ZIONISM FROM THE STANDPOINT Ol-' ITS VICTIMS 111 Between Weizmann and Koenig there exists an intervening period o f several decades. What was visionary projection for the former became for the latter a context of actual law. From Weizmann’s epoch to Koenig's, Zionism for the native Arabs in Palestine had been converted from an advancing encroach­ ment upon their lives to a settled reality— a nation-state— enclosing them within it. For Jews after 1948, Israel not only realized their political and spiritual hopes, it continued to be a beacon of opportunity guiding those of them still living in Diaspora, and keeping those who lived in former Palestine on the frontier of Jewish development and self-realization. For the A ra b Palestinians, Israel meant one essentially hostile fact and several unpleasant corollaries. After 1948 every Palesti­ nian disappeared nationally and legally. Some Palestinians reappeared juridically as “ non-Jews” in Israel; those who left become “ refugees” and later some of those acquired new A ra b , European, or American identities. No Palestinian, however, lost his “ old ” Palestinian identity. Out of such legal fictions as the nonexistent Palestinian in Israel and elsewhere, however, the Palestinian has finally emerged— and with a considerable amount of international attention prepared at last to take critical notice o f Zionist theory and praxis. The outcry in the West after the 1975 “ Zionism is racism” resolution was passed in the United Nations was doubtless a genuine one. Israel’s Jewish achievements— or rather its achievements on behalf of European Jews, less so for the Sephardic (Oriental) Jewish majority— stand before the W est­ ern world; by most standards they are considerable achieve­ ments! 2nd it is right that they not sloppily be tarnished with the sweeping rhetorical denunciation associated with “ racism.” For the Palestinian Arab who has lived through and who has now studied the procedures of Zionism toward him and his land, the predicament is complicated, but not finally unclear. He knows that the Law of Return allowing a Jew immediate entry into Israel just as exactly prevents him from returning to his home; he also knows that Israeli raids killed thousands of civilians, all on the acceptable pretext of fighting terrorism,” but in reality because Palestinians as a race have become