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2048: a peace odyssey

By Khaled Diab

Israel is 60 years old and the conflict still rages on. Can we look forward to peace by the 100th anniversary?

 

May 2008

Israelis took to the streets today in jubilation to mark the hundredth anniversary of the violent birth of their once-troubled nation. In Palestine, Palestinians, who also today celebrate 15 years of independent nationhood and the fulfilment of their national aspirations, extended warm congratulations to their Jewish neighbours.

 

The legendary one-time Israeli and Palestinian premiers, after attending separate Independence Day rallies in their respective capitals, Tel Aviv and Ramallah, walked out together on to a raised podium in jointly administered Jerusalem, the two nations’ spiritual and federal capital, for a joint celebration with thousands of revellers.

 

“Words cannot express my pride and joy on this special day,” a clearly emotional Shalom V___, the charismatic one-time Israeli prime minister, told the assembled crowd as he fought back the tears. “I am proud to be alive at this important moment in the Jewish people’s history. Today, we can truly hold our heads up high as proud members of the family of nations, now that we and the Palestinians have found a way of living together in peace and prosperity. I would like to take this opportunity to wish our brothers and sisters in Palestine a happy 15th anniversary for their nation.”

 

A deafening roar gripped the mixed audience of Israelis and Palestinians who spontaneously began to chant the name of Salama B____, the popular ex-Palestinian prime minister. “Just 20 years ago, the idea that a Palestinian leader could be standing here wishing Israel a happy birthday was still unthinkable. It has not been easy for my people to come to terms with the painful reality that accompanied the loss of our land in 1948 and the decades of suffering which followed, but our Jewish brothers and sisters also suffered a lot in their exile. Now they are safe among their brethren.”

 

The still surprisingly youthful Salama and Shalom, who prefer to stress the peaceful connotations of their first names, hugged like the two veteran comrades they were.

 

Back in 2007, while the world was marking the 40th anniversary of the 1967 war, Israel was strangling Gaza and repressing the West Bank, and Hamas and Fatah were at war, Salama was into his fifth year in administrative detention in an Israeli prison. As a passionate young idealist, the images of Ariel Sharon entering the al-Aqsa Mosque complex with hundreds of troops had led him, the introverted medical doctor, to join the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.

 

He was engaged in a number of gun battles with the better-armed IDF soldiers, but was opposed to suicide bombings and attacking civilians. This set him on a collision course with the more extreme factions of the group, but the imminent standoff was averted by his capture and arrest during another shoot out with the Israeli army, ironically while tending to the soldier he’d critically wounded.

 

The Israeli officer in charge of Salama did not sympathise with Salama’s distinction that, in a war, it was legitimate to attack soldiers. “Even if what you say is true, you’re my POW until the end of this war,” the hawkish officer famously said.

 

Little did this officer suspect that he was aiding the prospects for peace. In prison, Salama learnt to speak fluent Hebrew and discovered a passion for history – and what he learnt about Jewish history did not quell the anger in his breast that he felt at the plight of his people, but it caused him to feel compassion for the other side.

 

In 2008, Israel’s 60th anniversary caused Shalom, then a junior Knesset member and historian, to suffer, in addition to his tearful joy, a crisis of conscience. He and Salama, needing to reach out to the other side, started off a correspondence through which they became best friends before they ever met.

 

Together, they realised the powerful explosive effect of history and ideology and so set about to defuse it. Slowly, they formulated a common history which gave credence to both sides. It sought to replace the current epic narratives of both sides, with more nuanced narratives.

 

They also agreed to work together on “bread and butter” issues. Shalom, then only 31 and with no military background, began a clever and charismatic grassroots campaign calling for Salama’s release. Once out of prison in 2009, Salama faced some suspicion of being a ‘collaborator’, but his natural intelligence and charm and his simple message of “individual dignity before national pride” won him many converts among the hard-pressed and downtrodden Palestinian population, at a time of Israeli closures and crushing occupation, international embargos, and civil war. And the many scattered groups involved in non-violent activism found in him and Shalom natural leaders.

 

Together, Salama and Shalom effectively turned the Palestinian struggle into a civil rights movement for the next decade or so, winning Palestinians the hard-earned right to work and move freely across the entire land. By around 2018, the movement they’d spawned turned its attention to Palestinian autonomy, which was achieved in 2021.

 

The vexed issue of refugees was handled through a sustainable number of Palestinians being allowed to return each year, compensation for those willing to stay away – and the entire Palestinian diaspora being allowed to visit freely. Some Arab countries, such as Morocco, which had had significant Jewish populations also instigated a right of return for those Middle Eastern Jews who had been made refugees after the creation of Israel and their offspring wishing to return to their ancestral homelands and revive the once-vibrant Jewish minorities there. Most of those who returned came from Europe or the USA, but some also moved from Israel. However, it would still be decades before numbers approached anything like they once were.

 

After a dozen years of autonomy, rapid economic growth and convergence between Israel and Palestine, the time came to decide on the fate of the two nations. In 2033, two separate referendums were held among the two peoples outlining the options ahead. A majority of Palestinians and Israelis voted for the creation of an independent Palestinian state, but then, to the surprise of many, for its immediate entry into a federal union with Israel. The Palestinian state was born on the same day as the Israeli one 85 years previously, so that the day of Israel's joy – traditionally associated with Palestinian tragedy and despair – would also be that of Palestine’s, set according to the lunar calendar common to Judaism and Islam. In addition, Israeli remembrance day was broadened to include the Palestinian ‘nakba’.

 

“Given the size of this land and the proximity of our two peoples, that is the only sensible option,” Shalom remarked at the time.

 

“In the past, we had our hands at each others’ throats. Today, our two peoples have voted to walk into the future hand-in-hand,” said Salama, independent Palestine’s first premier, as he and Shalom grabbed each others’ hands and raised them triumphantly in the air, hugging emotionally like the old comrades that they were.

 

This column appeared in The Guardian Unlimited’s Comment is Free section on 23 April 2008. Read the related discussion.

 

 

 

ã2008 K. Diab. Unless otherwise stated, all the content on this website is the copyright of Khaled Diab.

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