Can Peace Now movement in Israel be revived?
The writer is former Dean Faculty of Social Science, University of Karachi and can be reached at amoons@hotmail.com
In September 1982, around 400,000 Israelis under ‘Peace Now Movement’ demonstrated in Tel Aviv against their country’s involvement in the massacre of 500 Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Satilla in Beirut. The massacre conducted by the Christian Phalangists in connivance with the head of Israeli Defense Forces Ariel Sharon led to a hue and cry in which the demonstrators demanded the resignation of their Prime Minister, Menachem Begin, and Ariel Sharon, then the defence minister. In 1982 Israeli forces had occupied Beirut and forced PLO and its Chairman Yasser Arafat to leave that city and take refuge in Tunis.
Some 41 years down the road, 11,000 Palestinians have been massacred in Gaza by the Israeli forces since October 7 but there are muted voices in the Jewish state against the inhuman and brutal killing of civilians in Gaza. Demonstrations in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem by Israeli citizens are against the mishandling of the Gaza crisis by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government’s failure to get 240 hostages release from the captivity of Hamas. Some Israelis are also raising their voice against the manner in which Israeli forces have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians including 5,000 children and women; but unlike September 1982 when 400,000 Israelis demonstrated against the Palestinian massacre in the refugee camps of Sabra and Satilla, in 2023 the Israeli public opinion is polarised because of the killing of 1,400 Israelis and abduction of 250 others by Hamas. However, one can take note of the demonstrations by Jews in America and elsewhere against the Israeli killings of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Israeli public rage against the Hamas’ killings in southern Israel and the abduction of 250 of its citizens got an impetus when Prime Minister Netanyahu announced massive retaliation in Gaza and his plans of Hamas’ liquidation. But, the barbaric Israeli attacks which led to the killing of more than 11,000 innocent Palestinians in Gaza compelled a section of the Israeli people to condemn the inhuman acts. The Israeli government exploited Hamas’ attack in order to justify its constant bombardment, siege of Gaza and blocking supply of water, electricity, gas, medicines and food items to 2.3 million people. The Jewish state also made it clear that in the future, Hamas will not be allowed to survive so that attacks from Gaza are stopped.
The Israeli public rage which was explicit in September 1982 is now missing because of the radicalisation of the Israeli society and the surge of right-wing Jewish groups which openly call for the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza and West Bank. When an Israeli cabinet minister called upon his government to use nuclear weapons against Hamas, how can one expect the Israeli public opinion to act according to its conscience? In 1982, the population of Israel was around 1 million out of which 400,000 had demonstrated in Tel Aviv over what they called the role of their armed forces in Beirut, complacent with Christian militia, in massacring Palestinians. At that time, unlike in 2023, Israeli public opinion had a conscience.
Over the last four decades, around half a million Jews, mostly from former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, have been made to settle in occupied West Bank. They are the ones who are deadly against the Palestinians and want to push them to Jordan so as to occupy the whole of West Bank.
Is there any possibility of transformation of Israeli public opinion against the massacre of Palestinians and perpetuation of illegal Jewish settlements? Can the vision of the founders of Israel like Golda Meir and David Ben-Gurion that the first Jewish state on the earth should be democratic, be transformed into a reality? Out of 27 years of Israel’s history since 1996, Netanyahu has been in power for 19 years and he is known for his ultra-extremist views about the Palestinians living in occupied West Bank and in Gaza. After the assassination of the then Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin by a fanatic Jew in November 1996, the Jewish state has drifted into extremism. The surge of right-wing force in Israel, which is deadly against a peace process with Palestinians, got an impetus with the outbreak of Intifada-II and the launch of Hamas-backed suicide attacks in Israel.
One can analyse the prospects of transformation of Israeli public opinion against the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza and use of brutal force against them in occupied West Bank from two angles.
First, there is a need to revive what used to be ‘Peace Now’ movement in Israel which played a vital role in mobilising the public opinion for peace with Palestinians and opposed Jewish settlements in occupied West Bank. Founded in 1978 after the Camp David accords between Israel and Egypt, the ‘Peace Now’ movement took the task of establishing peace constituency in the Jewish state and supported the formation of Palestinian state in Gaza and West Bank. It was the ‘Peace Now’ movement of Israel which led to the massive demonstration of 400,000 people in Tel Aviv condemning the massacre of Palestinians in Sabra and Satilla camps and demanded the resignation of the then Israeli Prime Minister and the Defence Minister. Following the rupture of the Israeli-PLO peace process when Prime Minister Netanyahu refused to proceed with the Oslo accord of September 13, 1993, one observed the fragility of ‘Peace Now’ movement and the surge of ultra-right wing Jewish groups in Israel patronised by Netanyahu and various extremist political parties representing Russian Jews.
Second, peace constituency in Israel will not emerge in the real sense unless a two-state solution advocating a viable Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem is given a practical shape. That would require marginalisation of hawkish Israeli political parties and the moderation of Hamas because neither the right-wing government of Netanyahu nor Hamas are able to destroy each other.
The revival of ‘Peace Now’ movement in Israel is the need of the hour because the Jewish state will neither have peace nor security unless it mends fences with Palestinians and agree on a viable Palestinian state in West Bank and Gaza with its capital in East Jerusalem. It would also require dismantling of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and the return of Palestinian refugees to their state. Protecting the security of Israel along with peace with Palestinians is the only way to transform the image of Israel from a ‘pariah’ to a ‘normal’ state. Only then can the history of ‘Peace Now’ movement be revisited in Israel.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 14th, 2023.
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