Palestinian Arab leadership calls "coexistence" between Arabs and Israeli's criminal but a new shopping mall sets out to make it happen anyways.
The anti-normalization campaign
The anti-normalization campaign is directed at virtually any coexistence efforts. In 2014, PA leader Jibril Rajoub went so far as to slam a joint sports event between Arab and Jewish children as “a crime against humanity.”
Al-Haq, a self-styled Palestinian Arab human rights non-governmental entity based in Ramallah, informed Arab residents of northern Israel and the surrounding area not to patronize or in any other way participate in economic activity at the Atorot Mall. It warned that “businesses benefitting from Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise,” may be subject to legal action.
Over the two years time it took to build the center on the nearly three and a half acres of what had been vacant land, tensions remained high and the threats against any move towards normalization grew.
Arab shop owners face outrage by Palestinian leadership
The outrage was directed in particular at Arabs who considered opening a store in the mall or even working or shopping there.
The head of the Palestinian Consumer Protection Society, Salah Haniya, admitted to pressuring five Palestinian businessmen who planned to open stores in the Atorot Mall.
Haniya threatened the shop owners that the PCPS would reveal the names of the Palestinian companies that sought partnership with Levy, put them on the Palestinian blacklist, boycott them and urge the Palestinian Chamber of Commerce to freeze their memberships.
The Palestinian Authority’s official news agency warned Arabs cooperating with the Atorot Mall. It informed Arab citizens that boycotting the venture was a “religious, national and moral duty.” The leadership stated that any kind of economic normalization “is an act of intentional treason.”
Despite the harassment by Palestinian Authority leadership, several Arab businessmen ultimately agreed to open outlets in the new mall. Levy made an especial effort to bring in stores which are popular in the Arab sector, and to encourage Israeli businesses which brought in Arabs as franchise holders.
In early December, Professors Cary Nelson and David Greenberg wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post about the “anti-normalization” tactic that has been widely...
As I’ve written on CAMERA’s In Focus blog, only one conclusion can be drawn from these actions: that those setting the BDS agenda understand that the only way they win the argument is when the pro-Israel side does not have an opportunity to present its case.
Earlier this month, as the Modern Language Association’s vote on BDS measures approached, Professor Nelson wrote:
The MLA distributed a detailed assault on Israel’s legitimacy, policies, and right to exist, without accepting any responsibility to distribute contrary views or evidence. Its elected representatives were to be given an opportunity for brief oral comments pro and con before voting on a resolution endorsing academic boycotts of Israel. They were to have only prosecutorial document in hand….
When we worked hard to share counter-evidence with the whole organisation in 2014, MLA’s executive director used every means to prevent us from doing so, up to and including threats of legal action….
[Currently,] MLA’s leadership felt no responsibility to supplement these extraordinarily deceptive pieces of [pro-boycott] propaganda, or to invite anyone else to do so.
Indeed, Nelson’s point is illustrated by the fact that his rebuttal to the boycotters’ claims had to be published outside of the MLA, in the Fathom Journal.
The MLA vote, moreover, took place on Shabbat — another method of suppressing debate that CAMERA has found in various campus BDS efforts. Scheduling votes on or right before Shabbat or Jewish holidays has the effect of preventing many people with pro-Israel views from participating.
There is only one conclusion that can be drawn from these BDS actions. Those setting the BDS agenda understand that the only way they win the argument is when the pro-Israel side does not have an opportunity to present its case.
Kasim Hafeez, for example, says he was “the anti-Semitic, and anti-Israel activist” on his campus, until he read Alan Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel. Reading that book, he has said, completely changed his view. Interfaith activist Nadiya Al-Noor has written that simply learning about Israel has changed her from a person who believed that “Israel was slaughtering children left and right, Israel had no right to exist,” into a Zionist. And last year, Dershowitz won a debate against a BDS supporter at the Oxford Student Union. As Yair Rosenberg observed shortly afterwards, that was “a surprising outcome given the general hostility towards the Jewish state on European university campuses.”
These examples illustrate why the protesters at the UCL event said, on video, that they “don’t have dialogue with Zionists.”
Another variant on the strategy of shutting out pro-Israel voices is scheduling BDS votes on or right before Shabbat or Jewish holidays, so that many Jews can’t participate at all. Ira Stoll recently wrote about this tactic,
The outline of my talk (enough for an hour) under the cut. I can clarify anything if necessary.
Anti-Normalization/Normalization - Have you heard this word? Try to define it.
What are some examples of this?
Go over outline of talk
A few examples:
18/22 countries of the Arab League don't recognize Israel
A further 11 countries of the OIC don't
only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan have fully normalized relationships w/ Israel on the diplomatic/governmental level
other countries (NK, Venezuela, etc.)
teams/athletes refusing to play with Israeli teams/athletes (why Israeli Football Association is a part of the UEFA since 1992 after being expelled from the AFC in 1974)
BDS and the academic/cultural boycott of Israeli institutions/Israelis who are sponsored by these institutions
references to "Israel" or Zionist entity, maps that label historic Palestine as Palestine (language)
refusing any contact or partnership with Israelis (even Anti-Zionists, even protests against the wall), there are laws against this/visiting Israel in certain countries (Sudan)
What is normalization?
normalization is a translation of the arabic term "tatbi'a" it is a concept that is rooted in palestinian political thought
we can think of anti-normalization as starting from before the state of Israel, in the Palestinian General strike of 1936 which was a part of the Arab Revolt of 1936-9 (even before when Palestinians would stop land sales to Zionists)
even during the pre-history of Israel Zionists would say it could build a state together (using socialism or colonialist paternalism)
normalization = "treating Israel as any other state, building open & reciprocal relations with Israel in all fields"
different efforts based on what facet we're talking about, are we talking about governments to governments, as institutions, as citizens, as consumers, as people?
Tension in all efforts for the liberation of an oppressed group - advocate from the inside or refuse to accept the status quo?
long history here and a long debate about what normalization entails/how to make it effective (at its worst has been a cover for anti-semitism, xenophobia, useless paranoid extremism and cheap political attacks)
To not give normalcy to the relationship between oppressor/oppressed, to make it seems normal is to accept it, to refuse it to is bring up the issue (complete lack of Palestinian perspective in Western world has lead to hijackings/despair/people wanting negotiations)
it's a form of resistance
Not a conflict between sides of equal power but between oppressor and the oppressed
dialogue/negotiations can only happen between equals
impossible to not be political when a gun is pointed at you
Negotations have only given Israel more time to take more Palestinian land and oppress Palestinians further, working within the system is only bargaining
How can we normalize with a state that does not treat us normally? (Palestinians in Gaza/West Bank considered residents in disputed areas, Palestinians in Jerusalem considered "Jordanian citizens residing in Israeli land" - not considering Palestinians to have national rights or be a people)
even being critical of Israel/presenting the Palestinian narrative in certain arenas has been cast as a triumph of Israeli liberalness w/o any real change
Pro-normalization efforts want to "bridge the divide", "to get to know each other" "foster connections" "coming together as equals" "healing" "reconciliation"
(Vietnam has reconciliation tours for ex-GIs but they won the war, also South Africa Peace & Reconciliation Committee after apartheid)
Israel wants normalization w/ Arab countries before or w/o resolution of key issues; at the same time, Israel's self-image is that of "an oasis in the desert", as fundamentally different from neighboring countries and as a victim under siege "living in a rough neighborhood"
Also, does Israel want normal relations or extra-normal relations, that of domination? (i.e. double standards around incitement, weapons, nukes)
Israeli right tends to be more anti-normalization due to greater Israel ideology or simple anti-Arab racism
Does refusing to engage with Israelis further the Israeli line of having "no partner for peace"?
Forms of anti-normalization in various areas
primary/secondary/tertiary boycott
political: stopping foreign aid to Israel, breaking/downgrading diplomatic relations with Israel, expelling Israel from international institutions, allowing arrest of Israeli officials who are complicit in violations of international law, sanctions on Israel, armed struggle, UN resolutions condemning Israel
academic: boycotting all Israeli academic institutions, disinviting any Israeli academic who does not condemn Israel, divesting academic funds from Israel and all companies supporting Israeli occupation, breaking any academic partnership with Israeli institutions, expelling Israeli institutions from international academic institutions, passing resolutions denouncing Israeli violations of human rights of Palestinians, forming ties with Palestinian academic institutions instead
cultural: artists/cultural workers not allowing films/art/etc. to be shown in Israel, to not perform/speak in Israel, to not accept links/partnerships with official Israeli cultural organizations (or any institution complicit w/ Israeli government, whether Israeli or not), to reject any cultural work that promotes a view of the conflict that where both sides are equally to blame, this does not mean boycotting any Israeli cultural worker/intellectual/academic if they are not sponsored by complicit Israeli institutions
more generally we see intense involvement by the Israeli government (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) in cultural outreach to boost Israel's image "Brand Israel"
for any institutions: resisting partnerships, propaganda, breaking off ties
commercial: boycott all Israeli goods and companies, boycott companies that are complicit in Israeli occupation and apartheid (tactical move, not all multinational companies that do business in Israel are boycottable -reason why boycott as a tactic focuses on smaller countries), divest from Israeli companies/companies complicit in Israeli apartheid
personal: not visiting Israel, not competing against Israelis in sports, denouncing those who normalize even if not Israeli, not have any contacts with Israelis (palestinians in debate against Israelis not even acknowledge their presence - some would say even having the debate is normalization)
Recent definitions and partnerships w/ Israelis
adopted by the BDS movement in Nov. 2007 not racial only political
more deeply according to PACBI "colonization of the mind, whereby the oppressed subject comes to believes that the oppressor's reality is the only "normal" reality that must be subscribed to, and that the oppression is a fact of life to be coped with."
sharpening of terms and conditions
BDS came about after the second Intifada after the failure of Oslo in a time of lack of faith in Palestinian political leadership and institutions
partnerships w/ Israelis and others under conditions:
- led by Palestinians and supported by Israelis
- supporting the core of the Palestinian program
- support BDS (Boycott from Within)
- cooperation in action, not just dialogue
- otherwise Palestinians (regardless of intentions) end up being a fig leaf for business as usual (a salve for the conscience)
- not a call to refrain from understanding Israeli state/society
- co-resistance vs. co-existence
Dialogue groups, the "peace" industry
Differentiate peace process, Israeli peace groups, and foreign-funded peace industry
beginning w/ Oslo (at a time when Palestinians actually believe there could be an end to the conflict) - before then even the Israeli peace movement didn't consider Palestinians important as partners in dialogue (it was the Arab world)
peace industry usually at least is nominally against the occupation (and indeed there are ex-Mossad and Peace Now people against the occupation but not for equal rights for Palestinians in Israeli society and definitely not the right of return for Palestinian refugees), mostly for Palestinian self-determination (usually in the form of "two states for two people") and hardly ever for Palestinian right of return
(from 1993-2000, $20-$25 million spent on dialogue groups w/o a single peace activist produced on either side, most Palestinians participants were children/friends of officials/economic elite, 91% no long maintained ties w/ Israelis, 93% not approached for follow-up activity 5% thought it was useful)
Peace industry is usually funded by foreign institutions/donors, involve not regular Israelis but Israeli officials/IDF officials/security agents/etc. - asking Palestinians to dialogue with their oppressor is furthering their trauma
OneVoice - nationalisms of two side, ultimate goal is to get the two sides to understand each other, not actual change
IPCRI - self-determination for both people but no acknowledgement of the actual historical context
Peres Center for Peace - emphasizes cooperation with Israelis as leading to a better life w/o mentioning the context
Seeds Of Peace - "develop empathy, respect, confidence as well as leadership, communication and negotiation skills - all critical components that will facilitate peaceful coexistence for the next generation"
Neve Shalom - cooperative village
even SodaStream factory can be billed "Palestinians and Israelis working together" (w/o mentioning devastation of Palestinian economy that forces Palestinians to work there)
There's the idea that talking to Israelis will make them understand and join with Palestinians in co-resistance but this usually doesn't happen
We see this in other conflicts (North Ireland, South Africa)
Differences & contradictions w/in Palestinian society
for Palestinians who are citizens of Israel - to live a regular life you have to interact with Israeli institutions but how much? (some have thought of Palestinians citizens of Israel as traitors, historically under regarded sector of resistance)
- Should Palestinians try to get representation in the Knesset? Hanin Zoabi or (low voter turnout in national Israeli elections ~50% compared to general turnout of 70% but 90% turnout in local election in Arab cities in Israel) is there a point to political representation in a state the methodically discriminates against the Palestinian minority (recent raise in minimum percentage to be seated in the Knesset from 2% to 3.25% what this will do to Arab parties)
Saleh Tarif, first Arab minister refused to sing Hatikva - every Palestinian has their own forms of anti-normalization
- serve in the IDF? Besides Bedouins & Druze, Palestinians are not required to do military service and very few do (efforts to force a military draft on Palestinians)
- creation of an "Arab-Israeli" identity, fighting against that by explicity Palestinian identity
- participate in Israeli institutions without being tokenized?
- can't ask Palestinians not go to school or get treated at a hospital but beyond what is necessary for survival
for Palestinians under occupation
- working with the PA (main employer of Palestinians, also there to repress Palestinian dissent)?
- working at a non-profit or with the UN?
- more positive attitudes towards normalization after DOP and during Oslo, dip in that after second Intifada and the wall, etc.
for Palestinians in the diaspora
maybe not surprisingly, those with the least contact with Israelis have the more stringent attitudes towards anti-normalization (esp. those in the refugee camps in the Arab world)
main question is being not citizens of those Arab countries and having different rights, their relationship to host countries vis-a-vis Israel (how they are being represented)
working-class Palestinians more open to social ties and normalization due to actual contact with non-IDF/settler Israelis and dependence on Israeli labor market though this has been changing due to decreased dependency on Palestinian labor (cycling foreign workers)
Palestinians who are employed by the PA tend to be more in favor of normalization
Palestinians in refugee camps more against normalization
also dependent on political leanings
Palestinian Islamists open to coexistence w/o normalization, consider all of Palestine as an Islamic waqf'
Marxist open to normalization w/ Jewish Anti-Zionists/Communists
Arab nationalists - some not open to any normalization, some open to negotiations
Fateh - considers Palestinian liberation a Palestinian responsibility, has tended towards normalization in pursuit of political aims (but look how well that's going)
underlying questions
- what forms of anti-normalization are stressed? does this include rejecting negotiations or dialogue? can you have a truce or coexistence without normalization (re: Hamas)? can you have negotiations without normalization? how far can you work with Israelis - only anti-zionists or anyone working against repression of Palestinians (ex. Shulamit Aloni very progressive but not for any of the BDS demands)?
Conclusion:
All these questions are very important but BDS gives clear guidelines so as people standing in solidarity with Palestinians under their leadership just go with that
Phew done with my talk and this always happens that I feel like I'm throwing so much information and worrying that people are really taking it in. But there's soooo much to talk about, especially about such a topic like normalization/anti-normalization! Hardly anyone knows this concept has a history! Anyway, I'll post the outline of my talk tonight.
Next weekend I'm giving a 40-minute talk on normalization and anti-normalization as a part of a YJVP crash course on Israel/Palestine. Here's a very rough outline so far:
- Normalization/Anti-Normalization - what is it? w/ examples
- Forms of normalization in various areas (political, cultural, academic, commercial, etc.)
- Recent definitions and partnerships w/ Israelis
- Dialogue groups, the "peace" industry and why we oppose them
- Differences w/in Palestinian society
- Conclusion, answers to common criticisms
I already have a bunch of sources but more would be appreciated so holla at me. Once I have this presentation more outlined, I'm going to post a fuller version of the outline here.
