Fateful Triangle

Israel and Palestine: Historical Backgrounds270or Christian, or White character of some state? In the same context, hespeaks of the “underpopulated Galilee,” to which development fundsshould be allocated instead of the West Bank. The concept “underpopulatedGalilee” is common in Israel, with a particular interpretation: thereis a large population of Arab citizens, but there are too few Jews there(recall that many Arabs fled or were expelled from the Galilee in 1948,and that thousands more were expelled during the 1956 attack onEgypt; see section 2* above). The many Arabs, Israeli citizens, areexcluded from the “national lands” (reserved for Jews). Their own landshave often been expropriated for Jewish settlement, they are unable tobuild for their expanding populations because of restriction of land useto Jews, and they have therefore been compelled to find work in Jewishenterprises. There is much concern in Israel over their “land robbery,”over the “invasion” of “national lands” by Israeli citizens of the wrongethnic affiliation. It was for such reasons that the Jewish Agency, underthe Labor government, established the program of “Judaization of theGalilee,” to reverse this specific form of “underpopulation.” It was inresponse to the same problems that Israel Koenig of the Ministry ofInterior, whose jurisdiction covers this region, issued the notorious“Koenig memorandum” in 1976 (under the Labor government), callingfor measures to “thin the concentrations of existing Arab population,”reduce employment and educational opportunities for Arabs andotherwise encourage their emigration, undermine their organizations bycovert means, etc.—policies that some Israelis described as reflecting“fascist values.” Koenig retained his position after the exposure of thissecret memorandum and is still applying his values; see end of section5.3 above. In short, Howe’s concept “underpopulated Galilee” concealsa tale. 154 Howe also reviews some minor examples of the harshpractices that have been in force for 15 years and their “coarsening”effects—on the Israelis—and expresses his dismay as one of those “whoClassics in Politics: The Fateful TriangleNoam Chomsky