In Occupied Palestine
Zionism in practice
Israel’s Daily Toll on Palestinian Life, Limb, Liberty and Land
08:00, 12 August until 08:00, 13 August 2024
NB: For some reason we cannot fathom, the NAD (Negotiations Affairs Department) dating system appears to have jumped forward by one day as above.
Gaza Strip
Attacks: There are no safe places for the militarily-dominated population in Gaza, who find themselves subjected to airstrikes and other missile attacks on buildings, homes and many essentialfacilities, as well as constant gunfire and invasions by Israeli forces. The Israeli Navy continues to fire missiles, targeting facilities and buildings along the entire Gaza shoreline.
Victims: 32 more people killed in Gaza now bring the total number of deaths, since 7 October, to at least 39,929. With another 88 wounded, that figure has risen to over 92,240. The daily average number of men, women and children killed in Gaza is at least 129 and that of those injured, is now more than 298.
What is Zionism?
Who is responsible for Israel’s crimes, Jews or Zionists?
By Ali Kazak | 14 August 2024
https://johnmenadue.com/what-
Israel and Zionists try to confuse the public by conflating Judaism with Zionism; they commit their crimes and hide behind the Jewish people. Palestinians, on the other hand, distinguish between Jews, Judaism and Zionism and hold the Zionists responsible for the crimes they commit against them, not the Jews.
While the Zionists say, “Every Jew is a Zionist,” the Palestinians have raised the slogan, “Not every Jew is a Zionist, and not every Zionist is a Jew,” in order to make it clear for people to distinguish who the enemy is. In contrast, there are hypocritical politicians, from the government and the shadow government, who are not ashamed of their ignorance, confuse Zionism with Judaism and attack those who hold the Zionists responsible for the internationally condemned crimes committed by Israel against Palestinians, to appease Israel and its lobby. By doing so, they hold Jews responsible for these crimes, not the Zionists. This is dangerous and the highest form of anti-Arab and anti-Semitism. Therefore, in light of the genocide being committed by Israel against the Palestinian people, it is important to define what Zionism is and what it represents.
A colonial ideology
Zionism is a political ideology developed in 1896 by an Austrian Jew, Theodore Herzl. In his book “The Jewish State” he suggested Palestine or Argentina be given to the Jews to establish a Jewish colony. He wrote: “Shall we choose Palestine or Argentina? . . . In both countries, important experiments in colonisation have been made . . . We shall take what is given us, and what is selected by Jewish public opinion.”
Herzl’s ideas to establish a Jewish colony and Jewish nationalism were shaped by the colonial and nationalist ideologies of the European bourgeoisie, which were pervasive at the time, and included concepts of racial superiority and contempt for colonised peoples.
One year later, Herzl called for a conference in Basel, Switzerland, on 29 August 1897. Around 200 people attended, mainly from Russia and Eastern Europe. Among them, 69 were delegates from different Jewish organisations, and the others were invited individuals, including 10 who were not Jews, and 17 women, some accompanying their husbands and fathers, although women were not given the right to vote in the conference. The conference elected Herzl as the president of the Zionist Organisation and adopted the “Basel Programme,” which declared that “The aim of Zionism is to create for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law. The Congress contemplates the following means to the attainment of this end:
1. The promotion, on suitable lines, of the colonisation of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers.” . . . Since colonialism was not considered a dirty word in Europe at that time, they called the institutions they established colonial to define their project, such as “The Jewish Colonial Trust,” and “The Colonisation Commission”.
Thus, Zionism is a colonial-settler movement, and it is racist in theory and practise. At that time, Palestinian Jews were a small community, not exceeding 3.66% of the population. Herzl wrote in his diary that the area of the Jewish state stretched “from the Brook of Egypt to the Euphrates.” He wrote we should “try to spirit the penniless population across the border” and the process of dispossession must be carried out “discreetly and circumspectly.”
To achieve their colonial goals, it was necessary for the Zionists to artificially transform Judaism into a form of nationalism and for Jews to become a distinct “race” to create a legal-political entity. Herzl and his followers achieved this by Zionising the Bible through the manipulation of biblical and religious language, repurposing it for political and racial purposes, thus, creating a sense of unity among Jews as a race and nation.
It is important to note that the term “Jewish people” in the Bible is a reference to those who follow the Jewish faith, just as the Quran and Islamic culture refer to the “Muslim people” or “Muslim nation”. Jews, like Muslims and Christians, belong to different nations, colours, races and cultures: Ashkenazic and Sephardic, black Africans, white Europeans, Caucasian Khazars and Arab Semites. Like Christians and Muslims, the only common denominator between Jews is their belief and their holy book. Therefore, for Jews, unlike Christians and Muslims, to form out of all these colours, cultures and races, a same race of people defies science, logic and reality.
In their attempt to convert Judaism from religion to nationalism, the Zionists raised the slogan ‘You are not German; you are a Jew, not Russian but a Jew…,’ which provided the biggest support to the anti-Semites and Nazis who were raising the same slogan, ‘You are not German, you are a Jew…’ So, Zionist and anti-Semite interests converged in separating Jews from their own societies where they had lived for centuries and millennia and called for Jews to get out of their homelands. Accordingly, anti-Zionist Jews realised that anti-Semites were winning through Zionism, which validated and legitimised the anti-Semites’ old cry, “Jews get out.”
An ideology of racial discrimination
Secondly, Zionism is an apartheid violent ideology that discriminates against non-Jews and makes Jews a privileged class of people. Since the Palestinians, Muslims and Christians were the majority in Palestine, the Zionists, as their founder specified, and other Zionist leaders, such as Ben Gurion, openly advocated uprooting the largest number of Palestinians from their homeland to ensure the newly arrived Jewish settler minority would become the majority, and the Palestinian majority would become the minority in their homeland.
Through terrorism and dozens of massacres, they were able to ethnically cleanse over 70% of the Palestinians, and despite UN resolution 194 calling for their right to return, they declared in 1948 the establishment of Israel on 78% of Palestine and refused the refugee’s right of return. Thus, the Palestine issue was born. They put the remaining Palestinians under martial law from 1948 to 1966, treated them as second-class citizens and confiscated all properties of the ethnically cleared. In 1967, they launched a war and occupied all of Palestine, from the river to the sea, plus territories from neighbouring countries, and they started building new Jewish-only colonies in violation of international law and UN resolutions.
Since the establishment of Israel, they passed sixty-five racist laws against Muslims and Christians, documented by the Legal Centre for Arab Minority Rights in Israel (Adalah). In addition, the Israeli parliament passed on 18 July 2018 another racist law, the Jewish Nation-State Law, declaring all of historic Palestine, from the river to the sea and beyond, belonged only to Jews around the world no matter what their nationality is, and they alone had the right to self-determination. Accordingly, officially declaring Jews were first-class citizens and Muslims and Christians were second-class.
Finally, since the ruling Zionist ideology is, as its history proves, the negation of a just peace, and no one can coexist with racism and colonialism, the only way to achieve peace with justice is by defeating the Zionist regime and its colonial apartheid ideology, just as colonialist and racist ideologies and regimes were defeated, from the Crusades to Nazis, fascists, and the apartheid regime in South Africa. Peace and stability could not have been achieved in Europe and South Africa without the defeat of these regimes.
Politicians who irresponsibly appease Israel and its extremist lobby by conflating Judaism with Zionism are encouraging Israeli aggression, complicit with its crimes and do not serve Australia’s national interests or peace and stability in the Middle East.
[Ali Kazak is a former Palestinian ambassador and head of delegation to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific region. He is an expert in Australian-Arab relations and affairs, and author of “Australia and the Arabs”. (In Arabic).]
West Bank
Israeli Army attack – homes destroyed – teenager killed – 8 wounded: Ramallah – 00:15–06:25, Israeli Occupation forces stormed al-Bireh, using explosives to destroy two homes in an apartment building, killing one resident aged 18, Moataz Muhammad Omar Sarsour, and wounding eight other people: Ali Mustafa Muhammad Al-Salti, Muhammad Khaled Ibrahim Abu Khasha, Qasim Samir Hashim Abu Najma (aged 16), Amjad Mahmoud Ratib Mughanim, Amjad Muhammad Abdel Halim Al-Ajl, Nadeem Omar Ghassan, Yamen. Mahmoud Fayez Al-Hajj and Mahmoud Riyad Muhammad Al-Talaa.
Israeli Army attack – 1 wounded: Tulkarem – 16:40, Israeli forces opened fire on and hospitalised one person, Ismail Abdel Karim Mezher, at the Jbara checkpoint.
Israeli Army attack – 1 teenager killed: Tulkarem – 20:55, the Israeli Army shot and killed an 18-year-old, Tariq Ziyad Abdel Rahim Daoud, near the entrance to Azzun.
Israeli Army attack – 1 wounded – refugee camp: Nablus – 01:30, Israeli troops stormed the city and the Askar refugee camp, wounding one person in the city and taking prisoner five others.
Home invasions and armed robbery – 2 taken prisoner: Ramallah – dawn, Israeli Occupation forces raided Bil’in village, taking prisoner two residents and seizing a sum of money as well as gold jewellery from the home of one of them.
Home invasions – 5 taken prisoner: Qalqiliya – 23:05–07:00, Israeli forces raided the city, invading a number of homes and taking prisoner five residents.
Home invasions: Qalqiliya – 05:20, the Israeli Army raided Hablat and invaded homes.
Home invasions – surveillance: Nablus – 09:05-11:20, Israeli troops raided the village of Madama, searched several homes and examined their surveillance-camera recordings.
Home invasions: Nablus – 16:15-17:55, the Israeli military raided Talfit and searched two homes.
Home invasion: Salfit – 19:55-21:30, Israeli soldiers raided Haris village and searched a house.
Home invasion and demolition: Jericho – 08:10, Israeli Occupation forces demolished a home in the village of al-Jiftlik.
Home invasion: Bethlehem – 03:10–05:00, Israeli forces raided Tuqu and searched a house.
Israeli police and settlers’ mosque violation: Jerusalem – 08:00, settler militants, escorted by Israeli police, invaded the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound and molested worshippers.
Israeli Army land–seizure: Salfit – Israeli Occupation forces issued an order, for the seizure of land in Qarawat Bani Hassan and Haris village to serve the Israeli military over the next four years.
Israeli Army land–seizure: Salfit – the Israeli Army forces issued land-seizure orders in Deir Istiya and Haris village.
Occupation settler violence: Tubas – 15:35, Israel settlers, in the Umm al-Jimal area of the North Jordan Valley, detained three people including journalist, Reem Daraghmeh, whose deteriorating health condition led to her transfer to the local village Emergency Centre in Ein al-Bayda. Occupation forces also intervened, taking prisoner one person.
Occupation settler intrusion: Tubas – morning, Israeli Occupation settlers set up camp, near the Umm al-Jimal area in the Northern Jordan Valley, bringing in their own livestock and grazing the animals close to people’s tent–dwellings.
Occupation settler stoning: Nablus – 22:00, Israeli settlers stoned passing vehicles, near Burqa village.
Occupation settler violence – 2 minors beaten-up and hospitalised: Bethlehem – 18:10, Israeli settlers beat–up and hospitalised two 15-year-old boys, Ahmed Fadi Ahmed Saad and Muhammad Ali Ahmed Ali Ayesh, near Artas village.
Occupation settler violence – agricultural sabotage: Hebron – 18:20, Israeli Occupation settlers assaulted a farmer, Ahmed Majed Jamil, while he was working his land near the northern entrance to Halhul.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Jerusalem – 01:00, Israeli Occupation forces raided Anata, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – stun grenades: Jerusalem – 01:15–03:20, Israeli forces, firing stun grenades, raided al-Eizariya.
Raid – 1 stun grenades: Ramallah – 18:20–21:45, the Israeli Army, firing stun grenades, raided the town of Ni’lin.
Raid: Jenin – 12:50-14:10, Israeli troops raided the town of Silat al-Dahr.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Tulkarem – 02:30–04:05, the Israeli military raided the town of Allar, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – 2 taken prisoner: Tulkarem – 04:05–06:45, Israeli soldiers raided the town of Anabta, taking prisoner two people.
Raid – surveillance: Qalqiliya – 09:55-11:40, Israeli Occupation forces raided the Hotel village, invading a number of shops and stealing their surveillance-camera recordings.
Raid – rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades fired: Nablus – 20:15, Israeli forces, firing rubber-coated bullets and stun grenades, raided the village of Osirin.
Raid – youngster terrorised: Bethlehem –14:35, the Israeli Army raided the town of Tuqu, detaining and terrorising for a time 13-year-old Wissam Hafez Muhammad Abu Mufarreh.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Hebron – 14:40-16:10, Israeli troops raided the al-Jabari neighbourhood, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – stun grenades: Hebron – 21:00–22:00, the Israeli military, firing stun grenades, raided the al-Arroub refugee camp.
Raid – 1 taken prisoner: Hebron – 03:10–05:30, Israeli soldiers raided the village of al-Koum, taking prisoner one person.
Raid – stun grenades: Hebron – dawn, Israeli Occupation forces, firing stun grenades raided and patrolled Halhul.
NB: Missing IOP can now be read online: 08:00, 11 August until 08:00, 12 August 2024