Israel Cannot Handle Its Past
by Gilad Atzmon
Israel cannot handle its past. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu decided
this week to extend from 50 to 70 years the time state archives
remain classified. Israel realizes that it has too much to hide.
Haaretz reported
this week (in its Hebrew edition only), that the first documents will
be released to the public only in 2018 (1948+70). Many of the documents
that are stored in the archive are relevant to the history of the first
20 years of the Jewish state:
Disclosing such documents may bring to light some facts that could
“shatter myths and cause embarrassment to many entities and individuals”
said the Israeli paper. I guess that president Shimon Peres is one of
those ‘many individuals’.
In my latest work I elaborated on the concerning fact that history is
foreign
to the Jewish religion, ideology and politics. Israeli and Jewish
history are set as phantasmic tales. Facts and historical documents are
either pushed aside, shoved under the carpet, eliminated or simply
destroyed. As we all know, truth seeking is interpreted by Israelis and
Zionist as anti Semitism or even holocaust denial.
As it seems, 50 years were not enough for Israel to tackle its
original sin. The reason is simple, the crimes that are entangled with
the foundation of the Jewish state have never been resolved. Millions of
Palestinian refugees are still awaiting to return to their land. Israel
is still driven by racist and supremacist laws.
The Jewish state has
never matured of its lethal philosophy of constant physical
intimidation. Consequently, the IDF, the Mossad and the security
services mounted pressure on the government to extend the classification
status of these 50 year old documents. And no surprise Netanyahu has
provided the required extension.
Haaretz pointed out that it is slightly peculiar that PM Netanyahu, the son of Benzion Netanyahu, a
Zionist historian,
gave his hand to a crude attempt to conceal historical research and
truth seeking. I read Benzion Netanyahu, I actually learned a lot from
him. Benzion wasn’t exactly an ordinary historian, he was a Zionist
historian (as opposed to a historian of Zionism). He was there to give
the Jewish national aspiration a contextual pseudo academic meaning.
PM
Netanyahu's decision to hide facts for another 20 years is actually in
line with his father’s philosophy.
A disclosure of the truth regarding Israel's early days would reveal
that the Jewish state was a murderous lethal attempt from its very
beginning. As much as Zionist and Israeli leaders vowed publicly to make
Jews ‘people like all other people’, behind closed doors they commanded
their army and secret services to kill like their imaginary Biblical
forefathers.
I would argue that from a historical perspective, Israel can keep
sitting on its secret files as long as it wants. We do not really need
the Israeli archive in order to examine the true murderous meaning of
the Jewish state and the Jewish national project. However, the fact that
Israel insists on hiding its past, means that there is a little bit of
shame and consciousness left in this tribal collective.
This is actually
a positive sign.
