Has Israel succeeded as a state?
By Saeed Taji Farouky in London
Right-wing Israelis establish one of the first West Bank settlements
on December 8, 1975 [GALLO/GETTY]
As Israel celebrates its 60th anniversary on May 8, some academics,
scholars and journalists are pausing to reflect on the ambitions and
aspirations that fuelled the country's 1948 independence - and whether
those reasons still resonate today.
David Rubinger, an Israeli photojournalist who witnessed and
photographed the country's birth in 1948, told Al Jazeera: "I will
with absolute pride say never in history have 600,000 people achieved
in 60 years what these 600,000 people achieved in 1948."
"I think it's historically unprecedented. At the same time, I'm not
proud of what Israel has done since 1967," he said.
Rubinger was in London in March, along with other Jewish, Israeli and
Palestinian historians, writers and journalists for Jewish Book Week,
an annual event which was this year dedicated to "Israel at 60".
He has enjoyed a ringside seat - camera in hand - at every major
historical event that has shaped the country's history.
Rubinger - whose first professional photograph depicted a group of
young Jews celebrating the UN partition plan - remembers the early
idealism of those days, as well the difficulties that followed.
"The early idealism of Zionism that this was going to benefit the
Middle East didn't come true, unfortunately," he said.
"The moment you become an occupying force, you lose your moral
strength. I look at the Palestinians today and I say they may be
suffering, but morally they're becoming stronger every day while we
become morally weaker every day."
Fighting for its soul
Israel at 60
Special series: The Promised Land?
But Menahem Brinker, founder of the Israeli peace movement Peace Now,
believes that Israel's morality 60 years on is not in question.
He says it is kept alive by the fact that many of its citizens
continue to protest the occupation, even when protest is unpopular.
"Morally it is not collapsing, [Israel] fights all the time for its
soul," he said.
"Israel has been in a crisis from the day it was born. It survives
with the crisis."
Benny Morris is an Israeli historian and the founder of the
revisionist New Historians whose writing was =96 controversially - the
first to re-examine many of the documents relating to the founding of
Israel.
Like Brinker, he disagrees with the continued occupation of the West
Bank but feels Israel's morality is not at stake.
"Occupying another people in general is immoral ... but I don't think
that has turned Israel into an immoral country," he told Al Jazeera.
"In some way you can blame Israel for maintaining the occupation, but
in some way you can blame the Arabs for forcing Israel to maintain the
occupation.=94
Zionism has failed
Herzl believed he was creating a western
democracy in the Middle East [GALLO/GETTY]
Sari Nusseibeh, the president of Jerusalem's Al-Quds University,
believes the Zionist project in Palestine has been a failure.
"Did the Zionist project succeed after 60 years? My answer is no.
Assuming that it was aimed at finding a secure haven for the Jewish
people, I don't think it has because it is neither secure nor is it a
haven nor is it now a place where only Jews live."
"It is, as far as I'm concerned, a tragedy. I understand it is for
Israelis a very beautiful thing, but this is life."
But Morris believes that despite its shortcomings and the occupation,
there are many positive qualities about Israel.
He told Al Jazeera: "[Theodore] Herzl [the father of modern Zionism]
and most of the founders thought they would be establishing a Western
democracy, an enlightened area in an area which they thought was dark
and barbaric.=94
"And they did establish a democracy. It's got a lot of problems, but
it's also got a lot of light."
He agrees with Nusseibeh that the original goal of Israel's founders
was only partially achieved: "Zionism has been a success in that it
established a state ... but it's a very dangerous place for the Jews.
It's a place which is ultimately under existential threat. In that
sense it didn't actually realise the dreams of the founders."
'Bloody birth'
Arab Unity: War and Peace
Nusseibeh, who has been involved in numerous peace initiatives and
helped draft the Palestinian National Council's 1988 Declaration of
Independence, also believes perceptions have changed, though there is
still much more to be done, particularly on the Palestinian side.
"Some 20, 30 years ago you had very few voices in Israel that were
openly self-critical and they were not very popular in Israel," he
said.
"But I think people are coming to realise that Israel did not go
through an immaculate conception. It was a bloody birth."
"I think the Israelis are ahead of [the Palestinians] in terms of self-
reflection," he adds. "With the Palestinians it=92s still a process ...
this kind of thinking is not something we engage in very much."
For Morris, Israel's 60th birthday may not hold any special symbolism,
but it does offer enough distance to closely re-examine the events of
Israel=92s establishment.
"The closer you were to 1948, the more difficult it was to actually
look at things objectively and critically. The further we are from
1948, the easier it is to take a step back and try to describe things
truthfully."
This emphasis on truth, in a history so often subject to
interpretation, is raised many times during any discussion of Israeli-
Palestinian issues. But, as Rubinger points out, it will always remain
subjective and selective.
"The best role you can play is telling the truth, but in the old
days ... they could tell the whole story and go into the background,"
he said.
"Modern journalism doesn't allow that. We're getting only glimpses of
the truth."
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