A modest proposal...

I recently had the opportunity to conduct an extended interview with John Spritzler, a retired researcher from the Harvard School of Public Health who has written and organized for a number of local BDS campaigns, including the relatively high profile (read: controversial) Somerville Divestment Project.  The interview covered a range of topics related to philosophy, activism, and the politics of Israel-Palestine.  I hope to have the full transcript edited and available here sometime over the weekend, but for now here’s an excerpt in which John lays out one of the more original and compelling proposals I’ve come across for resolving the conflict over Palestine:

Based on published accounts of the magnitude of wealth of the 18 richest families in Israel, you can demonstrate that if most—not all, but  most--of their wealth was put into a fund, after five years it would accumulate enough additional wealth that you could say to every Israeli Jew who is living in a house or on property that was stolen from Palestinians that they will be given one million dollars to buy the land and house from the original Palestinian owner—for the full million dollars.  And if they refuse to sell it to you, then you will give the land back to them but keep the million dollars to buy a new house for yourself.  That proposal, I argue, would be enormously popular among most of the Israeli working class because it would create a situation where they were no longer living amidst enemies who hate them for having stolen all this land.  Furthermore, it would create a housing boom.  The economy would take off, creating jobs and reducing unemployment.  I mean, it’s a win-win situation for almost everybody except the 18 wealthiest families.  Okay, so you can say well, that’s never going to happen.  Well, it’s never going to happen only if there’s never a movement that takes this perspective and organizes around it.  But if there is such a movement, it could gain support.