• Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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    17 days ago

    Zionism is a settler colonialism project that was able to really start with the support of British Imperialism. Zionism as a political movement started with Theodore Herzl in the 1880s as a ‘modern’ way to ‘solve’ the ‘Jewish Question’ of Europe. Western Nations supported this instead of instituting legal protections and refuge for Jewish people fleeing persecution.

    Adi Callai, an Israeli, does a great analysis of how Antisemitism has been weaponized by Zionism during its history.

    Since at least the 1860’s, Europe was increasingly antisemitic and hostile to Jewish people. Zionism was explicitly a Setter Colonialist movement and the native Palestinians were not considered People but Savages by the Europeans. While Zionist Colonization began before it, the Balfor Declaration is when Britain gave it’s backing of the movement in order to ‘solve’ the ‘Jewish Question’ while also creating a Colony in the newly conquered Middle East after WWI in order to exhibit military force in the region and extract natural resources.

    That’s when Zionist immigration started to pick up, out of necessity for most as Europe became more hostile and antisemitic. That continued into and during WWII, European countries and even the US refused to expand immigration quotas for Jewish people seeking asylum. The idea that the creation of Israel is a reparation for Jewish people is an after-the-fact justification. While most Jewish immigrants had no choice and just wanted a place to live in peace, it was the Zionist Leadership that developed and implemented the forced transfer, ethnic cleansing, of the native population, Palestinians. Without any Occupation, Apartheid, and ethnic cleansing, there would not be any Palestinian resistance to it.

    Herzl himself explicitly considered Zionism a Settler Colonialist project, Setter Colonialism is always violent. The difficulty in creating a democratic Jewish state in an area inhabited by people who are not Jewish, is that enough Palestinian people need to be ‘Transferred’ to have a demographic majority that is Jewish. Ben-Gurion explicitly rejected Secular Bi-national state solutions in favor of partition.

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    Zionism’s aims in Palestine, its deeply-held conviction that the Land of Israel belonged exclusively to the Jewish people as a whole, and the idea of Palestine’s “civilizational barrenness" or “emptiness” against the background of European imperialist ideologies all converged in the logical conclusion that the native population should make way for thenewcomers.

    The idea that the Palestinian Arabs must find a place for themselves elsewhere was articulated early on. Indeed, the founder of the movement, Theodor Herzl, provided an early reference to transfer even before he formally outlined his theory of Zionist rebirth in his Judenstat.

    An 1895 entry in his diary provides in embryonic form many of the elements that were to be demonstrated repeatedly in the Zionist quest for solutions to the “Arab problem ”-the idea of dealing with state governments over the heads of the indigenous population, Jewish acquisition of property that would be inalienable, “Hebrew Land" and “Hebrew Labor,” and the removal of the native population.

    Ethnic Cleansing

    Historian Works on the History

    The existence of Hamas, and any armed resistance movement, is directly due to the decades of violence experienced daily under the permanent occupation, the Apartheid State, of Israel. It’s impossible to understand their existence if you don’t understand the lived experience and material conditions they are forced to live under. There is no such thing as a perfect victim when it comes to anti-Colonialist resistance, not for the Vietcong, the IRA, or the ANC either. Can you condemn the violence of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising in the same way as the violence of the Warsaw Ghetto?

    In the Shadow of the Holocaust by Masha Gessen, the situation in Gaza is compared to the Warsaw Ghettos. The comparison was also made by a Palestinian poet who was later killed by an Israeli airstrike. Adi Callai has also written on the parallels in his article The Gaza Ghetto Uprising and expanded upon in his corresponding video

    • gedaliyah@lemmy.worldM
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      17 days ago

      I see the same deeply flawed copypasta on every thread about Israel. It speaks about Theodore Herzl, but doesn’t acknowledge that he envisioned a peaceful dual state of Jews and Arabs together. It talks about Jews who left Europe to go back to their homeland, but doesn’t mention the fact that the majority of Jewish Israelis are descended from people who never lived in Europe. It describes Jews “arriving” in the Land of Israel under British rule as though there were not already Jewish communities there when the Ottomans arrived in the 1500s. It leans heavily on the worship of Ilan Pappe, who has been criticized as “one of the world’s sloppiest historians” and has been accused of academic fraud. It mentions the increase in Jewish population in Palestine (about 590k from 1890-1947), but doesn’t mention that the Muslim population increased by even more over the same period. One of these migrant groups is assumed to be “native” while the other is called “colonizers” for reasons that are never justified.

      A copy-pasted wall of text with lots of links is no substitute for critical thinking and basic historical awareness. When a person spends far too long cherry-picking historical sources, they blind themselves to the broader picture and lose sight of the forest for the trees.

      • Keeponstalin@lemmy.world
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        17 days ago

        It speaks about Theodore Herzl, but doesn’t acknowledge that he envisioned a peaceful dual state of Jews and Arabs together

        Herzl explicitly talked about the ‘transfer’ of the native Palestinian people and about Zionism as a Colonialist Ideology. There is no peace in ethnic cleansing. Zionists explicitly rejected a Unitary state repeatedly before beginning Plan Dalet in 1947

        Jews who left Europe to go back to their homeland, but doesn’t mention the fact that the majority of Jewish Israelis are descended from people who never lived in Europe.

        The books linked do. Nor does that change the reality of Zionism as Settler Colonialism.

        It describes Jews “arriving” in the Land of Israel under British rule as though there were not already Jewish communities there when the Ottomans arrived in the 1500s.

        Again, they do. Especially the detailed history by both Ilan Pappe, Nur Masalha, and Rashid Khalidi. Explicitly the difference being that Zionist Settlers were engaging in ethnic cleansing.

        It leans heavily on the worship of Ilan Pappe, who has been criticized as “one of the world’s sloppiest historians” and has been accused of academic fraud

        By Benny Morris who considers the Nakba justified. The criticisms are unfounded. But regardless, read works by Rashid Khalidi, Avi Schlaim, Sara Roy, Nur Masalha, or Schlomo Sand. Far more reputable Historians agree with Ilan Pappe and recognize his work as highly credible.

        https://electronicintifada.net/content/response-benny-morris-politics-other-means-new-republic/5040

        It mentions the increase in Jewish population in Palestine (about 590k from 1890-1947), but doesn’t mention that the Muslim population increased by even more over the same period.

        Did you forget that the point is the Ethnic Cleansing, Occupation, and Apartheid? The reality of the Settlements in the West Bank? The Blockade that has been starving Gaza for decades?

        One of these migrant groups is assumed to be “native” while the other is called “colonizers” for reasons that are never justified.

        The Settler Colonialism. What are you on? The entire point of this links are to provide more details.

        A copy-pasted wall of text with lots of links is no substitute for critical thinking and basic historical awareness.

        Quite clear you lack both

        When a person spends far too long cherry-picking historical sources, they blind themselves to the broader picture and lose sight of the forest for the trees.

        You certainly have, there are a plethora of books that give the broader picture I already linked

    • fukhueson@lemmy.worldOP
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      17 days ago

      Cool, what is described in the article is antisemitism. These doctors have nothing to do with what’s going in Israel, and calls for murdering Jews is antisemitic. Wall of text doesn’t negate that, and none of this provides cover for the people committing antisemitism.