[Peace-discuss] Interview on South African radio

[David Green]

As a result of my article on Znet and subsequently
palestinechronicle.com, I was interviewed on a Cape
Town, South Africa radio show today for 30 minutes by
Shafiq Morton. I was identified with AWARE on several
occasions by Morton. Here is an editorial by the
interviewer:

EDITORIAL

THE JEWISH VOICE by Shafiq Morton

Over the past year or so I’ve been consciously trying
to engage the “Jewish voice” on my radio show at Voice
of the Cape. I decided to do this partly out of
curiosity, and partly because I felt that if one
wanted to properly explore the dimensions of the
Palestinian question, all its role players had to be
confronted. I like to think that my listeners (and me)
have been enriched and informed by the experience.
It’s certainly been an interesting journey.

When I started out, the editorial decision was to
begin at home and so we kicked-off with the local
Jewish Board of Deputies who, after a little
persuasion, agreed to talk to us. There were
preconditions though. My on-air guest insisted on
remaining anonymous via landline! Perhaps it was the
paranoia of the PAGAD era – or a more universal fear
of the “other” – but happily the sky didn’t fall in.
The JBD spokesman said that he was comfortable with
Zionism being equated with his Judaism, and when I
pressed him further, saw no distinction between the
two.

Next up was the Israeli ambassador who was the
matronly Tova Herzl. The Israeli Embassy insisted on
calling into the studio on an unlisted line. Ms Herzl
proved to be feisty interviewee who cleverly repeated
the word “peace” while justifying her government’s
policies. She contended that if the Arabs had accepted
the UN Partition Decision of 1947 there would have
been no Nakba the following year.

Yuval Steinlitz, a prominent member of Likud, was
surprised to hear from South Africa. He said
Palestinians were welcome to enjoy their own state,
but his cheerful rhetoric soon degenerated into
arch-Zionist gobbledegook, saying amongst other
things, that a Palestinian return to the 1967
territories was out of the question.

Gilad Atzmon, the jazz musician in European exile, was
the epitome of coolness and was one of the few
individuals prepared to talk beyond the 1967
Occupation. No Nakba denial for this fellow who said
he still missed eating humus and tanning on the
beaches of Tel Aviv.

Uri Avnery, the ‘Arafat loyalist, offered some
insightful observations on Israeli society. A keen
protagonist of the “two state solution”, the elderly
Gush Shalom figurehead told us he was not going to die
until this goal had been achieved. 

Members of Yesh Gvul, the Israeli reservists refusing
to fight in the Occupied Territories, were a
reassuring reminder that not everybody is going to
blindly support Sharon’s onslaught against the
Palestinians. Dr Uri Davis, the human rights activist
and academic who describes himself as a “Palestinian
Jew”, spoke to us from his home in northern Galilee.
His example of moving to an Arab village has only been
followed by Susan Nathan. This former British AIDS
counsellor, who teaches English in Tamra, had found
her “aliya” becoming one of conscience.

While Dr Davis calls the Palestinian town of Sakhnin
as his home, Nathan lives and works in the village of
Tamra amongst 25,000 Arabs without a hint of
animosity. Dr Davis’ keen insights, not much
appreciated by Zionists anywhere, have always been as
stimulating as those of the late Professor Edward
Sa’id’s. It’s Dr Davis who teaches us, for example,
that intellectually lazy comparisons can do the
Palestine situation no justice.

His use of the word “apartheid” in discussing Israel
raises Jewish hackles. But then it has to be
understood that the biggest malaise in Jewish society
today is a belligerent denial that legally
discriminating against Arabs is in fact apartheid.
It’s also Dr Davis who indicates that there’s no such
thing as petty apartheid in Israel. He says that
whilst there are no “Jews only” signs on park benches,
Israeli segregation is far worse.

The petite Susan Nathan was another to grace the show.
She came in person, accompanied by a burly bodyguard.
As someone who has become an integrated “Palestinian
Jew” she’s not too popular amongst mainstream
Zionists.

An eloquent guest was Professor Ilan Pappe of Haifa
University, a protagonist of the Israeli universities
boycott. His support of Teddy Katz’s thesis on the
infamous Tantura massacre was the only principled
voice in the academic wilderness. We spoke to Teddy
Katz as well, and he bemoaned that Palestinians,
poisoned by Israeli policies, were beginning to forget
their history.

We also chatted to Givat Haviva, a joint
Palestinian-Israeli initiative that operates amongst
the youth of the Galilee district as well as the South
African Jewish Maritime League, who introduce Arab and
Israeli youth to sailing.

Ronnie Kasrils of “Not in My Name” was forthright,
ferociously principled and a breath of fresh air
compared to some of his cloying Cabinet colleagues.
The intrepid ladies of the Machsom Watch, who stand at
checkpoints and monitor the behaviour of Israeli
troops, reminded me of our own Black Sash.

Of course, I’d be foolish to claim that I’d tapped
into the full spectrum of available opinion. Far from
it. The “Jewish Voice “ on my show is an ongoing
project (as is the Palestinian one). Have I made a
difference? Open question. Is it worth it, yes – even
if to discover that the biggest impediment to peace in
the Middle East is fear: fear of the unknown, fear of
the other and a fear of losing one’s identity. Judging
by my interviews it’s patently obvious that the rift
between Arabs and Israelis is still as wide as the
Grand Canyon.

Sadly, until such time as the Nakba is openly
acknowledged, the courageous “Jewish Voice” of
conscience will be eloquent, but drowned out by the
fearful mantras of its apartheid other, a people
fenced in by fear and besieged by their blind
prejudices. And until ordinary Israelis (and Zionists)
begin to recognize their past wrongs, extend the hand
of reconciliation and overcome their unjustified
terror of their historic neighbours, it’s my view that
nothing much will change. 



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