Almost daily, we hear news, often tragic, from Palestine (Israel), the Persian Gulf Region, or the so called “Middle East”, and on and on. The presentation of these news stories often leave us more confused and baffled than when we started. But it’s not our fault if we’re left confused. Confusion is part of the deliberate process of gaining acquiescence, or submission to ideas that we would reject if we knew the truth. On the question of Palestine (Israel), many of the images and stories may seem disturbing, yet, in North America, and Europe, most people don’t question them. But even when complex, we have a responsibility to seek understanding of important issues. We have a duty to take the correct position on issues, supporting what is correct and just, and rejecting policies that we know to be unjust, oppressive, and wrong. By this reasoning, every conscious man and woman in the world, who values peace, justice, and freedom, must vehemently oppose Zionism.
In a follow up to this writing, we will elaborate on the elements of Zionist historiography that allows, for example:
- People to believe that the so-called state of “Israel” is the “home-land of the Jewish People” promised to them by God, no less!
- Israel to refer to itself as “the only democracy in the “Middle-East” (properly Southwestern Asia, or, the Mediterranean). A Jewish State is a theocracy, ruled by Rabbi’s and priests, and this they have the audacity to call, a “democracy”. Geographically, what “East” is it in, the “Middle” or, “East” of where?
- The US government to substantially finance, supply, and otherwise support the murderous bombings, executions, assassinations, torture, and mass imprisonment, of the Palestinian People by the Israeli military, on a daily basis.
- Zionism’s overwhelmingly successful influence and control of the world’s major media, which enables few to even conceive of Israel as anything but a small beleaguered nation under constant threat from hostile Arab “neighbors”. The colonized, oppressed Palestinians are simply labeled “terrorists”, and who could be against “terrorism”?
Zionism is a political ideology, developed in Europe in the late 19th century, by Theodore Herzl, and other proponents, who sought to create a Jewish “homeland” as a refuge for Jews to escape the persecution that they faced, primarily in Europe. This resulted in small but steady streams of European Jews immigrating to Palestine. The Zionist rationale was firmly established in the mid 20th century as a result of the fascist holocaust in Germany in which millions of European Jews were brutally slaughtered. Following their liberation from Germany’s death camps, there was a combination of genuine sympathy over the atrocities to which European Jews had been subjected, along with guilt over the Western nations’ refusal to help the Jews as they were being slaughtered by the fascist forces led by Hitler. These sentiments allowed Zionism to grow and flourish, largely without protest by the rest of the world.
Zionists falsely claim religion as the justification for colonizing Palestine. They claim that Palestine is the Jewish “Promised Land” spoken of in the Torah and the Bible. However, the early 19th century Zionists leaders had considered colonizing Manchuria in China, while 20th century Zionists considered areas in Africa and in the Americas, before deciding on Palestine. This decision of Palestine was not based on religion or history as is often claimed today, but largely masterminded and supported first by British and later by US Imperialism. Both were competing world-powers, who were each intent on controlling the oil wealth of the region. By establishing a permanent presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, commonly referred to as the “Middle-East”, imperialist states could expand their empire and extend their profits through control of the oil. They could also increase their control of an area with strategic maritime importance, the waterways of the Eastern Mediterranean region, which was a gateway (the Suez Canal) to the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa which links the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea and Mediterranean Sea. The imperialists in Britain and the United States began to perpetuate the lie that instead of a religion, Judaism was a nationality and Jews were a People, through which, Zionism provided a mechanism to “return home” to the “promised land of Israel”. Because of sympathy for the revelations of the exceedingly brutal treatment of Jews by a fascist, nazi Germany, many People around the world, particularly in Europe and the United States accepted the myth, and didn’t question or oppose the decision to establish a “homeland for the Jews” in Palestine. Far from a “return home”, the present day Jewish settlers of Israel have no historic connection, no roots to that region.
This control became possible after Turkey and most of the Arab territories of the Ottoman Empire were taken and divided between British and French colonialism (Italy having acquired control over part of Libya). Once the First World War ended, the British issued the Balfour Declaration, which promised the Zionist movement the establishment of a “national home” in Palestine. In 1920 Palestine fell under the control of British colonialism who initiated a policy designed to dispossess the Palestinian people of their homeland in order to create the state of Israel, which is in reality, a permanent, massive, western controlled, military base. All of Israel’s leaders or their parents and their ancestors, were born in various parts of Europe including Ukraine, Poland, and Belarus.
The year 2013, marks the sixty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, on Palestinian land. The Zionists hail this date as the “Return to Zion”, and the “fulfillment of Biblical promise”. Let us be crystal clear, this “Zion” has no connection to religion, and the thieving, murderous state of Israel, has no relationship to the Bible, or the Torah.
The creation of the state of Israel on Palestinian land has no connection to the holocaust and the Nazi massacres of Jews, of which Palestinians and Arabs had no involvement at all. To Arabs, Muslims, and conscious People everywhere, the year 1948 has a different meaning altogether. It is called “A’am Al-Nakba” or “The Year of the Disaster”. It is the year that Zionism unleashed terrorist gangs – the Haganah, Irgun and the Stern Gang – upon the defenseless Palestinian population, committing numerous massacres against men, women and children. It is the year that forced Palestinians from their land, into exile, an act of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians from Palestine. It was a year that Zionism unleashed a reign of terror against innocent Palestinian people. Refusing to sign-on to most international laws that promote human rights, Israel “has violated international law with impunity since it prevented the Palestinian refugees’ return, annexed East Jerusalem, and extended Israeli law to the Golan Heights, among other transgressions. Moreover, although Israel’s settlement building in the territories is regularly condemned, international sanctions have yet to be imposed”. (Israel, Obama, and other People’s oil Posted on March 20, 2013 by Nadia Hijab on Al-Jazeera English)
Zionism is a form of imperialism, and like imperialism everywhere, it is characterized by settler colonialism, expansionism, and racism. It’s settler colonialist because Zionism is a policy of stealing the land that belongs to another nation of people and then introducing a foreign settler population (in this case primarily Eastern Europeans). It’s expansionist because there is no end to the expulsion of Palestinian people and the continued theft of their land. As we see in the news every day, Israel continuously destroys the homes, farms and orchards of Palestinians, replacing them with newly constructed settlements for Jews. It’s character of racism is evident because the Zionists, who are largely European, commit genocidal policies against the indigenous population of Palestine, using profits from the theft of Africa’s diamonds and other resources to finance their diabolical scheme. Zionism denies basic human rights even to its non-Jewish citizens, denies equality to and commits sterilization campaigns against African women who find themselves in Israel because of their Jewish faith, or because of their refugee status. Additionally, Israel has a separate expulsion policy for Africans, openly regarding them as inferior. While at the same time,Israel participates in the destabilization of progressive, legitimate governments around the world..
WHY SHOULD AFRICANS BE CONCERNED ABOUT THIS?
Israel commits crimes against people around the entire world. A recent issue of Jadaliyya Reports indicates that, “…Israel has provided arms, trained militia, and military and civilian police, developed and provided surveillance technology and repression strategies, and supplied the means for a broad array of other control techniques, from ”non-lethal” weapons to border technology. Israel has played a major role in arming and training the apartheid regimes of South Africa and Rhodesia (current day, Zimbabwe), colonial regimes in the Middle East and North Africa and dictators in Central and South America and Asia.
from http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/9366/israels-worldwide-role-in-repression
“The Israelis have been quietly involved on the African continent for years. In Western Sahara, which is occupied by Morocco, the Israelis helped build a separation security wall like the one in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. In Sudan, Tel Aviv has armed separatist movements and insurgents. In South Africa, the Israelis supported the Apartheid regime and its occupation of Namibia. In 2009, the Israeli Foreign Ministry outlined that Africa would be the renewed focus of Tel Aviv.
Israel’s two main objectives in Africa are to impose the Yinon Plan, in league with its own interests, and to assist Washington in becoming the hegemon of Africa. In this regard, the Israelis also pushed for the creation of AFRICOM. …Washington has outsourced intelligence work in Africa to Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv is effectively involved as one of the parties in a broader war not just “inside” Africa, but “over” Africa. In this war, Tel Aviv is working alongside Washington and the E.U. against China and its allies, which includes Iran.” (from http://www.globalresearch.ca/israel-and-libya-preparing-africa-for-the-clash-of-civilizations/27029)
As Zionism commits increasing acts of murder and dispossession, every attempt by the Palestinians to defend themselves is labeled by the imperialist press as “terrorism” while Zionist aggression is labeled as “defense”. The Zionist dominated mass media makes sure that only THEY will furnish the “definitions” of the forces arrayed against their occupation of Palestinian lands to a world that relies too heavily on imperialism to supply the “news”. In his 1974 address to the UN, Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat correctly pointed out that “Israel invests massive sums of money to influence the ideas of the world’s people, especially targeting youth, while at the same time, accusing any critic of anti-Semitism”. That statement is more true today than ever.
Consequently, many individuals, organizations, institutions, and agents of the press are afraid to criticize Israel, afraid to condemn Israel’s slaughter and genocide of the Palestinian People and afraid to express support for the suffering masses of Palestine. We are not afraid! Despite the complexities, despite the dearth of facts about Israel’s treachery, and despite the attempt to mischaracterize the essence of the problem, we are not deceived.
Zionism will be defeated!
WHAT CAN WE DO?
Inside of Europe, there is a growing consciousness among the masses of the people that Israel is an oppressive, racist, settler-colonial regime! Through this recognition the People continuously place pressure on the European Union to provide material aid to Palestine while cutting aid to Israel. By contrast, and with little protest, the United States supports Zionism through massive aid at the expense of the US taxpayers. So while cuts are being made to education, health care, public infrastructure, and all forms of public services in the United States, American taxpayers pay 3 billion dollars per year, or 8.2 million dollars every day, to Israel, more than to any other nation, although Israel is a tiny country that is one of the richest on earth. While social services are being cut to poor and struggling families in the US, “special arrangements that benefit Israel combined with aid paid out to other countries on (Israel’s) behalf cost [US Taxpayers] nearly $7 million or more each day and thousands of jobs.” http://stoptheblankcheck.org. We should care that western captialist foreign policy favors Israeli interests, sending our poor and working class and unemployed youth to foreign battlefields to fight and die in wars to save Israel. We should care because we are being lied to, being told that the racist, murderous, colonial Zionist Israel, has some connection to the Judeo-Christian Bible–which is a deliberate lie. We must also reject the other big lie where anti-Zionism is equated with anti-Semitism.
As African people, wherever we live, we must crush Zionism’s lies and confusion. We must unveil the truth about Zionist Israel’s murder of African people, theft our diamonds and other natural resources. We have to take an active role in breaking the back of Zionism. Concretely, we must get informed and inform others. We must join forces with other individuals and organizations that are exposing Zionism’s terror, and working to smash it. We must respct the campaign of Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement against Israel that is growing in popularity worldwide (see http://www.bdsmovement.net). We must expose the ‘sell-out’ entertainers who go to Israel to perform, contributing to the legitimatization of Zionism. We salute the Jewish Anti-Zionist Movement and all courageous and honest Jewish organizations and individuals who courageously reject and condemn Zionism as being oppressive and against the principles of Judaism. African people must work to defeat Zionism as a necessary step in the direction of the inevitable victory of Pan-Africanism.
IMPORTANT LINKS
International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network http://www.ijsn.net/home/
Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions Movement http://www.bdsmovement.net
If Americans Knew http://www.ifamericansknew.org/
Neturei Karta – Orthodox Jews United Against Zionism http://www.nkusa.org/
Electronic Intifada http://electronicintifada.net/
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