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Constituent Declaration of the Catalan Association of Friends of Israel
Sixty one years ago today, the British Mandate was about to expire in Palestine, the name by which Israel, the homeland of the Jewish people, was then known.
A month later, on the 29th of November 1947 the majority of the member states of the United Nations agreed to the partition of the territory with the intention of satisfying the demands of both the Jewish and Arab inhabitants of the area. However, this was the second partition because in 1922 under the British Mandate the territory had been divided into Transjordan and Palestine, the first being designated as exclusively for Arabs.
On the 15 May, as the British Mandate was to finish, representatives of the Jewish population in Palestine declared the founding of the State of Israel, defining it as a Jewish State.
That day, 5th Iyar, 5708, became the key to the history of the Jewish people. After an absence of hundreds of years, Jewish rule was re established in the land of their origins, even though only partially. During centuries, the Jews who were forced to live away from Eretz Israel prayed to return. The establishment of the State of Israel wasn’t (and isn’t today) the culmination of all the legitimate aspirations of the Jewish people, but it did signify a point of no return. The Zionist movement, following Theodore Herzl’s thinking, had accomplished a large part of its objectives: a national home for the Jewish people in their historic lands.
As we know, the new state wasn’t accepted by everybody. Immediately on declaring independence the neighbouring Arab countries attacked this new born state, hoping to pull it out by the roots and to drive the resident Jewish population into the sea. The events that took place at Kibbutz Kfar Etzion, the day before Israel’s declaration of Independence, when 157 people defending the Kibbutz, many of whom had surrendered , were massacred by the Arab Legion, was an example of what would happen if Israel lost its fight for independence.
It wasn’t luck that founded the State of Israel, nor anybody’s gift, nor the result of a conspiracy. It was and is an act of historic justice, re-forged and legitimized by the struggle of the citizens of the new State to maintain their existence. More than 1% of the population of that time lost their lives in defence of their homeland.
The State of Israel certainly arrived painfully late: without a shadow of doubt, if Israel had existed earlier the Shoa would not have acquired the cost of human lives to which it did. The victims of this barbaric act, which was the culmination of centuries of anti-Semitism, would have found the refuge there that they had been denied by the world in general.
Within a hostile context and environment, the State of Israel has continued to grow: it has developed as a democracy, welcoming hundreds and thousands of refugees driven out of Arab states or arriving from the former Soviet bloc, and has served as a homeland for the Jewish people where their values can develop according to their will, contributing to the general progress in our humanity.
We are the people who, by forming this Association, and for many reasons, celebrate the formation of the State of Israel. One thing is sure that all of us, with different levels of emphasis, share in the defence of the three basic principles:
-The State of Israel as a Jewish state:
Regardless of whether we are or not Jews, it is vital that there should be at least one state in the world in which the identity of the Jewish people will have the maxim protection possible. This does not imply that it has to be the only place in the world, but it is fundamental that at least one state with these characteristics exists. In the end, the existence of a Jewish state facilitates the independence of people around the world to live within their Judaism , making this also compatible with their loyalty to the national community where they live, work and form part of, without nuances.
-The State of Israel as a political expression of the right to self rule of the Jewish people:
As with many other people of the world, the Jewish people have managed to build their own state, where they can guarantee, not only the preservation of their religion, but also their own national character. The success of Zionism, credited with the re-establishment, and the continued survival of the State of Israel - a state for the Jewish people, which can act as a guide for other nations, whose identity and survival was compromised by the simple fact of having no state of their own. For example, the miracle of reviving the Hebrew language, which has become the normal common language of Israel, is evidence that there is always a space for hope.
-The State of Israel as a democracy:
That is, the people’s government, governed by the people and for the people. One of Israel’s fundamental contributions to the world, apart from a wide range of all things cultural, has been to demonstrate, even though suffering the worst of adverse conditions that could be imagined, the best way to survive as a state is with a democratic regime. For this reason, and for where it is, Israel has become a bastion against totalitarianism, to the point that, if Israel was to be destroyed, all civilization wouldn’t last much longer.
For these three reasons, and more, solidarity with Israel becomes an imperative for anybody committed to freedom. The support for Israel, which everyone transmits in their own way, involves the inalienable right of the Jewish state to exist. There will not be an end to the Arab/Israeli conflict until there is no need to re iterate this obvious statement.
In Catalonia, a place with a long tradition of Jewish presence, during the 20th Century there lived such personalities as Josep Carner, Antoni Rovira I Virgili, Josep Plà or the very same Salvador Espriu, and varied societies, such as the Acció Catalana or the Moviment Socialista de Catalunya, who have highlighted the good harmony the majority of Catalans with a national consciousness felt towards the Jewish cause. During the last thirty years this feeling has been dampened by the apparent preponderance of the opinions that deny the State of Israel, not only it’s democratic character, but it’s right to exist.
In this way, the demonstrations in Barcelona last January, during the Gaza conflict, were charged with an aggression towards Israel, the Jews in general and the Catalans who sympathise with them - something never before seen during the democracy. Having arrived at this point, the democratic Catalans who oppose all kinds of religious, ideological or political totalitarian oppression, have decided to organize themselves in an association ,whose objectives will be the preservation and distribution of the democratic values that have historically characterized the legal and political thinking in Catalonia - freedom above all else. Consequently we won’t accept the growth of racist and discriminatory attitudes within the Catalan society, against any collective identity that would like to contribute a sovereign, pluralistic and diverse Catalan national community. The disclosure of the foundational values of the State of Israel, the Jewish identity, the recovery of the Jewish component in our nation and the projection of the freedom of individuals and nations, are the objectives that guide as from today in the association we are forming.
Long live Israel and long live Catalonia.
Barcelona, Cap i Casal de Catalunya, 14 May, 2009
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