreds of youth gathered and moved towards the Israeli military base adjacent to the village to the west.
Uprooting the fences, they penetrated the base and waved the Palestinian flag inside.
Arab public figures who were there to make speeches attempted to subdue them, but were met with hostility and even beatings.
Border police forces who arrived to reinforce the base were stoned by the protestors, some of whom were wearing masks and set fires in the woods.
Tear gas and rubber bullets were used to push the protestors back towards the main road where clashes continued.
A 72-year-old woman from Sakhnin was reported to have died in the hospital after injuries sustained from tear gas inhalation.
A 2006 report states that in annual commemorations of the day by Arab citizens today, Israeli security forces are on alert but do not interfere in the protests.
In 2001, on the 25th anniversary of Land Day, the weekly “Day of Rage“, Palestinians were called upon to demonstrate.
Tens of thousands of Arab citizens, joined by some Jews, demonstrated in peaceful marches inside Israel, carrying Palestinian flags.
During demonstrations in the West Bank, four Palestinians were killed and 36 wounded in Nablus when Israeli forces used live ammunition against protesters throwing stones and Molotov cocktails.
In Ramallah, one Palestinian was shot dead and 11 others injured when soldiers clashed with 2,000 demonstrators who burned pictures of then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and waved Iraqi and Palestinian flags.
Palestinian gunmen also joined the clashes after an hour, drawing heavy Israeli fire from tank-mounted machine guns.
There were also demonstrations in the Gaza Strip and in the Palestinian refugee camp of Ain al-Hilweh in Lebanon.
Above: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (1928 – 2014)
In the Land Day demonstrations of 2002, Arab citizens of Israel expressed their solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, speaking out against the “Israeli siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters“.
The 2005 Land Day commemorations were dedicated to the plight of the unrecognized villages in the Negev, where organizers said 80,000 Arab citizens live without access to basic amenities and 30,000 homes have received demolition orders.
Marches in 2008 included one organized in Jaffa where 1,000 Arab citizens used the Land Day commemorations to bring attention to what they described as an acceleration in land confiscations in the city, with many complaining that they were facing evictions and demolition orders designed to force them out of their homes in order to settle Jews from abroad in their place.
Calls to launch non-violent resistance actions to protest against ongoing land confiscations regularly occur on Land Day.
For example, the BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights issued a press release for Land Day 2006, calling for “boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel” and an end to “racial discrimination, occupation and colonization“.
During the commemorations for Land Day in 2009, a group of 50 Palestinian women singing Palestinian nationalist songs gathered at the Damascus Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, to hand out posters and T-shirts calling for a boycott of Israeli products.
Above: Damascus Gate, Jerusalem, Israel
Also in 2009, thousands of Arab citizens, some carrying Palestinian flags, marched through the towns of Arrabe and Sakhnin, under the banner:
“We are all united under Israeli fascism and racism.”
Arab Knesset member Talab el-Sana called upon the government “to put a stop to the racist plans of Judaizing the Galilee and Negev and adopt development policies for all the Galilee and Negev’s residents“.
Above: Israel’s Knesset (Israeli Parliament)
Protests by Palestinians were planned in locations worldwide, including the US, Canada, Germany, Finland, France and Belgium, and that the World Social Forum (WSF) announced the launching of a campaign calling on all of its affiliates to excommunicate Israel.
Land Day was also commemorated in Sabra and the Shatila refugee camp via an art exhibition and musical event.
In the Palestinian territories, Palestinians demonstrated and threw stones near the Israeli West Bank barrier in Naalin and Jayyous.
In anticipation of Land Day protests of 2012, Israel sealed off the West Bank (though the restrictions did not apply to Israeli settlers).
The protests were held in Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
In the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces fired at protestors who tried to cross the security fence, resulting in one man killed and 37 injured.
At the Qalandia checkpoint, rock-throwing Palestinian youths clashed with Israeli soldiers firing rubber bullets and stun grenades, resulting in 39 Palestinians being injured.
In Jordan, 15,000 people, including Palestinians joined in a peaceful sit-in.
Palestinian refugees also held demonstrations near Beaufort Castle, Lebanon.
During the 2018 Land Day protests, 17 Palestinians were killed, including five Hamas members.
More than 1,400 were injured in shootings by the Israeli army during a march calling for the Palestinian right of return at the borders with Gaza.
LAND DAY TIMELINE
1976: The Beginning
The Israeli government’s land appropriation plan comes into force.
They take over around 20,000 dunams of predominantly Arab-owned land in Israel’s Galilee region.
1994: A Study Of Land Day Media Coverage
Alina Koren studies seven major newspapers that covered the original Land Day strikes and finds that reports relied almost extensively on statements from people in official positions in Israel.
2001: The Number Of Internally Displaced People
Around 200,000 out of the 1.2 million population of Arab Palestinians living in Israel are estimated to be displaced.
2007: An Official Description
The Press Center of the Palestinian National Authority calls Land Day ‘…a remarkable day in the history of the Palestinian people’s struggle, as the Palestinians in such a particular day embrace the land of their ancestors, their identity and their existence.’
2018: The Great March Of Return
Starting on Land Day, protestors march towards the Gaza-Israel border each Friday, demanding the Israeli blockade around the border be taken down, and the Palestinians get their land back.
“Our Home is Our Land“, Palestine Chronicle, 28 March 2024
In March 1972, Ghassan Kanafani attended the 5th conference of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in northern Lebanon.
Out of that meeting came Kanafani’s document “Tasks for a New Age”, a text that could have easily been written for Land Day 2024.
Kanafani wrote:
“The resistance experience in Gaza constitutes one of the most prominent historical experiences concerning the capacity of a small, poor, unarmed and geographically isolated people to continue, given its conditions a heroic and almost unknown struggle.”
Above: Graffiti tribute to Palestinian author / politician Ghassan Kanafani (1936 – 1972) in Palestine territory
On 30 March 1976, Israeli police killed six Palestinian civilians while they were protesting further expropriation of Palestinian land.
Since that date, 30 March has been commemorated as Land Day, in honour of sumoud (resilience).
By 30 March 2024, Gaza will have undergone nearly six months of brutal conflict.
The war began with Hamas’ 7 October attack on Israel, which killed more than 1,200 Israelis, with Israel’s response resulting in an unprecedented full-scale military assualt on Gaza.
It has led to more than 28,000 Palestinian deaths and millions more displaced, according to Human Rights Watch.
As of 21 March, there were 31,988 dead, 74,188 wounded, 7,000 missing, along with countless homes, institutions, hospitals and infrastructure destroyed.
Roughly 80% of the territory’s 2.3 million population have been displaced.
Nevertheless, the struggle continues.
Although Gaza might be isolated geographically as well as by Israel’s blockade, it is no longer insular in spirit as the campaign has united the various factions throughout historic Palestine as well as around the world.
As Dr. Amira Abo el-Fetouh explains, this year’s Land Day will feel different.
She writes:
“In every practical sense of the word.
Gaza is uninhabitable due to the Israeli siege.
Yet many refuse to leave.“
Accordingly, Louis Brehony describes what he calls “the price of sumud”, specifically, his wife’s family in Gaza City who refuse to leave their home, though so far it has been demolished twice by bombs.
Fortunately, the family has survived, but their story is one of many whose homes have been destroyed, sometimes along with their inhabitants.
Above: Palestinian musician Louis Brehony
How many others have died, we do not know.
It is this very horror, the stories that multiply day by day that makes this Land Day so unbearable but at the same time so significant.
How do people whose homes have been destroyed along with the ground they stood on celebrate a day that commemorates the land?
In recent years, the term “houseless” has replaced the former label “homeless” partly because it recognizes that nearly everyone has a home composed of friends, family and community.
For many Palestinians, the land is more precious than a home.
This connection to the land represents Palestinian patriotism and embodies the struggle to restore harmony and national unity among all Palestinian factions.
This year the notion of unity is particularly important, pertaining not only to unity among the factions but also with the diaspora as well as solidarity movements around the world.
On 15 March 2024, Palestinians in Palestine and in exile drafted a statement calling for “unity of land, people, and struggle”.
It declares that liberation is near, making collective struggle more pertinent now than ever.
In Gaza, it explains, the people are “showing us the way, reclaiming our agency and advancing the struggle for a better life, not only in Palestine but beyond it as well”.
The statement acknowledges the role of Palestinians in exile, detainees in the prisons, farmers among the olive groves in occupied Palestine, and those participating in solidarity movements joined by international allies from South Africa to the streets of major cities in the West.
Rather than dwelling on defeat, it documents major victories.
Significantly, the document states what must happen beyond a ceasefire to prevent returning to the status quo.
It concludes with the mantra that is often heard at rallies:
There can be “no peace without justice”.
The statement praises global allies for fighting alongside Palestinians for a more just global order.
The Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era.
Above: Palestinian market at Jaffa, Gustav Bauernfeind, 1877
On Land Day in 2021, Yousef M. Aljamal wrote:
“It is the land that has always connected Palestinians with the notion of home – not walls, not houses, not debris or bricks.
For this reason, demolishing Palestinian houses may make Palestinians houseless, but they will never be homeless or landless.
Because our home is our land.”
Above: Yousef M. Aljamal
I have taken some liberties with the Chronicle article because it uses inflammatory language calling for the eradication of the state of Israel, and although I wish to remain sympathetic to the difficulties of Palestinians caught in the crossfire between the IDF and the militant elements of Hamas, neither Palestine nor Israel can simply disappear.
It is a good thing Jon Stewart agreed to return to The Daily Show.
In his 3rd episode, the temporary host decided to take it upon himself to solve the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine, which culminated in the current Israel-Hamas War.
The late-night host recapped the War, explaining the recent reactions on all sides.
He criticized the Biden administration for telling Israel to be more careful.
“‘Could you please be more careful when you’re bombing?’ It’s good advice,” Stewart quipped.
“But couldn’t the United States have told Israel that when we gave them all the bombs?
They’re our bombs!
It’s like your coke dealer coming in with an eight ball and going:
‘Don’t stay up all night.’”
Above: US President Joe Biden
He also criticized the United Nations for not doing more.
“What is the United Nations even?” Stewart asked.
“What, are you just a support system for a diverse and pleasing food court?”
Above: Flag of the United Nations
Frustrated with the lack of initiative from the Western leaders, the international community and even the Arab countries like Saudi Arabia, Stewart said:
“No one seems to be incentivized to stop the suffering of the innocent people in this region.“
“The status quo cycle of provocation and retribution is predicated on some idea that one of these groups is going away and they are not.
If we want a safe and free Israel and a safe and free Palestine, we have to recognize that reality,” he said.
He continued:
“I know there’s a twisted and much-contested history in the region that has gotten us to this point.
But we are at this point.
Anything we do from here has to look forward.“
Above: American comedian / political commentator Jon Stewart
To help, Stewart presented three “solutions for peace” to create a “safe and free Israel and safe and free Palestine”.
Jon Stewart’s 3rd appearance in the anchor’s chair since returning to The Daily Show opened with the seated host basking in a standing ovation from his stoked studio audience.
Citing the controversies and “carping” triggered by his first two episodes, he promised that Monday’s performance would offer something different —“an amuse-bouche, a trifle, something light.”
That relaxing change of pace would be a discussion of, naturally, Israel/Palestine.
Above: Jon Stewart
Stewart is a master, blends comedy and political analysis, all the while smuggling in whatever moral convictions the comic might possess.
Stewart tried to maintain a semblance of ideological balance, as a newsperson would.
But in a conflict this raw, complex and emotionally charged, he likely satisfied very few.
Above: Jon Stewart
Recapping the failures of the United States, the United Nations, Saudi Arabia and Christianity to do anything to stop the carnage in Gaza, the comedian served up some good jokes.
The US was described as Israel’s “work-emergency contact”.
Above: Flag of the United States of America
The UN was likened to “a support system for a diverse and pleasing food court”.
Above: Emblem of the United Nations
Saudi Arabia was lit up for giving Palestinians the same amount of financial aid it lavished upon golfer Phil Mickelson.
Above: Flag of Saudi Arabia
Above: US professional golfer Phil Mickelson
After a “Middle East Conflict Disclaimer Cam” advised viewers that the following discussion was “not meant to endorse or justify either side,” Stewart dove in.
First, he looked at a small camp in Maine where Israeli and Palestine kids play together.
Stewart admitted that this solution “hasn’t been scaled up yet, and may take longer than we have — unless we bring the whole region to Maine.”
Above: State flag of Maine
Calling out Israel for killing civilians, Hamas for calling for Israel’s annihilation, and the United States and the rest of the world for not stopping the suffering, he also floated a few peace proposals of his own.
Above: Emblem of Hamas
“Look, the United States is Israel’s closest ally. Israel’s big brother in the fraternity of nations. Israel’s work emergency contact.
Maybe it’s time for the US to give Israel some tough moral love.”
The host went hard on Israel, which has killed more than 30,000 people in Gaza in retaliation for the 7 October attacks and whose plan, according to its Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is to continue bombing until Hamas is eliminated.
“You’re planning to eliminate Hamas by destroying all of Gaza?” an incredulous Stewart asked.
The group, he continued, is “an idea.
Do you have a bomb that kills ideas?
I mean, how long would it even take to bomb the shit out of an idea?”
Above: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
A ‘siege’ is a military blockade with the intent of conquering an area or forcing its inhabitants to surrender, along the lines of Israel’s brief blockade of utilities into Gaza in the first few days following the October 7 attack.
Netanyahu did not suggest any restrictions on aid or the flow of goods and services to Gaza, but rather seemed to suggest a similar arrangement to the security controls exercised by Israel since Hamas was elected as the government in Gaza in 2006.
Stewart suggested that Netanyahu’s “plan to eliminate Hamas by destroying all of Gaza” would “make more Hamases”, because “Palestinian liberation is an idea”, comparing Netanyahu’s assertion that “the intense phase of the fighting in Gaza is weeks away from completion” to President George W. Bush’s infamous 2003 speech six weeks after the US-led invasion of Iraq, proclaiming the end of major combat operations there.
“If you think that ends Hamas,” Stewart said, “I believe we in the United States have a banner you might use.
It’s a little wind-damaged, but equally delusional.”
Above: US President George W. Bush aboard the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, 1 May 2003
Stewart had some advice:
“Maybe it’s time for the US to give Israel some tough moral love.”
While the US roundly condemned Russia’s killing of civilians in Ukraine, he continued, US officials have tempered their criticisms of Israel, essentially asking them to be more careful with their bombs.
“‘Hey, Israel, take it down a notch.
Could you please be more careful with your bombing?’ is good advice.
But really, couldn’t the United States have told Israel that when we gave them all the bombs?
They’re our bombs!
This is like your coke dealer coming over with an eight ball and going, ‘Don’t stay up all night.’”
He mocked President Joe Biden’s remarks that Israel’s response to the 7 October attacks by Hamas, is “over the top“.
Israel has killed nearly 30,000 Palestinians in its retaliation, mostly women and children, triggering plausible accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice.
Above: Emblem of the Internatonal Court of Justice
“The response in Gaza has been over the top?
I like how Biden described Israel’s incessant bombing of civilians the same way my mother talks about the Superbowl halftime show,” Stewart said.
“Let’s just ask God.
It’s His house!
He’s the one who started all this!
Just ask God.
He can tell us who is right!
Is it the Jews?
Is it the Muslims?
Is it the Zoroastrians?
If it’s the Scientologists, a lot of us are going to have egg on our faces.“
Above: The Creation of Adam fresco, Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Michelangelo, 1512
His third idea was actually serious.
“Heaven forbid, I actually think this last one could work.
Starting now:
No preconditions, no earned trust, no partners for peace.
Israel stops bombing.
Hamas releases the hostages.
The Arab countries who claim Palestine is their top priority come in and form a Demilitarized Zone between Israel and a free Palestinian state.
The Saudis, Egypt, the UAE, Qatar, Jordan — they all form like a NATO arrangement guaranteeing security for both sides.
Obviously, they won’t call it NATO — it’s the Middle East Treaty Organization.
It’s METO.”
He added:
“Obviously, I have not worked out the exact verbiage, but anything is better than the cluster cycle we have now.
Because honestly, what is the alternative?”
Above: (in green) The Middle East
In November, Israel ceased military action in Gaza for a week and released hundreds of Palestinian security prisoners, in exchange for the release of women and children hostages.
That temporary ceasefire ended when Hamas fired a barrage of rockets into Israel’s south.
Following his monologue, Stewart invited two journalists — Murtaza Hussein, a Muslim-American reporter who covers foreign policy and national security for the progressive news site The Intercept, and Yair Rosenberg, an American Jewish journalist who writes for The Atlantic.
The two men have been friends for about a decade, they said, regularly discussing issues with each other despite their differing opinions.
Rosenberg, a prominent journalist who covers politics in general as well as religious issues and antisemitism, told Stewart that the conflict is characterized by “absolutists“, the influence of whom waxes and wanes relative to that of “pragmatists“.
Hussein said that he “can accept any Palestinian’s view or any Israeli’s view when they’re so intimately involved in it, but I can never respect a bloodthirsty American“, prompting applause from the crowd.
Stewart responded to Hussein that one of the greatest issues he has with American foreign policy is “how cavalier it is about the destruction that so many of our policies have had internationally.”
Stewart has been among the few in mainstream media seen as sympathetic to Palestine, a sensitive topic in the United States where support for Israel in the dominant media and political establishment is nearly a state religion.
Above: Jon Stewart interviews journalists Yair Rosenberg and Murtaza Hussain, 26 February 2024
Stewart is credited for launching the career of Egyptian American comedian Bassem Youssef.
Comedian Bassem Youssef has been widely known as “the Egyptian Jon Stewart” ever since he gave up being a heart surgeon and made himself into the premier political satirist of the Arab Spring.
“It’s an honour,” Youssef says of the nickname that still follows him 12 years after Stewart first invited him to be a guest on The Daily Show.
“I mean, Jon Stewart is someone who has been my idol, so to be linked to his name in any way is an honour, not something to shy away from.”
Youssef says he’s “very happy” to have Stewart back hosting The Daily Show, and only wishes it was more than once a week.
Above: Bassem Youssef
But that doesn’t mean he agrees with everything Stewart has been saying so far on the show.
And while Stewart received some pushback after his first episode for seemingly equating Biden and Trump, Youssef has taken more issue with the way the host has drawn what he sees as a false equivalence between Israel and Palestine.
“His piece about Israel was funny, but it was also very centrist.
And I understand where it comes from, but the idea that he talks about blaming the UN — and everybody knows the UN is useless — but the UN is not the problem, the Arab nations are not the problem.
The problem is that Israel keeps on building illegal settlements, keeps defying international law, keeps having unlimited support from America.
So it was a way to kind of sit in the middle and kind of blame everybody, which is a legitimate comedic style.
But as someone who’s from that part of the world, I cannot just stay in the middle.
And I can see who’s the perpetrator and who’s really to blame and who has the power.
The people who are in the position of power are the people who should be blamed more.“
While tongue-in-cheek, Stewart’s solution isn’t a new concept,
Most experts have said an “Arab NATO” is unlikely to take root — even if it might do wonders for the region.
Stewart is not the first person to suggest a NATO-style organization in the Middle East, with Donald Trump suggesting the idea in 2018 as part of a plan to counter Iran’s expansion in the region.
However, the idea has so far failed to gain traction due to deeply conflicting security goals amongst the Arab nations.
Above: Flag of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
“Every American administration going back decades has discussed some version of this.
Under Trump, it was the Middle East Strategic Alliance,” said Jonathan Lord, director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington, DC-based think tank.
Above: Former US President Donald J. Trump
Lord said that distrust among Gulf nations unwilling to share their military secrets has largely scuppered much hope for such an organization.
“But really, Jon is conflating a Middle East ‘NATO’ with something else.
You wouldn’t need a formal alliance of Arab states to do what he is proposing,” Lord added.
Forming a “METO” alliance also risks angering Iran, a massive concern for the region, said Anna Jacobs, a senior Gulf analyst based in Qatar for the Belgium-headquartered International Crisis Group.
“Gulf Arab states are focused on regional de-escalation and building greater cooperation with friends and rivals in the region,” Jacobs said.
“A NATO-like alliance would send the opposite message.”
The United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are nations that could consider working with both Israel and Palestine, said William Wechsler, senior director of the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council.
Yet there’s no clear-cut candidate for who would lead such an alliance, which is a key to success for such organizations, he added.
Above: William Wechsler, Atlantic Council
Yet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has opposed the two-state solution.
Ironically, the very concept of the two-state solution could extend his political life, said Lord.
“A vast majority of Israelis want Bibi gone at the first opportunity, but Bibi can turn to an Israeli public that is shocked and traumatized from Hamas’ 7 October attack and tell it that he alone can rebuff Washington’s effort to build a ‘terrorist Arab state on our border,'” Lord said.
Still, if Gaza continues to suffer under the heel of Israel’s military and policies, Hamas will continue to fill its ranks with desperate Palestinians, Lord said.
Creating a “METO” would be a “day-after” solution when governments are concerned with the “day-between” situation, he said.
“Until someone can produce a viable plan to provide security, services, and aid to 2 million displaced Gazans right now, Israel will not achieve its goal of defeating Hamas,” Lord said.
Above: Gaza Palestinian refugee camp
But like Stewart said:
“No one seems to be incentivized to stop the suffering of the innocent people in this region.“
Protests either violently made and / or violently met will probably be the headlines tomorrow regarding this year’s commemoration of Land Day.
And the more things change, the more they will remain the same.
Sources
- Wikipedia
- The Assassin’s Cloak: An Anthology of the World’s Greatest Diarists, edited by Irene and Alan Taylor (Canongate Books)
- Stop Reading the News: A Manifesto for a Happier, Calmer and Wiser Life, Rolf Dobelli (Spectre Books)
- The Eagle’s Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World, Mark Hertsgaard (Bloomsbury)
- “Land Day“, National Today, 30 March 2024
- “Our home is our land“, Palestine Chronicle, 29 March 2024
- “Land Day“, Al Jazeera, 30 March 2024
- “Jon Stewart takes on something ‘light’: Israel and Gaza“, New York Times, 27 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart proposes Israel – Gaza peace plan“, The Guardian, 27 February 2024
- “The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart rejects ‘military solution‘”, The Jerusalem Post, 27 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart gives his solution for Israel – Hamas peace“, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart thinks Arab NATO could solve Gaza“, Business Insider, 28 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart solves Israel – Palestine conflict“, Rolling Stone, 27 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart’s Daily Show episode on Israel – Hamas“, MSNBC, 28 February 2024
- “Bassem Youssef thinks Jon Stewart is wrong“, The Daily Beast, 6 March 2024
- “Jon Stewart proposes NATO-style solution to solve Gaza“, The Independent, 27 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart says Israel – Gaza solution could be a DMZ“, Center for a New American Society, 28 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart calls Israel peace plan ‘a military siege’“, Newsweek, 27 February 2024
- “Jon Stewart unveils his plan for Palestinian – Israeli peace“, The Forward, 27 February 2024
Chronicles of Canada Slim 