Haarezt

For the sake of peace, Israel and Palestinians should apologize to each other

By Judea Pearl

It now seems clear that no peace agreement, not even on principles, will be signed by the Israeli-Palestinian negotiating team before some time in 2009.

The two sides are locked in a fundamentally immobile stalemate.
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Israel cannot accommodate a sovereign neighbor rocket-range away from its vital airports while militant elements can and vow to use the shelter of sovereignty to accomplish their aims. And Palestinian society, having taught its youngsters for decades that Israel's existence is temporary, is unable to restrain its militants from pursuing their aims, especially under conditions of occupation, when Iran promises to render those teachings a reality.

Yet if movement on the ground is infeasible, movement above it - in the metaphysical sphere of words, metaphors and paradigms - may hold the key to making peace agreements feasible.

The current stalemate hangs on two ideological contentions, Israelis demand for "legitimacy" and Palestinians' demand for "justice."

The legitimacy demanded by Israelis is primarily a litmus test for gauging Arabs' intention to treat peace agreements as permanent. Thus, if the Palestinian Authority agrees to recognize Israel's "historical right to exist," instead of just "right to exist," and if this recognition percolates down to textbook level, Israel's demand for a proof of intention will be largely satisfied.

However, Palestinians have a profound impediment to recognizing Israel's "right to exist," be it historical or de facto, fearing that it would depict their century-old struggle against the Zionist program as a misguided, unjust aggression, thus weakening their own demand for "justice," as embodied in the claimed "right of return."

A possible remedy: A dramatic symbolic action that satisfies the Palestinians' claim to justice, while neutralizing, or substituting for the literal right of return.

Palestinian columnist Daoud Kuttab wrote in the Washington Post, (May 12, 2008): "The basic demand is not the physical return of all refugees but for Israel to take responsibility for causing this decades-long tragedy"

Israeli peace activist Uri Avnery believes that this demand can be satisfied through an open and frank Israeli apology. "... peace between us and the Palestinian people -a real peace, based on real conciliation - starts with an apology" he wrote in Arabic Media Internet Network (June 14, 2008).

"In my mind's eye" he writes "I see the President of the State or the Prime Minister addressing an extraordinary session of the Knesset and making an historic speech of apology:

"MADAM SPEAKER, Honorable Knesset,

"On behalf of the State of Israel and all its citizens, I address today the sons and daughters of the Palestinian people, wherever they are.

"We recognise the fact that we have committed against you a historic injustice, and we humbly ask your forgiveness.

"The burning desire of the founding fathers of the Zionist movement was to save the Jews of Europe, where the dark clouds of hatred for the Jews were gathering ... that would eventually lead to the terrible Holocaust, in which six million Jews perished.

"All this does not justify what happened afterwards. The creation of the Jewish national home in this country has involved a profound injustice to you...

"We cannot ignore anymore the fact that in the war of 1948 - which is the War of Independence for us, and the Naqba for you - some 750 thousand Palestinians were compelled to leave their homes and lands".

Israeli society is not prepared of course to make such an apology. For an Israeli, the formation of the state was the culmination of an organic historical process that admits no apology. Still, many Israelis would be prepared to assume responsibility for some of the consequences of the war, provided the Palestinians assume their share.

To reciprocate, I now take poetic liberty and, following Avnery, appeal to my mind's eye at the same Knesset session.

I see President Abbas waiting for the applause to subside, stepping to the podium and saying:

"MADAM SPEAKER, Honorable Knesset,

"On behalf of the Palestinian people and the future State of Palestine, I address today the sons and daughters of the Jewish nation, wherever they are.

"We recognise the fact that we have committed against you a historic injustice, and we humbly ask your forgiveness.

"The burning desire of the founding fathers of the Palestinian national movement was to liberate Palestine from colonial powers; first, the Ottoman empire and then the British Mandate Authorities. In their zeal to achieve independence they have treated the creation of Jewish national home in this country as a form of colonial occupation, rather than a homecoming endeavor of a potentially friendly neighbor, whose historical attachment to this landscape was not weaker than ours.

"We cannot ignore anymore the fact that the Great Arab Revolt of 1936-1939 has resulted in the British White Paper, which prevented thousands, if not millions of European Jews from escaping the Nazi extermination plan.

Nor can we ignore the fact that, when survivors of Nazi concentration camps sought refuge in Palestine, we were instrumental in denying them safety and, when they finally established their historical homeland, we called the armies of our Arab brethren to wipe out their newly created state. Subsequently, in our zeal to rectify the injustice done to us we have taught our children that only your demise can bring about the justice and liberty they so badly deserve. Thousands of your innocent citizens were killed, maimed or injured by violence that erupted from this teaching."

Utopian? Of course! Feasible? Most Utopias are. Necessary? Only if we aim at a genuine and lasting peace and, having seen the consequences of interim solutions, neither side can afford to aim for less.

Judea Pearl is a professor at UCLA and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation (www.danielpearl.org), named after his son. He and his wife, Ruth, are editors of "I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl (Jewish Light, 2004).