International conference marking the 40th anniversary of the six-day war
Ralf Fücks
Introductory remarks to the conference “1967 Revisited. International Conference marking the 40th Anniversary of the Six-Day War”
Herzliya, March 28-30, 2007
The Introductory remarks to the conference can be downloaded from this page (pdf-file, 3 pages, 24KB)
Why does a German political foundation take part in the effort to organize a conference that deals with the background, the course and the implications of the 1967 war? Just to point to the fact that it is now almost 40 years that this war took place is not enough of an explanation.
The 1967 war was a defining moment in the history of the Middle East. It did not just have dramatic consequences for Israel and its relationship with its neighbors and adversaries – lasting until this very day. It also had grave consequences for attitudes in the German public towards the state of Israel. This is one of the issues the Heinrich-Boell-Foundation constantly deals with, here and at home.
Much has been written in recent years about resentful, anti-Israeli or even antisemitic tendencies in the German political left. In fact, it was the 1967 war that appeared as a turning point for large parts of the West-German political left from being pro-Israel to becoming anti-Israel. Until 1967, Israel was widely perceived as a progressive political and social endeavor. Now, in the “anti-imperialist” scheme, it was seen as an oppressive force, a base for American hegemony over the Middle East. For me as a youngster, living in a small town, it was another kind of learning experience: the six-days-war created a sense of solidarity with Israel, which even survived my wildest revolutionary period during the seventies.
On the other side of the political spectrum in Germany, many conservatives like the media-tycoon Axel Springer supported Israel and identified very much with its military power in this war. That however came partly with the price that many people thought with this kind of a Pro-Israel-Attitude they did not have to deal anymore with the painful questions, which the Shoah had left for German society – to identify with Israel’s military force was a way to be on the right side this time, some kind of “political reparation”.
The Heinrich-Boell-Foundation is a German political foundation affiliated with the Green party. You may know that the party had its own complicated relationship with Israel and the Israeli-Arab conflict. In the 1980s there were only few visits of Green delegations to Israel and the Middle East, which did not end up in scandals or at least with big arguments and discussions. This changed with the years – partly through critical discussions in the party in which people like Joschka Fischer played an important role. Partly it changed because of the changes here, most importantly the Oslo-process.
On the background of German-Jewish history and German-Israel relations it was a logical step for the foundation to establish an office in Israel in 1998 in order to intensify the work that had been going on here since 1992. Later also regional offices were established in Ramallah, serving the Palestinian territories as well as Jordan and Egypt, and in Beirut, serving Lebanon and Syria.
In Israel, the foundation is working mainly with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to strengthen civil society and democratic participation. We are supporting initiatives striving for peace on the base of a viable two states solution, and we promote efforts to deepen relations between Israel and Germany as well as with the EU. That’s not always an easy task, but it’s getting even more urgent as misperceptions and impatience are increasing on both sides.
The issue we are dealing with at this conference is a difficult one. It is not just an historic issue, because it involves unresolved conflicts lasting until this very day. You just have to turn on the news or open up the newspaper and it is right there. So the conference is dealing with contemporary problems while dealing with historic events. Maybe a period of 40 years was needed to become aware, that achievements of the legendary military victory of 1967, namely the occupation of the Westbank and the Golan Heights, turned into a political burden which until today is lasting heavily on Israel’s shoulders.
From today’s perspective, the 67-war has some characteristics of Phyrric victory. No doubt, it was a war to protect Israel from being attacked and destroyed. But the long lasting occupation of the Palestinian territories is endangering Israel’s future as a Jewish and democratic state, which cannot be built on violent rule over another people.
If you look at the conference program with its impressive list of distinguished speakers, you can get an idea, how much work has been put into this conference. I would like to especially thank the director of the Center for European Studies at the IDC Herzliya, Ambassador Avi Primor, for that. And it’s my pleasure to congratulate Joern Boehme and his team from our Tel Aviv office for this remarkable event.
I hope very much, that many will leave this conference with thoughts and aspects they did not see before: insights that might help to overcome the conflicts we are dealing with. We don’t dream of a miracle. But maybe we will experience what Amos Oz one called the Tschechow solution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He said that in the Tschechow tragedy at the end everyone is disillusioned, bitter, broken, disappointed and shattered - but alive. Contrary in the Shakespeare tragedy at the end the stage is covered with dead bodies and maybe, maybe justice is hanging over it, but maybe not. So let’s hope and work for the Tschechow solution. This will be difficult enough.
Thank you very much