tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/zionism-7812/articlesZionism – The Conversation2024-03-27T23:15:57Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2248652024-03-27T23:15:57Z2024-03-27T23:15:57ZWhen does anti-Zionism become antisemitism? A Jewish historian’s perspective<p>In his latest book, <a href="https://www.pennpress.org/9781512823837/jewish-life-in-medieval-spain/">Jewish Life in Medieval Spain</a>, Jonathan Ray focuses on the tumult of the 14th century in Spain – a time of the plague, civil strife and war between the two largest kingdoms, Aragon and Castile, with frequent attacks against Jews. This culminated in riots in 1391, which resulted in deaths, destruction of property, rapes and forced conversions.</p>
<p>Ray describes an appeal the Jewish community made to the Spanish king in 1354, describing the hatred they faced: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>[…]the people made the earth tremble with their cries of: “all this is happening because of the sins of Jacob [later renamed Israel]. Let us destroy this nation! Let us kill them!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Treating Jews as scapegoats during times of hardship is an ongoing feature of Jewish history. Some <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/20-years-before-the-holocaust-pogroms-killed-100000-jews-then-were-forgotten/">100,000 Jews were murdered</a> in eastern Europe as part of the struggles following the 1917 Russian Revolution. These attacks were followed by the tragedy of the Holocaust. </p>
<p>Jews were also targeted in riots in the Middle East and North Africa during the second world war. During the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13610702">Farhud of 1941</a>, for example, a violent mob attacked the Jews of Baghdad, killing up to 180 people, raping women and looting properties.</p>
<p>An awareness of this ongoing history of persecution is important to understand the trauma of the October 7 attack by Hamas in southern Israel, during which 1,200 people were killed (and some sexually assaulted) and around 240 people abducted. It was a watershed moment for Israelis, as well as the Jewish diaspora. </p>
<p>It also helps to understand the Jewish perspective on some of the rhetoric heard at global protests against Israel’s subsequent war in Gaza – and more broadly against Zionism – since October 7. To many, this equates to antisemitism. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-dark-history-of-antisemitism-in-australia-217908">The long, dark history of antisemitism in Australia</a>
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<h2>When anti-Zionism leads to antisemitism</h2>
<p>Much ink has been spilt on the issue of whether protests against Zionism, or anti-Zionism, are inherently antisemitic. </p>
<p>Certainly, within the academic realm, anti-Zionism does not necessarily conflate with antisemitism. As Michelle Goldberg <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/opinion/antisemitism-vs-anti-zionism.html">recently wrote</a>, anti-Zionism can emerge from those who believe in the potential for Israelis and Palestinians to live together in the same state, or from well-intentioned concerns for Palestinian suffering, among other reasons.</p>
<p>However, when the real-life impact of anti-Zionism results in cries advocating for the killing of Jews, then it can only be understood as antisemitism. As is any criticism of Zionism or Israel that crosses the line into blatant racism or discrimination, demands to de-platform or exclude Zionists, the resurfacing of tropes and conspiracy theories about Jewish people, or the questioning of Israel’s right to exist as a state.</p>
<p>On October 9, just two days after Israel’s declaration of war against Hamas, a pro-Palestinian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/oct/09/pro-palestinian-rally-in-sydney-calls-for-australia-to-drop-support-for-israel">rally</a> took place in Sydney with clear parallels to 1354. </p>
<p>While the police may <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/02/afternoon-update-expert-finds-no-evidence-of-gas-the-jews-chant-at-rally-two-killed-by-sydney-freight-train-and-amazons-profits-surge#:%7E:text=Initial%20reports%20of%20the%20chant,%E2%80%9Cwhere's%20the%20Jews%3F%E2%80%9D.">quibble</a> as to whether the protesters’ chants were “gas the Jews” or “where’s the Jews”, for Jewish people, the intent was the same.</p>
<p>The crowd at <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/world/middle-east/i-have-never-experienced-a-more-challenging-period-to-live-as-a-jew-20231101-p5egvc.html">another rally</a> at the Victoria parliament chanted “Khaybar, Khaybar, the armies of Muhammed are coming”. This refers to attacks by the Muslim army against the Jewish tribe in Arabia in 628, when Jews were subjugated, expelled or slaughtered.</p>
<p>These hateful messages coincided with an unprecedented upsurge of antisemitism in Australia – an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/13/julian-leeser-accuses-australian-human-rights-commission-of-failing-to-address-antisemitism">increase of 738%</a> since October 7, according to the Executive Council of Australian Jewry. These acts included vile graffiti messages, the boycotting of Jewish businesses deemed “Zionist”, verbal abuse (including death threats), physical abuse and attacks on social media. </p>
<p>This rising antisemitism – as well as the lack of empathy and support many Jewish people felt in Australia following the October 7 attack – is what led to the formation of the Jewish creatives and academics WhatsApp group. </p>
<p>Its members were later shocked at the leaking of their chat with personal details and photos, as well as the threats and abuse some experienced. As Jewish historian David Slucki <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/religion/zionism-anti-zionism-doxxing-and-whatsapp-zio600-group/103472344">stressed</a>, such doxxing has no justification. </p>
<p>Some have argued the release of the chat messages was <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-jewish-creatives-whatsapp-leak-was-more-whistleblowing-than-doxing-heres-why-223552">whistleblowing</a> because the group was trying to suppress pro-Palestinian voices. To Jewish members, however, this argument <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/hundreds-of-jewish-creatives-have-names-details-taken-in-leak-published-online-20240208-p5f3if.html">evokes</a> ancient tropes of secret Jewish cabals. It also suggests that being Zionist automatically means one is anti-Palestinian. Such assumptions foster antisemitism, the clear outcome of the leak.</p>
<p>For example, the ongoing idea of Jews having “tentacles” that reach far and wide to control people was recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/feb/07/chris-minns-jenny-leong-antisemitic-trope-octupus-greens-mp">resurrected</a> by Jenny Leong, a Greens MP for Newtown (who later <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/nsw/nsw-mp-apologises-for-inappropriate-words-at-pro-palestine-event-20240206-p5f2pn.html">apologised</a>).</p>
<h2>Where Zionism comes from and how it’s evolved</h2>
<p>To understand what anti-Zionism is, one needs first to understand what Zionism means. </p>
<p>The word “Zion” stems from the bible. It refers to a mountain in Jerusalem where <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/David">King David</a>, one of the most revered figures in Jewish history who conquered Jerusalem in the 10th century, is believed to be buried. </p>
<p>Over millennia, “Zion” has come to refer to Jerusalem itself, as well as the Land of Israel. Zionism is also the Jewish national self-determination movement, which emerged in the 19th century to create a Jewish state in the Jews’ ancestral homeland, Israel. This goal was achieved in 1948. </p>
<p>Before 1948, there were Jews who opposed the Zionist movement for different reasons. The ultra-Orthodox believed Jews had to wait for the coming of the Messiah and creation of a theocratic state. Secular socialists, meanwhile, <a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/acjc/yiddish-melbourne/organisations/bund">believed</a> Jews needed to fight for full equality and self-determination in their own countries. </p>
<p>As he discusses in his <a href="https://scribepublications.com.au/books-authors/books/my-life-as-a-jew-9781761380471">autobiography</a>, Jewish journalist Michael Gawenda grew up with such an anti-Zionist viewpoint, but gradually shifted his views on Israel. Then, he says, the world changed on October 7. As he suggests in a <a href="https://fathomjournal.org/after-the-pogrom-an-australian-journalist-reflects/">recent article</a>, some of those criticising Israel on the left today see the state as “the bastard child of an evil ideology”. He writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The Hamas pogrom and its aftermath — the explosion of antisemitism and Jew hatred [around the world] — reminded Jews like me that in Jewish history, what may have seemed to be a golden age for Jews can end suddenly, violently, inexplicably and with devastating and sometimes murderous consequences.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In a recent <a href="https://plus61j.net.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Crossroads23_Survey_Report_June_2023_2-1.pdf">survey</a>, 77% of Australian Jewry identified as Zionist and 86% agreed the existence of Israel was essential for the future of the Jewish people.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/universalism-or-tribalism-michael-gawendas-memoir-considers-what-it-means-to-be-a-jew-in-contemporary-australia-213459">Universalism or tribalism? Michael Gawenda's memoir considers what it means to be a Jew in contemporary Australia</a>
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<p>Many anti-Zionists today, particularly among the progressive left, however, believe Israel was “born in sin” as a racist, settler-colonial state. In their view, Zionists are pursuing ethnic cleansing, expulsions, theft, apartheid and genocide against the Palestinians. </p>
<p>These beliefs were also <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-long-dark-history-of-antisemitism-in-australia-217908">propagated by the Soviets</a> from the early 1960s as part of their efforts to win over the Arab world.</p>
<p>It is important to stress that criticising the Israeli government’s actions towards the Palestinians is not inherently anti-Zionist. This includes legitimate criticism of Israel’s conduct of the war in Gaza and the government’s failure to set out clear plans for the aftermath of the war. </p>
<p>For example, US Senator Chuck Schumer, who is Jewish, recently <a href="https://apnews.com/article/schumer-netanyahu-israel-poland-hamas-3c86e541396fda36b0ef05b2d36c28e5">strongly criticised</a> the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. Schumer is <a href="https://theconversation.com/pro-israel-but-anti-netanyahu-democratic-party-leaders-try-to-find-the-middle-ground-226050">one of the most pro-Israel senators</a> in US history. He cannot be considered an anti-Zionist.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bydSg7sweP8?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Excerpt from Schumer’s speech in Congress on March 14.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Conflicting definitions on antisemitism</h2>
<p>In recent years, efforts have been made to define antisemitism to show how it intersects with attitudes towards Israel and to draw clearer lines explaining when anti-Zionism becomes antisemitism. </p>
<p>This culminated in the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s adoption of a <a href="https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism">working definition of antisemitism</a> in 2016. While stressing that legitimate criticism of Israel is <em>not</em> antisemitism, seven of its 11 examples of antisemitic behaviour relate to Israel. These include:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, for example, by claiming the existence of a state of Israel is a racist endeavour</p></li>
<li><p>drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis</p></li>
<li><p>holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel. </p></li>
</ul>
<p>To date, 38 nations have accepted this definition of antisemitism, including Australia in 2021.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1750171462982398154"}"></div></p>
<p>Some scholars, including those who would consider themselves anti-Zionists, however, have rejected the definition and developed and signed another, known as <a href="https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/">the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism</a>. </p>
<p>A small minority of Jews who oppose Israel’s existence as a Zionist state adhere to this definition. For other Jews it is seen as more accurate because it is less prescriptive than the IHRA definition and also seeks to “clarify when criticism of (or hostility to) Israel or Zionism crosses the line into antisemitism and when it does not”. </p>
<p>For instance, it says criticising or opposing Zionism “as a form of nationalism” is not antisemitic, while “denying the right of Jews in the state of Israel to exist and flourish” would be. </p>
<p>As Jewish historian Derek Penslar <a href="https://fathomjournal.org/why-i-signed-the-jda-a-response-to-cary-nelson-2/">explains</a> in terms of why he signed it: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There are a great many people in the world who bear no animus against Jews but who are troubled by Israel’s treatment of Palestinians and want it to change. Such critics include Jews who are deeply attached to Zionism as an ideal and Israel as the fulfilment of that ideal. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Without an historical lens, it’s not possible to fully understand the complex interconnections between anti-Zionism and antisemitism today. </p>
<p>Instead of the polarising pro-Palestinian and anti-Zionist narratives we are currently seeing, our aim should be to work towards understanding each other’s pain and learning to listen to each other with respect, even if we choose to agree to disagree. We seem to have a long way to go to achieve this goal.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224865/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Suzanne Rutland has received an Australian Research Council grant for her research on the Australian Jewry and funding from the Pratt Foundation, as well as an Australian Prime Ministers Centre (APMC) fellowship for her research on Soviet Jewry and Australia. She is also involved with numerous NGOs, including the Australian Jewish Historical Society (patron), the Australian Association for Jewish Studies (past president and committee member), and the Australian government’s expert delegation to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. In addition, she is a board member of the Freilich Project for the Study of Bigotry at ANU; she is on an academic advisory committee at the Sydney Jewish Museum; she has joined the Australian Academic Alliance Against Antisemitism; and she is an Australian board member for Boys Town Jerusalem. These roles are all undertaken in an honorary capacity. She is also writing the history of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry in an honorary capacity.</span></em></p>When the real-life impact of anti-Zionism results in cries advocating for the killing of Jews, then anti-Zionism can only be understood as antisemitism.Suzanne Rutland, Professor Emerita, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2259362024-03-25T12:38:41Z2024-03-25T12:38:41ZIsrael’s ‘Iron Wall’: A brief history of the ideology guiding Benjamin Netanyahu<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583238/original/file-20240320-16-lzg9fz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C9%2C3052%2C1932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A view of Khan Yunis in Gaza on Feb. 2, 2024, after weeks of continuous Israeli bombardment and bulldozing.
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/view-of-destruction-with-destroyed-buildings-and-roads-news-photo/1973198679?adppopup=true">Abdulqader Sabbah/Anadolu via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has signaled that Israel’s military will soon <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-rafah-offensive.html">launch an invasion of Rafah</a>, the city in the southern Gaza Strip. More than 1 million Palestinians, now on the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/gaza-malnutrition-famine-children-dying-israel-palestinians-2f938b1a82d7822c7da67cc162da1a37">verge of famine</a>, have sought refuge there from their bombed-out cities farther north. Despite U.S. President Joe <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/biden-warns-netanyahu-an-assault-on-rafah-would-cross-red-line-c78677ba">Biden’s warning against the move</a>, Netanyahu appears, for now, undeterred from his aim to attack Rafah. </p>
<p>The attack is the latest chapter in Israel’s current battle to eliminate Hamas from Gaza. </p>
<p>But it’s also a reflection of an ideology, known as the “<a href="https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf">Iron Wall</a>,” that has been part of Israeli political history since before the state’s founding in 1948. The Iron Wall has driven Netanyahu in his career leading Israel for two decades, culminating in the current deadly war that <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Israel-Hamas-War">began with a massacre of Israelis</a> and then turned into a <a href="https://hhi.harvard.edu/news/humanitarian-situation-gaza">humanitarian catastrophe for Gaza’s Palestinians</a>.</p>
<p>Here is the history of that ideology:</p>
<h2>A wall that can’t be breached</h2>
<p>In 1923, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Vladimir-Jabotinsky">Vladimir, later known as “Ze’ev,” Jabotinsky</a>, a prominent Zionist activist, published “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-the-iron-wall-quot">On the Iron Wall</a>,” an article in which he laid out his vision for the course that the Zionist movement should follow in order to realize its ultimate goal: the creation of an independent Jewish state in Palestine, <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/timeline-for-the-history-of-judaism#brits2">at the time governed by the British</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man in a double breasted suit, wearing round glasses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=832&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/583249/original/file-20240320-20-uluqu0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1045&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Vladimir ‘Ze'ev’ Jabotinsky, in Prague in 1933.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1176800">United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of L. Elly Gotz</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jabotinsky admonished the Zionist establishment for ignoring the Arab majority in Palestine and their political desires. He asserted the Zionist establishment held a fanciful belief that the technological progress and improved economic conditions that the Jews would supposedly bring to Palestine would endear them to the local Arab population. </p>
<p>Jabotinsky thought that belief was fundamentally wrong. </p>
<p>To Jabotinsky, the Arabs of Palestine, like any native population throughout history, would never accept another people’s national aspirations in their own homeland. Jabotinsky believed that Zionism, as a Jewish national movement, would have to combat the Arab national movement for control of the land. </p>
<p>“Every native population in the world resists colonists as
long as it has the slightest hope of being able to rid itself of the danger of being colonised,” <a href="https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf">he wrote</a>. </p>
<p>Jabotinsky believed the Zionist movement should not waste its resources on Utopian economic and social dreams. Zionism’s sole focus should be on developing Jewish military force, a metaphorical Iron Wall, that would compel the Arabs to accept a Jewish state on their native land. </p>
<p>“Zionist colonisation … can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population – behind an iron wall, which the native population cannot breach,” <a href="https://en.jabotinsky.org/media/9747/the-iron-wall.pdf">he wrote</a>.</p>
<h2>Jabotinsky’s heirs: Likud</h2>
<p>In 1925, Jabotinsky founded the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/revisionist-zionism">Revisionist movement</a>, which would become the chief right-wing opposition party to the dominant Labor Party in the Zionist movement. It opposed Labor’s socialist economic vision and emphasized the focus on <a href="https://www.knesset.gov.il/vip/jabotinsky/eng/Revisionist_frame_eng.html">cultivating Jewish militarism</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/1947%20UN%20Partition%20Plan.aspx">In 1947, David Ben Gurion and the Zionist establishment</a> <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-202101/">accepted partition plans</a> devised by the United Nations for Palestine, dividing it into independent Jewish and Palestinian Arab states. The Zionists’ goal in accepting the plan: to have the Jewish state founded on the basis of such international consensus and support. </p>
<p>Jabotinsky’s Revisionists opposed any territorial compromise, which meant they opposed any partition plan. They objected to the recognition of a non-Jewish political entity – an Arab state – within Palestine’s borders. </p>
<p>The Palestinian Arab state proposed by the U.N. partition plan <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-Nations-Resolution-181">was rejected by Arab leaders</a>, and it <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/history/">never came into being</a>.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://www.gov.il/en/departments/general/declaration-of-establishment-state-of-israel">1948, Israel declared its independence</a>, which sparked <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1945-1952/arab-israeli-war">a regional war between Israel and its Arab neighbors</a>. During the war, which began immediately after the U.N. voted for partition and lasted until 1949, more than half the Palestinian residents of the land Israel claimed were expelled or fled. </p>
<p>At the war’s end, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Partition-of-Palestine">the historic territory of Palestine was divided</a>, with about 80% claimed and governed by the new country of Israel. Jordan controlled East Jerusalem and the West Bank, and Egypt controlled the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>In the new Israeli parliament, Jabotinsky’s heirs – <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/herut-movement">in a party first called Herut</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Likud">and later Likud</a> – were relegated to the opposition benches.</p>
<h2>Old threat, new threat</h2>
<p>In 1967, another war broke out between Israel and Arab neighbors Egypt, Syria and Jordan. It resulted <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1961-1968/arab-israeli-war-1967">in Israel’s occupation of</a> East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Sinai Peninsula, the Gaza Strip and Golan Heights. <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461">Yitzhak Rabin led Israel’s military</a> during that war, called the Six-Day War.</p>
<p>From 1948 until 1977, the more leftist-leaning <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israel-Labour-Party">Labor Party governed Israel</a>. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Menachem-Begin">In 1977, Menachem Begin led the Likud to victory</a> and established it as the dominant force in Israeli politics. </p>
<p>However in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1992/06/24/world/israel-s-labor-party-wins-clear-victory-in-election-ready-to-form-a-coalition.html">1992, Rabin, as the leader of Labor, was elected as prime minister</a>. With Israel emerging as both a military and economic force in those years, fueled by the new high-tech sector, he believed the country was <a href="https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/what-would-rabin-do">no longer facing the threat of destruction</a> from its neighbors. To Rabin, the younger generation of Israelis wanted to integrate into the global economy. <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/rabin/facts/">Resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict</a>, he believed, would help Israel integrate into the global order. </p>
<p>In 1993, Rabin negotiated <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo">the Oslo Accords</a>, a peace deal with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat. The two men <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/08/06/488737544/oslo-tells-the-surprising-story-behind-a-historic-handshake">shook hands</a> in a symbol of the reconciliation of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The agreement created a Palestinian authority in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, as part of the pathway to the long-term goal of creating two countries, Israel and a Palestinian state, that would peacefully coexist.</p>
<p>That same year, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Benjamin-Netanyahu">Benjamin Netanyahu had become the leader of the Likud</a> Party. The son of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/world/middleeast/benzion-netanyahu-dies-at-102.html">a prominent historian of Spanish Jewry</a>, he viewed Jewish history as facing <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2012-04-30/ty-article/benzion-netanyahu-father-of-prime-minister-benjamin-netanyahu-dies-at-102/0000017f-e958-d639-af7f-e9df59c90000">a repeating cycle of attempted destruction</a> – from the Romans to the Spanish Inquisition, the Nazis and <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2018-07-05/ty-article/when-netanyahus-father-adopted-the-view-of-arabs-as-savages/0000017f-e00a-d3ff-a7ff-f1aa22770000">the Arab world</a>. </p>
<p>Netanyahu saw the Oslo peace process as <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/oslo/interviews/netanyahu.html">the sort of territorial compromise</a> Jabotinsky had warned about. To him, compromise would only invite conflict, and any show of weakness would spell doom. </p>
<p>The only answer to such a significant threat, Netanyahu has repeatedly argued, is <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-no-full-palestinian-state-no-surrender-in-exchange-for-gaza-hostages/">a strong Jewish state that refuses any compromises</a>, always identifying the mortal threat to the Jewish people and countering it with an <a href="https://m.economictimes.com/news/international/world-news/no-compromise-on-rafah-operation-israeli-pm-vows-to-continue-fight-despite-global-appeals/articleshow/107792076.cms">overwhelming show of force</a>. </p>
<h2>No territorial compromise</h2>
<p>Since the 1990s, Netanyahu’s primary focus has not been on the threat of the Palestinians, but rather that of <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/netanyahu-at-war/transcript/">Iran and its nuclear ambitions</a>. But he has continued to <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/21/1225883757/israels-netanyahu-rejects-any-palestinian-sovereignty-post-war-rebuffing-biden">say there can be no territorial compromise</a> with the Palestinians. Just as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/01/22/netanyahu-biden-two-state-solution-palestine-river-to-sea/">Palestinians refuse to accept Israel as a Jewish state</a>, Netanyahu <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68025945">refuses to accept the idea of a Palestinian state</a>.</p>
<p>Netanyahu believed that only through strength would the Palestinians accept Israel, a process that would be <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/22/middleeast/israel-benjamin-netanyahu-cnn-interview-intl/index.html">aided if more and more Arab states normalized relations with Israel</a>, establishing diplomatic and other ties. That normalization reached new heights with the 2020 <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Abraham-Accords">Abraham Accords</a>, the bilateral agreements signed between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain. These agreements were the ultimate vindication of Netanyahu’s regional vision.</p>
<p>It should not be surprising, then, that Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, took place just as Saudi Arabia was <a href="https://apnews.com/article/un-israel-netanyahu-politics-4d07d9fd0413c6893d1ddfb944919ae0">nearing normalization of relations</a> with Israel. In a twisted manner, when the Saudis subsequently backed off the normalization plans, the attack reaffirmed Netanyahu’s broader vision: The Palestinian group that vowed to never recognize Israel <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-02-07/saudi-says-no-ties-with-israel-unless-gaza-aggression-halted">made sure that Arab recognition of Israel would fail</a>. </p>
<p>The Hamas attack gave Netanyahu an opportunity to reassert Israel’s – and Jabotinsky’s – Iron Wall. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/12/12/israel-gaza-hamas-biden-netanyahu/">The massive and wantonly destructive war that Netanyahu has led</a> against Hamas and Gaza since that date is the Iron Wall in its most elemental manifestation: unleashing overwhelming force as a signal that no territorial compromise with the Arabs over historical Palestine is possible. Or, as Netanyahu has repeatedly said in recent weeks, there will be no ceasefire until there’s a complete Israeli victory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/225936/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Kaplan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The destructive force that Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu has unleashed in Gaza is rooted in a century-old ideology that says overwhelming power is how Israel should deal with Palestinians.Eran Kaplan, Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies, San Francisco State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2220552024-02-08T21:17:53Z2024-02-08T21:17:53ZThe war in Gaza is wiping out Palestine’s education and knowledge systems<p>Gaza’s education system has suffered significantly since Israel’s bombardment and assault on the strip began. Last month, Israel <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68023080">blew up</a> Gaza’s last standing university, Al-Israa University.</p>
<p>In the past four months, all or parts of Gaza’s <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/24/how-israel-has-destroyed-gazas-schools-and-universities#:%7E:text=Palestinian%20news%20agency%20Wafa%20reported,university%20in%20Gaza%20in%20stages.">12 universities</a> have been bombed and mostly destroyed. </p>
<p>Approximately <a href="https://reliefweb.int/report/occupied-palestinian-territory/hostilities-gaza-strip-and-israel-flash-update-102-enarhe">378 schools</a> have been destroyed or damaged. The Palestinian Ministry of Education has reported the deaths of over <a href="https://www.unicef.org/media/151126/file/State-of-Palestine-Humanitarian-Situation-Report-No.15-(Escalation)-17-January-2024.pdf">4,327 students, 231 teachers</a> and <a href="https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/6108/Israel-kills-dozens-of-academics,-destroys-every-university-in-the-Gaza-Strip">94 professors.</a></p>
<p>Numerous <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/?fbclid=IwAR1VqwE8t9HEb46IFQDPJhl8ZFReHyyzgCAXjPfMPIGoThfbSXBEsy-Trog">cultural heritage sites</a>, including libraries, archives and museums, have also been destroyed, damaged and plundered.</p>
<p>But the assault on Palestinian educational and cultural institutions did not begin in response to the Oct. 7 attack. Israel has a long record of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/430540">targeted attacks</a> on Palestinian institutions that produce knowledge and culture. That history includes targeting and <a href="https://yam.ps/page-11801-en.html">assassinating</a> Palestinian intellectuals, <a href="https://www.aaiusa.org/library/i-knew-ghassan-kanafani">cultural producers</a> and political figures. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/4cY6H8n0zf0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">A video clip shared by ‘The New Arab,’ showing the destruction at Al-Israa University in the Gaza Strip.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What is scholasticide?</h2>
<p>The destruction of education systems and buildings is known as “scholasticide,” a term first coined by Oxford professor Karma Nabulsi during the 2008-2009 Israeli assault on Gaza. Scholasticide describes <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/10/gaza-schools">the systemic destruction of Palestinian education</a> within the context of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1909376">Israel’s decades-long settler colonization and occupation of Palestine</a>.</p>
<p>Recently, a group of scholars working under the name <a href="https://scholarsagainstwar.org/toolkit/">Scholars Against the War on Palestine</a> broadened the definition to include a more comprehensive picture of what is happening during the current war. They outline the intimate relationship between <a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/world/how-israels-scholasticide-denies-palestinians-their-past-present-and-future/article_8f52d77a-b648-11ee-863d-f3411121907b.html">scholasticide and genocide</a>.</p>
<p>They say scholasticide includes the intentional <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/14/a-cultural-genocide-which-of-gazas-heritage-sites-have-been-destroyed">destruction of cultural heritage</a>: archives, libraries and museums. Scholasticide includes killing, causing bodily or mental harm, incarcerating, or systematically harassing educators, students and administrators. It includes besieging, closing or obstructing access to educational institutions. It can also include using universities or schools as a military base (as was done with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68023080">Al-Israa University</a>).</p>
<p>The magnitude of destruction has led them <a href="https://scholarsagainstwar.org/toolkit/">to conclude:</a> “Israeli colonial policy in Gaza has now shifted from a focus on systematic destruction to total annihilation of education.”</p>
<p>As genocide scholar Douglas Irvin-Erickson says: the original definition of genocide as first drafted by <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-edit/10.4324/9781351214100-2/rapha%C3%ABl-lemkin-douglas-irvin-erickson">Raphael Lemkin in 1943</a> included the idea that “attacking a culture was a way of committing genocide, and not a different type of genocide.” </p>
<h2>The International Court of Justice</h2>
<p>During the recent genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), South Africa argued that <a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20231228-app-01-00-en.pdf">Palestinian academics were being intentionally assassinated</a>.</p>
<p>Legal representative for South Africa, Blinne Ní Ghrálaigh, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4f_yoal4gx8">told the court</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Almost 90,000 Palestinian university students cannot attend university in Gaza. Over 60 per cent of schools, almost all universities and countless bookshops and libraries have been damaged and destroyed. Hundreds of teachers and academics have been killed, including deans of universities and leading Palestinian scholars. Obliterating the very future prospects of the future education of Gaza’s children and young people.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://www.icj-cij.org/sites/default/files/case-related/192/192-20240126-sum-01-00-en.pdf">On Jan. 26, in a landmark ruling, the ICJ</a> ordered Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza.</p>
<h2>Attempting to eliminate Palestinian futures</h2>
<p>Scholasticide is not an event. It’s part of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0377919X.2021.1975478">colonial continuum</a> of attacking and destroying a people’s educational life, knowledge systems and plundering material culture and cultural heritage.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2017.46.4.75">targeted killing of the educated class</a> is intended to make it difficult for Palestinians to restore the political and socio-economic conditions needed to survive and rebuild Gaza.</p>
<p>This systematic destruction is at the core of the settler colonial “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/14623520601056240">logic of elimination</a>.” It has also been applied to Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. This <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648833">logic</a> drives a settler population to replace Indigenous peoples in their aim to establish a new society. </p>
<p>For example, this logic was exercised <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/palestine-nakba-9781848139718/">during the 1948 Nakba</a>. Thousands of <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/78440">Palestinian books</a>, manuscripts, libraries, archives, photographs, cultural artifacts and cultural property <a href="https://journal.radicallibrarianship.org/index.php/journal/article/view/54">were looted, destroyed or damaged</a> by Zionist militias. In 1948, <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine/Ilan-Pappe/9781851685554">Palestinian schools were destroyed or damaged</a> or later appropriated for use by the new Israeli state. </p>
<h2>Resistance: Palestinian history and culture</h2>
<p>Despite the ongoing attempts to erase Palestinian history, culture and memory, Palestinians have found ways to resist their erasure. In the 1960s and ‘70s, <a href="https://palestinianstudies.org/workshops/2023/palestinian-revolutionary-tradition-and-global-anti-colonialism">an anti-colonial revolutionary tradition</a>, produced and influenced by intellectual and political thought, was strengthened. </p>
<p>It helped to create <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/1650753">infrastructures</a> for the survival, mobilization and development of the Palestinian people and their national movement. It cultivated transnational relationships of solidarity. It helped displaced Palestinians, separated across geographies, to preserve their identity and reorganize themselves politically.</p>
<p>The intellectual and political thought of this period was <a href="https://jps.library.utoronto.ca/index.php/des/article/view/28899">passed onto</a> the generations that followed. It influenced educational and political programs, cultural development and practices of resistance. Especially during the First Intifada from 1987-1993. This enabled Palestinians to stay steadfast in their struggle against colonial violence across time and space. Palestinian education and culture form <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/israels-archaeological-war-palestinian-cultural-heritage">the backbone</a> of the right to self-determination. This is why Israel frequently targets Palestinian education and culture. </p>
<p>Palestinians have endured <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v32/n20/karma-nabulsi/diary">several periods of intense attacks</a> on their cultural and educational life. This includes the June 1967 war, Israel’s 1982 <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jan/06/israel7">invasion of Lebanon during which a number of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s institutions were destroyed</a> and the First and Second Intifadas.</p>
<p>Following Israel’s destruction of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/44746845">the Palestine Research Center in Lebanon in 1982</a>, Palestinian poet <a href="https://letterboxd.com/film/palestinian-identity/">Mahmoud Darwish said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“He who steals land does not surprise us by stealing a library. He who kills thousands of innocent civilians does not surprise us by killing paintings.” </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="A man in glasses wears a suit and tie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=737&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/574465/original/file-20240208-16-vtx98z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The poet Mahmoud Darwish wrote about everyday grief. (Photo is from 1980)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Syrian News Agency/Al Sabah)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2022.2114778">colonial theft</a> continues unabashed. Cultural heritage has been <a href="https://librarianswithpalestine.org/gaza-report-2024/?fbclid=IwAR2QpiHfxSB6939yfyipOLY6zVYTED_rQN7JVxTq33UCinF_-3U1xNuQFzE">annihilated, damaged or plundered</a> in this war. During the bombing of Al-Israa University in January, Israel also targeted the National Museum. Licensed by the Ministry of Antiquities, the museum housed over <a href="https://www.newarab.com/news/israel-obliterates-gazas-last-university-amid-boycott-calls">3,000 rare artifacts, which were looted</a>. </p>
<p>Most academic institutions around the world remain silent about Israel’s scholasticide. But others are speaking out. Globally, this includes <a href="https://lithub.com/israel-has-damaged-or-destroyed-at-least-13-libraries-in-gaza/">Librarians and Archivists with Palestine</a> and some <a href="https://www.brismes.ac.uk/news/destruction-of-palestinian-education-system">academic associations</a> and faculty groups. The ICJ’s recent order to Israel to prevent genocide in Gaza may motivate other scholars and institutions to consider breaking their silence on scholasticide.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/222055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chandni Desai does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Scholars say Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s schools, universities and museums are part of an ongoing project to destroy Palestinian people, identity and ideas.Chandni Desai, Assistant professor, Education, University of TorontoLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2218722024-02-06T19:09:47Z2024-02-06T19:09:47ZExplainer: what is the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?<p>In recent weeks, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2024/01/21/middleeast/netanyahu-palestinian-sovereignty-two-state-solution-intl/index.html">repeated his rejections</a> of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis, saying:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I will not compromise on full Israeli security control over all the territory west of Jordan – and this is contrary to a Palestinian state.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>While Netanyahu has never been in favour of a two-state solution, it has had significant support from governments around the world for decades, including the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2024/01/18/1225309529/the-biden-administration-insists-a-2-state-solution-remains-a-real-possibility">United States</a>, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/20/sunak-reiterates-support-for-two-state-solution-in-meeting-with-abbas">United Kingdom</a>, <a href="https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2024/01/23/israel-palestine-europeans-unite-to-defend-the-idea-of-a-two-state-solution_6457718_4.html#:%7E:text=On%20Monday%2C%20January%2022%2C%20European,Israel%20of%20a%20Palestinian%20state.">European nations</a>, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-19/albanese-dont-abandon-hope-for-two-state-solution/103247366">Australia</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/canada-is-still-committed-israel-palestine-two-state-solution-pm-trudeau-2023-10-20/">Canada</a>, <a href="https://carnegieendowment.org/2023/10/13/arab-perspectives-on-middle-east-crisis-pub-90774">Egypt</a> and others.</p>
<p>However, the two-state solution is now further away than it has ever been, with some even proclaiming it “<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">dead</a>”.</p>
<p>But what actually is the two-state solution and why do so many see this as the only resolution to the conflict?</p>
<h2>What is the two-state solution?</h2>
<p>The two-state solution refers to a plan to create a Palestinian state separate from the state of Israel. The goal is to address Palestinian claims to national self-determination without undermining Israel’s sovereignty.</p>
<p>The first attempt at creating side-by-side states occurred before the independence of Israel in 1948. The year before, the United Nations passed <a href="https://undocs.org/Home/Mobile?FinalSymbol=A%2FRES%2F181(II)&Language=E&DeviceType=Desktop&LangRequested=False">Resolution 181</a> outlining a partition plan that would split the Mandate of Palestine (under British control) into separate Jewish and Arab states.</p>
<p>The UN’s proposed borders never materialised. Shortly after Israel declared independence, Syria, Jordan and Egypt invaded, sparking the first Arab-Israeli war. More than 700,000 Palestinians were <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-how-the-palestinians-were-expelled-from-israel-205151">displaced</a> from the new state of Israel, fleeing to the West Bank, Gaza and surrounding Arab states.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-how-the-palestinians-were-expelled-from-israel-205151">The Nakba: how the Palestinians were expelled from Israel</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>In recent decades, there have been many different views on what shape a Palestinian state should take. The 1949 “green line” was seen by many as the most realistic borders for the respective states. This line was drawn during the armistice agreements between Israel and its neighbours following the 1948 war and is the current boundary between Israel and the West Bank and Gaza.</p>
<p>However, following the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/six-day-war">1967 Six-Day War</a>, Israel captured and occupied the West Bank and Gaza, along with East Jerusalem and Golan Heights. Most current discussions of the two-state solution now refer to creating two states along “the pre-1967 borders”. </p>
<p>This would mean the new Palestinian state would consist of the West Bank prior to Israeli settlement, and Gaza. How Jerusalem would be split, if at all, has been a significant point of contention in this plan.</p>
<h2>Why is statehood so important?</h2>
<p>The kind of statehood referred to in the two-state solution, known as <a href="https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e1472">state sovereignty</a> in international politics, is the authority given to the government of a nation within and over its borders. </p>
<p>State sovereignty was formalised through the League of Nations (the precursor to the UN) and it gives governments complete control to administer laws within their borders, allows them to conduct relations with other states in formal bodies, and protects them from invasion by other states under international law. This status is derived from mutual recognition from other states. </p>
<p>This is something many of us take for granted. The vast majority of people on Earth live in or legally fall under the jurisdiction of a sovereign state. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">Israel-Palestinian conflict: is the two-state solution now dead?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The state of Israel was formally established in 1948 through the political project of <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-hamas-war-what-is-zionism-a-history-of-the-political-movement-that-created-israel-as-we-know-it-217788">Zionism</a> – the movement to establish a Jewish homeland. The aim was to create a sovereign state – with borders, a government and an army – that would give the Jewish people a political voice and a place free from antisemitic violence. </p>
<p>But it was not until other countries established diplomatic ties with Israel – along with its accession to the UN in 1949 – that it achieved <a href="https://legal.un.org/repertory/art2.shtml">state sovereignty</a> similar to other countries. <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/international-recognition-of-israel#google_vignette">More than 160 members</a> of the UN now recognise Israel; those who do not include Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia. </p>
<p>Since the end of the Six-Day War in 1967, more than 5 million Palestinians who are not citizens of another nation have been <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/palestinians-stateless-united-longing-liberation-historians/story?id=103899678#:%7E:text=They%20are%20stateless%2C%20their%20identity,fate%20hanging%20in%20the%20balance.">stateless</a>. The West Bank and Gaza Strip remain in an institutional limbo – best described as semi-autonomous enclaves under the ultimate control of Israel. </p>
<p>While <a href="http://palestineun.org/about-palestine/diplomatic-relations/">139 members of the UN</a> recognise a state of Palestine, the governing bodies in the West Bank and Gaza (the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, respectively) do not have control over their own security or borders. </p>
<p>As such, the self-determination of Palestinians through the creation of a sovereign state has been a cornerstone of Palestinian political action for decades. </p>
<h2>The closest the two sides got – the Oslo Accords</h2>
<p>For a time in the early 1990s, significant progress was being made toward a two-state solution. Negotiations began largely as a result of Palestinian uprisings across the West Bank and Gaza. Beginning in 1987, they were known as the <a href="https://www.btselem.org/statistics/first_intifada_tables">First Intifada</a>. </p>
<p>In 1993, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and the head of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) Yasser Arafat met in Oslo and signed <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IL%20PS_930913_DeclarationPrinciplesnterimSelf-Government%28Oslo%20Accords%29.pdf">the first of two agreements</a> called the Oslo Accords. At the time, this was not seen as a meeting between equals. Rabin was head of a sovereign state and Arafat was leader of an organisation that had been designated a terror group by the US.</p>
<p>But the leaders were able to formalise an agreement, following major concessions from both sides, that laid the groundwork for the creation of a separate Palestinian state. While the accord did not expressly mention the 1967 borders, it did refer to “a settlement based on <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/middle-east-resolution242">UN Security Council Resolution 242</a>” in 1967, which called for the withdrawal of Israel’s armed forces “from territories occupied in the recent conflict”. Arafat, Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres all received <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1994/summary/">Nobel Peace Prizes</a> afterwards.</p>
<p>The Oslo II Accord was signed in 1995, detailing the <a href="https://theconversation.com/understanding-the-history-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-in-5-charts-216165">subdivision of administrative areas in the occupied territories</a>. The West Bank, in particular, was divided into parcels that were controlled by Israel, the Palestinian Authority or a joint operation – the first step toward handing over land in the occupied territories to the Palestinian Authority.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-954" class="tc-infographic" height="400px" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/954/a5d24879b7e2bd363807769879e7fac1913f35d8/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>But just six weeks later, Rabin was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/31/assassination-yitzhak-rabin-never-knew-his-people-shot-him-in-back">shot dead by a Jewish nationalist</a> aggrieved by the concessions made by Israel. </p>
<p>Negotiations between the two sides slowed and political will began to sour. And over the next few decades, the two-state solution has only become harder to achieve for various reasons, including:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>the rise of conservative governments in Israel and lack of effective political pressure from the US </p></li>
<li><p>the shrinking political influence of the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas and the rise of Hamas in Gaza, which caused a political split between the two Palestinian territories</p></li>
<li><p>Hamas’ vows to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/hamas-gaza-palestinian-authority-israel-war-ed7018dbaae09b81513daf3bda38109a">annihilate Israel</a> and refusal to recognise the Israeli state as legitimate</p></li>
<li><p>the continued growth of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which has turned the territory into an ever-shrinking series of small enclaves connected by military checkpoints</p></li>
<li><p>dwindling support among both <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestinian-conflict-is-the-two-state-solution-now-dead-221967">Israelis</a> and <a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/512828/palestinians-lack-faith-biden-two-state-solution.aspx#:%7E:text=Younger%20Palestinians%20report%20less%20support,those%20aged%2046%20and%20older.">Palestinians</a> for the model</p></li>
<li><p>continued political violence on both sides.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>And of course there is Netanyahu – no individual has done more to undermine the two-state solution than the current Israeli leader and his party. In 2010, a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/jul/26/binyamin-netanyahu-tape-israeli-palestinian-politics">leaked recording from 2001</a> came to light where Netanyahu claimed to have “de facto put an end to the Oslo accords”.</p>
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<h2>What alternatives are there?</h2>
<p>There aren’t many alternatives and all of them have significant problems. </p>
<p>Some are now advocating for a “one-state solution,” in which Israeli citizenship would be granted to Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to create a democratic, ethnically pluralist state. </p>
<p>Although Arabs already make up around 20% of Israel’s current population, the one-state solution would not be politically feasible. According to Zionist ideology, Israel must always remain a <a href="https://www.american.edu/sis/news/20231121-what-is-the-one-state-solution-and-why-is-it-unlikely-to-work.cfm">majority Jewish state</a> and granting Palestinians citizenship in the occupied territories would undermine this.</p>
<p>Another kind of one-state solution is not feasible for a different reason. The most far-right ministers in Israel’s parliament <a href="https://hashiloach.org.il/israels-decisive-plan/">have championed</a> an idea to expand complete sovereign control over the West Bank and Gaza and encourage mass Jewish settlement in these areas. Such action would draw the ire of the international community and human rights organisations and would be seen as tantamount to ethnic cleansing. </p>
<p>The other option is the status quo. The Hamas attack on October 7 and subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza have shown us that this is not a solution either.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/221872/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The two sides got very close to a deal in the 1990s but have drifted apart since then.Andrew Thomas, Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2209952024-01-29T13:34:35Z2024-01-29T13:34:35ZWhen is criticism of Israel antisemitic? A scholar of modern Jewish history explains<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/571686/original/file-20240126-15-ohdmpw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=110%2C12%2C2573%2C1797&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Antisemitic incidents have spiked in recent months.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/BelgiumIsraelPalestiniansProtest/f1dde9aed49c452ebb9ecea51d4a80a8/photo?Query=protests%20against%20anti%20semitism%202023&amp;mediaType=photo&amp;sortBy=&amp;dateRange=Anytime&amp;totalCount=237&amp;digitizationType=Digitized&amp;currentItemNo=45&amp;vs=true&amp;vs=true">AP Photo/Nicolas Landemard</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There has been a <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/antisemitism-rise-us-amid-ongoing-israel-hamas-war/story?id=104485604">sharp increase in antisemitism around the world</a> since the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/timeline-surprise-rocket-attack-hamas-israel/story?id=103816006">Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas</a> and Israel’s subsequent military attacks in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The apparent connection of this spike to many countries’ condemnation of Israel’s response has brought renewed focus on the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. When does criticism of Israel “cross the line” to antisemitism, and when is it a legitimate political expression? </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://charleston.edu/jewish/index.php">scholar of modern Jewish history</a>, antisemitism and Zionism, I suggest that the key to understanding that relationship begins with understanding antisemitism itself. </p>
<h2>History of antisemitism</h2>
<p>Anti-Jewish animosity is certainly not new — it dates to antiquity. The early Christian church attacked Jews for rejecting Christ and blamed them collectively for crucifying him. </p>
<p>The Gospel of John in the New Testament <a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/r/rsv/rsv-idx?type=citation&book=John&chapno=8&startverse=44&endverse=#:%7E:text=%5B44%5D%20You%20are%20of%20your,and%20the%20father%20of%20lies">was particularly vitriolic</a>, accusing Jews of being Satan’s children. The fourth century church father John Chrysostom <a href="https://www.tertullian.org/fathers/chrysostom_adversus_judaeos_01_homily1.htm">called them demons intent on sacrificing the souls of men</a>. </p>
<p>Medieval Christians added other myths, such as the <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Blood_Libels_and_Host_Desecration_Accusations">infamous blood libel</a> – the lie that Jews ritually murdered Christian children for their blood. Other myths accused them of poisoning wells, of desecrating the consecrated host of the Eucharist to reenact the murder of Christ; some even claimed that they had <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1876-0510-518">inhuman biology such as horns or that they suckled</a> at the teats of pigs. </p>
<p>Such lies led to violent persecution of Jews over many centuries. </p>
<h2>Modern antisemitism</h2>
<p>In the 19th century, these myths were supplanted by the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-racial-antisemitism-18751945">additional element of race</a> — the claim that Jewishness was immutable and could not be changed via conversion. Though this idea first appeared in 15th-century Spain, it was deeply connected to the rise of modern nationalism.</p>
<p>Nineteenth century ethno-nationalists rejected the idea of a political nation united in a social contract with each other. They began imagining the nation as a biological community <a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780199874002/obo-9780199874002-0232.xml">linked by common descent</a> in which Jews might be tolerated but could never truly belong. </p>
<p>Finally, in 1879, the German journalist Wilhelm Marr <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/wilhelm-marr-9780195040050?cc=us&lang=en&">coined the term “antisemitism</a>” to reflect that his anti-Jewish ideology was based on race, not religion. He chose the term because he imagined the Jews as a foreign, “semitic” race, referring to the language group that includes Hebrew. The term has since persisted to mean specifically anti-Jewish hostility or prejudice.</p>
<h2>The myth of a Jewish conspiracy</h2>
<p>Modern antisemitism built on those premodern foundations, which never completely disappeared, but was fundamentally different. It emerged as part of the new politics of the democratic modern era. </p>
<p>Antisemitism became the core platform of <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/books/9780674771666">new political parties</a>, which used it to unite otherwise opposing groups such as shopkeepers and farmers, anxious about the modernizing world. In other words, it was not merely prejudice – it was a <a href="https://academic.oup.com/leobaeck/article-abstract/23/1/25/944572?redirectedFrom=fulltext">worldview</a> that explained the entire world to its believers by blaming all of its faults on this scapegoat. </p>
<p>Unlike anti-Jewish hatred in this past, this was less about religion, that Jews rejected Christ, and more about political and social issues. Antisemites believed the <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1057/9780230349216_5">conspiracy theory</a> that Jews all over the world controlled the levers of government, media and banking, and that defeating them would solve society’s problems. </p>
<p>Thus, one of the most important features of modern antisemitic mythology was the belief that Jews constituted a single, malevolent group, with one mind, organized for the purpose of conquering and destroying the world. </p>
<h2>Negative traits attributed to Jews</h2>
<p>Antisemitic books and cartoons often used <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/photo/anti-jewish-propaganda">claws or tentacles</a> to symbolize the “<a href="https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/the-international-jew-the-worlds-foremost-problem">international Jew</a>,” a shadowy figure they blamed for leading a global conspiracy, strangling and destroying society. Others depicted him as a puppet master running the world.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1710320257343119513"}"></div></p>
<p>In the late 19th century, Edmond Rothschild, head of the most famous Jewish banking family, was villainized as the <a href="https://www.theholocaustexplained.org/anti-semitism/modern-anti-semitism/">symbol of international Jewish wealth</a> and nefarious power. </p>
<p>Today, it is typically the billionaire liberal philanthropist George Soros who is <a href="https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/puppet-master">often portrayed in similar ways</a>. Caricatures of Soros portray him as a puppet master <a href="https://forward.com/fast-forward/554021/donald-trump-george-soros-antisemitic-imagery-puppet-master/">secretly controlling all levers of government</a>, media, <a href="https://twitter.com/kohenari/status/1280132289004011520/photo/1">the economy</a> and even foreign migration. </p>
<p>This myth that Jews constitute an international creature plotting to harm the nation has inspired massacres of Jews since the 19th century, <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/Pogroms">beginning with the Russian pogroms of 1881</a> and leading up to the Holocaust. </p>
<p>More recently, in 2018, Robert Bowers murdered 11 Jews at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh because he was convinced that Jews, collectively under the guidance of Soros, were <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/a-conspiracy-theory-about-george-soros-and-a-migrant-caravan-inspired-horror/2018/10/28/52df587e-dae6-11e8-b732-3c72cbf131f2_story.html">working to destroy America</a> by facilitating the <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/great-replacement-explainer?gad_source=1&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIhJWQjKSAhAMVqVdHAR32MQLOEAAYAiAAEgK0Z_D_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds">mass migration of nonwhite people</a> into the country. </p>
<p>Modern antisemites ascribe many immutable negative traits to Jews, but two are particularly widespread. First, Jews are said to be ruthless misers who <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/arts/design/jews-money-myth-antisemitism-exhibition-london.html">care more about their ill-gotten wealth</a> than the interests of their countries. Second, Jews’ loyalty to their countries is considered suspect because they are said to constitute a foreign element. </p>
<p>Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, this hatred has focused on the accusation that Jews’ primary loyalty is to Israel, not the countries they live in.</p>
<h2>Antisemitism and anti-Zionism</h2>
<p>In recent years, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism has taken on renewed importance. <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/content/dam/cmenas-assets/cmenas-documents/unit-of-israel-palestine/Section1_Zionism.pdf">Zionism</a> has many factions but roughly refers to the modern political movement that argues Jews constitute a nation and have a right to self-determination in that land.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/2023-05-02/ty-article/.premium/adl-chief-focuses-major-speech-on-anti-zionism-and-threats-to-orthodox-education/00000187-dd19-dea8-af97-dfb91cb20000">Some activists claim</a> that anti-Zionism – ideological opposition to Zionism – is inherently antisemitic because they equate it with denying Jews the right to self-determination and therefore equality.</p>
<p>Others feel that <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/knxam-on-demand/anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism-are-they-always-the?t=0s">there needs to be a clearer separation</a> between the two, that not all criticism of Israel is anti-Zionist, and not all anti-Zionism is antisemitic. </p>
<p>Zionism in practice has meant the achievement of a flourishing safe haven for Jews, but also led to dislocation or inequality for millions of Palestinians, including refugees, West Bank Palestinians who still live under military rule, and even Palestinian citizens of Israel who face legal and social discrimination. Anti-Zionism opposes this, and <a href="https://omny.fm/shows/knxam-on-demand/anti-semitism-and-anti-zionism-are-they-always-the?t=0s">critics argue</a> that it should not be labeled antisemitic unless it taps into those antisemitic myths or otherwise calls for violence or inequality for Jews.</p>
<p>This debate is clearly evident in the competing definitions of antisemitism that have recently emerged. Three have gained particular prominence. The first was the so-called “<a href="https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism">working definition</a>” of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, or the IHRA, published in 2016. </p>
<p>In response, an academic task force <a href="https://israelandantisemitism.com/the-nexus-document/">published the Nexus definition</a> in 2021, followed by the <a href="https://jerusalemdeclaration.org/">Jerusalem Declaration</a> that same year, the latter signed by hundreds of international scholars of antisemitism. </p>
<p>Remarkably, all three definitions tend to agree on the nature of antisemitism in most areas except the relationship of anti-Israel rhetoric to antisemitism. The IHRA’s definition, which is by design <a href="https://kennethsstern.com/the-conflict-over-the-conflict/">vague and open to interpretation</a>, allows for a wider swath of anti-Israel activism to be labeled antisemitic than the others. </p>
<p>The Jerusalem Declaration, in contrast, understands rhetoric to have “crossed the line” only when it engages in antisemitic mythology, blames diaspora Jews for the actions of the Israeli state, or calls for the oppression of Jews in Israel. Thus, for example, IHRA defenders use that definition to label a <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/media-watch/dissolve-jewish-state-peter-beinart-wrong">call for binational democracy</a> – meaning citizenship for West Bank Palestinians – to be antisemitic. Likewise, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/10/27/antisemitism-left-rising/">they label boycotts</a> even of West Bank settlements that most of the world calls illegal to be antisemitic. The Jerusalem Declaration would not do so. </p>
<p>In other words, the key to identifying whether anti-Israel discourse has masked antisemitism is to see evidence of the antisemitic mythology. For example, if Israel is described as part of an international conspiracy or if it holds the key to solving global problems, all three definitions agree this is antisemitic. </p>
<p>Equally, if Jews or Jewish institutions are held responsible for Israeli actions or are expected to take a stand one way or another regarding them, again all three definitions agree this “crosses the line” because it is based on the myth of a global Jewish conspiracy. </p>
<p>Critically, for many Jews in the diaspora, Zionism is not primarily a political argument about the state of Israel. For many Jews, it <a href="https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/zionism/9780813576091/">constitutes a generic sense of Jewish identity and pride</a>, even a religious identity. In contrast, many protests against Israel and Zionism are focused not on ideology but on the actual state and its real or alleged actions. </p>
<p>This disconnect can lead to confusion if protests conflate Jews with Israel just because they are Zionist, which is antisemitic. On the other hand, Jews sometimes take protests against Israel in defense of Palestinian rights to be attacks on their Zionist identity and thus antisemitic, when they are not. There are certainly <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/2/from-the-river-to-the-sea-what-does-the-palestinian-slogan-really-mean">gray areas</a>, but in general calls for Palestinian equality, I believe, are legitimate even when they upset Zionist identities. </p>
<p>In my view, antisemitism must be identified and fought, but so too must efforts to squash legitimate protest of Israel by conflating it with antisemitism. By understanding the mythology underlying antisemitism, hopefully both can be accomplished.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220995/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Shanes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In recent years, the relationship between antisemitism and anti-Zionism has taken on renewed importance and competing definitions of antisemitism have emerged. What is antisemitism?Joshua Shanes, Professor of Jewish Studies, College of CharlestonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2206022024-01-05T16:14:35Z2024-01-05T16:14:35ZIsraeli government riven with division over future of Gaza after far-right calls to expel Palestinians<p>After more than 90 days of war in Gaza, in which at least 22,000 Palestinians <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/1/5/israel-war-on-gaza-live-israel-attacks-bombard-khan-younis-rafah#">are reported</a> to have been killed, Israeli officials have shifted their attention to what happens once the fighting has ceased.</p>
<p>There has been considerable controversy over proposals from far-right members of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-780229">Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich</a>. The pair, who Netanyahu needed to include in his coalition to form a government last year, have advocated for Palestinians in Gaza to be resettled in countries around the world, making space for Israeli civilians to reoccupy the area.</p>
<p>Israel’s allies, who have thus far supported its war aims, have been <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-uk-slam-inflammatory-call-by-israeli-minister-smotrich-voluntary-emigration-of-gaza/">quick to condemn the proposal</a>. The United States released <a href="https://www.state.gov/rejection-of-irresponsible-statements-on-resettlement-of-palestinians-outside-of-gaza/">a press statement</a> on January 2 rejecting the plan as “inflammatory and irresponsible”. Washington confirmed its support for Gaza as Palestinian land. The statement further claimed that Netanyahu had reassured the US that the proposal does not reflect government policy.</p>
<p>But while Smotrich and Ben Gvir represent the most extreme factions of Israel’s ruling coalition and were frozen out of the war cabinet, it would be unwise to dismiss their comments as merely another <a href="https://theconversation.com/death-in-jenin-israels-biggest-attack-in-the-west-bank-in-20-years-is-down-to-netanyahus-political-weakness-heres-why-209164">incident of incitement against Palestinians</a>. </p>
<p>The pair have the power to bring down the ruling coalition and Netanyahu if their demands are not heeded. And they have considerable support within the settler movement, which has been influential in the policy and practice of settlement building throughout Israel’s history.</p>
<p>And it is also important to note that proposals to relocate Palestinians from the Gaza Strip were initially proposed by Israeli lawmakers considered to be more moderate. </p>
<h2>‘West should welcome Gaza refugees’</h2>
<p>In an <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-west-should-welcome-gaza-refugees-asylum-seekers-hamas-terrorism-displacement-5d2b5890">op-ed in the Wall Street Journal</a> on November 13, 2023, two Israeli lawmakers – former Israeli ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon and centre-left politician Ram Ben-Barak, formerly deputy director of Mossad, wrote that countries around the world should accept some of Gaza’s population who “have expressed a desire to relocate”. </p>
<p>They criticised the international community for not fulfilling “their moral imperative” to “help civilians caught in the crisis”.</p>
<p>Intelligence minister, Gila Gamliel – who represents Likud, the mainstream conservative nationalist party led by Netanyahu – reiterated this proposal in an <a href="https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-773713">article in the Jerusalem Post</a> on November 19, 2023. She referred to Gaza as “a breeding ground for extremism” and called for the “voluntary resettlement” of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>Both these proposals suggested humanitarian concerns for Palestinians alongside security concerns for Israelis. But others who also support the plan do so out of strong religious ideology.</p>
<h2>Return of the settlers?</h2>
<p>As documented by political geographer <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30245772">David Newman</a>, the Israeli settler movement mainly comprises religious Zionists who believe the greater land of Israel was promised to the Jewish people by God. In light of this, many believe that settling the land is an opportunity to fulfil God’s promise.</p>
<p>Following the 1967 and 1974 wars, they rejected those who believed returning land to the Arab countries would secure peace. Instead they advocated for the establishment of Israeli settlements to ensure the land was never relinquished. They have had <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/israeli-settler-movement/40C60D52DD841AB3D3A07F234654B84C">significant influence</a> on Israeli policy and practice and now find themselves represented in the corridors of power by Smotrich and Ben Gvir. </p>
<p>The movement was dealt a severe blow following the decision by former prime minister Ariel Sharon’s <a href="https://embassies.gov.il/MFA/AboutIsrael/Maps/Pages/Israels%20Disengagement%20Plan-%202005.aspx#:%7E:text=Israel's%20plan%20of%20unilateral%20disengagement,peace%20negotiations%20with%20the%20Palestinians.">disengagement plan</a> in 2005. Sharon evicted about 8,000 Israeli settlers from 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip. </p>
<p>Settlers have been quick to respond to the current conflict, seeing it as an opportunity to fulfil the religious promise. At the end of December last year, the leader of the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/settler-group-openly-planning-establishment-of-3-illegal-outposts-next-week/">Nachala Israeli settlement movement</a>, Daniella Weiss, appeared on mainstream television calling for Palestinians to be cleared from Gaza. </p>
<p>This was so that Israeli settlers “can see the sea … There will be no homes, there will be no Arabs – it’s just an elegant way of saying, I want to see the sea.” She declared that Gaza City had always been “one of the cities of Israel. We’re just going back. There was a historical mistake and now we are fixing it.”</p>
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<p>What these positions fail to fundamentally understand is the deep connection Palestinians have to the land and their steadfastness in remaining there. </p>
<h2>Deep divisions</h2>
<p>Weiss’s position – and the aspirations of the settler movement – appear to have been dealt a setback by Israeli defence minister, Yoav Gallant, who has <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/gallants-post-war-gaza-plan-palestinians-to-run-civil-affairs-with-global-task-force/">presented his plans</a> for Gaza after the destruction of Hamas. </p>
<p>On January 5, he said: “Gaza residents are Palestinian, therefore Palestinian bodies will be in charge, with the condition that there will be no hostile actions or threats against the State of Israel.” Gallant further proposed that there should be no Israeli civil presence in Gaza. </p>
<p>An account in the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/meeting-on-post-war-gaza-ends-in-fracas-as-ministers-snipe-at-idf-chief-over-probe/">Times of Israel</a> said that the cabinet meeting at which Gallant outlined his proposal ended in acrimony, exposing the deep divisions in Netanyahu’s government.</p>
<p>Gallant’s proposal comes days before US secretary of state Antony Blinken is due to visit to discuss “transitioning to the next phase” of the war. The proposal has been presented to the US administration, although it does not yet form <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/05/israel-defence-minister-yoav-gallant-gaza-plan-after-war-hamas-palestine-control-antony-blinken-visit">official policy</a>. </p>
<p>As attention turns towards the end of the hostilities, Netanyahu will have a difficult juggling act in placating the different factions of his coalition and the Israeli public, as well as satisfying demands from the US. What is missing from the discussions thus far is the voice of the Palestinians – which must be put at the centre of any future solutions.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/220602/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Leonie Fleischmann does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Israel’s settler movement, which is already sparking sectarian violence in the West Bank, is laying claim to the Gaza Strip – with support from some senior politicians.Leonie Fleischmann, Senior Lecturer in International Politics, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177882023-12-10T19:07:59Z2023-12-10T19:07:59ZIsrael-Hamas war: What is Zionism? A history of the political movement that created Israel as we know it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/563170/original/file-20231204-18-7z6q3v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C24%2C5439%2C3612&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/jewish-community-marches-support-israel-conflict-2375353631">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the Israel-Hamas war continues, there’s been a lot of discussion around Zionism.</p>
<p>Put simply, Zionism is a nationalist movement that advocates for a homeland for the Jewish people in the <a href="https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/old-testament-student-manual-genesis-2-samuel/joshua-1-24-the-entry-into-the-promised-land?lang=eng">Biblical Land of Israel</a>. It is the organisation of ideas that actively sought and achieved the existence of the Israeli state in 1948. </p>
<p>Basically, political Zionism underpins the country we today call Israel. </p>
<p>It’s a movement that encompasses a broad spectrum of political beliefs with common objectives at its centre. But perhaps more than other political movements, Zionism has evolved over time.</p>
<p>So what is the history of Zionism, and what has that evolution looked like?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/on-its-75th-birthday-israel-still-cant-agree-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-jewish-state-and-a-democracy-204770">On its 75th birthday, Israel still can't agree on what it means to be a Jewish state and a democracy</a>
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<h2>Where did Zionism come from?</h2>
<p>There are biblical underpinnings to Zionism, as religious Zionists often reference God promising the <a href="https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.12.niv">Land of Canaan to Abraham</a> and his descendants – the Israelites – and renaming it the Land of Israel. </p>
<p>For various reasons, Jews decided to relocate to Ottoman Palestine towards the end of the 19th century. The first mass migration (known as the <em>First Aliyah</em>) occurred between 1882 and 1903. Between 15,000 and 25,000 Jews migrated, essentially doubling the region’s Jewish population at the time.</p>
<p>However, the beginnings of modern Zionism are secular and constructed through political philosophy.</p>
<p>Although many Zionist ideas predate his works, Theodore Herzl is considered the father of modern Zionism as he was the first to set out its political aims clearly. </p>
<p>Herzl was raised in a secular Jewish household in Hungary. In Vienna, he had a brief career as a lawyer before becoming a journalist and writer of plays and literature. Initially, he firmly believed European Jews should assimilate into European culture, and he held this view for much of his early life. </p>
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<span class="caption">Theodore Herzl is considered to be the father of Zionism.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/theodor-herzl-portrait-israeli-banknotes-1340277164">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>But his views changed after witnessing <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Dreyfus-affair">antisemitic riots in Paris</a> in 1895. He decided antisemitism was not something that could ever be defeated. Instead, he encouraged European Jews to abandon the continent and create their own national home.</p>
<p>In his 1896 work <a href="https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_iyxWAAAAYAAJ">Der Judenstaat: Versuch einer modernen Lösung der Judenfrage</a> (The Jewish State: Proposal of a modern solution for the Jewish question), he argues Jews possess a national identity that should be embraced. </p>
<p>However, he said, they would never be safe from antisemitism unless they lived in a community in which they were the majority. </p>
<h2>A Jewish state in the Middle East</h2>
<p>In his diaries, Herzl mused about many places a Jewish state could take shape. This homeland would be outside Europe, potentially in Latin America. But by 1904, Herzl began to focus on the Promised Land (<em>Eretz Yisrael</em>) in the Middle East “<a href="https://ia903407.us.archive.org/2/items/the-complete-diaries-of-theodor-herzl/The%20Complete%20Diaries%20of%20Theodor%20Herzl.pdf">from the brook of Egypt to the Euphrates (in Iraq)</a>”.</p>
<p>In the early 1900s, this area was controlled by the Ottoman Empire, and Herzl met with Ottoman dignitaries multiple times to lobby the Zionist cause. </p>
<p>Herzl’s vision is considered by many as <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/actually-herzl-was-a-colonialist/#:%7E:text=But%20the%20truth%20is%20quite%20the%20opposite.%20Herzl%E2%80%99s,%E2%80%93%20whose%20land%20he%20claimed%20and%20renamed%20Rhodesia.">eurocentric and colonial</a> with regard to the to the native Palestinian population.</p>
<p>But given that Jews are also originally native to this land, <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/allegation-israel-settler-colonialist-enterprise">the Anti Defamation League (ADL)</a> argues that the establishment of a Jewish state in Israel is not a form of settler colonialism.</p>
<p>It can be argued that political Zionism exhibits <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article-abstract/134/569/1049/5475933">both anticolonial and colonial aspirations</a>. </p>
<p>On one hand, it seeks to give self-determination to the Jewish people in a land to which they were once native. On the other, given early Zionists were trying to convince European colonial powers to create the Jewish national home, it adopted some colonial rationalisations and often saw the existing population, <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-arab-and-jewish-questions/9780231199216">both Arabs and native Jews</a>, as inferior.</p>
<p>Herzl rarely wrote about Arabs or other native populations, and when he did, he mused about how much their <a href="https://archive.org/details/the-complete-diaries-of-theodor-herzl">lives would be improved</a> by the best of European and Jewish culture. </p>
<h2>A growing political force</h2>
<p>As Jewish migration began to gather steam, Zionism became more politically influential internationally. </p>
<p>But as the first world war drew to a close, there were large geopolitical shifts in the region. The Ottoman Empire’s power was waning, and the British would eventually end up in control of Jordan and Palestine in 1919. </p>
<p>In 1917, in an effort to undermine Ottoman control, the British implicitly supported the existence of a Jewish homeland in the <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/balfour-declaration-1778163">Balfour Declaration</a>: </p>
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<p>His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people.</p>
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<p>The British would later renege on the declaration in 1939, saying it was no longer British government policy to support a Jewish homeland.</p>
<p>As British colonial rule continued, not all Zionist action was peaceful. Paramilitary organisations such as Ze'ev Jabotinsky’s <em>Irgun</em> and the <em>Lehi</em> (also known as the “Stern Gang”) conducted bombings and attacks against the <a href="https://historynewsnetwork.org/article/163448">colonial British</a>.</p>
<p>These groups would perpetrate the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/9/the-deir-yassin-massacre-why-it-still-matters-75-years-later">Deir Yassin massacre</a> in 1948, killing more than 100 Palestinians near Jerusalem.</p>
<p>But it was the rise of Nazism in Europe and the Holocaust that solidified Zionism as a movement globally. </p>
<p>Jews fleeing Europe to settlements in Palestine (then under British rule) led to the Jewish population rising from 50,000 in the early 1900s to an estimated <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/aliyah-bet-1939-1948">650,000 by 1948</a>. </p>
<p>Jewish calls for a “national home” turned into <a href="https://nes.princeton.edu/publications/power-faith-and-fantasy-america-middle-east-1776-present">calls for a Jewish Commonwealth</a> with full sovereign authority over its lands.</p>
<p>The central goal of Zionism was achieved on May 14 1948, with new Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion declaring the establishment of the state of Israel. </p>
<p>The war of independence followed within hours. Some 700,000 Palestinians fled to the West Bank (then belonging to Jordan), Gaza (a part of Egypt) and the neighbouring Arab states. This is known among Palestinians as the <em>Nakba</em>; the Arabic word for “catastrophe”, and the point at which Palestinians lost the potential for self-determination. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-the-us-israel-special-relationship-shows-how-connections-have-shifted-since-long-before-the-1948-founding-of-the-jewish-state-215781">A brief history of the US-Israel 'special relationship' shows how connections have shifted since long before the 1948 founding of the Jewish state</a>
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<h2>Zionism in the current world</h2>
<p>Over the decades, Zionism has changed considerably as new political questions raised themselves. With the state of Israel established, what should the state look like and how should it protect itself from its foreign adversaries?</p>
<p>One of these questions is: how should Zionism respond to Palestinian self-determination? </p>
<p>The annexation of the West Bank by Jordan and Gaza by Egypt after the war of independence seemed to answer this question in the short term. Israel offered citizenship to some Palestinians, who make up just under 20% of Israel’s population today. They are Israel’s largest minority and have often struggled with <a href="https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/what-know-about-arab-citizens-israel">political representation and socio-economic outcomes</a>. </p>
<p>But Israel’s swift defeat of Jordan, Syria and Egypt in the 1967 <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461">Six Day War</a> changed political realities again. Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza, along with the millions of Palestinians living there - but they were not offered citizenship. This has left the Palestinians stateless.</p>
<p>This raised a question that has still not been adequately answered today: does an effective application of Zionism mean statelessness for Palestinians?</p>
<p>There are different schools of thought on this.</p>
<p>For liberal and modern Labor Zionists, factions that include members of the Yesh Atid party and the late former Prime Minister Ben-Gurion, the answer is no. They implicitly reject the idea that Palestinian and Jewish self-determination are at odds with one another. </p>
<p>For them, a political solution to the conflict is essential. For a long time they advocated for a two-state solution - the creation of a state of Palestine completely independent from Israel. The Palestinian Authority would transition into a state government with sovereignty over its land.</p>
<p>But some liberal Zionists have abandoned this idea, stating the only sustainable option is to offer <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/08/opinion/israel-annexation-two-state-solution.html">Palestinians equal rights and citizenship in Israel</a>, challenging the idea that the home of the Jewish people must be a Jewish state. </p>
<p>This is because of a combination of the failure to transition the West Bank and Gaza into a Palestinian state, and the contradiction of freedom for Israelis and statelessness for Palestinians.</p>
<p>Although the political power of liberal and Labor Zionism in the Knesset (Israel’s Parliament) has waned, it is certainly alive and well in Israeli civil society. For example, <a href="https://www.btselem.org/about_btselem">B'Tselem</a>, the legacy of left wing Zionist Yossi Sarid, has been very active in documenting instances of apartheid and settler violence in the West Bank.</p>
<p>In short, Zionism does not preclude someone from being critical of the policies of the Israeli government.</p>
<p>However, for many nationalist, conservative religious and revisionist Zionists, Palestinian self-determination anywhere west of the River Jordan is a direct threat to the Jewish state. They, therefore, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/18/opinion/benjamin-netanyahu-israel.html">do not support Palestinian independence</a>. </p>
<p>This form of Zionism has become the dominant form in Israeli politics today.</p>
<p>Under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, this approach has transcended rhetoric and become legislation in <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/final-text-of-jewish-nation-state-bill-set-to-become-law/">Israel’s Nation State Law</a> of 2018, which legally enshrines unique Jewish sovereignty in the state of Israel and settlement as a “national value”. </p>
<p>It is this kind of Zionism that has informed Israel’s response to Palestinian action - both political and violent - for decades. </p>
<p>It has attempted to justify the blockade of Gaza, the forcible transfer of Palestinians in the West Bank, bans on political speech, mandatory detention without trial, and disproportionate violence as policy solutions to Israeli-Palestinian tensions.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
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<p>After the Hamas attacks on October 7, ultra-nationalist ministers have become loud and influential voices. With the help of the prime minister, their brand of Zionism has ensured that a political solution with the Palestinians is out of reach.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding his colonial aspirations and attitudes toward Palestinian natives, Herzl made at least some attempts to reconcile his views with liberal values and democracy. In his novel <em><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41447384-altneuland">Altneuland</a></em> (The Old New Land) he envisaged that non-Jews would have the same rights as Jews in a democracy. </p>
<p>Contrast that with today, where the most powerful Zionist voices see liberal democracy – and the Palestinians – as an obstacle to security of the Israeli state. </p>
<p><em>Correction: this article has been amended to say the First Aliyah ended in 1903. It previously said the First Aliyah ended in 1901.The article has also been amended to reflect that Palestinians have never historically had self-determination.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217788/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Thomas does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Political Zionism underpins the country we today call Israel. It’s a political movement that’s evolved over time. So what is the history of Zionism, and what has that evolution looked like?Andrew Thomas, Lecturer in Middle East Studies, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2157812023-11-29T13:37:58Z2023-11-29T13:37:58ZA brief history of the US-Israel ‘special relationship’ shows how connections have shifted since long before the 1948 founding of the Jewish state<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561922/original/file-20231127-30-ocla3g.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=19%2C24%2C3269%2C2376&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">U.S. President Harry Truman holds a Torah given to him by Chaim Weizmann, the first president of Israel, in May 1948.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-dc-president-truman-holds-the-torah-or-sacred-news-photo/514876256">Bettmann via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his first remarks after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attacks on Israel, President Joe Biden affirmed the United States offered “<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/07/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-terrorist-attacks-in-israel/">rock solid and unwavering</a>” support to Israel, “just as we have (done) from the moment the United States became the first nation to recognize Israel, 11 minutes after its founding, 75 years ago.”</p>
<p>Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel has launched a war on Gaza that as of the end of November had killed <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/">more than 14,000 Palestinians</a>. The fighting has also destroyed much of Gaza and <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip-palestinian-civilian-deaths-displaced-after-1-month/">displaced about 70% of its population</a>. </p>
<p>Israel, with U.S. backing, has not heeded <a href="https://interagencystandingcommittee.org/inter-agency-standing-committee/we-need-immediate-humanitarian-ceasefire-statement-principals-inter-agency-standing-committee">calls for an immediate cease-fire</a> or U.N. demands to <a href="https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/statement/2023-11-19/statement-the-secretary-general-gaza%C2%A0">stop targeting civilians</a>. The Biden administration appears to have played a key role in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/21/us/politics/biden-hostage-talks-israel-hamas.html">negotiating a temporary truce and an exchange</a> of hostages and prisoners between Israel and Hamas. </p>
<p>I <a href="https://dornsife.usc.edu/profile/fayez-hammad/">teach courses on Middle East politics</a> and the Arab-Israeli conflict, which includes the interconnected Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the conflict between Israel and Arab states. The roots of the U.S.-Israel relationship predate 1948 and provide context for what has long been characterized as a “special” relationship between the two countries – one that now appears crucial to Israel’s prosecution of a war in Gaza.</p>
<p>During the Cold War, it was the perception in the U.S. that Israel’s strategic value served as justification for the special relationship. While Israel has its own interests regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict, a supportive Congress and American domestic lobbyists have presented them as consistent with those of the U.S.</p>
<p>The Bible, Christian Zionism, popular culture, memorialization of the Holocaust after 1967 and the shared approach in the U.S. and Israel toward the land and the indigenous populations have all led to the transformation of Jews and Israelis from “outsiders” to “insiders” in the U.S. </p>
<p>This cultural and political affinity is behind the U.S.’s current unconditional support for Israel, as well as the fact that the U.S. is seen in the region and beyond as deeply implicated in Israel’s actions.</p>
<p>But since President Harry Truman <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/recognition-israel">recognized Israel in 1948</a>, presidential policies show that the U.S.-Israel relationship has not always been “rock solid.”</p>
<h2>Pre-statehood: The United States and Zionism</h2>
<p>With an <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Palestine">Arab majority for more than a millennium until 1948</a>, the territory then called Palestine was <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/ottoman-empire">part of the Ottoman Empire from 1517</a> until <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/11/27/palestine-and-israel-brief-history-maps-and-charts">Britain captured it during World War I</a>.</p>
<p>The Zionist movement achieved a major objective in November 1917, when Britain, for strategic and religious reasons, issued the <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/balfour.asp">Balfour Declaration</a> in support of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson endorsed both this declaration and the League of Nations-sanctioned British administrative power over Palestine.</p>
<p>In Palestine, Britain used its administrative power, under what was called <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp">the Mandate over Palestine</a>, to advance the Zionist project. The rise of Hitler and U.S. entry into World War II led American Zionists in 1942 to adopt the <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-biltmore-conference-1942">Biltmore Program</a>, which called for unrestricted Jewish immigration to Palestine and for turning the territory into a Jewish state. The revelation of the full scale of Nazi atrocities boosted U.S. support for Zionism, effectively shifting the center of political Zionism from London to Washington.</p>
<p>The 1944 Democratic Party platform backed the “opening of Palestine to <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/1944-democratic-party-platform">unrestricted Jewish immigration and colonization</a>” and the creation of a Jewish state. But fearing damage to U.S. war efforts, President Franklin Roosevelt wrote to several Arab governments shortly before his death in 1945 that no action toward Palestine would be taken “<a href="https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1945v08/d681">which might prove hostile to the Arab people</a>.”</p>
<h2>Israel, the United States and the Cold War</h2>
<p>President Harry Truman was sympathetic to Zionism because of his <a href="https://www.jpost.com/christianworld/article-704006">evangelical Christian upbringing</a>. He endorsed the 1947 U.N. <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-185393/">Partition Plan for Palestine</a> to create an Arab state and a Jewish state and, despite <a href="https://search.worldcat.org/title/608624908">opposition</a> from within the administration, <a href="https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/press-release-announcing-us-recognition-of-israel#transcript">recognized the State of Israel</a> on May 14, 1948. </p>
<p>Truman, however, refused to send weapons to either side of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, because he viewed the conflict as a source of instability in the face of the emerging communist threat. In that war, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2023/11/03/israel-nakba-history-1948/">750,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled</a>, becoming refugees from the land that became Israel. </p>
<p>President Dwight Eisenhower also sought to prevent Soviet penetration into the Middle East and attempted to maintain impartiality toward the Arab-Israeli conflict. He even threatened to cut off all official and private aid and to <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/The-Iron-Wall/">expel Israel from the U.N.</a> to force Israel’s withdrawal from Egyptian territory, the Sinai, in 1957.</p>
<h2>The conflict and US-Israeli special relationship</h2>
<p>President John F. Kennedy coined the term “<a href="https://academic.oup.com/dh/article-abstract/22/2/231/407328">special relationship</a>” about the two countries’ connection. He hoped that in exchange for U.S. defensive weapons, Israel would support <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-211174/">his plan</a>, based on <a href="https://documents-dds-ny.un.org/doc/RESOLUTION/GEN/NR0/043/65/PDF/NR004365.pdf?OpenElement">U.N. Resolution 194</a>, which called for repatriation or compensation for the Palestinian refugees and allow effective inspections of <a href="https://cup.columbia.edu/book/israel-and-the-bomb/9780231104838">its nuclear program</a>. Israel accepted the weapons but refused to cooperate on the other issues, neither of which was discussed again.</p>
<p>President Lyndon Johnson viewed Israel as a strategic asset and sent it advanced offensive weapons. Johnson supported Israel’s attack on Egypt, Syria and Jordan in the June 1967 war, when Israel first occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Johnson also endorsed the November 1967 <a href="https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/SCRes242%281967%29.pdf">U.N. Resolution 242</a>, which conditioned Israeli withdrawal on Arab states’ recognition of, and entering into peace treaties with, Israel. Israel’s swift victory transformed the U.S.-Israeli relationship, elevating Israel into a critical component of <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41805051">American Jewish identity</a> and solidifying pro-Israel policies in Washington.</p>
<p>President Richard Nixon provided Israel with a massive increase in military and economic aid because he accepted uncritically Israel’s claim that the Soviets were the main cause of tension in the Middle East, and because of the 1973 Arab-Israeli War. Generous aid packages have since become routine: In recent years, U.S. aid to Israel has been about US$3 billion to $4 billion annually, totaling almost <a href="https://www.politifact.com/article/2023/oct/18/us-aid-to-israel-what-to-know/">$318 billion since World War II</a>, including the value of weapons.</p>
<p>While President Jimmy Carter brokered the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty, the Ronald Reagan administration later moved away from an active peace process and, within a Soviet-centered focus, signed with Israel memoranda on strategic cooperation, elevating the relationship to a new strategic level. The administration supported Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, refused to label <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1981/02/03/us/reagan-is-prepared-to-hold-arms-talks-if-soviet-is-sincere.html">West Bank settlements as illegal</a>, concluded with Israel and the U.S.’s <a href="https://ustr.gov/trade-agreements/free-trade-agreements/israel-fta">first free trade agreement</a> and designated Israel in 1987 “<a href="https://www.state.gov/u-s-security-cooperation-with-israel/">a major non-NATO ally</a>.”</p>
<p>President Bill Clinton brokered the <a href="https://history.state.gov/milestones/1993-2000/oslo">Oslo Accords</a>, in which Israel agreed to withdraw from areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and cede some control to a new political entity, the Palestinian Authority. But Clinton failed to achieve a permanent Palestinian-Israeli agreement, and his administration, according to one U.S. negotiator, acted as “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/opinions/2005/05/23/israels-lawyer/7ab0416c-9761-4d4a-80a9-82b7e15e5d22/">Israel’s attorney</a>, catering and coordinating with the Israelis at the expense of successful peace negotiations.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two men shake hands while a third stands between them, smiling." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/561936/original/file-20231127-27-vaazae.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, left, shakes hands with PLO leader Yasser Arafat as U.S. President Bill Clinton looks on after the signing of the Oslo Accords in September 1993.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-bill-clinton-stands-between-plo-leader-yasser-news-photo/463575454">J. David Ake, Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘peace process’ and the ‘war on terrorism’</h2>
<p>In the wake of 9/11, President George W. Bush accepted Israel’s narrative that it was waging its own war on terrorism and its condition that a change of Palestinian leadership must precede any further negotiations. But neither <a href="https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/2002/06/20020624-3.html">Bush’s call for a Palestinian state</a> nor the 2005 election of Mahmoud Abbas as president of the Palestinian Authority led to an agreement.</p>
<p>In 2006, the Bush administration pushed for, and <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/112456/george-w-bushs-secret-war-against-hamas">endorsed the participation of Hamas</a> in, Palestinian legislative elections. When Hamas won and formed a new government, both Israel and the U.S. refused to deal with it, imposed sanctions on the Palestinian Authority and worked to widen the split between Hamas and Abbas’ Fatah party. Bush even supported a <a href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/04/gaza200804">covert plan to spark civil war between Palestinians</a>, which in fact led to a Hamas-Fatah military confrontation. That fight ended with Hamas’ takeover of Gaza, which led Israel to impose a blockade on Gaza in 2007.</p>
<p>President Barack <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/10/world/middleeast/obama-administration-defends-israeli-airstrikes-but-cautions-against-ground-war.html">Obama supported Israeli attacks on Gaza</a>, which failed to eliminate Hamas’ military threat. Diplomatically, Obama was reluctant to get directly involved, while Israel continued to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-offers-temporary-settlement-freeze/">refuse to permanently freeze settlement building</a>.</p>
<p>President Donald Trump’s <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-abraham-accords/">Abraham Accords</a> and the recent discussions under the Biden administration to establish Israeli-Saudi diplomatic relations assumed that the Arab-Israeli conflict could be solved without solving the Palestinian conflict. But the current war challenges such an assumption and illustrates that current U.S. support for Israel is indeed “rock solid and unwavering.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215781/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fayez Hammad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A historian of the Middle East examines the decades-old ‘special relationship’ between Israel and the US.Fayez Hammad, Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177832023-11-21T19:06:34Z2023-11-21T19:06:34Z10 books to help you understand Israel and Palestine, recommended by experts<h2>Apeirogon/The Age of Coexistence</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Ghassan Hage, Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory, University of Melbourne</li>
</ul>
<p>I recommend two much-needed books in the present time. Despite the Gaza massacres seemingly planting the seeds of endless future hatred, the future of Palestine/Israel can only be a future of togetherness. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=910&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559799/original/file-20231116-17-u6hjz5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1143&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>These two very different books provide elements for thinking about such togetherness. The first is <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/au/apeirogon-9781526607898/">Apeirogon</a> by Colum McCann. It is about a Palestinian and an Israeli whose daughters have been killed by the enemy other, who struggle to find a way towards peace. One can easily trivialise such an endeavour if one forgets the colonial history and the power relations that locate each father differently within Palestine/Israel. This book doesn’t. </p>
<p>The second book is <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520385764/age-of-coexistence">The Age of Coexistence</a> by Ussama Makdisi. This book reminds us that before the modern advent of the ethnonationalist fantasy, Palestine was the home of an indigenous form of religious coexistence, which Makdisi calls the “ecumenical frame”. This offers us an important, realistic resource for thinking about future togetherness.</p>
<h2>Rethinking the Holocaust</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Jan Lanicek, associate professor in Modern European History and Jewish History, UNSW </li>
</ul>
<p>One of the most intriguing historical questions about the origins of the conflict – oft-debated and oft-misunderstood, is the relation between the Holocaust and the creation of the State of Israel.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559811/original/file-20231116-17-h4ux16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>In his book, <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300093001/rethinking-the-holocaust/">Rethinking the Holocaust</a>, the eminent Holocaust historian <a href="https://www.yadvashem.org/author/yehuda-bauer.html">Yehuda Bauer</a> offers a balanced perspective on the 1947 vote in the United Nations that approved the partition of British Mandate Palestine and creation of separate Jewish and Arab states.</p>
<p>Bauer’s contribution will be of interest to those who want to learn about the international climate that surrounded the key moments in the origins of the conflict. On the eve of the Cold War (in the turbulent environment after the second world war), an unlikely alliance between the United States and the emerging socialist bloc under Stalin’s Soviet Union helped to secure the necessary majority in the United Nations, setting the international stage of the conflict for decades to come.</p>
<p>Did the world feel guilty about the Jewish tragedy? Bauer says no. Both sides followed geopolitical considerations. The United States wanted to solve the problem of Holocaust survivors scattered over displaced persons camps in occupied Germany, and Stalin hoped Israel would become a communist state. </p>
<p>The considerations to support the aspiration of Jewish people were purely political.</p>
<h2>The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest & Resistance, 1917–2017</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Jumana Bayeh, associate professor in the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University</li>
</ul>
<p>Across his academic career, historian Rashid Khalidi has brought to his readers the wilfully suppressed Palestinian and Arab view – ignored not just by US policy makers, but much of the West in general. His work reaches audiences beyond the academic world and fills a gap in our knowledge. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=935&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559836/original/file-20231116-29-4d6uwk.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1175&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>This is the case in his recent book, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781627798556/thehundredyearswaronpalestine">The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonial Conquest & Resistance, 1917–2017</a>. This particular text is different: it tackles the issue of Israel’s control of the narrative of its own establishment by silencing, even erasing, the Palestinian narrative.</p>
<p>This book will be compelling for those largely unfamiliar with the history of Palestine, due to Khalidi’s use of reflections and anecdotes from his own storied Palestinian family. These reflections underpin the text’s core claim, which most Israelis reject – that their state was established through colonial conquest and is today an ongoing project of settler colonial violence. </p>
<h2>Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Ran Porat, affiliate researcher, The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash University</li>
</ul>
<p>Despite his Jewish religious background, as a teenager Israeli historian Hillel Cohen taught himself Arabic while wandering around Palestinian villages near Jerusalem. He is unique in highlighting forgotten and overlooked aspects of the conflict, writing about Arabs who cooperated with the Zionists (“Army of Shadows”) and about the military rule over Arabs in Israel (1948-66) (“Good Arabs”).</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559800/original/file-20231116-27-gid5kx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p><a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/Y/bo43636752.html">Year Zero of the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1929</a> investigates the 1929 violent riots during which Arabs killed 133 Jews in mandatory Palestine. Almost a century later, Cohen sifted through never-accessed documents and uniquely uncovered a trove of insights, interviewing elderly Israelis and Palestinians, descendants of those who were alive at that time.</p>
<p>The book explains why, after 1929, Jews realised Arabs will forever reject the Zionist dream to have their own state – the root cause of the conflict, which continues today. Cohen also explains the rationale for this Palestinian view of Zionism. </p>
<h2>The Crisis of Zionism</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Dennis Altman, Vice Chancellor’s Fellow, Latrobe University</li>
</ul>
<p>Mainstream Australian Jewish organisations appear unanimous in their support of the current Israeli government. <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/the-crisis-of-zionism-paperback-softback">The Crisis of Zionism</a> speaks for the many Jews who believe only fundamental shifts in Israel’s policies can bring peace. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=918&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559798/original/file-20231116-17-awrx7k.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1154&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>Given the brutality of Hamas and the upsurge of antisemitism, Jews today feel particularly vulnerable. But Beinart recognises that it is Palestinians who are the victims, trapped between Israeli occupation and groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.</p>
<p>Beinart is an American Jew with close connections to both Israelis and Palestinians. He has become increasingly sceptical of the call for
a two-state solution, which was the basis of the 1993 Oslo Accords. Yet as Beinart makes clear, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently worked against any realistic two-state solution.</p>
<p>Beinart wrote this book during the Obama Presidency; there is very useful background to the pressures now facing President Biden. </p>
<h2>The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Daniel Heller, Kronhill senior lecturer in East European Jewish History, Monash University</li>
</ul>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560097/original/file-20231117-25-clbcx5.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<p>I would recommend Dov Waxman, <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-9780190625337">The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: What Everyone Needs to Know</a>. This is a highly readable, engaging and accessible account of the origins of the conflict and the reasons it has proven so difficult to solve. </p>
<p>The book explains key events, examines core issues, and presents competing claims and narratives of both sides. Waxman also offers a range of Israeli and Palestinian perspectives, showing readers that there is no one Israeli or Palestinian view of the conflict, and that this very diversity of views is one of the reasons this conflict has proven so intractable. </p>
<h2>The Arabs</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Ian Parmeter, Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National University</li>
</ul>
<p>I read <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Arabs-Narrative-History-Mohammed-Present/dp/B0007E0OC8/">The Arabs</a>, by Anthony Nutting, during my first year living in the Middle East – in Cairo – in 1977 and I return to it regularly. A one-time Conservative MP, he was also Minister of State for Foreign Affairs and a confirmed “Arabist”. Like a number of others of his ilk, he resigned from the Foreign Office in protest over Britain’s inglorious role in the 1956 Suez crisis. The Arabs was published in 1964, so it does not cover developments in the past 50 years, but it provides the context of these events. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560106/original/file-20231117-23-e6nbq1.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">eBay</span></span>
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<p>Nutting describes in highly readable detail the rich history of the Arab world and how it was upended by centuries of colonialism – first Ottoman, then British and French – and the appalling mistakes made by all three. </p>
<p>His book analyses in depth the growth of Zionism in the late 19th century and the key role the movement has played in the region since. It analyses the Sykes-Picot agreement of 1916, by which Britain and France secretly carved up the Middle East in anticipation of the Ottoman demise. And it analyses the influence of the pro-Zionist Rothschild family on the Balfour Declaration of 1917. It’s often forgotten that the declaration promised that in addition to a homeland for the Jewish people, “nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine”. </p>
<p>Nutting’s account of the UN partition of Palestine in 1947 and the subsequent foundation of Israel through the 1948 war is detailed and masterful. Though his natural sympathies are with the Arabs and Palestinians in particular, he is unsparing in his account of their mistakes through hubris or elementary miscalculations. A gifted writer, he brings the events he describes into vivid focus.</p>
<h2>The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Ned Curthoys, senior lecturer in English and Literary Studies, The University of Western Australia</li>
</ul>
<p>Excavating a crime “utterly forgotten” by the West that the Palestinians mourn as the Nakba, in <a href="https://oneworld-publications.com/work/the-ethnic-cleansing-of-palestine/">The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine</a> Israeli historian Ilan Pappe seeks to revise our understanding of the 1948 Israeli “war of independence”. </p>
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<p>Rather than a David versus Goliath battle between a brave Jewish army and a hostile, rejectionist Arab world, he demonstrates that the exodus of the Palestinians was the result of Israel’s first prime minister Ben Gurion’s Plan Dalet. This was a plan to expel Palestinians from their villages and urban centres to realise the long-held Zionist dream of creating an exclusivist majority Jewish state by “transferring” the Palestinians to surrounding Arab nations. </p>
<p>Military tactics varied from massacres of entire villages to summary executions, sonic warfare, heavy shelling, dynamiting houses to prevent their occupants’ return, and the torching of fields. This was followed in later years by continuing land appropriation, military occupation and the “memoricide” of Palestinian communities. Pappe reminds us in a chilling epilogue that the “ideology that enabled the depopulation of half of Palestine’s native people in 1948 is still alive” and it drives the “cleansing of those Palestinians who live there today”.</p>
<h2>Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial</h2>
<ul>
<li>Recommended by Micaela Sahhar, Lecturer, History of Ideas, Trinity College, The University of Melbourne</li>
</ul>
<p>Saree Makdisi’s <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520346253/tolerance-is-a-wasteland">Tolerance is a Wasteland: Palestine and the Culture of Denial</a> will appeal to those attending Palestine-liberation rallies alongside tens of thousands in Australian capitals, to find little coverage of their scale and orderliness in the media.</p>
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<p>Makdisi outlines, in four comprehensive chapters, how context has been stripped from public understanding of Palestine over decades – obscured by projects that superficially espouse values celebrated in liberal democracies. </p>
<p>In one apposite image, he explains Israel’s state project of afforestation as a cover-up, obscuring vast ruins of Palestinian villages destroyed after Palestinian inhabitants were ethnically cleansed in the 1948 <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/about-the-nakba/">Nakba</a> (the mass displacement and dispossession of Palestinians during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war). Yet, recent bushfires have revealed traces of the indigenous Palestinian landscape, and with it, “the naked truth”. </p>
<p><a href="https://palestine.mei.columbia.edu/events-fall-2023/palestine-and-the-logic-of-denial">Makdisi says</a>, “October 7 is like the forest planted over the ruins; what’s happened since is the ruins themselves”. By which he means, with little institutional outrage, much less intervention, this is how a second Nakba unfolds in plain sight.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217783/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dennis Altman received a small ARC grant forty years ago to research the Israel/Palestine debate within the National Union of Australian University Students</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jan Lanicek receives funding from ARC. He is a co-president of the Australian Association for Jewish Studies. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jumana Bayeh has received funding from the ARC. She is a board member of Arab Theatre Studio. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ran Porat is a Research Associate for the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC) and receives funding from this organisation.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Heller, Ghassan Hage, Ian Parmeter, Micaela Sahhar, and Ned Curthoys do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With the Israel-Palestine conflict continuing, we asked a range of academics to nominate works that can help explain things.Dennis Altman, VC Fellow, La Trobe UniversityDaniel Heller, Kronhill Senior Lecturer in East European Jewish History, Monash UniversityGhassan Hage, Professor of Anthropology and Social Theory, The University of MelbourneIan Parmeter, Research Scholar, Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies, Australian National UniversityJan Lanicek, Associate Professor in Modern European History and Jewish History, UNSW SydneyJumana Bayeh, Senior Lecturer, Macquarie School of Social Sciences, Macquarie UniversityMicaela Sahhar, Lecturer, History of Ideas, Trinity College, The University of MelbourneNed Curthoys, Senior Lecturer in English and Literary Studies, The University of Western AustraliaRan Porat, Affiliate Researcher, The Australian Centre for Jewish Civilisation, Monash UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2177652023-11-16T15:00:56Z2023-11-16T15:00:56ZPalestine was never a ‘land without a people’<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/0ba10cf2-be56-4b6e-8598-96c6fb5197b7?dark=true"></iframe>
<p><em>Modern settlers to Palestine viewed the desert as something they needed to “make bloom.” But it already was, thanks to the long history of Palestinian agricultural systems.</em></p>
<p>As violence continues to erupt in Gaza, and more than 200 hostages taken by Hamas on Oct. 7 remain missing, many of us are seeking to better understand the context of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ca/topics/israeli-palestinian-conflict-140823">Israeli-Palestinian conflict</a> that has been raging for decades. </p>
<p>Some of us assume that the violence between Jewish Israelis and Palestinians — a majority of whom are Muslim — is a religious conflict, but a closer look at the history of the last century reveals that the root of the tension between the two communities is more complicated than that.</p>
<p>At its root, it’s a conflict between two communities that claim the right to the same land. For millions of Palestinians, it’s about displacement from that land. </p>
<p>Land has so much meaning. It’s more than territory; it represents home, your ancestral connection and culture — but also the means to feed yourself and your country. </p>
<p>One of the things that colonizers are famous for is the idea of <em>terra nullius</em> – that the land is empty of people before they come to occupy it. </p>
<p>In the case of Palestine, the Jewish settlers in 1948, and the British before that, viewed the desert as empty — something they needed to <a href="https://www.palestine-studies.org/en/node/38553">“make bloom.”</a> </p>
<p>But the land was already blooming. There is a long history of Palestinian connection to the land, including through agricultural systems and a rich food culture that is often overlooked by colonial powers.</p>
<p>Our guests on <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/palestine-was-never-a-land-without-people">this week’s episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em></a> have been working on a film about the importance of preserving Palestinian agriculture and food in exile.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Vibert is a professor of colonial history at University of Victoria. She has been doing oral history research to examine historical and contemporary causes of food crises in various settings, including Palestinian refugees in Jordan.</p>
<p>Salam Guenette is the consulting producer and cultural and language translator for their documentary project. She holds a master’s degree in history.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The relationship with agriculture and the land is the original colonizing relationship. The colonizers came in, viewed Indigenous peoples worldwide as not moving and living appropriately and productively enough on the land.
- Elizabeth Vibert, professor of colonial history</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Read more in The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-colonialist-depictions-of-palestinians-feed-western-ideas-of-eastern-barbarism-217513">How colonialist depictions of Palestinians feed western ideas of eastern 'barbarism'</a>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-women-in-israel-and-palestine-are-pushing-for-peace-together-215783">How women in Israel and Palestine are pushing for peace — together</a>
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</em>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-palestine-conflict-how-sharing-the-waters-of-the-jordan-river-could-be-a-pathway-to-peace-216044">Israel-Palestine conflict: How sharing the waters of the Jordan River could be a pathway to peace</a>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/recognition-versus-reality-lessons-from-30-years-of-talking-about-a-palestinian-state-212648">Recognition versus reality: Lessons from 30 years of talking about a Palestinian state</a>
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<h2>Resources</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29038"><em>Dear Palestine</em> by Shay Hazkani</a></p>
<p><a href="https://handmadepalestine.com/en-ca/blogs/free-educational-resources/palestinian-wild-food-plants"><em>A Guide to Palestinian Wild Food Plants</em></a>
by Omar Tesdell (and collective) </p>
<p><em><a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250291530/adayinthelifeofabedsalama">A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy</a></em> by Nathan Thrall </p>
<p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/159783/orientalism-by-edward-w-said/9780394740676"><em>Orientalism</em> by Edward Said</a></p>
<h2>Listen and follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_mJBLBznANz6ID9rBCUk7gv_ZRC4Og9-">YouTube</a> or wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts. </p>
<p><a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/dontcallmeresilientpodcast/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-572" class="tc-infographic" height="100" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/572/661898416fdc21fc4fdef6a5379efd7cac19d9d5/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217765/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Modern settlers to Palestine viewed the desert as something they needed to “make bloom.” But it already was, thanks to the long history of Palestinian agricultural systems.Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientAteqah Khaki, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2157592023-10-19T15:38:08Z2023-10-19T15:38:08ZThe West’s double standards are once again on display in Israel and Palestine<iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/the-wests-double-standards-are-once-again-on-display-in-israel-and-palestine" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>American president <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-in-israel-how-u-s-foreign-policy-has-played-a-big-role-in-the-israel-hamas-war-215384">Joe Biden</a> is among the latest western politicians to land in Tel Aviv in a show of support to Israel. </p>
<p>As Israel’s primary backer, the United States has sent <a href="https://apnews.com/article/united-states-israel-military-aid-2211b0c7bc27e13175d179a53fde3ac5">two aircraft carriers to the region and indicated it could deploy 2,000 American troops to Israel</a>. </p>
<p>Biden was also set to meet Palestinian and Arab leaders in the Jordanian capital Amman. But Jordan <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/israel-jordan-trip-biden-1.6998441">cancelled the meeting</a> after a <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/18/what-is-israels-narrative-on-the-gaza-hospital-explosion">reported</a> airstrike on Oct. 17 killed around 500 people at a Gaza hospital.</p>
<p>In the days after Hamas launched <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-unprecedented-attack-against-israel-by-hamas-included-precise-armed-drones-and-thousands-of-rockets-215241">Operation Al-Aqsa Flood</a> against Israel, European and North American governments (with few exceptions) were quick to provide a unified and consistent message of support for Israel. </p>
<p>That message contains at least four interconnected elements: </p>
<p>— Israel is the victim of an unprovoked terrorist attack; </p>
<p>— Israel has the <a href="https://www.state.gov/secretary-antony-j-blinken-remarks-to-the-press-on-president-bidens-upcoming-trip-to-israel-and-agreement-with-israel-to-develop-a-humanitarian-aid-plan-for-gaza">right to defend itself</a>; </p>
<p>— The West fully stands with Israel against the barbaric and wanton violence of the Palestinians;</p>
<p>— Hamas is to blame (either partially or fully) for all civilian deaths on both sides since they began these hostilities and forced Israel’s hand while hiding behind civilians.</p>
<h2>Palestinians erased</h2>
<p>There are a few important features of this message, but I want to focus on two that highlight the West’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/11/israel-palestine-war-biden-zelenskiy">double standards</a>. First, is the advancement of anti-Palestinian racism in the West. It is critical to underscore a salient feature of anti-Palestinian racism: <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221130415">the silencing of the Palestinian critiques of Zionism and Israel</a>. </p>
<p>This is a dynamic which has its roots in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-a-un-resolution-to-commemorate-the-expulsion-of-palestinians-from-their-lands-change-the-narrative-listen-204799">Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe)</a> and erases Palestinian voices, history, presence, aspirations and identity from public discourse.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tantura-new-documentary-sparks-debate-about-israel-and-the-palestinian-nakba-189101">Tantura: New documentary sparks debate about Israel and the Palestinian Nakba</a>
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<p>Political, media and educational institutions in the West regularly sideline and silence Palestinians and their <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2018/11/29/cnn-fires-marc-lamont-hill-wake-remarks-criticizing-israel-calling-free-palestine/">supporters</a>. This is not just an issue among the right-wing or even centrists, but occurs across the political spectrum. Left-wing politics, including progressive spaces, that purport to be anti-racist often <a href="https://thenewpress.com/books/except-for-palestine">remain hostile to Palestinian voices</a></p>
<p>Here in Canada, a <a href="https://x.com/MayorOliviaChow/status/1711383767825211520?s=20">statement by progressive Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow</a> painted a rally in support of Palestinians as allegedly supporting violence and as a threat to the safety and security of Canadian Jews. That statement is still up on her X account. </p>
<p>This is precisely the anti-Palestinian narrative that has permeated in the West for years: that all support for Palestine is inherently violent and driven by antisemitic hatred of all Jews. Thus, in the name of anti-racism, Palestinians and their supporters are denounced <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/israel-palestine-flag-suella-braverman-b2427411.html">and even criminalized</a>.</p>
<h2>Differing reactions to civilian death</h2>
<p>Second, the double standard is on display in the reactions we have seen to the killing of Israeli civilians and the reactions — or lack thereof — to the killing of Palestinian civilians. Many are <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/9/western-leaders-accused-of-hypocrisy-over-response-to-palestine-ukraine">rightly highlighting western hypocrisy</a> by drawing comparisons to how the West responded to Russia’s war on Ukraine.</p>
<p>We need to look at how western governments have responded to the killing of Israeli civilians versus the killing of Palestinian civilians. For the Israeli state and Israeli victims, political, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/10/9/what-military-aid-the-us-is-sending-to-israel-after-hamas-attack">military</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us-banks-tech-firms-offer-support-israel-victims-announce-aid-2023-10-13/">economic</a>, <a href="https://globalnews.ca/video/10029957/edmonton-oilers-face-criticism-for-stand-with-israel-message-at-nhl-game">cultural</a> and <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/hollywood-declares-support-for-israel-as-disney-pledges-2-million/">social</a> institutions have fully mobilized to provide support.</p>
<p>The same is entirely absent for the Palestinians. For the Palestinians, there are no evacuations. Aircraft carriers are not sent to provide military support. Mainstream political and cultural discourse does not humanize Palestinian life and mourn Palestinian death. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/trucks-carrying-aid-gaza-strip-arrive-rafah-crossing-witness-2023-10-17/">Aid relief is withheld</a> and used as a bargaining counter. Economic support is not forthcoming. Institutions do not send Palestinians messages of support. </p>
<p>In some ways, this silence is not surprising. No one expressing support for Israel risks losing their livelihood. Many who have voiced solidarity with Palestinians have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/oct/10/philadelphia-sports-reporter-loses-job-pro-palestinian-comments">lost their jobs</a>, <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/israel-gaza-war-manufactured-consent.html">been rebuked</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/67140471">suspended</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/11/22/israel-boycott-canary-mission-blacklist/">faced doxing</a>.</p>
<h2>Western self-interest</h2>
<p>States are not moral entities, but act purely in self-interest. Palestinian freedom and liberation does not align with <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-says-the-u-s-would-have-to-invent-an-israel-if-it-didnt-exist-why-210172">the interests of the U.S.-led West</a>. </p>
<p>Therefore, western institutions repeat the increasingly weak talking point that “terrorism” is the cause of all the violence. This talking point is used to provide Israel with the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/-biden-is-giving-the-green-light-to-israel-to-kill-civilians-gaza-resident-says-195827781571">green light</a> to unleash uninhibited violence against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, West Bank and Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The idea that western governments and institutions are horrified by violence against civilians rings hollow because of their silence when it comes to violence against Palestinian civilians and other groups around the world. </p>
<p>For decades, Palestinians have been <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-nakba-75-years-after-losing-their-home-the-palestinians-are-still-experiencing-the-catastrophe-205413">expelled from their land</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/07/11/the-lopsided-death-tolls-in-israel-palestinian-conflicts/">killed and maimed</a> in <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/data/casualties">great numbers</a>, including in <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20220914-40-years-on-survivors-recall-horror-of-lebanon-s-sabra-and-shatila-massacre">mass atrocities</a> and many well-documented cases of sexual violence and <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9781783711857/captive-revolution/">torture in Israeli prisons</a>. This only scratches the surface of the violence that Palestinians continuously experience, and have experienced, since well before Hamas was formed.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1711115592231719392"}"></div></p>
<p>Palestinians continue to suffer what Palestinian scholars Nahla Abdo and Nur Masalha have called an <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/ca/oral-history-of-the-palestinian-nakba-9781786993502/">ongoing Nakba and genocide of the Palestinian people</a>. Yet, when Palestinians suffer, as they are now in Gaza, what Israeli historian and expert on genocide Raz Segal has called “<a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/a-textbook-case-of-genocide">a textbook case of genocide</a>,” western governments remain silent. </p>
<p>There was no western outrage when Israel <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/16/middleeast/israel-palestinian-evacuation-orders-invs/index.html">ordered more than a million Palestinians to leave their homes in 24 hours</a>. In February, Israeli settlers went on an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-64784053">hours-long rampage</a> in the Palestinian town of Huwara after two settlers were shot by a Palestinian. Western condemnations of the rampage were muted or non-existent. </p>
<p>Hundreds of scholars and practitioners of international law, conflict studies and genocide studies are now <a href="https://twailr.com/public-statement-scholars-warn-of-potential-genocide-in-gaza/">sounding the alarm</a> about the possibility of genocide being perpetrated by Israeli forces against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>The stories of Palestinian lives that end with the sudden drop of a bomb are not told. Palestinian voices that explain the settler colonialism they suffer remain sidelined. And Palestinian aspirations for decolonized liberation are denied.</p>
<p>The West’s institutional reaction is not just hypocritical, it is an expression of where western governments stand on the question of Palestine. The West is an active participant in the erasure of Palestine, and when moments of intensified violence like this happen, the West’s true position becomes clear for all to see.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/oct/14/tens-of-thousands-rally-around-the-world-in-support-of-israel-and-palestinians">people power across the world</a>, including <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/articles/is-israel-a-democracy-heres-what-americans-think/">in the U.S.</a>, provide reason for hope. Increasingly, many in the West are disgusted and ashamed by the erasure of Palestine and the killing of Palestinian civilians. </p>
<p>More people are joining the protests and calling for the siege on Gaza to be lifted once and for all. More people power is needed to demand that governments do everything they can to resolve this issue, which can only begin to move towards peace and justice when the Palestinian people are free.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215759/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>M. Muhannad Ayyash does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Western stances and comments on civilian deaths in Israel and Palestine highlight the double standard that permeates across western governments and institutions.M. Muhannad Ayyash, Professor, Sociology, Mount Royal UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2155072023-10-14T22:22:39Z2023-10-14T22:22:39ZDeadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust spurs a crisis of confidence in the idea of Israel – and its possible renewal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553735/original/file-20231013-17-ucgkud.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=47%2C5%2C3924%2C2638&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Family and friends of those taken hostage by Hamas during an attack on Israel react during a press conference on Oct. 13, 2023, in Tel Aviv, Israel. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/family-and-friends-of-those-taken-hostage-by-hamas-during-news-photo/1733110598?adppopup=true"> Leon Neal/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Living for <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/hamas-attack-historical-timeline-conflict-between-israel-arabs/CGSDDTKCO5H7VLYMQKLPGE3ZI4/">75 years within a hostile neighborhood</a> has required the state of Israel to provide security against external threats to all its citizens. </p>
<p>That responsibility is a <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-surprise-attack-gaza-hamas-4d2c710569c069115f4f1d2b0e2779b0">social contract between citizens and the state</a>: The state is obligated to provide security for its people, especially those who live near its borders, that makes living there safe. In return, young Israelis <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Israel-Defense-Forces">must serve in the army</a>. </p>
<p>That unwritten contract was abruptly shattered for Israelis in the morning hours of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-security-failure.html">Oct. 7, 2023</a>. And with it, the very premise and promise that led to the establishment of the state was suddenly put in doubt.</p>
<p>That Saturday, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-gaza-hamas-rockets-airstrikes-tel-aviv-11fb98655c256d54ecb5329284fc37d2">when a surprise assault by Hamas stunned Israel</a>, has been recognized as a date that <a href="https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/day-of-infamy">will live in infamy</a> – recalling U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s memorable words about Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor – in the annals of the state of Israel, indeed even in the annals of much older Jewish history. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/israel-hamas-war-gaza-strip/card/latest-death-toll-in-israel-and-gaza-eoVPFI8WcXN0mzIR73pY">Over 1,300 Israelis lost their lives</a> in acts of mass killing on that day, mostly civilians. They were all murdered – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/10/middleeast/israel-kibbutzim-kfar-aza-beeri-urim-hamas-attack-intl/index.html">executed, slaughtered</a>, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/footage-of-hamas-assault-on-civilians-shows-likely-war-crimes-experts-say/">tortured</a>, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12623843/Israel-releases-images-babies-murdered-burned-Hamas-verified-photos-beheaded-terrorists-confirmed-local-media-IDF-drops-Gaza-leaflets-telling-citizens-flee.html">burned</a> – by Hamas terrorists who launched <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/2023-10-12/live-updates-767856">a pogrom-like onslaught</a> on Israeli villages <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/israel-attack-hamas-what-we-know/">on a scale never seen before</a>. About 150 people, mostly Israeli civilians, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2023/10/kidnappings-israel-hamas-photographs/675593/">were brutally kidnapped</a> on that day by the attackers.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.middlebury.edu/institute/people/avner-cohen">I am an Israeli historian, specializing in Israel’s nuclear history</a>. I believe that to recognize the full meaning of Oct. 7, for Israel and Israelis, it must be placed in historical perspective, both Israeli and Jewish. There are other perspectives, including historical ones, but this essay is an attempt to portray the events of Oct. 7 – and their profound significance – as Israelis experienced them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Mourners crying and placing flowers at a grave site." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553746/original/file-20231013-23-uie6qd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Oct. 11, 2023, funeral in Gan Haim, Israel, of May Naim, 24, murdered by Hamas militants at the ‘Supernova’ festival near the Israeli-Gaza border.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/family-and-friends-of-may-naim-who-was-murdered-by-news-photo/1718762423?adppopup=true">Amir Levy/Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Never again’ was the state’s promise</h2>
<p>Almost every Israeli citizen now is only one degree of separation from the victims of Oct. 7, 2023. For Israel, this is truly a national calamity in Biblical terms.</p>
<p>During the Holocaust, the Nazi killing machine <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/introduction-to-the-holocaust">executed thousands of Jews every day for years</a>. But since then, there has never been a day in the 75 years of Israeli history that <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/was-hamass-attack-on-saturday-the-bloodiest-day-for-jews-since-the-holocaust/">such a large number of Jews were killed</a>, including the most <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/10/12/hamass-attack-was-the-bloodiest-in-israels-history#:%7E:text=The%202%2C656%20Israelis%20who%20died,week%20war%20were%20all%20soldiers.">horrific days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/zionism_and_zionist_parties">Zionism as a national-political movement</a> to establish a Jewish homeland came into being <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/pogroms">due to the pogroms</a> – violent, usually murderous attacks in Europe – and the <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/antisemitism-in-history-the-era-of-nationalism-1800-1918">antisemitism of the late 19th century</a>. By 1939, nobody could tell whether Zionism would succeed or fail. But it was the Shoah – Hebrew for “Holocaust” – <a href="https://www.yadvashem.org/articles/academic/holocaust-factor-birth.html">that decisively unleashed the impetus</a> among the Jewish people and internationally to create the state of Israel as a Jewish state, which stood as the triumph of Zionism. </p>
<p>The raison d'être – the purpose, justification, and international legitimacy – of the creation of Israel in 1948 was that it would be a <a href="https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/postwar-refugee-crisis-and-the-establishment-of-the-state-of-israel">safe homeland for the Jews</a> as a fundamental response to the lesson of the Holocaust: <a href="https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/truman-israel/">Jews should no longer be victims</a>. </p>
<p>So Israel came into being along with the national avowal “<a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/how-never-again-evolved-from-holocaust-commemoration-slogan-to-universal-call/">Never Again</a>,” made by both the survivors and their rescuers, as its founding ethos. For Israelis and their supporters around the world, the triumph of Israel is the extraordinary transformation from Holocaust to national revival or, in Hebrew, from Shoah to <a href="https://arza.org/shabbat-tekuma-from-destruction-to-rebirth/">Tekuma</a>.</p>
<p>Over its life as a new state, Israel has built itself as a blend of the pen and the sword. On the sword side, Israel is the <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/israel">region’s military powerhouse</a>. On the pen side, Israel has become a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Israel/Cultural-life">cultural force both within and beyond</a> its borders, a hub of <a href="https://gpseducation.oecd.org/CountryProfile?primaryCountry=ISR&treshold=10&topic=EO">academic excellence</a> and perhaps most known as a “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/gilpress/2023/02/24/the-future-and-promise-of-startup-nation/?sh=498d11a995dd">startup nation</a>,” a center of high-tech innovation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four men - three in uniform - salute something." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=439&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553741/original/file-20231013-25-kcmol6.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=552&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From its establishment, Israel promised to defend its citizens. Here, founding Prime Minister David Ben Gurion inspects troops in Tel Aviv along with Gen. Yigal Allon (far left) and Gen. Yigal Yadin (second from left), in October 1948.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa12971">United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Government fails its part of the contract</h2>
<p>By now it is clear that the multi-faceted surprise <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israel-says-palestinian-militants-are-infiltrating-gaza-rcna119315">Hamas onslaught – by sea, air and land</a> – along the entire <a href="https://apnews.com/article/middle-east-israel-militant-groups-gaza-strip-hamas-f1e2a12119da7b34c1553c3ca0821612">40-mile long Gaza barrier</a> demonstrated the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/09/1204577965/israel-intelligence-security-hamas-gaza">colossal failure of all elements of the vaunted Israeli defense systems</a>, including intelligence collection and warning, military deployment and readiness, command and control systems. </p>
<p>Indeed, Israeli military planners <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-security-failure.html">never even considered</a> such an all-out attack as a worst-case scenario, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-admits-failures-and-promises-investigation-vows-to-dismantle-hamas/">as now openly acknowledged</a> by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/10/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-security-failure.html">former senior military officials</a>. </p>
<p>Israel’s <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/why-did-israel-think-a-border-fence-would-protect-it-from-an-army-of-terrorists/">supposedly formidable border wall</a> – <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/a-wall-of-iron-sensors-and-concrete-idf-completes-tunnel-busting-gaza-barrier/">a ground barrier</a> that cost over a billion dollars and was completed in 2021 – <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/10/how-hamas-entered-israel/">was rendered useless almost instantly</a>. Within minutes, the attackers overwhelmed some 30 sites on the other side of it – civilian settlements, military bases and even an outdoor concert site. </p>
<p>There were almost <a href="https://youtu.be/A2S4Vi4F348?si=G84p_8oiswieDpkc">no Israeli troops deployed</a> in the area in the first place to <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-08/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/my-62-year-old-dad-fought-hamas-terrorists-to-free-my-family-the-israeli-state-failed-us/0000018b-1068-dcc2-a99b-15794b0d0000">defend the many points of attack</a>, in part due to the holiday and lack of advanced warning, and in part due to the complacent confidence in the wall and its high-tech support system. </p>
<p>Furthermore, since almost all military communication was cut off by Hamas knocking out the <a href="https://www.npr.org/2023/10/11/1204923717/israel-gaza-hamas-palestinian-war">communication towers</a>, Israeli military and political leaders for hours had only a vague idea of the unfolding calamity.</p>
<p>That colossal military failure reminded many Israelis of the dismal shock the country experienced in <a href="https://theconversation.com/hamas-assault-echoes-1973-arab-israeli-war-a-shock-attack-and-questions-of-political-intelligence-culpability-215228">the 1973 Yom Kippur war</a>. The resemblance seems obvious – then and now, Israelis witnessed catastrophic intelligence and operational blunders that cost so many lives due to complacency and arrogance.</p>
<p>But in some key respects, the catastrophe in 2023 seems even more traumatic – it shakes the very foundations of Israel as the embodiment of Zionism, a safe Jewish homeland. <a href="https://www.economist.com/briefing/2023/10/12/hamass-attack-was-the-bloodiest-in-israels-history#:%7E:text=The%20number%20of%20civilian%20lives,week%20war%20were%20all%20soldiers.">In 1973, the casualties of the blunder were almost all soldiers</a>; the civilians were kept far from the fighting and safe.</p>
<p>Yet on Oct. 7, this was not the case.</p>
<h2>‘We are being slaughtered’</h2>
<p>If the founding commitment of the state to its citizens was “Never again,” the brutal new reality that emerged on Oct. 7 was “Never before.”</p>
<p>For long hours on that day, countless Israeli civilians were <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-surprise-attack-gaza-hamas-4d2c710569c069115f4f1d2b0e2779b0">crying for help that in too many cases didn’t arrive in time</a>. Never before in Israeli history had so many civilians been left for so long without the help of the army.</p>
<p>“We are being slaughtered. There is no army. It has been six hours,” <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/10/07/israelis-cry-for-help-as-hamas-militants-break-into-homes/">one kibbutz resident said in desperation</a>. “People are begging for their lives.” </p>
<p>Never before had Israelis found themselves whispering <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-military-surprise-attack-gaza-hamas-4d2c710569c069115f4f1d2b0e2779b0">desperately to TV studios and social media</a>, not knowing who else to call, while terrorists were inside their houses. </p>
<p>Now, Israel has mobilized the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/12/middleeast/israel-ground-invasion-gaza-reservists-intl/index.html">largest reserve army it has ever amassed</a> – a response that reflects its attempt to re-commit to the idea, and the reality, of never again being so vulnerable. </p>
<p>Yet this national trauma will be reckoned for in generations to come. How could such a calamity happen? Who is responsible for such a catastrophe? How is it possible that a powerful nation was so complacent? </p>
<p>The official Israeli response to those soul-searching questions is that for now the nation <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israelis-wrestle-whether-punish-rally-netanyahu-government-rcna120062">must wage war and those questions must and will be thoroughly studied</a>. But, they say, not now. <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/hamas-attack-raises-questions-about-readiness-of-israels-intelligence-agencies">Investigate this later, after the war is won</a>.</p>
<p>Yet those questions are simmering and boiling within the Israeli psyche; it is impossible to resist them. There is clarity and confidence that once the war is over, professional and judicial investigations will be thoroughly conducted, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-admits-failures-and-promises-investigation-vows-to-dismantle-hamas/#:%7E:text=In%20his%20first%20public%20statement,to%20investigate%20what%20went%20wrong.">but some have already accepted moral responsibility</a>. This movement toward both demanding and accepting responsibility demonstrates a renewed faith among Israelis about the future for their country.</p>
<p>Most prominently, the Israeli military’s chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-chief-admits-failures-and-promises-investigation-vows-to-dismantle-hamas">has acknowledged publicly the failure</a> of the army and took responsibility for that failure to provide security to the citizens of Israel.</p>
<p>The sole Israeli national figure who has acknowledged nothing about responsibility is the one on whose watch it all happened, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Indeed, except for a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/07/world/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-hamas-attack.html">few taped statements</a>, in the week after the war began, Netanyahu has <a href="https://x.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713204881723437288?s=20">avoided meeting members of the public</a> as well as <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-10-12/ty-article-opinion/.premium/20-questions-for-mr-netanyahu/0000018b-201d-d010-a59f-b97da86e0000">taking questions from the press</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/israelis-wrestle-whether-punish-rally-netanyahu-government-rcna120062">rage against Netanyahu</a> <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/10/in-the-israel-hamas-war-netanyahu-is-losing-at-home.html">in the Israeli public</a> <a href="https://x.com/NTarnopolsky/status/1713163498157424660?s=20">is mounting</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215507/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Avner Cohen does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Israel’s foundational social contract – that the government would keep Israelis safe – was severed with the deadly attacks by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023.Avner Cohen, Professor of Nonproliferation Studies, Middlebury Institute of International StudiesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047822023-05-11T12:13:26Z2023-05-11T12:13:26ZThe Nakba at 75 – Palestinians’ struggle to get recognition for their ‘catastrophe’<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525429/original/file-20230510-19-35fnr2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C453%2C7209%2C4712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Palestinians leave their Jerusalem neighborhood during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/picture-released-in-january-1948-shows-palestinian-arabs-news-photo/1252040931?adppopup=true">Intercontinentale/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 15, 2023, the United Nations will stage a high-level special meeting to commemorate the 75th anniversary of <a href="https://imeu.org/article/the-nakba-and-palestine-refugees-imeu-questions-and-answers">the Nakba</a> – the <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/15/nakba-mapping-palestinian-villages-destroyed-by-israel-in-1948#:%7E:text=Zionist%20military%20forces%20expelled%20at,and%20the%20besieged%20Gaza%20Strip.">mass displacement of around 750,000 Palestinians</a> from their homeland in 1948. </p>
<p>It is the first time that the international body has commemorated the date, <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/statement-by-chair-of-the-palestinian-rights-committee-at-security-council-open-debate-9/">which organizers said serves</a> “as a reminder of the historic injustice suffered by the Palestinian people.”</p>
<p>Not everyone is behind the U.N.’s marking of the day, however. The United States and the United Kingdom were among the countries that <a href="https://www.jns.org/for-the-first-time-a-un-body-will-host-a-nakba-day-event/">voted against the commemoration</a>. Meanwhile, the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230427-israel-seeks-boycott-of-nakba-anniversary-event-at-un/">Israeli foreign ministry has called</a> on U.N. member states “not to participate in the event that adopts the Palestinian narrative that opposes Israel’s right to exist.”</p>
<p>As a scholar who <a href="https://menas.arizona.edu/people/maha-nassar">studies Palestinian history</a>, I see the U.N. decision as the culmination of a long process. For decades, Palestinians struggled for international recognition of the Nakba in the face of a narrative that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2019-07-05/ty-article-magazine/.premium/how-israel-systematically-hides-evidence-of-1948-expulsion-of-arabs/0000017f-f303-d487-abff-f3ff69de0000">minimized their plight</a>. </p>
<p>That is starting to change.</p>
<h2>What is the Nakba?</h2>
<p><a href="https://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-the-palestinian-nakba">The Nakba</a> – Arabic for “catastrophe” – was part of a longer project of displacement of Palestinians from their homeland. From the early 1900s, <a href="https://theconversation.com/on-its-75th-birthday-israel-still-cant-agree-on-what-it-means-to-be-a-jewish-state-and-a-democracy-204770">increasing numbers of Zionists</a> – Jewish nationalists – emigrated from Russia and other parts of Europe to Palestine, seeking to escape antisemitism.</p>
<p>Many of these settlers also sought to <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-definition-of-zionism">establish Jewish sovereignty</a> in a land that had long been inhabited by Muslims, Christians, Jews and others.</p>
<p>As a result of Zionist settlement, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2017.1372427">thousands of peasants were forced off</a> land they had lived on for generations. Many <a href="https://yplus.ps/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Kanafani-Ghassan-The-1936-39-Revolt-in-Palestine.pdf">Palestinians resisted</a> this colonial displacement throughout the 1920s and 1930s. But their resistance was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1525/jps.2015.44.2.28">violently suppressed</a> by British colonial forces ruling over Palestine at the time.</p>
<p>Following World War II, as the full horrors of the Holocaust became known and international sympathy for the Jewish plight grew, Zionist militias <a href="https://israeled.org/king-david-hotel-bombing/">waged deadly attacks</a> that <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2020-06-13/ty-article/.premium/the-hidden-terror-attacks-of-the-haganah-israels-pre-state-militia/0000017f-e69b-dea7-adff-f7fbb12e0000">killed</a> <a href="https://archive.org/details/terroroutofzion00jbow">hundreds</a> of Palestinians and British personnel.</p>
<p>The British then handed over the “question of Palestine” to the newly formed United Nations, which <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-185393/">on Nov. 29, 1947, voted</a> in favor of a partition plan to split Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The plan allotted a majority of the country, including major ports and prime agricultural lands, to the Jewish state, even though Jews comprised about <a href="https://www.jewishvoiceforpeace.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Partition-and-lead-up-to-violence.pdf">one-third of the population at the time</a>. The plan would have also forced half a million Palestinian Arabs living in the proposed Jewish state to <a href="https://www.thecairoreview.com/essays/framing-the-partition-plan-for-palestine/">make a stark choice</a>: live as a minority in their own country or leave. </p>
<p>Palestinians rejected the plan and fighting broke out. Well-trained Zionist militias <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300151121/1948/">attacked Palestinians</a> in areas that had been designated as part of the proposed Jewish state. Other Palestinians fled in fear after <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/9/the-deir-yassin-massacre-why-it-still-matters-75-years-later">Zionist forces massacred</a> villagers in Deir Yassin. </p>
<p>By the time Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, between <a href="https://imeu.org/article/quick-facts-the-palestinian-nakba">250,000 and 350,000 Palestinians had been forced off</a> their ancestral lands.</p>
<p>The day after that declaration – May 15 – came to be known as Nakba Day. </p>
<p>As Palestinians fled to neighboring lands, the armies of five Arab countries – which also wished to prevent a Jewish state from forming – were deployed to try to stem the tide of refugees. Fighting between Israeli and Arab armies continued throughout that summer and fall, with the <a href="https://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Essfc0005/The%20Debate%20About%201948.html">heavily armed</a> Israeli military <a href="https://www.1948movie.com">conquering lands</a> that the U.N. had previously <a href="http://www.passia.org/maps/view/15">designated as part of the Arab state</a>. </p>
<p>In the process, even more Palestinians were <a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Ethnic-Cleansing-of-Palestine/Ilan-Pappe/9781851685554">expelled from their homes and villages</a>. Many <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520389366/nakba-and-survival">fled on foot</a>, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/palestinians/2018-04-20/ty-article-magazine/.premium/hidden-stories-of-the-nakba/0000017f-e929-d62c-a1ff-fd7bf36e0000">carrying whatever they could on their backs</a>. By the end of the Arab-Israeli war in 1949, an estimated <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/userfiles/20100118141933.pdf">750,000 Palestinians</a> had either fled or had been expelled from their homes. </p>
<h2>The battle over the Nakba narrative</h2>
<p>Palestinian and official Israeli accounts framed what took place in very different ways.</p>
<p>Since 1948, Palestinians have insisted that they have a right to return to the homes and lands from which they were expelled. They and their supporters cite the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, <a href="https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights#:%7E:text=Everyone%20has%20the%20right%20to%20seek%20and%20to%20enjoy%20in,principles%20of%20the%20United%20Nations">passed in December 1948, that states</a>: “Everyone has the right to leave any country, including his own, and to return to his country.”</p>
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<img alt="A woman making a heart shape with her hands fronts a throng of people waving Palestinian flags." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525471/original/file-20230510-21-kxxdef.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Palestinians march in Chicago on May 15, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/demonstrators-march-in-chicago-illinois-on-may-15-2022-news-photo/1240703372?adppopup=true">Max Herman/NurPhoto via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>But <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110718144249/http://www.palestine-studies.org/enakba/exodus/Glazer,%20The%20Palestinian%20Exodus%20in%201948.pdf">Israeli officials have maintained</a> that Palestinians left at the behest of their leaders and should be resettled in the surrounding Arab countries.</p>
<p>They also argue that since Israel has already absorbed <a href="http://www.thetower.org/article/there-was-a-jewish-nakba-and-it-was-even-bigger-than-the-palestinian-one/">some 900,000 Jewish refugees</a> who were expelled from Arab countries after Israel’s founding, they should not have to take back Palestinian refugees, too. </p>
<p>For decades, Americans overall <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2018/01/23/republicans-and-democrats-grow-even-further-apart-in-views-of-israel-palestinians/012318_1/">have held greater sympathy</a> for the Israeli position. One reason for this was the 1958 bestselling novel “Exodus” and the 1960 blockbuster film of the same name. As <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205221132878">my research shows</a>, the novel drew on long-standing anti-Arab racist tropes to absolve Zionist and Israeli forces of their role in creating the Palestinian refugee crisis.</p>
<p>This “<a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/08969205221132878">Nakba denialism</a>,” as scholars like myself describe it, was pervasive. It rested on the idea that Palestinians were generic “Arabs” who could be settled in any other Arab country, rather than a people whose food, dress and dialects are connected to specific locales in Palestine, and are distinct from those in surrounding Arab countries.</p>
<p>Attempts to commemorate the Nakba have long been rooted in a counternarrative that connects Palestinian culture and society to their pre-1948 hometowns and villages.</p>
<p>At first, Palestinians mourned the loss of their homeland quietly. Then in the 1960s, younger Palestinians formed political organizations aimed at drawing international attention to their cause. That included <a href="https://www.palestineposterproject.org/poster/15th-may">holding public events</a> on May 15 to educate the broader public – in Arab states and around the world – about their ties to their land and to push for their right to return.</p>
<p>Following the June 1967 War, Israel occupied the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Since then, Palestinians around the world have sought to use May 15 to draw attention not only to the plight of Palestinian refugees living in exile, but also of those living under Israeli occupation. </p>
<p>Palestinians <a href="https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-global-offensive-9780190217822?cc=us&lang=en&">gained support from many in the Global South</a> – a term to describe lower-income countries mainly in Asia, Africa and South America – due in part to many nations’ common colonial experiences. While some African American groups in the U.S. also <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29556">backed the Palestinian cause</a>, in much of the West the Nakba remained largely unknown. </p>
<p>In 1998, as Palestinians marked 50 years of exile, activists in <a href="https://www.palestineposterproject.org/poster/the-nakba-continues">the United States and around the world organized</a> commemorative events. For the first time, organizers centered the events around a single theme: remembering the Nakba. </p>
<p>That same year, Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-05-15/ty-article-magazine/a-brief-history-of-nakba-day/00000180-d635-d572-aba5-debd6f320000">also made official</a> what had long been unofficial: May 15 was declared Nakba Day.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, a group of Israeli scholars known as the “New Historians” published <a href="https://merip.org/1998/06/fifty-years-through-the-eyes-of-new-historians-in-israel/">carefully documented studies</a> that confirmed the Palestinians’ narrative of what happened in 1948. Those studies undermined <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-07-01/ty-article-magazine/.premium/why-are-palestinian-photos-and-films-buried-in-israeli-archives/0000017f-e768-da9b-a1ff-ef6ff2000000">long-standing official Israeli denials</a> about its role in creating the Nakba. They also opened the door further for global acknowledgment of the Palestinians’ experiences.</p>
<p>Despite the findings, Israeli governments and some Western allies still oppose recognizing the Nakba. </p>
<p>In 2009, the Israeli education minister <a href="https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106939038">banned the use of the Arabic term in Israeli textbooks</a>. Then in 2011, the Israeli parliament passed a “<a href="https://law.acri.org.il/en/knesset/nakba-law/">Nakba Law</a>,” authorizing the government to withdraw funding from civil society groups that commemorate the Nakba. That law <a href="https://themarkaz.org/palestinians-and-israelis-will-commemorate-the-nakba-together/">remains in effect</a>.</p>
<p>The restrictions aren’t limited to Israel. Last year, German courts upheld the Berlin police’s decision to <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2022/05/20/berlin-bans-nakba-day-demonstrations">cancel several planned Nakba Day protests in that city</a>. </p>
<p>Despite this opposition, Palestinians continue to mark Nakba Day. That’s because, as long as they remain under Israeli occupation and exiled from their land, Palestinian rights groups say, “<a href="https://www.badil.org/press-releases/843.html">the Nakba is ongoing</a>.” Many also see May 15 as a day to <a href="https://www.arabamerica.com/events/amp-leading-dc-rally-to-commemorate-nakba-75/">affirm Palestinians’ resilience</a>, despite the ongoing oppression they face.</p>
<p>As Palestinians and their supporters hold Nakba Day events at the U.N., <a href="https://uscpr.org/nakba-75/">across the United States</a> and around the world in 2023, it serves as acknowledgment of their long, and continuing, struggle.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204782/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maha Nassar was a 2022 nonresident fellow with the Foundation for Middle East Peace.</span></em></p>For the first time, the United Nations will mark the commemoration of the displacement of 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948.Maha Nassar, Associate Professor in the School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies, University of ArizonaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047702023-05-10T12:29:08Z2023-05-10T12:29:08ZOn its 75th birthday, Israel still can’t agree on what it means to be a Jewish state and a democracy<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525208/original/file-20230509-27-4vwc7n.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=9%2C0%2C6050%2C3431&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Under a portrait of Theodor Herzl, David Ben-Gurion on May 14, 1948, declares the establishment of a Jewish state to be known as the state of Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-israeli-declaration-of-independence-proclaimed-on-14-news-photo/944222584?adppopup=true">Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As Israel celebrates the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/israel-protests-flag-netanyahu-overhaul-354a807daa5c901823a99419ce1eb638">75th anniversary of its founding</a>, and nearly a century and a half after the <a href="https://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/3946.htm">first Zionists came to Palestine from Europe</a>, the core tension behind the country’s establishment – whether a Jewish state could be a democratic state, whether Zionism could accommodate pluralism – is more obvious than ever.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.globalfirepower.com/country-military-strength-detail.php?country_id=israel">Israel today is a military powerhouse</a> and one of 38 members of the influential <a href="https://www.state.gov/the-organization-for-economic-co-operation-and-development-oecd/">Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development</a>, formed in 1961 to promote cooperation among democratic, free-market-oriented governments. </p>
<p>Such strength and economic viability would be unfamiliar to the Jews whose identity was forged in the <a href="https://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-0-387-29904-4_17">European diaspora</a>. There, Judaism and its practitioners shunned political and military power. They saw themselves as a minority facing discrimination, persecution and violence. Power was the domain of gentiles. </p>
<p>Jews, often <a href="https://pluralism.org/diaspora-community">separated from the non-Jewish world</a>, focused instead on developing social institutions to help the poor and weak, not asserting their will as a political community.</p>
<p>This attitude toward the state and politics began to change for Europe’s Jews in the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1486474">aftermath of the French Revolution</a>, when the majority of Jews lived in Europe, especially central and Eastern Europe. As some of the traditional legal and political barriers that kept Jews outside of mainstream society began to crumble, Jews began to integrate into broader society and culture.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525358/original/file-20230510-15-ucshcc.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/topics/israel-1948-138054">Expert analysis</a> of the birth of the state of Israel and the plight of the Palestinian people.</em></p>
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<p>This process also brought about, for some Jews, <a href="https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2011/september/polonskyexcerpt.html">new attitudes toward their Jewish identity</a>.</p>
<p>Many no longer defined themselves as members of a religious community. As many other <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/43852/summary">groups had begun to do in Europe</a>, they saw themselves as belonging to a national community. For some, nationalism also offered a way out of the predicament that Jews faced in Europe: hatred and discrimination, which came to be known as antisemitism.</p>
<p>This <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism">nationalism was called Zionism</a>. And the thinking went that if the Jews are a nation, then they should have their own nation-state, <a href="https://www.fpri.org/article/2015/01/origins-and-evolution-of-zionism/">preferably in Palestine</a>, the Jews’ ancestral homeland. There they could assume control of their historical destiny, not to be at the mercy of non-Jewish nations and rulers.</p>
<p>Zionism sought to solve a particular Jewish problem, gathering Jews dispersed around the world, ending the unique Jewish historical experience of centuries of life under the rule of often hostile governments, and universalizing the Jewish experience by creating a Jewish state and society like all other nations. It was the “natural right of the Jewish people to be <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx">masters of their own fate</a>, like all other nations, in their own sovereign State,” said Israel’s declaration of independence. </p>
<p>But just how universal would a Jewish state be? Could such a nation be both Jewish and democratic?</p>
<p>That is the central question that, more than a century later, has yet to be answered clearly and affirmatively.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A clipping from the London-based Jewish Chronicle by Zionist Theodor Herzl, saying the founding of a Jewish state is the 'solution of the Jewish question.'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525212/original/file-20230509-19-q9oiaa.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=553&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An article by Zionist Theodor Herzl for the London-based Jewish Chronicle, Jan. 17, 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JewishChronicle1896.jpg">Wikipedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Reconciling universal and particular</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Theodor-Herzl">Theodor Herzl</a>, an Austro-Hungarian Jew acknowledged as the father of modern Zionism, considered this tension in his 1902 utopian novel “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/quot-altneuland-quot-theodor-herzl">Altneuland,” or “The Old New Land</a>.” Herzl tried to envision what a future Jewish society in Palestine would look like.</p>
<p>One of the novel’s key plot lines involves a political campaign pitting a xenophobic rabbi who preaches the Jewish character of the community against a secular candidate who advocates inclusivity and cooperation between Jews and Arabs in this imagined Jewish society.</p>
<p>Herzl’s choice: the pluralist candidate prevailed.</p>
<p>But throughout the history of the Zionist movement and the state of Israel, what Herzl described has been a core source of tension. This duality was on full display in <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx">Israel’s declaration of independence</a>, in many ways the quintessential manifestation of political Zionism.</p>
<p>On the one hand, the document offers a version of Jewish history that emphasizes the uniqueness of the Jewish experience and offers historical justification for the creation of a safe haven for the Jews. </p>
<p>After establishing the attachment of the Jews to their ancestral homeland, the authors of the declaration address the Holocaust, writing that, “the massacre of millions of Jews in Europe … was another clear demonstration of the urgency of solving the problem” of Jewish “homelessness” by “re-establishing” the Jewish state, which would “open the gates of the homeland wide to every Jew.”</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://main.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx">the document pledges</a> that the state of Israel would be faithful to the U.N. charter, protecting the rights of all minorities: “The State … will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex.”</p>
<p>David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, suggested that once the country was created, Zionism would wither away. The nation, as a Jewish state with laws that protect minorities, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41805141">would resolve the contradictions inherent in Zionist ideology</a>.</p>
<p>But as long as the majority of Israelis felt a sense of existential threat – <a href="https://library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre1952102300">both from neighboring Arab states</a> and <a href="https://eh.net/encyclopedia/a-brief-economic-history-of-modern-israel/">dire economic conditions</a> – Zionism continued to provide a unifying ideological umbrella to most Israelis.</p>
<h2>After 1967, a transformation</h2>
<p>In the aftermath of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-39960461">the 1967 Six-Day War</a>, when Israel conquered the Sinai Peninsula from Egypt, the West Bank from Jordan and the Golan Heights from Syria, the country emerged as a <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/publication/the-1967-six-day-war">regional military and economic power</a>. </p>
<p>It was a time of significant social, political and economic change.</p>
<p>A growing number of Israelis – especially those from the more secular, upper classes – <a href="https://en.idi.org.il/articles/15731">began to question</a> the country’s particularism, which conceived of the country as a shelter for Jews that would protect them from external threats. For these upwardly mobile Israelis, known <a href="https://sunypress.edu/Books/B/Beyond-Post-Zionism">as the post-Zionists</a>, the founding myths of a vulnerable young state no longer seemed relevant. </p>
<p>They wanted Israel to become a fully normal part of the American-led global order. They believed the country should integrate into the region by <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/israels-rightward-shift">resolving the conflict between Jews and Arabs</a>. And they wanted to participate in the global economic market as the country transitioned from a state-run economy to the free market.</p>
<p>At the same time, religious Jews and poorer Israelis, mostly descended from Jewish communities of the Arab Middle East and North Africa, resisted this cosmopolitan liberal shift. They held tightly to their Jewish identity, rejecting what they saw as compromises driven by alien ideals like democracy and pluralism. To this group, <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2009-06-05/ty-article/neo-zionism-101/0000017f-f454-d223-a97f-fdddf95b0000">known as neo-Zionists</a>, the ideal was a Jewish state as protection from the rapid changes engulfing the country.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Men lying down on the ground with their hands behind their heads, overseen by armed soldiers." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/525215/original/file-20230509-17-msfdbh.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinians surrender to Israeli soldiers in June 1967 in the occupied territory of the West Bank, during what is known as the Six-Day War.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/palestinians-surrender-to-israeli-soldiers-in-june-1967-in-news-photo/51347132?adppopup=true">Pierre Guillaud/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Palestinian question disappears</h2>
<p>From the 1970s through 2000, much of the post-or-neo-Zionist divide was over the occupation of the West Bank, <a href="https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/west-bank/">where 3 million Palestinians live</a>. Could there be peace between Israelis and Palestinians? </p>
<p><a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40209614">Post-Zionists wanted peace</a>, seeking a two-state solution that would see a Palestinian state next to Israel. <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/2009-06-05/ty-article/neo-zionism-101/0000017f-f454-d223-a97f-fdddf95b0000">Neo-Zionists rejected any territorial compromise</a> with the Palestinians.</p>
<p>In the 21st century, in the aftermath of <a href="https://users.ox.ac.uk/%7Essfc0005/The%20Rise%20and%20Fall%20of%20the%20Oslo%20Peace%20Process.html#:%7E:text=Why%20did%20the%20Oslo%20peace,between%20Israel%20and%20the%20Palestinians.">the peace process collapse</a> and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Israel/The-second-intifada">the second intifada</a>, or Palestinian uprising, the Palestinian issue has virtually disappeared from Israel’s political landscape.</p>
<p>Instead, the country’s attention has <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/07/world/middleeast/israel-divisions-judicial-overhaul.html?utm_source=Iterable&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ForwardingtheNews_6535443">returned to the old divisions</a> between those advocating policies that would <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2016/03/08/views-of-the-jewish-state-and-the-diaspora/">enhance the Jewish character of the country</a> and those who champion universal policies more favorable to excluded minorities.</p>
<p>The Israeli government that came into power in late 2022 represents the <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-stunning-political-comeback-for-israels-netanyahu-may-give-way-to-governing-nightmare-ahead-193892">nationalistic, particular camp most forcefully</a>. Its main agenda has been a plan <a href="https://theconversation.com/israels-netanyahu-facing-off-against-the-supreme-court-and-proposing-to-limit-judicial-independence-and-3-other-threats-to-israeli-democracy-197096">to diminish and restrict the Israeli Supreme Court’s powers</a>. To the ruling coalition, the court has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-enters-a-dangerous-period-public-protests-swell-over-netanyahus-plan-to-limit-the-power-of-the-israeli-supreme-court-199917">a hindrance in pursuing policies</a> advancing the country’s Jewish nature.</p>
<p>This so-called reform has driven <a href="https://theconversation.com/israel-enters-a-dangerous-period-public-protests-swell-over-netanyahus-plan-to-limit-the-power-of-the-israeli-supreme-court-199917">hundreds of thousands of protesters to the streets</a>. Their demand is a simple one: democracy.</p>
<p>Israel may no longer be a fledgling state – but it has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning: Can it be Jewish and democratic?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204770/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eran Kaplan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Israel may no longer be a fledgling state – but it has yet to overcome the basic contradiction that has defined it from the very beginning.Eran Kaplan, Rhoda and Richard Goldman Chair in Jewish Studies, San Francisco State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2051322023-05-08T07:39:20Z2023-05-08T07:39:20ZCourage, wit and integrity: Raimond Gaita farewells writer, historian and son-in-law, Mark Raphael Baker<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524853/original/file-20230508-26085-48gi2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C1980%2C1446&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mark Raphael Baker, author of The Fiftieth Gate</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paul Philipson</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mark Raphael Baker, who died on May 4, is best known for two outstanding books, radically different in kind. The groundbreaking Holocaust historian Christopher R. Browning describes Mark’s award-winning memoir <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/the-fiftieth-gate-a-journey-through-memory">The Fiftieth Gate</a>, about his parents’ experience in the Holocaust, thus: “Combining precise historical research and poetic eloquence […] The Fiftieth Gate remains the gold standard of second-generation Holocaust memoirs”. </p>
<p>When it was reissued for its 20-year anniversary five years ago, it had sold over 70,000 copies.</p>
<p>In The Fiftieth Gate, Mark entered his parents’ memories – and in the darkness, found light. Across the silence of 50 years, he and his family travelled from Poland and Germany to Jerusalem and Melbourne, as Mark struggled to uncover the mystery of his parents’ survival: his father Yossl was imprisoned in concentration camps and his mother Genia was forced into hiding after the Jews of her village were murdered. </p>
<p>In an introduction to the book’s 20th anniversary edition, Mark reflected on how the testimonial culture in Holocaust studies has spread to awareness of other genocides and our responsibility (and failure) to prevent them.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/cJCj9_nnzy4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/thirty-days-a-journey-to-the-end-of-love">Thirty Days</a>, Mark’s memoir about the dying and death of his first wife Kerryn, was written in the first 30 days of mourning, and published in 2017. Wrote author Miranda Richmond Mouillot: “Piercing, unsparing and sweet, this book will break your heart and put it back again”. </p>
<p>Mark recalled their life together and wrote of Kerryn’s death and dying in many tones – lyrically, tenderly, with self-deprecating irony, embarrassed candour and more – but one heard in them all pain so raw and need so desperate that it sometimes threatened to unhinge him. This elegy of love and grief takes back to our hearts knowledge that is too often only in our heads – that the disappearance of a human personality will forever be mysterious to us because every human being is irreplaceable. </p>
<p>Much later, long after I first wrote these words about his book, Mark met and married his second wife, Michelle Lesh – my stepdaughter.</p>
<p>Two new books will be published, hopefully this year and early next year. Mark’s novel, The Alphabet of Numbers, is a literary thriller in the mould of Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code and Donna TartT’s The Secret History. </p>
<p>A Season of Death is a memoir, written after Mark was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in April 2022. Michelle and I will prepare it for publication. </p>
<p>When I sent Mark’s final draft to his children (from his marriage to Kerryn) I wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I’m sure you will be profoundly moved by your father’s last work – deep, poignant, inspiring, painfully - sometimes unbearably – raw, yet often characteristically funny.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524857/original/file-20230508-95951-vmh0q0.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=498&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Raphael Baker with his wife, Michelle Lesh, and their daughter Melila.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Friendship and courage</h2>
<p>My relationship to Mark had two phases. In the first, we knew each other as writers and academics. In 1999, my book <a href="https://www.textpublishing.com.au/books/romulus-my-father">Romulus My Father</a> and Mark’s The Fiftieth Gate competed for premier’s literary awards in two states. Perhaps it was good for our future relationship that we were awarded one each – though Mark also got a trip Sydney, with an overnight stay (all expenses paid, I assume). </p>
<p>Over the next decade, our friendship developed, though it was not yet close. For the most part, it centred on academic matters. He invited me to speak on two or three occasions to the <a href="https://www.monash.edu/arts/acjc">Centre for Jewish Civilisation</a> at Monash University, of which he was director. </p>
<p>I invited him to give a lecture in a series of six I curated on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/jan/04/israel-gaza-hamas-hidden-agenda">Israel’s invasion of Gaza</a> in 2009. Each week the lecture theatre was packed, usually by an audience hostile to Israel – for the most part the same audience. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524870/original/file-20230508-105550-xtourr.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1066&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A poster for the Gaza lecture series.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A significant number of that audience showed their distaste – sometimes verbally, but more often in unnervingly expressive body language – at the prospect of hearing many and fine distinctions drawn in service to an attempt to judge whether the Israeli invasion was justified. Such an attempt, many of them seemed to think, was indecent. </p>
<p>The content of Mark’s lecture was excellent and its delivery eloquent. More impressive was his ability to engage the serious attention of that difficult audience because he spoke so obviously from a heart made open to their hostility – and even mockery. </p>
<p>He condemned <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-is-accountability-for-alleged-war-crimes-so-hard-to-achieve-in-the-israel-palestinian-conflict-160864">Israel’s crimes</a> and also the growing tendency to believe they were a reason for it to cease to exist as a Jewish state. It was then that I came to respect his integrity, both moral and intellectual, and to admire his courage. </p>
<p>Courage is one of the most important virtues: without it, some values cannot develop, and others will be forsaken. Wisdom – as distinct from cleverness – will not develop unless one cares fearlessly for truth, against fashion, peer pressure, vanity and so on. Loyalty will come to nothing if betrayed by cowardice. Ditto for political commitment. </p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-of-rigid-legalism-greets-asylum-seekers-and-their-kind-22951">Ghassan Hage</a> was also one of the speakers at my lecture series. He is a renowned anthropologist, who last year gave the prestigious annual Margaret Mead Lecture at Columbia University. His hostility to Zionism is uncompromisingly fierce. When I shared the video announcing Mark’s death on Facebook, Ghassan wrote a comment: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Dear Rai, I am sorry for you and your daughter’s loss. I’ve only met Mark a few times and it is some time ago now. We had some rather strong disagreements, but I know you’d know that I am not saying a platitude when I say that he always came across as a fine human being who never let political disagreements come in the way of decent and sincere interpersonal relations.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Given how passionately Ghassan and Mark held the beliefs that brought them into irreconcilable conflict, that is a fine tribute. I’m grateful, on Mark’s behalf, that Ghassan made it.</p>
<p>Looking over old emails, I noted I had praised Mark’s courage to his brother Johnny as early as 2012 – and did the same later in that year in an email to Mark himself. The courage to which I referred in those emails was not as it showed in his defence of Israel against people critical of it. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=928&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524863/original/file-20230508-225450-14ycmf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1166&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
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</figure>
<p>It was to the way he manifested criticism of Israel – loyal always to the nation and its founding ideals as he believed them to be, but not therefore to any of its governments. It was criticism that hurt and offended a community of Holocaust survivors not ready for it to be made outside the community – and, in fact, often not ready for it, period.</p>
<p>It was primarily Mark’s posts that kept me on Facebook, which I had joined more or less accidentally. His condemnation of the occupation and the brutal treatment of Palestinians provoked hostile criticism more often than friendly (albeit critical) support. “I applaud your courage and good judgement in seeing so clearly the difference between patriotism and jingoism,” I wrote in that 2012 email. </p>
<p>Almost always Mark responded to attacks with a determination to keep discussion rational and answerable to facts. I say “almost always” because he could be hot-headed – but given the provocation he received, it was hardly worth remarking on. </p>
<p>I also looked to his posts for the articles he recommended. I was struck that Mark was probably one of the most well-read people I know – one of three, indeed.</p>
<p>Apart from his writings, his work at the Centre for Jewish Civilisation was his most important contribution to Australian cultural and intellectual life. He brought many eminent international speakers – writers, historians, social theorists, religious scholars – to Monash, and from there to universities around Australia. Some of the centre’s activities were closed to participants in workshops or conferences, but many were open to the public. The lectures were always packed. The gratitude of the audience for the opportunity Mark made available, and the respect and affection they showed him, was almost palpable. </p>
<p>During his directorship, his uncompromising commitment to academic freedom ensured the Centre’s independence from pressure to not alienate important figures in the Jewish community on matters regarding Israel – pressure applied by academics and donors.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524868/original/file-20230508-124380-35ccil.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark Raphael Baker at Treblinka death camp on a research trip for The Fiftieth Gate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>From colleague to father-in-law</h2>
<p>The second phase of my relationship to Mark was by far the most important. I call it “the father-in-law phase”. Strictly speaking, I was his stepfather-in-law, but we resisted the qualification – eventually dropping it, unless some occasion or protocol required strict veracity. We spoke to one another about this aspect of relationship in several tones, but always with a touch of bemused disbelief. </p>
<p>In my speech at Michelle and Mark’s wedding, I said: “I have often laughed incredulously at the thought that Mark Baker would be my stepson-in-law. I don’t know if I will ever stop.” On a number of occasions, however, we publicly expressed pride in our new relationship. I’ve stopped laughing.</p>
<p>Mark’s fine mind – open, sharp, witty, critical and self-critical – is known to all who have read, or conversed with him, as was his impressive knowledge. Few people would not have been humbled by the extent and depth of his reading. Those qualities made him one of the most important figures in the Jewish community and beyond – and a fine writer. They made our many conversations fruitful and enjoyable. </p>
<p>It’s so very painful for me now to remember how much I’d been looking forward to years of those conversation, at the dinner table in our St Kilda homes, seven minutes’ walk from one another. We agreed about a lot, but anybody who eavesdropped on our conversation would think we were often in constant and sometimes passionate disagreement.</p>
<p>The intellectual qualities I have described were impressive, but a moment’s reflection will tell you that they can be possessed by someone quite superficial and even by people who are evil – as the <a href="https://www.yadvashem.org/holocaust/about/final-solution-beginning/wannsee-conference.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwmN2iBhCrARIsAG_G2i588XQw3xyiZ072q173DU4D7bQqh2Bk0ZJJ9YpQFZFMmtDqbuUiEbkaApCWEALw_wcB">Wannsee conference</a>, littered by PhDs who planned the Final Solution, proved. </p>
<p>For that reason, I have never been greatly impressed by intelligence in the sense conveyed when we praise someone for being bright, or quick on their feet, intellectually high-flying. After 50 years in academic life, I’ve seen a lot of it and have often been reminded of a remark by <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-albert-camus-the-plague-134244">Albert Camus</a>. He said he admires intelligence, but distinguishes between “intelligent intelligence” and “stupid intelligence”. </p>
<p>What’s the difference? Intelligence is stupid when it is only, even at its best, what I just described. Intelligent intelligence is what Mark showed in his Gaza lectures. It is ethically serious – but not thereby earnest. </p>
<p>Mark was never earnest. He was renowned and loved for his wit and gaiety. But he was also known for his passion for truthfulness. Sceptical about any temptation to award the concept of truth a capital “T”, he never doubted the importance of trying to see things as they are, rather than as they appear from the perspective of distorted loyalty, or vanity, or fear of what people might think of you. And he never doubted the importance of the need, for the sake of democratic politics, to make one’s thoughts answerable to the facts – especially after Trump.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/raimond-gaita-on-donald-trumps-america-a-cloud-cuckoo-land-devoid-of-fact-evidence-and-argument-68752">Raimond Gaita on Donald Trump's America: a cloud cuckoo land devoid of fact, evidence and argument</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Love, care and fatherhood</h2>
<p>Important and pleasurable though the intellectual dimension of our relationship was, it would never have taken me even to affection. I’ll describe two occasions that took me from admiration and affection to love.</p>
<p>Michelle was invited in 2018 to Geneva to join the United Nations Human Rights council to investigate the bloody events at the Gaza border that year. But she was morally compelled to resign – a decision accompanied by great stress and anxiety – before the council delivered its scathing report accusing Israel of violations of Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law. Not because she disagreed in any serious way with the ethical/political content of the council’s judgement, as she anticipated it, but because of the way she believed it came to that judgement. The route to a judgement in law is as important as its destination. Concern for the integrity of law and its respect in the international community ethically compelled her resignation.</p>
<p>That was when my affection for Mark turned into love. His support for Michelle when she was desperately in need of it was unwavering. In Geneva, he made good in a dramatic fashion on the promise he made to my wife Yael and me at the beginning of his relationship with Michelle. “I love her. I will care for her. I will be good to her”.</p>
<p>There was another period where he showed even greater supererogatory devotion. Michelle and Mark underwent 22 IVF procedures. Twenty-two! It’s almost impossible to believe. Mark tells their heartbreaking journey and its joyful outcome in A Season of Death. In my reading, most people found the heartache of three IVF failures too much to bear. “Twenty-two might be a world record,” Mark writes in his memoir. </p>
<p>I remember vividly an evening, again at the kitchen table at our house in St Kilda, when Michelle, Mark, Yael and I discussed whether they should try again, a 22nd time, with one of two remaining eggs; or should they, after so many years of heartbreak, opt for surrogacy? </p>
<p>Hesitantly, Yael and I told Michelle that we believed that if she didn’t, she would spend her life wondering what would’ve happened if she did. I remember catching Mark’s eyes. I could see that he was wondering whether their spirits could withstand yet another assault of searing disappointment. I saw also in his eyes the realisation that they had no choice but to try again and to steel themselves for the consequences. It’s no wonder that it is said in so many cultures that the eyes are the window to the soul. </p>
<p>I don’t know if the advice we gave that evening played a part in bringing Melila to this world – Melila the miracle child, who everyone loves – but if we did, it was one the best things we have done in our lives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524867/original/file-20230508-180826-pceh3j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=724&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mark, Michelle and Melila, ‘the miracle child’, protesting for democracy in Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Final words, from Mark</h2>
<p>I’ll end with Mark’s words from A Season of Death, because they are so beautiful. He had taken Melila to a walk on St Kilda Beach, to a small Jetty.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>After I was diagnosed with cancer, Michelle organised a private yoga class at home on my birthday. I loved it so much that the teacher returns each week, then twice a week. It’s the only thing that gets me out of my head and allows me to forget that I have cancer for a single hour on the mat. I tell the teacher that my aim is to once again stand on my head and see the world upright — my upside-down world.</p>
<p>I go down on all fours onto the hard floor of the pier. I know I should have a rubber mat but the risk of falling on wood spurs me on. I place my arms outwards and kick my feet up. They fall back on the ground. I try again. The same thing. On the third attempt, I feel my body rise, the tumour and liver spot stretching inside me, and for one millisecond I am suspended in the air. I wonder what Melila is thinking watching her Dadda upside down. And then I fall hard on the ground onto my back. The back that has been screaming for pain relief. </p>
<p>I lie there for a few seconds and look up at the vaulted sky. Rain has begun to fall lightly. I pull myself up and unlock the brakes on Melila’s wheels. I sing her a Yiddish song that my father used to sing to me, and me to my children, and now my mother to Melila. I turn the masculine words into the feminine. I dare myself to dream about my baby’s future. </p>
<p>Go to sleep my beautiful girl,</p>
<p>Close your little dark eyes</p>
<p>A little girl who already has all her teeth</p>
<p>Still needs her Dadda to sing her a lullaby.</p>
<p>The skies open and whip us with torrential rain. I push my daughter homeward and protect my sweet Melila, my zisseleh, by picking up speed. Am I really running?</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205132/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Raphael Baker is my son-in-law.</span></em></p>Mark Raphael Baker is best known for two outstanding memoirs, The Fiftieth Gate, exploring his parents’ Holocaust experience, and Thirty Days, about the death of his first wife.Raimond Gaita, Honourary professorial fellow, Melbourne Law School, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2047992023-05-04T15:52:02Z2023-05-04T15:52:02ZWill a UN resolution to commemorate the expulsion of Palestinians from their lands change the narrative? — Listen<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523711/original/file-20230502-403-b7c5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C38%2C943%2C606&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's been 75 years since Palestinians were first expelled from their homeland. Here, people from Tantura as they were relocated to Jordan, June 1948. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Benno Rothenberg/Meitar Collection/National Library of Israel/The Pritzker Family National Photography Collection)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The UN’s recent <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/world/us-news/2022/11/30/un-adopts-landmark-resolution-marking-palestinian-nakba-day/#:%7E:text=The%20UN%20General%20Assembly%20on,following%20the%20foundation%20of%20Israel">resolution to recognize Nakba Day on May 15</a>, to mark the anniversary of the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, helps to acknowledge past traumas but does the resolution have other implications? </p>
<p>On this week’s episode of <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em>, we meet up with M. Muhannad Ayyash, professor of sociology at Mount Royal University in Calgary to help unpack some of the meanings behind this resolution. </p>
<iframe height="200px" width="100%" frameborder="no" scrolling="no" seamless="" src="https://player.simplecast.com/fed7128b-e00d-4c8f-a835-635c7a9ec539?dark=true"></iframe>
<h2>Palestinians were driven off their land</h2>
<p>Seventy-five years ago, starting on May 15, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948">Palestinians were driven off their land</a>. This event is what Palestinians have come to refer to as the Nakba.</p>
<p>In Arabic, Nakba means catastrophe.</p>
<p>At that time, approximately <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/israeli-palestinian-conflict">750,000 people were violently forced from their homes</a>. In the decades after, tens of thousands of others were murdered and displaced. And <a href="https://www.unrwa.org/palestine-refugees">millions of Palestinians</a> became refugees.</p>
<p>Recently, the United Nations passed a resolution to acknowledge that day of catastrophe. </p>
<p>The Palestinian UN envoy, Riyad Mansour, said the significance of the UN resolution lies in the General Assembly’s acknowledgement of the historical <a href="https://www.jewishnews.co.uk/israel-decries-shameful-extreme-un-resolution-commemorating-palestinian-nakba/">“injustice that befell the Palestinian people.”</a></p>
<p>Why has the UN resolved to acknowledge this history now? Could it be tied to the recent surge in violence in the region?</p>
<p>Does the recognition impact anything? Does it change how the conflict is viewed by western powers, like Canada and the United States who actually voted against the UN resolution?</p>
<p><a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/will-a-un-resolution-to-commemorate-the-expulsion-of-palestinians-from-their-lands-change-the-narrative">Join us to hear more</a>. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“Nobody is going anywhere. So we need to imagine social and political life on this land, beyond, the Euro American, colonial, ideology. We need to rethink fundamental questions about our relationship to the land and our relationship to each other. There are no shortage of alternatives.” - M. Muhannad Ayyash, Professor, Mount Royal University</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524192/original/file-20230503-1294-xvfehm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian women watch Israeli military vehicles, including a bulldozer, in Aqbat Jabr camp, southwest of Jericho on Feb. 4, 2023, during a search for Palestinian suspects after a shooting attack at a restaurant in a nearby settlement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/ Majdi Mohammed)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Read more in The Conversation</h2>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tantura-new-documentary-sparks-debate-about-israel-and-the-palestinian-nakba-189101">Tantura: New documentary sparks debate about Israel and the Palestinian Nakba</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/lessons-for-the-future-from-jerusalems-palestinian-past-95768">Lessons for the future from Jerusalem’s Palestinian past</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/nakba-day-in-palestine-past-catastrophe-future-conflict-26723">Nakba day in Palestine – past catastrophe, future conflict?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=365&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/523720/original/file-20230502-26-7c2otd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Palestinian children play next to a painted wall depicting the keys to houses left by Palestinians in 1948, with Arabic writing that reads, ‘return is a right,’ in the West Bank, May 13, 2012.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mohammed Ballas)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Resources</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/524223/original/file-20230503-2123-v7mq38.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Uniformed and armed Israeli soldiers stand at the Western Wall in Jerusalem on June 15, 2018.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/Y1BdWi52y14">(Unsplash/Toa Heftiba)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>“<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/8/6/the-settler-colonial-siege-of-the-gaza">When will the settler colonial siege of the Gaza Strip end?</a>” by M. Muhannad Ayyash (<em>Al-Jazeera</em>) </p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/05/16/palestinians-have-no-choice-but-to-continue-the-struggle/">Palestinians have no choice but to continue the struggle</a>” by Noura Erakat (<em>The Washington Post</em>)</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/9/the-deir-yassin-massacre-why-it-still-matters-75-years-later">The Deir Yassin massacre: Why it still matters 75 years later</a>” (<em>Al-Jazeera</em>)</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.ubcpress.ca/from-turtle-island-to-gaza"><em>From Turtle Island to Gaza</em></a>” by David A. Groulx (Athabasca University Press)</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/may/18/a-jewish-case-for-palestinian-refugee-return">“A Jewish Case for Palestinian Refugee Return”</a> by Peter Beinart (<em>The Guardian</em>)</p>
<h2>Listen and Follow</h2>
<p>You can listen to or follow <em>Don’t Call Me Resilient</em> on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/dont-call-me-resilient/id1549798876">Apple Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5zaW1wbGVjYXN0LmNvbS9qZFg0Ql9DOA">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://open.spotify.com/show/37tK4zmjWvq2Sh6jLIpzp7">Spotify</a> or <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com">wherever you listen to your favourite podcasts</a>. <a href="mailto:DCMR@theconversation.com">We’d love to hear from you</a>, including any ideas for future episodes. Join The Conversation on <a href="https://twitter.com/ConversationCA">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TheConversationCanada">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theconversationdotcom/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.tiktok.com/@theconversation">TikTok</a> and use #DontCallMeResilient.</p>
<h2>Transcript</h2>
<p>Go <a href="https://dont-call-me-resilient.simplecast.com/episodes/will-a-un-resolution-to-commemorate-the-expulsion-of-palestinians-from-their-lands-change-the-narrative/transcript">here</a> for the unedited transcript.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204799/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The UN’s resolution to recognize Nakba Day on May 15, to mark the expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in 1948, helps to acknowledge past traumas but does the resolution have other implications?Vinita Srivastava, Host + Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientBoké Saisi, Associate Producer, Don't Call Me ResilientLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1999972023-02-21T09:40:14Z2023-02-21T09:40:14ZSouth Africa and Israel: new memorial park in the Jewish state highlights complex history<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510859/original/file-20230217-16-6qx4p0.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">An artist's impression of Gan Siyobonga memorial park in Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Supplied by author</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Israeli officials and Jewish South African activists <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-723790">inaugurated</a> a memorial park in Tel Mond, a city north of Tel Aviv, in November 2022. Gan Siyabonga (We Thank You Garden) commemorates several dozen Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists who had personal connections to Israel. </p>
<p>The main sponsors of Gan Siyabonga are the <a href="https://www.jnfsa.co.za/">Jewish National Fund South Africa</a> and <a href="https://www.sazf.org/">South African Zionist Federation</a>. The park’s creation is a milestone in the South African Jewish community’s decades-long introspection into its complex relations with the apartheid regime. </p>
<p>This memorial site is unique in Israel, where an <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/israel-south-africa-home-white-colonialists">estimated</a> 20,000 South Africans live.</p>
<p>Gan Siyabonga is the first site in Israel to highlight the involvement of Jews in the anti-apartheid struggle. It is also unique because it calls attention to a group that was both anti-apartheid and pro-Zionist, or at least not anti-Zionist. The combination is considered unconventional today. That’s because <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Zionism">Zionism</a>, the political ideology that favours a Jewish state, is largely associated in South Africa with collaboration with apartheid and the oppression of Palestinians. </p>
<p>Gan Siyabonga is a reminder that relations between Zionism and apartheid, and between Israel and South Africa, were complex and multilayered. In the last few years I have been working on a PhD dissertation that explores this complexity. Digging into archives and historical periodicals revealed a fascinating story that defies some assumptions. </p>
<h2>Israel’s troubled relations with apartheid</h2>
<p>Israel is commonly remembered as one of the last allies of apartheid South Africa. From the mid-1970s, the Israeli government maintained <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/unspoken-alliance-israels-secret-relationship-apartheid-south-africa-sasha-polakow-suransky">close relations</a> with the minority white regime in Pretoria. </p>
<p>It was one of the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/09/17/israel-imposes-sanctions-on-south-africa/70cbb4f4-77b9-4898-8df7-dc39c2c5a500/">last countries</a> to enforce full sanctions on Pretoria. As a result, many anti-apartheid activists, including Jewish ones, held fierce anti-Zionist stances. These were amplified by the strong alliances South African liberation movements forged with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/history-may-explain-south-africas-refusal-to-condemn-russias-invasion-of-ukraine-178657">Soviet Union</a> and the <a href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20220609-the-plo-at-58-and-the-anc-at-110-how-they-evolved-and-where-do-they-stand-today/">Palestinian Liberation Organisation</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-the-push-led-by-south-africa-to-revoke-israels-au-observer-status-is-misguided-168013">Why the push led by South Africa to revoke Israel’s AU observer status is misguided</a>
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<p>The <a href="https://www.hrw.org/report/2021/04/27/threshold-crossed/israeli-authorities-and-crimes-apartheid-and-persecution">accusation</a> that Israel practises apartheid-like policies against Palestinians is another reason Israel hasn’t been seen as anti-apartheid. Recent anti-Zionist rhetoric by some Jewish veterans of the South African struggle, such as <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2021/05/17/how-stop-apartheid-israel">Ronnie Kasrils</a>, strengthened this feeling of unbridgeable contradiction between Israel and anti-apartheid values.</p>
<h2>Support for Israel</h2>
<p>But anti-apartheid activism and Zionism were not always in conflict. Up until the late 1960s, many radical anti-apartheid activists were sympathetic towards Israel and Zionism’s more progressive strands.</p>
<p>In 1948, most radical activists in South Africa supported the establishment of the State of Israel and its war against the invading Arab armies in Palestine. <a href="https://muse.jhu.edu/article/362107/pdf">The Guardian</a>, the main radical weekly in South Africa at the time (linked to the <a href="https://www.sacp.org.za/">South African Communist Party</a>), rooted for an Israeli <a href="https://twitter.com/AfrIsrRel/status/1626615101770936322">victory</a>. </p>
<p>Young Israel was a symbol of opposition to racial persecution and fascism. Those two themes strongly resonated with South African anti-apartheid activists. They tended to see the Afrikaner <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/National-Party-political-party-South-Africa">National Party</a> as an <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582473.2021.2009014?tab=permissions&scroll=top">ideological relative</a> of the Nazis. </p>
<p>The initial <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/martinkramer/files/who_saved_israel_1947.pdf">Soviet support for Israel</a>, and a prominent socialist element within Zionism, also contributed to these feelings, especially among South African Marxists.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-search-of-advantages-israels-observer-status-in-the-african-union-165773">In search of advantages: Israel’s observer status in the African Union</a>
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<p>From the late 1950s, many anti-apartheid activists cherished Israel’s stances against South Africa <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ehr/article/132/559/1440/4831456">at the United Nations</a>. Similarly its <a href="https://www.academia.edu/90295451/_We_Are_Returning_to_Africa_and_Africa_is_Coming_Back_to_Us_Israels_Evolving_Relations_With_Africa">support for decolonisation</a> in Africa. By the early 1960s, Israel had become the most anti-apartheid country in the “western” camp of the Cold War. In 1963, it <a href="https://www.jta.org/archive/south-african-premier-attacks-israel-for-recall-of-envoy-israel-mum">recalled its envoy</a> and supported international sanctions against South Africa. Israeli archives contain many <a href="https://twitter.com/AfrIsrRel/status/1524773424324923393">letters</a> from South African liberation movements <a href="https://www.archives.gov.il/archives/Archive/0b071706800399c8/File/0b071706804bc4fc">thanking Israel</a> for its support at the UN and elsewhere. </p>
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<img alt="An old typed letter signed by an ANC official praises Israel" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=467&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/510860/original/file-20230217-22-kdw80u.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=587&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Letter from ANC officials praising Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Israel State Archive</span></span>
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<p>During the 1960s, Israel offered covert material support to anti-apartheid groups, perhaps even <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/opinion/2013-12-20/ty-article/.premium/mandela-and-the-mossad/0000017f-e66d-dc7e-adff-f6eda1960000">to Nelson Mandela</a>. Israeli experiences inspired the early stages of uMkhonto we Sizwe, the African National Congress’ (ANC) military wing, for example through <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/arthur-goldreich">Arthur Goldreich</a>. It also had stable communication channels with the <a href="https://www.archives.gov.il/archives/Archive/0b0717068031bdef/File/0b0717068062f0ae">Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania</a>. </p>
<h2>Post-1967</h2>
<p>Sympathy towards Israel diminished considerably after the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4325413">Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973</a>. But relations between anti-apartheid activism and Zionism remained complicated.</p>
<p>Many Jewish individuals who joined the struggle against apartheid had been active in Zionist youth movements. The socialist-oriented <a href="https://habonim.org.za/">Habonim</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Shomrim_in_the_Land_of_Apartheid.html?id=ZMltAAAAMAAJ">Hashomer Hatzair</a> stand out. Those who joined the anti-apartheid struggle (such as <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Slovo_the_Unfinished_Autobiography.html?id=9QxzAAAAMAAJ">Joe Slovo</a> and <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Revolutions_in_My_Life.html?id=vQYwAQAAIAAJ">Baruch Hirson</a>) typically abandoned Zionism. But they acknowledged its role in forming their radical worldview.</p>
<p>Jewish South African individuals were prominent in the liberal strand of the anti-apartheid struggle too. They usually used their professional skills to challenge the apartheid regime. Lawyers like <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/advocate-israel-isie-aaron-maisels">Isie Maisels</a>, parliamentarians like <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/people/helen-suzman">Helen Suzman</a>, journalists like <a href="https://southafrica.co.za/benjamin-pogrund.html">Benjamin Pogrund</a>, and rabbis like <a href="https://www.sajr.co.za/rabbi-ben-isaacson-a-maverick-soul-finds-rest/">Ben Isaacson</a> were examples. Jewish liberal activists usually expressed support for Israel in various ways.</p>
<p>Developments since the mid-1970s have largely overshadowed the complex history of Zionism’s engagement with the apartheid regime. The anti-apartheid struggle became tightly associated with the Palestinian struggle. And, after its rise to power in 1994, the ANC reaffirmed its commitment to its Palestinian allies.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/south-africa-and-russia-president-cyril-ramaphosas-foreign-policy-explained-198430">South Africa and Russia: President Cyril Ramaphosa's foreign policy explained</a>
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<p>Since then, relations with Israel have largely remained chilly. The ANC <a href="https://bdsmovement.net/news/s-africas-ruling-party-anc-reaffirms-boycott-israel-resolution">supports</a> the movement to boycott Israel and Pretoria <a href="https://thewire.in/external-affairs/south-africa-israel-anc">downgraded</a> its representation in the Jewish state. South African foreign affairs minister Naledi Pandor has <a href="https://www.jpost.com/bds-threat/article-713140">called</a> for Israel to be declared an “apartheid state”. </p>
<h2>A step in the right direction</h2>
<p>Israel and South Africa’s Jewish communities have a long and ambiguous history of entanglement with race politics. There were admirable moments in this history. But there were also periods of complicity with racism. In Israel, both sides of this history are largely forgotten.</p>
<p>Gan Siyabonga is an important first step in placing this history in the Israeli public sphere.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199997/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Asher Lubotzky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Gan Siyabonga is unique in Israel. It highlights a group that was both anti-apartheid and pro-Zionist.Asher Lubotzky, PhD Candidate, History, Indiana UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987272023-02-02T13:22:27Z2023-02-02T13:22:27ZHow the ancient Jewish ‘new year for trees’ became an Israeli celebration of nature<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507434/original/file-20230131-4203-2rgplu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The cultural significance of Tu BiShvat has taken on new meaning in modern Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://gpophotoeng.gov.il/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?search=tu%20bishvat#Preview121">Teddy Brauner/National Photo Collection, Government Press Office (Israel)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As <a href="https://www.binghamton.edu/history/faculty/profile.html?id=rabineau">a professor</a> who researches <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253064547/walking-the-land/">Israel’s extensive network of hiking trails</a>, I’ve spent many days and nights in the field, walking long-distance routes and sleeping under the stars. Like many Israelis, the fellow hikers I meet are passionate about venturing out into nature – and at no time is that passion more visible than the Jewish holiday of Tu BiShvat.</p>
<p>Thousands of people will take to Israel’s trails during the holiday sometimes described as “the Jewish Arbor Day.” The history of Tu BiShvat goes back to ancient times, but <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/zionism-and-tu-bishvat/">its meaning has been transformed</a> – especially in Israel, where it has become a celebration of the land that is tightly tied to national identity.</p>
<p>In Israel, after all, it’s difficult to talk about land <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/israelstudies.19.2.162">without talking about politics</a>. Control over land has been at the center of Israel’s conflicts with Palestinians and its neighboring countries – meaning the love of nature can be <a href="http://perspectives.ajsnet.org/the-land-issue-spring-2014/hiking-in-israel-why-are-these-trails-different/">closely connected</a> with politics and religion.</p>
<h2>Ancient roots</h2>
<p>The name Tu BiShvat refers to the 15th day of the month of Shvat on the Hebrew calendar. In 2023, it starts on the evening of Feb. 5. Over the next 24 hours, Jewish communities around the world will hold special services, and observant families will eat special foods mentioned in the Bible, like dried fruits and nuts. In Israel, schools and civic institutions <a href="https://www.nli.org.il/en/discover/judaism/holidays/tu-bishvat">will celebrate</a> the country’s plants and trees.</p>
<p>Tu BiShvat began as the “new year for trees” <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Mishnah_Rosh_Hashanah.1.1?lang=bi&with=Sheets&lang2=en">in the Mishnah</a>, a text of <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/mishnah/">Jewish religious law</a> that was written down almost 2,000 years ago. The Bible states that a tree’s fruit <a href="https://www.sefaria.org/Leviticus.19.23?lang=bi&aliyot=0">cannot be harvested</a> until its fourth year, and that people cannot eat it until the fifth. Rather than make everyone keep track of exactly when every tree was planted, the Mishnah established Tu BiShvat as a sort of birthday for all trees: On that date, every tree was regarded as entering its next year.</p>
<p>After the <a href="https://rpl.hds.harvard.edu/faq/destruction-second-temple-70-ce#:%7E:text=In%2070%20CE%20the%20Romans,a%20sacred%20site%20for%20Jews.">destruction of the Jewish temple</a> in Jerusalem in the first century and the dispersion of the Jewish people around the world, Tu BiShvat evolved to become a remembrance of Israel. </p>
<p>Jewish mystics in the 16th century observed the “new year for trees” by eating fruits and nuts mentioned in the Bible as the country’s native produce: almonds, figs, dates, olives and so on. Their practices <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/eating-fruit-on-tu-bishvat/">spread to Jewish communities around the world</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A boy arranges plates full of fruit on a table." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/507448/original/file-20230131-11-tln02j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A boy prepares food for his family’s Tu BiShvat celebration in London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/mendel-wallenberg-arranges-15-different-fruits-on-plates-as-news-photo/1299120906?phrase=tu%20bishvat%20israel&adppopup=true">Dan Kitwood/Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>From sacred to secular</h2>
<p>Starting in the late 19th century, <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/zionism_and_zionist_parties">Zionism emerged as a political movement</a>: the effort to establish a Jewish state in Palestine, which was then under Ottoman control, to help Jews escape antisemitism. Though most Zionists were secular, they saw Tu BiShvat as a tradition that could support their ideological goals.</p>
<p>This was particularly true for the radical youth who came to be known as Israel’s “pioneer” generation. Many of their leaders were revolutionary socialists who came <a href="https://yivoencyclopedia.org/article.aspx/economic_life">from Eastern Europe</a>, where Jews had historically been denied the ability to own and farm land. They saw connection with the soil as a key component of national life and believed that for Jews, <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/a-d-gordon-the-religion-of-labor/">this connection needed to be restored</a>. </p>
<p>These young leaders devoted themselves <a href="https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2018/02/the-self-actualizing-zionism-of-a-d-gordon/">to agricultural work</a> and came to be known as Labor Zionists. They moved to rural areas, built roads, dug wells, plowed fields and built villages. But these “pioneers” were also mystics in their own way, who created what came to be described as a “religion of labor.” They sought to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMz7i00797o&t=1810s">become one with the land of Israel</a> through their work, but also more intimately through acts like walking barefoot in the dirt, immersing themselves in lakes and streams, and watching their sweat drip into the Earth. </p>
<p>Labor Zionists’ veneration of nature shocked their religious contemporaries, who saw their practices as <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/8845455">verging on paganism</a>. But these young activists hardly spent all of their time worshipping the country’s soil and flora and fauna. They were engaged in state-building and <a href="https://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/zionism-and-tu-bishvat/">helped recast Tu BiShvat as a national holiday that highlighted nature</a> </p>
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<img alt="A man with tufts of white hair, wearing a suit, watches children plant a small tree in a black and white photo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/506947/original/file-20230129-35581-8lbfyv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">David Ben-Gurion, the first prime minister of Israel, watches children plant a tree on Tu BiShvat in 1963.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://gpophotoeng.gov.il/fotoweb/Grid.fwx?search=tu%20bishvat#Preview65">Moshe Pridan/National Photo Collection, Government Press Office (Israel)</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>After the State of Israel was established as an independent state in 1948, the holiday was added to the country’s official calendar and marked with huge tree-planting initiatives and hikes for schoolchildren. Amid the early state’s conflicts with its Arab neighbors, one of the holiday’s implicit lessons was that Israelis should love the land enough to be willing to fight for it. </p>
<p>But Tu BiShvat remained centered on love for nature. When <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520234284/pollution-in-a-promised-land">Israel’s environmental movement</a> was born in the early 1960s, it organized hikes on Tu BiShvat to raise public awareness of ecologically sensitive areas and to protest state plans for large-scale construction there. Participants viewed hiking not merely as a recreational activity, but as a means of raising environmental awareness. </p>
<h2>National or universal?</h2>
<p>Many Jewish communities around the world, including in the United States, continue to observe Tu BiShvat <a href="https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/615205/jewish/Tu-BiShvat.htm">in traditional ways</a>. But the holiday’s nationalist lessons handed down by early Zionists still resonate with generations of Israelis, including the hundreds of thousands of hikers who use <a href="https://iupress.org/9780253064547/walking-the-land/">Israel’s 10,000-kilometer (6,200-mile) trail system</a> to walk the length and breadth of their country.</p>
<p>Meron Benvenisti, an Israeli scholar who grew up organizing youth hikes and planting trees on Tu BiShvat, wrote that even after he became disillusioned with Zionism, its lessons still defined his relationship with nature. “This land is part of me and I am part of it,” <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/13087962">he wrote</a>. “My American friends laugh when I tell them that the flowering trees in Central Park seem fake to me.” His deep connection to land in his home country made him feel that Israel was the only place worth living in, or living for. </p>
<p>This sense that some Israelis have of a unique, almost mystical relationship with the land is important to understand in the context of ongoing struggles between Israelis and Palestinians. The West Bank is part of what many Israelis view as the biblical land of Israel. But it is also the homeland of millions of Palestinians who love their land as well and whose presence there is <a href="https://mpp-dc.org/gallery/palestine-relationship-with-rootedness-to-the-land/">deeply rooted</a>. When <a href="https://doi.org/10.2979/israelstudies.19.2.162">the land is endowed with such significance</a>, the stakes in the conflict can only be high.</p>
<p>Yet the use of Tu BiShvat to promote nature preservation also creates space for discussing more universal concerns. Each year, Jewish communities hold events addressing global issues like <a href="https://www.jewishboston.com/events/tu-bshvat-climate-change-panel-global-and-local-solutions/">climate change</a>. </p>
<p>Many Jews embrace a traditional concept called “<a href="https://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/tikkun-olam/">tikkun olam</a>,” which calls on people to help God “repair the world.” Tu BiShvat has become a day to do this in the most literal sense.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198727/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shay Rabineau does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Tu BiShvat has religious roots, but early Zionists embraced the day in new, more secular ways.Shay Rabineau, Associate Professor of Israel Studies, Binghamton University, State University of New YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1938142022-11-03T16:10:47Z2022-11-03T16:10:47ZIsraeli elections: Benjamin Netanhayu set to return – with some extreme new partners<p>It looks very much as if Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benyamin (Bibi) Netanyahu, will soon be back in office. The results of the 2022 elections (the fifth in four years) give his bloc a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63459824">clear lead</a> in the Knesset, Israel’s parliament. </p>
<p>In each of the four elections, Netanyahu has made himself the main issue. It’s an issue that has cut across traditional left-right divisions – which in June last year produced a <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-9189/">coalition government</a> that stretched from the hard right through to the left. This coalition was essentially united on one issue – that Netanyahu, who is standing trial on corruption charges, should be kept out of office. </p>
<p>This unlikely alliance had a wafer-thin majority of one, but was unique in Israeli history in representing a government backed by an Arab party, the Islamist Ra’am. It managed just 17 months in office.</p>
<h2>Bibi’s new friends</h2>
<p>Netanyahu returns to office with radically different coalition partners, thanks to the far-right Religious Zionist party <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-elections/article-721229">more than doubling their seats</a> from six to 14. Netanyahu has won not as a result of any major gain of his own Likud party, which increased its Knesset representation by just two members from 30 to 32 seats. His likely victory is a result of his careful coalition building through his support for far-right unity which would maximise the right-wing vote. </p>
<p>Netanyahu and his supporters have spent the past year and half pilling on pressure on the right-wing supporters of the coalition. This has been so successful that its most right-wing component, Yamina – the party of Naftali Bennett (the first prime minister of the anti-Bibi Coalition) has been <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-elections/article-721229">eliminated from the new Knesset</a> entirely. While the anti-Bibi parties squabbled among themselves, Netanyahu consolidated his base and offered a disciplined alliance parties comprising Likud, Shas, the United Torah Judaism Party and the Religious Zionists.</p>
<p>Despite this there has been no major swing to the right in Israeli politics – rather there has been a swing within the right to more extreme positions. The popular vote between the pro-Netanyahu and anti-Netanyahu blocs is <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2022-11-03/ty-article/.highlight/lapids-hara-kiri-paved-the-way-for-netanyahus-return/00000184-3a40-d46d-ab96-bafbe4350000">roughly tied</a>. Likud’s popular vote is actually slightly down on 2021. Meanwhile on the anti-Bibi side, Yesh Atid – the party of the current prime minister Yair Lapid – won seven more seats to reach a total representation of 24 in the Knesset – but this was mainly at the expense of allies, such as Labour which lost 3 seats.</p>
<p>The change of fortunes has been almost entirely down to the way the two blocs dealt with <a href="https://www.gov.il/apps/elections/elections-knesset-15/heb/lexicon/esystem.html#:%7E:text=Israel%20has%20an%20electoral%20system,is%20the%201.5%25%20qualifying%20threshold.">Israel’s proportional electoral system</a>. It is based on a national list system. All parties that receive <strong>at least</strong> 3.25% of the vote receive seats in exact proportion to their strength. Parties that fall under that threshold are excluded and seats that they would have won are reallocated to those who qualify. </p>
<p>In this election, the left-wing Meretz received just over 3% but will not gain seats. Balad, an Arab party, is in the same position. As a result, six seats which could have been added to the anti-Netanyahu bloc have been reassigned. The left (Labour and Meretz) and the Arab parties (Hadash-Tal, Ra’am and Balad) could have made electoral alliances and maximised their representation, but factional interests prevailed – much to the advantage of Netanyahu. </p>
<h2>Shifting alliances</h2>
<p>The success of the far-right Religious Zionist alliance is composed of an earlier alliance, Otzma Yehudit and the homophobic Noam Party. Ideologically this gathering of the far right follows the Kach party which advocated the expulsion of Palestinian Israelis but was banned as racist and terrorist. </p>
<p>Its main leaders, Itamar Ben Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, have a long history as racist rabble-rousers and have faced allegations of involvement in violent campaigns against Palestinian citizens of Israel and with <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-elections/article-721314">settler violence against Palestinians</a> in the occupied territories. </p>
<p>Ben-Gvir has been <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel/ben-gvir-convicted-of-inciting-to-racism">convicted of inciting to racism</a> and is known for drawing his gun in confrontations with Palestinians. He supports the late Baruch Goldstein who <a href="https://jewishunpacked.com/baruch-goldstein-legacy-of-a-massacre/">murdered 29 Palestinians</a> (while at prayer) in 1994. Now he is in line to join Netanyahu’s cabinet. He has said that he wants to be <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/far-right-ben-gvir-demands-to-be-public-security-minister-in-next-government/">security minister</a>.</p>
<p>It will be up to Netanyahu which posts will be given to the Religious Zionists, but as the third-largest party in the Knesset they will expect prominent positions. In Israel’s Haaretz newspaper, prominent political commentator Anshel Pfeffer <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/elections/2022-11-03/ty-article/.premium/bibi-may-prefer-a-radical-coalition-this-time-until-he-drops-ben-gvir/00000184-3a02-dfd5-adad-7e7f71240000">has suggested</a> that a coalition with the Religious Zionists might prove a temporary convenience for Netanyhau. </p>
<p>Pfeffer also suggests that tensions between the Smotrich and Ben-Gvir could produce a split. Netanyahu may then turn to other coalition partners such as the centre right National Union. Based on his track record Netanyahu will certainly do whatever he thinks is best to remain in power. </p>
<h2>Wave of populism</h2>
<p>Israel now faces a government that will contain far-right racists with a populist agenda that includes weakening the role of the courts in the constitutional system. Many fear that the decline of the rule of law will have serious consequences for Israeli democracy.</p>
<p>Writing in the New York Times before the results were known, political scholar and public opinion expert <a href="https://tcf.org/experts/dahlia-scheindlin/">Dahlia Scheindlin</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/11/01/opinion/in-israels-election-the-judiciary-is-on-trial.html">warned that</a>: “Israel’s attacks on the judiciary deepen the country’s historical skepticism toward equality, human rights and democracy itself.”</p>
<p>What these elections have shown is that Israel is very much part of the populist wave which has brought the far right to parliaments and governments across the world. It is sobering to think that the success of the Israeli far right is in line with recent election results in Sweden and Italy. It perhaps demonstrates the success of Zionism in normalising the idea of a Jewish state. Far from being a light amongst the nations, it shares the darkness of the age.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193814/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Strawson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Israel now faces a government that will contain far-right leaders who may weaken the role of the courts.John Strawson, Honorary Professor of Law and Co-director of the Centre on Human Rights in Conflict, University of East LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1856682022-07-26T11:57:29Z2022-07-26T11:57:29ZThere is a lot of antisemitic hate speech on social media – and algorithms are partly to blame<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/475238/original/file-20220720-25-ycf9uk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C4747%2C3078&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Social media is being used all over the world to express hatred of Jews.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/online-messaging-social-media-auto-post-production-royalty-free-image/1307414278?adppopup=true">Urupong/ iStock / Getty Images Plus</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Antisemitic incidents have shown a sharp rise in the United States. The Anti-Defamation League, a New York-based Jewish civil rights group that has been tracking cases since 1979, found that <a href="https://www.adl.org/resources/press-release/adl-audit-finds-antisemitic-incidents-united-states-reached-all-time-high">there were 2,717 incidents in 2021</a>. This represents an increase of 34% over 2020. In Europe, the European Commission <a href="https://www.isdglobal.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/the-rise-of-antisemitism-during-the-pandemic.pdf">found a sevenfold increase</a> in antisemitic postings across French language accounts, and an over thirteenfold increase in antisemitic comments within German channels during the pandemic. </p>
<p>Together with other scholars who study antisemitism, we started to look at how <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499-2">technology and the business model of the social media platforms were driving antisemitism</a>.
A 2022 book that we co-edited, “<a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499">Antisemitism on Social Media</a>,” offers perspectives from the U.S., Germany, Denmark, Israel, India, U.K. and Sweden on how algorithms on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube contribute to spreading antisemitism.</p>
<h2>What does antisemitism on social media look like?</h2>
<p>Hatred against Jews on social media is often expressed in stereotypical depictions of Jews that stem from Nazi propaganda or in denial of the Holocaust. </p>
<p>Antisemitic social media posts also express hatred toward Jews that is based on the notion that all Jews are <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080010/zionism-israel-palestine">Zionist</a> – that is, they are part of the national movement supporting Israel as a Jewish state – and Zionism is constructed as innately evil.</p>
<p>However, today’s antisemitism is not only directed at Israelis, and it does not always take the form of traditional slogans or hate speech. Contemporary antisemitism manifests itself in various forms such as GIFs, memes, vlogs, comments and reactions such as likes and dislikes on the platforms. </p>
<p>Scholar <a href="https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/sophie-schmalenberger(9ff053c5-5bcf-44a1-b4b9-2dd472196ab1).html">Sophie Schmalenberger</a> found that antisemitism is expressed not just in blunt, hurtful language and images on social media, but also in coded forms that may easily remain undetected. For example, on Facebook, Germany’s radical right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland, or AfD, <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499-4">omits the mentioning of the Holocaust</a> in posts about the Second World War. It also uses antisemitic language and rhetoric that present antisemitism as acceptable.</p>
<p>Antisemitism may take on subtle forms such as in emojis. The emoji combination of a star of David, a Jewish symbol, and a rat resembles the <a href="https://www.philaholocaustmemorial.org/antisemitism-explained/">Nazi propaganda likening Jews to vermin</a>. In Nazi Germany, the constant repetition and normalization of such depictions led to the dehumanization of Jews and eventually the acceptance of genocide. </p>
<p>Other forms of antisemitism on social media are <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499-6">antisemitic troll attacks</a>: Users organize to disrupt online events by flooding them with messages that deny the Holocaust or spread <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499-3">conspiracy myths as QAnon does</a>. </p>
<p>Scholars <a href="https://www.wilsoncenter.org/person/gabriel-weimann">Gabi Weimann</a> and <a href="https://il.linkedin.com/in/natalie-masri-5b4893205?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F">Natalie Masri</a> have studied TikTok. They found that kids and young adults are especially in danger of being exposed, often unwittingly, to antisemitism on the <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499-11">very popular and fast-growing platform</a>, which already counts over 1 billion users worldwide. Some of the content that is posted combines clips of footage from Nazi Germany with new text belittling or making fun of the victims of the Holocaust. </p>
<p>The continuous exposure to antisemitic content at a young age, scholars say, can lead to both normalization of the content and radicalization of the Tik-Tok viewer. </p>
<h2>Algorithmic antisemitism</h2>
<p>Antisemitism is fueled by algorithms, which are programmed to register engagement. This ensures that the more engagement a post receives, the more users see it. Engagement includes all reactions such as likes and dislikes, shares and comments, including countercomments. The problem is that reactions to posts also <a href="https://gizmodo.com/former-facebook-exec-you-don-t-realize-it-but-you-are-1821181133">trigger rewarding dopamine hits in users</a>. Because outrageous content creates the most engagement, users feel more encouraged to post hateful content.</p>
<p>However, even social media users who post critical comments on hateful content don’t realize that because of the way algorithms work, they end up contributing to its spread. </p>
<p>Research on video recommendations on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-00550-7">YouTube also shows how algorithms gradually lead users to more radical content</a>. Algorithmic antisemitism is thus a form of what criminologist <a href="https://hatelab.net/people/">Matthew Williams</a> calls “algorithmic hate” in his book “<a href="https://thescienceofhate.com/">The Science of Hate</a>.” </p>
<h2>What can be done about it?</h2>
<p>To combat antisemitism on social media, strategies need to be evidence based. But neither social media companies nor researchers have devoted enough time and resources to this issue so far.</p>
<p>The study of antisemitism on social media poses unique challenges to researchers: They need access to the data and funding to be able to help develop effective counterstrategies. So far, scholars depend on the cooperation of the social media companies to <a href="https://undark.org/2022/04/18/why-researchers-want-broader-access-to-social-media-data/">access the data, which is mostly unregulated</a>. </p>
<p>Social media companies have implemented guidelines on <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003200499-14">reporting antisemitism on social media</a>, and civil society organizations have been demanding action against algorithmic antisemitism. However, the measures taken so far are woefully inadequate, if not dangerous. For example, counterspeech, which is often promoted as a possible strategy, tends to amplify hateful content. </p>
<p>To meaningfully address antisemitic hate speech, social media companies would need to change the algorithms that collect and curate user data for advertisement companies, which make up a large part of their revenue.</p>
<p>There is a global, borderless spread of antisemitic posts on social media happening on an unprecedented scale. We believe it will require the collective efforts of social media companies, researchers and civil society to combat this problem.</p>
<hr>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-media-and-society-125586" target="_blank"><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/479539/original/file-20220817-20-g5jxhm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=144&fit=crop&dpr=1" width="100%"></a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/185668/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Antisemitism today does not always appear in the form of traditional hate speech. It manifests in GIFs, memes, vlogs, comments and reactions on social media platforms.Sabine von Mering, Director, Center for German and European Studies, Brandeis UniversityMonika Hübscher, Research Associate, PhD Candidate, University of Duisburg-EssenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1642092021-07-19T12:11:22Z2021-07-19T12:11:22ZEvangelical support for Israel is neither permanent nor inevitable<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411528/original/file-20210715-32900-1hrwmn5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=10%2C3%2C1007%2C679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Trump's evangelical supporters cheered the 2018 move of of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/MideastUSEmbassyToJerusalem/b6ce96595ae2499cbbc86872bc51ffdf">Ariel Schalit/AP</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Israel’s former ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/dermer-suggests-israel-should-prioritize-support-of-evangelicals-over-us-jews/">made waves</a> in May 2021 when he publicly suggested that Israel should prioritize its relationship with American evangelicals over American Jews. </p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/AmbDermer">Dermer described</a> evangelicals as the “backbone of Israel’s support in the United States.” By contrast, he described American Jews as “disproportionately among [Israel’s] critics.” </p>
<p>Dermer’s comments seemed shocking to many because he stated them in public to a reporter. But as <a href="https://walkerrobins.com/">a historian of the evangelical-Israeli relationship</a>, I didn’t find them surprising. The Israeli right’s preference for working with conservative American evangelicals over more politically variable American Jews has been <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/world/middleeast/netanyahu-evangelicals-embassy.html">evident for years</a>. And this preference has in many ways paid off. </p>
<h2>Christian Zionism in the Trump era</h2>
<p>American Christian Zionists are evangelicals who believe that Christians have a duty to support the Jewish state because the Jews remain God’s chosen people.</p>
<p>During the Trump years, Christian Zionists were crucial allies for former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government. They helped Netanyahu lobby Trump for the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/19/world/middleeast/netanyahu-evangelicals-embassy.html">relocation of</a> the U.S. embassy <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2017/12/18/the-biggest-fans-of-president-trumps-israel-policy-evangelical-christians/">to Jerusalem</a>, as well as the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/05/08/the-withdrawal-from-the-iran-deal-signals-a-new-power-player-in-washington-christian-zionists/">withdrawal of the U.S.</a> from the “Iran Deal” – the international nuclear arms control agreement with Iran.</p>
<p>These evangelicals also backed <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-endorses-israeli-control-of-the-disputed-golan-heights/2019/03/21/7cfc0554-4bfb-11e9-93d0-64dbcf38ba41_story.html">Trump’s recognition</a> of Israel’s 1981 annexation of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-recognition-of-the-golan-heights-as-israeli-territory-matters-114132">the Golan Heights</a>, as well as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-cuts-more-than-200-million-in-aid-to-the-palestinians/2018/08/24/5bd7d58e-a7db-11e8-97ce-cc9042272f07_story.html">cuts of more than US$200 million to American funding for the Palestinian Authority</a> in 2018. </p>
<p>Coming after this string of policy victories for the Israeli-evangelical alliance, Dermer’s comments made sense.</p>
<p>However, the alliance’s future may be in doubt. <a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/evangelical-youth-losing-love-for-israel-by-35-percent-study-shows-671178">Recent polling shows dramatic declines</a> in support for Israel among <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2021/05/26/as-israel-increasingly-relies-on-us-evangelicals-for-support-younger-ones-are-walking-away-what-polls-show/">young American evangelicals</a>. Scholars <a href="https://uncp.academia.edu/MottiInbari">Motti Inbari</a> and <a href="https://www.uncp.edu/profile/dr-kirill-bumin">Kirill Bumin</a> found that between 2018 and 2021, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/support-for-israel-among-young-us-evangelicals-drops-sharply-survey/">rates of support fell</a> from 69% to 33.6% among evangelicals ages 18-29.</p>
<p>While these polls speak most immediately to the current context, they also underline a larger historical point: Evangelical support for Israel is neither permanent nor inevitable.</p>
<h2>Southern Baptists and Israel</h2>
<p>The Southern Baptist Convention – long the denominational avatar of white American evangelicalism – offers an example of how these beliefs have shifted over time, which I examine in my book “<a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Between-Dixie-and-Zion,7406.aspx">Between Dixie and Zion: Southern Baptists and Palestine before Israel</a>.” </p>
<p>Southern Baptists are broadly supportive of Israel, and have been for much of the past half-century. Baptist leaders like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/06/20/archives/evangelists-meet-in-the-holy-land-1000-from-32-countries-confer-on.html">W.A. Criswell</a> and <a href="https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/ed-mcateer-pioneer-for-faith-in-public-policy-dies-at-78/">Ed McAteer</a> helped organize Christian Zionism in the U.S. The Southern Baptist Convention itself has passed a number of <a href="https://www.sbc.net/resource-library/resolutions/?fwp_resolution_search=israel">pro-Israel resolutions</a> in recent decades.</p>
<p>More recently, Southern Baptist support for Israel was highlighted when the Trump administration <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/made-by-history/wp/2018/05/15/mitt-romney-may-not-like-it-but-robert-jeffress-was-a-natural-choice-to-deliver-the-invocation-at-the-new-u-s-embassy-in-jerusalem/">invited Robert Jeffress</a>, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Dallas, to lead a prayer at the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem in 2018.</p>
<p>However, Southern Baptists were not always so unified in support for Israel, or the Zionist movement that led to its creation. This was evident only days after the establishment of Israel in 1948, when messengers to the convention’s annual meeting <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1948/05/20/archives/baptists-criticize-truman-on-israel-refuse-commendation-consider.html?searchResultPosition=1">repeatedly and overwhelmingly voted down resolutions</a> calling for the convention to send a congratulatory telegram to U.S. President – and fellow Southern Baptist – Harry Truman for being the first foreign leader to recognize the Jewish state. </p>
<h2>Zionism was ‘God’s plan’ – unless it wasn’t</h2>
<p>This seems shocking today, after years of seemingly unanimous evangelical support for Israel. However, as I document in <a href="http://www.uapress.ua.edu/product/Between-Dixie-and-Zion,7406.aspx">my book</a>, Southern Baptists had diverse views on Zionism and “the Palestine question” in the decades leading up to Israel’s birth. While some did argue that support for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine was a Christian duty, others defended the Arab majority’s rights in the Holy Land. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="U.S. President Harry S. Truman holds a copy of the Torah, presented to him by Chaim Weizman, right, in Washington on May 25, 1948." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=489&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411331/original/file-20210714-13-hcy588.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=614&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Southern Baptist Convention refused to congratulate President Harry Truman for being the first world leader to officially recognize the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, even though he was one of their own. At right is Chaim Weizman.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/TrumanandWeizman/ae37ce7d442f4f5388d28efdb8b9938d">ASSOCIATED PRESS</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During this era, the Southern Baptist Convention published books, pamphlets and other materials reflecting both sides. In 1936, its press <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/9963436">published a work by missionary Jacob Gartenhaus</a>, a convert from Judaism to evangelical Christianity, arguing that to be against Zionism was “to oppose God’s plan.” The following year, however, the press published <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/7962317">a mission study manual by J. McKee Adams</a> contending that “by every canon of justice and fair-play, the Arab is the man of first importance.” </p>
<p>Adams was one among a coterie of professors at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary who spoke out against what they sometimes derided as “Christian Zionism” – then an unusual term.</p>
<p>Even evangelicals who believed the Bible anticipated the return of Jews to Palestine disagreed on whether the Zionist movement was part of God’s plan. </p>
<p>The influential Baptist leader J. Frank Norris of Fort Worth, Texas, who broke away from the mainstream Southern Baptist Convention in the 1920s, argued in the 1930s and 1940s that Christians had a duty to God and civilization <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/432608001">to support the Zionists</a>. </p>
<p>But there was no widespread sense that being a Baptist – or an evangelical Protestant – entailed support for Zionism. John R. Rice, a prominent disciple of Norris’, rejected his mentor’s arguments outright. “The Zionist movement is not a fulfillment of the prophecies about Israel being restored,” Rice <a href="http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/31748240">wrote in 1945</a>. “Preachers who think so are mistaken.” </p>
<p>Regarding the political question of whether Arabs or Jews should control Palestine, most evangelicals were unconcerned. The Southern Baptists focused on other priorities in the Holy Land, such as the growth of their missions in Jerusalem and Nazareth. Even those Baptists who supported the establishment of a Jewish state did not organize politically around the issue.</p>
<h2>The future of Christian Zionism</h2>
<p>In the decades after the establishment of Israel, however, <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15966.html">motivated evangelical and Jewish activists – as well as the Israeli government – </a> worked to stitch together the interfaith relationships, build the institutions and spread the ideas underpinning today’s Christian Zionist movement. These efforts have been remarkably effective in making support for Israel <a href="https://www.upenn.edu/pennpress/book/15966.html">a defining element</a> of many evangelicals’ religious and political identities.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://religionnews.com/2021/05/26/survey-young-evangelicals-largely-backed-biden-and-have-shifting-views-on-israel/">as the latest polling of young evangelicals shows</a>, there is no guarantee this will be permanent. This diverse and globally connected generation of evangelicals has <a href="https://theconversation.com/white-gen-x-and-millennial-evangelicals-are-losing-faith-in-the-conservative-culture-wars-162407">its own ideas and priorities</a>. It is more interested in social justice, less invested in the culture wars and increasingly weary of conservative politics.</p>
<p>Young evangelicals remain to be convinced of Christian Zionism. And they very well may not be.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164209/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Walker Robins does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The political alliance between American evangelicals and Israel’s right wing may have peaked during the Trump administration.Walker Robins, Lecturer in History, Merrimack CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1631562021-07-06T15:54:04Z2021-07-06T15:54:04ZThe history of ‘Israel’ and ‘Palestine’: Alternative names, competing claims<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408541/original/file-20210627-15-3p6p6x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C32%2C5447%2C3604&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jewish ultranationalists wave Israeli flags next to the Damascus gate, outside Jerusalem's Old City.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>On May 21, the airstrikes ended, the rockets stopped and the street fighting between Jewish and Arab Israelis abated as <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Israel">Israel</a> and the militant Islamist group <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-13331522">Hamas</a> agreed to a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/20/world/middleeast/israel-gaza-ceasefire.html">ceasefire</a>, ending the fourth war between them since 2008. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/15/world/middleeast/israel-palestinian-gaza-war.html">war and the actions</a> that culminated in it have been discussed extensively. Both sides have, as always, laid the blame for the latest hostilities at the feet of the other. </p>
<p>Sadly, this war and the lead up to it are just the latest entries in a long ledger written in blood and tears. </p>
<p>“Israel.” “Palestine.” One land, two names. Those on each side claim the land as theirs, under their chosen name. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman raises her hands as a heavily armoured police officer confronts her." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408544/original/file-20210627-14-hzorii.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Israeli police officer and a Palestinian woman scuffle during clashes that erupted ahead of a planned march by Jewish ultranationalists through east Jerusalem, outside Jerusalem’s Old City, on June 15.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Israel’</h2>
<p>“Israel” first appears near the end of the 13th century BC within the Egyptian <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Merneptah">Merneptah Stele</a>, referring apparently to a people (rather than a place) inhabiting what was then “Canaan.” A few centuries later in that region, we find two sister kingdoms: Israel and Judah (the origin of <a href="https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=jew">the term “Jew”</a>). According to the Bible, there had first been a monarchy comprising both, apparently also called “Israel.”</p>
<p>In about 722 BC, the kingdom of <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kgs+17.5-6&version=NRSV">Israel was conquered</a> by the Neo-Assyrian empire, centred in what’s now Iraq. As an ancient geographic term, “Israel” was no more. </p>
<h2>Judah alone</h2>
<p>Less than a century and half later, Judah was overthrown. <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2+Kgs+25.8-10&version=NRSV">Its capital Jerusalem was sacked</a>, the Jewish Temple destroyed and many of Judah’s inhabitants were <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Babylonian-Captivity">exiled to Babylonia</a>.</p>
<p>Following the exile’s end a little under 50 years later, the territory of the former kingdom of Judah served as the heart of Judaism for almost seven centuries (although the rebuilt Temple was again destroyed in AD 70, by the Romans). </p>
<h2>‘Palestine’</h2>
<p>In AD 135, following a <a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-bar-kokhba-revolt-132-135-ce">failed Jewish revolt</a>, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and decreed that the city and surrounding territory be part of a larger entity called “Syria-Palestina.” “<a href="https://www.etymonline.com/word/palestine">Palestina</a>” took its name from the coastal territory of the ancient <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Philistine-people">Philistines</a>, enemies of the Israelites (ancestors of the Jews). </p>
<p>Subsequent to the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the seventh century, Arab peoples began to settle in the former “Palestina.” Apart from about 90 years of <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-ages/crusades">Crusader</a> domination, the land fell under Muslim control for just under 1,200 years. Although Jewish habitation never ceased, the population was overwhelmingly Arab. </p>
<h2>Zionism and British control</h2>
<p>In the second half of the 19th century, the longstanding yearning of Jews in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Diaspora-Judaism">Diaspora</a> to return to the territory of their ancestors culminated in the nationalistic movement called <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/zionism">Zionism</a>.</p>
<p>The Zionist cause was driven by steeply rising <a href="https://theconversation.com/anti-semitism-is-on-the-rise-75-years-after-the-end-of-the-holocaust-and-second-world-war-132141">hatred toward Jews</a> in Europe and Russia. Immigrating Jews encountered a predominantly Arab populace, who also considered it their ancestral homeland. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man in a chair holding a rock sits in the foreground with the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408545/original/file-20210627-14-1yw3ixm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A masked Palestinian demonstrator holds a stone during clashes with Israeli security forces in front of the Dome of the Rock Mosque at the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s Old City on June 18.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At that time, the land comprised three administrative regions of the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/ottoman-empire">Ottoman empire</a>, none of which was called “<a href="https://www.dailysabah.com/feature/2018/05/18/400-years-of-peace-palestine-under-ottoman-rule">Palestine</a>.”</p>
<p>In 1917, the land came under British rule. In 1923, “<a href="https://time.com/3445003/mandatory-palestine/">Mandatory Palestine</a>,” which also included the current state of Jordan, was created. Its Arab inhabitants saw themselves primarily not as “Palestinians” in the sense of a nation, but instead as Arabs living in Palestine (or rather, “<a href="https://www.encyclopedia.com/humanities/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/greater-syria">Greater Syria</a>”). </p>
<h2>The State of Israel</h2>
<p>Zionist leaders in Mandatory Palestine strove hard to increase Jewish numbers to solidify claims to statehood, but in 1939 the British <a href="https://ecf.org.il/issues/issue/955">strictly limited</a> Jewish immigration. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the Zionist project succeeded because of global horror in response to the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/the-holocaust">Holocaust</a>.</p>
<p>In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed <a href="https://unispal.un.org/DPA/DPR/unispal.nsf/0/7F0AF2BD897689B785256C330061D253">Resolution 181</a>, partitioning the land into “Independent Arab and Jewish States.” The resolution met immediate Arab rejection. Palestinian militias attacked Jewish settlements. </p>
<p>On May 14, 1948, the Zionist leadership declared the founding of the state of Israel.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man unrolls a scroll as David Ben-Gurion looks on." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408546/original/file-20210627-15-y3jzl3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=511&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In this May 14, 1948 file photo, an official shows the signed document which proclaims the establishment of the new Jewish state of Israel declared by Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion in Tel Aviv, Israel.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘The War of Independence’/Al-Nakba</h2>
<p>The new Jewish state was immediately invaded by the armies of several Arab countries, alongside Palestinian militants. By the time the fighting ended the next year, the Palestinians had lost almost four fifths of their United Nations allotment. Seven hundred thousand of them had been driven from their homes, with no right of return to the present day.</p>
<p>For Jewish Israelis, it’s known as the “<a href="https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/background-and-overview-israel-war-of-independence">War of Independence</a>.” For Palestinians, it was <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2017/5/23/the-nakba-did-not-start-or-end-in-1948"><em>al-Nakba</em></a> — “the Catastrophe.”</p>
<p>On Nov. 15, 1988, the Palestinian National Council issued a declaration of independence, <a href="https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/146E6838D505833F852560D600471E25">recognized</a> a month later by the UN General Assembly. Approximately three-quarters of the UN’s membership now accepts the statehood of Palestine, which has <a href="https://www.un.org/unispal/document/auto-insert-182149/">non-member observer status</a>.</p>
<h2>Diverging fortunes, constant hostilities</h2>
<p>Despite multiple wars with Arab states and militant groups, Israel has flourished. Palestinians have struggled to establish functional governance and economic stability. </p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/middle-east/six-day-war">Six-Day War</a> of June 1967, Israel repelled a true existential threat, routing a heavy Arab military force massed at its borders. Israel’s seizure of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during the war has left Palestinians under various forms of painful Israeli occupation or control. </p>
<p>Throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many more Palestinians than Jewish Israelis have been killed and wounded, in part due to Israel’s advanced military capability but also to the well-documented <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/13/opinion/gaza-hamas-israel.html">Hamas strategy</a> of situating command centres within civilian areas.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman raises her fist in protest." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/408548/original/file-20210627-24-1fd85ct.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Palestinian woman participates in a rally commemorating the 20th anniversary of the second Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, in the West Bank city of Ramallah in 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Jewish Israelis have experienced two violent <a href="https://www.vox.com/2018/11/20/18080066/israel-palestine-intifadas-first-second">Palestinian <em>Intifadas</em></a> (1987–1993; 2001–2005), the second of which saw a wave of deadly <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/irwin-cotler/israel-hamas-conflict_b_5663188.html">suicide bombings and ambushes</a>.</p>
<p>In response, Israel erected its <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2020/7/8/in-pictures-israels-illegal-separation-wall-still-divides">Security Barrier</a>, which has essentially eliminated Palestinian terrorist attacks but added further to the pain of Palestinian civilians.</p>
<p>Since the 1990s, there have been several failed attempts to negotiate a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/two-state-solution">two-state solution</a>.</p>
<p>Under Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/opinion/hamas-netanyahu-and-mother-nature.html">Jewish settlement</a> in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, viewed as illegal by much of the world, accelerated — making any future talks even more difficult.</p>
<h2>Second-class citizens</h2>
<p>About 20 per cent of Israel’s citizenry is Arab. Unfortunately, Arab Israelis are largely treated as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/25/opinion/israel-palestinian-citizens-racism-discrimination.html">second-class citizens</a> within the officially Jewish state. </p>
<p>The recent defeat of Netanyahu could help to address this — Israel now has a governing coalition that includes an <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/arab-israeli-raam-party-makes-history-by-joining-bennett-lapid-coalition/">Arab Israeli party</a>.</p>
<h2>Taking stock</h2>
<p>By more than 1,000 years, “Israel” predates “Palestine.” The land then became home primarily to an Arab population, again for more than a millennium. Both Jews and Arabs thus have a legitimate claim to the land. </p>
<p>The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen myriad wrongs and brutalities on both sides. No act of vengeance, however extreme, could now allow one party to say that accounts had been settled on their side. </p>
<p>The only way forward is, somehow, to cease looking backwards. </p>
<p>In an inversion of the Nile’s transformation in the <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ex+7.20-22&version=NRSV">Bible</a>, the rivers of blood spilled must become water under the bridge.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/163156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniel Miller does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>This history of Israel and Palestine is complicated. One land, two names. Those on each side claim the land as theirs, under their chosen name.Daniel Miller, Assoc. Prof. of Religion, Society and Culture, Bishop's UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1612502021-06-14T12:27:29Z2021-06-14T12:27:29ZProperty disputes in Israel come with a complicated back story – and tend to end with Palestinian dispossession<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405740/original/file-20210610-17-1jip5mf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C39%2C5241%2C3444&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Eviction remains a threat for Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/5/22/gaza-attacks-fear-finality-and-farewells-as-bombs-rained-down">bombing of Gaza</a> may have ended, the <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/air-raid-sirens-sound-tel-aviv-volleys-outgoing-77626417">sirens in Tel Aviv</a> silenced for now. Yet as concern <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/jerusalem-flag-march-to-be-held-next-tuesday-2-days-after-vote-on-new-coalition/">over a planned June 15, 2021</a> march by right-wing Israeli nationalists underscores, the threat of violence in Israel is never far from the surface. It is sustained and fueled by what is at the core of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: land and property ownership.</p>
<p>A key component in the most recent violence – 11 days in which <a href="https://www.ochaopt.org/poc/24-31-may-2021">282 Palestinians were killed by Israeli bombs or bullets</a> and 13 Israelis killed by Hamas rockets from Gaza – was tension following efforts by Jewish settlers to evict Palestinians from their homes in the <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/EXT.premium.EXT-MAGAZINE-we-will-never-leave-the-palestinian-families-facing-eviction-in-sheikh-jarrah-1.9881548">urban neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah</a> in occupied East Jerusalem.</p>
<p>The Israeli government has said <a href="https://twitter.com/IsraelMFA/status/1390632182398529536">that these evictions</a> were the result of a “real-estate dispute between private parties” without indicating a historical precedent.</p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://chass.ncsu.edu/people/kalff/">scholar of the Ottoman Empire</a>, which ruled over Palestine from 1517 to 1919, I argue that these disputes are not private quarrels taking place in the here and now. Rather, they reflect a history of land disputes that have long defined the terms of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. It is seen in the repression of legal claims over agricultural land in the late 19th century, and continues with <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41968267?seq=1">the selective denial of Palestinian claims for urban spaces today</a>.</p>
<h2>Property in Ottoman Palestine</h2>
<p>Landed property has long been <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520204010/land-labor-and-the-origins-of-the-israeli-palestinian-conflict-1882-1914">a crucial part of Zionism</a> – a settler colonial movement that pushed for the establishment, and then support, of a Jewish state. In practice, this has meant the <a href="http://doi.org/10.1080/2201473X.2012.10648824">dispossession of land from the Palestinian Arab population</a>.</p>
<p>From the 1901 founding of the <a href="https://www.jnf.org">Jewish National Fund</a> – an organization that purchased agricultural land for a future Jewish homeland – Zionists’ goal was to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4283636?seq=1">purchase contiguous villages in what was then the plains of Ottoman Palestine</a>. Zionists targeted an N-shaped area that took in the most fertile land in the region. This N-shaped settlement became a template for the 1947 U.N. partition plan for Palestine and the core of the future Israeli state after the Arab-Israeli War of 1948.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A map shows the areas of Jewish land holdings in Palestine in 1925" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405775/original/file-20210610-24-1be00ma.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jewish land holdings in Palestine in 1925.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JezreelZionistMap1925-bright.jpg">National Library of Israel/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The lands that Zionist organizations targeted for purchase were primarily held by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417517000445">companies headed by families living in the Levant</a> – the Sursuqs, Bustruses, Debbases, Trads, Khuris, Hajjars and Tueinis. These <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0010417517000445">family companies</a>, whose owners were living in Cairo and Beirut, became major global capitalist enterprises during the 19th century, investing in manufacturing and trade in India, Germany and Britain.</p>
<p>The narrative pushed by many Zionists – both in the early 20th century and today – is that the land <a href="https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii10/articles/gabriel-piterberg-erasing-the-palestinians">was empty of people and in the hands of Levantine absentee landlords</a>.</p>
<p>But ownership of the land was a murkier affair, with more than one claimant. </p>
<p>In the mid-19th century, agricultural land in the Ottoman Empire was technically state-owned. Levantine companies and peasants purchased the right to use the land from the Ottoman government or from local sellers. Peasants had bought and sold these use rights as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/history/middle-east-history/pashas-peasants-land-society-and-economy-lower-egypt-17401858?format=HB&isbn=9780521404785">if they owned the land itself</a> since at least the 18th century. The Ottoman state also recognized Palestinian Arab peasants, merchants and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bedouin">Bedouin</a> as owners of olive groves, fruit trees, mills, houses, buildings, and even water and grazing rights on this land. </p>
<p>These multiple claims complicated attempts to sell land to Zionists. The Levantine companies <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/palestinian-identity/9780231150743">didn’t have enough land solely in their ownership</a> to satisfy Zionist demand and local Ottoman officials and courts blocked the Jewish purchasing agencies’ demands for private property.</p>
<p>[<em>3 media outlets, 1 religion newsletter.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-3-in-1">Get stories from The Conversation, AP and RNS.</a>]</p>
<h2>Dispossession during World War I</h2>
<p>Frustrated by their inability to sell and buy entire villages, the Levantine companies and their Zionist partners took advantage of World War I to dispossess Palestinians of some of their property rights. </p>
<p>During the war, the Ottoman Empire was subjected to a lengthy naval blockade that led to a severe food shortage. To satisfy the demand for food for soldiers, Levantine companies under the supervision of the Ottomans diverted wheat from fertile regions of Palestine to give to the military – resulting in <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520291263/the-great-war-and-the-remaking-of-palestine">starvation and impoverishment among Palestinians</a>.</p>
<p>With peasants unable to pay taxes, Ottoman leaders – under pressure from capitalist families in Beirut – took away peasants’ rights to land and <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1672/Archive_Sursock_19235_096_copy_2.pdf?1623343005">gave temporary rights to the Levantine companies</a> for growing food.</p>
<p>When the <a href="https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp">British were handed the mandate for the administration of Palestine</a> at the end of the war, its officials upheld Levantine companies’ claims to the land, ignoring Palestinians who came forward with their own ownership claims to land, buildings and homes.</p>
<p>Palestinians continued to present paperwork that supported their case throughout the period up to 1948, but by then much of the land they were disputing had become exclusively Zionist-owned.</p>
<p>It had been sold to them by the Levantine companies, attracted by the Zionists’ offers to buy villages for <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4283636?seq=1">well over the market value</a>.</p>
<p>Both the Zionist buyers and Levantine companies knew that many Palestinian Arabs still owned homes, olive groves, mills, warehouses and fields in the N-shaped region. They offered money to the families that came forward. But, <a href="https://merip.org/palestine-israel-primer/">Zionists forcibly evicted them if they refused compensation or to sell their land</a>.</p>
<p>My research has found that Palestinians repeatedly brought ownership claims to British courts. But there is evidence that the claims were hampered by the claimants’ <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1673/PastedGraphic-17.pdf?1623346256">difficulty accessing the courts</a>. In addition, the Levantine companies <a href="https://cdn.theconversation.com/static_files/files/1672/Archive_Sursock_19235_096_copy_2.pdf?1623343005">manipulated official land records</a> during World War I to expand their boundaries and eliminate others’ claims to parts of villages. </p>
<p>Even if they suspected the transactions were unclean, <a href="https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C821300">British officials honored the land titles</a> exchanged between the politically powerful Levantine companies and Zionists.</p>
<p>After the <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=29038">1948 Arab-Israeli War</a> – an event in which Jewish forces displaced approximately 750,000 Palestinians from their homes in Palestine – the <a href="https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/0/E0B719E95E3B494885256F9A005AB90A">1950 Absentee Land Laws</a> prohibited Israel’s consideration of any more Palestinian claims for the land Israel occupied before and during the 1948 war.</p>
<h2>Disputes and evictions</h2>
<p>Recent events show that these land disputes are not just a matter of history. The dispute over Sheikh Jarrah involves claims that <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-sheikh-jarrah-jerusalem-neighbourhood-eviction-explained">Jewish settlers acquired land rights in 1885</a>. <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/41968267?seq=1">Palestinian families say that it was Palestinian-owned long before then</a>.</p>
<p>To describe dispossessions in Sheikh Jarrah as a “real estate” quarrel conceals the true history of land ownership in the regions – which is complicated, disputed and rarely decided in favor of Palestinians.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161250/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kristen Alff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The plight of residents in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem highlights a history of Palestinians’ claims to land being ignored, argues a scholar of the Ottoman Empire.Kristen Alff, Assistant Professor, North Carolina State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1497962020-11-15T14:03:49Z2020-11-15T14:03:49ZNew human rights order risks restricting criticism of Israel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369188/original/file-20201112-17-12r8j2f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C149%2C1174%2C519&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario's new order in council adopting the IHRA definition on antisemitism risks stifling criticism of Israel.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/newtown_grafitti/5363515370">(Newtown grafitti/flickr)</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Last month, Ontario became the latest jurisdiction to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism. In the process, the province has sown division within and between communities. </p>
<p>This is because the IHRA approach conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism.</p>
<p>The IHRA approach to antisemitism is hotly debated within the Jewish community. <a href="https://www.noihra.ca/">Independent Jewish Voices</a> and well-known personalities like <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/contributors/the-saturday-debate/2020/11/07/the-saturday-debate-is-the-ihra-definition-the-right-way-to-fight-anti-semitism.html">Michele Landsberg and Avi Lewis</a> oppose the IHRA approach. Even the original author of the IHRA’s definition, Kenneth Stern, says that it <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/13/antisemitism-executive-order-trump-chilling-effect">has been weaponized</a> to suppress criticism of Israel. </p>
<p>Groups like the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and <a href="https://www.bnaibrith.ca/jewish_community_applauds_ontario_ihra">B’nai Brith argue in favour</a>. They say that legitimate criticism of Israel is permissible but they do not say who gets to decide what is permissible.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, those whose argue against the IHRA, including Jewish community members, have been <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1467-923X.12883">equated with supporters of</a> antisemitism. </p>
<h2>IHRA definition</h2>
<p>In May 2016, <a href="https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism">IHRA defined antisemitism</a> as forms of hatred towards Jewish people. The IHRA also included a list of illustrative examples. Several examples portray criticism of Israel as antisemitism. For example, suggesting that Israel is “a racist endeavour” amounts to antisemitism.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ontario.ca/orders-in-council/oc-14502020">Ontario adopted the IHRA definition</a> of antisemitism by resorting to an order-in-council. The order-in-council was used as an alternative to <a href="https://www.ola.org/sites/default/files/node-files/bill/document/pdf/2019/2019-12/b168_e.pdf">Bill 168</a>, which was abandoned on the eve of scheduled public hearings. The order-in-council circumvented these hearings.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Ontario premier Doug Ford gives a speech." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368922/original/file-20201111-23-8yl0i8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Ford government’s adoption of the IHRA working definition of antisemitism risks undermining free speech and academic freedom.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Bill 168 included the illustrative examples put forth by the IHRA in 2016. However, the order-in-council did not include them. Still, some insist that the illustrative examples are now part of Ontario’s law. </p>
<p>Against this context, <a href="https://www.ijvcanada.org/open-letter-from-canadian-academics-opposing-the-ihra-definition-of-antisemitism/">scholars</a> and <a href="https://bccla.org/our_work/fight-antisemitism-not-freedom-of-expression/">human rights groups</a> worry about the suppression of academic freedom and free speech in favour of a foreign state. </p>
<h2>The Palestinian perspective on the IHRA</h2>
<p>It is a fundamental principle of Canadian human rights law that the communities that are most affected by a law should have their perspectives taken into account in its interpretation and application. </p>
<p>I am the first and only tenured law professor in Canada with a Palestinian background. I can attest that conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism deeply affects Palestinians. </p>
<p>The conflation silences the ability to bear witness to the Israeli government’s atrocities against Palestinians at precisely the time when such witnessing is urgently needed. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/what-constitutes-fair-and-unfair-criticism-of-israel-128342">What constitutes fair and unfair criticism of Israel?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>As more jurisdictions adopt the IHRA approach to antisemitism, Israel continues to systematically <a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/report-israel-and-occupied-palestinian-territories/">subjugate and dispossess</a> Palestinians. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/35529102/Phosphorus_and_Stone_Operation_Cast_Lead_Israeli_Military_Courts_and_International_Law_as_Denial_Maintenance">Israeli military courts</a> unjustly sentence thousands of civilians without due process. <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1076572">Illegal settlements</a> continue to be built. Palestinian <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-54823660">homes continue to be demolished</a>. </p>
<p>This silencing represents a pattern of <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-how-israel-systematically-hides-evidence-of-1948-expulsion-of-arabs-1.7435103">erasure of Palestinian suffering</a>. For example, Israel was created through the expulsion of Palestinians. Historians, including Israeli historians, have documented this reality. But Israel’s official narrative denies or justifies it. </p>
<p>The IHRA approach lends support to those who seek to silence Palestinian perspectives. In September David E. Spiro, a Tax Court judge and a former CIJA co-chair, was <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-tax-court-judge-accused-of-pressuring-u-of-t-law-school-not-to-hire/">alleged to have interfered</a> with hiring at the University of Toronto’s law faculty. According to reports, Spiro objected to Valentina Azarova’s criticisms of Israel. Though these criticism were grounded in <a href="https://ecfr.eu/publication/israels_unlawfully_prolonged_occupation_7294/">international law</a>, Spiro allegedly urged the dean to end the hiring process.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-columnists/2020/10/25/controversies-at-u-of-t-law-york-university-highlight-escalating-suppression-of-moderate-voices-criticizing-israel.html">Other Canadian institutions</a> are also accused of similar discrimination. Sometimes the denunciations are public. At other times they are advanced quietly. Either way, they reveal that some will <a href="https://www.ijvcanada.org/ihra-definition-at-work/">not tolerate legitimate criticism of Israel</a>.</p>
<p>Conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism renders Palestinian-Canadians second-class citizens. If the IHRA approach were to be given the full force of law, we would be the only group in Canada prevented from criticizing the state that dehumanizes us and violates our rights.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man waves a Palestinian flag in front of a a wall with graffiti that reads: no to the wall. Israeli soldiers can be seen behind the wall." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/368917/original/file-20201111-15-o1xfs9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A protester waves a Palestinian flag in front of Israeli troops during a protest against Israel’s separation barrier in the West Bank village of Bilin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The IHRA’s Canadian context</h2>
<p>The IHRA definition is being advanced against other developments in Canada. </p>
<p>Canadian-Palestinian community members worry about the exportation of lawfare to Canada. <a href="https://jewishcurrents.org/waging-lawfare/">Lawfare</a> involves harnessing legal processes to deter Israel’s critics.</p>
<p>We see our allies labelled as <a href="https://www.scc-csc.ca/case-dossier/info/sum-som-eng.aspx?cas=38614">terrorist sympathizers</a>. </p>
<p>We note that <a href="https://www.cjnews.com/news/canada/canada-backs-israel-in-icc-challenge">Canada has supported Israel</a> internationally while <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ambassadors-ministers-israel-west-bank-netanyahu-trudeau-1.5594205">remaining silent</a> about Palestinian rights. </p>
<p>We wonder why the attorney general is trying to <a href="http://claihr.ca/interventions/kattenburg-v-canada-attorney-general-2019/">overturn a Federal Court ruling</a> that required wines from Israeli settlements not to be misleadingly labelled as products of Israel. </p>
<p>We listened in disbelief as the CBC <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2020/08/palestine-deleted/">apologized for simply using the word “Palestine.”</a></p>
<p>And we question the fact that opinions about Israel have been turned into a <a href="https://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2014/2014onsc6153/2014onsc6153.html?searchUrlHash=AAAAAQAjInRyZWF0bWVudCBvZiByYWRpY2FsaXphdGlvbiBzY2FsZSIAAAAAAQ&resultIndex=1">radicalization litmus test</a></p>
<h2>Where does Ontario law stand?</h2>
<p>I was part of a group invited to a meeting with Conservative MPP, Kaleed Rasheed. He explained that Ontario’s order-in-council excludes the IHRA’s illustrative examples. Criticisms of Israel are not prohibited. Statements by other Conservatives <a href="https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/house-documents/parliament-42/session-1/2020-10-28/hansard#P430_90209">suggest otherwise</a>. </p>
<p>Given these contradictions, some will continue to equate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. Some will also work as though only their perspective is relevant to the IHRA. This is inaccurate. The IHRA approach is so broad that it impacts the rights, reputations and livelihoods of multiple groups, Palestinians included.</p>
<p>In contrast to the IHRA, <a href="https://www.noihra.ca/our-definition.html">Independent Jewish Voices proposes a definition</a> of antisemitism. This definition does not restrict criticisms of Israel. Rather, it recognises that our fates are interdependent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149796/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Reem Bahdi does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Ontario’s recent order-in-council adopting the IHRA’s definition of antisemitism has been lauded by some. However, critics fear that it could be used to curtail criticism of the Israeli government.Reem Bahdi, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of WindsorLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1414412020-07-21T15:18:05Z2020-07-21T15:18:05ZVP pick Kamala Harris stands on many women’s shoulders, especially Bella Abzug’s<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/352806/original/file-20200813-18-66vvx7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C3%2C635%2C427&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Congresswoman Bella Abzug, left, and Sen. Kamala Harris, right.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/american-lawyer-democratic-party-politician-and-social-news-photo/1209220076?adppopup=true and https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/democratic-presidential-candidate-sen-kamala-harris-speaks-news-photo/1160768853?adppopup=true">Abzug: Pictorial Parade / Staff; Harris: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images </a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Since winning the vote a century ago, only four American women have captured the major parties’ nominations for president and vice president. Blasting open the road leading them to the top <a href="https://theconversation.com/before-kamala-harris-became-bidens-running-mate-shirley-chisholm-and-other-black-women-aimed-for-the-white-house-143655">were the women who marched into national politics before them</a>. </p>
<p>One, “born yelling” in the Bronx <a href="https://jwa.org/womenofvalor/abzug">a hundred years ago, was Bella Abzug</a>.</p>
<p>A warrior for every social justice movement of her day, Abzug stood on the front lines protesting injustices that still roil this nation. </p>
<p>On the TV series “<a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/mrs-america-96f330fe-878d-412e-949f-fd8b69b3adf2">Mrs. America</a>,” she jousted with feminists <a href="http://www.gloriasteinem.com/">Gloria Steinem</a> and <a href="https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/betty-friedan">Betty Friedan</a> in scenes from the heady, early days of the women’s movement in the 1970s. </p>
<p>But before then, she <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30234205">risked her life to defend an African American man accused of raping a white woman in Mississippi</a>. She fought to <a href="https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/DG100-150/DG115/DG115WSP.html">“End the Arms Race, Not the Human Race.”</a> She championed labor, marched <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Bella-Abzug">to end the Vietnam War</a> and celebrated New York, the city that she loved. </p>
<p>Striding <a href="https://history.house.gov/People/Detail/8276">into Congress in January 1971</a>, wearing one of her signature hats, Abzug was one of just 15 women sworn to uphold the Constitution, alongside 520 men. </p>
<p>Before vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, before presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, there was Bella Abzug. A firebrand, she served three terms in the House of Representatives before giving up her seat <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1978/02/16/bella-abzug-undaunted-by-3rd-loss-in-a-row/c137196f-2942-4e88-8790-2b9d50d211b2/">to run unsuccessfully for the Senate</a>. President Jimmy Carter then appointed her to head the commission planning <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/1977-conference-womens-rights-split-america-two-180962174/">Houston’s 1977 National Women’s Conference</a>. </p>
<p>Although she never again held public office, the famed economist John Kenneth Galbraith wrote: <a href="https://jwa.org/people/abzug-bella">“In a perfectly just republic, Bella Abzug would be president.”</a></p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rep. Bella Abzug speaks to a crowd of some 10,000 at ‘The War is Over’ celebration in Central Park on May 11, 1975, where she called for unconditional amnesty for Vietnam War draft dodgers in Sweden and Canada.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/bella-abzug-speaks-to-a-crowd-of-some-10-000-persons-news-photo/515403150?adppopup=true">Bettman/Contributer/Getty</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘This woman’s place is in … the House of Representatives’</h2>
<p>In my recent book “<a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393651232">America’s Jewish Women: A History from Colonial Times to Today</a>,” I wrote of Abzug’s formative years. The child of immigrants, growing up in a home filled with Jewish traditions and the prophets’ teachings of social justice, Abzug decided to become a lawyer so that she “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531492">could set things straight</a>.” Before she was in her teens, she began a lifetime of speechmaking, standing on subway platforms championing Zionism. </p>
<p>Even at Hunter College, New York City’s free public college for women, she was politicking as student government president. Applying to law school, she heard from Harvard: No women allowed. She entered Columbia, became a Law Review editor and graduated in 1945 after marrying Martin Abzug, who typed her papers. Bella refused to learn to type. She knew the first question that would face any woman looking for a desk job, even a “lady lawyer” wearing large hats to stand out, would be, <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531492">“Can you type?”</a> </p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<p>She represented the folk singer <a href="https://www.peteseegermusic.com/">Pete Seeger</a> before the <a href="https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/education/presidential-inquiries/house-un-american-activities-committee">House Un-American Activities Committee</a> during the Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunts. In 1951, while in Mississippi <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/30234205">defending Willie McGee</a> on the charge that he had raped the white woman with whom he claimed he had a consensual affair, every hotel in town turned her away.</p>
<p>The guy driving her around said he knew of a room but it was far out of town. <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531492">She told him to take her to the bus station</a>. Eight months pregnant, she spent the night, terrified, in a bathroom stall. She miscarried. McGee died in the electric chair. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, with schoolchildren learning to duck and cover during a nuclear attack, she refused to let her daughters hide under their desks. She joined <a href="https://www.swarthmore.edu/library/peace/Exhibits/Dorothy%20Marder/MarderExhibit1A_files/MarderExhibit1A.html">Women Strike for Peace</a> to ban atomic testing. She brought 2,000 women in the pouring rain to picket the White House. <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737488">Their signs read: “When it rains, it pours – strontium 90.”</a> They didn’t meet with President John F. Kennedy, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/us/24wilson.html">but he saw them</a>. </p>
<p>In 1970, campaigning with the slogan “This woman’s place is in the house … the House of Representatives,” <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737488">Abzug ran for Congress</a> on an antiwar, feminist, anti-racist platform. Six years later, after giving up her safe seat, she lost the Senate Democratic primary by <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/10/04/specials/moynihan-primary76.html">less than 1% of the vote to Daniel Patrick Moynihan</a>. He would represent New York in the Senate for more than two decades. </p>
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<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Abzug campaign poster.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/ds.12304/">Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Never gave up</h2>
<p>From the moment <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-CDOC-108hdoc223/pdf/GPO-CDOC-108hdoc223-2-3.pdf">she stormed into Congress, Abzug began flouting its traditions</a>, starting with “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-freshman-members-of-congress/2015/01/08/0238402a-9684-11e4-8005-1924ede3e54a_story.html">freshmen congressmen should be seen and not heard</a>.” </p>
<p>On her <a href="https://www.deseret.com/1998/3/31/19371823/ex-rep-bella-abzug-dies-feminist-vietnam-war-foe">first day on the Hill</a>, she demanded that President Richard Nixon set a date to end the Vietnam War. A month later, she and Rep. Shirley Chisholm <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1971/02/23/archives/mrs-abzug-backs-childcare-plan-mrs-chisholm-sutton-also-favor.html">introduced a bill</a> that would have provided 24-hour child care across the nation. It passed both houses of Congress. Nixon vetoed it.</p>
<p>On May 3, 1971, as tear gas fogged Washington’s streets and military helicopters whirred overhead, 7,000 anti-war demonstrators – and a couple walking to their wedding – were caught in a police dragnet and <a href="https://longreads.com/2017/01/20/in-1971-the-people-didnt-just-march-on-washington-they-shut-it-down/">herded en masse into RFK Stadium</a>. Abzug jumped aboard a traffic reporter’s helicopter to see for herself how “the Constitution has been suspended,” and how an American football stadium was turned into what she called “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531492">a concentration camp</a>.” </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348468/original/file-20200720-23-1dzz31u.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rabble-rouser to the end, Abzug, on left, joins U.S. Rep. Patricia Schroeder, center, at a vigil to protest welfare reform on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on March 22, 1995.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/rep-patricia-schroeder-speaks-at-a-vigil-to-protest-welfare-news-photo/51971198?adppopup=true">Richard Ellis/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The escalation of bombing in Vietnam that sparked that protest convinced her that Nixon had exceeded his constitutional powers. Abzug called for <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674737488">his impeachment</a>, a year before the Watergate break-in. </p>
<p>Abzug introduced the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/93rd-congress/house-bill/14752">Equality Act of 1974</a>, the first federal bill to ban discrimination against gays and lesbians. The bill died in committee. No members of the House agreed to co-sponsor it. Yet in the bicentennial year 1976, her congressional colleagues ranked her, after the speaker and majority leader, their <a href="https://www.nhregister.com/connecticut/article/FORUM-Bella-Abzug-deserves-our-thanks-11435241.php">“most influential” member</a>.</p>
<p>“Mrs. America” depicts her fighting for the Equal Rights Amendment. Asked when she became a feminist, the congresswoman said she became one the day she was born. </p>
<p>The series also shows her facing anti-Semitism: First lady Rosalynn Carter thought she was “pushy and loud,” she’s told.</p>
<p>“<a href="https://www.hulu.com/series/mrs-america-96f330fe-878d-412e-949f-fd8b69b3adf2">You know that’s code for Jewish</a>,” Abzug shot back. </p>
<p>Although Galbraith thought Abzug could be president, Abzug never did run for that office and lost her other campaigns, including <a href="https://www.gothamgazette.com/index.php/elections/4241-a-pivotal-election-looking-back-at-the-1977-mayoral-race">a run to become mayor of New York City</a>. But she kept fighting for justice. She became a co-founder of the <a href="https://wedo.org/">Women’s Environment and Development Organization</a> in her last decade, which describes itself as “A global women’s advocacy organization … that promotes and protects human rights, gender equality, and the integrity of the environment.” </p>
<p>Using a wheelchair as breast cancer and heart problems took their toll late in her life, she encouraged her followers: “<a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374531492">No matter how steep the passage and discouraging the pace, I ask you never to give in and never give up</a>.” </p>
<p>Abzug never gave up until the day she died, March 31, 1998, in a Manhattan hospital, one borough away from where her story began a hundred years ago.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-a-perfectly-just-republic-bella-abzug-born-a-century-ago-would-have-been-president-141441">an article</a> originally published on July 21, 2020.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141441/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Pamela S. Nadell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Before vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, before presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, before Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, there was Congresswoman and firebrand Bella Abzug.Pamela S. Nadell, Professor and Patrick Clendenen Chair in Women's & Gender History and Director of the Jewish Studies Program, American UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.