In the process of our Western indoctrination in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many of us were never introduced to who “Palestinians” where or the *mechanics* of creating a Jewish state. We’re taught romantic ideas of self-determination and simplified stories of refugees escaping the horrors of the Holocaust (despite this happening long after Zionist ambitions began). Israel was, and in many is, seen as a pragmatic solution to Europe’s problem (namely, the “Jewish problem”). The first thing to know about settler colonization is just how unpractical and unpragmatic it is. Settler colonies always have a “demographics” problem — which should already be a red flag if one has to say that. People need great incentive to leave their home countries, while people living there have no natural incentive to leave—hence why they’re there in the first place!
Of course when you learn who Palestinians are, and start to investigate Israel’s creation, the obvious dilemma stands out on the page:
How does one create a “Jewish state” on a land that is overwhelmingly not Jewish?
Many of us were trained to stay so far away from this conflict that we never reached this very obvious question, nor its very, very obvious answer. How do you create a Jewish state on a land that is overwhelming non-Jewish?
You remove the non-Jews.
Israel never wanted Palestinians in their country. Israel is not simply Jewish, it is also explicitly not Palestinian. To be Palestinian is to be the anti-thesis of Israel. Even the Arab Israeli minority, which is mostly Palestinian, is only referred to as “Arab”. And that experience and label is bad enough in Israel.
The idea that Israel has even been entitled to such aspirations is itself a crime against humanity and works to dehumanize Palestinians every single day. The idea that they could seize people’s land, kick them out of their homes of countless generations, then ham-fisted-ly “find” a state that was still after decades of disposession just under 50% Arab — and we *still* don’t abhor that — abhors me.
"Herzl replied—and quickly, in a letter on March 19. His letter was probably the first response by a leader of the Zionist movement to a cogent Palestinian objection to its embryonic plans for Palestine. Herzl simply ignored the letter’s basic thesis, that Palestine was already inhabited by a population that would not agree to be supplanted. Although Herzl had visited Palestine once, in an 1898 visit timed to coincide with that of German Kaiser Wilhelm II, he (like most early European Zionists) had not much knowledge of or contact with its native inhabitants. Glossing over the fact that Zionism was ultimately meant to lead to Jewish control of Palestine, Herzl deployed a justification that has been a touchstone for colonialists and that would become a staple argument of the Zionist movement: Jewish immigration would benefit Palestine’s Indigenous inhabitants. “It is their well-being, their individual wealth, which we will increase by bringing in our own,” Herzl wrote, adding that “no one can doubt that the well-being of the entire country would be the happy result.” Herzl’s letter addressed a consideration that Yusuf Diya had not even raised: “You see another difficulty, Excellency, in the existence of the non-Jewish population in Palestine. But who would think of sending them away?” But Herzl had underestimated his correspondent. From Yusuf Diya’s letter, it is clear that he understood perfectly well that at issue was not the immigration of (as Herzl put it) “a number of Jews” into Palestine, but rather the transformation of the entire land into a Jewish state. Instead, Herzl offered the preposterous inducement that the colonization, and ultimately the usurpation, of their land by strangers would benefit the people of that country. Herzl’s reply to Yusuf Diya appears to have been based on the assumption that the Arabs could ultimately be bribed or fooled into ignoring what the Zionist movement actually intended for Palestine. This condescending attitude toward the intelligence, not to speak of the rights, of the Arab population of Palestine was to be serially repeated by Zionist, British, European, and American leaders in the decades that followed, down to the present day. As for the Jewish state that was ultimately created by the movement that Herzl founded, as Yusuf Diya foresaw, there was to be room for only one people, the Jewish people. As for the others, “sending them away” was indeed what happened, despite Herzl’s disingenuous remark." - Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017
I strongly believe we are all fundamentally different people now. Now that we know, we cannot go back.
Y’all know damn well ain’t nothing changed here for Black Americans. It evolves with the times. Modern-day lynchings and all. It’s not just overt racism like back then, but covert racism to boot. Bill called it white supremacy. I call it white terrorism. Ain’t nothing supreme about it.
Anyone involved in the Civil Rights movement for the right reasons had an FBI file on them. I wonder how deep his was smh.
This deserves another re-post in light of the escalation in the West Bank. #Neverforget
On January 2, Netanyahu declared that: “Our problem is finding countries willing to absorb Gazans and we are working on it.”
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich corroborated: “encouraging voluntary immigration” because “two million people [in Gaza] wake up every morning with the desire to destroy the State of Israel.”
Intelligence Minister Gila Gamliel told Zman that “voluntary migration is the best and most realistic program for the day after the fighting ends.”
Thus, Israel's official discourse adopted the term “voluntary migration”, even though we know that there is nothing “voluntary” about it, after all, bombing houses and hospitals, punishing the people collectively through starvation, pushing the people to the Egyptian border and other areas that were supposed to be safe, but in the end they are invaded and bombed like all the others were, among everything we have seen so far, there are no actions that give meaning to such a term (a term that should not even exist, just like the Terrorist and Illegitimate State of Isnotreal).
Because there's no enthusiasm from Western allies, Israeli diplomats are scouring the world in search of governments willing to welcome Palestinian refugees.
There are no effective actions that punish Isnotreal and/or bring some justice to Palestine, the USA always vetoes the votes (useless and which have already become jokes) for a ceasefire resolution and the northern countries issue mere notes of repudiation as if, like Canada, were not erasing Palestine from their official documents.
It is worth remembering that the Zionist movement in its beginnings considered transferring the world's Jews to the African continent, to establish their own state there, before choosing Palestine as their destination for colonialism. And as Theodor Herzl, father of Zionism, said: “Antisemites will become our most reliable friends, antisemitic countries our allies.”
Israel's Heritage Minister Amihai Eliyahu said on January 5 that settlers and soldiers “must find ways even more painful than death” to “get rid of” Gaza's Palestinians. It's not difficult to draw parallels with the N4z1 movements in Germany.
Fuck Israel
From one Bethlehem to another.
Forging a Gun Tube #1 (Bethlehem Steel Works), 1918. George Pearse Ennis, 1884-1936. Oil on canvas.
I am sorry to whoever has been reaching out that I have not been on this app. I promise you I am working offline and supporting families directly, I will do my best to loop others but there is so much need.
Here in Gaza after a cruel war, We are a family of 15—10 adults and 5 children. Every day is a battle for survival. Food is scarce, humanitarian aid is not reaching us, and my little nieces and nephews go to bed hungry. Among them is my sister, who is deaf, and another sister who has a newborn baby. They, too, are suffering in this crisis, and I’m doing everything I can to protect and provide for them.
We need your support to save us and to help us after the destruction that surrounding us here in Gaza.
Please if you can't donate you can share it with your friends, family, and networks. Together, you can help me give my children hope, warmth, and sustenance in this critical time.🙏🙏🙏🍉💔