Many people confuse between supporting the Palestinians’ right to Palestine with being anti-Semitic or anti-Jew. For me, this is not true. I am anti-Zionism, the movement founded by Theodor Herzl, not anti-Jew. I am not racist, and do not appreciate racism in others. The average Jewish person is the same as the average Canadian, the average Egyptian, the average African, etc. Leaders in all countries and political movements often make an entire group of people look bad, but intelligent people know what is going on. We don’t judge Christianity by Timothy McVeigh; we don’t judge Islam by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed; and, we don’t judge Jewish people based on how we feel about political Zionism.
Herzl believed that the only solution to the problem of anti-Semitism that existed in Europe in the late 19th century, was to have the Jewish people settle on a land that was for them alone. The precursor to Zionism was a movement led by Moses Hess, who wrote a book entitled Rome and Jersualem. The main thesis of the book was that there are two races in the world, Aryans, and Semites, the former of which was what Hitler deemed to be the perfect race. These two races, according to Hess, would never be able to get along. Also, Leon Pinsker wrote Anti-Emancipation, where he argued that anti-Semitism existed because Jews were in the minority and did not possess their own land. Incidentally, most wars are not fought over religion, as is popularly supposed, but over land. China fights over Taiwan, India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir, Israelis and Palestinians fight over Gaza Strip, etc. Not too many wars have been fought over religious ideas, although of course there have been some.
These were the ideological underpinnings of the Zionist movement, these two books. Why am I against Zionism? There are several reasons. One is that although in the Old Testament there are promises to the Jewish people that they will inherit land, this is based on a covenant, and in my opinion, they broke that covenant. Another reason is that I agree with Edward Said that Zionism is colonialism, just like that which was practiced for many years by the British (and which did so much damage to the world). Another reason is that Palestinians had settled the land already to which the Jewish people have tried so earnestly and violently to lay claim. “Israel” purports to be a democracy, and yet it does not care about the rights of the Palestinians, who had settled the land prior to Zionism. Also, Jewish leaders in Palestine have gone about depopulating Palestine of Palestinians over and over again. We should remember that the only reason “Israel” has the money to finance its military and violent initiatives is because of the sponsorship of the Rothschilds. But that’s another whole topic! One that I will explore later.
Sources: http://judaism.about.com/od/jewishbiographies/a/herzl.htm and Edward Said, The Question of Palestine.
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