<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-top-anchor"></div>
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container">
</div><div class="gmail-container" lang="undefined" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header gmail-reader-show-element">
<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230829-ben-gvirs-words-expose-zionisms-real-nature/">middleeastmonitor.com</a>
<div class="gmail-domain-border"></div>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Ben-Gvir’s words expose Zionism’s real nature</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">by
Amjad Alqasis - August 29, 2023<br></div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content gmail-reader-show-element"><div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page"><div>
<p><span>Itamar Ben-Gvir’s </span><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-ben-gvir-says-rights-outweigh-palestinians"><span>claim</span></a><span>
that “his rights outweigh those of Palestinians” comes as no surprise.
The Zionist movement and its racist state Israel have been brutal from
the beginning with the aim of taking as much Palestinian land as
possible with the fewest number of indigenous Palestinians on it.
Zionists have always known that the only way to accomplish that goal is
through forced population transfer. This is a crime so severe that it is
deemed a </span><a href="https://www.casematrixnetwork.org/cmn-knowledge-hub/elements-digest/art-7/7-1-d/"><span>war crime</span></a><span> and a </span><a href="https://www.casematrixnetwork.org/cmn-knowledge-hub/elements-digest/art-7/7-1-d/"><span>crime against humanity</span></a><span> by the Rome Statute. As far as Zionism is concerned, though, it is its proud ideological foundation. </span></p>
<p><span>The establishment of a Jewish state on land with a
predominantly non-Jewish population has been carried out by forcibly
displacing the majority indigenous people. Today, nearly 70 per cent of
the Palestinians worldwide have been forcibly displaced by the Israeli
regime, or are their direct descendants. The idea of “transfer” in
Zionist thought has been traced rigorously by Nur Masalha in his seminal
text </span><i><span>Expulsion of the Palestinians: The Concept of “Transfer” in Zionist Political Thought, 1882–1948</span></i><span>, and is encapsulated in the words of Israel Zangwill, one of the early Zionist thinkers who, in 1905, stated, “</span><a href="https://edisciplinas.usp.br/pluginfile.php/7572869/mod_resource/content/1/Nur%20Masalha%20-%20Expulsion%20of%20the%20Palestinians%20-%20The%20Concept%20of%20Transfer%20in%20Zionist%20Political%20Thought%2C%201882-1948.pdf"><span>If we wish to give a country</span></a><span> to a people without a country, it is utter foolishness to allow it to be the country of two peoples.”</span></p>
<p><span>Yosef Weitz, the former director of the Jewish National Fund’s
Land Department, was even more explicit when, in 1940, he wrote: “…</span><a href="https://www.palestineremembered.com/Acre/Famous-Zionist-Quotes/Story644.html"><span>it must be clear</span></a><span>
that there is no room in the country for both peoples… the only
solution is a Land of Israel, at least a western Land of Israel without
Arabs. There is no room here for compromise… There is no way but to
transfer the Arabs from here to the neighbouring countries… Not one
village must be left, not one [Bedouin] tribe.” </span></p>
<p><span>Rights and ethics were not to stand in the way, or as David Ben-Gurion argued in 1948: “</span><a href="https://www.progressiveisrael.org/ben-gurions-notorious-quotes-their-polemical-uses-abuses/"><span>The war will give us the land</span></a><span>. The concepts of ‘ours’ and ‘not ours’ are peace concepts, only, and in war they lose their meaning.”</span></p>
<p><span>The essence of political Zionism, therefore, is summarised
aptly as the creation and fortification of a specific Jewish national
identity, the takeover of the maximum amount of Palestinian land, and
the assurance that the minimum number of non-Jews remain on that land
while the maximum number of Jews are implanted upon it. In other words,
political Zionism from its inception has necessitated population
transfer, notwithstanding its brutal requisites and consequences.</span></p>
<p><span>However, the Zionist movement and Israel have tried to mask
that reality by seeking to appear modern, democratic and enlightened,
rather than murderous, supremacist and authoritarian. In his novel </span><i><span>The</span></i> <i><span>Old New Land</span></i><span>,
Theodor Herzl portrayed the Jewish state as a beacon of light in which
the indigenous Arabs are similar to Man Friday in Defoe’s </span><i><span>Robinson Crusoe</span></i><span>,
and are given an identity and purpose through making them helpful
servants who, if properly instructed, are able to stay as minors in the
newly-created Utopia.</span></p>
<p><span>In reality, the goal of the Zionist movement was always to
create a country exclusively for Jews. To this end various tactics
leading to ethnic cleansing were applied ranging from mass deportations
in 1948 and 1967 to a subtler strategy which is known in Zionist
terminology as “silent transfer”. This is “silent” in the sense that
Israel tries to avoid international attention by displacing small
numbers of people on a weekly basis. The strategy has been applied
predominantly in the past few decades by creating untenable living
conditions that basically push the Palestinians to leave their homes.</span></p>
<p><span>Silent transfer is embodied in the State of Israel’s laws,
policies and practices. The most significant of these cover governance
and enforcement of residency rights; land rights; the regulation of
natural resources; the application of justice; law enforcement; and the
status of Zionist para-state actors. Israel uses its power in such areas
to discriminate, expropriate and ultimately to forcibly displace the
indigenous non-Jewish population from the land of historic Palestine. </span></p>
<p><span>The Israeli land-planning and zoning system, for example, has left </span><a href="https://www.badil.org/cached_uploads/view/2021/04/19/wp17-zoninig-plannig-en-1618823771.pdf"><span>93,000 Palestinians in East-Jerusalem</span></a><span>
with little option but to build without proper permits from the state
because 87 per cent of the land is off-limits to Palestinians for their
own use, and most of the remaining 13 per cent is already built up. The
Palestinian population of Jerusalem is growing steadily, and has had to
expand into areas not zoned for Palestinian residence by the state of
Israel. All those homes are now under the constant threat of being
demolished by the Israeli army or police, which will leave their
inhabitants homeless and displaced. </span></p>
<p><span>Another example can be seen in the decision of the </span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/7185"><span>Israeli Supreme Court in 2012</span></a><span>
to prohibit Palestinian citizens of Israel from marrying Palestinians
from elsewhere and living together in the self-styled Jewish state. The
effect of this ruling has been that Palestinians with different
residency statuses — such as Israeli citizen, Jerusalem ID, West Bank ID
or Gaza ID, all issued by Israel — cannot live together legally on
either side of the Green (1949 Armistice) Line separating Israel from
the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem. They are thus faced with a choice
of living abroad, living apart from one another, or taking the risk of
living together illegally. Such a system is used as a further means of
displacing Palestinians and thereby changing the demography of Israel
and the Occupied Palestinian Territory in favour of Jews.</span></p>
<p><span>Another example is the Prawer Plan from </span><a href="https://imeu.org/article/the-prawer-plan-ethnic-cleansing-in-the-negev"><span>2013</span></a><span> and </span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/en/content/view/9049"><span>2017</span></a><span>,
which called for the forcible displacement of tens of thousands of
Palestinian citizens of Israel due to a land allocation policy which
imposes “unrecognised” status on at least thirty-five Palestinian
villages in the Naqab (Negev) Desert. Israel deems the inhabitants of
those villages to be illegal trespassers and squatters, and they face
the imminent threat of displacement, despite the fact that in many
cases, their communities predate the state of Israel itself.</span></p>
<p><span>However, we can see that this policy has been abandoned
gradually by Israel to make room for a more aggressive version. Today,
Israeli ministers </span><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/jerusalem-itamar-ben-gvir-israel-al-aqsa"><span>openly discuss</span></a><span>
the takeover of Muslim and Christian holy places. The aforementioned
far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir has declared that the
Noble Sanctuary of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem is under Israeli
control. Another extreme far-right official, Finance Minister Bezalel
Smotrich has called for the </span><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/03/middleeast/inside-palestinian-town-minister-wants-erased-mime-intl/index.html"><span>erasure of whole villages</span></a><span>,
not least the Palestinian village of Huwara. Moreover, the deportation
of large parts of the non-Jewish population was discussed by several
state officials planning to “move” </span><a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/analysis/analysis-deal-of-century-and-the-plan-to-relocate-palestinians/1716084"><span>Palestinians to Sinai</span></a><span>
from 2014 onwards. It seems as if Israeli Zionist leaders, more than 75
years after the creation of the Zionist state, are trying to
demonstrate to their own constituencies and to the world that, like it
or not, they will complete the Zionist vision in their lifetime.</span></p>
<p><span>In the past couple of years, Israel has adopted laws to further </span><a href="https://hrdf.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/By-all-means_web.pdf"><span>curtail public freedoms</span></a><span>; to </span><a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2021/08/israeli-efforts-to-repress-human-rights-work-must-fail/"><span>demonise all forms of legitimate Palestinian resistance</span></a><span> as “terrorism”; and to denounce all </span><a href="https://www.badil.org/publications/al-majdal/issues/items/3476.html"><span>international supporters</span></a><span>
of Palestinian rights as “anti-Semites”. Examples such as the
Nation-State Law can be seen as an effort to lead the Israeli political
system openly into a majoritarian and authoritarian direction. This law
is, in effect, simply the codification of existing Israeli practices, in
particular the section proclaiming that the right to “</span><a href="https://www.adalah.org/uploads/uploads/Final_2_pager_on_the_JNSL_27.11.2018%20.pdf"><span>exercise national self-determination</span></a><span> in the State of Israel”</span> <span>is solely</span> <span>for Jews</span><span>.
In doing so, it exposed to the world the hypocrisy that Israel claims
to be both a democratic and exclusively Jewish state. The law basically
declares that if there is a clash between the Jewish and democratic
character of the state, the former takes precedence over the latter. So
much for the mantra that Israel is the “only democracy” in the Middle
East.</span></p>
<p><span>Although in practice the law did not change the actual fabric
of the state or the inferior status of Palestinians, it was important
for Israeli leaders to prove their commitment to the Zionist cause.
Consider, for example, the recently-passed </span><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-palestine-admissions-committees-law-expanded"><span>amendment</span></a><span> of one of Israel’s central </span><a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2022/02/israels-apartheid-against-palestinians-a-cruel-system-of-domination-and-a-crime-against-humanity/"><span>apartheid</span></a><span>
laws —the Village Committees Law of 2010 — that allows neighbourhoods
and villages up to 700 households to reject non-Jews moving in, so that
the fabric of the Jewish community is preserved. This leads naturally to
communities made up exclusively of Jews. What’s more, in five years
from now, it will grant Jewish-controlled admission committees power
beyond the current limit of 700 households in all Israeli-controlled
areas and cities throughout historic Palestine. The Zionist state, it
seems, is no longer concerned about exposing its ugly apartheid face.</span></p>
<p><span>To further illustrate the current changing climate, in 2012 the
former president of the Israeli Supreme Court, Asher Grunis, declared
that “</span><a href="https://merip.org/2012/02/the-myth-of-israels-liberal-supreme-court-exposed/"><span>human rights are not a prescription for national suicide</span></a><span>,”
referring to Palestinian rights and needs. At the time, this was seen
clearly as an extreme right-wing view, but in today’s unmasked apartheid
reality Grunis would be regarded as a liberal for linking human rights
to Palestinians in the first place. </span></p>
<p><span>While Zionist institutions, including the Israeli Supreme Court
as well as all governments in Israel, have advanced the Zionist goal of
colonising all of Palestine, a shift from a hidden and subtle colonial
system to a more overtly aggressive apartheid is clearly happening.</span></p>
</div></div></div>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div></div>
</div>
</div>