Israel’s future is apartheid in a ‘solution of the three classes
Palestinians take part in a rally against apartheid in Hebron on 14 September 2012
Nassim Ahmed writes in Middle East Monitor:
Reading the reflections of one of Israel’s most celebrated contemporary public intellectuals on the apparently never-ending occupation of Palestine, I was reminded of an old saying about the nature of truth. “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”
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Assuming all truth passes through the same three stages, looking at the current stage of Israel’s occupation it’s safe to presume that the truth and nature of its reality is coming to the end of the second phase. It’s thus entering the third stage where the Zionist state’s practice of apartheid is accepted as self-evident.
This optimistic view was reinforced by the recent intervention by acclaimed Israeli philosopher Yuval Noah Harari. The 45 year old, who has become something of a celebrity scholar and a Cassandra like figure warning about the threat to society posed by inequality and technology, is the author of a number of international bestsellers, including the 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. His musing over the core questions about the future of Palestine comes as knowledge of Israeli apartheid has become mainstream following the publication of a number of reports by prominent human rights groups and the UN.
“Where do we go from here?” writes Harari contemplatively on the occasion of Yom Kippur. He is talking about the future of Israel and the “abandonment” of the two state-solution. With its central theme of atonement and repentance, Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the year in Judaism. “If not two states for two peoples, then what exactly is Israel’s alternative vision? When we imagine the future, what exactly do we see there?”