What’s Palestine got to do with Debt?

JDC Blog Saturday 23rd- Labour Conference


At last the big march. My big worry; could I get the car full of placards, stall, banners, literature to the meeting point past the security barriers. Carrying 300 placards in wasn’t an attractive option! Thank goodness, a few back streets and we were in. A glorious sunny day and clear blue skies.

The march was predominantly ‘Stop the War’, CND, Troops Out, No to Trident and a sea of ‘Time to Go’ placards. I was marching for Freedom and Justice for Palestine and it was good to see at least 25%, maybe 30% of placards were supporting Palestine.

So what justification have I got to put Palestine into this blog on debt?

Well at a superficial level, a march is intoxicating, invigorating; it reaffirms the power of mass solidarity and re-motivates you to see so much support. That’s crucial to successful campaigning, we have to not just work together but bring ourselves together at mass events to sustain the troops as much as impact politically.

But if you will allow I want to link back to yesterdays theme of Economic Justice being far more than just economics. When we campaign on debt we instinctively mean financial. But we use phrases like ‘debt of honour’ or ‘debt of gratitude’ or ‘I owe you one’. Debts arise when a transfer of something should be repaid.

Israel was created in substantial part from a debt of guilt for the Holocaust. But that debt was paid by using Arab lands belonging to Muslims, Christians and Jews. It was taken (not given) from its existing owners we now term Palestinians. Doesn’t someone owe the Palestinians a debt for that transfer? Either Israel owes them a debt for its creation, or the Europeans for their guilt. If we campaign for Justice, that debt too should be settled.

Jumping half a century, the Palestinian Authority is funded primarily from tax revenues collected by Israel, which it unilaterally (with American support) decides to withhold whenever it likes, for example since the election of Hamas (but it withheld taxes many times before that). Those are debts. Meanwhile At Israel/US insistence what humanitarian aid was being given has been stopped. Does a failure to provide humanitarian aid not constitute a debt (or is it the humanitarian suffering directly that creates the debt)? What does starving a civilian population into submission to your political will constitute?

Then there is the issue of financial responsibility for the welfare of the civilian population in an Occupied Territory. Under the Geneva Convention that is the responsibility of the Occupying Power. But Israel doesn’t bear that burden, it leaves it to aid from Europe and America. And when that aid is used to build infrastructure, water and irrigation, sewage, power stations etc and Israeli bombs and bulldozers destroy them, Israel doesn’t pay or bear the cost of that destruction. It’s a debt that isn’t being repaid. (I have lived in the West bank and seen the destroyed schools and sewage plants built with Swedish and French money). That’s huge debts Israel owes. Israel wouldn’t be able to afford its wars if it had to repay its debts!

Looking wider than mere economics, there are crucial questions of the rule of International Law. What’s the point when it isn’t enforced? When Israel breaks the Geneva Convention, settlements, land seizures, collective punishments; destruction of civilian targets, there is no Court of Justice. Isn’t there a debt owed to the Palestinians for failing to respect International Law?

So I could argue that Palestine has as much to do with debt as any other developing country and as a campaigner for Justice it’s right at the forefront.

I am in no way suggesting that JDC should change its focus from financial, bank debts. Firstly JDC can’t cover every injustice in the world and needs clarity of message. Secondly it mustn’t lose any of its support and funding. But mainly it has to avoid the inevitable accusation of anti-Semitism.

Tactically JDC secures some common ground and direction of change working with the current Labour government (think about the move to 100% cancellation and most recently the token threat of withholding funds unless strings are cut). There is no way JDC could win support for justice for Palestine from this Labour Government, well not, I would suggest, as long as Lord Levy is the chief fund raiser for the party.