The Myth

A myth propagated by early Zionists in the late nineteenth century depicted Palestine as an empty, arid desert awaiting cultivation by the Jewish people. Of course, this myth was proven to be just that when Jewish immigrants started arriving in Palestine from Europe.[1]

Once a native population had been ‘discovered’, it was subsequently portrayed in the classical colonial terms of progress and development:

“To the Zionist visionaries, leaders, and believers, Palestine was a barren and deserted land inhabited by uncivilized, penurious, and backward souls, while the Zionist project was creative, forward looking, and enlightened.”[2]

However, at the time Palestine was home to a society, which, despite certain hardships, was developing both materially and politically. In the 1980s, so-called village books began to be published so that Palestinians could learn about the lives of their predecessors and ancestors in Palestine prior to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948:

“In the context of the Palestinians’ dispossession, the Palestinian village books serve as dossiers of evidence: land records, genealogies, photographs, and stories all aimed toward showing the villagers’ relationship to the places in the village and thus toward proving their existence on the land, and therefore their history, even though they are no longer there and the village no longer exists.”[3]

More than proving the existence of Palestinians, the village books also provide information on their everyday lives and the vibrancy of Palestinian society at the time:

“The informal, intimate details of village life emerge: four men smile broadly while balancing on the edge of the water storage facility that was installed by the Salama Land Investment Company to provide water to the village; a crooked photo shows the Salama soccer team posing in their striped jerseys; the Hajj Juma‘a Brass Band from Jaffa serenades a groom at his wedding; and village women walk along the path to get water from the well with large pottery jars balanced on their heads. Four members of the Futuwwa group, of whom Abu Nijim was one, pose for the camera while at the Royal Agricultural Association in Cairo on February 16, 1946.”[4]

Details such as these give life to the dehumanized subjects of Zionism’s colonial metanarrative, which ultimately saw Jewish people as more deserving of the land than its current inhabitants.

The Consequence

Another facet of the argument is that Palestinians don’t exist as a people that are distinct from either Egyptians, Jordanians or Syrians. However, like the early Zionist views on Palestinians, this also relies on historical erasure.

With the rise of nationalist movements in the late nineteenth century, Palestinians began producing newspaper articles, books, papers, speeches, popular songs, poetry, and art that asserted their ‘Palestinianness’. In fact the roots of Palestinian nationalism can be traced back to the late-Ottoman Period when the Palestinian elite, along with its Arab counterparts, began calling for more autonomy within, and eventually independence from, the Ottoman Empire.[5] [6]

In 1969 Israel’s then Prime Minister, Golda Meir, claimed that Palestine and Palestinians did not exist around the time of the creation of the State of Israel in 1948:

“There were no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War, and then it was a Palestine including Jordan.

Meir then went on to say:

“It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.”[7]

As the second part of this quote shows, the claim that Palestinians, as a people, don’t exist is not just to delegitimise their claim to the land in which they were native, but also to whitewash the actions of the state of Israel.

Seven years later, in an article published in the New York Times, Meir reiterated her position. While not doubting the very existence of Palestinians, Meir maintained, “There is no Palestinian people. There are Palestinian refugees.”[8] [emphasis added]

Indeed, following the creation of Israel, and the subsequent Arab-Israeli War of 1948, the Palestinians were treated precisely as refugees for decades, starting at the 1949 Armistice Agreements held between Israel, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. Under the agreements the Gaza Strip was put under Egyptian administration while the West Bank was annexed by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which also took control of East Jerusalem.

When the Arab armies invaded Israel in 1948 this was not only due to their opposition to the establishment of the State of Israel, nor totally for support of the Palestinians. The Arab armies were also acting upon their own regional ambitions, some hoping to extend their territories, even if it meant into land designated to the Palestinians.[9] The point here is that Palestinian nationalism has not only had to contend with Zionism, not to mention Ottoman and British rule, but also various Arab nationalisms.

In her New York Times article, after claiming that the Palestinians were not a distinct people, Golda Meir, stated, “I believe I may be forgiven if I took Arab spokesmen at their word.” In 1956 Ahmad al-Shukeiri, whom at the time was the Saudi Arabian delegate to the United Nations[10], had claimed “It is common knowledge that Palestine is nothing but southern Syria.” By taking al-Shukeiri at his word, Meir was buying into another force that opposed Palestinian nationalism, the notion of a ‘Greater Syria’.

Interestingly, al-Shukeiri became the first Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1964, whereupon he went someway to acknowledge the interference Palestinians politics had received from the Arab region which had seen them side-lined as mere refugees during negotiations with Israel:

“Palestinians had experienced 16 years’ misery and it was time they relied on themselves and liberated Palestine from the Israelis.”

Al-Shukeiri remained in the role until 1967 and by 1974 the United Nations recognised the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) as the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people” and granted the organisation observer status at the UN. A far cry from the Palestinian “refugees” that Golda Meir made reference to in her New York Times piece in 1976.

Where we are now: Jordan is Palestine

Stemming from the view that Palestinians are no different to Jordanians is the slogan “Jordan is Palestine”. A common stance of the Israeli right, this trope has been uttered over the decades as some kind of solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The ‘logic’ behind this viewpoint is that because Jordan is host to such a significant amount of Palestinians (who are not considered to be a different people anyway) then the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan may as well become the State of Palestine. According to this idea, Israel would take control of all of the West Bank with the Palestinians currently living there “transferred” to Jordan.[11] [12]

When Donald Trump became President of the United States, and therefore de facto chief-mediator in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, he promised a ‘deal of the century’ that would bring an end to the decades’ long conflict. Although precise details have not been forthcoming, what is being talked about is a confederation between Jordan and the areas of the West Bank currently under Palestinian control.

The idea of such a confederation is not a novel one, nor has it ever been acceptable to the Jordanians or Palestinians. While Jordan would lose its national identity, its leaders also worry about a possible Palestinian takeover of the country, that is to say Jordan effectively becoming Palestine. On the other hand the Palestinians maintain that any negotiated settlement should be in accordance with the internationally recognised peace process that would see an independent Palestinian-state established in the West Bank and Gaza.[13]

To be sure, all Trump and his team are doing with such a proposal is continuing a long trend of American mediation in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations:

“The American team had to know confederation is a total non-starter, but maybe that’s why they brought it up. They could say they’re thinking out of the box, as promised by the president, although they’re really recycling an old idea. Similarly, Israel could praise the concept, confident that the Palestinians would summarily reject it, opening the way for Trump to say he tried and those Palestinians, who he’s been bashing for so long, are the problem.”[14]

Apart from offering nothing new the proposal also reveals another dynamic that has been an ever present during American-led negotiations. Despite the failings of both the Palestinians and Israelis when it comes fulfilling their obligations as per the peace process, it is only the Palestinians that are asked to make concessions.

 

Footnotes

[1] In Ten Myths About Palestine (2017: 41), the author Ilan Pappe, makes reference to the surprise early settlers from Europe noted when they first encountered the native population of Palestine.

[2] Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced (2011: 9-10), Rochelle A. Davis

[3] Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced (2011: 29), Rochelle A. Davis

[4] Palestinian Village Histories: Geographies of the Displaced (2011: 42), Rochelle A. Davis

[5] See Palestinian Nationalism: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (2010) by Rashid Khalidi

[6] What made Palestinian nationalism different from other Arab nationalist movements is that it was directly competing with another form of nationalism over the same territory: Zionism. It must also be added that Palestinian nationalism at the time was also hindered by the imperial-like interference from its over bearing neighbours.

[7] As quoted in Sunday Times (15 June 1969), also in The Washington Post (16 June 1969)

[8] https://www.aish.com/jw/me/Golda-Meir-on-the-Palestinians.html

[9] Transjordan’s King Abdullah had designs on a establishing a ‘Greater Syria’ incorporating Syria and Lebanon into the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. At the time, this was opposed by the Egyptian and Saudis, both also keen to extend their spheres of influence.

[10] Born in present day Lebanon, Ahmad al-Shukeiri had been a member of the Syrian delegation to the UN from 1949-1951. Shukeiri also held the post of Assistant Secretary General for the Arab League from 1950 – 1956.

[11] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2010/07/2010748131864654.html

[12] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190628-far-right-dutch-politician-calls-for-transfer-of-palestinians-to-jordan/

[13] Incidentally, Gaza would become Egypt according to the Jordan is Palestine plan.

[14] https://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Is-Jordan-Palestine-566608