http://www3.haaretz.co.il/eng/scripts/article.asp?id=57961&mador=4
Sunday, October 10, 1999
The past is here and now
By Gideon Levy, Ha'aretz
Too little, too late, but still, something: Israel
is beginning to cope with the darker chapters of
its past.Too little, because this process is only
in the incipient stage; too late, because it could
have and should have begun much earlier. But when
the prime minister and the education minister dare,
beyond what their predecessors did, to touch the
past, then the signal has clearly been given. On
the face of it, this work was begun by two or three
"new historians," who deserve all praise, and is
only now beginning to show fruit; but actually, it
is an unavoidable historical process.
Even if Israel had not begun to dig around in its
past, that past would haunt it constantly. The past
is here, and there is no way to escape it. Nor is
this merely history; it involves issues with
current implications that are of inestimable
importance. The more that Israel moves ahead and
accelerates this process, however painful it may
sometimes be, the more the country and the
prospects for peace will benefit.
Two official statements voiced last week heralded
the onset of the change. The prime minister, for
the first time, expressed regret, in Israel's name,
for the suffering that was caused to the
Palestinians; and the education minister took shame
in the state's name for the massacre at Kafr Qasm
in 1956. Ehud Barak took one small step on the long
road to recognizing our responsibility for the
injustice that was done, and Yossi Sarid recognized
our full responsibility for one specific event.
Modest though they are, these are good voices that
are emanating from the new government.
In his statement in the Knesset, Barak expressed
regret in the name of his government for the
suffering of the Palestinian people, but was quick
to express a reservation: regret yes, but not "a
sense of guilt or the taking of responsibility." Is
Barak's regret here similar to the regret he
expresses in the government's name for an
earthquake in Turkey or for the eruption of a
volcano in Ecuador? Is his proposal "to take part
in the effort to heal the wounds of the wars with
good will" similar to his proposal to send the
IDF's rescue unit to a place where a natural
disaster has struck? That is highly unlikely, and
so Barak's declaration has greater meaning than he
is perhaps ready to acknowledge to himself.
The prime minister attributed the Palestinians'
suffering to the "conflict." Did he mean to say
that the "conflict" is a kind of heavenly body that
cannot be intercepted, over which no one has
control? Or, worse, did he perhaps seriously mean
to say that the Palestinians and the Arabs bear
sole responsibility, them and only them, while we
have no responsibility for anything? A people
without a land who came to a land without a people
and who bear no responsibility for the consequences
of the lethal and inevitable collision that
followed? Does Barak really think that we are not
responsible for any of the suffering of the past,
or that of the present? Not for the expulsions, and
not for the torture? Not for erasing hundreds of
villages, and not for arresting tens of thousands
without trial? For nothing?
It is difficult to believe that the prime minister
of Israel seriously believes in either of these
unlikely possibilities. There remains, thus, a
third possibility. Barak has slowly come to
recognize that reconciliation is impossible without
an attempt to cope with the past, which continues
to bleed even today in the refugee camps and in the
occupied areas, and without accepting
responsibility for the injustice that Israel is to
blame for inflicting on the Palestinians. Only in
this way it is possible to view the small step
forward that he took.
Suffice it to consider the progress that has been
made since Barak's mentor, Yitzhak Rabin, addressed
the same subject, but in a manner far less
forthcoming, in his Knesset statement upon being
sworn in as prime minister in 1992: "You, the
Palestinians, who have not known even one day of
freedom and joy, would do well to listen to us, if
only this once. Take your destiny in your hands at
long last, and do not miss again an opportunity
that may not come again. A hundred years of
bloodshed and terrorism by you have brought you
only suffering, humiliation, bereavement and pain."
The tone of lordship has been replaced by a note of
regret, the assignation of full responsibility to
the other has been replaced by a proposal for an
endeavor to heal the wounds of war. Although the
way be long, the importance of Barak's step should
not be underestimated.
Nor should the importance of the step taken by
Sarid be downplayed. What should have been
self-evident long ago has materialized only now, at
the initiative of the new education minister. Here
there is no danger of undermining our full justice
and our right to the land, but only the declaration
of a full and sincere apology and a drawing of
lessons, without any "ifs" or "buts," from the
horrific massacre that was perpetrated at Kafr
Qasm. It was no accident that The New York Times
devoted a report to this subject and noted that
Sarid had called on the country's teachers to cope
with a dark chapter in Israel's past.
Sarid seemingly did the self-evident. But in the
Israel that cut down innocent passersby in 1956, it
takes a courageous education minister in order to
direct teachers, 34 years later, to deal with this
dark chapter in the classroom. Thirty-four years
until a cabinet minister expresses public shame for
a massacre? It's a fact.
It's also a fact that the right wing railed even
against this. It should have happened the day after
the massacre, but it's happening only now. Still,
better late than not at all. This is a crucial step
with respect to the victim and no less so toward
our students.
Yossi Sarid will become one of the country's most
significant education ministers if he makes the
inculcation of the full truth about the history of
Zionism one of his goals; just as Ehud Barak will
do much to advance the peace process if he
recognizes, at long last, the injustice we did to
the Palestinians
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