I just saw an interesting film called Paradise Now and it got the wheels turning. Anyone who knows me well knows that I think about the question of Israel and Palestine a lot, even if I don’t make a point to pontificate on it, or even share my own feelings. The film depicts the final days of two Palestinean men who are slated to become suicide martyrs.
I find the film interesting because it is as transparent a polemic as you’ll find on film, yet it does not preach or condescend. The movie ends in oblivion, not as a meditation of fate or justice, but because that is how hate-fueled violence ends. This is not a review of the film however, so I should get to my point. The Israeli Occupation has functioned over the last few decades with two explicit goals, even if they are not publicly stated. First, “Palestine” is occupied to protect against attacks on Israeli civilians, which is by itself a laudable goal. The second reason; to prevent the Palestineans to exert control over their territory to guarantee Israeli settlement expansion is not. I say “laudable” because it is a reality of the situation is that right now Palestineans, if they could, would target and kill Israelis. Some would kill to challenge the occupation in an attempt to free their compatriots, others would kill just to kill. Neither killing is justified; the question (which you or I cannot answer) is how to stop the killing altogether.
As the film states quite eloquently, the life of the Palestinean is worthless; not because of their beliefs or actions, but because of the lack of identity, dignity, and any aspiration which would allow the human spirit to prosper in someone instead simply consuming them. This creates an interesting paradox. The occupation exists to keep the Palestineans from being able to organize an efficient campaign of violence against Israel, but the occupation at the same time incites the violence that it seeks to minimize. I cannot see a solution. As much as I believe that Israel and Palestine could exist in a two-state scenario; the fact remains that at the moment there are people in both nations which would give no quarter, and until they are pacified peace is not possible.
Like I said, I can’t offer a solution, as much as I would like to. Maybe both peoples should just be evicted and the entire area converted into an internationally preserved park and memorial for the millions of people killed by religious strife over the millenia. No amount of discourse will solve the problem until the Palestineans and Israeli’s want a solution. What we can discuss is the value of a human life. What lends it worth, and what destroys it? Most importantly, how arrogant is it to try and quantify it for someone else?
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