Ilan Pappe: the Israeli moral position and ethnic cleansing

I'll admit it, I'm in love with Ilan Pappe. I've read some of his work, seen some interviews, and heard him speak a few months ago. He's excellent. I got a call from a friend in Nazareth two days ago, saying Pappe was speaking in Ramallah the next day. (She was having dinner with a friend of Pappe's who had just spoken to him on the phone.) Apparently, my friend was one of the few people who knew this because I called everyone I know in Ramallah asking for details. Now, normally, within two phone calls I have all the info. When occupation destroys infrastructure, people get creative. Information sweeps through something like a phone tree before it's on the local news station. All to say, since no one had heard anything, I started thinking Pappe was not, in fact, coming to Ramallah. Long story short, I found him.

There were maybe 15 of us and it was basically a conversation between us. Read his book "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine"--very good narrative of 1948. I want to focus on a few particular points he made.

Pappe said: (much is direct quotes, a bit of paraphrase)

"I don’t think that there is any chance for peace and reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians in the foreseeable future because of the Israeli position. In the late 1980s / early 1990s there was a dialogue between new historians (Israeli historians who were rewriting history of 48) and the Israeli public. The public found the factual story acceptable—-they said, 'Yes, Israel systematically and intentionally tried to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians. But it was justified; and it is also justified as future policy. So, we did it, what’s wrong with it?' This question means there is no basis for dialogue. When they didn’t accept it, there was a basis for dialogue."

Pappe suggested that Israelis have a sense of moral superiority (they say they have the most moral military in the world). And this means they don't see the moral problem with ethnically cleansing another people. He said, “Why don’t Israelis have a sense of morality? Because they have a sense of moral superiority” Why? Jewish Theology and the world, the West who acts as a judge of morality, absolved them from the ethnic cleansing of 1948. It was a very clear message from the West that we are entitled to do what we did...and still are.”

Finally in response to the question --“Do you think the project of ethnic cleansing is still on the agenda in Israel?” Pappe responded:

“I don’t think the project for the West Bank, as they see it, is ethnic cleansing but the project requires it. There is a clear project for wedges, which separate the areas from one another and from the outside. Therefore they are very busy making a clear Jewish presence in the West Bank that does not make ethnic cleansing a necessity. There’s no need when people are separated with a military installment over them and a Jewish settlement around them. Everyday there is a group of experts that produces strategic planning and very tactical answers to developments on the ground. The common thread is how do we divide, redivide, subdivide the area to enable control on the one hand and provide an image of disengagement on the other hand. Ethnic cleansing isn’t the model, that is, the ethnic cleansing of 1948. To my mind this is ethnic cleansing but not the same paradigm as 1948.”