Discussion on the fondamentals of zionism and Israel

[Tararamtamtam]

Many fondamental issues keep recuring in any debate involving the israelo-palestinian conflict... These occur in bits and pieces here and there, and are rarely discussed indepandantly but rather in association with other events, topics, context, ect.

So I'm creating this thread to concentrate some of those core issues... I will choose only issues related to fondamentals (historic, idelogical, social, religious, ect.) of zionism and Israel, mainly stretching from the end of the 19th century up to the actual creation of Israel in 1948. All contemporary issues and event post-1948 are already well discussed in other topics... I want here to focus on an understanding of things that are past, to understand the present...



- What is zionism? What context (political, social, ideological, ect.) allowed for the emergence of such a movement? What are the differents conceptions of zionism? (secular, religious, messianique, ect.)

-What other alternative to the zionist movement did the jews have? What solution did the jews have, other than the creation of their own state, to gain safety, considering the centuries of more or less persistant persecution that was directed towards them. On a side (religious) note, are the jews an ethnicly/culturally united people, recognizable as such?

- In line with that, what was the role of the international community in the creation of Israel? Was it a matter of guilt, from the part of europeen country which saw the genocide happening without much reaction? Or were there other interests ar work? Who were the actors who elaborated the treaty, and what was their role? Was the arab point of view sufficiantly expressed, during the discussion that led to the treaty? Was it eventually fair for both parties?

- Did the application of zionism necessarily mean the expulsion of the arab population? If the partition plan of 1948 was accepted by the arabs, what would have happened? Would Israel have stayed as it is, limited to the territories designated by the treaty? Why was it categorically refused, with no space left for negociation?

- What context and events forbid the option of a one state solution? How were the relations between the arab and jewish populations before the creation of Israel? How did the situation evolve, from the first jewish emigrations of the 19th century, to the climax of 1948?

- What did actually happen to the jews of the middle-east? Was their exodus truly comparable to that of the palestinians, as israelis claim?

- Could the palestinians be considered, AT THAT TIME, a people distinct of the arab populations surronding them, mainly jordanian? Was Palestine truly a "land without a people", or a largely populated and developped land? To what extent?


That's all I can think of right now...


If you have other issues of interest, it would interesting to add them also to the discussion...

Please, try to be as constructive as possible... The topic at hand is naturally tense, so let's make an effort to understand the issues without the understand of which, any discussion on the following and contemporary israelo-palestinian conflict will be flawed...



Thank you for your participation...

[tae]

Thank you for the thread.
I would like to add this timetable just as a reminder of the sequence of events.


Brief History of Palestine

3rd millennium BC :
The Canaanites were the earliest known inhabitants of Palestine. They became urbanized and lived in city-states, one of which was Jericho. They developed an alphabet. Palestine's location at the center of routes linking three continents made it the meeting place for religious and cultural influences from Egypt, Syria, Mesopotamia, and Asia Minor. It was also the natural battleground for the great powers of the region and subject to domination by adjacent empires, beginning with Egypt in the 3d millennium BC.

2nd millennium BC :
Egyptian hegemony and Canaanite autonomy were constantly challenged by such ethnically diverse invaders as the Amorites, Hittites, and Hurrians. These invaders, however, were defeated by the Egyptians and absorbed by the Canaanites, who at that time may have numbered about 200000.

14th century BC :
Egyptian power began to weaken, new invaders appeared: the Hebrews, a group of Semitic tribes from Mesopotamia, and the Philistines (after whom the country was later named), an Aegean people of Indo-European stock.

1230 BC :
Joshua conquered parts of Palestine. The conquerors settled in the hill country, but they were unable to conquer all of Palestine.

1125 BC :
The Israelites, a confederation of Hebrew tribes, finally defeated the Canaanites but found the struggle with the Philistines more difficult . Philistines had established an independent state on the southern coast of Palestine and controlled the Canaanite town of Jerusalem.

1050 BC :
Philistines with there superior in military organization and using iron weapons, they severely defeated the Israelites about 1050 BC .

1000 BC :
David, Israel's great king, finally defeated the Philistines, and they eventually assimilated with the Canaanites . The unity of Israel and the feebleness of adjacent empires enabled David to establish a large independent state, with its capital at Jerusalem.

922 BC :
Under David's son and successor, Solomon, Israel enjoyed peace and prosperity , but at his death in 922 BC the kingdom was divided into Israel in the north and Judah in the south .

722-721 BC :
When nearby empires resumed their expansion, the divided Israelites could no longer maintain their independence . Israel fell to Assyria.

586 BC :
Judah was conquered by Babylonia, which destroyed Jerusalem and exiled most of the Jews living there. Nebuchadnezzar entered Jerusalem. The Temple was sacked and set fire to, and razed to the ground. The Royal Palace and all the great houses were destroyed, the population carried off in chains to Babylon. And they lamented on their long march into exile.

539 BC :
Cyrus the Great of Persia conquered Babylonia and he permitted the Jews to return to Judea, a district of Palestine. Under Persian rule the Jews were allowed considerable autonomy. They rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem and codified the Mosaic law, the Torah, which became the code of social life and religious observance. The Jews were bound to a universal God.

333 BC :
Persian domination of Palestine was replaced by Greek rule when Alexander the Great of Macedonia took the region. Alexander's successors, the Ptolemies of Egypt and the Seleucids of Syria , continued to rule the country . The Seleucids tried to impose Hellenistic (Greek) culture and religion on the population.

141-63 BC :
Jews revolted under the Maccabees and set up an independent state.

132-35 BC :
Jews revolts erupted, numerous Jews were killed, many were sold into slavery, and the rest were not allowed to visit Jerusalem. Judea was renamed Syria Palaistina.

63 BC :
Jerusalem was overrun by Rome. Herod was appointed King of Judea. He slaughtered the last of the Hasmoneans and ordered a lavish restoration and extension of the Second Temple. A period of great civil disorder followed with strife between pacifists and Zealots, and riots against the Roman authorities.

37-4 BC :
During the rule of King Herod the Great Jesus of Nazareth, peace be upon him was born. And years after, he began his teaching mission. His attempts to call people back to the pure teachings of Abraham and Moses were judged subversive by the authorities. He was tried and sentenced to death; "yet they did not slay him but only a likeness that was shown to them."

70 AD :
Titus of Rome laid siege to Jerusalem. The fiercely defended Temple eventually fell, and with it the whole city. Seeking a complete and enduring victory, Titus ordered the total destruction of the Herodian Temple. A new city named Aelia was built by the Romans on the ruins of Jerusalem, and a temple dedicated to Jupitor raised up.

313 AD :
Palestine received special attention when the Roman emperor Constantine I legalized Christianity. His mother, Helena, visited Jerusalem, and Palestine, as the Holy Land, became a focus of Christian pilgrimage. A golden age of prosperity, security, and culture followed. Most of the population became Hellenized and Christianized .

324 AD :
Constantine of Byzantium marched on Aelia. He rebuilt the city walls and commissioned the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and opened the city for Christian pilgrimage.

29-614 AD :
Byzantine (Roman) rule was interrupted , however , by a brief Persian occupation and ended altogether when Muslim Arab armies invaded Palestine and captured Jerusalem in AD 638 .

638 AD :
The Arab conquest began 1300 years of Muslim presence in what then became known as Filastin. Eager to be rid of their Byzantine overlords and aware of their shared heritage with the Arabs, the descendants of Ishmael, as well as the Muslims reputation for mercy and compassion in victory, the people of Jerusalem handed over the city after a brief siege. They made only one condition, That the terms of their surrender be negotiated directly with the Khalif 'Umar in person. 'Umar entered Jerusalem on foot. There was no bloodshed. There were no massacres. Those who wanted to leave were allowed to, with all their goods. Those who wanted to stay were guarantee protection for their lives, their property and places of worship.
Palestine was holy to Muslims because the Prophet Muhammad had designated Jerusalem as the first qibla (the direction Muslims face when praying) and because he was believed to have ascended on a night journey to heaven from the the old city of Jerusalem (al-Aqsa Mosque today) , where the Dome of the Rock was later built. Jerusalem became the third holiest city of Islam. The Muslim rulers did not force their religion on the Palestinians, and more than a century passed before the majority converted to Islam. The remaining Christians and Jews were considered People of the Book. They were allowed autonomous control in their communities and guaranteed security and freedom of worship. Such tolerance was rare in the history of religion . Most Palestinians also adopted Arabic and Islamic culture. Palestine benefited from the empires trade and from its religious significance during the first Muslim dynasty, the Umayyads of Damascus.

750 AD :
The power shifted to Baghdad with the Abbasids, Palestine became neglected. It suffered unrest and successive domination by Seljuks, Fatimids, and European Crusaders. It shared, however, in the glory of Muslim civilization, when the Muslim world enjoyed a golden age of science, art, philosophy, and literature. Muslims preserved Greek learning and broke new ground in several fields, all of which later contributed to the Renaissance in Europe. Like the rest of the empire, however, Palestine under the Mamelukes gradually stagnated and declined.

1517 AD :
The Ottoman Turks of Asia Minor defeated the Mamelukes, with few interruptions, ruled Palestine until the winter of 1917-18. The country was divided into several districts (sanjaks), such as that of Jerusalem. The administration of the districts was placed largely in the hands of Arab Palestinians, who were descendants of the Canaanites. The Christian and Jewish communities, however, were allowed a large measure of autonomy. Palestine shared in the glory of the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century, but declined again when the empire began to decline in the 17th century.

1831-1840 AD :
Muhammad Ali, the modernizing viceroy of Egypt, expanded his rule to Palestine . His policies modified the feudal order, increased agriculture, and improved education.

1840:
The Ottoman Empire reasserted its authority, instituting its own reforms .

1845:
Jews in Palestine were 12,000 increased to 85,000 by 1914. All people in Palestine were Arabic Muslims and Christians.

1897:
Tthe first Zionist Congress held Basle, Switzerland, issued the Basle program on the colonization of Palestine.

1904:
The Fourth Zionist Congress decided to establish a national home for Jews in Argentina.

1906:
The Zionist congress decided the Jewish homeland should be Palestine.

1914:
With the outbreak of World War I, Britain promised the independence of Arab lands under Ottoman rule, including Palestine, in return for Arab support against Turkey which had entered the war on the side of Germany.

1916:
Britain and France signed the Sykes-Picot Agreement, which divided the Arab region into zones of influence. Lebanon and Syria were assigned to France, Jordan and Iraq to Britain and Palestine was to be internationalized.

1917:
The British government issued the Balfour Declaration on November 2, in the form of a letter to a British Zionist leader from the foreign secretary Arthur J. Balfour prmissing him the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine.

1917-1918:
Aided by the Arabs, the British captured Palestine from the Ottoman Turks. The Arabs revolted against the Turks because the British had promised them, in correspondence with Shareef Husein ibn Ali of Mecca, the independence of their countries after the war. Britain, however, also made other, conflicting commitments in the secret Sykes-Picot agreement with France and Russia (1916), it promised to divide and rule the region with its allies. In a third agreement, the Balfour Declaration of 1917, Britain promised the Jews a Jewish "national home" in Palestine .

1918:
After WW I ended, Jews began to migrate to Palestine, which was set a side as a British mandate with the approval of the League of Nations in 1922. Large-scale Jewish settlement and extensive Zionist agricultural and industrial enterprises in Palestine began during the British mandatory period, which lasted until 1948.

1919:
The Palestinians convened their first National Conference and expressed their opposition to the Balfour Declaration.

1920:
The San Remo Conference granted Britain a mandate over Palestine. and two years later Palestine was effectively under British administration. Sir Herbert Samuel, a declared Zionist, was sent as Britain's first High Commissioner to Palestine.

1922:
The Council of the League of Nations issued a Mandate for Palestine.

1929:
Large-scale attacks on Jews by Arabs rocked Jerusalem. Palestinians killed 133 Jews and suffered 116 deaths. Sparked by a dispute over use of the Western Wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque ( this site is sacred to Muslims, but Jews claimed it is the remaining of jews temple all studies shows clearly that the wall is from the Islamic ages and it is part of al-Aqsa Mosque). But the roots of the conflict lay deeper in Arab fears of the Zionist movement which aimed to make at least part of British-administered Palestine a Jewish state.

1936:
The Palestinians held a six-month General Strike to protest against the confiscation of land and Jewish immigration.

1937:
Peel Commission, headed by Lord Robert Peel, issued a report. Basically, the commission concluded, the mandate in Palestine was unworkable There was no hope of any cooperative national entity there that included both Arabs and Jews. The commission went on to recommend the partition of Palestine into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and a neutral sacred-site state to be administered by Britain.

1939:
The British government published a White Paper restricting Jewish immigration and offering independence for Palestine within ten years. This was rejected by the Zionists, who then organized terrorist groups and launched a bloody campaign against the British and the Palestinians.

1947:
Great Britain decided to leave Palestine and called on the United Nations (UN) to make recommendations. In response, the UN convened its first special session and on November 29, 1947, it adopted a plan calling for partition of Palestine into Jewish and Arab states, with Jerusalem as an international zone under UN jurisdiction.

1947:
Arab protests against partition erupted in violence, with attacks on Jewish settlements in retalation to the attacks of Jews terrorist groups to Arab Towns and villages and massacres in hundred against unarmed Palestinian in there homes.

15 May 1948:
British decided to leave on this day, leaders of the Yishuv decided (as they claim) to implement that part of the partition plan calling for establishment of a Jewish state. The same day, the armies of Egypt, Transjordan (now Jordan), Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq joined Palestinian and other Arab guerrillas in a full-scale war (first Arab-Israeli War). The Arabs failed to prevent establishment of a Jewish state, and the war ended with four UN-arranged armistice agreements between Israel and Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.
The small Gaza Strip was left under Egyptian control, and the West Bank was controled by Jordan.
Of the more than 800,000 Arabs who lived in Israeli-held territory before 1948, only about 170,000 remained. The rest became refugees in the surrounding Arab countries, ending the Arab majority in the Jewish state.

1956:
Attckes incursions by refugee guerrilla bands and attacks by Arab military units were made, Egypt refused to permit Israeli ships to use the Suez Canal and blockaded the Straits of Tiran erupted in the second Arab-Israeli War.
Great Britain and France joined the attack because of their dispute with Egypt's president Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had nationalized the Suez Canal. Seizing the Gaza Strip and the Sinai Peninsula within few days. The fighting was halted by the UN after a few days, and a UN Emergency Force (UNEF) was sent to supervise the cease-fire in the Canal zone. By the end of the year their forces withdrew from Egypt, but Israel refused to leave Gaza until early 1957.

1965:
The Palestine Liberation Organization was established.

1967:
Nasser's insistence in 1967 that the UNEF leave Egypt, led Israel to attack Egypt, Jordan, and Syria simultaneously on 5th of June.
The war ended six days later with an Israeli victory. Israel occuiped Gaza Strip, Sinai Peninsula, Arab East Jerusalem, West Bank, Golan Heights.
After 1967 war, several guerrilla organizations within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) carried out guerrillas attacks on Israeli miletary targets, with the stated objective of "redeeming Palestine."

1973:
Egypt joined Syria in a war on Israel to regain the territories lost in 1967. The two Arab states struck unexpectedly on October 6. After crossing the suez channel the Arab forces gain a lot of advanced positions in Sinai Peninsula and Golan Heights and manage to defeat the Israeli forces for more then three weeks. Israeli forces with a massive U.S. economic and military assistance managed to stop the arab forces after a three-week struggle. The Arab oil-producing states cut off petroleum exports to the United States and other Western nations in retaliation for their aid to Israel.
In an effort to encourage a peace settlement, U.S. secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, managed to work out military disengagements between Israel and Egypt in the Sinai and between Israel and Syria in the Golan Heights during 1974.

1974:
The Arab Summit in Rabat recognized the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.

1982:
Israel launched an invasion of Lebanon aimed at wiping out the PLO presence there. By mid-August, after intensive fighting in and around Bayrut, the PLO agreed to withdraw its guerrillas from the city. Israeli troops remained in southern Lebanon.

1987:
Relations between Israel and the Palestinians entered a new phase with the intifada, a series of uprisings in the occupied territories that included demonstrations, strikes, and rock-throwing attacks on Israeli soldiers.

1988:
The PNC meeting in Algiers declared the State of Palestine as outlined in the UN Partition Plan 181.

1990:
Yasser Arafat addressed the UN Security Council In Geneva demanding UN emergency force to provide international protection for the Palestinian people to safeguard their lives, properties and holy places.

1991:
The first comprehensive peace talks between Israel and delegations representing the Palestinians and neighboring Arab states

1993:
Israel deported 415 Palestinian men to a buffer zone in southern Lebanon. The deported Palestinians were said by Israeli authorities to be active members of the militant Islamic resistance movement Hamas.
Aftersecret negotiations, PM Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat signed an historic peace agreement. Israel agreed to allow for Palestinian self-rule, first in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho, and later in other areas of the West Bank.

Feb 1994:
An American-born Jewish settler in Hebron, Baruch Goldstein, opened fire in al-Haran al-ebrahime crowded mosque, killing 29 Muslims and wounding 150 more.

May 1994:
In Cairo - Egypt, Yasser Arafat, and Yitzhak Rabin, signed the final version of the Declaration of Principles. Within 24 hours of the signing, Israeli military forces were scheduled to leave the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

July 1994:
Yasser Arafat returned to Palestine.



Source: wa3ad.org

[tae]

Why zionists were that hesitent about choosing between Argentina and Palestine to establish their kingdom? weren't "God's words" clear about this issue?

[tae]

please delete .. duplicate

[tae]

Originally Posted by Tararamtamtam

True, both "lebanonism" and zionism are forms of nationalism...

But zionism, unlike lebanonism, existed before the country it is associated with even was created... And in the process of creating that country, it caused the forced expulsion (or at least, dispossetion, depending on the point of view) of hundreds of thousands of people...

And please, don't try to compare the consequences of zionism with what happened during the lebanese war... The killings, massacres, fights that occured werent done, in most cases, in the name of "lebanonism" but in the name of some leaders and/or sect's power seeking ambitions...

Can we now, please, take all these Off-Topic talks to another topic in which they're more fitted?

tae replies: Zionism is a form of racism, this was what the resolution 3379 said (see below)
Pro-Israel, before answering blindly this post, read it, especially the text below the resolution.

Originally Posted by tae

WHY DID THE UNITED NATIONS RESOLVE THAT ZIONISM IS A FORM OF RACISM?

AMEU's Public Affairs Series #30
December 1991

U.N. GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLUTION NO. 3379 (XXX) OF 10 NOVEMBER 1975

The General Assembly,

Recalling its resolution 1904 (XVIII) of 20 November 1963, proclaiming the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination,
and in particular its affirmation that "any doctrine of racial differentiation or superiority is scientifically false, morally condemnable (and) socially unjust and dangerous" and its expression of alarm at "the manifestations of racial discrimination still in evidence in some areas in the world, some of which are imposed by certain Governments by means of legislative, administrative or other measures,"

Recalling also that, in its resolution 3151 (XXXVIII) of 14 December 1973, the General Assembly condemned inter alia the unholy alliance between South African racism and zionism,

Taking note of the Declaration of Mexico on the Equality of Women and their Contribution to Development and Peace proclaimed by the World Conference of
the International Women's Year, held at Mexico City from 19 June to 2 July 1975, which promulgated the principle that "international cooperation and peace require the achievement of national liberation and independence, the elimination of colonialism and neo-colonialism, foreign occupation, zionism, apartheid, and racial discrimination in all its forms as well as the recognition of the dignity of peoples and their rights to self-determination."

Taking note also of resolution 77 (XII) adopted by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Organization of African Unity held in Kampala from 28 July to 1 August 1975 which considered "that the racist regime in occupied Palestine and racist regimes in Zimbabwe and South Africa have a common imperialist origin, forming a whole and having the same racist structure and being organically linked in their policy aimed at repression of the dignity and integrity of the human being,"

Taking note also of the Political Declaration and Strategy to strengthen International Peace and Security and to intensify Solidarity and Mutual Assistance among Non-Aligned Countries, adopted at the Conference of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of Non-Aligned Countries held in Lima, Peru, from 25 to 30 August 1975, which most severely condemned Zionism as a threat to world peace and security and called upon all countries to oppose this racist and imperialist ideology,

1. Determines that zionism is a form of racism and racial discrimination.
2. In 1965 the United Nations, supported by the United States and Israel, passed Resolution 2106 defining racial discrimination as "any distinction, exclusion, restriction, or preference based on race, color, descent or national or ethnic origin."

--------------------------------------------------

Ten years later, on November 10, 1975, the United Nations applied this definition to
Zionism [Resolution 3379] and concluded that Zionism is "a form of racism and racial discrimination."

On December 10, 1989 U.S. Vice President Danforth Quayle told an audience at Yeshiva University in New York that he was launching a campaign to repeal Resolution 3379.

A repeal, however, means reexamining the reasons why, back in 1975, most of the world regarded Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination. Some of those reasons are noted in the list that follows, together with events subsequent to the U.N. Resolution that relate directly to the question of racism.

1895. Theodor Herzl, founder of the World Zionist Organization, notes in his diary that the removal of Arabs bodily from Palestine is part of the Zionist plan to "spirit the penniless population across the frontier by denying it employment ... Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly." Herzl's Complete Diaries, June 12, 1895 entry.

1919. Dr. Chaim Weizmann [first president of Israel] is reported by British Foreign Minister Lord Curzon to want "a Jewish State, a Jewish nation, a subordinate population of Arabs etc. ruled by Jews; the Jews in possession of the fat of the land, and directing the administration." D. Ingrams, Palestine Papers, 1917-1922, p. 58.

1940. Joseph Weitz, director of the Jewish National Fund, the Zionist agency charged with acquiring Palestinian land, insists, "The only solution is Eretz Israel [Greater Israel], or at least Western Eretz Israel [all land west of the Jordan River], without Arabs. There is no room for compromise on this point... We must not leave a single village, not a single tribe." Machover, Israca, January 5, 1973, p. 2.

1946. David Ben Gurion [Israel's first Prime Minister] tells an Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, "When we say `Jewish independence' or a `Jewish State',
we mean Jewish country, Jewish soil, we mean Jewish labor, we mean Jewish economy, Jewish agriculture, Jewish industry, Jewish sea." The Jewish Case: Before the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry for Palestine as Presented by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, p. 66.

May 14,1948. Ben Gurion declares establishment of the State of Israel. In the fighting that follows 725,000 Palestinian refugees lose their homes, with 394 out of 475 Palestinian villages eradicated, leading Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan later to declare, "There is not a single Jewish village in this country that has not been built on the site of an Arab village." Ha'aretz, April 4, 1967. [A list of all 394 towns and villages is available upon request from A.M.E.U.]

December 4, 1948. Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other prominent Jewish Americans, writing in The New York Times, protest the visit to America of Menachem Begin: "Among the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the Freedom Party (Herut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy, and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties." [Begin later becomes Prime Minister, and Herut member, Yitzhak Shamir, is Israel's current Prime Minister.]

1950. Israel enacts Law of Return, granting all Jews anywhere in the world, and only Jews, the right to immigrate to Israel, on the grounds that they are returning to their own state. Subsequent Israeli governments must swear to uphold this Basic Law.

1950. Israel enacts the Development Authority Law, granting the Jewish National Fund authority over 92% of the land. By means of a "Land Covenant", all this
property, most of it expropriated from Palestinians, now becomes the "inalienable property" of the Jewish people worldwide, meaning non-Jews can never buy any of it, never rent any of it, nor even be employed on any of it.

1952. Israel enacts the Citizenship/Jewish Nationality Law, granting every Jew in the world, and only Jews, the status both of Israeli citizenship and Jewish nationality as soon as they step foot on Israeli soil. This distinction between citizenship and nationality, unique to the Zionist state, becomes the legal basis for state sanctioned discrimination, whereby only Jewish nationals are eligible for many of the privileges and services provided by the state or by its semi-governmental Zionist organizations.

1952. Israel enacts the World Zionist Organization/Jewish Agency (Status) Law, empowering the Organization/Agency with "the development and settlement of the country, the absorption of (Jewish) immigrants from the Diaspora and the coordination of the activities in Israel of Jewish institutions and organizations active in those fields." This makes hundreds of thousands of Israeli citizens of non-Jewish nationality, most of whom are native Palestinians, ineligible by law for "nationality" benefits, meaning they cannot work on "national" land, and cannot participate in "national" housing, educational, or agricultural benefits.

1958. Jewish philosopher Martin Buber tells a New York audience, "When we [followers of prophetic Judaism] returned to Palestine ... the majority of Jewish
people preferred to learn from Hitler rather than from us." Jewish Newsletter, June 2, 1958.

June 1967. Israel invades and occupies West Bank, Sinai, and Golan Heights.
By December 245,000 Palestinians flee the West Bank, 11,000 more flee Gaza, and 116,000 Syrians flee the Golan Heights.

1967. Israel places newly occupied territories under military rule, making native Palestinians, but not Jews who begin settling there, subject to arbitrary arrest and imprisonment, deportation and collective punishment. Commenting on the military's Emergency Regulations, Dr. Israel Shahak, Chairperson of the Israeli
League for Human and Civil Rights, and a survivor of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, observes: "Hitler's legal power was based upon the `Enabling Act', which was passed quite legally by the Reichstag and which allowed the Fuehrer and his representatives, in plain language, to do what they wanted, or in legal language, to issue regulations having the force of law. Exactly the same type of act was passed by the Knesset [Israel's Parliament] immediately after the 1967 conquest granting the Israeli governor and his representatives the powers of Hitler, which they use in a Hitlerian manner." Palestine, vol. 12, December 1983.

August 1967. Israel enacts the Agricultural Settlement Law banning Israeli citizens of non-Jewish nationality from working on Jewish National Fund lands, thus denying employment to thousands of Palestinians who in the 50's and early 60's had returned to work on their expropriated lands as agricultural hands, lessees or sharecroppers.

1970. Israel amends its Law of Return by defining `Jew' to mean a person born of a Jewish mother or one who converts to Judaism and is not a member of another religion. Law effectively equates `religion' and `Jewish nationality', clearly bringing it within the definition of racism set forth in U.N. Resolution 2106.

1970. Israel amends the Discharged Soldiers Act of 1949 so that the relatively small number of Jewish nationals who are exempt from military service can receive all the benefits tied to military service, such as school, housing, welfare and job entitlements, benefits denied the 98% of Israeli citizens of non-Jewish nationality, most of whom are native Palestinians.

November 10, 1975. 72 countries, representing 52% of the earth's population, condemn Zionism as "a form of racism and racial discrimination." [35 countriesvote against the Resolution and 32 abstain.]

June 19, 1977. A London Sunday Times investigation reports the widespread, officially condoned systematic use of torture in the occupied territories, including instances of sexual sadism.

1978-79. Three U.S. State Department cables filed by the American Consulate in Jerusalem cite evidence that Israel's torture of Palestinian prisoners is a systematic practice.

March 1985. Denis Goldberg, a Jewish South African sentenced to life imprisonment for "conspiring to overthrow the apartheid regime," is released through the intercession of Israeli officials. On arrival in Israel Goldberg says he sees "many similarities in the oppression of blacks in South Africa and of Palestinians," and he calls for a total economic boycott of South Africa, singling out Israel as a major ally of the apartheid regime. Pledging never to stay in Israel, Goldberg moves to London.

September 1985. U.S. Congressman George Crockett, after visiting the Israeli West Bank, compares living conditions there with those of South African blacks and concludes that the West Bank is an instance of apartheid that no one in the U.S. is talking about. Press Release, September 13, 1985.

April 1988. Poll finds that 65% of Americans, in-cluding 41% of American Jews, believe that "there is an element of racism involved in the attitude of Israelis towards Arabs." Los Angeles Times, April 11, 1988.

November 1989. Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells students at Bar-Ilan University that "Israel should have exploited the repression of
the demonstrations in China, when world attention focused on that country, to carry out mass expulsions among the Arabs of the territories." From the Israeli
Journal Hotam, November 24, 1989.

December 25, 1989. Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu observes during Christmas visit to Jerusalem: "I am a black South African, and if I were to change the names, a description of what is happening in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank could describe events in South Africa." From Israeli daily Ha'aretz, cited in Palestine Perspectives, January/February 1990.

December 25, 1989. Israel's High Court of Justice rules that a Jew who converts to the Jews for Jesus sect is no longer a Jew, hence no longer eligible for Jewish nationality/citizenship benefits. Ruling confirms Israel's legal discrimination based on the equation of one's nationality with one's religion.

January 5, 1990. An Israeli High Court Judge declares that, "The essence of a Jewish state is to give preeminence to Jews as Jews. Anyone who asks, in the name of democracy, for equality to all its citizens--Jews and Arabs--must be rejected as one who negates the existence of the Israeli state as the state of the Jewish people." From Israeli daily Ha'aretz, cited in News From Within, April 3, 1991.

February 1990. The U.S. State Department for the first time in its annual Country Reports on Human Rights Practices lists a special category on Israel's
"Discrimination Based on Race, Sex, Religion, Language, or Social Status." Over 15 areas of discrimination by Jews against non-Jews are listed. See 1989 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices.

April 25, 1990. Israel's Minister of Housing, David Levy, admits that his Ministry secretly provided $1.8 million for Jewish settlers to move into the Christian Quarter of Jerusalem. Jonathan Blass, spokesperson for the settlers, says that Jews should be able to move into the Christian Quarter, but non-Jews should be barred from the Jewish Quarter. The U.S. State Department calls the settlers' move "an insensitive and provocative action" and Israel's financing of it "deeply disturbing." The New York Times, April 25, 1990.

September 1990. Poll conducted in Israel by Guttman Institute show that 60% of young Jews prefer a greater land of Israel to human rights, 61% oppose giving Arabs in the territories equal rights, and 67% support encouraging Palestinians to emigrate. Factors listed by respondents as injurious to Zionism were: returning land for peace, mixed residence of Jews and Arabs, and social contacts between Jews and Arabs. 89% of respondents called themselves Zionists. American Israeli Civil Liberties Coalition, Spring 1991.

November 1990. Speaking at a Tel Aviv memorial service for former Likud leaders, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir declares: "The past leaders of our movement left us a clear message to keep Eretz Israel from the Sea to the [river] Jordan for future generations, for the mass aliya [immigration], and for the Jewish people, all or most of whom will be gathered into this country." Jerusalem Domestic Radio Service, November 18 & 19,1990, as cited in Report on Israeli Settlement, March 1991.

December 1990. Israeli newspaper reports: "Nearly 2,500 acres of land in the [West Bank] villages of Husan, Wadi Fukin, and Nahallin have been appropriated or are in the process of being appropriated for the Betar settlement and its access roads ... The villages' legal representatives said that all the [Palestinian] residents' appeals against appropriation are rejected with the argument that it is done for the villages' benefit. Davar, December 3, 1990.

February 5, 1991. Congressman David R. Obey, Chairman of the House Foreign Operations Sub-committee, declares that when the Gulf war is over, Americans "have a right to demand of Israel one very big thing--a recognition of the right and necessity of the Palestinian people to have their own homeland on a major portion of the land that constitutes the West Bank and Gaza... Recent talk that the West Bank and Gaza can now belong to the Israelis for 50 years is dangerous nonsense and cannot be tolerated by any American government determined to see to it that the blood of its citizens will never again be shed on Middle Eastern battlefields." Report on Israeli Settlement, March 1991.
* * *

Over the past 42 years Israel's racial discrimination against non-Jews has penetrated the most everyday aspects of social interaction. These include:

*Israeli citizens are required to carry ID cards on them at all times which specify whether they are Jewish or non-Jewish.
*Israeli police are required to display identification numbers which are coded to show if they are Jewish or non-Jewish.
*Police can tell from a driver's license if the bearer is Jewish or non-Jewish: Jews renews on the 15th of the month, non-Jews on the 1st. N. Dacey,

"Democracy" in Israel, p. 47.
*Non-Jews cannot buy apartments owned by the Jewish National Fund. When a Palestinian tried to buy one in East Jerusalem, the Chief Rabbi, Mordecai Eliayahu, pronounced: "It is forbidden to sell apartments in the Land of Israel to Gentiles," Ha'aretz 17 January 1986.

*Jews in Israel are forbidden by a religious law, approved by the State, from marrying non-Jews. Tekiner, Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections, p. 74.
*All Jewish elementary schools, secular and religious, have changed the plus sign in math books to an inverted `T', because the plus sign looked too much like the Christian cross. Israel Shahak, Al Fajr, October 11-17, 1981.
*For a Jew to hire a non-Jew to work on Jewish owned land is illegal and punishable by fines.
*Approximately 50% of the non-Jewish sectors in Israel have no legal existence, which means they are not entitled to a sewage system, electricity, nor connection with the national water carrier, and any building done in these communities is considered illegal and subject to demolition. The Other Front, 4 April 1990.
*Non-Jews in Israel, far more than Jews, have their telephones tapped and their mail "stopped, opened and even destroyed." U.S. State Department's 1989
Country Reports on Human Rights.
*Israel's non-Jewish press is censored more strictly than its Hebrew language press. U.S. State Department's 1989 Country Reports on Human Rights.
*In occupied Palestine, exclusive of East Jerusalem, automobile license plates issued to non-Jews are different from those issued to Jews; also non-Jewish operated taxis are clearly distinguished from Jewish operated taxis. N. Dacey,

"Democracy" in Israel, p. 47.
*Israeli rabbi Yitzhak Ginsburg declares that Jewish blood and a goy's blood are not the same," inferring that killing isn't murder if the victim is Gentile. Jerusalem Post, June 19, 1989.
*Israeli Housing Ministry, headed by Ariel Sharon, spends 20% of its money on projects in the occupied territories, most of it on the 2% of Israeli settlers who also receive special Government-backed mortgages. New York Times, April 24, 1991.
*Housing Minister Ariel Sharon says he intends to continue building settlements despite pleas by Secretary of State James A. Baker 3rd to halt further expansion.New York Times, July 26, 1991.

Israel's discrimination against non-Jews touches all Americans in that Zionism distinguishes among Americans themselves, saying to some, who happen to be Jewish, that it will give them automatic citizenship, along with a host of social benefits, while to all other Americans these rights and benefits are denied precisely because they are non-Jews.
Ultimately, as Jewish philosopher Martin Buber warned in 1961, Israel's racism is suicidal: Only an internal revolution can have the power to heal our people of their murderous sickness of causeless hatred. It is bound to bring complete ruin upon us.
Only then will the old and young in our land realize how great was our responsibility to those miserable Arab refugees in whose towns we have settled Jews who were brought from afar; whose homes we have inherited, whose fields we now sow and harvest; the fruit of whose gardens, orchards and vineyards we gather; and in whose cities that we robbed, we put up houses of education, charity, and prayer while we babble and rave about being the “people of the book” and the “light of the nations!” Thud's Ner, January-February 1961.

Opponents of racism, who nonetheless call themselves Zionists, can help clarify the U.N. Resolution on Zionism and Racism by stating their own position on the above citation.




For further information on the above items, see:

- Abu-Lughod, I., ed., Transformation of Palestine, Northwest Univ. Press, 2nd ed.,1987, 335 pp. Includes Eskine Childer's classic research on Palestinian refugees of 1947-48.

- International Organization for Elimination of Racial Discrimination, AJAZ, ed., Judaism or Zionism: What Difference for the Middle East? 1986, Zed Books, 285 pp. Twenty-two specialists in theology, politics, law and history examine impact of Zionism on Jews, non-
Jews and Middle East politics.

- Flapan, S., The Birth of Israel, Pantheon Books, 1987, 277 pp. Noted Jewish scholar reconstructs actual events behind official myths of Israel's founding.

- Lilienthal, A., The Zionist Connection II, North American Press, 1982, 904 pp. Well documented history of Zionism from Herzl to Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.

- Quigley, J., Palestine and Israel: Challenge to Justice, Duke University Press, 1990, 337 pp. Author is law professor at Ohio State University.

- McDowall, D., Palestine & Israel: The Uprising and Beyond, University of California Press, 1989, 322 pp. Measured assessment both of Jewish-Palestinian conflict and of prospects for its settlement.

- Shahak, I. (Chairman), Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights 1988-89 Report: Human Rights Violations During the Palestinian Uprising, Tel Aviv, 1989, 87 pp. Contains eyewitness accounts from the Hebrew press of human rights abuses in occupied Palestine.

- Tekiner, et al, eds., Anti-Zionism: Analytical Reflections, Amana Books, 1988, 358 pp. Includes essays on Christian Zionism in USA and Who Is A Jew? controversy in Israel.

- Wright, C. Facts and Fables: The Arab-Israeli Conflict, Kegan Paul International, 1989, 239 pp. Handy reference for most often debated questions on Palestinian-Israeli conflict.


Americans for Middle East Understanding
475 Riverside Drive, Room 245
New York, N.Y. 10115-0245

[TripolySunni]

Originally Posted by tae

Why zionists were that hesitent about choosing between Argentina and Palestine to establish their kingdom? weren't "God's words" clear about this issue?

Well my friend the awnser to that is simple, After the Arabs were libarated from the Ottomans and the french and english occupations they were in a weakened state that made it possible to penetrate thier lands and eventually occupy them without much resistance, as for this fact that the occupation was for religious reasons That is absolutly NOT TRUE the leaders or founders of Israel were not Rabbis None of them had any BIBLICAL title, Israel was constructed as a setler-state Or a colony because what most European white people where doing at the time is that they were colonizing in Asia, Africa and the Middle east because beleive it or not, they thought We were inferior and they thought they were the superior race.

[tae]

The mods have deleted the messages from that thread ..

Originally Posted by tae

Sure .. because being zionist means that the guy we're talking about supports the ennemy of Lebanon, isn't israel our official ennemy?

Originally Posted by proIsrael-nonIsraeli

I heard it is. I even heard it is recorded in your Constitution. What I do not understand is why did you do that?

Israel never intended to be your enemy nor it ever attacked you first. Why then?

It is your another and biggest mistake. You start wars every time and convince yourselves that you are not aggressors. And when you get hit back it is never your fault.

Israel and Lebanon can be friends. They can be very good friends. It is unfortunate you do not want this.

Just a thought. Hypothetically speaking, if Israel and Lebanon were friends and partners would there be a reason for you to even think about who is Zionist and who is not?

[Frisbeetarian]

Israel and Lebanon can be friends. They can be very good friends. It is unfortunate you do not want this.

Yeah of course we can be friends, why dont i just bend over and get screwed by the U.S.A, Europe and Israel whislt saying "Yeah sure we can be the best of friends!".

[tae]

Originally Posted by proIsrael-nonIsraeli

I heard it is. I even heard it is recorded in your Constitution. What I do not understand is why did you do that?

Israel never intended to be your enemy nor it ever attacked you first. Why then?

It is your another and biggest mistake. You start wars every time and convince yourselves that you are not aggressors. And when you get hit back it is never your fault.

Israel and Lebanon can be friends. They can be very good friends. It is unfortunate you do not want this.

Just a thought. Hypothetically speaking, if Israel and Lebanon were friends and partners would there be a reason for you to even think about who is Zionist and who is not?

We will become good friends with you after that you become good friends with all arabs.
Do a reasonable agreement with the palestinians and the whole issue will be solved.
Believe me, this is the only way to solve the problem ... you have the support of the whole world, and this support couldn't help you in securing your land.
Oppressing resistence movements is impossible especially that these resistences are incubated in a favorable milieu.

[proIsrael-nonIsraeli]

Originally Posted by tae

Why zionists were that hesitent about choosing between Argentina and Palestine to establish their kingdom? weren't "God's words" clear about this issue?

First Zionists were secularists. Word of god did not mean much to them. However, majority of the Jews recognize only one place and therefore they refused to come elsewhere.