Critical Theory and Palestine
by David Reznik
The Need for Critical Theory
"I do not know how we can claim that the stage of analysis and discussion is at an end, and that now is the time to begin work...In reality we have not talked up to now, we have not spoken of our sufferings, we have not closely and scientifically analyzed our sufferings."1
The continued failure to liberate Palestine2 from occupation and oppression owes much to a continued allegiance to the Middle East "peace process". The global public's persistent faith in these diplomatic negotiations underscores the growing popularity of political realism. According to realists, the criterion for valid public policy is knowledge that is supposedly divorced from all human contingencies. For this reason, realists quantify social reality, ridding it of what are thought to be the subjective sources of error like human beliefs, convictions, experience, and values. They argue that true social order can only emerge from the realm of supposedly neutral and objective facts.
As a concrete example of political realism, the present-day Middle East "peace process" has increasingly narrowed discussion to the quantifiable "facts on the ground", including demographics data, economics figures, and GPS (global positioning systems) maps. Since such quantitative data is thought to be immune to critique, a supposedly universal and unquestionable knowledge base for negotiations has been established. Accordingly, critical theoretical reflection has been deemed meaningless and trivial, since now is understood as the time to "get real" and "face the facts". Even history has been dismissed as a "boring" and irrelevant impediment to "moving forward" with practical political action.3
Tragically, this growing allegiance to realism in the "peace process" has coincided with the worsening of the average Palestinian's living conditions. Despite the supposed recent "steps forward" along the "road map", the overwhelming majority of people living in Palestine have become more impoverished, hopeless about the future, and powerless than ever before. This is not surprising since qualitative human experience, including pain and suffering, is converted into de-humanized quantitative data according to the logic of realism.
However, realism need not be the governing logic. In fact, contemporary social theorists have demonstrated that realism is a logically untenable theory of knowledge since it suffers from an irresolvable internal contradiction: knowledge cannot be divorced from the knower lest it be unknowable. Even technologies that are thought to allow access to the realm of objective facts are still mediated thoroughly by the human presence. In short, realism is a highly problematic and invalid paradigm since knowledge cannot be separated from human experience.
Therefore, the current "peace process" grounded in realism will not resolve the deeper problems in Palestine. A new theoretical framework must emerge that emphasizes, rather than eschews, rigorous and thorough historical analysis, qualitative interrogation, and philosophical reflection. Now is the time for the application, not abandonment, of comprehensive theoretical critique that produces radical and more effective solutions to the current crisis.
Along these lines, this paper will attempt to provide a critical theoretical analysis of the current situation in Palestine. Specifically, reflection on the "social totality"4 will reveal the mutually reinforcing realms of economy, social psychology, and culture sustaining geopolitical Zionism. Based on this preliminary analysis, an alternative vision for liberation in Palestine will be presented in the hopes of negating and overcoming the fundamental deficiencies of the status quo "peace process".
The Social Totality
"We cannot understand people by their ideas and ideologies...[Instead] we can understand ideas and ideologies only by understanding the people who created them and believed in them...Thus, in dealing with ideologies, we have to study the social and economic conditions of the people who accept them."5
To understand accurately social phenomena like the current situation in Palestine, critical theorists analyze the social totality. This means that the prevailing economic modes of production, psychological makeup, and cultural framework, as well as their interplay, must be considered and placed within a socio-historical context. Accordingly, this section will examine provisionally transnational capitalism, individualism, and cultural essentialism, the three mutually reinforcing realms of the Palestinian social totality.
The economic system of social relations that has spread across the globe, including Palestine, is capitalism. In its simplest form, capitalism is defined by the zero-sum, inextricable conflict between capitalists, or the class of people who own the means of social production, and the working masses, whose production - and the surplus value that emerges from this production - are appropriated by the capitalists.
The mode of production in capitalism is characterized by a necessarily adversarial struggle between the capitalist and worker. The capitalist usurps and exploits the worker's labor, buying and selling it like any commodity. Furthermore, the capitalist owns, and seizes possession of, the materialized product of the worker's labor. Ultimately, for profit (i.e. capital) to emerge, the capitalist must pay the worker a wage that is less than the true value of the worker's labor investment.
The worker is forced to participate in this dehumanizing process, since the wage becomes his/her means for subsistence. As Karl Marx points out, the more that workers produce in a capitalist economy, the more they participate in their own alienation and exploitation.6 To sanctify this violent means of social production, capitalists absolve all responsibility to the supposedly neutral and objective "invisible hands" of the market.
Because the laws of profit require that surplus value increase hyperbolically relative to wages, capitalists must constantly seek out new workers and/or natural resources, lest they usurp the same profit-base to death or extinction. In other words, capitalists must expand their scope of exploitation in order to maintain profitability. This incessant drive for economic growth, known as imperialism, has been the historical force behind colonization, including constant attempts to occupy Palestine by Western powers beginning with the Roman empire.
Leveraging unfettered rule, the West has promulgated inherently unequal economic exchange with their colonies, flooding the local colonial markets with highly priced imported goods while usurping colonially produced exports. As dependency theorists have indicated, this exploitive relationship imposed by capitalists from the "center" has promoted the systematic underdevelopment of "periphery" populations.7 Disproportionate technological innovation in the central nations, enabled by the fruits of peripheral labor, has only exacerbated this inequality.
With the rise of transnational corporations, the rate of surplus value extracted from the periphery has increased exponentially. Playing off wage differences, loan debts, and the removal of protective trade barriers, transnational capitalists, beholden to no one but themselves, have established their productive facilities directly within peripheral countries. As such, the profit pipeline leading out of former colonies has actually expanded despite these colonies' supposed independence.
Therefore, it would be wrong to assert that colonialism has truly ended. Instead, a transnational capitalist neo-colonialism has become the sophisticated handmaiden of politico-militaristic rule. Buoyed by pre-existing direct means of national social control (i.e. military bases and troops, police and security forces, international law, etc.), transnational capitalists are now free to exploit the "human resources" (labor), as well as the natural resources, of their neo-colonies.
And, as with all forms of colonialism, transnational capitalist neo-colonialism continues to cultivate a complicit group of homegrown colonials exploiting the labor of their own working masses. These local capitalists recreate the systems of dependency and underdevelopment from inside the periphery. To try and compete with the well-established sources of transnational capital, peripheral capitalists are often even more ruthless and exploitative of their compatriots.
In short, transnational capitalism subjects the working population across the globe to alienating and dehumanizing labor conditions. Because an outside force controls their livelihoods, workers are thus the victims of a neo-colonialism, where production is geared towards fulfilling the needs of exploitive transnational capital rather than local social needs.
Persons tend to adopt a particular subjective and social consciousness - psychology and culture, respectively - as a result of the framework of economic production within which they live. The capitalist mode of production promotes a social psychology of individualism, or the fundamental distinction and privileging of the "self" over the "other". Using the "survival of the fittest" logic of social Darwinism, individualism posits that human nature is antagonistic and competitive, with persons engaged in an eternal battle for a finite supply of resources.
Accordingly, boundless consumption and self-gratification are introduced as universal human rationality. "My" existence is absolute, while "you-as-other" are simply an impediment, or an object to be manipulated, in my private accumulation and usurpation of these resources. Society becomes fragmented into fundamentally disconnected and self-interested atoms. According to this logic, the "other" can be legitimately exploited and/or eradicated, since he/she is not seen as intrinsically tied to the existence of the "self".
To reconcile individualism with social living, persons begin to adopt shared cultural norms and traits that are supposed to rise above the ruthless battle of all against all. Specifically, identity markers (like national citizenship, race, and religion) which appear to have absolute, natural, and timeless properties are seen as stabilizing forces amidst the social turmoil of individualism. This search for abstract, guiding cultural ideals in the hopes of maintaining social order is known as "cultural essentialism".8
Cultural essentialism occludes the active involvement and self-interest of capitalist elites in the social construction of these supposedly "essential" cultural ideals. Leveraging the positions of power they derive from the capitalist mode of production, these elites define and prescribe culture in a way that reinforces their privilege in society. Ultimately, the working masses, fundamentally divided by a social psychology of individualism, end up conforming to abstracted cultural norms without realizing that these are the cultural rules defined by, and benefiting, the already powerful.
This logical contradiction between individualism and cultural essentialism thus exacerbates the fundamental class conflict characterizing capitalism. In this manner, the three realms of the social totality reinforce one another to produce what Pierre Bourdieu calls a society of "misrecognition".9 His point is that the working masses actually become perpetrators of their own exploitation by conforming to the cultural ideology propagated by their exploiters.
To summarize, capitalist productive relations promote, while being simultaneously reinforced by, a social psychology of individualism that encourages self-gratification and legitimates exploitive mistreatment of the "other". In order to maintain social order within this framework, the masses have conformed increasingly to supposedly "essential" cultural ideals that are defined and prescribed by capitalist elites. Therefore, cultural essentialism and individualism reinforce one another to perpetuate the power inequalities intrinsic to capitalism. Geopolitical Zionism"By forming a state in order to become like all the other nations, Israel has resigned itself to the world as it is...This produces sadness due to the historical resistance and hope for something other that has been sacrificed through such a worldly victory."10
Geopolitical Zionism is at the fulcrum of the fundamental antagonisms plaguing the current social totality. This ideology embodies and propagates the mutually reinforcing social contradictions inherent in transnational capitalism, individualism, and cultural essentialism. The creation, expansion, and persistence of Israel are thus manifestations of the symmetry between geopolitical Zionism and the prevailing economy, social psychology, and culture.
Historically speaking, the rise of capitalism in Europe brought about a new class distinction between the bourgeoisie and proletariat. Over time, this fundamental economic antagonism manifested in the fragmentation of European society. The hyper-competitive social psychology of individualism took hold, particularly among the working masses that fought "tooth and claw" to stay alive within a necessarily disadvantageous economic framework.
As a result, essentialist cultural ideals developed across Europe that exacerbated these rifts amongst the exploited masses, and thus reinforced capitalists' power in society. An important example is the anti-Semitism that European elites cultivated among the working class. As a form of "divide and rule", these essentialist sentiments occluded the class conflict truly responsible for the misery of the majority. Climaxing in the rise of Nazism and the Jewish Holocaust of World War II, this racist ideology ultimately masked the imperialist struggle for Europe characterized by German military conquest.
Two Jewish cultural ideologies - spiritual and geopolitical Zionism - emerged alongside European anti-Semitism. Both were derived from the same general Judaic principle, namely that the Jews were God's "chosen people" with a messianic mission. However, the two ideologies diverged fundamentally with regard to the meaning of this principle.
Propagated by radical philosophers and theologians, spiritual Zionism sought to inspire the Jewish masses to resist the injustices of European anti-Semitism in order to construct a utopian society of equality:
"To be Jewish...means to be a representative of all people to whom injustice, suffering, oppression has occurred, as well as to represent the accusation of all people against such injustice...'The good is good, not because it is victorious but because it resists victory.'"11
This doctrine called for the deliverance of Zion, the Kingdom of God, in religious terms. The creation of Israel was thus less a matter of statehood in the physical sense than a complete transcendence of the contemporary world of domination and oppression.
On the contrary, geopolitical Zionism developed out of Jewish fundamentalism, a reactionary counterpart to European anti-Semitism. In an effort to divert the attention of the Jewish masses away from the structural inequalities pervading society, the founders of geopolitical Zionism - predominantly secular Jewish economic and political elites - began to emphasize heavily the supposedly inherent cultural superiority of the Jewish "race":
"The tribe of Israel...[became] the first-class citizens of the kingdom of David...with special privileges and rights; and the rest of humanity [became] second-class citizens with the responsibility of respecting the rights of the first-class citizens."12
Working within, rather than transcending, the logic of the social totality, geopolitical Zionism was preoccupied with imperialist expansion. The establishment of Israel as a geopolitical nation-state in Palestine, rather than universal human liberation, thus became the end of all means.
The Jewish working masses rallied around geopolitical Zionism, failing to recognize the interests of elites and their imperialist allies (most notably, the United States) embodied in this essentialist ideology. This bad faith has manifested in present-day Israel. More than ever, today's working class Jews militantly defend their "homeland by birthright", risking their lives
and perpetrating inhuman atrocities without realizing their own self-exploitation in the process.13
In this manner, the descendants of Nazi Holocaust victims have become the active agents of their own Holocaust. International observers have described repeatedly the plight of Arab gentiles in Palestine under Israeli occupation as frighteningly similar to the Jewish suffering in Nazi concentration camps and ghettoes.14 At the same time, geopolitical Zionists have erased successfully all remnants of spiritual Zionism from the collective memory of the Jewish masses. As a result, fascistic ideological uniformity has emerged. Jewish identity now precludes critique of Israel, and anti-Israeli sentiments, even if expressed by a Jew, are interpreted as necessarily anti-Semitic. To summarize, geopolitical Zionism is a reflection of today's social totality, rooted in capitalist economic relations, individualist disrespect of the Arab gentile "other", and culturally essentialist claims to the physical land of Palestine. The symmetry between geopolitical Zionism and the power relations reinforcing the status quo social totality have resulted in a duplicitous "international peace process industry"15 serving Israeli interests. To start with, the global economic and military influence of Israel's imperialist benefactor, the United States, translates into unmatched geopolitical influence on the international political stage. This clout has allowed the counterpart geopolitical Zionists to exert monopoly control over the "negotiations" with Palestinian Arabs.
Israeli leaders leverage this monopoly to frame all discussion within the paradigm of realism, since an "obsession with technical and procedural issues"16 precludes any critical reflection on lived human experience. In this manner, a de-humanized indifference to the pain and suffering of everyday occupation has become a prerequisite for negotiations. Furthermore, the post-Arafat Palestinian Authority has emerged as a compliant and willing partner in this process. By failing to address the prevailing social totality responsible for the inhuman and untenable lived experience of its people, this new Palestinian leadership characterizes what French philosopher Jean Baudrillard calls "the breakdown of democracy":
"Representative institutions no longer function in the "democratic" direction�from the people and the citizens towards the authorities�but in reverse: from the authorities down, by means of a booby-trapped consultation and the circular game of questions and answers, where the question only answers Yes to itself."17
Despite being "democratically" elected, the Abbas administration has chosen to reinforce the tautology of imperialist-Zionist authority rather than represent the will of the people at every opportunity. Concrete examples of this anti-democratic capitulation include the highly unpopular "truce" with Israel, draconian "internal security" measures, and election postponements for fear of a Hamas victory.18
Along these lines, both sides in the Middle East "peace process" have now agreed to create an Arab clone of Israel. The economy of this budding nation-state is to be infused with "entrepreneurial spirit" and "private sector job creation", both of which promote local capitalist exploitation as well as transnational dependency on Western imperialists, particularly the US.19 At the same time, individualist squabbles between Arab elites over control of the fruits of Israeli disengagement have increasingly taken precedence over concern for the social common weal of the Palestinian masses.20 Even the idea itself of creating a separate Arab state tacitly reinforces the legitimacy of Israel and thus perpetuates the logic of geopolitical Zionism.
Hence, upon closer examination the "two-state solution" emerging from the current Middle East "peace process" is not truly liberating. Although the Arab masses might achieve formal independence from Israel, they will still be subjected to exploitation at the hands of Western and local elites. At the same time, the Israeli masses will continue subjecting themselves to geopolitical Zionist rule. Ultimately then, real liberation in Palestine can only emerge through a collective struggle among all Palestinians against the current social totality of capitalism, individualism, and cultural essentialism.
Palestinian Liberation
"The revolutionary character is the one who...transcends the narrow limits of his own society, and who is able, because of this, to criticize his or any other society from the standpoint of reason and humanity. He is not caught in the parochial worship of that culture which he happens to be born in, which is nothing but an accident of time and geography. He is able to look at his environment with the open eyes of a man who is awake and who...[embodies] the norms which exist in and for the human race."21
The recommendations that follow are not a practical "how-to" guide for the liberation of the Palestinian people from the oppression of geopolitical Zionism. Practical prescriptions would fall into the trap of realism, since they would presume an objective knowledge base unaffected by context and historical developments. Instead, a critical theoretical framework is needed from which Palestinian emancipation can emerge dynamically. In that vein, the following suggestions are oriented toward praxis, or the simultaneity of concrete action and theoretical reflection.
Critical theorists in the Marxist tradition have outlined a method for transcending the fundamental deficiencies of the status quo called "negative dialectics".22 Using this theoretical method, "essential limits", or those fundamental deficiencies in the current social totality, must be identified across the three realms of social living: economy, social psychology, and culture. A more positive and valuable society is then attained by overcoming these limits, a process commonly referred to as "the negation of the negation".
The essential limits of the current social totality (the mutually reinforcing social forces of capitalism, individualism, and cultural essentialism) have already been discussed. To repeat and summarize, an exploitive class conflict that negates the humanity of, and deprives material sustenance to, the working masses defines the capitalist mode of economic relations. And a negation of the "other" on the bases of narcissism and false consciousness characterize the prevailing individualist psyche and cultural essentialism. These fundamental antagonisms reinforce one another to produce social structures of domination, like geopolitical Zionism in Palestine.
Geopolitical Zionist oppression of the Palestinian masses is further legitimated by a 'peace process" framed within the faulty logic of political realism. The increasing reliance on supposedly objective "facts on the ground" precludes the theoretical critique, historical reflection, and qualitative analysis that are necessary to challenge the current social totality.
Therefore, those seeking Palestinian liberation must realize that working within the status quo paradigm will not work. True emancipation can only occur by constructing a new social totality that negates the inherent flaws plaguing the three realms of social living today. In short, only by negating and transcending all the structural inequalities produced by geopolitical Zionism can the Palestinian struggle embody the true spirit of human liberation.
The point here is that human liberation in Palestine must be multidimensional. The creation of a separate Palestinian Arab state alongside Israel or the unilateral withdrawal of Israeli defense forces from currently occupied territory does not, in and of itself, guarantee emancipation. Instead, Palestinian liberation must be a conscious, comprehensive, and permanent revolution against geopolitical Zionism and the current social totality.
First and foremost, capitalist economic relations can no longer be tolerated and must be openly fought by all the working masses living in Palestine, whether Arab or Israeli. The "two-state solution" will only result in two forms of nationally sponsored capitalist exploitation. Furthermore, the West will have won another imperialist victory, having divided the Middle East in order to more easily conquer the surplus value of the region for transnational capitalist purposes. As liberation theologian Enrique Dussel writes from the Latin American experience, "a peripheral nation enjoys authentic national liberation only when it is effectuated in tandem with...liberation from the social relationship of capital and labor."23
In other words, a meaningful Palestinian emancipation must include a battle against capitalism. Arabs and Israelis must thus struggle for a unified economy based on the principles of worker's self-management, collective ownership of the means of production, and democratized economic planning. To this end, a de-racialized version of kibbutz socialism can be invoked to fight off transnational capitalist imperialism and suit the needs of all the people across the whole of Palestine.
However, egalitarian modes of production in Palestine cannot emerge without fighting simultaneously the social psychology of individualism. Jewish philosopher and spiritual Zionist Martin Buber wrote extensively on the inherent contradictions of the individualist psyche.24 He demonstrated logically that individual existence is necessarily intersubjective, or dependent upon recognition by the "other". Individuals in society thus do not simply interact with one another optionally, but are rather inextricably intertwined in what Buber calls an "I and Thou" relationship. Mistreatment of the "other" can therefore no longer be tolerated, since caring for the "other" is necessarily caring for the existence of oneself.
Additionally, the veil of cultural essentialism obscuring the Israeli masses must be lifted. For this to happen, cultural identity must be thoroughly re-conceptualized. Rather than adhering to supposedly absolute cultural ideals that are divorced from history and human agency, identity must be understood as actively constructed, dynamic, and fluid.
Armed with this radicalized notion of culture, Jews can begin to re-define their identity, rather than allowing elites to imprison them in geopolitical Zionism. Instead of conforming to an alienating essentialist ideology, Jews worldwide can begin to renew the humanist ethics of spiritual Zionism. The concept of "solidarity" as described by Dussel is perhaps one of the clearest examples of this infinite respect for the other:
"[Solidarity is] a more positive, affirmative moment than that of the mere tolerance before a victim, who is powerless to defend his or her own rights. Tolerance is in this way subsumed in a responsibility for the other. Tolerance is surpassed, insofar as, in accordance with one's will and desire, one takes as one's task the fulfillment of the desire of the life-project the other cannot actualize."25Hence the Jewish masses can embody a more liberating and meaningful cultural identity when acting for the exploited Arab masses and against geopolitical Zionism, rather than vice versa.
Ultimately, Jews around the world, particularly the Israeli masses, must realize that "the enemy of the Palestinian people is the Zionist structure of Israel, and not the Jewish people themselves."26 With this realization, Jews can begin to relate to Palestinian Arabs not as second-class citizens in the eyes of God or irrational perpetrators of Jewish genocide. It is only by helping rid Palestine of the inhumanity of geopolitical Zionism that Jews can affirm their humanity.
David Reznik is a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Florida. He currently serves as editor of Human Liberation. His email address is dreznik@ufl.edu.
Notes
1. Shari'ati, Ali. 1979. On the Sociology of Islam. Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press, pgs. 39 & 41.
2. The terms "Palestine" and "Palestinian" refer to the land and people of both Israel and the Occupied Territories, as well as the refugee diaspora strewn across the Arab world.
3. McGreal, Chris. 2005. "'The Future Doesn't Hang on One Man': Why Peres Could Hold Key to Road Map Success." The Guardian (UK), April 22.
4. Horkheimer, Max. 1972. Critical Theory: Selected Essays. New York: Herder and Herder.
5. Fromm, Erich. 1963. The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays on Religion, Psychology and Culture. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Wilson, pg. ix.
6. Marx, Karl. 1964. The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1844. New York: International Publishers.
7. Frank, Andre Gunder. 1979. Dependent Accumulation and Underdevelopment. New York: Monthly Review Press.
8. Choi, Jung Min, Karen A. Callaghan, and John W. Murphy. 1995. The Politics of Culture: Race, Violence, and Democracy. Westport, CT: Praeger.
9. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1990. In Other Words: Essays toward a Reflexive Sociology. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
10. Ott, Michael. 2001. Max Horkheimer's Critical Theory of Religion. Lanham, MA: University Press of America, pg. 119.
11. Ibid., pg. 119.
12. Ezzati, A. 2002. Islam and Natural Law. London: ICAS Press, pg. 72-3.
13. Rising unemployment in Israel due to elites' active recruitment of exploitable gentile labor from abroad is just one example. Another is the disproportionate representation of working-class Israelis in the IDF, serving as bodyguards for the United States' "beachfront" of capitalism in the Middle East.
14. Baroud, Ramzy, ed. 2003. Searching Jenin: Eyewitness Accounts of the Israeli Invasion 2002. Seattle, WA: Cune Press.
15. Abu Nimah, Hasan and Ali Abunimah. 2005. "Mass Hypnosis in the Middle East." The Electronic Intifada, January 19.
16. Ashrawi, Hanan. 1992. "The Intifada: Political Analysis." In Faith and the Intifada: Palestinian Christian Voices, edited by N. S. Ateek, M. H. Ellis, and R. R. Ruether. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, pg. 16.
17. Baudrillard, Jean. 2005. "Holy Europe." New Left Review, May-June, 33, pg. 25.
18. Abu Nimah, Hasan. 2005. "A Truce or a Fig Leaf?" The Electronic Intifada, July 20.
19. El Fassed, Arjan. 2005. "G8 and Disengagement: Palestine Needs Justice Not Charity." The Electronic Intifada, July 4.
20 Regular, Arnon. 2005. "Senior Hamas Official: We Have Lost Faith in Abbas." Ha'aretz, July 7.
21 Fromm, op. cit., pg. 158.
22 See Adorno, Theodor. 1972. Negative Dialectics. New York: The Seabury Press; Markovic, Mihailo. 1974. From Affluence to Praxis: Philosophy and Social Criticism. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press; and Petrovic, Gajo. 1967. Marx in the Mid-Twentieth Century. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
23 Dussel, Enrique. 1988. Ethics and Community. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, pg. 144.
24 Buber, Martin. 1970. I and Thou. New York: Touchstone.
25 Dussel, Enrique. 2004. "Deconstruction of the Concept of 'Tolerance': From Intolerance to Solidarity." Consellations, 11(3), pg. 330.
26 Trabulsi, Fawwaz. 1969. "The Palestine Problem: Zionism and Imperialism in the Middle East." New Left Review, Sept.-Oct., I/57, pg. 88.
