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<h1 class="reader-title">The Political Logic of Zionism</h1>
By Yanis Iqbal – Apr 5, 2021</div>
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<p>Angela Davis – a famous activist and author – was
scheduled to speak at an event by Butler University
titled “Joint Struggle and Collective Liberation” on
April 1, 2021, but the university authorities decided on
March 29, 2021, to cancel it, without letting the
organizers know.</p>
<p>Mark Apple, interim director of strategic
communications at Butler, said that the event has only
been postponed due to procedural irregularities.
However, Butler senior Roua Daas, a member of the
student government and a main organizer of the event,
told “Electronic Intifada”: “they’ve had more than two
months to come to talk to me about procedures and
contracts…The fact that they have supposedly caught
these things three days before the event doesn’t seem
like it’s an accident.”</p>
<p>A joint statement by campus and community organizations
states: “Days before Butler University’s shameless
censorship of Dr. Angela Davis, the Student Government
Association was bombarded by pressure from Zionist
students who claimed to oppose Davis’ event because of
her support for Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
movement – a grassroots demand for nonviolent economic
pressure against Israel’s illegal military occupation of
Palestine.”</p>
<p><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/facebook-the-adl-and-the-brewing-battle-to-label-zionism-as-hate-speech/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT:
Facebook, the ADL and the Brewing Battle to Label
Zionism as Hate Speech</a></p>
<p>This is not the first time that Davis is being targeted
for her vocal support of the Palestinian cause. In 2019,
Israel advocates pressured the Birmingham Civil Rights
Institute to initially rescind a human rights award
given to her. After public outcry, the institute
reversed its decision and awarded Davis the Fred
Shuttlesworth Human Rights award in 2020.</p>
<p>The persecution of Davis is indicative of the deeply
reactionary political logic of Zionism, namely
intolerance for resistance. This feature is the very
soil upon which the ideology grows. It should not be
forgotten that Zionism is a settler-colonial ideology
and ipso facto, its entire existence is based on the
permanent effort to erase Palestinians.</p>
<p>In fact, Patrick Wolfe says that Zionist is even more
ruthless than traditionally practiced
settler-colonialism: “Zionist policy in Palestine
constituted an intensification of, rather than a
departure from, settler colonialism. In stark contrast
to the Australian or United States models, for instance,
Zionism rigorously refused, as it continues to refuse,
any suggestion of Native assimilation…Zionism
constitutes a more exclusive exercise of the settler
logic of elimination than we encounter in the Australian
and US examples.”</p>
<p>Insofar that Zionism is foundationally integrated with
the objective of erasing Palestinian presence, those who
articulate and amplify resistance against Israeli
colonialism have to be silenced. We saw this in Davis’
case where her support for Palestinians led to
censorship and attempts at academic marginalization.</p>
<p><a
href="https://orinocotribune.com/port-of-oakland-shutdown-commemorates-juneteenth/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">RELATED CONTENT: Port
of Oakland Shutdown Commemorates Juneteenth</a></p>
<p><strong>In Defense of BDS</strong><br>
In recent years, the ideological war against
pro-Palestinian voices has accelerated. The use of
repression against these voices is not only being done
by Israel; it is also being done by governments of other
countries. In September 2020, the US State Department
committed to “target,” “fight,” and “kill” the BDS
movement. The BDS movement, conceived by Palestinians in
2005, seeks to exert pressure on Israel to finally end
its brutal and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands,
to recognize the right of return for displaced
Palestinian refugees, and to grant equal rights to
Palestinian citizens of Israel.</p>
<p>BDS is a call for consumers to boycott Israeli goods,
producers to divest from Israel and, sanctions to be
levied on the government of Israel in response to the
violence inflicted by colonialists on the Palestinian
population. The campaign has proven to be effective and
that is why Zionists all over the world are frantically
trying to thwart it. From labeling it as “anti-Semitic”
to “racist”, all sort of tactics have been tried to
discredit it. In response to these allegations, Ramzy
Baroud writes: “No anti-Semitic…love affair is at work
here; just a beleaguered and oppressed people fighting
for their most basic human rights…The boycott movement
aims to hold the oppressor accountable, as it places a
price tag on military occupation and apartheid. Not only
is the Palestinian boycott movement not racist, it is
essentially a rallying cry against racism and
oppression.”</p>
<p><strong>Ideological Battle</strong><br>
Israel’s past and ongoing illegal seizure of Palestinian
land, the racialization of every minute aspect of daily
life, the large-scale and piecemeal demolition of
Palestinian homes, destruction of livelihoods, and
efforts to destroy the social and family fabric are
calculated and concerted tactics aimed at the decimation
of Palestinians. In sum, Zionism is directly equivalent
to colonialism.</p>
<p>In the 2010 “Report of the Special Rapporteur on the
Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories
Occupied since 1967”, Richard Falk wrote: “Colonialism
constitutes a repudiation of the essential rights of
territorial integrity and self-determination, and
apartheid has come to be formally treated as a crime
against humanity…The entrenching of colonialist and
apartheid features of the Israeli occupation has been a
cumulative process.”</p>
<p>Since Zionism is criminal, it needs to be vehemently
opposed. Consequently, all efforts designed to
criminalize resistance against Zionism need to be
unequivocally denounced. Ideological wars over the
hegemony of Zionism need to be fought. The need for such
an ideological battle can’t be stressed more.</p>
<p><em>Featured image: File Photo</em></p>
<p>(<a
href="https://original.antiwar.com/yanis_iqbal/2021/04/04/the-political-logic-of-zionism/"
target="_blank" rel="noopener">Antiwar.com</a>)</p>
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<h5 itemprop="name"> <span> Yanis Iqbal </span> </h5>
<div itemprop="description">
<p>Yanis Iqbal is an independent researcher and
freelance writer based in Aligarh, India and can
be contacted at <a
href="mailto:yanisiqbal@gmail.com"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">yanisiqbal@gmail.com</a>.
His articles have been published by different
magazines and websites such as Monthly Review
Online, ZNet, Green Social Thought, Orinoco
Tribune, Weekly Worker, News and Letters Weekly,
Economic and Political Weekly, Arena, Eurasia
Review, Coventry University Press, Culture
Matters, Global Research, Dissident Voice,
Countercurrents, Counterview, Hampton Institute,
Ecuador Today, People’s Review, Eleventh Column,
Karvaan India, Clarion India, OpEd News, The Iraq
File, Portside and the Institute of Latin American
Studies.</p>
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