AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: An exercise in Orwellian ‘doublespeak’
July 13th, 2009
in:
CPTnet
13 July 2009
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: An exercise in Orwellian ‘doublespeak’
by Jan Benvie
Last month, the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, made a speech in which he set out his government’s position on a future Palestinian state. The speech, an interesting exercise in Orwellian ‘doublespeak’*, appears to have been enough to satisfy the international community, but does not, I believe, offer the prospect of a just peace.
Netanyahu quoted the prophet Isaiah, and used the word ‘peace’ forty-five times in his speech. “Our prophets gave the world ... peace, we greet one another with … peace,” he said—a clear reference to ‘shalom.’ However, the ‘shalom’ of the prophets is much more than the English word ‘peace’; it means wholeness, health, welfare, harmony. In the book of Isaiah the word ‘peace’ is used at least twenty times, but so too is the word ‘justice.’ Netanyahu used the word justice only once.
On negotiations he began by saying, “Let’s begin negotiations immediately without preconditions,” but later stated, “If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization … if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready … to reach a solution …”
He spoke of Israel as the “historical homeland” of the Jews, but rejected the right of return for the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed when Israel was created in 1948. If the return of “Palestinian refugees [to] inside Israel contradicts … the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People” what does that say about the rights of non-Jewish citizens of Israel? These Palestinian-Israelis, descendents of those able to remain in 1948, constitute at least 20% of the population.
“Israel must govern its own fate and security,” he declared. “Each people will have … its own government.” He called for the “strengthening [of Palestinian] governance,” but rejected the Hamas government, democratically elected in 2006: “The Palestinian Authority will have to … overcome Hamas in Gaza.”
When Netanyahu said, “together we will invest in plowshares and pruning hooks, not swords and spears,” he meant the Palestinians–he did not speak of a ‘demilitarized’ Israel. When he used the words “live freely,” “mutual respect,” “neither will threaten the security or survival of the other,” what he meant was a variation of Gaza–a “demilitarized” state that cannot “close their air space to [Israel].”
The international community has chosen to interpret Netanyahu’s words as an acceptance of a Palestinian state, but he is not talking about a sovereign Palestinian state. He means a series of Gaza-style, open-air prison camps, where the inmates can control some basic aspects of their lives, but where Israeli will maintain ultimate control of the area, including the ability to restrict food, medical supplies, and fuel.
For Netanyahu, as for Orwell’s Big Brother, War is Peace and Freedom is Slavery.
*In his novel 1984, George Orwell used the terms ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’, the term ‘doublespeak’ was coined in the 1950s (likely inspired by the novel) to mean thinking one thing and speaking another.
13 July 2009
AT-TUWANI REFLECTION: An exercise in Orwellian ‘doublespeak’
by Jan Benvie
Last month, the Israeli Prime Minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, made a speech in which he set out his government’s position on a future Palestinian state. The speech, an interesting exercise in Orwellian ‘doublespeak’*, appears to have been enough to satisfy the international community, but does not, I believe, offer the prospect of a just peace.
Netanyahu quoted the prophet Isaiah, and used the word ‘peace’ forty-five times in his speech. “Our prophets gave the world ... peace, we greet one another with … peace,” he said—a clear reference to ‘shalom.’ However, the ‘shalom’ of the prophets is much more than the English word ‘peace’; it means wholeness, health, welfare, harmony. In the book of Isaiah the word ‘peace’ is used at least twenty times, but so too is the word ‘justice.’ Netanyahu used the word justice only once.
On negotiations he began by saying, “Let’s begin negotiations immediately without preconditions,” but later stated, “If we receive this guarantee regarding demilitarization … if the Palestinians recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish people, then we will be ready … to reach a solution …”
He spoke of Israel as the “historical homeland” of the Jews, but rejected the right of return for the Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed when Israel was created in 1948. If the return of “Palestinian refugees [to] inside Israel contradicts … the State of Israel as the state of the Jewish People” what does that say about the rights of non-Jewish citizens of Israel? These Palestinian-Israelis, descendents of those able to remain in 1948, constitute at least 20% of the population.
“Israel must govern its own fate and security,” he declared. “Each people will have … its own government.” He called for the “strengthening [of Palestinian] governance,” but rejected the Hamas government, democratically elected in 2006: “The Palestinian Authority will have to … overcome Hamas in Gaza.”
When Netanyahu said, “together we will invest in plowshares and pruning hooks, not swords and spears,” he meant the Palestinians–he did not speak of a ‘demilitarized’ Israel. When he used the words “live freely,” “mutual respect,” “neither will threaten the security or survival of the other,” what he meant was a variation of Gaza–a “demilitarized” state that cannot “close their air space to [Israel].”
The international community has chosen to interpret Netanyahu’s words as an acceptance of a Palestinian state, but he is not talking about a sovereign Palestinian state. He means a series of Gaza-style, open-air prison camps, where the inmates can control some basic aspects of their lives, but where Israeli will maintain ultimate control of the area, including the ability to restrict food, medical supplies, and fuel.
For Netanyahu, as for Orwell’s Big Brother, War is Peace and Freedom is Slavery.
*In his novel 1984, George Orwell used the terms ‘doublethink’ and ‘newspeak’, the term ‘doublespeak’ was coined in the 1950s (likely inspired by the novel) to mean thinking one thing and speaking another.
