Pappe speaks out about Israel

On Wednesday, UB hosted Palestinian activist Ilan Pappe's lecture, "The Past and Present Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine." The lecture promoted peace in war-torn Israel. An Israeli Jew, Pappe has written nine books, including The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, and 26 articles on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Pappe, who now lives in England as the History chair at Exeter University, was born to German-Jewish parents who relocated to Israel during German persecution in the 1930s. He was born in Haifa, and served in the Israel Defense Forces during the Yom Kippur War.
Now, however, Pappe is a leading activist in the return-home movement for Palestinians, claiming that the displaced people have a right to return to their hometowns. He was taught democracy, and applied it to Arabs.
This was his second visit to Buffalo to promote this movement.
English professor Jim Holstun, member of the Western New York Peace Center board and chair of the Israeli-Palestinian committee, opened the lecture saying that the photo of Pappe on his website is misleading, because he hasn't seen Pappe stop smiling since he picked him up in Toronto.
Pappe began his speech with the disclaimer: "This is not going to be an easy journey to the past."
Pappe covered ten major points that he considered "mythologies" of Zionist fabrication of history. He claims that most of the history and information Americans are given about the Israeli- Palestinian conflict is through Zionist censorship. He argues that Zionism is the response to anti-Semitism in Europe. Pappe sees Zionism in Palestine is colonization, and the only colonial movement that survived post-colonialism.
"The only strange this is that it still continues in the 21st Century," Pappe said.
Pappe disagrees with the idea that Palestine is a land without a people.
"People that were there are the people of the land. You bother to define a place when it doesn't belong to you," he said.
He argues that the Zionist movement in Israel has rewritten history, skewing the details of the Palestinian expulsion.
Israelis are frightened of Palestinians outnumbering them. 99 percent of Israelis, if asked, believe the problem in the West Bank is solved. Pappe believes this to be untrue.
He refers to the so-called "settlements" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip as "open air prisons." Any retaliation or rebellion would lead these settlements to becoming "closed air prisons."
"It would be a much better world if people [would] acknowledge their past crimes," Pappe said.
Islamaphobia has caused many people to look upon the fighting between Israeli and Palestinian forces as linked to Al Qaida. Pappe assures us it is not a movement in terrorism, but a liberation movement where the Palestinians are "struggling for existence, for survival."
He believes three major steps are necessary from the Israeli state if there is ever going to be peace in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: acknowledgment, accountability, and acceptance.
As an anti-Zionist, Pappe vehemently believes the only way to peace is a one- state solution. He argues that so many supported a two- state solution, but something obviously went wrong if there is still fighting.
"The basic Palestinian impulse nowadays is 'can we not have normal lives on this land together?' " Pappe said.
Palestine needs both international and domestic movements for change. Pappe challenges United States government to call out Israel on its war crimes.
"I don't think you can be a decent person and support the state of Israel," Pappe said.

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