I stuck my nose outside the door of my Haifa hotel room. I was told enthusiastically that the United Nations General Assembly had just decided to partition the country.
I went back into my room and closed the door behind me. I had no desire to join the celebrations.
November 29, 1947-a day that changed our lives forever.
At this historic moment, how could I feel lonely, alienated, and most of all-sad?
I was sad because I love all of this country-Nablus and Hebron no less than Tel-Aviv and Rosh-Pina.
I was sad because I knew that blood, much blood, would be shed. But it was mainly a question of my political outlook.
I was 24 years old. Two years before, I and a group of friends had set up a political-ideological group that aroused intense anger in the Yishuv (the Hebrew population in Palestine). Our ideas, which provoked a very strong reaction, were regarded as a dangerous heresy.
The Young Palestine Circle (Eretz Yisrael Hatzira in Hebrew) published occasional issues of a magazine called ba-Ma'avak (In the Struggle), and was therefore generally known as "the ba-Ma'avak Group", advocating a revolutionary new ideology, whose main points were:
• We, the young generation that had grown up in this country, were a new nation.
• Our language and culture meant we should be called the Hebrew nation.
• Zionism gave birth to this nation, and had thereby fulfilled its mission.
• From here on, Zionism has no further role to play. It is a hindrance to the free development of the new nation, and should be
dismantled, like the scaffolding after a house is built.
• The new Hebrew nation is indeed a part of the Jewish people-as the new Australian nation, for example, is a part of the AngloSaxon people-but has a separate identity, its own interests, and a new culture.
• The Hebrew nation belongs to the country, and is a natural ally of the Arab national movement. Both national movements are rooted in the country and its history, from the ancient Semitic civilization to the present.
• The new Hebrew nation does not belong to Europe and the