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Thursday, February 3, 2011

Martin Buber (Jew)

Martin Buber (1878 – 1965) was an outstanding Austrian-born Jewish philosopher. A Zionist and immigrant to Palestine he nevertheless, informed by Humanity and his I-Thou religious existentialism, argued for non-racism and a bi-national state (see Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Buber ).

Martin Buber, “The National Home and The National Riots in Palestine”, speech in Berlin, 1929 after  Palestinian riots: “Every responsible relationship between an individual and his fellow begins through the power of genuine imagination, as if we were the residents of Palestine and the others were the immigrants who were coming into the country in increasing numbers, year by year, taking it away from us. How would we react to events? Only if we know this will it be possible to minimize the injustice we must do in order to survive and to live the life which we are not only entitled but obliged to live, since we live for the eternal mission, which has been imbedded within us since our creation.” [1].

Martin Buber, “The Bi-National Approach to Zionism”, 1947: “We describe our program [that of the Ichud Association] as that of a bi-national state—that is, we aim at a social structure based on the reality of two peoples living together. The foundations of this structure cannot be the traditional ones of majority and minority, but must be different. We do not mean just any bi-national state, but this particular one, with its particular conditions, i.e. a bi-national state which embodies in its basic principle a Magna Charta Reservationum, the indispensable postulate of the rescue of the Jewish people. This is what we need and not a “Jewish State”.” [1].

[1]. Martin Buber quoted by Leonard Schwartz, “After the Assault on Gaza”, Common Ground News Service, 26 March 2009: http://www.commongroundnews.org/article.php?id=25104&lan=en&sid=0&sp=0&isNew= .

http://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/buber-martin-great-jewish-philosopher-anti-racist-zionist-who-argued-for-a-bi-national-state-in-palestine

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