Zionism

A Settler Colonial Movement

Below is a conversation that took place in a chat group in response to one chat member’s stance taking the side of Israeli military actions in the current war. This person, an Israeli Jew, emphasized the attack from Gaza that took place on October 7 as justification for the tens of thousands of Gazans who have been killed in the ongoing Israeli military campaign since that time and made many other claims in defense of Israel. His statements dominated the conversation for a while, but unfortunately, as several in the chat expressed strong disapproval of his line of argument, he left the chat before I had a chance to adequately respond. Feeling that the questions he’d raised needed to be answered and put into context, I re-initiated the conversation among those who remained…

Maps and images, including captions, have been added for illustration.

Above: Jewish pioneers in Migdal in 1912 who formed part of the Second Aliyah, or second wave of Jewish settlers in Palestine. Early relations between Palestinians and Jewish new arrivals were for the most part peaceful, but beginning with the British Mandate period (1918-1948), clashes between Palestinians and Jews began to erupt more and more as the wishes and well-being of the local Palestinians were increasingly ignored.

OWL: There is certainly a pro-Zionist narrative that has been told almost from the time of the formation of the State of Israel, but are people aware that narrative began to seriously fall apart more than 30 years ago with the emergence of Israel's “new historians” drawing from declassified documents that had been under lock and file since the beginning?

In 2006, perhaps the most qualified Israeli historian, Ilan Pappe, published The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine, which focuses on the deliberate plan formulated in the 1930s and strategically implemented in 1948 to expel Palestinians from their villages and towns. Pappe admits how the new historians, including himself, failed to change the tenor of discussion around Palestine by getting lost in historical details and by not focusing on the fact of deliberate ethnic cleansing. I personally became aware of this awful military campaign 20 years ago, not through a historical analysis like Pappe's but through the firsthand account of a Christian minister of a village church in Palestine who was there when Jews from Europe armed with machine guns invaded and broke up the community.

This happened in one village after another. The plan had been in the making long in advance but reached its climax with Plan Dalet in March of 1948 and the 6 months of intensive terrorism and ethnic cleansing that followed, resulting in half the entire Palestinian population fleeing their homes. Following is an excerpt from the preface to Pappe's book:

"In this building [in Tel Aviv], on a cold Wednesday afternoon, 10 March 1948, a group of eleven men, veteran Zionist leaders together with young military Jewish officers, put the final touches to a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Palestine. That same evening, military orders were dispatched to the units on the ground to prepare for the systematic expulsion of the Palestinians from vast areas of the country. The orders came with a detailed description of the methods to be employed to forcibly evict the people: large-scale intimidation; laying siege to and bombarding villages and population centres; setting fire to homes, properties and goods; expulsion; demolition; and, finally, planting mines among the rubble to prevent any of the expelled inhabitants from returning. Each unit was issued with its own list of villages and neighbourhoods as the targets of this master plan. Codenamed Plan D (Dalet in Hebrew), this was the fourth and final version of less substantial plans that outlined the fate the Zionists had in store for Palestine and consequently for its native population. The previous three schemes had articulated only obscurely how the Zionist leadership contemplated dealing with the presence of so many Palestinians living in the land the Jewish national movement coveted as its own. This fourth and last blueprint spelled it out clearly and unambiguously: the Palestinians had to go. In the words of one of the first historians to note the significance of that plan, Simcha Flapan, 'The military campaign against the Arabs, including the "conquest and destruction of the rural areas" was set forth in the Hagana's Plan Dalet'. The aim of the plan was in fact the destruction of both the rural and urban areas of Palestine.

As the first chapters of this book will attempt to show, this plan was both the inevitable product of the Zionist ideological impulse to have an exclusively Jewish presence in Palestine, and a response to developments on the ground once the British cabinet had decided to end the mandate.

Clashes with local Palestinian militias provided the perfect context and pretext for implementing the ideological vision of an ethnically cleansed Palestine. The Zionist policy was first based on retaliation against Palestinian attacks in February 1947, and it transformed into an initiative to ethnically cleanse the country as a whole in March 1948.

Once the decision was taken, it took six months to complete the mission. When it was over, more than half of Palestine's native population, close to 800,000 people, had been uprooted, 531 villages had been destroyed, and eleven urban neighbourhoods emptied of their inhabitants. The plan decided upon on 10 March 1948, and above all its systematic implementation in the following months, was a clear-cut case of an ethnic cleansing operation, regarded under international law today as a crime against humanity. After the Holocaust, it has become almost impossible to conceal large-scale crimes against humanity. Our modern communication-driven world, especially since the upsurge of electronic media, no longer allows human-made catastrophes to remain hidden from the public eye or to be denied.

And yet, one such crime has been erased almost totally from the global public memory: the dispossession of the Palestinians in 1948 by Israel. This, the most formative event in the modern history of the land of Palestine, has ever since been systematically denied, and is still today not recognised as an historical fact, let alone acknowledged as a crime that needs to be confronted politically as well as morally."

TK: Problem is that pretty much the vast majority of Israeli society, about 85% or so according to polls, support the current war and the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians. This is as Ilan Pappe points out in the quote that you shared, just the basic extension of the Zionist project. Racism and genocide. So I don't see what kind of alliance can be built with people who hold that opinion, especially when it is fully integrated into the evils of the US empire. Its not some kind of misunderstanding or difference of opinion, it's support for an actively ongoing genocide…

A: Also worth remembering the King David hotel bombing… Zionists can claim the title of progenitors of modern terrorism. One of the attackers went on to become president of Israel.

OWL: Who?

A: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin

WJ: I mean this as an honest question…. There seems to be an ‘anti-Zionist’ consensus. I’m not sure what is entailed in the accompanying understanding of what ‘Zionism’ entails (ie, exactly what is the thing opposed). Does anti-Zionist equate to anti-Israel? Does anti-Zionism entail Israel ceasing to be a state?

JH: Zionism I understand as the ideology that was willing to sacrifice the Palestinians in order to build the state of Israel and that this was morally justified. Anti-Zionist would be the belief that this was not morally justified. The anti-Zionists see the current war as the Zionists simply completing the expulsion of Palestinians under the pretext of the October 7th attack. I personally think the Zionists are portraying October 7th in a historical vacuum to make it seem like the Palestinians started the conflict that day, rather than the Zionists having started the conflict early last century as an intrinsic part of their plan for building an ethnostate on already inhabited land.

OWL: The State of Israel would not exist if it were not for Zionism, an ideology that emerged in the 1800s that Jews should be "returned" to their "homeland". Originally, it emerged with anti-semitic millenary Christians who wanted to rid Europe of Jews. It was adopted then by imperialists in France, England and later Germany who saw the idea of having a strong Jewish population in Palestine as furthering their colonial and trade interests. Finally it was adopted by a small but influential minority of European Jews, though being strongly rejected by the majority.

During the Third Reich in Germany, only Zionist Jews were favored and were allowed to emigrate to Palestine through a pact made between the Nazis and the Zionist organization, known in Palestine as the Jewish Agency. This pact was signed in 1933 and was called the Ha'avara (or Transfer) Agreement.

The ones who stayed behind in Germany because they were rejected for immigration for various reasons or because they did not want to leave were anti-Zionists, elderly, frail, etc. They were not in a position to dramatically oppose the Nazi program, and they, a majority, were killed.

Meanwhile, the young and strong who were not opposed to Zionism and could be useful to the Zionist demographic project (i.e. to the forming of a strong Jewish population in Palestine aimed at creation of a new Zionist secular socialist state) were allowed to migrate.

Yet as A points out, the Zionist project was not a peaceful project. As early as the 1930s, Zionist Jews, particularly the then secret militia known as the Haganah, conducted terrorist attacks on Palestinians. The aim of Zionist terrorist attacks was generally to scare Palestinian Arabs and to take over their land. This occurred over decades as the Jewish population increased from gradual migration (principally from Europe) and reached a climax with the implementation of Plan Dalet over a six month period in 1948, forcing half of the Palestinian population to flee and become refugees. Gaza was a major refugee area.

Though things slowed down after 1948 and 1949, the Zionist project has continued to this day. Zionism IS colonialism, and the settler movement in Israel is very strong to this day. According to international agreements, the West Bank was supposed to be reserved for Palestinians, but just like Native American reservations have constantly been violated, so the West Bank has been constantly encroached on by Jewish settlers.

Whether they are religious Jews or otherwise, their ideology is that the land belongs to the Jews regardless of what Palestinians or anyone else thinks.

Yet, as I pointed out before, there is more to it than a religious ideology. Just as imperialist Europe had designs for the Middle East in the 1800s (and even before that), so today. This is likely what is pushing the crisis in Gaza. There is the Belt and Road project, a long held plan for a canal going through present day Gaza as an alternative to the Suez Canal, as well as rich oil fields off the coast of Gaza. So the modern imperial powers or transnational interests have a lot of stakes in the matter. Zionism is painted as a religious concept, which mixes with people's ideas of what they think their Jewish and Christian sacred texts tell them. Even though many religious Jews and Christians reject Zionist ideology, those who think Zionism is God's will are cemented in their dogmatic tenacity for the project of the colonial state of Israel.

WJ: Thanks JH and TO. Correct me if wrong: sounds like Zionism just is the colonial ideology undergirding the state of Israel, so anti-Zionism entails anti-Israel. Is that correct?

OWL: Not necessarily. Ilan Pappe is anti-Zionist, but I doubt he is anti-Israel. He is an Israeli and realizes he's part of the system. I imagine he has other proposals other than the dissolution of the State of Israel.

(Update: Apparently Pappe is now predicting the collapse of the Zionist state of Israel—similar to the collapse of Nazi Germany after WWII—and its replacement by hopefully a more democratic and egalitarian state.)

A: I’m not confident Zionists will be happy with the end of Palestine, isn’t Egypt also the ancient land of the Jews? It is clearly a colonial force.

OWL: No, Egypt is Egypt. It's where the tribes of Israel were alleged to have passed 400 years in slavery. But Syria looks like it is in Israel’s sights as a part of Greater Israel. However, during the 1967 War, Israel took possession of the Sinai briefly.

Note: the map above shows an area claimed in Genesis to have been promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. The title “GREATER ISRAEL” plastered over it ignores that according to tradition Abraham’s descendants include BOTH ARABS AND JEWS.

The map below demarcates Greater Israel as submitted by the World Zionist Organization soon after the end of WWI.

A final map represents Israel territory insisted upon by the Israeli paramilitary group Irgun until the 1970s…

JH: I'm not entirely sure, help me work through this. I regard the USA as facing much of the same moral lack of justification in it's creation as Israel, and I regard the Federal Government at the upper levels to be a criminal enterprise. However I would not advocate for the expulsion of non native Americans, I don't think that would be a good idea, I think that would be simply repeating the crime but now. From the other side. So I wouldn't consider myself anti-American. Israel is much younger and the wounds rawer so that makes it morally grey, but already enough time had past that I don't think the expulsion of the Israeli people would be right.

OWL: I don't think anyone is proposing the expulsion of Jews from Israel. Palestinians have at various points asked to be able to return to their homes, though it seems a bit late for that now. The matter is complex and has been discussed in international forums such as the UN. Different proposals have been made, but so far nothing has solved anything.

(Note: Current laws in Israel mocking UN agreements since 1948 prohibit the return of Palestian refugees who’ve fled Zionist terrorism over the last century. At the same time all “Jews” from any part of the world are given free entry and citizenship (in spite of the fact that no clear definition of what it means to be a "Jew” has been decided upon. To anyone with any compassion not blinded by ethno-religious prejudice, this is a travesty beyond words.)

JH: Yeah, even if most Israelis support their government it's worth separating government action from the people on behalf of those who don't support their government and those who are too deceived to know any better. I know I certainly wouldn't want to be blamed for the American government's actions.

OWL: Exactly. Pappe says ALL the political parties have been pro-Zionist... some 20 "different parties"? Kind of like the "difference" between U.S. Republican and Democrat policies when it comes to war.

WJ: Thanks for the responses thus far. So, anti-Zionism would entail a moral critique of the origins of Israel (possibly similar to the moral critique of any country who’s origins were colonial—such as all non-indigenous states in the Americas, possibly excepting states governed by diaspora Africans—that adds another layer of complexity), and in the contemporary context, a critique of any expansionist actions by Israel, and any nasty treatment by Israel of Palestinian folks, but does not challenge the existence of Israel within certain historically defined boundaries and does not entail Jews leaving. Is that pretty much an accurate conclusion to settle on?

JH: I think that's pretty fair. I would further want that the USA should be completely neutral in the middle east. I doubt the USA can undue the damage it's done, I would be content with it simply doing no more damage. I think for example, that Israel would become much more peaceful and diplomatic, and abandon expansionist aspirations without US military support.

OWL: I think you’ve pretty well summed it up, WJ. Perhaps the biggest difference is the degree, brutality and brazenness with which the Israeli colonial project continues to carry on in these modern times, whereas other states you mention are somewhat ashamed of their colonial atrocities of the past

WJ: Thanks guys, I appreciate it. That seems like it would fit with probably how most folks seem to use the term. Also, seems like a defensible position. If anyone thinks that basic end summary is substantially wrong somehow, please chip in.

I just want to respond to WJ’s tentative conclusion that anti-Zionism “does not challenge the existence of Israel within certain historically defined boundaries.“ This is actually a sticky question because which “historically defined boundaries” are we talking about…

And are we then assuming that those who oppose Zionism support the “two-state solution.” As I mentioned, the problem is complex. The two state solution has been proposed, and rebuffed, at various points since the creation of the State of Israel. Since I’m not well enough informed on that particular point, I leave that question for a future time.

I’ll close with the following important quote:

As long as the full implications of Israel’s past and present ethnic cleansing policies are not recognized and tackled by the international community, there will be no solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Ignoring the issue of the Palestinian refugees will repeatedly undermine any attempt to reconcile two conflicting parties. This is why it is so important to recognize the 1948 events as an ethnic cleansing operation, so as to ensure that a political solution not evade the root of the conflict; namely, the expulsion of Palestinians. Such evasions in the past are main reason for the collapse of all previous peace accords.

—Ilan Pappe, Ten Myths About Israel, p. 67

Tobin Owl is an independent researcher/writer. Over the past four years he’s conducted in-depth investigation focusing on the history of modern medicine, medical science, geopolitical conspiracy and the environment. Articles written prior to his move to Substack are found on his website Cry For The Earth

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