I agree that Palestinians need a better solution - but they have continually rejected the one that would actually work: peace. The barriers and checkpoints were established specifically because Palestinians were regularly attacking Jews. If they actually stopped doing that, and tried to live in peace with their neighbors, there would be no need for any of the security measures.
There is an erudite 1997 book by Jurge Osterhammel titled Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview that delineates the various versions of terms associated with colonialism. Humans have been colonizing since our origins, the movement of people is colonizing but not the same as European colonialism. Too many conflate the variation. Thank you for the differentiation, and striving for understanding and peace between cousins
Arabic language originated in Arabia yet 24 Nations speak it and 57 Nations read from it as they read the weekly prayers of fight the Jew and Christian until they pay the jizia.
Dar El Islam jihad hudna & taquiya are relevant concepts and without them being mentioned the framing of this as a colonialist project might be plausible despite every single colonialist power on the planet being against the idea of Jews having sovereign power as indigenous people in their Homeland.
partition and the 1948 war they wouldn't just return to Egypt or Syria or Algeria, etc. for a better life.
It took me awhile to understand that for the Arab-Muslim, the entire Middle East is "their land" and wherever they squat today will be their "ancestral homeland" tomorrow (which explain why the Palestinians would think a bullshit documentary like “No Other Land" is actually true). Their entire identity is built on this merge of honor, pride, religion and land.
1400 years of brainwashing has completely baked this into their DNA. It never even occurs to the Arab-Muslim that other minority groups in the Middle East might want self determination as well.
Another aspect of the argument is to what extent the Muslim population of Palestine in 1947 was indigenous. A simple look at population numbers earlier in the century makes clear a large number of Arabs migrated to Palestine in parallel with Jewish immigrants.
Yes, this Arab economic migration is rarely talked about. So an Arab whose ancestors came in the 20s is today considered Palestinian while a Jew whose ancestors came in the 20s (or even earlier) is a “colonizer.”
This is a very important article to be added to the growing number of Arabs who are expressing the truth that Israel is not a settler-colonial state.
However, equally important is accuracy -- John wrote: "Having to pass through multiple military checkpoints to get home from work or school every day, or to get to the hospital, or to visit your family is an absolute utter nightmare." And I wonder when was the last time he drove through Judea-Samaria. I wrote about this in the past and will update this article because things have changed since Oct 7th, but even the restrictions added after Oct 7th have been eased over the past year. In any case, it is instructive to read the earlier article that was written during the time Israel was constantly being accused of restricting freedom of movement.
Now, obviously, no Palestinian including me is happy with the status quo in the land, or the military rule in the West Bank, or the war in Gaza
They seemed pretty fucking happy with the status quo on Oct 7th. You do know what happened on Oct 7th, right? Because that was missing from this, so I just wanted to remind you. Back to fucking happy Palestinians. They seemed happy with the status quo celebrating over the coffins of Jewish children. No idea how you felt about that since it was not mentioned either. Back to fucking happy Palestinians. For example, are the recipients of pay for terrorist murder happy with that status quo? How about the convicted murderers released in exchange for the aforementioned dead children? Bet they are happy with their status quo. I could go on, but obviously plenty of Palestinians are happy with the status quo of murdering Jews and being lifted up for it by the rest of the world.
I believe murdering Jews is evil antisemitism, as you could have realised if you read almost anything I've written in the last 2 years. Nothing makes me more unhappy.
I have read some of what you write. I did not intend to give the impression that you personally hate Jews. But, I don't think you can dispute that "plenty of Palestinians are happy with the status quo of murdering Jews and being lifted up for it by the rest of the world."
I get it, you gotta stand up for your own. I do the same even when I don't like it, simply because I think unity matters. And I do very much appreciate what I have read of your support, I truly do. I wish you were the rule rather than the exception, but being that exception is why I stand by my point.
I mean, the jihadists are unhappy with the status quo too, most of the time.
But those people I don't want to be happy, because as you suggest their happiness is predicated on religious warfare and antisemitism.
I would say that a better government would deradicalise these people and end the jihadist tendencies in order to have a truly peaceful solution where we can live together without violence.
I agree completely. I don't think it'll happen anytime soon, because I don't think that the Palestinian leadership wants to live together peacefully. I also don't think that the majority of Palestinians disagree with their leadership.
That said, I think the same can more of less be said of the current Israeli government, but I would vehemently disagree that the majority of Israelis agree.
Your article is very important, I'm happily surprised by reading it and thank you for writing and sharing it.
One thing you may consider adding to your article : after 1948 many Jews did not just flee from ME Arab Muslim countries. They were expelled and often disowned of their properties.
About governments and deradicalization:
Observing the current wars, the persecution and killing of non muslims minorities in other ME and African countries, the origins of these atrocities go way further than the Palestinian conflict - which is continually endorsed by both Shia and Sunni Muslims for the simple reason that according to the Quran, Jews are considered the big sinners.
So how about the
deradicalization of the Quran ?
As long as 56 Arab nations and Muslims worldwide stick to these antisemitic beliefs, without the recognition of all Arab nations of the souverain state of Israel for the Jewish people and other religious minorities - there will be no peace.
The new vice president of the PA will continue to compete with Hamas, Fatah & Co although their common goal is the annihilation of the state of Israel.
Like Yasser Arafat who spoke peace in English language but called for violent Intifada in Arabic language - this will not change under the current leaderships.
In this culture, who will step up for peace ? By now we know what Palestinian are taught at school and university. Peace with Jews and Israel is not part of that.
It's been known since the 90's but no one in the Western world listens. And the educational institutions in the Western world are indoctrinated with pro Palestinian propaganda.
The Western world does not understand the Arab Muslim mentality - the shame / honor culture which rules their lives, even in the Western societies - although hopefully in a lesser extent for those who are born in them from parents and grandparents who've really integrated.
For Israel, up to 40 years ago Israelis spoke or at least understood Arab language. It's an mportant thing while living in a mainly Arab speaking neighborhood as the Middle East.
You are using a definition of regular colonialism, when you should look at a definition of settler colonialism. There are other examples (e.g. Liberia) where the descendants of a previously indigenous group colonize other indigenous people.
And the solution to colonialism doesn't have to be "send everyone back". We can look at South Africa for example. The colonial state has been dismantled, but white people are still living there as equal citizens.
Please do your research before making such harmful posts.
Some scholars see Zionism as settler-colonial, others do not.
Certainly, the population of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel have all gone up over the decades.
While the settlement movement in the West Bank has settler-colonial characteristics, I don't think it's correct to assume the wider Zionist project is defined by West Bank settlers.
Those who accuse Zionism of being colonialism are referring to settler colonialism, so this should be the definition you are using if you respond to their argument. Otherwise you would only engage with a straw man.
Most of the arguments you made do not work if you use the definition of settler colonialism and compare it with other real world examples of it.
partition and the 1948 war they wouldn't just return to Egypt or Syria or Algeria, etc. for a better life.
It took me awhile to understand that for the Arab-Muslim, the entire Middle East is "their land" and wherever they squat today will be their "ancestral homeland" tomorrow (which explain why the Palestinians would think a bullshit documentary like “No Other Land" is actually true). Their entire identity is built on this merge of honor, pride, religion and land.
1400 years of brainwashing has completely baked this into their DNA. It never even occurs to the Arab-Muslim that other minority groups in the Middle East might want self determination as well.
Interesting @flop. At what point do the "Palestinians" lose their indigenous rights (obtained via conquest) and become "settler colonialists" to the now superior-indigenous Israelis? Just wondering how long Israelis must hold out, and how long my Mohawk friends have left before you believe they can be morally "mohawkreined" from North America with none of them allowed to return because they are now "settler colonials" to the Mayflower bunch and the DAR. Please let me know the deadlines for calendaring purposes. Thanks.
Well that was a very twee response. So if Israel threw every Palestinian out of Gaza and the West Bank and Old Jerusalem on a Monday the Palestinians would come back on a Tuesday as settler colonialists. Got it.
(Actually, that is what happened 1948-1967, so apparently 19 years or less is all it takes under your theory.)
And how do you decide who is oppressing whom? It is Hamas and the PA that insist on keeping the land they have jew free no matter that jews were ethnically cleansed in 1948. It is Hamas and the PA that declares any any future land they control will be jew free. It is Hamas that clings to a genocidal fantasy of 10 million dead or displaced Israelis and wages a war that declares every Israeli a target. Why is that not settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide ideation? Is it because the Palestinians have been unsuccessful that you give them a pass?
Again: colonialism requires the oppression of the indigenous population for the benefit of the settling population. If Israelis were forced under Apartheid, I'd protest for them as well. It ain't that complicated.
Hilarious. If lack of internal logic and consistency was worth something you'd be a fucking billionaire. LOL. Come back when you are smarter and less transparently disingenuous. Thanks.
This was an absolutely outstanding article, John! It's also one of the best I've ever read here on Substack! You astutely show how the Jewish people living in the holy land are not colonists but rather the indigenous people returning to their ancient homeland. The vast majority of the Jewish population of the land of Israel left because of external factors that were beyond their control. Those being an economic depression that ravaged the entire Roman Empire, a series of failed uprisings and Roman persecution. So, when Jewish settlers started coming back to the holy land starting in the 1840s and intensifying in the 1880s with the horrific pogroms in Tsarist Russia, they were not taking over the land of another people but rather reclaiming what was rightly theirs'. What complicated the situation was the presence of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who were descended from Arab settler colonists from various different Arab Muslim Empires, the Romans, the Byzantines, and some of the preexisting indigenous Jewish population. The Zionist Movement and the Jewish settlers came to Palestine intending to rebuild their state, but they had every intention of allowing the Arab population to stay and be equal citizens in the reborn Jewish state. Sadly, the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs hated the Jews, didn't recognize their historic connection to the land and rightful claim to it and wanted them gone. Only a small minority of the local Palestinian Arabs accepted the Jews and most of them were bribed to do so. Returning to the primary focus of the article, there is an allegation made by the Pro-Palestinian side is that the Jews had the assistance of the British Empire in the creation of a Jewish state via The Balfour Declaration therefore that proves that Israel was a European settler colonial project. Okay, well two things in response to that. Number one, the Balfour Declaration was not a promise by the British to build a state for the Jews but rather to turn over the land to the Jews to reconstitute their state on provided they did not infringe on the rights of the local Arabs. That is not colonialism that is in fact decolonization. This is an actual case of a land being restored to the indigenous people by the colonizers. The Balfour Declaration was anti-colonial document if anything. I would also add that the armed Jewish militias in the holy land, the Hagenah, Irgun and Lehi were anti-colonial freedom fighters who fought the British Empire to reclaim their native land. Zionism was an anti-colonial, Indigenous rights movement. The Jewish people are kindred spirits with the Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Inuits, Aboriginal Australians, Maoris, Aleuts, the Ainu People, and other indigenous peoples around the world. The Jewish immigrants who came later like Mizrahi Jews from Arab lands, the black Jews of Ethiopia, the Bene Israel community from India, Chinese Jews, and the Black Hebrew Israelites were not colonists but rather refugees returning to their spiritual homeland where their faith first sprang from. By the way, Ashkenazi Jews are not white. Some of them are light skinned enough they can identify as such, but they are technically not. Ashkenazi Jews can be distinguished from white Europeans and Americans by their darker skin, distinct physical features, curly hair, and Levantine/Middle Eastern ancestry. To be sure, the occupation of the West Bank, the Iron Wall and the blockade of Gaza are restrictive measures that curb the freedom of movement of the Palestinian people. Palestinians have to go through checkpoints anytime they want to go somewhere, have to follow Israeli rules and regulations, are seeing their land encroached on by Jewish settlers, and must cross through a gate with an Israeli soldier in front of it to get to their farmland to tend to it. I sincerely hope someday this won't be the case and the Palestinians will have an independent state. But this is NOT colonialism. The Palestinian Territories like the history of the conflict, is a much more complex situation. Continuing to perpetuate the toxic myth of Israel as a colonial power and the Jewish people as white European colonizers will only inflame tensions between the two sides and keep alive this bloody over seventy-year conflict. I think it's important to emphasize how much both peoples have in common. They have similar cultures, both practice traditions rooted in the land, have similar histories given that both have lived in a diaspora and being unwanted all other nations, both have catastrophic events in their history that loom large in their collective memory as a people in the case of the Jews the Holocaust and in the case of the Palestinians the Nakba, are both indigenous to the holy land, and they share a common genetic link given that both are descendants of the Ancient Canaanites and Israelites. This therefore makes them cousins therefore making them family.
1) The Arabs in Palestine aren't colonialists. Most Arabs you know today aren't descendants from Arabia. They are indigenous people who adopted the Arab language and culture over time.
2) The settlers didn't want to live with the Arabs. Their goal was a state with a majority. This was simply not possible in a land with an Arab majority. The only realistic way of achieving their goal was to expel Arabs or to partition the land.
This demand for a majority and the accompanying discrimination of indigenous Arabs is what makes them a colonial movement, as opposed to an anti-colonial one.
Top tier Islamic deflectionism in that statement 😂😅😆
Dar El Islam jihad taquiya and hudna; elemental foundational facts of Life when engaging with Islamic entities that you neglect as you attempt to point at the Jews as the problem.
How original and pathetic Esau continually repeats itself
Hilarious @Brian Erb. Did you ask Hamas, because they very much think this is a religious dispute. Please tell me who's view matters - your view or Hamas's view? LOL.
You sound like a useless tool, an Islamic deflectionist, whining about Jews as Islam conquers the world just like your brethren did at the gates of Vienna as The barbarians gathered, the first American war was against the Barbary pirates who were raiding entire European villages to enslave them and add the women to the Islamic slave harems all while useless bitches bitched about Jews
luckily a pollock came and saved Europe from Islamic conquest, how's Rotherham working out for your British Brothers 1200 victims
the British police overlooked it because they would be called racists for pointing out that the barbarians kept perpetuating crimes against the Christians of England all while you bitches bitched about Jews
Brigitte Gabriel
@ACTBrigitte
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Lebanon was the only Christian-majority nation in the Middle East.
It's where I was born.
We prided ourselves on inclusivity. Always welcoming Arab Muslim refugees from all over the Middle East.
We had the best economy despite having no natural oil. The best universities.
They called Beirut the "Paris of the Middle East" and the Mountains of Lebanon was a tourist destination.
My early childhood was idyllic, my father was a prosperous businessman in town and my mother was at home with me, an only child.
Slowly, the Arab Muslims began to become the majority in Lebanon and our rights began to wither away.
Soon, we would find ourselves unable to leave our small Christian town without fear of being stopped and killed by Arabs. In Lebanon your religion is on your government issued ID.
As the war intensified and the radical Islamists made their way south, my home was hit by an errant rocket and my life was forever changed.
We spent the next almost decade in a bomb shelter, scraping together pennies and eating dandelions and roots just to survive.
If it was not for Israel coming in and surrounding our town, I do not know If I would be here today.
Lebanon is now a country 100% controlled and run by Hezbollah. I lost my country of birth.
I thank God every single day I was able to immigrate to America and live out the dream that BILLIONS of people only dream of having.
Now here in America, my adopted country that I have come to love so much, I see the same threats and warning signs happening now that took place in Lebanon when I was a child.
This is my warning to you, America, reverse course now while you still can.
It's not too late to save our freedom and preserve it for the next generation.
Hilarious. You might want to open both eyes @flop because you are only seeing half the picture.
1) The Israelis aren't colonialist. Israel is 20% Muslim and over 70% Arab. And the rest are indigenous returnees from around the world. Your conceit that every Palestinian is indigenous is deeply stupid. Was there a secret forcefield that kept Syrians and Egyptians and Hashemites out and "indigenous Palestinians" in until 1948? LOL.
2) The Israelis certainly wanted to live with the Muslims more than the Muslims wanted to live with the Jews. The Jews wanted to be in the majority for safety reasons and self-determination reasons. By contrast, the Muslims wanted the jews all gone. They ethnically cleansed every single jew from places they had lived for thousands of years such as Hebron and the Old Jerusalem (making them instant settler colonialists in your eyes).
So, per you, jews become settlers in 19 years (1948-1967) or even after a single day of displacement and may never morally return to their former homes, or perhaps never become indigenous in the first place because jews, while Palestinians can never become settlers no matter how many generations they live elsewhere, and Muslims can also go from Egyptian (like Yassir Arafat) to indigenous Palestinian instantly by self identification or stepping on soil like reaching second base in a baseball game (he's safe! LOL.). Got it. You go to an UNWRA school growing up?
I continue to ask the question. The conflict seems to be much more a religious one about Islam, accounting also for what is happening with Muslim radicals around the world, than a national struggle. I do not see how this can be avoided, with all due respect to John. When I lived in Israel, 1968 to 1972, going to East Jerusalem and to the West Bank was not a problem. I met many people there with the same views as John. That’s why I joined the protest in favor of recognizing the Palestinians. But that is the past. Such N option no longer seems to exist and most Palestinians no longer seem to be who they used to be after years of Hamas and Fatah governance.
Hi John. I also have problems listening to things like this. There are many such voices. How can we possibly ignore Islam in resolving the conflict? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DfNDxz67YjM
You got it right that Jews are indigenous to the region and many of who number among today's Palestinians are of Israelite descent. It is an important point. Also, many who are considered Palestinians are not Arabs -- some are Kurds, some are Bosnians. It is an interesting mix but they do not feel a particular allegiance to an overall "Palestinian" identity.
And regarding what you write about the checkpoints in the Palestinian Authority: how many “checkpoints” do Israelis go through every day on their way to school or work, to get to the hospital, to go into a mall?
Every bus and train station has a checkpoint we have to go through. Every mall has guards we have to go past, sometimes having to open our bags if the guard is not too lazy. Every hospital has a checkpoint we have to go through to get in. And why? Because of Palestinian Arab terror. That’s why.
There were no such checkpoints within our communities before Palestinian Arab terror blew up buses and more. So pardon me if I am not more empathic to the need for Arabs in the PA to pass through checkpoints. BTW, before Oct 7th many of these checkpoints are manned only when there is intelligence of an impending terror attack — often they were open and one just drove through. It has got a bit tighter since Oct 7th, however, because of threats to do an Oct-7th in Judea-Samaria.
The checkpoints between the PA and Israel is a different matter, of course, because that is a border crossing and many border crossing around the world have checkpoints where you show ID and sometimes have your car trunk checked.
Also BTW, there are malls in Israel where guards check your trunk even if you have an Israeli accent before they let you drive into the parking lots.
I think the anti-Zionists are very loud but also quite a small minority. At least in the US, there's a pretty significant majority favoring two states. The roadblock being that neither Hamas nor the Israeli government want two states. Hamas hangs its hat on the delusion of destroying Israel. And Israel's ruling government is very clearly and vocally fine with indefinite occupation that's turned into full-blown apartheid. And Israel's government uses the very loud bloviating of Hamas and a few very loud leftists as a justification for ongoing apartheid.
As in, I don’t know if anyone is claiming that Jewish people shouldn’t be there on account of ethnicity, rather it’s the economic role that Israel plays as a gateway into the Middle East for western powers?
I agree that Palestinians need a better solution - but they have continually rejected the one that would actually work: peace. The barriers and checkpoints were established specifically because Palestinians were regularly attacking Jews. If they actually stopped doing that, and tried to live in peace with their neighbors, there would be no need for any of the security measures.
There is an erudite 1997 book by Jurge Osterhammel titled Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview that delineates the various versions of terms associated with colonialism. Humans have been colonizing since our origins, the movement of people is colonizing but not the same as European colonialism. Too many conflate the variation. Thank you for the differentiation, and striving for understanding and peace between cousins
Arabic language originated in Arabia yet 24 Nations speak it and 57 Nations read from it as they read the weekly prayers of fight the Jew and Christian until they pay the jizia.
Dar El Islam jihad hudna & taquiya are relevant concepts and without them being mentioned the framing of this as a colonialist project might be plausible despite every single colonialist power on the planet being against the idea of Jews having sovereign power as indigenous people in their Homeland.
partition and the 1948 war they wouldn't just return to Egypt or Syria or Algeria, etc. for a better life.
It took me awhile to understand that for the Arab-Muslim, the entire Middle East is "their land" and wherever they squat today will be their "ancestral homeland" tomorrow (which explain why the Palestinians would think a bullshit documentary like “No Other Land" is actually true). Their entire identity is built on this merge of honor, pride, religion and land.
1400 years of brainwashing has completely baked this into their DNA. It never even occurs to the Arab-Muslim that other minority groups in the Middle East might want self determination as well.
Another aspect of the argument is to what extent the Muslim population of Palestine in 1947 was indigenous. A simple look at population numbers earlier in the century makes clear a large number of Arabs migrated to Palestine in parallel with Jewish immigrants.
Yes, this Arab economic migration is rarely talked about. So an Arab whose ancestors came in the 20s is today considered Palestinian while a Jew whose ancestors came in the 20s (or even earlier) is a “colonizer.”
This is a very important article to be added to the growing number of Arabs who are expressing the truth that Israel is not a settler-colonial state.
However, equally important is accuracy -- John wrote: "Having to pass through multiple military checkpoints to get home from work or school every day, or to get to the hospital, or to visit your family is an absolute utter nightmare." And I wonder when was the last time he drove through Judea-Samaria. I wrote about this in the past and will update this article because things have changed since Oct 7th, but even the restrictions added after Oct 7th have been eased over the past year. In any case, it is instructive to read the earlier article that was written during the time Israel was constantly being accused of restricting freedom of movement.
https://www.israeldiaries.com/btselem-confirms-that-checkpoints-in-judea-and-samaria-not-so-bad/
Now, obviously, no Palestinian including me is happy with the status quo in the land, or the military rule in the West Bank, or the war in Gaza
They seemed pretty fucking happy with the status quo on Oct 7th. You do know what happened on Oct 7th, right? Because that was missing from this, so I just wanted to remind you. Back to fucking happy Palestinians. They seemed happy with the status quo celebrating over the coffins of Jewish children. No idea how you felt about that since it was not mentioned either. Back to fucking happy Palestinians. For example, are the recipients of pay for terrorist murder happy with that status quo? How about the convicted murderers released in exchange for the aforementioned dead children? Bet they are happy with their status quo. I could go on, but obviously plenty of Palestinians are happy with the status quo of murdering Jews and being lifted up for it by the rest of the world.
I believe murdering Jews is evil antisemitism, as you could have realised if you read almost anything I've written in the last 2 years. Nothing makes me more unhappy.
https://johnaziz.substack.com/p/anti-zionism-is-a-death-cult
I have read some of what you write. I did not intend to give the impression that you personally hate Jews. But, I don't think you can dispute that "plenty of Palestinians are happy with the status quo of murdering Jews and being lifted up for it by the rest of the world."
I get it, you gotta stand up for your own. I do the same even when I don't like it, simply because I think unity matters. And I do very much appreciate what I have read of your support, I truly do. I wish you were the rule rather than the exception, but being that exception is why I stand by my point.
Thanks for the reply.
I mean, the jihadists are unhappy with the status quo too, most of the time.
But those people I don't want to be happy, because as you suggest their happiness is predicated on religious warfare and antisemitism.
I would say that a better government would deradicalise these people and end the jihadist tendencies in order to have a truly peaceful solution where we can live together without violence.
I agree completely. I don't think it'll happen anytime soon, because I don't think that the Palestinian leadership wants to live together peacefully. I also don't think that the majority of Palestinians disagree with their leadership.
That said, I think the same can more of less be said of the current Israeli government, but I would vehemently disagree that the majority of Israelis agree.
Your article is very important, I'm happily surprised by reading it and thank you for writing and sharing it.
One thing you may consider adding to your article : after 1948 many Jews did not just flee from ME Arab Muslim countries. They were expelled and often disowned of their properties.
About governments and deradicalization:
Observing the current wars, the persecution and killing of non muslims minorities in other ME and African countries, the origins of these atrocities go way further than the Palestinian conflict - which is continually endorsed by both Shia and Sunni Muslims for the simple reason that according to the Quran, Jews are considered the big sinners.
So how about the
deradicalization of the Quran ?
As long as 56 Arab nations and Muslims worldwide stick to these antisemitic beliefs, without the recognition of all Arab nations of the souverain state of Israel for the Jewish people and other religious minorities - there will be no peace.
The new vice president of the PA will continue to compete with Hamas, Fatah & Co although their common goal is the annihilation of the state of Israel.
Like Yasser Arafat who spoke peace in English language but called for violent Intifada in Arabic language - this will not change under the current leaderships.
In this culture, who will step up for peace ? By now we know what Palestinian are taught at school and university. Peace with Jews and Israel is not part of that.
It's been known since the 90's but no one in the Western world listens. And the educational institutions in the Western world are indoctrinated with pro Palestinian propaganda.
The Western world does not understand the Arab Muslim mentality - the shame / honor culture which rules their lives, even in the Western societies - although hopefully in a lesser extent for those who are born in them from parents and grandparents who've really integrated.
For Israel, up to 40 years ago Israelis spoke or at least understood Arab language. It's an mportant thing while living in a mainly Arab speaking neighborhood as the Middle East.
You are using a definition of regular colonialism, when you should look at a definition of settler colonialism. There are other examples (e.g. Liberia) where the descendants of a previously indigenous group colonize other indigenous people.
And the solution to colonialism doesn't have to be "send everyone back". We can look at South Africa for example. The colonial state has been dismantled, but white people are still living there as equal citizens.
Please do your research before making such harmful posts.
Some scholars see Zionism as settler-colonial, others do not.
Certainly, the population of Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel have all gone up over the decades.
While the settlement movement in the West Bank has settler-colonial characteristics, I don't think it's correct to assume the wider Zionist project is defined by West Bank settlers.
Those who accuse Zionism of being colonialism are referring to settler colonialism, so this should be the definition you are using if you respond to their argument. Otherwise you would only engage with a straw man.
Most of the arguments you made do not work if you use the definition of settler colonialism and compare it with other real world examples of it.
partition and the 1948 war they wouldn't just return to Egypt or Syria or Algeria, etc. for a better life.
It took me awhile to understand that for the Arab-Muslim, the entire Middle East is "their land" and wherever they squat today will be their "ancestral homeland" tomorrow (which explain why the Palestinians would think a bullshit documentary like “No Other Land" is actually true). Their entire identity is built on this merge of honor, pride, religion and land.
1400 years of brainwashing has completely baked this into their DNA. It never even occurs to the Arab-Muslim that other minority groups in the Middle East might want self determination as well.
https://open.substack.com/pub/urikurlianchik/p/the-quantum-history-of-palestine?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=36c3b5
https://youtu.be/DfNDxz67YjM?si=ZdUH_v4Qb1HyJyFA
History hurts you go back to China
Some people still believe in communism. Those people are morons.
Hilarious. Only a moron would make that claim. LOL.
Interesting @flop. At what point do the "Palestinians" lose their indigenous rights (obtained via conquest) and become "settler colonialists" to the now superior-indigenous Israelis? Just wondering how long Israelis must hold out, and how long my Mohawk friends have left before you believe they can be morally "mohawkreined" from North America with none of them allowed to return because they are now "settler colonials" to the Mayflower bunch and the DAR. Please let me know the deadlines for calendaring purposes. Thanks.
time doesn't matter. if half of the french left today, came back tomorrow and oppressed the other half then they'd be colonizers
Well that was a very twee response. So if Israel threw every Palestinian out of Gaza and the West Bank and Old Jerusalem on a Monday the Palestinians would come back on a Tuesday as settler colonialists. Got it.
(Actually, that is what happened 1948-1967, so apparently 19 years or less is all it takes under your theory.)
And how do you decide who is oppressing whom? It is Hamas and the PA that insist on keeping the land they have jew free no matter that jews were ethnically cleansed in 1948. It is Hamas and the PA that declares any any future land they control will be jew free. It is Hamas that clings to a genocidal fantasy of 10 million dead or displaced Israelis and wages a war that declares every Israeli a target. Why is that not settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, and genocide ideation? Is it because the Palestinians have been unsuccessful that you give them a pass?
Again: colonialism requires the oppression of the indigenous population for the benefit of the settling population. If Israelis were forced under Apartheid, I'd protest for them as well. It ain't that complicated.
Hilarious. If lack of internal logic and consistency was worth something you'd be a fucking billionaire. LOL. Come back when you are smarter and less transparently disingenuous. Thanks.
very smart answer there
This was an absolutely outstanding article, John! It's also one of the best I've ever read here on Substack! You astutely show how the Jewish people living in the holy land are not colonists but rather the indigenous people returning to their ancient homeland. The vast majority of the Jewish population of the land of Israel left because of external factors that were beyond their control. Those being an economic depression that ravaged the entire Roman Empire, a series of failed uprisings and Roman persecution. So, when Jewish settlers started coming back to the holy land starting in the 1840s and intensifying in the 1880s with the horrific pogroms in Tsarist Russia, they were not taking over the land of another people but rather reclaiming what was rightly theirs'. What complicated the situation was the presence of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs who were descended from Arab settler colonists from various different Arab Muslim Empires, the Romans, the Byzantines, and some of the preexisting indigenous Jewish population. The Zionist Movement and the Jewish settlers came to Palestine intending to rebuild their state, but they had every intention of allowing the Arab population to stay and be equal citizens in the reborn Jewish state. Sadly, the vast majority of Palestinian Arabs hated the Jews, didn't recognize their historic connection to the land and rightful claim to it and wanted them gone. Only a small minority of the local Palestinian Arabs accepted the Jews and most of them were bribed to do so. Returning to the primary focus of the article, there is an allegation made by the Pro-Palestinian side is that the Jews had the assistance of the British Empire in the creation of a Jewish state via The Balfour Declaration therefore that proves that Israel was a European settler colonial project. Okay, well two things in response to that. Number one, the Balfour Declaration was not a promise by the British to build a state for the Jews but rather to turn over the land to the Jews to reconstitute their state on provided they did not infringe on the rights of the local Arabs. That is not colonialism that is in fact decolonization. This is an actual case of a land being restored to the indigenous people by the colonizers. The Balfour Declaration was anti-colonial document if anything. I would also add that the armed Jewish militias in the holy land, the Hagenah, Irgun and Lehi were anti-colonial freedom fighters who fought the British Empire to reclaim their native land. Zionism was an anti-colonial, Indigenous rights movement. The Jewish people are kindred spirits with the Native Americans, Native Hawaiians, Inuits, Aboriginal Australians, Maoris, Aleuts, the Ainu People, and other indigenous peoples around the world. The Jewish immigrants who came later like Mizrahi Jews from Arab lands, the black Jews of Ethiopia, the Bene Israel community from India, Chinese Jews, and the Black Hebrew Israelites were not colonists but rather refugees returning to their spiritual homeland where their faith first sprang from. By the way, Ashkenazi Jews are not white. Some of them are light skinned enough they can identify as such, but they are technically not. Ashkenazi Jews can be distinguished from white Europeans and Americans by their darker skin, distinct physical features, curly hair, and Levantine/Middle Eastern ancestry. To be sure, the occupation of the West Bank, the Iron Wall and the blockade of Gaza are restrictive measures that curb the freedom of movement of the Palestinian people. Palestinians have to go through checkpoints anytime they want to go somewhere, have to follow Israeli rules and regulations, are seeing their land encroached on by Jewish settlers, and must cross through a gate with an Israeli soldier in front of it to get to their farmland to tend to it. I sincerely hope someday this won't be the case and the Palestinians will have an independent state. But this is NOT colonialism. The Palestinian Territories like the history of the conflict, is a much more complex situation. Continuing to perpetuate the toxic myth of Israel as a colonial power and the Jewish people as white European colonizers will only inflame tensions between the two sides and keep alive this bloody over seventy-year conflict. I think it's important to emphasize how much both peoples have in common. They have similar cultures, both practice traditions rooted in the land, have similar histories given that both have lived in a diaspora and being unwanted all other nations, both have catastrophic events in their history that loom large in their collective memory as a people in the case of the Jews the Holocaust and in the case of the Palestinians the Nakba, are both indigenous to the holy land, and they share a common genetic link given that both are descendants of the Ancient Canaanites and Israelites. This therefore makes them cousins therefore making them family.
You are wrong about two things:
1) The Arabs in Palestine aren't colonialists. Most Arabs you know today aren't descendants from Arabia. They are indigenous people who adopted the Arab language and culture over time.
2) The settlers didn't want to live with the Arabs. Their goal was a state with a majority. This was simply not possible in a land with an Arab majority. The only realistic way of achieving their goal was to expel Arabs or to partition the land.
This demand for a majority and the accompanying discrimination of indigenous Arabs is what makes them a colonial movement, as opposed to an anti-colonial one.
Top tier Islamic deflectionism in that statement 😂😅😆
Dar El Islam jihad taquiya and hudna; elemental foundational facts of Life when engaging with Islamic entities that you neglect as you attempt to point at the Jews as the problem.
How original and pathetic Esau continually repeats itself
This isn't a religious dispute as badly as both Hamas terrorist and Zionist terrorists want to make it one. It is a land dispute.
Hilarious @Brian Erb. Did you ask Hamas, because they very much think this is a religious dispute. Please tell me who's view matters - your view or Hamas's view? LOL.
You sound like a useless tool, an Islamic deflectionist, whining about Jews as Islam conquers the world just like your brethren did at the gates of Vienna as The barbarians gathered, the first American war was against the Barbary pirates who were raiding entire European villages to enslave them and add the women to the Islamic slave harems all while useless bitches bitched about Jews
luckily a pollock came and saved Europe from Islamic conquest, how's Rotherham working out for your British Brothers 1200 victims
the British police overlooked it because they would be called racists for pointing out that the barbarians kept perpetuating crimes against the Christians of England all while you bitches bitched about Jews
Brigitte Gabriel
@ACTBrigitte
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Lebanon was the only Christian-majority nation in the Middle East.
It's where I was born.
We prided ourselves on inclusivity. Always welcoming Arab Muslim refugees from all over the Middle East.
We had the best economy despite having no natural oil. The best universities.
They called Beirut the "Paris of the Middle East" and the Mountains of Lebanon was a tourist destination.
My early childhood was idyllic, my father was a prosperous businessman in town and my mother was at home with me, an only child.
Slowly, the Arab Muslims began to become the majority in Lebanon and our rights began to wither away.
Soon, we would find ourselves unable to leave our small Christian town without fear of being stopped and killed by Arabs. In Lebanon your religion is on your government issued ID.
As the war intensified and the radical Islamists made their way south, my home was hit by an errant rocket and my life was forever changed.
We spent the next almost decade in a bomb shelter, scraping together pennies and eating dandelions and roots just to survive.
If it was not for Israel coming in and surrounding our town, I do not know If I would be here today.
Lebanon is now a country 100% controlled and run by Hezbollah. I lost my country of birth.
I thank God every single day I was able to immigrate to America and live out the dream that BILLIONS of people only dream of having.
Now here in America, my adopted country that I have come to love so much, I see the same threats and warning signs happening now that took place in Lebanon when I was a child.
This is my warning to you, America, reverse course now while you still can.
It's not too late to save our freedom and preserve it for the next generation.
And the Zionist movement repeatedly agreed to partition of the land.
Household analogies are usually a bust when it comes to politics, and this is not an exception.
Hilarious. You might want to open both eyes @flop because you are only seeing half the picture.
1) The Israelis aren't colonialist. Israel is 20% Muslim and over 70% Arab. And the rest are indigenous returnees from around the world. Your conceit that every Palestinian is indigenous is deeply stupid. Was there a secret forcefield that kept Syrians and Egyptians and Hashemites out and "indigenous Palestinians" in until 1948? LOL.
2) The Israelis certainly wanted to live with the Muslims more than the Muslims wanted to live with the Jews. The Jews wanted to be in the majority for safety reasons and self-determination reasons. By contrast, the Muslims wanted the jews all gone. They ethnically cleansed every single jew from places they had lived for thousands of years such as Hebron and the Old Jerusalem (making them instant settler colonialists in your eyes).
So, per you, jews become settlers in 19 years (1948-1967) or even after a single day of displacement and may never morally return to their former homes, or perhaps never become indigenous in the first place because jews, while Palestinians can never become settlers no matter how many generations they live elsewhere, and Muslims can also go from Egyptian (like Yassir Arafat) to indigenous Palestinian instantly by self identification or stepping on soil like reaching second base in a baseball game (he's safe! LOL.). Got it. You go to an UNWRA school growing up?
Your position is deeply flawed nonsense.
https://open.substack.com/pub/urikurlianchik/p/the-quantum-history-of-palestine?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=36c3b5
https://open.substack.com/pub/urikurlianchik/p/the-quantum-history-of-palestine?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=36c3b5
I was notified of a stupid reply elsewhere but my replying took me here to these comments and thought you'd enjoy what I linked
ShalomAloha
I continue to ask the question. The conflict seems to be much more a religious one about Islam, accounting also for what is happening with Muslim radicals around the world, than a national struggle. I do not see how this can be avoided, with all due respect to John. When I lived in Israel, 1968 to 1972, going to East Jerusalem and to the West Bank was not a problem. I met many people there with the same views as John. That’s why I joined the protest in favor of recognizing the Palestinians. But that is the past. Such N option no longer seems to exist and most Palestinians no longer seem to be who they used to be after years of Hamas and Fatah governance.
https://open.substack.com/pub/urikurlianchik/p/the-quantum-history-of-palestine?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=36c3b5
I know this story.
Hi John. I also have problems listening to things like this. There are many such voices. How can we possibly ignore Islam in resolving the conflict? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DfNDxz67YjM
You got it right that Jews are indigenous to the region and many of who number among today's Palestinians are of Israelite descent. It is an important point. Also, many who are considered Palestinians are not Arabs -- some are Kurds, some are Bosnians. It is an interesting mix but they do not feel a particular allegiance to an overall "Palestinian" identity.
And regarding what you write about the checkpoints in the Palestinian Authority: how many “checkpoints” do Israelis go through every day on their way to school or work, to get to the hospital, to go into a mall?
Every bus and train station has a checkpoint we have to go through. Every mall has guards we have to go past, sometimes having to open our bags if the guard is not too lazy. Every hospital has a checkpoint we have to go through to get in. And why? Because of Palestinian Arab terror. That’s why.
There were no such checkpoints within our communities before Palestinian Arab terror blew up buses and more. So pardon me if I am not more empathic to the need for Arabs in the PA to pass through checkpoints. BTW, before Oct 7th many of these checkpoints are manned only when there is intelligence of an impending terror attack — often they were open and one just drove through. It has got a bit tighter since Oct 7th, however, because of threats to do an Oct-7th in Judea-Samaria.
The checkpoints between the PA and Israel is a different matter, of course, because that is a border crossing and many border crossing around the world have checkpoints where you show ID and sometimes have your car trunk checked.
Also BTW, there are malls in Israel where guards check your trunk even if you have an Israeli accent before they let you drive into the parking lots.
These jew people bought plots of land, that's called 'gentrification', not colonization.
70% of Israelis are native to the Middle east, 50% are the Jewish Mizrahi's native to the ME,
The formation is Israel is a population swap like the formation of Pakistan and Bangladesh.
I think the anti-Zionists are very loud but also quite a small minority. At least in the US, there's a pretty significant majority favoring two states. The roadblock being that neither Hamas nor the Israeli government want two states. Hamas hangs its hat on the delusion of destroying Israel. And Israel's ruling government is very clearly and vocally fine with indefinite occupation that's turned into full-blown apartheid. And Israel's government uses the very loud bloviating of Hamas and a few very loud leftists as a justification for ongoing apartheid.
Surely the mother land is America?
Israelis can't freely migrate to America, they have to go through the same immigration procedures as anyone else.
Same thing about Americans who want to move to Israel, they are faced with the same immigration requirements as anybody else.
Yes Israel and America have a diplomatic relationship, but so do America and Jordan, Egypt, UAE, Saudi, etc. Are they American colonies too?
As in, I don’t know if anyone is claiming that Jewish people shouldn’t be there on account of ethnicity, rather it’s the economic role that Israel plays as a gateway into the Middle East for western powers?
What is exasperating is that you need to point out the obvious to those demanding that “the” Jews “go back to their own land”.