search
Rhona Burns

Questioning Israel’s Political Legitimacy

Recently, French President Emmanuel Macron directed his arrows at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating, “Mr. Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a U.N. decision.” This remark apparently reflects something of a trend in French contemporary political discussion, as just recently, according to  POLITICO, France’s Armed Forces Minister Sébastien Lecornu also linked between current affairs and post-WWII political reality, saying that “It was a U.N. resolution that created Israel, one of the first.”

Responding to his French counterpart, Netanyahu issued a statement whereby he presented an Israeli take on these historical events: “It was not the UN resolution that established the State of Israel, but rather the victory achieved in the War of Independence with the blood of heroic fighters, many of whom were Holocaust survivors – including from the Vichy regime in France.”

Truth lies in between these two stances. While it is no doubt true that the leaders of the young newly established State of Israel fought its first War of Independence (referred to by Palestinians and their supporters as “The Nakba”, the disaster), and that Israel relied on its own political and military organization, there is also no doubt true that Israel could not have done this alone without the support of friends and allies. It is worth remembering though that these alliances experienced ups and downs, and not all of Israel’s current allies were as supportive as they are now in the early and extremely challenging years of Israel’s existence.

Israel was not “created by a U.N. decision” any more than an Arab Palestinian State was established by the United Nations. For, it should be remembered that the same U.N. resolution that supported the establishment of the state of Israel, also “created” the Arab-Palestinian State that was to be established as the Jewish state’s neighbour following the termination of the British Mandate in 1948.  However, as we know, such an Arab-Palestinian state was not established, and that is because a U.N. resolution that recognizes the legitimacy of a state is simply not the same as establishing it. Important as it may be for the legal and international legitimacy of the only Jewish state in the world, the U.N. has not created it, only extended highly important political support for its existence.

The people who created the State of Israel are most of all the diligently hard-working, and sometimes outright zealous Jewish and Hebrew national activists of many different political views over more than fifty years of political, social, and cultural activism and lobbying (both in the Jewish world and without) that gradually paved the way to the eventual crucial yet fleeting-moment of 1948, when the world powers inclined towards the tiny, persecuted and ancient Jewish people.

Perhaps most telling is the fact that in Macron’s words, there was also a hinted, camouflaged threat towards Israel. Israel, he may seem to imply, is in debt to the Western powers for granting its sovereignty, and perhaps even implying further that Israel might be in danger of losing this historic basic support for its very existence.

One of the primary goals of the founding fathers and thinkers of the Zionist Jewish national movement was to distance the Jewish people from the hurdles of “social and political tolerance” (which could be withdrawn at a whim) and of gratitude (to their respective rulers in the many countries where Jews resided) and replace those with a new political existence that would be based on political right and internationally recognized political legitimacy, based on the newly found recognition of the existence of “nations”. That is the historical essence of the Jewish national movement that was established as Zionism.

However, in their recent statements, the French senior officials demonstrated that even after 76 years following the establishment of Israel, many still believe that the Jewish state is no more than a granted tolerated right given to the Jews that could perhaps be taken away. Unlike common perceptions among many elite circles today, Israel is not the only villain in the Arab-Iranian-Israeli-Palestinian conflicts. The fact that Israel is currently led by a radical right-wing agenda and by a problematic leader doesn’t change that. All parties bear responsibility for the terrible events that we witnessed in the past year. The way forward is not to constantly threaten and put all the blame on Israel. It will certainly not be through questioning Israel’s political legitimacy. Such an approach, which, unfortunately, is the common sentiment of the day, will not lead to peace. Peace in the region must be built on mutual, genuine accountability. The constant ousting, and insinuation of ousting, of Israel as a legitimate, equal, political actor, is leading the region in the wrong way.

About the Author
Rhona Burns is a postdoctoral associate at Cornell University, Jewish Studies Program, where she also teaches on Israeli history and culture