Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi: Original Sins. Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel

Original Sins. Reflections on the History of Zionism and Israel is the title of one of the books of the Jewish-Israeli professor in psychology Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi: "His work particularly focuses on psychology of religion. Beit-Hallahmi taught at, among others, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Michigan. He was a psychology professor and senior lecturer at the University of Haifa from 1973 on.

He has authored several books, both on new religious movements or cults, and the relationship between Judaism and Zionism. He has published several books criticizing Israel. In the 1980s, he advocated the establishment of a binational state, and was a charter member of the group Council of Israel-Palestine Peace."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Beit-Hallahmi

In Original Sins he concludes:

Looking at Zionism without taboos means seeing the hard reality of the domination and oppression it has created. One of the original sins of the world against the Jews grew the original sins of Zionism against the Palestinians. The issues are often raised through a counting and recounting of massacres and victims on both sides. The problem is one of principles, not atrocities. Even if nobody died, there’s something wrong wit  Zionist policies. The problem is a moral one. Raising the moral question is not a mark of idealism but of realism.

Israelis seem to be haunted by a curse. It is the curse of the original sin against the native Arabs. How can Israel be discussed without recalling the dispossession and exclusion of non-Jews? This is the most basic fact about Israel, and no understanding of Israeli reality is possible without it. The original sin haunts and torments everybody. Its memory poisons the blood and marks every moment of existence. […]

Most Israelis today, born after 1950, cannot be held responsible for early Zionist injustices. They can, and should, be held responsible for the present reality of injustice, which is a direct sequel of early Zionist principles.

All Israelis have come to recognize Zionism’s original sin against the Palestinians. The terrible secret of the injustice is known to everybody, but cannot be openly faced. The awareness of the terrible injustice committed to create the state, and the pressure against discussing it openly, disfigure and warp any kind of moral discourse in Israel… De-Zionization of Israel is too frightening. Their guilt is similar to post-colonial guilt over the third world, as some non-liberals assert. And the guilt is warranted and appropriate. […]

The effects of war include not only losses but also the killing. Those who have killed in war are deeply scarred; they will never be the same. They walk among us marked with the mark of Cain.

It seems that the only way Israel can have both a human and viable future is through reconciliation with the Palestinians. Peace may come only with a drastic change in Israeli self-image and a readiness to atone for the sins of  colonialism. Only then will the  war between Israel and Palestine end…

The broad Zionist consensus can be defined by three negative answers: no to a Palestinian state, no to Palestinian self and no to a return to the 1967 borders… The traditional labels of ‘left’ and ‘right,’ ‘doves’ and ‘hawks,’ have little meaning. Denying the legitimacy of Palestinian existence was the solution Zionist leaders opted for three and four  generations ago, when they faced the reality of the inhabitants of Palestine. Most Israelis today still follow this solution. It then leads to traditional Israeli politics, with  differences among parties being only in tactics or style. […]

This is not a normal conflict that requires a peace settlement, but a feud that requires reconciliation… The main obstacles to a solution have to do with exorcising the past, admitting past and present injustice for one side; forgiving the past, the present and the presence for the other. TheIsraelis’ problem is asking for forgiveness; the Palestinians’ the readiness to forgive.

Admitting the injustice done to the Palestinians is so terrifying that Israelis will try to avoid it at all costs… here will be no reconciliation without an open admission of the basic injustice involved in Zionism… The most difficult thing for an Israeli is to admit that Zionism, beyond doing much to improve the lot of some Jews, may also be a colonialist movement. Such an Admission is unacceptable since it seems to destroy the moral justification of Zionism. They fear that any admission of guilt for the past deprives them of all rights. Israelis are afraid of the word colonialism because they think it implies losing all their rights to live in Israel. […] 

The disparity in power between the two sides prevents an easy settlement. The power of the Palestinians is their mere existence, and their existence so close to Israelis. They carry the veto  power over Israel’s future, and the power to forgive. Israelis today can express their changed awareness of rights by admitting the injustice. Admission of injustice does no abolish rights, but forces us to accept responsibility for the present and the future… Admission of injustice does mean changing the present arrangements of domination, and nobody wants to lose their privileges. 

While not being able to solve the Jewish question, Zionism has created a new problem, that of the state of Israel. From what we have seen of it, the cure has been as problematic as the disease. Zionism wanted to end one kind of suffering and created two new kinds of pain, that of the Palestinians and that of the Israelis. The world may not be concerned now about the Jewish question, but it has to be concerned about Israelis and their imperiled future. The Zionist enterprise has made both Israelis and Palestinians victims. Israelis may be willing victims in this case, victims of their own making, but victims nevertheless. The Palestinians have been the unwilling victims of a great storm that overtook them. […]

Israelis seem to be trapped in a peculiar and impossible situation. Any Concession to the Palestinians may lead  to the unraveling of the whole Zionist enterprise. While Israelis seem militarily superior, they feel deeply insecure […]

It is the natives, now in unending rebellion, who will determine the future of Israel. The Prognosis for Israel is good as long as the Arabs are divided and weak, together with the rest of the Third World. There is the fear that things cannot go on like this  — history did just that in 1973 and again in 1987. The threatening future may may lead to further rigidity. Israelis, anxious about about their future, with good reason, will stick to the barely tolerable present. Israel is now a problem and a trap as the Israeli question is heir to the Jewish question.