Comment on Palestinian football
Charlie Pottins, member of the Jewish Socialists' Group
Andy Newman's report and comments
on the Sakhnin football team (Football and
the Palestinians) was interesting and thoughtful. Too often the
Palestinian issue, like others, is kicked around like a political
football, by players only interested in scoring points.
Yet in some parts, Andy's thoughts did not quite gel. Discussing why
Israel, though situated in Asia, should be participating in European
football, or Eurovision Song Contests (Surely a deserved punishment?!,
Though shared with Morocco and Tunisia I seem to recall), Andy refers
to it as a "settler colon state".
Yet, as he notes, a large proportion of the Israeli population are Jews
originating from Middle Eastern and North African countries. True, these
Sefardi, and more properly Misrahi (Eastern) Jews found themselves in
conflict with the Israeli Establishment, which remains predominantly
European in origin, like is its Zionist ideology. Having brought them
in to replace Palestinian labour, and as cannon fodder, it denied their
culture and treated them as inferior.
Since the party dominating the state's first decades was Labour, resting
on union, co-operative and governmental institutions, the "poor whites"
were attracted by Right-wing parties' demagogy, as well as the chance to
prove themselves "not Arab", and for some, openings in business and
politics. But class struggle continues regardless, and several workers'
leaders challenging the Histadrut union bureaucracy in unofficial
strikes etc came from the 'Sefardi/Misrahi' working class. In the 1970s,
youth from Moroccan and Iraqi families formed the Black Panther movement
to challenge discrimination and poverty, and it soon gravitated to the
left, and recognised common interests with Palestinians. The Panthers'
best-known figure, Charlie Biton, took his Knesset seat alongside the
Communists.
Today the Israeli peace camp includes groups working specifically among
their own culturally and socially disadvantaged communities, and linking
their calls for an end to occupation and a just peace with the
Palestinians to the fight for social justice in Israel. It is a
difficult task, not helped when Westernised middle class liberals
express smug contempt for the poor and uneducated; still less when bombs
go off in crowded markets or bus queues, rather than targeting those in
power.
None of this negates Andy's basically accurate description of Israel as
a "settler state". Nor does the fact of a mainly Arab "Israeli" football
team mean there are no similarities between Israeli society and South
African Apartheid. But they do show that while simplification may work
for sorting out "goodies" and "baddies", it does not suffice for
understanding political reality, let alone trying to change it. In
football, you can decide what team you "support" (and with Sakhnin, I
was rooting for the Israeli team for once!). In politics, the sides are
rarely simple, and you must work out what your "support" means.
Andy's conclusion may be morally unassailable:
"There is only one hope, a secular Palestine including all the land from
the banks of the river Jordan right to the shores of the Mediterranean
Sea. That can, in turn, only be achieved by a socialist solution across
the Middle East with full rights for Jews, Kurds and all national
minorities".
But how, and by whom can this be achieved? We all want to get there, but
which way do we start from here? At present there is a legitimate
Palestinian national struggle against occupation, colonisation and
oppression; a social struggle within Israel as anywhere (including of
course, Arab states); and an Israeli peace movement which, while not
giving up on nationality, has challenged the authority of the state
(e.g. by young people refusing to serve in the army, saying they would
rather go to jail than be oppressing another people). Incidentally, it
also has an initiative called Ta'ayush (partnership), not unlike the
Sakhnin soccer team in that it was started by Israeli Arabs, and is
mixed, which takes food and medical supplies through to blockaded
Palestinian villages in the occupied territories.
I assume we would not lecture those taking part in each of these
struggles that they were wasting their time because "What you need is a
socialist Middle East" (or let's face it, a socialist world). Being
polite, as Middle Easterners are, they might reply "That's a very nice
idea, but how?" Socialists must address themselves to the question of
how, on what programme, working people engaged in today's struggles can
unite, because only then can we turn the future vision from being just a
utopian dream.
October 2004