“Is one side’s security the other side’s discrimination?”
This was a key question that host and moderator Ben Merens of Wisconsin Public Radio asked the Israeli and Palestinian panelists at one point in the George F. Kennan Forum on International Issues Tuesday.
Neither panelist answered the question directly; but the answer appeared to be “Yes” during the two hours of the program whose theme was supposed to be “Israelis and Palestinians: Finding a Way Forward.”
An estimated 350 people at the Pabst Theater heard an Israeli intellectual — Amos Guiora, professor of law at Case Western Reserve University and an experienced negotiator with Palestinians — proclaim that the way forward involves guaranteeing Israelis’ security from terror attacks; developing economic cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians; and ultimately a two-state solution.
“At the end of the day, we have to live together,” Guiora said. “At the end of the day, there will be two states. The question is how long it will take.”
And they heard a Palestinian intellectual — Nadia Hijab, co-director of the Washington office of the Institute for Palestine Studies — insist that nothing can move forward until Israel withdraws from, and stops allowing Jewish settlements to be built in, the West Bank and Golan Heights; and until the United States refuses to provide aid to Israel unless it does that.
“The settlements go to the heart of whether the Palestinians can have a homeland at all,” Hijab said. “The Palestinians are powerless to stop them.
‘Narratives of history’
Robert Ricigliano, director of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee’s Institute of World Affairs, the chief sponsor of the forum, contributed questions and comments from a microphone positioned in the audience.
At one point, Ricigliano suggested that the sides have to “get out of the narratives of history.” Both “can construct a view of history that says, ‘We want peace, but you have to go first’” in order for either to trust the other.
“If there is going to be peace, someone has to make the irrational step of going first,” he said.
But conflicting “narratives of history” continued to appear in the discussion.
At another point, Hijab and Guiora clashed over whether the 1967 Six Day War — in which Israel obtained the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Golan Heights — was an Israeli response to “a significant threat” against Israel, as Guiora said, or a “war of choice” for Israel, as Hijab said.
Guiora also contended that the Palestinians have yet to do what Israel has done in its past, namely to use force against its own people to stop terrorism.
He cited the incident in Israel’s War of Independence when David Ben Gurion ordered the sinking of the Altalena, a ship that was bringing in arms for illegal Jewish forces. Guiora said most Israelis will find it difficult to trust the Palestinians “until they do an Altalena.”
At yet another point, Hijab contended that the conflict doesn’t just involve the Palestinians living under Israeli rule in the West Bank, but also the 4 million Palestinians in refugee camps outside the area and the “Palestinian citizens of Israel,” and she criticized the idea of Israel being a Jewish state.
“If we’re going to end the conflict, you have to address the Palestinian people in their entirety,” she said.
To bring the forum to a conclusion, Ricigliano asked the panelists to say what “one thing you heard in the views expressed by the other that you appreciate.”
Guiora apparently couldn’t respond to that, saying only, “It is clear that to be under occupation does not put a smile on one’s face,” but “I cannot accept that the way to overcome it is by suicide bombing.”
He did say that a “hopeful sign” is the realization among Israelis that “there is no choice but to end the occupation,” which is “ultimately untenable.”
Hijab said that she appreciated Guiora saying that he opposes the occupation and the settlements.
Merens ended the event by urging the audience to “continue the conversation” about the subject. He also said that the forum session is scheduled to be televised on Milwaukee Public Television on June 3 at 3 p.m.
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