Signed in as:
filler@godaddy.com
3. zionism
The discriminatory and exceptionalizing nature of Zionism
As a Palestinian woman resisting Israel’s occupation, racial supremacy and apartheid, I shall continue to reject Zionism as a racist ideology while firmly condemning anti-Jewish bigotry. Our struggle is against all forms of oppression and racism. We target complicity, not identity.
~ Shahd Abusalama
Zionism disregards, disrespects, and discriminates against the indigenous people of Palestine. Unlike the myth suggests, Palestine has never been “a land without a people.” Zionism, the political ideology undergirding the state of Israel, has always been about taking as much of the land with as few of the people as possible so as to create a Jewish state. From the founding of Israel as a Jewish state including Ben Gurion’s well-documented original intent, to the land grabs of Ariel Sharon for settlements, to Netenyahu’s annexation plans, Zionism has always wanted land, and not its people.
However, despite the plans and hopes of the Zionist founders, the indegenous population has not only not departed or dwindled, but it has remained steadfast, persevered, resisted, and grown in numbers, with millions now as refugees living in different places. There is near parity now in the Jewish and non-Jewish population numbers which Israel claims make non-Jews a “demographic threat.” Former Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren, listed the rise of Arab numbers as one of the “seven existential threats” to Israel as early as 2009. By “demographic threat,” he meant Arab babies being born.
This blatant racism may have once been unimaginable, but with the rise of white supremacy in the United States and other Western countries, it is now flagrantly out in plain sight. In the US, white supremacists now speak of black and brown babies as demographic threats, and have even acknowledged that they would like to follow the exclusionary model and policies of Israel — in their case privileging white people.
Newsweek reported on Richard Spencer, one of the more recognizable faces of white supremacy in the US:
- [He] claims to be a ‘white Zionist’ and has voiced his support for a Jewish homeland. Last year, he told Israeli news network Channel 2 that he wants to establish a white homeland ‘just like you [Jews] want a secure homeland in Israel.’
Supporters of Israel’s policies and the 2018 Nation State Law declare that BDS is out to “destroy Israel” because it calls for conditions in which Israel would no longer be a Jewish state. What they are saying is that, as a rights-based movement, BDS calls for equal rights for all people. BDS supporters point out that giving equal rights to all would not destroy Israel, but instead would bring justice, and create a new 21st century life without the stigma of settler colonialism and apartheid. Supporters of BDS from South Africa agree and claim that South Africa was not destroyed when the old racist regime was dismantled. Rather, they know that it was improved into a country that strives to be more equal for all its citizens, even as it grapples with the difficulties of a day to day diverse reality.
Shutting down non-violent protests (BDS) on the basis of maintaining a regime and nation state that privileges one group of people over all others is not sustainable in the 21st century. For people of conscience, it is impossible to support such outdated concepts of nationhood as one that justifies peoples’ rights based on whether they are Jewish or not. Fully 25% of people living within Israel’s 1967 borders are not Jewish, and 50% are not Jewish if you consider all the population who live under the control of the government of Israel (including the West Bank and Gaza).
For this reason, it is more important than ever to support the rights-based approach called for by the now-worldwide BDS Movement. Israel today has unabashedly codified itself into an apartheid state that perpetuates injustice, inequality, and intentional human suffering. It is time to support human rights for all people of historic Palestine..
racism in open sight
...However, despite the plans and hopes of the Zionist founders, the indegenous population has not only not departed or dwindled, but it has remained steadfast, persevered, resisted, and grown in numbers, with millions now as refugees living in different places. There is near parity now in the Jewish and non-Jewish population numbers which Israel claims make non-Jews a “demographic threat.” Former Israeli ambassador, Michael Oren, listed the rise of Arab numbers as one of the “seven existential threats” to Israel as early as 2009. By “demographic threat,” he meant Arab babies being born.
This blatant racism may have once been unimaginable, but with the rise of white supremacy in the United States and other Western countries, it is now flagrantly out in plain sight.