Without demarcation of physical boundaries, it's impossible to impose constraints in other areas.
By NAOMI CHAZANnaomi chazan 88(photo credit: )
The return from the month-long holiday break next week is going to be particularly traumatic. The collapse of global financial markets, coupled with the outbreak of Arab-Jewish riots in Acre, demand a drastic shift in priorities. The temptation to deal primarily with the economic conundrum will surely be immense, given the effects of the crisis on the country's economy and the well-being of its citizens. Relegating intergroup relations to the sidelines and reducing it to a minor local matter, however, would be a strategic mistake of the highest order.
The robustness of Israeli society is, above all, a function of its ability to foster joint living in a multicultural society seriously divided along ethnic, religious, socioeconomic, ideological and national lines. This is not merely an internal question; it is integrally linked to the ongoing conflict between Israel and its neighbors. Without internationally recognized boundaries, the most virulent forms of prejudice and discrimination threaten to infiltrate virtually every corner of the country, and into all aspects of the lives of its citizens.
The absence of borders is, indeed, the source of many of our security and legitimacy problems. But it has normative and legal implications as well. Democratic societies are defined by the restraints they place on themselves through the delineation of accepted rules and through constitutional protections for all citizens (and especially for minorities). No democracy can survive, let alone thrive, without such clear-cut behavioral guidelines.
These have been repeatedly violated in recent years. Without the demarcation of physical boundaries, it is virtually impossible to impose constraints in other areas. If current trends continue unabated, they may yet prove to be the prelude to civil war.
The Acre events must be viewed within this broad context of indeterminate borders and the climate of lawlessness it has fostered. There is a close connection between instances of recurring clashes between Palestinians and Israelis and the growing penchant to flout the law, which has become a national pastime not only in schoolyards and on the roads, but also in the uppermost echelons of government.
The immediate backdrop to this year's Yom Kippur riots may be found in seemingly disconnected incidents which highlight the dangers inherent in blurred boundaries. The series of unbridled attacks by extremist settlers on Palestinian civilians in recent months, at times leading to open confrontations with IDF soldiers called in to restore order, provide one example. The unorganized assaults by individual Palestinians on Jewish civilians at Mercaz Harav, Jaffa Road and Independence Park in Jerusalem offer further evidence of this same syndrome. When combined with economic trepidation, growing mutual suspicion, raw nerves and a heightened rhetoric of intolerance, daily exchanges are inevitably affected. The absence of official resolve can much too easily assume alarming populist dimensions.
IN THESE circumstances, it is hardly surprising that the holiday season has been marred by the worst sort of intercommunal conflagration in a city supposedly far removed from the center of the conflict. The festering acrimony nurtured by decades of inaction burst out - once again - into the streets. Unlike the events of October 2000, however, when Palestinian citizens of Israel were embroiled in direct confrontations with the police, this time Jews and Arabs clashed openly with each other while law enforcement agencies desperately attempted to separate the warring groups. The anomalies of ambiguity on the Israeli-Palestinian front are penetrating demonstratively into the heart of the country.
This can best be seen in the personal attack on Prof. Ze'ev Sternhell several weeks ago. When political disagreement devolves into purposeful violence, then all limits on acceptable behavior in democratic societies are broken. Here, precisely because Jews attacked a Jew who has consistently cautioned against the adverse effects of continued occupation, the linkage between the lack of physical boundaries and the loosening of normative constraints is especially magnified.
There is a direct line between these - and other - cases of politically driven unrest and disorder. They all point to a truly terrifying deterioration in relations not only between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, but among Israeli citizens themselves.
The roots of this domestic malaise have been apparent for quite some time. They go back to the systemic discrimination against Arab citizens - individually and collectively - since the creation of the state. They have been fed by inequitable allocations of goods and services, by woefully inadequate educational facilities, and by neglected infrastructures. Most significantly, they have been nurtured by an inability (and/or unwillingness) to accept the fact that 20 percent of the population are Palestinians by nationality and Israeli by citizenship, with all the rights this status entails. When lack of respect for one group gains credence, it opens the road to disdain for others in one's midst as well.
What happened in Acre is not an isolated incident. It is an alarm bell that the country can ignore only at its peril. Any further delay in establishing a firm border with an independent Palestinian state will tear Israel apart. The alternative to a negotiated two-state solution and the end of the occupation is not a one-state solution, but a system of institutionalized inequality which cannot but unleash increased violence both externally and domestically. The end result will be the total breakdown of the political, economic and social fabric of the country.
Borders - physical, ethical, normative and legal - are the backbone of free societies. Dealing with the economic meltdown may be the most obvious on the post-holiday checklist. Addressing the resolution of the conflict is by far the most significant. For all this and more, a strong government is indispensable. Until an alternative coalition is formed or new elections are called, these remain the challenges of the lame-duck Olmert administration.
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