Charlie Wolf

Palestinians Must Realise They've Benefited From Israel

Thursday 15th 2008f May 2008

While Jews celebrated, Palestinians once again commiserated their nakba. I’m sick of hearing about it only because it is a nakba of their own making.

Instead of moving forward, their leaders, moderate or terrorist, keep their people stuck in a nakba that didn’t have to be.

Where there has never been a Palestinian state – the last entity holding title over that land being the Ottoman Empire – a state could have existed. But it was the Arabs and only the Arabs who rejected not once, but several times, a chance at statehood for a people who really didn’t deserve it in the first place – not that Israel or anyone else would have begrudged them the opportunity.

But maybe the Palestinians realise this and that is why they act the way they do, continually ‘kicking against the pricks’, blaming others when they should blame themselves. It is part of the human condition, we have all noticed it in ourselves at some point, that when it is we who do something stupid to ourselves, that is when we generally lash out in the greatest burst of anger, yelling at those around us so that we don’t have to chastise ourselves.
Sixty years of terror, wars and wallowing in self-pity have served the Palestinians well in not having to examine themselves.

The sad part is that the Palestinians’ lot has always been better when they have worked with the Israelis. Between the two intifadas, gross national product increased as did life expectancy; birth mortality was down and conditions overall improved. Israelis were eager to hire Palestinians to work their farms and they invested in the territories.

It was the same in 1947. Far from ethnic cleansing, it was the hopes of the Zionists, including David Ben-Gurion that a Jewish state and the influx of European Jews (and capital) would benefit not just the Jews but also the Arab citizens. Efraim Karsh, writing in “1948, Israel and the Palestinians — The True Story” in Commentary Magazine, says had most Palestinian Arabs been left to their own desires and not followed their leaders, they would have been content to stay in Israel and take the opportunities afforded them. The opportunities were plentiful. The Jews had always envisioned and welcomed a substantial Arab minority in their state.

As between the two intifadas, during the two decades between the two world wars the standard of living for Arabs in Palestine rose well above their neighbours, thanks, as Karsh states, to the influx of capital and Jewish know-how. “Arab-owned citrus plantations grew six-fold, as did vegetable growing lands, while the number of olive groves quadrupled.” Karsh further states “mortality rates in the Muslim population dropped sharply and life expectancy rose from 37.5 years in 126-27 to 50 in 1942-44.” Nothing remote to this was taking place in neighbouring British-ruled Arab countries or India. It was due to “decisive Jewish contributions to Mandate Palestine’s socio-economic well-being.”

This should give Palestinians at least two pauses for thought on how their leadership and the wider pan-Arab world have let them down. First is the fact that as Abba Eban famously stated, “The Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Sixty years in which they could have had a state of their own, where they could have built it up and let it flourish, have been wasted. Billions and billions in international aid have been squandered while Palestinians live in self-imposed squalor. The Israelis, who probably are the best friends they ever had were not only rejected but have become the object and projection of their own self-hatred. Had they worked with the Israelis over the past 60 years, who knows what form of Middle Eastern powerhouse they could have created both in economic terms and social welfare for their peoples?

The Palestinians should also consider how much they have – even under the current circumstances – benefited from Israel. They should ponder what life would be like for them if from 1948 there had never been a modern Israel. Sure, they would have all the land from the river to the sea… but what state would they be living in? I would argue that it would probably be worse than they have it now; no Israeli aid coming over the border while rockets go from their side; no Israeli jobs in times of peace; no hospitals to go to for complex medical treatments. They would also have no object for their propaganda narrative and with it no bespoke UN agency of their very own (UNRWA).

As the old adage goes, the Palestinians should be careful of what they wish for, they just may get it.