Don’t argue about what Zionism is; look at what it does

What is happening in the Israeli-occupied West Bank should be a wake-up call to us all. It is not just in Gaza that the Zionist state is committing genocide. Take a look at the following book extract, for example:

“It was at this overcrowded hospital that the delegation received a shocking introduction to the effects of the measures being taken by the Israeli authorities against the Palestinian people. Of course, not every casualty was seen, but the general picture can be obtained from the following list of casualties:

• A young man with five children was chased by Israeli soldiers to the roof of his two-storey home and deliberately thrown to the ground; he broke both legs and is now paralysed from the waist down.
• A 16-year-old boy was shot in the spine, paralysing him, and he has lost both his spleen and a kidney.
• A 23-year-old man was shot in the leg and following shoddy treatment in an Israeli hospital he developed gangrene and his leg was amputated.
• A young girl of 16 was suffering the effects of nerve gas (not tear gas) which causes hallucinations, suffocating spasms of the throat and lungs and lck-jaw. The doctors do not know the make-up of the ‘red gas’ and are, therefore, unable to treat the patients effectively.
• A 25-year-old man was shot and, whilst lying on the ground injured, the [Israeli] army drove a jeep over his neck. He is now completely paralysed from the neck down.
• Numerous X-rays were seen, illustrating vividly the horrific effects of the high velocity rifles and soft-nosed bullets used by the Israelis. The bullets splinter on impact causing massive internal injuries over an area far greater than a ‘normal’ bullet wound.”

That snapshot wasn’t written recently. It is taken from a small booklet that I wrote in April 1988 following the visit of a delegation of British Muslims to Occupied Palestine just weeks earlier. Even then we were able to witness and document the fact that young Palestinians were being shot in the chest, back and abdomen; the soldiers then, as now, were not firing warning shots or trying to wound people; they were and are shooting to kill. Acts of collective punishment and the torture of Palestinian detainees were common then, as they are now.

In a press conference held in Jerusalem at the end of the week-long visit, the delegation members presented their findings: “What we have seen within the past week, can only be described as racist, state-controlled terrorism and military anarchy.” We also described the Israel government as an “apartheid regime”. This was in 1988, remember, almost 40 years ago.

As British and European politicians condemn the Green Party of England and Wales for passing a resolution that “Zionism is racism”, and threats are made to prosecute the party for breaching the Equality Act, take some time to consider the facts of the effects of Zionism. 

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In the aforementioned booklet, the delegation and I referred to “the Jews” seeming “neither to respect God nor His creation” in the Holy Land. Forty years down the line we now know, of course, that this was inaccurate; we should have said Zionist Jews, because not every Jew is a Zionist. Indeed, not every Zionist is a Jew. 

It is clear, however, that the ideological foundation of the state of Israel — Zionism — necessitated the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their land in 1948, a process which has continued ever since in what has been termed a “slow genocide”. What we saw in 1988 and what we are seeing today attests to this fact. Israel, naturally, rejects this categorisation, calling its murderous responses to legitimate Palestinian resistance against its military occupation “self-defence”.

That “self-defence” has killed more than 74,000 Palestinians in Gaza alone over the past three years, including 21,000 children. A further 1,400, at least, have been killed during what is supposed to be a ceasefire, with around 5,000 wounded. That equates to an average of “One Palestinian killed or wounded in Gaza every 90 minutes since the ceasefire announcement.” While politicians lambast the Greens for saying Zionism is racism, Palestinians are being killed and wounded daily because they are not Jews.

Those who condemn the Green Party as “anti-Semitic” are conflating legitimate criticism of the Zionist state of Israel with illegal attacks on and abuse of Jews. Such convenient blindness muddies the waters in the debate, which must surely consider what has been done to Palestinians — Muslims, Christians and those of no faith — by Zionists in and around the state of Israel, when deciding whether or not Israel’s founding ideology is racist in its intent and practise.

Israel rejects all criticism of its treatment of the Palestinian people. It claims to be the “only democracy in the region”, and yet it has enacted discriminatory laws which place Jewish citizens above the 20 percent of its citizens who are Palestinians.

The Palestinians in the occupied West Bank live under Israel’s brutal military occupation and military law. 

Israel’s Supreme Court has rejected petitions “to recognise an Israeli nationality that does not discriminate based on ethnicity…” which “only reinforces its colonial ethnocentric nature.” According to international law, all refugees have the right to return to their land and homes; all refugees, not just Palestinian refugees. And yet Israel’s Law of Return gives that right solely to Jews, even those born and raised elsewhere in the world. Is that not racist? Moreover, the 2018 Basic Law gives the right to national self-determination in Israel only to the “Jewish people”. Is that not also racist? Those two discriminatory laws are not alone on the statute book in the occupation state.

We must not let criticism and arguments over the racist nature of Zionism detract from the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people. They are being killed and displaced daily by Israeli bombs and bullets (as are Lebanese citizens). Such aggression by the Zionist state should alone dictate how its founding ideology is defined, not the political sensibilities of a government, MPs and media outlets bought and paid for by pro-Israel lobbyists. Don’t argue about what Zionism is; look at what it does.

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.