State of Israel

"State of Israel" دَوْلَة إِسْرَائِيل מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל
Flag Coat of arms
Map of territory currently occupied by Israel
Capital (claimed and controlled)	Jerusalem (limited recognition)
Official languages	Hebrew
Recognized languages	Arabic English
Dominant mode of production	Capitalism
Government	Unitary ethnocratic republic
• President	Isaac Herzog
• Prime Minister	Benjamin Netanyahu
History
• Declaration	14 May 1948

"Israel", officially named the "State of Israel", referred to as Occupied Palestine or the Zionist Entity by the Palestinian resistance and its allies, is a settler-colonial state and genocidal regime occupying Palestine.

The modern "State of Israel" has its roots in the Zionist movement, a political ideology centered around the creation of a Jewish state to replace Palestine. While many Zionists may be Jewish, most Zionists are Christians. Of the 100 million evangelical Christians in the United States of America, Zionists constitute more than 72%. This number of evangelical Zionists in the USA alone outnumbers the number of Jewish people worldwide, which is no more than 20 million.

Geopolitically, "Israel" exists as a forward operating base for the U.S. empire. In 1986, then-senator (and later president of the United States) Joe Biden admitted that "if Israel didn't exist, the US would have to invent [an Israel] to protect US interests." The USA is the Zionist Entity's main backer and sends it $3.8 billion in funding every year, most of which goes to buy weapons to use against Palestinians.

Today, most communists and Palestinians classify "Israel" as a settler ethnostate with aims to eliminate the Palestinian population (see below). Other minorities are also targeted, such as non-white Jews (notably from Ethiopia or Morocco), who are forcefully sterilized or forced to emigrate from "Israel". These populations were originally brought in to give Zionists legitimacy over Palestine but since this has been achieved, they are now the targets of genocide as well.

Economy

Despite being a small state, the Zionist Entity is the eighth largest arms exporter in the world. In 2019, it exported $9 million worth of military equipment and software. It has provided military aid to the anti-Assad Free Syrian Army and the Islamic State.

The Entity’s relationship with Palestinian labor has been used to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. In 1920, "socialist" Labor Zionists created a federation of trade unions, the Histadrut, to promote Jewish labor over Palestinian labor to create an exclusively Jewish workforce. As more settlers arrived, however, the settler bourgeoisie opted to employ superexploited Palestinian workers over unionized Jewish workers. Together, these tendencies work to exclude Palestinians from higher-paying jobs while keeping Palestinians dependent on "Israeli" employment that can be revoked at any time in order to draw labor away from a weakened Palestinian economy whose means of production are being seized or destroyed by settlers.

To further dispossess Palestinians during the genocide in Gaza, "Israel" revoked the work permits of more than 140,000 Palestinian workers from both Gaza and the West Bank and took approximately 10,300 as hostages in October 2023. Early in 2024 "Israeli" Minister of Economy Nir Barkat was seen advocating filling the shortage of Palestinian labor with immigrant labor from Southeast Asia.

International recognition

Green: Recognize "Israel", Brown: Recognition withdrawn, Red: Suspended relations, Grey: Never recognized the Zionist Entity

As of December 2020, the Zionist Entity has received international recognition by 164 of the other 192 UN member states. Besides not having diplomatic relations, the Zionist Entity's sovereignty is disputed by some countries (notably, the socialist states of Cuba and People's Korea do not recognize the Zionist Entity).

Zionist ethnostate

According to whistleblower Eran Efrati (with many other ex-IOF soldiers saying the same), Zionist Entity's children are exposed to supremacist propaganda since kindergarten. IOF soldiers visit children in schools at all ages throughout the year to talk to them about the greatness of "Israel" and "Israelis", and how they are justified in seizing land from the Palestinians. These visits also serve another purpose: they reinforce the legitimacy of the IOF, so that children grow up to see it positively and, when conscripted, are proud to join and obey orders.

History of genocide against Palestine

See also: Palestinian genocide

20th century

Nakba

The United Nations accepted Resolution 194 on 29 November 1947, which divided British Palestine into a Jewish and Arab state, with Jerusalem administered directly by the UN. Zionist forces soon began an ethnic cleansing campaign and forced almost a million Palestinians off their land. During and after the 1948 Arab–"Israeli" War, over 750,000 Palestinians (75% of the population) were dispossessed and became homeless in an event known as the Nakba.

In March 1948, more than 95% of Palestinians still lived on their original land. As part of Plan Dalet, implemented by the Zionist Entity's leader David Ben-Gurion, Zionist forces and their allies attacked peaceful Palestinian villages. On 9 April 1948, the Irgun militia killed almost the entire population of the Deir Yassin village near Jerusalem. Between December 1947 and January 1949, the "Israeli" military and Zionist militias committed at least 29 massacres of Palestinians.

After the withdrawal of British troops from the city of Haifa on 21 April 1948, the Haganah, the Zionist Entity's military, rolled barrel bombs filled with dynamite and gasoline into the city and shelled it with mortars. The army played screaming noises on loudspeakers and only 4,000 Palestinians out of the original 65,000 remained in the city.

By the early 1950s, 80% of Palestine was occupied by settlers and the rest was divided into the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Six Day War

In 1967, "Israel" attacked Palestine, Syria, and Egypt and occupied the West Bank, Gaza, Sinai Peninsula, and Golan Heights within five days. Due to the Six Day War, the Zionist Entity drove 300,000 more Palestinians off their land and occupied East Jerusalem, the capital of Palestine.

21st century

• In 2008, the United Nations Human Rights council mandated a report delving into the situation between Gaza and "Israel". It found many crimes committed by the Zionist Entity against the Palestinians, including:
  • that the blockade does not exonerate the Zionist Entity from providing humanitarian aid to Gaza, which they don't do,
  • inadequate warnings against bomb strikes, including the use of white phosphorus weapons against hospitals which are not military targets,
  • indiscriminate bombing in Gaza in retaliation for attacks from Hamas,
  • violent, degrading, and arbitrary detentions of Palestinian civilians,
  • deliberate military disproportion used in retaliation.
• Over the course of seven weeks 2014, "Israel" killed over 500 Palestinian children and 850 adults in Gaza. Four boys playing at a beach in Gaza were killed by navy precision missiles, although the Zionist Entity claimed this was an "honest mistake."
• In October 2015, the Institute for Middle East Understanding shared quotes from senior Zionist Entity government officials depicting supremacist and racist statements against the Palestinian people in particular.
• The "Israeli" Defense (or Occupation) Force, the Zionist Entity's military branch, receives and executes orders to shoot children with live ammunition. It was made most apparent during the 2018 Great March of Return, during which Palestinians peacefully marched towards the fence isolating Gaza, and were fired at with live ammunition including an as-of-yet unidentified chemical agent. Children also participated in this protest, of which 46 were killed by the IDF, many of them shot by snipers. As whistleblower Eran Efrati explained, soldiers do not decide by themselves to fire live ammunition—the order has to be decided, then given out to the soldier who executes it, then relayed back to command. Therefore, these can not be the acts of lone soldiers.
• In 2019, "Israel" began an extensive facial recognition program in the West Bank. One former soldier of the Zionist Entity described it as the IDF's "secret 'Facebook for Palestinians.'"
• In 2020, "Israel" used the spyware Pegasus against six Palestinian activists. Three of them were working with human rights groups designated as terrorist organizations by the Zionist Entity.
• In August 2022, "Israel" attacked Gaza, killing at least 43 people and injuring over 300.

Politics

The "Israeli" Communist Party, part of the Hadash coalition, is the only left-wing force in "Israeli" politics, yet still it supports Zionism. It founded the Joint List in 2015 with other pro-Palestinian parties and won 15 seats in the occupation's Parliament in the 2020 election. The Islamic Ra'am party left the joint list in 2021 when it supported the ruling coalition waging war against Gaza. Center-left Zionist parties like Meretz and the "Israeli" Labor Party, which founded the Zionist Entity, are decreasing in popularity. Far-right Zionist parties include the Religious Zionist Party, the third largest party in the Knesset, and the Jewish Power party.

In the 2022 elections, a far-right religious fundamentalist coalition won 64 out of 120 seats in the Knesset. The coalition includes Netanyahu's Likud party, two right-wing religious parties in the Likud government (Shas and United Torah Judaism), the Religious Zionist Party led by Belazel Smotrich, and the Jewish Power party led by Itamar Ben-Gvir. The new "government" is very racist, sexist, and homophobic.

Pinkwashing

The Israeli government has repeatedly attempted to portray Israel as a gay-friendly utopia, as well as depicting Palestinians as homophobic barbarians, though the façade in of itself was not effective, as multiple instances of homophobia and support of homophobia from both the public and government have occurred. Despite all of the prior evidence, any Palestinian who allies with the LGBT community or is a queer/LGBT Palestinian themselves will be mocked for simply supporting Palestine while simultaneously being LGBT, with one phrase, "gays for Hamas", being a heavily used phrase by Zionists and supporters of Israel that paints such intersecting people (LGBT & Palestinian) as being contradictory and nonsensical.

Controversies

Organ harvesting

Aftonbladet, a Swedish tabloid, published an article on August 17, 2009, reporting that during the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous young men from the West Bank and Gaza Strip were taken by IOF forces, and “brought back after five days, at night, under tremendous secrecy, stitched back together after having been cut from abdomen to chin.” In the article, the families expressed fears that body parts were taken during unauthorized autopsies. Donald Boström, the articles author, tried to establish a link between these unauthorized autopsies in the 90s to a group of Jews in New Jersey who had been arrested in 2009 for money-laundering and trading in body parts.

Although this article was the first investigation into this matter by a western journalist it was also widely criticized for it's lack of evidence.

A few months later in December 2009, an interview surfaced from 2000 with Yehuda Hiss, the chief pathologist at the L. Greenberg National Institute of Forensic Medicine, revealing his admission of extracting organs from the bodies of "Israelis", Palestinians, and foreign workers without consent from their families. The Zionist Entity's health authorities corroborated Hiss's confession but alleged that such practices ceased in the 1990s, and Hiss was subsequently removed from his position but still worked at the Forensic Institute.

On December 26, 2023, the Gaza Media Office concluded that the Zionist Entity stole organs after an investigation into 80 Palestinian bodies that were handed over to Palestinian authorities in Gaza at the Karam Abu Salem border crossing. Gaza Media Office further noted that this was not the first time the Zionist Entity committed these crimes. They cited previous instances where the IOF had desecrated graves in Jabalia, stole corpses, and had retained and continue to retain numerous bodies taken from the Gaza Strip.

In addition to these reports, Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor cited remarks by medical professionals in Gaza, “who found that vital organs, such as livers, kidneys, hearts, cochleae and corneas were missing in the bodies released by [the Zionist Entity].” Medical staff further noted that the Zionist Entity dug up and seized bodies from a mass grave located in the courtyard of al-Shifa hospital.

Gaza Media Office along with Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is calling for an independent international investigation into this issue.

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History lies at the core of every conflict. A true and unbiased understanding of the past offers the possibility of peace. The distortion or manipulation of history, in contrast, will only sow disaster. As the example of the Israel-Palestine conflict shows, historical disinformation, even of the most recent past, can do tremendous harm. This willful misunderstanding of history can promote oppression and protect a regime of colonization and occupation. It is not surprising, therefore, that policies of disinformation and distortion continue to the present and play an important part in perpetuating the conflict, leaving very little hope for the future.

— Ilan Pappé. (2017). Ten Myths About Israel

Zionists argue that Jews have a deep historical connection to the land of Israel, based on their ancient presence in the region. They emphasize the significance of Jerusalem as a religious and cultural center for Jews throughout history. They use this argument as justification for the establishment of Israel as a Jewish state.

In Israel’s own Declaration of Independence this is clearly stated:

The Land of Israel was the birthplace of the Jewish people. … After being forcibly exiled from their land, the people kept faith with it throughout their Dispersion and never ceased to pray and hope for their return to it and for the restoration in it of their political freedom. … Jews strove in every successive generation to re-establish themselves in their ancient homeland. …

ACCORDINGLY WE … BY VIRTUE OF OUR NATURAL AND HISTORIC RIGHT … HEREBY DECLARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF A JEWISH STATE IN ERETZ-ISRAEL

This declaration, however, conveniently ignored the issue of the indigenous Palestinian population. So what happened? In the Arab world it is now know as the Nakba (lit. catastrophe, in Arabic). One particularly emblematic example of the Nakba was this:

In April 1948, Lehi and Irgun (Zionist paramilitary groups), headed by Menachim Begin, attacked Deir Yassin-- a village of 700 Palestinians-- ultimately killing between 100 and 120 villagers in what later became known as the Deir Yassin Massacre. The mastermind behind this attack, who would later be elected Prime Minister of Israel in 1977, justified the attack:

Arabs throughout the country, induced to believe wild tales of ‘Irgun butchery,’ were seized with limitless panic and started to flee for their lives. This mass flight soon developed into a maddened, uncontrollable stampede. The political and economic significance of this development can hardly be overestimated.

— Menachim Begin. (1951). The Revolt

The painful irony of this argument (ancestral roots) combined with this approach (ethnic cleansing), however, lies in the shared ancestry between Jews and Palestinians, whose roots can both be traced back to common ancestors. Both peoples have historical connections to the land of Palestine, making it a place of shared heritage rather than exclusive entitlement. The underlying assumption that the formation of Israel represents a return of Jews to the rightful land of their ancestors is used to justify the displacement and dispossession of Palestinians, who have the very same roots!

The Timeline

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a complex and protracted dispute rooted in historical, political, and territorial factors. This timeline aims to provide a chronological overview of key events, starting from the late 19th century to the present day, highlighting significant developments, conflicts, and diplomatic efforts that have shaped the ongoing conflict. From the early waves of Jewish immigration to Palestine, through the British Mandate period, the Arab-Israeli wars, peace initiatives, and the persistent struggle for self-determination, this timeline seeks to provide a historical context to the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Israel: A Timeline

• 1840: The Damascus Affair, a case of anti-Semitic persecution in Damascus, Syria. This incident sparks discussions among European Jews about establishing a Jewish homeland.
• 1862: Moses Hess, a Jewish philosopher, publishes “Rome and Jerusalem,” advocating for a Jewish socialist state in Palestine.
• 1882: The First Aliyah begins, marking the first significant wave of Jewish immigration to Palestine, which increases the Jewish population from 3% to 8% of the total population.
• 1896: Theodor Herzl, a leading Zionist, publishes The Jewish State, one of the most important texts of modern Zionism, which argues that the best way to avoid antisemitism in Europe is to create an independent Jewish state, and encourages Jews to purchase land in Palestine, although the possibility of a Jewish state in Argentina is also considered.
• 1897: The First Zionist Congress is held in Basel, Switzerland, and establishes the World Zionist Organization, led by Herzl.
• 1914-1918: World War I breaks out, and the Ottoman Empire (which had controlled Palestine for hundreds of years) aligns with Germany and the Central Powers.
• 1916: With the assent of the Russian Empire and Italy, the United Kingdom and France agree to divide the Ottoman Empire into spheres of influence after the war, according to the Sykes–Picot Agreement.
• 1916: The British assure Sharif Hussein of Arab independence in the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence in exchange for support against the Ottomans.
• 1916-1918: The Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire-- led by Hussein’s forces in alliance with the British, Arab forces achieve military successes against the Ottomans in the Arabian Peninsula.
• 1917: The Balfour Declaration is issued to Lord Rothschild, expressing British support for the establishment of a Jewish homeland in Palestine.
• 1917: Shortly after the Russian revolution, the Bolsheviks release a copy of the Sykes–Picot Agreement (as well as other treaties). Following this revelation, “the British [are] embarrassed, the Arabs dismayed and the Turks delighted”. The agreement led to a legacy of resentment in the region, among Arabs in particular, but also among Kurds who were denied an independent state.
• 1918: WW1 ends in defeat for the Ottoman empire.
• 1919: The Paris Peace Conference is held, leading to the establishment of the League of Nations and the mandate system.
• 1919: Hussein refuses to ratify the Treaty of Versailles in protest of the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of British and French mandates in Syria, Iraq, and Palestine. The failure to deliver independence as promised is understood by the Arabs as an act of betrayal and a violation of the national right to self-determination for Arab peoples, which the McMahon-Hussein Correspondence had promised.
• 1920: The San Remo conference grants Britain a mandate over Palestine, creating Mandatory Palestine. The mandate includes a commitment to implement the Balfour Declaration.
• 1922: The League of Nations approves the British Mandate for Palestine, which incorporates the Balfour Declaration.
• 1924: After his continued refusal to ratify the Treaty of Versailles, the British switch their support from Hussein to Ibn Saud, who then conquers Hussein’s kingdom, and eventually forms Saudi Arabia in 1932.
• 1920s-1930s: Jewish immigration to Palestine increases dramatically, bringing the Jewish population up to over 30% of the total.
• 1936-1939: The Arab Revolt in Palestine takes place, led by Palestinians protesting the British administration of the Palestine Mandate and demanding Arab independence and the end of the policy of open-ended Jewish immigration and land purchases with the stated goal of establishing a “Jewish National Home”.
• 1941-1945: The Holocaust forces many more European Jews to flee to British Palestine and galvanizes international support for a Jewish state.
• 1944-1948: The White Paper of 1939 outlines new British policies to place restrictions on Jewish immigration and land purchases, and declares the intention of giving independence to Palestine, with an Arab majority, within ten years. In response, a successful paramilitary campaign is carried out by Zionist underground groups against British rule in Mandatory Palestine.
• 1947: The U.N. proposes a Partition Plan for separate states. The proposed allocation of territory for the Jewish and Arab states is approximately 56% and 43%, respectively, with Jerusalem to be placed under international administration. The plan is accepted by Jewish leaders but rejected by Arab leaders, who view it as unjust and unfair.
• 1947: Following the UN partition plan, violence escalates between Jewish and Arab communities in Mandatory Palestine into civil war. Both sides engage in armed conflicts, leading to widespread displacement and casualties.
• 1948: On May 14, 1948, the Jewish leadership, led by David Ben-Gurion, declare the establishment of the State of Israel. The declaration is made shortly before the expiration of the British mandate. The newly established state is recognized by some countries, but not by the surrounding Arab nations, who attack.
• 1948: Following the failure of the First Arab–Israeli War to secure Arab independence in the region, Israel’s territory expands to approximately 78% of Mandatory Palestine. The remaining territories are controlled by Jordan (West Bank, including East Jerusalem) and Egypt (Gaza Strip). In the course of this conflict, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people are forced to leave. (Known as the Nakba. Villages were destroyed, wells were poisoned, and people were massacred.
• 1967: Following the Six-Day War, Israel gains control over several territories that were previously under the administration of other entities. These territories include the West Bank (including East Jerusalem), the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights. As a result of the territorial gains made during the Six-Day War, Israel comes to occupy and control a significantly larger percentage of Mandatory Palestine than before the war.
• 1978: Egypt agrees to The Camp David Accords with Israel. This sees the Sinai Peninsula returned to Egypt, and a general cooling of tensions between Israel and the Arab world. This also marks a shift away from conflict between Israel and neighbouring Arab states towards internal conflict between Israel and the Palestinian population. Hard-liners oppose this, and the Egyptian president who ratified them is assassinated in 1981.
• 1987-1993: Palestinians, collectively frustrated by Israel’s continued military occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, launch the First Intifada.
• 1993: The Oslo Accords, which have been characterized as “the Palestinian Versailles”, are signed. These allow the Palestinians to have limited self-rule in specific, fragmented locations within the West Bank. Hard-liners on both sides oppose these accords, and a far-right Israeli assassinates the Israeli Prime Minister in 1995.
• 2000-2005: The Second Intifada takes place, resulting in increased violence and tensions between the Palestinians and the Israelis (note to matt double check). Israel shifts towards an overt, fascist police state to enforce apartheid rule instead of pursuing peace.
• 2005: Hamas takes control of the Gaza strip, breaking with the Palestinian Authority which controls the West Bank. Israel withdraws its settlements from the Gaza Strip and begins a crippling blockade which continues to this day.
• 2014: The Gaza War takes place, a major conflict between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

A Settler-Colonial Project from Inception

The origin of Zionism (the political movement advocating for a Jewish homeland in Palestine) is deeply intertwined with the era of European colonialism. Early Zionists such as Theodor Herzl were inspired by-- and sought support from-- European colonialists and Powers. The Zionist plan for Palestine was structured to follow the same colonial model, with all the oppressive baggage that this entailed. In practice, Israel has all the hallmarks of a Settler-Colonial state, and has even engaged in apartheid practices.

Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, was inspired by European Colonialism. He was passionate about the Zionist project of founding a Jewish state, and even appealed to Cecil Rhodes, an infamous English colonialist, for support in this colonial endeavour:

You are being invited to help make history. That cannot frighten you, nor will you laugh at it. It is not in your accustomed line; it doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor, not Englishmen, but Jews. But had this been on your path, you would have done it by now. How, then, do I happen to turn to you, since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.

— Theodor Herzl. (1902). Letter to Cecil Rhodes

Herzl also wrote in his famous pamphlet about the colonial tasks that would be undertaken:

Should the Powers declare themselves willing to admit our sovereignty over a neutral piece of land, then the Society will enter into negotiations for the possession of this land. Here two territories come under consideration, Palestine and Argentine. In both countries important experiments in colonization have been made, though on the mistaken principle of a gradual infiltration of Jews. An infiltration is bound to end badly. It continues till the inevitable moment when the native population feels itself threatened, and forces the Government to stop a further influx of Jews. Immigration is consequently futile unless we have the sovereign right to continue such immigration…

The Jewish Company is partly modeled on the lines of a great land-acquisition company. It might be called a Jewish Chartered Company, though it cannot exercise sovereign power, and has other than purely colonial tasks.

— Theodor Herzl. (1896). The Jewish State

Israel also occupies a very important geopolitical location in the world. Israel is a bottleneck on land, and a land bridge between the Mediterranean Sea and the Arabian Sea (via the Red Sea). Herzl appealed to its central location:

It is more and more to the interest of the civilized nations and of civilization in general that a cultural station be established on the shortest road to Asia. Palestine is this station and we Jews are the bearers of culture who are ready to give our property and our lives to bring about its creation.

— Theodor Herzl. (1897). Address to the First Zionist Congress

As the Zionist project developed, the colonial character was undeniable:

The colonization process revealed an even more telling feature of the nature of Zionism. The names and purposes of the early colonization instruments read as follows: “The Jewish Colonial Trust” (1898), the “Colonization Commission” (1898), the “Palestine Land Development Company.” From the start the Zionist colonists sought to acquire lands in strategic locations, evict the Arab peasants and boycott Arab labour, all of which were requirements closely related with the essence of Zionism, the creation of a Jewish nation on “purely” Jewish land, as Jewish as England was English to use the famous Zionist expression…

What about the fate of the natives? “We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our own country… The property owners will come to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.”

But before spiriting them away Herzl had some jobs for the local population: “If we move into a region where there are wild animals to which the Jews are not accustomed - big snakes, etc… I shall use the natives, prior to giving them employment in the transit countries, for the extermination of the animals.”

— Abdul-Wahab Kayyali. (1977). Zionism and Imperialism: The Historical Origins

Nakba and Illegal Settlements

Following the founding of the state of Israel in 1948, the ensuing expulsion of Palestinians became known as the Nakba (“Catastrophe” in Arabic).

The Palestinians were driven out of their homeland and their properties, homes were taken away from them, and they were banished and displaced all over the world to face all kinds of suffering and woes. More than three quarters of historic Palestine were occupied in the Nakba of 1948. Moreover, 531 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and 85% of the Palestinian population were banished and displaced…

Israelis controlled 774 towns and villages during the Nakba. They destroyed 531 Palestinian towns and villages. Israeli forces atrocities also include more than 70 massacres against Palestinians killing 15,000 Palestinians during Nakba time…

Nakba in literary terms is expressive of natural catastrophes such as earthquakes, volcanoes, and hurricanes. However, the Nakba of Palestine is an ethnic cleansing process as well as destruction and banishment of an unarmed nation to be replaced by another nation.

— Luay Shabaneh. (2008).

Around 750,000 Palestinian Arabs out of the 900,000 who lived in the territories that became Israel fled or were expelled from their homes. Wells were poisoned to prevent their return. Even after the state of Israel was formally established, it continued to expand into Palestinian land, displacing the Palestinian people and creating illegal settlements to this day.

The Security Council reaffirmed this afternoon that Israel’s establishment of settlements in Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, had no legal validity, constituting a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders.

— UN Security Council. (2016). Israel’s Settlements Have No Legal Validity, Constitute Flagrant Violation of International Law, Security Council Reaffirms

These policies and practices have predictable outcomes:

Since the occupation first began in June 1967, Israel’s ruthless policies of land confiscation, illegal settlement and dispossession, coupled with rampant discrimination, have inflicted immense suffering on Palestinians, depriving them of their basic rights.

Israel’s military rule disrupts every aspect of daily life in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It continues to affect whether, when and how Palestinians can travel to work or school, go abroad, visit their relatives, earn a living, attend a protest, access their farmland, or even access electricity or a clean water supply. It means daily humiliation, fear and oppression. People’s entire lives are effectively held hostage by Israel.

— Amnesty International. (2017). Israel’s Occupation: 50 Years of Dispossession

These illegal settlements also violate the Geneva Convention:

Israel’s policy of settling its civilians in occupied Palestinian territory and displacing the local population contravenes fundamental rules of international humanitarian law.

Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention states: “The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” It also prohibits the “individual or mass forcible transfers, as well as deportations of protected persons from occupied territory”.

— Amnesty International. (2019). Chapter 3: Israeli Settlements and International Law

Apartheid

Israel’s inspiration from European colonialism also clearly laid the foundation for an apartheid regime. The word “apartheid” is a term derived from the Afrikaans language which means “separateness”. Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, former South African Prime Minister, is infamously credited with being the principal architect of apartheid. In 1961, when the UN (including Israel) voted to condemn South Africa for its apartheid policies, Verwoerd said: “Israel is not consistent in its new anti-apartheid attitude … they took Israel away from the Arabs after the Arabs lived there for a thousand years. In that, I agree with them. Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state.”

Israeli authorities must be held accountable for committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians, Amnesty International said today in a damning new report. The investigation details how Israel enforces a system of oppression and domination against the Palestinian people wherever it has control over their rights. This includes Palestinians living in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), as well as displaced refugees in other countries.

— Amnesty International. (2022). Israel’s apartheid against Palestinians: a cruel system of domination and a crime against humanity

Across these areas and in most aspects of life, Israeli authorities methodically privilege Jewish Israelis and discriminate against Palestinians. Laws, policies, and statements by leading Israeli officials make plain that the objective of maintaining Jewish Israeli control over demographics, political power, and land has long guided government policy. In pursuit of this goal, authorities have dispossessed, confined, forcibly separated, and subjugated Palestinians by virtue of their identity to varying degrees of intensity. In certain areas, as described in this report, these deprivations are so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution.

— Human Rights Watch. (2021). A Threshold Crossed: Israeli Authorities and the Crimes of Apartheid and Persecution

A UN expert called today on the international community to accept and adopt the findings in his current report, echoing recent findings by Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations, that apartheid is being practiced by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory.

“There is today in the Palestinian territory occupied by Israel since 1967 a deeply discriminatory dual legal and political system that privileges the 700,000 Israeli Jewish settlers living in the 300 illegal Israeli settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank,” said Michael Lynk, the UN Special Rapporteur for the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967.

— Israel’s 55-year occupation of Palestinian Territory is apartheid – UN human rights expert UNHCR (2022)

Citing inhumane acts, arbitrary and extra-judicial killings, torture, the denial of fundamental rights, an abysmal child mortality rate, collective punishment, an abusive military court system, and home demolitions, [Michael] Lynk said the international community bears much responsibility for the present situation.

— Israel’s occupation of Palestinian Territory is ‘apartheid’: UN rights expert UN News (2022)

US Support

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. foreign aid: as of February 2022, the United States had provided Israel US$150 billion (non-inflation-adjusted) in bilateral assistance. In 1999, the US government signed a Memorandum of Understanding which committed to providing Israel with at least US$2.67 billion in military aid annually, for the following ten years; in 2009, the annual amount was raised to US$3 billion; and in 2019, the amount was raised again, now standing at a minimum of US$3.8 billion that the US is committed to providing Israel each year. Former Senator Jesse Helms, who was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, referred to Israel as “America’s aircraft carrier in the Middle East”.

The United States is also Israel’s largest trading partner, with two-way trade totalling $36 billion in 2013 and nearly $50 billion by 2023.

In addition to financial and military aid, the United States also provides large-scale political support to Israel, having used its United Nations Security Council veto power 42 times against resolutions condemning Israel, out of a total of 83 times in which its veto has ever been used. Between 1991 and 2011, out of the 24 vetoes invoked by the United States, 15 were used to protect Israel. The United States’ readiness to stand on behalf of Israel has been linked to the influence of pro-Israeli lobbies in U.S. politics, most notably AIPAC.

Another source of the Lobby’s power is its use of pro-Israel congressional staffers. As Morris Amitay, a former head of AIPAC, once admitted, ‘there are a lot of guys at the working level up here’ – on Capitol Hill – ‘who happen to be Jewish, who are willing … to look at certain issues in terms of their Jewishness … These are all guys who are in a position to make the decision in these areas for those senators … You can get an awful lot done just at the staff level.’

AIPAC itself, however, forms the core of the Lobby’s influence in Congress. Its success is due to its ability to reward legislators and congressional candidates who support its agenda, and to punish those who challenge it. Money is critical to US elections (as the scandal over the lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s shady dealings reminds us), and AIPAC makes sure that its friends get strong financial support from the many pro-Israel political action committees. Anyone who is seen as hostile to Israel can be sure that AIPAC will direct campaign contributions to his or her political opponents. AIPAC also organises letter-writing campaigns and encourages newspaper editors to endorse pro-Israel candidates…

The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that US policy towards Israel is not debated there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world. In other words, one of the three main branches of the government is firmly committed to supporting Israel. As one former Democratic senator, Ernest Hollings, noted on leaving office, ‘you can’t have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here.’

— John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. (2006). The Israel Lobby

Christian Zionism

Since the 1940s, Christian Zionism has become a global movement with a vast network of organizations. Both American and global Christian Zionism have promoted a theological, political, and cultural transformation in Christian attitudes toward Jews and Israel which has shaped US-Israel diplomacy and Jewish-Christian relations around the globe.

— “Christian Zionism, the Religious Right, and Donald Trump: History’s Role in Contemporary Politics”, Harvard Kennedy School: ASH Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation

Christian Zionists interpret certain biblical passages, particularly from the Old Testament, as predicting the return of Jews to the Promised Land and the restoration of Israel as a nation. They view the modern State of Israel as a fulfillment of these prophecies and consider it a necessary step towards the Second Coming of Christ.

US Christian Zionism may be characterized as a theo-political movement stemming from American Conservative Evangelicalism, which advocates that at the end of the time Christ will come to rule the world for thousand years before the Last Judgment and that He will do so centred on Greater Israel and focused on Jerusalem. Although difficult to assess, the current proportion of Christian Zionists among the 100-130 million of American Evangelicals (the population of United States is 293 million) could be estimated around 20-25%. In light of an Eschatological fulfilment, Christian Zionist congregations and lobbies, even more dedicated than the majority of Jewish interest groups, provide vast political, financial and practical support to the modern State of Israel.

— Carlo Aldrovandi. (2009). Forcing the End Times: US Christian Zionism and Israel

The British, in particular, viewed the territory of Palestine as strategically significant due to its proximity to the Suez Canal and its potential as a route to India, one of their most prized colonial possessions. Additionally, there were British officials and politicians, including those influenced by Christian Zionism, who held a strong belief in the historical and religious significance of Palestine to the Jewish people.

Irrespective of its genuine strategic objectives or its complex historical consequences, the campaign in Palestine during the first world war was seen by the British government as an invaluable exercise in propaganda. Keen to capitalize on the romantic appeal of victory in the Holy Land, British propagandists repeatedly alluded to Richard Coeur de Lion’s failure to win Jerusalem, thus generating the widely disseminated image of the 1917-18 Palestine campaign as the ‘Last’ or the ‘New’ Crusade. This representation, in turn, with its anti-Moslem overtones, introduced complicated problems for the British propaganda apparatus, to the point (demonstrated here through an array of official documentation, press accounts and popular works) of becoming enmeshed in a hopeless web of contradictory directives.

— Eitan Bar-Yosef. (2001). The Last Crusade? British Propaganda and the Palestine Campaign, 1917-18

The British refusal to grant independence to the Arabs after the Arab Uprising against the Ottoman Empire in WWI can be attributed to the prevailing colonial mindset of the time (which led the British to prioritize their own strategic and geopolitical interests over the promises made to the Arabs) and the appeal of controlling a geopolitically and Biblically significant territory. The desire to secure their own interests ultimately outweighed their commitment to honoring their promises to the Arabs.

Weaponizing Anti-Anti-Semitism

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) are two prominent organizations that advocate for Israel and combat antisemitism. While their primary objectives are to support Israel’s interests and protect Jewish communities from discrimination, there have been instances where accusations of antisemitism have been used to stifle legitimate criticism of Israeli policies. It is important to note that not all criticism of Israel is inherently antisemitic, and it is crucial to differentiate between legitimate criticism and actual instances of prejudice.

However, Zionist organizations have weaponized the accusation of “antisemitism” to silence criticism of Israel in Western Liberal Democracies. Anyone who is critical of Israel is labeled an Anti-Zionist, and therefore, an antisemite.

The ADL makes the following definitions:

   Zionism:

Zionism is the movement for the self-determination and statehood for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. The vast majority of Jews around the world feel a connection or kinship with Israel, whether or not they explicitly identify as Zionists, and regardless of their opinions on the policies of the Israeli government.

Anti-Zionism:

Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism, the movement for the self-determination and statehood of the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland, the land of Israel. Anti-Zionism is often expressed, explicitly or implicitly in the rejection of Jewish nationhood and the right to self-determination; the vilification of individuals and groups associated with Zionism; and the downplaying or negation of the historic and spiritual Jewish connection to the land of Israel.

Anti-Zionism is distinct from criticism of the policies or actions of the government of Israel, or critiques of specific policies of the pre-state Zionist movement, in that it attacks the foundational legitimacy of Jewish statehood.

Anti-Zionism is antisemitic, in intent or effect, as it invokes anti-Jewish tropes, is used to disenfranchise, demonize, disparage, or punish all Jews and/or those who feel a connection to Israel, equates Zionism with Nazism and other genocidal regimes, and renders Jews less worthy of sovereignty and nationhood than other peoples and states.

Despite theoretically allowing room for criticism of specific policies, any general criticism of Israel is interpreted through this lens as antisemitic, and the critic is dismissed as a bigot and silenced. Politicians, particularly in the West, regularly get into trouble for criticizing Israel. There have been countless examples of progressive politicians being forced to publicly apologize after criticizing Israel.

Criticism of Israel, this way, is manipulated and distorted into claims of antisemitism as a means of silencing dissenting voices and discouraging open discussion. This tactic involves conflating legitimate criticism of Israel and Israeli policies with prejudice against Jewish people, thereby undermining the credibility of those raising concerns. By falsely equating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, as the ADL does, individuals and organizations can casually delegitimize valid perspectives and stifle debate on this contentious issue. This manipulation not only harms free speech and the ability to engage in constructive dialogue, but also trivializes the seriousness of true anti-Semitism, diverting attention away from genuine instances of discrimination. It is crucial to distinguish between criticism of Israel and Israeli policies and true antisemitism.

Further reading

• Palestinian resistance reading list
• All library works about Palestine
• Ten Myths About Israel
• https://remix.aljazeera.com/aje/PalestineRemix/maps_main.html