Comment by Adam Hanieh
Philip Mendes' writes in "Write on", GLW #261, "The Labour Zionist movement which ruled Israel from 1948 to 1977 strongly identified with traditional socialist objectives". The idea that the Zionist movement, at least until the fairly recent past, had a definite socialist tinge, is widespread. It is, however, false.
Fact 1: Israel was founded in 1948 on expulsion through organised terror of 750,000 Palestinians. At the time, the Zionist "socialists" claimed that Palestine was a "land without a people" — as racist a declaration as the comparable terra nullius in Australia.
Fact 2: The establishment of the Israeli state on May 14, 1948, represented a colonialist conquest by white Europeans and Americans. Prior to 1948, 89.6% of Jewish immigration to Palestine came from these areas.
These Euro-American Jews (known in Israel as Ashkenazi Jews) were to become the elite of the new state. The only way to lure this element was through generous tax exemptions, comfortable positions in the bureaucracy and privileged housing conditions. Ashkenazi Jews are the leading ideologues of Labour-Zionism and the social base of the current Israeli Labour Party.
With the expulsion of the Palestinians, the only people left to fill the labouring jobs were Jews from Africa and the Middle East (known in Israel as Oriental Jews). A massive wave of migration from these areas took place after 1948, and Oriental Jews came to constitute nearly 60% of the Israeli population.
The term Oriental Jew is itself ideologically motivated, an attempt to disguise the fact that these Jews are culturally Arab, not European. However, they are divorced from their Arab traditions, living as second-class citizens in Israel.
Many of these Jews were forced to live in squalid camps for over a decade while their white Ashkenazi counterparts ran the state. Despite being 60% of the population, they were discriminated against by being denied access to housing, education and employment.
In 1969-70 Oriental Jews made up only 37.4% of Grade 8 students. According to 1969 data, 30% of Oriental Jewish children lived below the poverty line, compared to 4% of children with Ashkenazi parents. The 500 years of Oriental-Jewish history are not mentioned in school textbooks, while the dominant literature and music are Ashkenazi.
This institutionalised racism is not socialism.
Fact 3: The Palestinians who remained within Israel suffer enormously as third-class citizens. This is a natural consequence of a state that defines itself as a "Jewish state": it must discriminate against non-Jews.
Between 1948 and 1967, 90% of Arab lands in Israel were confiscated (i.e. stolen) from their owners and given to Jews. Only Jews were permitted to buy or lease land.
In education there were no Arab textbooks, and only the Zionist version of history was taught. Of the 37,343 students in higher education in 1969, only 700 were Arabs. Arabs were prevented from establishing their own political parties and barred from anything but menial jobs.
Fact 4: It is often claimed by Zionist ideologues that the early Israeli state was socialist because of the strength and influence of the trade union federation Histadrut. The reality is that Histadrut was an investment arm of large capital and anything but a trade union federation. During the late 60s (the so-called peak of Israeli "socialism") Histadrut-owned companies employed 25% of Israeli wage-earners and accounted for 22-25% of the Israeli gross national product.
The first company established by Histadrut, Soleh Boneh, developed into the largest corporation in Israel, building luxury hotels throughout Africa and military bases throughout Asia. Until recently, Histadrut controlled all health insurance in Israel.
Two of the key companies behind Histadrut were AMPAL (American Israel Corporation), which was a finance company that directed US capital investment in Israel, and Koor, a major company in the field of construction and manufacture. These companies were not controlled by workers, but were privately owned, profit-driven enterprises.
Like the rest of the upper echelons of Israeli society, Histadrut has been dominated by Ashkenazi Jews, many of whom went on to become very rich.
Fact 5: The other argument offered for Israeli socialism is the kibbutz. The kibbutz is often claimed to be an example of a "worker cooperative" in which Israelis worked together for nothing but the good of the country. The reality is strikingly different.
In 1964, 92% of kibbutzim were affiliated to Histadrut companies, which sold the goods produced for a profit. This profit ended up in the hands of companies such as Koor and AMPAL, not Israeli workers.
During the 1960s, more than 50% of kibbutz labour was wage labour, not the voluntary labour so praised by Zionists. The dirty jobs in the kibbutz were performed by foreign Jewish volunteers.
Israel has always been a colonial-settler outpost dominated by large capitalist corporations and backed by US imperialism. It is based on the dispossession of the Palestinians and entrenched racism against Arabs and non-western Jews. To claim otherwise is not only to take the word socialism in vain, but to ignore the brutal facts of history.