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75 years of Israel: From the dream to the fractured present

2023-04-25 17:27:31Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA LISA HäNEL
75 years of Israel: From the dream to the fractured present
David Ben-Gurion announcing the State of Israel on May 14, 1948

The modern state of Israel turns 75 years old. For many this is a model of success. But this year, this anniversary is more political than ever.

Traditionally the commemorative holiday for the founding of the state begins with the lighting of twelve torches on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem. This year, the celebrations will be overshadowed by the protest of hundreds of thousands of Israelis against the government's plans in the field of justice. This is one of the biggest crises in the country's troubled history.

In essence, Israel was born in crisis. When David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the State of Israel on May 14, 1948, the Jewish inhabitants of the Holy Land had been in civil war with their Arab-Palestinian neighbors for months.

For the Jews, the proclamation of their state was like salvation. "The year 1948 is very closely related to 1945. So this means that on the one hand we have the end of European Jews, which is very clearly marked by the icon of the time 1945, and three years later the establishment of the state of Israel, so to speak salvation from this annihilation," Israeli sociologist Natan Sznaider told DW. "The establishment of the state was like a revival. I think this is a narrative that is supported not only officially, but by the majority of Israelis – in other words, the founding of the state as an almost theological act of liberation.”

Just three years before the founding of Israel, the unprecedented mass killing of European Jews ended in the Shoah. Six million were shot, killed or died in German death camps. But the unimaginable crime also opened a perhaps unique historical window. In 1947 the UN, including the Soviet Union, recommended a partition plan for Palestine, which until then was still under the British mandate. This envisioned the creation of a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Arab side refused, while the Jewish representatives agreed. A civil war ensued with violence on both sides.

The utopia of a separate state

Although the Holocaust was a defining moment, the idea of ​​a Jewish state is much older. The most famous representative of the Zionist idea is Theodor Herzl. Even he was not the first, but before him the Zionist idea was still a utopia. In 1896, under the impression of growing anti-Semitism, especially in France, Herzl wrote the book "Der Judenstaat" - The State of the Jews - in which he also devoted himself to very practical ideas for the establishment of a state.

75 years of Israel: From the dream to the fractured present
The first war between Israel and the Palestinians lasted until July 1949

At first, Herzl also explored alternatives to Palestine, but other representatives of the Zionist movement rebelled against this idea from the beginning. Zionists like Ukrainian-born journalist Ascher Hirsch Ginsberg, also known by his pen name Achad Ha'am, wanted to revive the Hebrew language. Others recalled the thousand-year connection between Jewish culture and the Holy Land. "In the Zionist view Jews are first and foremost a people, a nation, not a religion, and as such, like other nations, deserve their own homeland and state sovereignty," explains historian Michael Brenner, director of the Center for Israel Studies. at American University in Washington, DC

One country, two peoples

Large parts of the Zionist movement ignored for a long time the fact that Arab villages and towns already existed in the territory of Palestine, and lived under the illusion that it was a largely empty land. "The fundamental problem is, of course, that two peoples have claims to the same country, and both have historical reasons for this claim," says Brenner. After the declaration of the state of Israel, five Arab countries declared war on the new country. Israel won. As a result of the war, but even before that, the approximately 700,000 Palestinians who were expelled and fled entered the Palestinian narrative as the "nakba" (catastrophe).

In the 1980s, a generation of so-called new historians appeared in Israel who, as Brenner says, "questioned the sacred theories that existed, that is, the fundamental beliefs and theories that had shaped official Israel." This included, for example, the idea of ​​David versus Goliath in the 1948 War of Independence, according to which Israel was weakened when faced with the dominant Arab armies. Or discussing the consequences for Palestinian residents, who have received little attention for decades.

75 years of Israel: From the dream to the fractured present
This year, Israel is facing demonstrations against justice reform

Celebrations and demonstrations

Këtë përvjetor vendi po përballet këto ditë me demonstrata kundër reformës së drejtësisë. Prandaj “Kjo ndoshta do të jetë dita më politike e Pavarësisë në historinë e Izraelit,” thotë Sznaider. “Sepse do të ketë dy ditë të Pavarësisë në të njëjtën kohë”. Demonstruesit aktualisht po konsiderojnë mbajtjen e një ceremonie me pishtarë në Tel Aviv si një alternativë ndaj asaj në Jerusalem. Tradicionalisht festimi i Ditës së Pavarësisë në Izrael është apolitik, por ekziston frika se ceremonia e këtij viti në Jerusalem mund të përdoret për qëllime politike.

Çdo javë demonstruesit u referohen me vetëdije ideve të themeluesve të shtetit hebre: ata tundin flamurin dhe i referohen Deklaratës së Pavarësisë. Për ironi të dyja palët e shohin veten si ndjekës së traditës së themeluesve të Izraelit. Mes sionistëve ka pasur gjithmonë sionistë fetarë. Lëvizja e sotme e kolonëve në zonat e pushtuara shihet gjithashtu si një vazhdim i vendosjes së kolonëve në vitet 1920. “Ata përpiqen ta paraqesin veten si një lloj super-sionistësh që po përpiqen të plotësojnë planet e lëvizjes sioniste fillimisht laike, me prirje të majtë, social-demokrate”, thotë historiani Brenner.

But the demonstrators, of course, see things completely differently. They insist on Israel's democratic origins, a free country governed by the rule of law for all its citizens. Or, as historian Tom Segev said in an interview for Spiegel: "David Ben-Gurion would probably be thinking" if he knew where Israeli society is now.

For historian Michael Brenner, old tensions that have always existed within the Zionist movement are now colliding in Israel. "I would say that many of the divisions in Israeli society have existed from the beginning, and it's probably a small miracle that it took 75 years for them to erupt so sharply." 75 years after the establishment of the state of Israel, it seems that it is also looking for the origin of its country./ DW

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