"Many books go out of date and few remain iconic and
critical to understanding an issue. The book in hand belongs to the latter
category, the true classics. Simha Flapan was born in Poland 27 January 1911
and immigrated to Palestine as an idealistic “socialist Zionist” in 1930. He
was national secretary of the Mapam party and head of its Arab Affairs
department. Simha Flapan unfortunately died while his book went to press in
1987. However, the book was really revolutionary and hence it is now in
German."
I wrote this forward but never shared it with the readers of
my blog. I highly recommend for English speakers to read the original book and
for German Speakers to read the German translation published in 2015 with my
forward. Anyway here is the forward I wrote to the German version of this
remarkable book.
Forward/Vorwort (in German) to Simcha Flapan,
"Die Geburt Israels. Mythos und Wirklichkeit," Semit edition bei
ZAMBON, Frankfurt/M. 2015
http://zambon.net/index.php?id=23&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=16&cHash=b31f316288177a61c0f7b3d7a8757a25
Forward By Prof. Mazin Qumsiyeh, Professor and Director,
Palestine Museum of Natural History, Bethlehem University, Occupied Palestine
Many books go out of date and few remain iconic and critical
to understanding an issue. The book in hand belongs to the latter category, the
true classics. Simha Flapan was born in Poland 27 January 1911 and immigrated
to Palestine as an idealistic “socialist Zionist” in 1930. He was national
secretary of the Mapam party and head of its Arab Affairs department. Simha Flapan
unfortunately died while his book went to press in 1987. However, the book was
really revolutionary and hence it is now in German. I am sure had Flapan been
alive, the publisher would have gotten him to write a very relevant forward in
a form of a new edition. I am sad I never met Flapan but I am honored to
reflect on why this work is so critical. The well-chosen title “The Birth of
Israel: Myths and Realities” immediately draws attention to perhaps one of the
most astounding historical events of the 20th century that still shapes
conflicts in this part of the world and even beyond.
The tragic history that was unleashed here with the idea of
Zionism was not unforeseen. Every Zionist leader knew that their project to
colonize Palestine will create misery and mayhem because no colonization can be
done nicely or with the support of the native people who will have to be
expelled. Flapan does not give his opinions but he shows by documentary
evidence how this tragedy happened. Palestine was to be transformed from
multireligious and multi-cultural society (Jews represented less than 5% of the
population in 1897) to the monolithic “Jewish state”. Ethnic cleansing achieved
this goal and today 7 million Palestinians are refugees or displaced people (of
a total Palestinian population of 12 million). This is the “miracle” of the
Birth and growth of Israel. This miracle took a combination of military might,
collusion by leaders near and far (including Arab leaders), and a lot of
propaganda. Flapan exposes the myths that many Zionists told to justify their
crimes. Flapan successfully tackles the biggest seven lies (myths) that
Zionists used to create and perpetuate the state of Israel. The myths include
things like the acceptance of partition by the Zionist leadership paralleling
rejection by Arab leaders, the myth of a small Israel fending off large Arab
armies (David vs. Goliath), the myth that Israel is looking for peace, and
more. The most devastating myth is that of Israeli lack of responsibility for
the creation of the Palestinian refugee “problem”. He demolishes these myths
with irrefutable sources, most of them are actually from Israeli leaders
themselves. This was a pioneering achievement and Flapan’s book opened a
section of the wall of lies and myths to be followed by many Israeli honest
writers such as Hillel Cohen, Baruch Kimmerling, Ilan Pappe, Tom Segev, Avi
Shlaim, and Israel Shahak. Earlier many Palestinian historians have written
extensively on the real history that is not the mythologized history of zionism
(e.g. Aref Al-Aref, Walid Khalidi, Sami Hadawi, Emil Tuma, Nur Masalha etc).
The most important figure (the midwife) in the “birth of
Israel” was David Ben-Gurion and the current book reviews extensively the
record of this founding figure. We learn from Flapan things like what
Ben-Gurion said in 1937 as to explain why a small state will help consolidate
power “for the gradual conquest of all of Palestine”. We can trace this
consistent thinking ten years later when Ben-Gurion explained that “After the
formation of a large army in the wake of the establishment of the state, we
will abolish partition and expand to the whole of Palestine.” We learn in this
book of Ben-Gurion’s statement that he sees transfer as moral and we read his
orders to remove inhabitants in many places and we learn about his creation of
a “transfer committee”. Members of this transfer committee (Dannon, Weitz,
Lipshitz) are exposed as racist ideologues who made many incriminating
statements. In a fair world such individuals who led or participated in these
actions would have been tried for war crimes and crimes against humanity. But
Zionists were well placed in western countries and managed much misinformation
as well as used the world sympathies after WWII to hide horrors committed to
create the Jewish state.
But it is not just these amazing quotes that are relevant,
but the nuances of wheeling and dealing reminiscent of the novel “The
Godfather” that we become privy to by reading Flapan. We learn much about
negotiations that ensured a declaration of independence that lacked any
relevance to borders of the new state and from the wrangling between parties
not about the morality of transferring population but merely about how to do
it. We learn about the policies and practices that emanate from the Zionist
maxim of maximizing geography (Palestinian land for the Jewish state) while
minimizing demography (of the native Palestinians). We learn how international
politics and local maneuvering were done with sophistication and cunning to hide
the massacres and the ethnic cleansing. We learn about the collusion between
Zionists and King Abdullah of Jordan to thwart the formation of a Palestinian
state, a collusion that was crucial in the devastation inflicted on the local
Palestinians in 1948-9. We learn that the Zionists, intoxicated with their
power, even abandoned the favorable agreement made with Abdullah and moved
forward with expansions. This is not unusual in colonial histories (e.g. in the
Americas). Abdullah was assassinated for his collusion by a young Palestinian
nationalist in 1951.
I find it remarkable that the insights that were revealed by
Flapan in this book are echoed by previously classified and now declassified
assessment from Western Intelligence agencies. For example, on 28 November
1947, the US Central Intelligence Agency correctly predicted the mayhem that
would arise because of President Truman’s support for creation of a Jewish
state. They also accurately predicted that “In the long run no Zionists in
Palestine will be satisfied with the territorial arrangements of the partition
settlement. Even the more conservative Zionists will hope to obtain the whole
of the Nejeb [Naqab], Western Galilee, the city of Jerusalem, and eventually
all of Palestine. The extremists demand not only all of Palestine but
Transjordan as well. They have stated that they will refuse to recognize the
validity of any Jewish government which will settle for anything less, and will
probably under-take aggressive action to achieve their ends.”(document
declassified 16 Jan 1978).
Flapan’s meticulous research shows the remarkable extent of
the efforts to destroy native Palestinian civilian lives, drive people out, and
create an ethnocracy with apartheid laws. Flapan uses the term population
transfer (which Ben-Gurion found desirable) rather than the term ethnic
cleansing which Ilan Pappe and others used. In this book we find a very good
discussion of Plan Dalet, adopted in March 1948 and implemented on the ground
to drive the natives out. We find good discussion of how the plan was put into
force by forces under Yitzhak (break their bones) Rabin to drive the residents
of Lydde (Lod) and Ramle out not in a heat of battle but to “cleanse” the area.
Why is demolishing these myths still as relevant today
(2015) as it was in 1987 when Flapan died? It is because these myths provided
and still provide useful justification for continued injustice. They basically
create the fog that allows Israel to be both an apartheid racist state while
claiming western values and “democracy”. It allows the state with the fifth
strongest army in the world to be the only state with undeclared stockpiles of
hundreds of nuclear weapons to claim its “vulnerability” and push other states
to fight wars on its behalf. The current book is thus relevant even as some of
its details may have become outdated. For example, Flapan mention Israel’s rule
over 1.5 million Palestinian in the West Bank and Gaza in 1987 (the number is
now 4 million).
As I discussed in my book on “Sharing the Land of Canaan”,
abandoning myths helps us get correct diagnosis leading to applying appropriate
therapies and a better prognosis. The sobering assessment bolstered by the
declassified documents of the historians such as Flapan is that political
Zionism is a racist colonial ideology built on myths and is incompatible with
peace. This is perhaps not what Flapan wanted us to conclude. In his earlier
book “Zionism and the Palestinians’ (1979) he wrote that “To dispel misunderstanding,
I want to make it clear that my belief in the moral justification and
historical necessity of Zionism remains unaffected by my critical reappraisal
of the Zionist leadership. The history of Zionism demonstrates the extent to
which the urge to create a new society, embodying the universal values of
democracy and social justice, was inherent in the Zionist movement and
responsible for its progress in adverse conditions.” Towards the end of this
book, we hear a slightly different Flapan put much of the burden for change on
Israel (especially considering the asymmetry of power). Flapan apparently
remained a Zionist though distraught at the (predictable) shift to the right in
the Zionist discourse. This is different than the trajectory of other historians
like Ilan Pappe or politicians like Avraham Burg who moved farther away from
the Zionist narrative. But political opinions aside and no matter how Flapan
would have evolved his thinking, his contribution to debunking the myths of
Zionism ultimately also chip away at the ideology itself and thus help us get
closer to peace with justice.
References
Burg, Avraham 2008. The Holocaust Is Over: We Must Rise From
its Ashes. MacMillan, New York.
Flapan, Simha 1979. Zionism and the Palestinians. Croom
Helm, London.
Kimmerling, Baruch 2001. The Invention and Decline of
Israeliness: State, Culture and Military in Israel. University of California
Press, Los Angeles and Berkeley.
Kimmerling, Baruch 2003. Politicide: Sharon’s War Against
the Palestinians. Verso, London.
Kimmerling, Baruch and Joel S. Migdal 1993. Palestinians:
The Making of a People. Free Press, New York.
Pappe, Ilan 2006. The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine.
Oneworld, London and New York
Pappe, Ilan 2011. The Forgotten Palestinians: A History of
the Palestinians in Israel. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT
Qumsiyeh, Mazin 2004. Sharing the Land of Canaan: Human
Rights and the Israeli-Palestinian Struggle. Pluto, London.
Qumsiyeh, Mazin 2015. Kanaan: Ein Gemeinsames Land: Menschenrechte
und der Israelisch-Palestinensische Kampf. Zambon Verlag, Frankfurt am Main.
Shahak, Israel 1997. Open Secrets: Israeli Nuclear and
Foreign Policies. Pluto Press, London
Shahak, Israel 1994 (New edition 2008). Jewish History,
Jewish Religion: The weight of 3000 years. Pluto Press, London.
Shahak, Israel and Mezvinsky, Norton 1999 (New edition
2004). Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel. Pluto Press, London.