There is no easy way to maul ‘Israel’ these days without facing the mincer. It should have been more straightforward. The Muslims got ‘ISIS’. It clearly was not a depiction of normative Islām and I trust nobody will call you an Islamophobe for slamming them. Likewise, it is not anti-Christian bigotry to condemn the Nazis.
Why is it different for Zionism? Is the amalgamation of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, in a way that leverages the legal privileges of the former on the latter, really helpful? In other words, should ‘Israel’, as a political entity, be given Semitic immunity or instead, earn the repudiation of the world’s Semitic community?
Let us take this piecemeal. Zionists, regardless of their religious persuasions, have by incontestable fact invaded Palestine. Putting aside the ‘promised land’ claim for just a moment, the ‘Israeli Declaration of Independence’ happened in May 1948, which is recent enough to be remembered.
Around one million native humans (regardless of their genetic composition) were forcibly displaced from their homes. Call them ‘Palestinians’, ‘Arabs’, ‘human beings’, ‘Canaanites’, ‘Jebusites’, ‘Philistine’s, or even ‘the biological synthesis of every dynasty, nation, or peoples (including ‘Semitic’ Israelites) for all intents and purposes. There were humans living there before the advent of ‘Israel.’ More than 78% of their land was confiscated, alongside its water resource, livestock, buildings, and fertile earth that later became the graveyard of those victims.
“How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.” [1]
What became known as ‘Israel’, created on the corps of that synthetic religious community, also became the world’s only nation given the privilege of justifying its invasion…religiously. They became ‘God’s chosen people’ for that land – a theatrical diversion of the real question. But who could argue with ‘God’s choice’? Precipitously, what began as a simple issue of the rightness or wrongness of land annexation became confounded with questions of organic originality…
The onus was not on how predominantly European Zionists forged a biological link with an African Moses or Babylonian Abraham for that matter. In fact, the onus of answering for genetic originality was thrown on the masses who lived there before 1948 since time immemorial.
Fast forwarding to the modern day, 46% of ‘Israeli’ Jews consider themselves secular, whilst 70% see themselves as God’s ‘chosen people.’ [2] Do the maths! The rounded claim is that God distinguished a growing godless community and sanctioned the forced displacement of a vastly religious and notably Abrahamic community.
Zionism’s history is blighted with massacres, the scale and recursive nature of which has become unfathomable. This says a lot about a 70-year-old nation state. During the shaping of Zionism under the auspices of the British Empire, dozens of British servicemen were killed. The 22nd July 1946 attack on the King David Hotel containing the British Administrative Headquarters was carried out by Zionist underground organisation the ‘Irgun’. Its directors became some of the most senior Zionist authorities, including Menachem Begin (the sixth Prime Minister of ‘Israel’).
The Deir Yassin massacre followed in 1948. A join contingent, containing the Tsel, Irgun, and Haganah, assaulted the 600-person village near Jerusalem. A cistern alone was found to contain 150 mutilating bodies and the full death toll remains unknown. Irgun leader Menachem Begin falsified the Red Cross’s reports, ironically labelling it the fabrication by anti-Semites. [3] Massacres at Qibya followed in 1953, then Khan Yunis in 1956, and then in the scarred Lebanese town of Sabra and Shatila, in which the organised ‘Israeli’ army itself supervised the silent mass execution of thousands of unarmed Palestinians over three consecutive days.
In the year 1990, thousands of settlers stormed the Masjid al-Aqsa compound trying to place a rock that was ostensibly a foundation stone for Solomon’s temple. Thousands of Palestinians assembled to ward off the group and were met with live ‘Israeli’ gunfire. More than 20 Palestinians were shot dead and hundreds fell injured. [4] Pools of blood on the sanctuary spread to almost 200 metres in length.
“Force is all they do or ever will understand. We shall use the ultimate force until the Palestinians come crawling to us on all fours.” [5]
In February 1994, Baroukh Goldstein opened fire on a congregation of worshippers at the Masjid in Hebron in which Prophet Abraham (ʿalayhi al-Salām) is buried. The worshippers, face down in sujūd (prostration), were peppered with bullets. Soldiers stationed outside failed to intervene for 10 traumatic minutes despite calls for help. The Zionist fanatic could not have been speaking for Semitism:
“And Abram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, as for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.” [6]
The 2006 blitz on Lebanon that claimed more than a thousand civilians – followed by that on Gaza in 2008, 2012, and 2014 and claiming some 4000 civilians – further testify to this. Mere ‘occupation’ would have been unnecessary, according to the former ‘Israeli’ Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman, and a false protagonist of ‘Israel’s’ Jewishness, if had it dealt with its resistance as the US dealt with Japan. [7]
Is Criticising Illegality now…Illegal?
Censoring ‘Israel’ does not need to be embraced within the definition of anti-Semitism. It is a disservice to a law and concept that took decades of struggle to enshrine across the world. Put another way, if Zionism, sits ‘above the law’, it does not need to sit within the precincts of legal protection afforded to Semitism. Insisting on the equivalence of political Zionism and religious Semitism, in fact, denounces international law altogether, otherwise it is a legal paradox. In fact, religion is unequivocal to separating religious doctrine from the usages and applications of man, and the Zionism and Semitism equivalence renounces this basic concept.
Surely, “grave breaches to which the preceding Article relates shall be those involving any of the following acts, if committed against persons or property protected by the present Convention: wilful killing, torture or inhuman treatment, including biological experiments, wilfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health, unlawful deportation or transfer or unlawful confinement of a protected person”, as stated in Article 147 of the 1949 Geneva convention, [8] is not a Semitic virtue. Can ‘Israel’s’ proponents honestly vindicate ‘Israel’ from this? Reports suggest that women raising white flags were summarily executed during ‘Operation Cast Lead’. [9] The use of insidious white phosphorus and depleted uranium during the December 2008 assault on Gaza was at an unprecedented scale.
According to Article 27 of the 1949 Geneva Convention:
“Women shall be especially protected against any attack on their honour, in particular against rape.”
Should the choke imposed on the Gaza strip be afforded legal protection?
“Daily food rations for internees shall be sufficient in quantity, quality and variety to keep internees in a good state of health and prevent the development of nutritional deficiencies. Account shall also be taken of the customary diet of the internees.” [10]
“Any act of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment is an offence to human dignity and a fundamental violation of human rights… No State may permit or tolerate torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” [11]
Recurrent sexual abuse, child molestation, prisoner humiliation, and physical and psychological abuse has been extensively documented by Palestinian non-governmental advocacy group, Addameer. [12] According to the Palestinian Centre of Human Rights, ‘Israel’ has imprisoned more than 600,000 Palestinians for a week or longer. [13] Reports suggest that prisoners are tied to chairs for hours, with music blasting out, pricked with needles and sacks are placed over their heads. However, according to Declaration of the Basic Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power:
“Victims should be treated with compassion and respect for their dignity and are entitled to prompt redress for harm caused.” [14]
Affording Zionism legal immunity under the Semitic framework undermines our very understanding of Human Rights and justice. ‘Israel’ leads the world in snubbing UN resolutions. [15] It is a glaring legal enigma, even a travesty of justice to outlaw the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, specifically targeting illegal settlement produce, when, according to the International Court of Justice (2004) “Israeli settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, are illegal and an obstacle to peace and to economic and social development [… and] have been established in breach of international law”. [16]
Is Criticising Racism now…Racism?
Racism is grounded in almost every ‘Israeli’ institution. Arabs living within the 1948 territories are fundamentally denied nationality rights. The Law of Citizenship isolates non-Jews into a subordinate class and a wide range of national services are systematically provided to Zionist institutions, serving only Jews. [17] ‘Israeli’ Arabs are ridiculed at airports, suspended from various legislative and legal rights, and even banned from access to public amenities, including parks and attractions. [18]
“One million Arabs are not worth a Jewish fingernail.” [19]
In the 16 years of building the ‘separation wall’, the structure has penetrated up to 67 Palestinian villages, towns, and cities, affecting nearly quarter of a million Palestinians living in the West Bank. “Jerusalemites are separated from family members in the West Bank; ambulances and patients cannot reach hospitals; and babies are born in the street.” [20]
“Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.” [21]
Arguably, conflating anti-Semitism with anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic, particularly if we can agree that anti-Semitism is distinctly racist and has bred hate-crime. Trying to protect ‘Israel’ under the precincts of ‘anti-Semitism’ laws in fact undermine the latter, exposing the two separate issues to equivalent denigration. People will simply not stop criticising ‘Israel’ because it stems from their disposition on moral justice. Just as Islamophobes should answer for today’s record levels of Islamophobic hate-crime because their equivalence of terrorism and Islām, those who peddle the Zionism, Semitism equivalence should be the ones made to answer for increasing anti-Jewish bigotry.
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Source: www.islam21c.com
Notes:
[1] Golda Maier, March, 1969
[2] https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/jews-least-observant-int-l-poll-finds-1.5287579
[3] Stefan Brooks, ‘Deir Yassin Massacre,’ in Spencer C. Tucker, Priscilla Roberts (eds.)The Encyclopedia of the Arab-Israeli Conflict: A Political, Social, and Military History, ABC-CLIO, 2008 p.297.
[4] https://www.justvision.org/glossary/al-aqsa-massacre
[5] Rafael Eitan, Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defence Forces, 1983
[6] Genesis 17:3-4 King James Version
[7] https://www.jpost.com/Israel/Lieberman-Do-to-Hamas-what-the-US-did-to-Japan
[8] https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/365-570061?OpenDocument
[9] https://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ioptwf0809webwcover_1.pdf
[10] Article 89, 1949 Geneva convention
[11] Declaration against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
[12] http://www.addameer.org/publications/annual-violations-reports
[13] http://www.pchrgaza.org/arrests_torture_stat.html
[14] https://www.ohchr.org/EN/ProfessionalInterest/Pages/VictimsOfCrimeAndAbuseOfPower.aspx
[15] https://www.haaretz.com/1.5127043
[16] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-48312928
[17] https://www.mepc.org/jewish-nationality-status-basis-institutionalized-racial-discrimination-israel
[18] https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/editorial/preserving-a-racist-character-in-israel-1.6695254
[19] Rabbi Yaacov Perrin, February 1994
[20] https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20181016-7-myths-about-israels-separation-wall/
[21] Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd, the Prime Minister of apartheid South Africa
6 Comments
” Zionists, regardless of their religious persuasions, have by incontestable fact invaded Palestine. ”
When exactly did this “invasion” occur? What borders were crossed during this “invasion”?
” the declaration of ‘Israel’ by the United Nations Security Council happened in May 1948,”. No. The UNSC never “declared” anything. The UN is not empowered to do any such thing by its own Charter.
“Around one million native humans (regardless of their genetic composition) were forcibly displaced from their homes.” The best guess is around 700,000 Arabs most of whom fled without ever seeing an Israeli, at the behest of their leadership. There is copious contemporary media reports supporting this fact.
” the world’s only nation given the privilege of justifying its invasion…religiously.” Utter nonsense. Israel is the nation state of the Jewish People, not the Jewish religion.
“whilst 70% see themselves as God’s ‘chosen people.’ ” This statement is absolutely false, and demonstrates the total ignorance of the author about the meaning of the term “Chosen People”.
“dozens of British servicemen were killed”: 547 Palestinian Jews, and 126 British government soldiers, were killed during the conflict from 1922 to 1948.
“The Deir Yassin massacre followed in 1948.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N0SDlD53os
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkhSHiwzaIY
“the organised ‘Israeli’ army itself supervised the silent mass execution of thousands of unarmed Palestinians over three consecutive days.” An absolute lie. The Palestinians in Sabra and Shatilla were murdered by the Christian Arab brothers.
“In the year 1990, thousands of settlers stormed the Masjid al-Aqsa compound trying to place a rock that was ostensibly a foundation stone for Solomon’s temple. Thousands of Palestinians assembled to ward off the group and were met with live ‘Israeli’ gunfire.” Another total lie.
“In this instance, there was tension between Palestinian worshipers and a religious extremist group known as the Temple Mount Faithful, who proposed to rebuild the Temple where the Al-Aqsa Mosque now stands. According to The New York Times, Haaretz, as well as Palestinian human rights groups, the Israeli Supreme Court had earlier barred the Temple Mount Faithful group from marching to the Temple Mount due to five previous attempts by the group to enter the Al-Aqsa Mosque for destructive purposes that September.[9]
According to Anthony Lewis, a year earlier, the Temple Mount Faithful had planned a demonstration in front of the mosque and Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem warned of a catastrophe[10] if the event occurred.
According to the Israeli “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Events on Temple Mount on 8 October 1990”:
The members of the Wakf knew that the High Court had refused the Temple Mount Faithful petition to lay the cornerstone of the Third Temple, and did not respond to requests by Israel Police officers on the morning of the incident to calm the crowd. This, even after the police informed the Wakf that they would also prevent the Temple Mount Faithful, and anyone else, from visiting the area, though such visits are allowed by law.[11]
Events
According to Anthony Lewis:
Palestinians on the Temple Mount began throwing stones at Jews worshiping, on a religious holiday, at the Western Wall below. The only security forces present, 40 men from the paramilitary Israeli Border Police, used live ammunition on the Palestinians. They killed at least 21. There were no Israeli deaths. The Israeli Government claimed that the Palestinians brought the stones with them and staged the incident as a political provocation. The Temple Mount is a paved plain that usually has few if any stones. But at this time construction work did provide material for missiles. Zeev Schiff, the respected defense correspondent of the newspaper Haaretz, said the Palestinians began throwing stones only after mosques in the nearby village of Silwan announced through loudspeakers that Jewish extremists had come there. The extremists were from the Temple Mount Faithful, who proposed to rebuild Solomon’s Temple where the Al-Aqsa mosque now stands.[10]
According to the “Report of the Commission of Inquiry into the Events on Temple Mount on 8 October 1990”:
The incident itself began when, suddenly, violent and threatening calls were sounded over the loudspeakers “Allahu Akbar” [God is Great], “Ahad” [Holy War], “Itbah Al-Yahud” [Slaughter the Jews]). Immediately afterwards, enormous amounts of rocks, construction materials and metal objects were thrown at Israeli policemen who were present at the site. Many in the incited, rioting mob threw stones and metal objects from a very short range, and some even wielded knives. The actions of the rioters, and certainly the inciters, constituted a threat to the lives of the police, the thousands of worshippers at the Western Wall and to themselves. This was a serious criminal offense committed by masses who were incited by preachers over loudspeakers, and this is what led to the tragic chain of events. […] Nineteen policemen were injured as well as nine Western Wall worshippers. According to Police statistics, 20 people were killed and 52 injured on the Temple Mount.[11]”
“Soldiers stationed outside failed to intervene for 10 traumatic minutes despite calls for help. ” Another lie!
“Shortly afterwards, passing through the Hall of Abraham, Goldstein entered the Hall of Isaac, where some 800 Muslims were at prayer.[30] He was dressed in his army uniform and carried an IMI Galil assault rifle and four magazines of ammunition, which held a total of 140 rounds in 35 rounds per magazine. He was not stopped by the guards, who assumed that he was an officer entering the tomb to pray in an adjacent chamber reserved for Jews. Standing in front of the only exit from the hall and positioned to the rear of the Muslim worshippers, he is reported as having thrown a grenade into the middle of the hall[30][31] before opening fire, killing 29 people and wounding another 125, among them children. Several people were left with paralyzing wounds.[32] According to survivors, Goldstein bided his time until sujūd, the part of the prayer where worshippers prostrate themselves with their heads on the floor.[33] After someone in the crowd hurled a fire extinguisher, which struck him on the head, he was overcome, disarmed and then beaten to death.[2] No criminal charges were filed in connection with his killing.
Reports after the massacre were often contradictory. There was initial uncertainty about whether Goldstein had acted alone; it was reported that eyewitnesses had seen “another man, also dressed as a soldier, handing him ammunition”.[34]
There were many testimonies that made mention of Israeli guards outside the cave having opened fire. Israeli military officials claim that no Israeli troops fired on the Palestinian worshipers. However, The New York Times interviewed over 40 Palestinian eyewitnesses, many of whom were confined to hospital beds with gunshot wounds, and thus “unable to compare notes”. All witnesses corroborated that three Israeli guards opened fire, likely in panic amid the confusion, as the Muslims fled the shrine, with at least one soldier firing into the crowd.[31] During the inquiry, an Israeli Army official said three worshipers died in the stampede following the attack and five Palestinians were killed in street riots within Hebron later that day.[35] The testimony of various Israeli military officials was often contradictory. For instance, Danny Yatom asserted that two of the guards had fired six or seven shots in the confusion “but only in the air,” while the two guards themselves, Sgt. Kobi Yosef and Sgt. Niv Drori, later testified to firing four shots “chest high”.[36] The guards’ testimony was also at odds with the testimony of their ranking officer in claiming they had seen another Jewish settler enter the cave bearing arms.[36] Tikva Honig-Parnass wrote that 10 Palestinians were killed and more than 100 injured by Israeli soldiers who continued to shoot at those who were trying to flee the mosque, at those who were evacuating the wounded, and at people who were rioting at the Ahli hospital. Arafat Baya’at, for one, is reported as having been shot dead by Israeli troops outside the hospital when he picked up a stone to throw at soldiers after seeing a friend of his being carried out of an ambulance.”
“The 2006 blitz on Lebanon that claimed more than a thousand civilians – followed by that on Gaza in 2008, 2012, and 2014 ” All IN RESPONSE to Arab attacks agains the Jewish state.
The rest of this article follows the same pattern of lies and inaccuracies.
Criticism of the policies of the Jewish State, any state, is absolutely legitimate. Demonizing and delegitimizing the Jewish state (and ONLY the Jewish state, is by definition, “antisemitism”.
While being the home of a majority of Jewish people, Israel is not a Jewish State, it is a Zionist state, ruled by Zionist in line with Zionist, Existentialist and Supremacist, Racist and Marxist Ideologies.
The same can be said of all major Western Countries, they are led by Zionist rulers kowtowing to Zionist organisations. Idem for Saudi Arabia and Egypt. Yes, Egyptian El-Sisi was put in power by Zionist entities. In the US, all politicians have to pander to AIPAC. Boris Johnson said of himself to be a passionate Zionist, he is just one of hundreds of Western Politicians to express it openly.
The Jewish State was founded with the Zionist goal of a New World Order.
The use of the word anti-semitism by the Zionist media, which comprises all mainstream media in Zionist “Western” Countries is completely out of context of the root of the word as it pertains to the semitic people. The term anti-semitic is attributed to those who speak the truth about the state of Israel and is nowadays solely used to silence critics of Israel on human rights issues and Israeli meddling into the poltitics and economics of other countries to achieve zionist goals. “anti-semitism” does not refer to semitism at all in the context of present day usage.
And Zionism refers to World Communism aka New World Order following the collapse of World Economies due to Zionist schemes on financial markets.
Zionism has nothing to do with Semitic peoples or Jewish people.
You, Mr William are either confused, lying, or both. Maybe one of those Hasbara trolls?
Historically the most anti-semitic people have been Zionists.
There is too much to say about the perpetually subversive “deconstruction” Zionist history, since the days of Cromwell to this day.
I will end with 3 Zionist quotes:
“I care not what puppet is placed on the throne of England to rule the Empire …The man that controls Britain’s money supply controls the British Empire. And I control the money supply.”
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.”
“Zionism is but an incident of a far-reaching plan: it is merely a convenient peg on which to hang a powerful weapon.”
I responded with a point by point refutation of false statements in this article. You provided not a single fact to support this article, or your hateful screech of frustration.
Literally just wanted to say jazak Allahu khair immensely for this well-researched, evidenced and structured articled which succinctly and systematically tears into the pathetic narrative which they are gradually making mainstream. This must be fought against otherwise the consequences could be even more dire.
Islam21c is missing out on the action. You must report on the humiliation of America at the hands of Iran. Iran has given the American bully a bloody nose. The liars of the American administration claim they held back from striking Iran because of the fear of large casualties and proportionality issues. the reality is that Iran is a strong, capable country and the American generals pulled back at the last minute due to certain knowledge the American Airforce will not return if they intrude Iranian airspace.
Just remember something, America never considers proportionality, japan is the clear historic reminder of the American psyche. “If you’re weak and vulnerable, we will destroy you.” America is buying time and the war on Iran is imminent.
Iran is the mistress of the US. They have a hot and cold relationship for mutual benefits. From the time of the gulf war to the current Syria conflict the US has had deep ties. Iran was given the role to counter balance the Sunni States and also Israel. One just has to look at how it was allowed to extend its influence and penetrate, Lebanon, Syria, Yeman, Iraq and Palestine.
As Trump said today, he wants to make Iran great again!