Zionism: theory and practice

Disclaimer: I have always stated that I do not include racist material, or links to it, on my web pages. This one is an exception. Here I have quoted or linked to a considerable amount of racist material, in order to expose it for what it is. I absolutely do not endorse any of it.

History

• Early Zionist History; the Nakba

  • Sands of Sorrow: Palestinian Arab Refugee Camps About half an hour long film from 1950 now on Youtube, focusing on relief efforts for what were then called 'Palestine Arab refugees. Remarkable footage. The Palestine Post The fore-runner to the Jerusalem post, a Jewish historical newspaper in English, published in Palestine during the years 1932-1950.
  • "His Majesty's Government views with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national homeland for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine. Or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."
    The Balfour Declaration to Baron Rothchild, November 2, 1917

  • On predictability and surprises: Colonial power predictability, native surprises (By Mazim Qumsiyeh, 17th November 2004.)
    Gives an account of Zionist settlement in Palestine in the 19th and early 20th centuries and the attitudes of British governments towards it.

  • History ErasedMeron Rapoport in Ha'aretz, 6th July 2007.
  • The Best Runner in the ClassIlan Pappe in The Electronic Intifada, 28th May 2007.
  • Letter to a Parent of a British soldier in Palestine, by Arthur Koestler
    Taken from the New Statesman archive, 16 August 1947.
  • "If the eye is not blind nor the heart closed". Tom Segev in Ha'aretz, 29th October 2006, chronicling the Kafr Qasem massacre of 1956.
  • The Nakba - an event that did not occur (although it had to occur) By Eitan Bronstein in Palestine Remembered, 14th December 2005
  • The Origins of Hostility: Israel and the Consequences of "Uniqueness" by M. Shahid Alam in Counterpunch, 29/30 Oct 2005. Lots of facts and figures about the founding of the Israeli state.
  • "Compare and contrast"Review by Rafael Behr of Jacqueline Rose's The Question of Zion. In the Observer, 17th July 2005.
  • Olmert should have more of an insight than most into terrorism Geoffrey Wheatcroft in The Guardian, 14th September 2006

• 1967 and the Occupation

  • Israeli massacre condemned Al-Ahram Weekly, 8 - 14 March 2007.
    "Revelations that an elite Israeli squad killed 250 unarmed Egyptian soldiers at the end of the 1967 War has triggered an uproar in the People's Assembly."
  • An Interview with Dr. Ismail Zayid, President of the Canadian Palestinian Association On the Uruknet website, 14th August 2006.
    Gives an eye-witness account of the ethnic cleansing of the village of Beit Nuba in June 1967.

• Israel, Zionism and the Holocaust

  • Holocaust survivors accuse State of stealing their welfare funds Y-Net News, 30th December 2007.
  • There Went a Man: Remembering Raul Hilberg. By Norman Finkelstein in Counterpunch, August 22, 2007
  • Shameless: The Israeli Government and the Survivors of the Holocaust Michael Warschawski on the site of the Alternative Information Center, 14th August 2007
  • In the service of the Jewish state By Shraga Elam and Dennis Whitehead, Ha'aretz, 7th April 2007.
    "In the late 1940s, Walther (Walter) Rauff, an SS officer who was responsible for the murder of at least 100,000 people and was wanted by the Allies as a war criminal, was employed by the Israeli secret service ..."
  • Hear Lenni Brenner's interview with Joachim Prinz, Zionist collaborator with Hitler, Feb. 8, 1981
  • For a handful of shattered people, little will do Eliahu Salpeter in Ha'aretz, 29th Nov 2006.
    Damning account of how Israel cheats and mistreats its Holocaust survivors.
  • Interviews with Raul Hilberg Raul Hilberg is the author of the classic The Destruction of the European Jews. Here he gives his views on Finkelstein's claims.
  • Holocaust Religion and Holocaust Industry in the Service of Israel by Shraga Elam, on the State of Nature website, Autumn 2005 edition.
  • The Holocaust Industry Doesn't act Against Israel as it did Against Switzerland by Shraga Elam on the Al-Majdal site, Autumn 2005).

Jews in Arab countries

• Sacrificed to Zionism In Al-Ahram Weekly, 2 - 8 August 2007 Just as Jews in Egypt and Iraq in the 20th century were manipulated by Israel, so now Iran's Jewish community is in peril, reflects Jonathan Cook*

Quotations from Prominent Zionists

Zionist Dirty Tricks / The Israel Lobby

• The loathsome smearing of Israel's critics Johann Hari in the Independent, 8th May 2008.
• Letter to Committee on Standards in Public Life: How the Israel Lobby undermines the Principles of Standards in Public Life - a Matter for Investigation 19th Dec 2007.
• Palestinian NGOs pull plug on Madrid forum Electronic Intifada, 15th Dec 2007
  "According to the statement, an Israeli establishment delegation was imposed on the forum under pressure from the Spanish government bypassing the forum's international organizing committee" ...
  Here's Adrian Grima's take on the fiasco, 14th Dec 2007.
  ... and here's the PNGO statement dated 13th December 2007.
• Dutch pro-Palestinian conference shelved after Histadrut intervenes Ha'aretz 28th Nov 2007, reproduced on the PACBI site.
• Arabic under fireBrian Whitaker debunking MEMRI on "Comment is Free", 15th May 2007.
• Anti-Israel Boycott Fund Hey what do you know, the American Jewish Committee is throwing its money around! They boast:
  "The fund paid for legal work on behalf of the University of Haifa against the boycott launched by the British-based Association of University Teachers (AUT). That boycott was overturned in large measure because of the legal initiative. In 2006 another British union, the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE), voted to boycott Israel. The fund paid for the legal work which pushed the NATFHE leadership to acknowledge that their boycott expired when the union merged a few days later with the AUT to form the new University and College Union (UCU). It is expected that the UCU will take up a boycott motion when it meets in late May 2007. Donate now to help those who will need assistance to defend their rights by challenging the boycott."
• Hamas, Son of IsraelJustin Raimondo on the Antiwar.com site, 27th January, 2006
• Hamas is a Creation of Mossad by Hassane Zerouky on the Global Research site, 2004.
• Making Enemies: How Israel helped to create Hamas by Brendan O’Neill in The American Conservative, 12th February 2007.
• Wikipedia blocks pro-Palestine poster
  I don't pretend to understand all the technical stuff here, but you can easily get the general gist.
• Israel ups the stakes in the propaganda war Guardian, 20th Nov 2006.
• A remarkable coincidence?

  Got this from Tony Greenstein of Jews Against Zionism:

  "The South Coast pages of Redwatch, a neo-Nazi web site that targets known socialists/anti- fascists and trade unionists includes a photograph of me that appeared in the local Brighton Leader newspaper some 7 years ago. Since my photo has appeared subsequently in the local paper one might wonder why use this photo. Well the reason was because at the time it appeared a local (anonymous) fascist wrote to the Unemployed Centre [where Tony works - SAB] commenting how all 3 people featured looked Jewish before going into the usual conspiracy rant. The article and accompanying photo cannot be found on the Leader/Argus intranet or the web.

  Redwatch link *

  Now surprise surprise, the SHIT list, which is a Zionist hate site which targets anyone who is Jewish who is opposed to Zionism or merely questions its practices, including non-Zionists and left-wing or soft Zionists, has updated its profile of me to include the very same photo that is on Redwatch. Coincidence? Hardly likely since this update has appeared subsequent to my appearance on Redwatch.

  SHIT list link

  But then what could be more natural than Zionists, who believe anti/non-Zionists are 'self-haters' and neo-Nazis who merely hate Jews combining to attack anti-racist Jews?"

  * Warning! This is a neo-nazi site. Only linked to here to make a point.

• MIDEAST COUNCIL
  An antidote to AIPAC! An activist website to beat "the lobby".
• Arab Jews, Palestinian Refugees and Israel's Folly Politics Yehouda Shenhav, October 2006 - on the campaign to recognise Arab Jews as refugees.
• Putting Words in Ahmadinejad's Mouth Virginia Tilley in Counterpunch, 28th August 2006. Israel backed by army of cyber-soldiers (The Times, 28th July 2006) A Beautiful friendship? (Glenn Frankel, Washington Post 16th July 2006) Things Come 'Round in Mideast (Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda's ex-husband, in Truth Dig, 18th July 2006)
  Tom Hayden, drawing upon his own rude political awakening to the realities of Israeli and Middle East politics during the 1980s, warns that the Israel lobby in the U.S. aims to "roll back the clock" and "change the map" of the region and that its neoconservative supporters will probably try to use the current Middle East crisis to ignite a larger war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
• The Israel Lobby John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt in the London Review of Books, 23rd March 2006.
• Dean Attacks 'Israel Lobby' - Article co-authored by KSG's Walt stirs uproar; Dershowitz responds (The Harvard Crimson, 21st March 2006.)
• Blaming the lobby - a piece opposing Mearsheimer & Walt's view by Joseph Massad, in The Electronic Intifada, 24th March 2006.
• Who's the dog? Who's the tail? The influence of the Israel lobby in the USA Uri Avnery, on the Redress site, 23rd April 2006
• Lord Rogers leaves anti-Israel group after anger in US (The Times, 2nd March 2005)
• Zionism in Boston by Richard Hugus on the One Palestine site, 18th January 2006.

Zionism, Anti-Zionism and Anti-semitism

• The BNP - the most Zionist of the Political Parties Tony Greenstein on the AZvsAS blog, 12th April 2008.
• Vetting in practiceTony Greenstein on the all-parliamentary inquiry into anti-semitismon, on CIF on 31st May 2007
• Ruth Tenne: All- Party Inquiry into Anti-Semitism Ruth's unsolicited alternative submission to the Inquiry.
• Stop conflating anti-Zionism and anti-semitism Tony Greenstein on "Comment is Free", 12th April 2007.
• When an anti-semite is not an anti-semiteArt Neslen on "Comment is Free", 5th April 2007. "A new 'working definition' promoted by Israel lobbyists seeks to confuse anti-semitism with anti-Zionism ..."
• What is Antisemitism? By Michael Neumann in Counterpunch, 4th June 2002.
• Kill Arabs, Cry Anti-Semitism Norman G. Finkelstein's demolition job on the Report of the All-Party Parliamentary Inquiry Into Antisemitism, September 2006.
• You can read the actual report here.
• Julie Burchill Cites Hoax Letter
  Zionists are very fond of quoting Martin Luther King's "Letter to an anti-Zionist Friend" - I have personally had it sent to me countless times. Well, I'm glad to see that it turns out to be a hoax. See Roland Rance's response to Julie Burchill's recent column.

• Zionism and Anti-Semitism: Are Israel's Critics Anti-Semites?
  By Hadas Thier, in International Socialist Review Issue 38, November-December 2004. Excellent polemical stuff well supported by references.

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Books

An invention called 'the Jewish people' Tom Segev in Ha'aretz, 1st March 2008, reviewing Shlomo Zand's "When and How Was the Jewish People Invented?" (in Hebrew).

ZIONISM: The Real Enemy of the Jews By Alan Hart, in two volumes.

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Christian Zionists

• CUFI: Loving Israel to Death M.J. Rosenberg on Israel Policy forum, 27th July 2007. The Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism
  Statement by the Patriarch and Local Heads of Churches In Jerusalem, 25th August 2006.
• New Christian pro-Israel lobby aims to be stronger than AIPAC (Ha'aretz, 3rd April 2006)
• Among Evangelicals, A Kinship With Jews Washington Post, January 8, 2006
• The Blackstone Memorial, 1891
  Well you learn something every day. Here's a chap who in 1891 presented a petiton to then President of the USA, Benjamin Harrison, calling on him to use his influence with the Governments of their Imperial Majesties the Czar of Russia, Queen Victoria, Emperor Francis Joseph etc. etc., "to secure the holding at an early date, of an international conference to consider the condition of the Israelites and their claims to Palestine as their ancient home". Signed by numerous clergymen and a good handful of rabbis.
• "What are You Doing? What Have You Become?" Israel as an Extension of American Empire by Jeff Halper in Counterpunch, 7th Nov 2005.
  A detailed analysis of the "neo-Con alliance" including a substantial section on Christian Zionists in the USA. Hal Lindsey
  Author of the notorious The Late, Great Planet Earth and other millennialist nonsense. He also regularly runs "Prophecy Conferences" in Jerusalem.

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Jewish anti-Zionists and critics of Israel

• Independent Jewish Voices and similar organisations

  • Heating Up: The Battle for the Jewish voice and the Jewish soul Strong piece by David Mandelzys in Canadian e-magazine Cult(ure), apparently about 2nd June 2008.
  • Dissidents set for Australia-wide media campaign In Australian Jewish News, 1st March 2007.
  • Prominent Jews call for open debate on IsraelGuardian, 5th Feb 2007
  • Independent Jewish Voiceson the Guardian's "Comment is Free" site, 5th-6th Feb 2007.
  • British Jews break away from 'pro-Israeli' Board of Deputies Independent, 6th Feb 2007.
  • Dissenting voices among British Jews
    Excellent letter to the Independent by Tony Greenstein and a predictable "balancing" one defending the Board of Deputies.
  • Arthur Neslen on the "Comment is free" site, 10th Feb 2007.
• British Jews: Don't celebrate Israel's 60thY-Net News, 30th April 2008, putting a negative spin on this initiative as you'd expect.
• Jews against ZionOp-ed in the Jerusalem Post, 20th March 2007.
• Zionism and the 'self-hating Jew' by Mick Finlay on the JFJFP site.
• Benjamin Merhav
  A blogger in Melbourne, Australia, with the following sites:
  • More on the Treachery of Noam Chomsky
  • More on the Treachery of Noam Chomsky (part two)
  • Against Zionist Apartheid
  • Ben's autobiography

• Jewish History, Jewish Religion: The Weight of Three Thousand Years, by Professor Israel Shahak
• Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, by Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky
  Here's the same paper on another site
• "Jewish Criticism of Zionism", by Edward C. Corrigan (on the Middle East Policy Council website)
  It's also reproduced here on Brian Robinson's site
• Norman Finkelstein
  A controversial speaker and writer with a powerful message. He has recently done a speaking tour of the UK.

  "Folly and Fact at Yale" - watch the video of Finkelstein's talk at Yale on 20th Oct 2005 and compare it with articles in the press!.
  The question-and-answer part of Finkelstein's talk at Yale

• JSG Outlook
  Temporary website of the Jewish Socialist Group, based in London.
• International Jewish Solidarity Network
  "IJSN is an emerging international network of Jews who are committed to struggling against Zionism and its manifestation in the State of Israel."
• JEWDAS
  Subversive organisation, defying description except to say that it organises some bloody good parties. Some of my best friends are in it. Check it out.
• Jews not Zionists
  A sort of umbrella website for various anti-Zionist Jewish organisations, including the Satmar sect and Neturei Karta, but also some less well-known groups.
• Jews Sans Frontieres
  The weblog of Mark Elf.
• Neturei Karta
  This is a strange, arguably fundamentalist, Jewish religious group which believes that the creation of a "Jewish State" is forbidden by the Torah. It calls for "the peaceful dismantling of the [Zionist] state and the ushering in of peace, between Muslims and Jews around the world." I have no problem with that, but there is more: they apparently believe that not only the Diaspora but even the Holocaust was God's will for the Jewish people! I personally find this too much to stomach - as a socialist I applaud all those Jews and non-Jews who fought against the Nazis in various ways. Presumably NK think the the heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto were committing a sin?
• Post-Zionism and the Sephardi Question by Meyrav Wurmser in the Middle East Quarterly, Spring 2005.
  "A growing group of Jewish Israeli professors is challenging the legitimacy of the Israeli state from within" ....

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Critical analyses of Zionism

The Beginning of the End for the Zionist State of Israel? Alan Hart at International Institute of Strategic Studies, New Civilisation debate, on 10th August 2006.
• Surrender vs. the Right to Exist Kathleen Christison in Counterpunch, 27-29th May, 2006
• Finkelstein's Boycott: A Meta-Narrative on the Ills of "Liberal Zionism" By Mohammed Abed on the PSM website, 13th February 2006. Note that this is mainly a criticism of Finkelstein (see the section above), who would not be most people's stereotypical Zionist ....
• The Root Causes of Tragedy: The Ethical and Legal Challenges Facing Palestine by Oren Ben-Dor in Counterpunch, 15th December 2005
• "We need a post-Zionist leap of faith: Assimilation with space for Jewish identity offers us a better future" by John Rose in the Guardian, 2nd April 2005

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Miscellaneous

• A mounting sense of urgencyInteresting account of Zionist terrorists within Israel. Undated but is clearly from before the "withdrawal" from Gaza.
• Strange bedfellowsby Mike Marqusee, 17th April 2007. HOW Israel's Askenazi chief rabbi and friends find common ground with pogromchiks and fanatics. Lining up the new Crusades.
• Zionism: The cancer at the heart of international affairs Report of a debate on the Islam Channel. In Y-Net News, 4th July 2006.
• Black Zionists: African Americans send prayers to Israel, and checks, too
  By Evan R. Goldstein in Moment mag, February 2006.

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It was last updated on 18th July 2008.