THEY MUST GO Page 186
Chapter 8: Our Fathers’ Children
 
 
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bchange. Ben Zvi insisted that the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael could bnot even be part of the Arab general national movement, let alone ba “Palestinian” one, since he had reached the scholarly conclu- bsion that they were really descendants of the Jews who had re- bmained in the land after the Roman conquest and who had later bembraced Islam. Clearly, “ex-Jews” would not challenge the bright of Jews to the land, reasoned Ben Zvi. It was his opinion bthat they were not a nation but rather eleven “communities- bpeoples” and numerous smaller sects. Unfortunately, intellec- btual dialectics had little impact on the inhabitants of the land, bwho ungratefully persisted, despite Ben Zvi’s research, in re- bgarding themselves as Arabs and “Palestinians.”

bThe socialists continued to cleave, with a religious fervor bthat would have made the Hasidim of the Mea Sh’arim district benvious, to the catechism that social and economic benefits bwould make the Arab “our friend.” In itself that should have bbeen perceived as a ludicrous concept, but the Zionist laborers badded yet another astonishing touch to their pilpulism. Not only bwere they planning to make the land a Jewish homeland, but bthey also embarked on a desperate struggle to get Jewish em- bployers to hire only Jewish laborers. Clearly, the need to create ba solid, employed Jewish working class was vital to creating the binfrastructure of a normal Jewish homeland, but just as clearly, bit did little to make the Arab worker and peasant love the Zion- bists.

bWhat was really at work was a process of dual delusion. bThe Arab would be told that, somehow, Jewish laborers, Jewish bimmigration, Jewish land purchase, and the ultimate Jewish bhomeland would not really rob him of any rights. And the Jew, brepeating this to himself enough times, would persuade himself bthat it was true. Thus, the first postwar Zionist Congress (1921) badopted a resolution of “friendship” toward the Arabs, stressing bthat Eretz Yisrael was the common homeland of two peoples. It bnever explained how the Balfour promise of a Jewish homeland breally meant a “common” homeland for Jews and Arabs.

bIn describing the muddled views of Achdut Avoda in the bperiod between the two world wars, one writer said: “it recog- bnized the existence of an Arab people in Israel but demanded of bit that it renounce its rights. It proclaimed the right of the Jewish bpeople to Palestine but recognized the need for coexistence be- b 

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Chapter 8: Our Fathers’ Children