I’ve been enjoying a novel by Brit Matt Haig that takes place in Ibiza, a picturesque Mediterranean island ruled by Spain (Pop 132,000, Tourist Beds 100,000).1 In his A Life Impossible a widowed and rather morose retired English maths teacher is bequeathed a humble house in Ibiza by someone she barely knew decades ago. She travels there and finds the island a haven for jetsetters and hippies alike, emitting strange psychic energy, some of which emanates from the ramshackle house she now owns, and quickly gets in over her head trying to solve occult mysteries.
Haig’s story, set around 1980, engages the reader with strange happenings and local insights. Had it come out back then, I thought, it would have made me want to go there. To Ibiza to drink wine on the beach, get stoned with the hippies, and seek esoteric wisdom.
But not any more. Despite having lived like a nomad in a van in the 70s, I no longer travel well. Especially overseas, where I don’t speak the language and always feel like I’m in people’s way. After all, I can feel like a stranger right where I am with a lot less effort than it takes to travel far away just to take up space there.
That’s just me, but if you have a yen to cruise abroad, consider that by simply taking up space, tourists are threatening the viability of picturesque Mediterranean islands. In places like Santorini, giant cruise ships lay anchor and disgorge more people to gawk about than actually live there. How they trample the place, raise rents, and use up scarce water reportedly sours the locals, and that has turned my travel avoidance into a moral duty to not despoil sunny destinations.
Speaking of despoiling sunny destinations, with fewer glitzy attractions but plenty of symbolic ones to attract tourists and settlers, something like that has happened to Palestine over the past century. As the animated map up top depicts, it’s been overwhelmed not by tourists but by Zionists who showed up intending to stay.
Though there’s been a slump recently, Israel loves tourists, especially Jewish ones. It warmly welcomes young American Jews visiting there on all-expense-paid Birthright excursions to learn about the promised land. The sponsors’ idea, of course, is to groom potential immigrants, as the samizdat documentary Israelism (not in distribution but available for streaming) relates. That film follows some of them around Israel and the West Bank, sprinkled with commentary and clips about their sponsoring organizations.2 I wonder if any Birthright trips have taken place during this past year, and what impressions the young people brought home. I imagine they range from total revulsion to wanting to join the IDF, just like American Jews in general.
But here’s the thing that anyone calling themselves a Zionist ought to think about: Zionism has always been about acquiring real estate, as we see happening in what remains of Palestine, in blitzkrieg fashion. Now, most countries have laws regarding property conveyance that prohibit kicking people out and demolishing their home before you even own it. Even Israel, I bet. But due process seems to be somewhat lacking in the occupied territories.3
But that’s what colonists have always done, wherever they choose to settle. I’m told that for several years plans have been circulating in Israel and abroad among developers, investors, and government officials for the sale and re-use of Gazan real estate once Israel annexes and parcels out the enclave. Expansion into the West Bank has happened that way relentlessly and inconspicuously, international law be damned.4 So let’s watch the ministers and the magnates duke it out to see who gets to take adverse possession of seized Palestinian property.
To suggest that Zionist expansion is basically a real estate grab is sure to outrage many supporters of Israel. So let’s put a question to King Solomon: How many wrongs does it take to make a birthright?
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1In response to the challenges tourism poses, the Ibizian authorities have decreed that all new hotels there be five-star accommodations. Sorry, hippies.
2In Israelism, a Jewish educator says “Judaism is Israel and Israel is Judaism.” That’s like saying Catholicism is the Vatican and the Vatican is Catholicism. No doubt, that’s something some in the Vatican believe, but they are equally deluded.
3If you want to know more about how Israel has justified grabbing Palestinian land, see Legalizing Dispossession, a white paper by the Oakland Institute featuring historical maps. See also the Institute’s page on how Americans can take action to stop arming Israel.
4Palestinian human rights seem to have as little currency as their property rights, as documented by this report on conditions in Israeli prisons from B’Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Be prepared for a stiff dose of reality.
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