John McCarthy (1) (1956–)

The myth of "A land without [a (?)] people for a people without a land": its origin dates back to the 19th century; Who coined it first? How exactly was it meant? For the controversy surrounding it and its use for political purposes by Zionists and Non-Zionists see e.g. here.
This myth ignores the reality of Palestine in the first half of the 20th century, so it may, or must be seen as a program: The indigenous Palestinian population was to be expelled to make room for Jewish settlers, their villages to be raised to the ground so as to erase their memory and to erase any memory of this land ever to have been lived on and tended before. The remaining Palestine population renamed as “Israeli Arabs” and herded into enclaves, all this reminiscent of the 19th century conquest of the North American West and the fate of the North American Indians.

It is understandable from the Jewish point-of-view after 2000 years of dispersion in the Diaspora and a history of persecutions to wish to create their own state in which they feel at home and safe. The tragedy: that it was achieved through imposing on another people the exile, discrimination and suffering Jewish people are escaping from; the tragedy of the birth of Israel through the violent destruction of a people (a tragedy for the onlooker, a right for the powerful, a disaster for the powerless). To this day, the 1948 policy of ethnic cleansing remains largely unacknowledged, its memory suppressed, but nevertheless present to breed distrust and hostility, present also in the daily violence that, in the words of the old Jenin school-teacher recorded by Joe Sacco , will go on forever and forever.

J.McC. was kidnapped in southern Lebanon and held prisoner for 5 years. His experience of suffering did not destroy his compassion but made him empathise with the suffering of others. But experience of suffering can also have the opposite effect. In pursuing the goal of a Jewish state, of building a homeland for the Jewish people and only for the Jewish people, successive Israeli governments, supported by the majority of the Jewish Israelis, took and still take little notice of the suffering this policy imposes on the Palestinian population. The Zionist project of a tribal society within the frame of a modern state excludes those who do not belong to the tribe: Their very presence becomes an affront. But what is institutionalised racism doing as an integral part and policy of a state that claims to be a modern western democracy? These questions including propaganda and media deception to shape understanding of the Israel-Palestine conflict in the US are discussed in some detail by Annette Herskovits, a holocaust survivor.

This book is a personal account of J.M.’s travels through Israel and meeting and talking with Palestinians of all ways of life who did not flee or were expelled in 1948 and with their descendents. J.M.’s sincerity and integrity may not be doubted. The book is written in a journalistic style; he does not aim to write a scholarly work. It is a very readable introduction to the history of the Palestinian citizens of Israel (with the exception of East-Jerusalem of Israel proper, not of the occupied territories) since 1948 and their present-day situation. He describes briefly his own experience of being kidnapped and held prisoner in Lebanon from 1986 to 1991, but mainly it is an account of his impressions of meeting and talking with Palestinian citizens of Israel about their lives and their experiences of living in Israel. These encounters took place from the late 1990th onwards. He is meeting among others, two survivors of the Kafr Qasim massacre , Negev Bedouins who are forced off their land and crowded into tiny settlements, a family from the area of the West Bank that is being illegally annexed to Jerusalem who tries to cope with daily life that is made difficult and humiliating, etc.
J.McC’s accounts complement Joe Sacco’s reportages from the occupied territories but must loose out in this comparison as they have none of the latter’s extraordinary vivid presence.

The book includes a Bibliography with a list of informative websites and a brief Chronology of the main events governing the Jewish – Palestinian relationship which, however, omits any mentioning of the Deir Yassin massacre that took place on April 9, 1948. Concerning this: after a brief survey, I found the most trustworthy account the eyewitness report of Meir Pail who at that time was company commander at the head of a Haganah and Palmac special operations unit in Jerusalem. A transcription of the famous open letter to The New York Times, 1948, by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt, Sidney Hook, et.al. can be found here . (VII-12) ***… (altro)