Beginning of the story
➹➹➹➹a four year old who just learnt how to talk and asked him if he loves Jews he'll say yes no biggie, Jewish Zionism says he's just saying that but deep inside he doesn't. Zionism opposes the other who's not Jewish, and sees that this hatred is deep inside him for no other reason other than he's not Jewish. So the only solution for Jews to be safe, to create a state purely for them without the others. Not just that, but according to the researcher Badiaa Amin, she says that one of the Zionist principles, that Jews are only oppressed by others, but there could never be a Jew who oppresses another Jew. Remember the thing about the self-hating Jew? Zionism gets shaky when a Jewish criticizes it. 'Abo Hmeed please, break it down, I don't get it.' I know you, you like stories. You want a story with a conflict and a villain, right? I told you a while ago, some Jews accepted integration, and others didn't. From those who accepted integration was an Austrian journalist called Theodor Herzl, he grew up in a very rich Jewish family, well-educated with German education, only knows the word Shalom in Hebrew, his relationship with religion is almost non-existent. Some people say he was on the verge of atheism. 'Wait Abo Hmeed, Herzl the father of Zionism and Israel had a non-existent relationship with religion and wanted to integrate in Europe?' That's the dramatic plot, it's the coming of age genre. In 1894, Herzl went to Paris to cover an important case, for a Jewish French officer called Alfred Dreyfus. This man was accused of leaking classified information to the Germans. This case had shaken France, the people divided, some advocated for his innocence while others accuse him of treason. Till here everything is okay, a case and a court with some slogans, all news. But what wasn't normal, that some demonstration against Dreyfus were cheering with, “Death to the Jews.” That's where again? In Paris the beating heart of modernism. It's true that some sources say Herzl over-exaggerated and that the cheer was “Death to the Traitor”, but what's sure is that in both cases, Herzl saw this as a turning point. This made him lose his faith in integrating in societies. 'So he was now prone to isolation?' Honestly he let go of the whole integration vs isolation ordeal, he went to a third option that's wasn't known at the time, nor had an audience in the Jewish European communities, an idea called Zionism. 'So Jews weren't Zionists to begin with?' Nope. Zionism is an ideology that appeared in the 16th century, it appeared between Christians and especially Protestants, and even more precisely in Britain. The idea is simply that Jews go to Jerusalem, and build the temple in preparation for the Second Coming of Jesus. The idea stayed the same until the 19th century. A normal idea that exists and no one cares for. Jews used to hear this and not give it much thought. 'You go and we'll come later' Those were the oppressed themselves. Jewish Zionism in the 19th century however was different than this, especially Herzl's Zionism. It wasn't as simple as taking Jews back to Jerusalem. The Egyptian Writer Al-Sayed Yassin in his book "Dissecting Israeli Mind", he tries to give us a clearer and more detailed picture on the Jewish Zionism, the Jewish Zionism is a racist ideology. It sees that all humans everywhere in all times have deep hatred for Jews. If you get a four year old who just learnt how to talk and asked him if he loves Jews he'll say yes no biggie, Jewish Zionism says he's just saying that but deep inside he doesn't. Zionism opposes the other who's not Jewish, and sees that this hatred is deep inside him for no other reason other than he's not Jewish. So the only solution for Jews to be safe, to create a state purely for them without the others. Not just that, but according to the researcher Badiaa Amin, she says that one of the Zionist principles, that Jews are only oppressed by others, but there could never be a Jew who oppresses another Jew. Remember the thing about the self-hating Jew? Zionism gets shaky when a Jewish criticizes it. In short, Zionism is based on a belief that the whole word hates Jews. That the entire world is Anti-Semitic, and those who aren't are prone to. Herzl saw that oppression, hatred, and Anti-Antisemitism were the power that will lead Jews to the solution, and in his words; "We are one people, our enemies have made us one." I find this idea a little scary, my friend, that the unification of some people is based on the hatred of others towards them, so you're defined by the people who hate you. Indeed, without Anti-Antisemitism, Zionism wouldn't have existed. Can you imagine that there's an ideology that's based on people rejecting it, and once everyone accepts it, it'll fall apart. Herzl saw that Anti-Antisemitism would be the power that'd enable the Jews to build their state. In short after all this, Zionism was an idea that reacted to discrimination against Jews with discrimination against everything that's not Jewish. So the solution is for Jews to live in a state by themselves. Herzl kept thinking, where would this state be? There were suggestions like Argentina, Uganda, Madagascar, Russia, because like I told you, it had nothing to do with religion, all what mattered was to establish a state for protection from the hatred of Jewish that's deep within the non-Jewish. Let me tell you a surprise, that most Jewish communities whom Herzl suggested to the Zionism and state solution, they didn't bat it that much attention. 'You go and we'll come later' Those were the oppressed themselves. They were questioning why emigrate from the places they had been living in, rather than demanding their rights. 'Even if we emigrate, we will emigrate to the new world, America, it was already the first destination for European Jews, transforming New York in the late 19th century to the most important Jewish city in the world. The first Zionist congress was set to be held in Munich, but interestingly enough, the German Jewish refused, so much so that many hakhams saw Zionism a challenge against the divine fate of diaspora for the Jews. That's when Herzl thought of the idea we spoke about earlier, which is, to convince all these people I need a really nice story, even if it's not real, I need a legend for people to believe in. In her book, "A Short History of Myth", Karen Armstrong says that a myth is true because it's effective not because it's fact. Herzl understood that European were afraid of traveling to a place they did not know. What would we do in Uganda? Too hot. What would we do in Russia? Too cold. Imagine being oppressed and also cold! But what if the destination was known, guaranteed, and holy? A happy ending to a sad story. This was the only way he managed to convince them. 'We won't immigrate to a new place, we'll go back home.' 'At that time, in the first Zionist congress in Basel in 1897, the Zionist movement announced its destination, Palestine.' According to the Argentinian sociologist, Pedro Bridger. Herzl turned the biblical idea of diaspora this epic story, into a modern ownership document to own Palestine, for the immigration to be seen as not a political solution but a religious duty. That's when the mix-up started between Zionism and Judaism. That's what created the fallacy that Judaism equals Zionism and that Anti-Zionism is the same as Anti-Judaism.
THIRD MYTH 'A LAND WITHOUT PEOPLE' A land without people is the most famous Zionist ideas, that's despite the fact that Palestine during late 19th and early 20th centuries was a fully integrated society with Muslim majority, Christians, and Jewish minority. A society despite its religious diversity, still was culturally homogenous, Yaffa, the biggest city on the East coast, had more than 60 thousand Palestinians, it had cinemas, theaters, and a port that was hundreds of years older than Tel Aviv's new port. The British delegate that came to Palestine between 1871 and 1877 wrote about Palestine an encyclopedia of 12 parts, where it wrote the names of 13 thousand places! This leaves us with two possibilities for the sentence "Land without People", the first possible meaning is interpreted by Pedro Brieger that the leaders of the Zionist movements demanding going to the promised land, the holy land where their dreams would come true, they knew nothing about, because to them the world was just Europe, the only information the knew about Palestine were from adventurers and travelers. If you're a traveler, you won't go tell people in Europe about being in Yaffa and seeing things we have like cinemas or theaters, it's not exotic enough. You've been to the east, paint them a picture of the primitive east with tents, camels, and the Thousand Nights and One Night stories, and an empty land that awaits the return of the Jews. This is the first interpretation for "Land without People". The second interpretation is proposed by the Palestinian historian, Salman Abu-Senna, who said that a land without people was the Zionist intention, to get the land to be without people and let me explain. Until the end of 19th century, the percentage of immigrants did not exceed 3% that was at the time under the Ottoman rule. Herzl's attempts to get the Ottoman Sultan to specify a land for the Jews. The Sultan refused but left the immigration going. Because Ottomans and Arabs didn't have a problem with Jews for being Jews, if you're a Jew and want to live with us in peace, our pleasure. But if you're a Zionist... The immigration continued and in 1907 the Zionist Chaim Weizmann established a Land development company in Yaffa. Chaim Weizmann is an extremely important character in the Zionist history, a Jewish whose relationship with religion is almost non-existent. 'What's with all the non-God fearing people, Abo Hmeed?' This company's goal was to purchase land in an organized manner from Palestinians. But according to the American professor Walter Lehn, in a farming society like this, landlords refused to give up their land for money because it was the base of their lives and livelihood, especially the deal conditioning expelling Arab farmers from the land. To make it a land without people, so we can get our own people. That's why the Zionists will only succeed in purchasing lands from so-called people who own many land but don't live there. Like one of the Lebanese families living in Europe, who sold 200 km2 in Marj Ibn Amer to Jewish entities. Till this point, it seems innocent. Jews immigrating from Europe to live and farm in a new place. But the structure of the farms they built didn't really insinuate this, what the Zionists did since the beginning and continued doing with every land they took was to refuse Palestinian workers on the land. You're not there to work with them, you're there to replace them, remember, a land without people. So this means all workers have to be Jewish. To the point where Marj Ibn Amer witnessed the displacement of 60 thousand Palestinians and were replaced by immigrant Jews. The second thing was Land Guards, Jewish security troops were formed called Hashomer, its goal was to protect these lands. Because they always thought about anything outside this land as an enemy. This guard strengthened relations between Jews and the "new land". The third condition was boycotting. 'We'll economically boycott Palestinians, I'm not here to make business with him, I'm here to make Jewish products and work with Jews.' This way of handling the land was a Zionist strategy. It probably wasn't as clear at that time, but it hasn't changed much since the beginning of the 20th century. Although this strategy wasn't so clear at the beginning, it aroused concern with some Palestinians. It started appearing in some newspapers like like Al-Karmel issued in 1909 that publicly warned against the Jewish settlement movement. But the immigrations continued. Before World War I, the number of Jews in Palestine increased from 24,000 to 50,000. The number was doubled but still not enough. This made the Zionist settler movement feel it'd take them a hundred years. 'What would we do with 50k? We need to pace things up. Like anyone wants to build his "project", we need an investor, and who was the perfect candidate? Britain.'
FOURTH MYTH 'BRITAIN THE ENEMY' In the normal fictional Israeli narrative, Britain is an enemy that tries to hinder establishing the Israeli state. While if you look at history, you'll see it's exactly the opposite, and that without Britain, the Zionist project wouldn't have worked. Until before World War I in 1914, and years after the immigration of European Jews to Palestinians, their number didn't exceed 50 thousand, while the Palestinians was 500,000. Like I told you, in the Zionist belief, if the Jews are a minority anywhere, they'll be oppressed. 'We'd escape from being a minority in Europe to be a minority in a new land?' That's when Chaim Weizmann makes a move, and leans into the UK, 'Don't you want to help us leave you and go to Palestine?' 'We're all Europeans, we'll be your arms and legs there for your interests in the region.' The truth is, Britain did agree. It helped Zionism and eased the Jewish immigrations into Palestine. One would ask, 'Why Britain would so willingly offer help? That question is a shame, if you focused in the episodes, you wouldn't have asked. I'll tell you, Britain in World War 1 fought Germany, and who's Germany's Ally? The Ottoman Sultan's empire. It was falling apart at that time. Britain as a colonial power in its prime, had its eyes on some Ottoman states, or actually, many states. One of these states was Palestine. Britain had intense fear that Germany enters Palestine during war. Hence it would be close to the Suez canal, which for Britain represents its route to its colonies in India. 'You want to be as close to Palestine and Suez Canal so you'd close it up and deny my access to my colonies in India?' Of course not. Not just that, Palestine's geographical location is close to Mediterranean and Red seas, and between the two important Arab capitals at the time, Cairo and Damascus. So if you as Britain laid your hands on it, and allow some European settlers there, they'll be loyal to you because you helped them. Here, the Jewish Zionism found its interest with Britain's colonial dreams. In 1915, the British Zionist minister, Herbert Samuel submitted a secret document to the Parliament titled "The Future of Palestine", where he says that the idea of establishing a state for Jews in Palestine is perfect, but it can't be done without a full British Mandate over the land. This mandate would ease the immigration and increases Jews to 4 million Jews. Then in 1917, this suggestive document turned into British declaration, known as The Balfour Declaration. A letter wrote by the British Exterior Minister, Arthur Balfour, who was a Zionist Anti-Semitic Christian. 'What? How Abo Hmeed?' I just told you. There's no Zionism without Anti-Antisemitism. Again? Again. The Zionist idea owe it to the anti-Semitic idea. Anyway, The Balfour Declaration promised establishing a national state for Jews. But there's a trick here. What's a "national state" for Jews? Does it mean that Europe's Jews would live in Palestine? Which is under the British Mandate? Or does it mean establishing an actual Jewish state with only Jewish population and ruled by them. What this exactly meant wasn't even clear to the English themselves, but at that time no one cared enough to clarify. Britain continued its plan to support Jews immigration. In the same year, the British General Allen by, will enter Jerusalem with a Jewish military corps, and with this crops a man called David Ben Gurion. You may think that they went in like a hot knife through butter, but no! In 1918, Jews were about 50,000 while Palestinians were around half a million! 85% of these Palestinians rejected the idea of a Jewish state. In fact, a committee sent by US President Wilson to examine the situation said that in order to achieve Mr. Balfour's declaration, it will require a military force of 50,000 soldiers. However despite all that, Britain didn't give up, and they continued their plan. Especially as World War I ended with Britain's victory against the Ottoman empire. In 1920, the League of Nations granted Britain, which is the UN before updating, the mandate over Palestine. That's when Britain appoints Herbert Samuel as the first High Commissioner. This guy made everything so easy. From 1919 to 1921, the Jewish migrations would greatly increase. where 185,000 Jewish immigrants arrived, while the Jewish National Fund bought 240.000 acres from Jezreel valley Northern of Palestine. With the idea of settlement turning into a full-scale European project, Violent demonstrations spread across Palestine starting from Jaffa, where 95 Jewish and 64 Arabs died. Then Churchill announced in June 1922, the Churchill White Paper. This white paper by Churchill says: "Why are you worried, guys? Don't be so angry! I see no reason for you to be worried." Now you know why we were worried? Let me tell you that some source say that Churchill was also antisemitic. So, Churchill tried to calm the Arabs down, and tell them: "Guys, the Jews won’t occupy Palestine. They will just create a society in it with what works for the nature of the country its economy, and its population. Don't misjudge them." The truth is that the reality and future will beg to differ with Churchill. Jews were creating closed communities. Ones that didn't blend with Palestinians, but were made to replace them. To the point that some Jewish towns were granted local autonomy like Tel Aviv, which developed separate Ministries of Works, Energy, and water. Education in a different language, and universities like the Hebrew University, which Balfour himself attended its opening. Things will stay that way for a while. Until in 1929, when immigrant numbers started to double. Not only that, but in 1929, a Jewish prayer was organized in Jerusalem calling for the revival of the temple, and claims their historical right in the "Wailing wall", which is the Buraq wall in Islam. And the Jewish day of mourning the Temples destruction aligned with the Muslim Mawlid, so Palestinians got angry. That's the revolution we know as Buraq Uprising in 1929. That's when Palestinians were surprised by the violent oppression led by the British. They didn't only arrest hundreds of rebels, they executed the revolution leaders! The British treated Palestinians as if they were the "Red Indians", or the "Black Australians International Committee of the Red Cross considers the situation to be a complete violation of the Geneva Conventions.
According to the Israeli academic, Oren Yiftachel, Israel is an ethnocracy. A country that only serves Jews. “A system that works for the Jewish majority with a goal to harm the Arab minority.” A system to confirm its purity and identity, this won't happen without inflicting severe damage to others living with it. Israel is an Apartheid state. These aren't my words, but those of Naom Chomsky, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, and the Israeli Minister of Education himself, Israel is an Apartheid state.
All what I said through out the episode since Zionism was just an idea, until this moment here and now, says that Apartheid is the expected development of the original idea, that identity will determine people's rights, and that because of the Palestinians' identity, they'd be robbed of their rights. A world that we wish it ends soon, and that Palestinians would get their rights as humans, and Palestinians.
We tried together to understands the roots of this reality, and understand how the story originated, developed, and got complexed. Maybe when we understand this dreadful reality, we'd have the imagination to paint a picture of a better reality,
that's what makes us human at the end."
Video of the story of Palestine in Arabic
Sources:-
/ 18386339
/ the-arabs
https://www.amazon.com/Ethnic-Cleansi...
https://www.amazon.com/Myths-About-Is...
https://www.amazon.com/Palestine-some...
/ 17458561
/ 614966.collusion_across_the_jordan
Documentaries: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16378034...
https://forensic-architecture.org/inv...
• النكبة.. الجزء الأول "خيوط المؤامرة"
• النكبة 3 - منهجية التطهير العرقي في ف...
https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releas...
https://www.palestine-studies.org/sit...
https://www.adalah.org/en/law/view/496
Keywords :-
israel, palestine, al jazeera english, al jazeera, gaza, hamas, aljazeera live, al jazeera live, al jazeera video, news, aljazeera english, aljazeera latest, aljazeera live news, news headlines, latest news, israel news, world news, west bank, breaking news, israel palestine, israel war, gaza war, war, middle east, mee news, protest, palestine protest, middle east eye news, middle east eye, gaza strip, israel gaza, mee, israel palestine conflict, gaza news, israel palestine news, israel palestine war, netanyahu, children, palestine and israel, palestinians, pro palestine protests, pro palestine protest, israel hamas war, israel protest, media, trt world, palestinian resistance, israel vs palestine, israel palestine tensions, history, nakba, israel gaza war, occupation, vox, israelis, video, settlers, palestinian, muslims, israel hamas, politics, protests, anti israel protests, free palestine, gaza city, israel protests, terrorist, health, water, electricity, hospitals, life support, united nations, israel palestine, al jazeera english al jazeera gaza hamas aljazeera, live, al jazeera live, al jazeera video news, aljazeera english, aljazeera latest, aljazeera live news, news headlines, latest news, israel news, world news, west bank, breaking news, israel, palestine, israel war, gaza war, war middle east, mee news, protest palestine, protest, middle east eye news, middle east eye, gaza strip, israel gaza, mee, israel palestine, conflict, gaza news, israel palestine news, israel palestine war, netanyahu, children, palestine and israel, palestinians, pro palestine protests, pro palestine protest, israel hamas war, israel protest, media, trt world, palestinian resistance, israel vs palestine, israel palestine tensions, history, nakba, israel gaza war, occupation, vox, israelis, video, settlers, palestinian, muslims, israel hamas, politics, protests, anti israel protests, free palestine, gaza city, israel protests, terrorist, health, water, electricity, hospitals, life support, united nations,