Did you know that when Palestinians speak of justice, as in “Students for Justice in Palestine,” they speak of a justice that should correct what they perceive as the injustice of the very creation and existence of the state of Israel? When I started my journey about 20 years ago to really listen to what Palestinians are saying, I realized that remarkably, the Palestinians were not only consistent, they never lied when it came to their fundamental goal of no Jewish state.
The Fundamental Goal
They would lie about a lot of other issues, the ones that would vilify Israel, using strategies like “Israel equals racist,” “Gaza is an open-air prison,” “genocide,” and “famine.” But where they did not lie was on their core ethos, the one that said that fundamentally the goal of the Arabs of the land, the Palestinians, is that there should not be Jewish sovereignty anywhere in the land. They did sometimes use, especially when speaking in the West and to Westerners, words like justice and two states. It only turns out that when Palestinians say justice, as in the title “Students for Justice in Palestine,” it’s the justice that will undo, in their mind, the injustice of the very creation and existence of the Jewish state.
The Right of Return
When they speak of rights, they speak of only one right: the non-existent, but in their mind, the right of return, the right for millions of Arabs to settle in the state of Israel in breach of its sovereignty, thereby again undoing the Jewish state. They will speak of two states, but none of them is a Jewish state, because one state is an Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza, and another state is another Arab state to replace Israel through this mechanism of refugee return.
The Palestinian Narrative
When I would post on my feed, in my lectures, and in my talks that the conflict is between the Jews wanting a state and the Arabs, the Palestinians wanting the Jews not to have a state, some Jews would say no, it’s not that. They’re fighting against occupation, they’re fighting against the settlements, they’re angered about a right-wing government. But the Arabs on my feed, the Palestinians, and their collaborators would unanimously say, of course, Zionism is racism, apartheid, genocide, thereby essentially proving the thesis that they’re not seeking a limited goal. This is why it’s not called “Students for an Independent State,” “Students for a State in Palestine,” limited achievable goals that they could have had had they ever pursued them.
Proof of the Thesis
But they made it clear by saying that Zionism is all those labels. They were actually digging deeper and proving the thesis that they were fighting against the Jewish state in any form, in any borders. For example, many years ago, I gave a talk to a delegation of American students that came to Israel. One of them was a member of the Students for Justice in Palestine on her campus. At the end of my talk, she asked, “You just said that Palestinians don’t want peace,” which is not what I said. I said that there was never a vision of peace on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs where there is a Jewish state to be found. But she said, “You said that Palestinians don’t want peace. It’s not true. I want peace.”
The Vision of Peace
So I challenged her, “What does peace look like?” And what was amazing is no matter how I tried to find out if anywhere in her vision of peace there’s a Jewish state in any borders, she simply could not. She kept saying, “But Zionism is racism, but Israel is apartheid,” but she could not describe a vision of peace whereby there’s a Jewish state. They cannot lie.
Finding a Partner for Peace
So over the years, I made it very simple. You want to know if you have a Palestinian partner for peace? Just ask them a simple question: “Do you recognize the equal right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their historic homeland? And do you understand that it means that there is no return, that you are not a refugee?” If you receive a resounding yes (I have received such three in my search), then you know that you have found a true Palestinian partner for peace, and you should embrace them, platform them, because they will truly show the path to a future of peace.