By Avigdor Charlemagne (aka Aaron Dover)*
After decades of oppression, injustice and the numerous false dawns of the “peace process”, it may be time for Palestinians to consider the wisdom of that old adage “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em”
I hardly need tell +972 Magazine readers that to a greater or lesser extent, depending largely on location of residence, Palestinians suffer a variety of discriminatory laws based up their not-Jewish and related not-Israeli citizen status. Israeli citizen status is denied to most non-Israelis who are not deemed Jewish, with exceptions of course depending on circumstances. But certainly this citizenship and its associated rights are denied to millions effectively under total Israeli control.
Given that these rights are denied based on religion, it is an option in principle for, say, Christian and Muslim Palestinians to convert to Judaism in order to gain access to the privileged citizenship which would allow them all kinds of freedoms they see Israelis enjoy and quite rightly expect for themselves. Even the conversion without citizenship potentially affords certain improvements given that the Jewish State has ever growing legal and actual discrimination which is suffered simply as a result of the not-Jewish status.
Having visited Hebron myself and seen some of this discrimination in action, I was reading this other +972 story with great interest and amusement and it struck me that this kippah plan could be taken to a whole new level. Conversion on a large scale could wrongfoot the confused Jewish identity of the state that makes them second class citizens. It could pose an entirely new moral threat to the whole enterprise of discrimination on these grounds. Sure, it’s a desperate measure, and absolutely unconscionable for those whose religious identities are dear to them. But there are many secular people for whom such a bureaucratic step might not be such a problem – particularly for people for whom this might be a last resort for example to see loved ones and visit homes from which they have been banned, or want to live or remain in neighbourhoods where they are being driven out.
Many already speak fluent Hebrew of course, a major part of the curriculum. These people might be seen mistakenly by some as turncoats or complicit in a Zionist scheme, particularly those who are ill informed as to the motivation. But on closer examination they are far from complicit, they are undermining the nonsensical foundations of that movement and subverting it to their ends. Let’s be clear: nobody, certainly not I, wants to be in a situation where it makes sense to suggest this kind of idea. But frankly that is tragically what things have come to at this point.
Such a conversion movement would meet obstacles and they might prove insurmountable. But even the act of attempting this would shine a harsh spotlight on how the whole team, the rabbinate, the IDF, the government, work together to maintain a system of discrimination which is a house of cards. I’m Jewish as a result of my parents being Jewish. I don’t go to synagogue or speak Hebrew. I have the right to go and buy a place or even a holiday home pretty much anywhere in Israel or the occupied Palestinian territories despite having no cause for concern that I am a refugee or at risk. In fact I believe I would be at far greater risk over there.
Even if one did a conversion they would probably know a lot more about the intricacies of the Jewish religion than I do, but would never be legally or socially “as Jewish” as I. Then there are those whose families have lived in the area for centuries yet I have more rights than them on their land. The whole thing breaks down under any logical examination. Which seems par for the course for a religious system but not so clever when applied to civil bureaucratic procedures.
Before inviting millions of Palestinians to form an orderly queue to become Jewish, I would like to take any feedback readers have as to how hairbrained or misguided this idea is. I know it would have to be pretty nuts to make sense in the Middle East.
*Avigdor Charlemagne is the pseudonym of Aaron Dover, who since publication has decided to hide his real identity in plain sight