Section 2: Deconstructing Kay�s statement
After we outlined a
comprehensive account on the definition of Israeli Zionist racism as a premise
to rebutting Barbara Kay�s
comments on �Defining Racism," we wanted to reaffirm the following:
Zionist Israeli racism is different from many other forms of racism. This is
mainly because it has an international cover, and it enjoys impunity, and
benefits from prodigious supplies of armaments and money from the United
States, Britain, Germany, France, and Zionist organizations.
As for Zionist
Israeli racism being diverse from other racism, let us discuss the matter
briefly. For instance, Japanese acts of fascist racism in Korea and China,
although belonging to the same racial matrix as Chinese, Korean, and
Vietnamese, stemmed from Japanese supremacist feelings, because, at that time,
it had an advanced economy based on incipient Western-style industrialization,
aggressive militarization, and fanatic nationalism. Another example is the
current American fascist racism, which is more advanced and complex than that
of Japan for multiple reasons. Among these is the persistence of militarized
racism in international relations, rampant cultural and economic discrimination
against ethnic and religious groups making up the American nation, persistent
economic disparities among social groups, the dominance of white British and
Anglo-Saxon culture in a multi-ethnic society, rampant Zionization of the
American culture and institutions, poverty among minorities, and so on.
Yet, while both
American and Israeli racisms have many traits in common (since both societies derive their existence from colonialism and
expropriation of land belonging to others), they, nevertheless, differ in one
crucial respect: American racism is a product of self-styled and self-generated colonialism; Israeli colonialism is dependent, that is,
Israel cannot sustain its colonialism from inside. In fact, without Western
aid, Israel�s collapse is a distinct possibility notwithstanding its nuclear
weapons and so-called military superiority over its adversaries. Paradoxically,
Zionism itself (as a racist doctrine) is the causative factor in making Israel
insecure psychologically.
This insecurity
finds its justification in a paradox whereby Jews believe they are superior since a mythological deity chose them
to be a �special people unto himself, above all people that
are upon the face of the earth,� (Deuteronomy 7:6).
For the record, fundamentalist Christian zealots back Jews� (accepting that
they are the successor of the Israelites) self-bestowed sense of superiority despite
the fact that the Zionist state discriminates against Palestinian Christians
under its occupation.
In his book, Ballam�s
Curse, Moshe Leshem, a former
Israeli diplomat, summarized the essence of Israeli supremacist beliefs as
follows: � . . . But in order to win support from the mass of European
Jews, the early Zionists misappropriated the trappings of religious Judaism,
portraying their hopes -- for Jewish state as the fulfillment of the Jewish
people�s theological destiny -- their Biblically ordained role as the Chosen
People that through whom God would redeem mankind.� [1, italics added]
Interestingly, and
based on
Leshem�s statement, the problem
that makes Israel such a busy nest of racism is, then, twofold:
- The dogma of the Judaic religion that
makes its adherents believe in their uniqueness,
- The Zionist belief that they can create
a state exclusive for the Jews at the expense of the Palestinians while
they can still control the entire globe with extensive networks of Jews
having diverse nationalities.
The other reason for
Israeli racism is a material-ideological sickness that tends to view the Arabs
and Palestinians as necessarily wicked because they refuse subjugation to the
Zionist order in the Middle East. Ultimately, a sense of Zionist superiority
must be at play because no matter what atrocities they commit, Western
imperialist states are on their side but that, of course, is not because of
tender mercies or love; it is because Israel is the right instrument to revamp
colonialism.
Having said that,
discussing Israeli Zionist racism should serve principally to uncover the
propaganda terrain on which Zionist operatives conduct their ceaseless efforts
to rewrite and falsify history, as well as to expose as baseless the rationales
that lubricate the racist engine of the Jewish state and its illegal and
illegitimate practices in Palestine and in the Arab world.
Consequently, we
will treat Kay�s comments as being representative of operational Zionism and
complete our rebuttal based on two levels: 1) general context, and 2) the
deconstructed contents. We will demonstrate that, aside from ingrained racism,
Israel and its Western imperialist supporters are keen at falsifying events in
the history of Palestine and the Middle East to suit Zionist Israel�s version
of the same, while counting on controlled media and on the passage of time to
lobotomize the memory of nations and its verifiable chronicled events.
Zionists may be able
to rewrite history and believe in it too, but objective forces of history would
always be able to erase the spurious chapters and rewrite things differently.
History is just the recordings of past events by humans; this matter, evidenced
by rewritings and re-analysis of historical events illustrates the fluidity of
history. This argues resolutely against any era of history that some try to
depict as sacrosanct and beyond reproach.
Then, the greatest
challenge we face is, how can we verify historical facts and what source can we
trust for historical truths in the age of mass manipulation? Opening history
for scrutiny, refutation, affirmation, and confirmation is just a first step in the right direction, and
that is if the word �right� can still make sense in
a world dominated by imperialist ideologies, globalist corporations, and
fascist institutions whose principle aim is repackaging information, distorting news, and detaching reality from real events.
However, despite what we call �mastodontic confusion by
disinformation," academic rigor, epistemological validity, and honest scholarship
still demand untrammeled, unexpurgated disclosures
of history -- otherwise the �truth� is in danger of concealment, obfuscation,
or even outright perversion. Yes, it is the job of historians to arrive at the
truth, but also it is everyone else�s
responsibility to apply open-minded skepticism to history as some quarters want
to present it. On the specific issue of ideological Zionism, since
disinformation, propaganda, and falsification of history are its hallmarks, it
rejects the history of humanity. Yet, it
is only a matter of time before the entire Zionist structure of deception will permanently collapse because, materially and
pragmatically, Israeli society cannot and will not be able to sustain itself in
its current form indefinitely.
General context
In her rebuttal, Kay
fallaciously attempts to legitimize Zionist Jews� theft of land from the
indigenous Palestinians. She offers no justification for this usurpation other
than the UN Partition Plan of 1947. Usually, Zionist Jews appeal to sympathy
stemming from their victimization by Nazis. This is without basis in any
elementary morality. Clearly, a group victimized by a second group does not
earn some right to victimize a third group uninvolved in perpetration of the
original act of victimization. If, indeed, such a morality-defying right did
exist, then, consequently, the group that has forcibly transferred another
group cannot later complain when it ends up suffering a similar fate.
In addition, a
societal entity cannot claim a right to existence based on its extinguishment
of the same right for a previously existing societal entity. For arguments
sake, if a state has a right to exist (which we do not agree with), then in the
case of the state of Israel, its right to exist would be no greater than the
right of a Palestinian state to exist.
Dialectically,
despite its illegal origins, but under the existing reality of Israel as a
society and as �state," the Palestinian rights to exist as a state and as
a society are equal in every respect to that of Israel. However, another
natural principle comes into play: the preeminent right owing to primordial
existence. Since if a state has a right to exist, then no other entity has a
right to extinguish this state�s right to exist. It is illegitimate by the
principles of the natural law to argue for the right of Israel to exist over
and above the right of Palestine to exist and to continue to exist. Rights, for
the greater part, owe their existence to universally recognized concepts of
human respect for others to exist and continue in endless time. This is what
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) posits: a universality of
human rights. While the UDHR is legally non-binding, no UN member state opposed
the ratification of the UDHR, and it has the compelling force of morality
behind it.
Furthermore,
hypothetically, if there is such a beast as the right of a state to exist, then
that right to exist must be retroactive universally. An asserted right of one
group cannot exist on the extinguishment of a right for another group -- to do
so would be reductio ad absurdum.
Arguably, therefore, if the existence of a state to exist is to be a
universally recognized right, then this universality must be equally applicable
to all. Racism and dispossession of the Palestinians violate their human
rights. Palestinian human rights activist Omar Barghouti recently stated: �No
state has the right to exist as a racist state.� Israeli rejectionism of this
reality is a rejection of peace since wars, including future wars, would be, by
default, the method to resolve the history of dispossession and occupation.
Also, referring to a
widespread acceptance of a grotesque violation of law does not legitimize that
violation of law. That the UN sanctions the violation of the human rights of a
group, that the UN violates its very own charter that recognizes the right of a
people to self-determination does not wrap the dispossession of the indigenous
Palestinian people in any legitimate legality and certainly not in any
morality. The fact is that European Jews were invaders and colonizers. They had
the right to immigrate legally, they had the right to buy land legally, but
they did not have the right to dispossess the Palestinians. Few people are
ready to unequivocally agree that theft is a right. But that is, in effect, the
unethical nonsense supporters of Zionism are arguing.
People create laws
for many reasons. Presumably, the guiding reason is to prevent crimes and keep
society ordered equitably for the good and security of all citizens. Whatever
laws humans may devise, there are guiding principles that have some basis in
morality, and these principles should supersede and underlie law. Legal
positions without a basis in morality are, arguably, of dubious legitimacy. We
stand by a principle: Forcible transfer
of a targeted people -- especially an indigenous people -- is not only a
quintessential crime but also an act of war that only resistance can reverse.
We also agree with the principle enshrined in international law: People have a right to resist their
occupation and oppression.
In the wider discussion on Israeli Zionist racism,
however, brazen deception, premeditated historical fallacies, straightforward
disinformation, unmitigated, bogus analogies, and artificial, lopsided conclusions
cannot add up to a critical study or be propagandistically elevated to
substitute material realities or dissection of it. We are determined to avoid
Byzantine discussions on the subject of Israel and Zionism, since the value of
a debate is not about upholding one�s own position dogmatically, but rather to
rediscover alternative realities based on factual events. Consequently, simple
analysis is all that is required to refute the entirety of the National
Post columnist Barbara Kay's
propaganda.
Deconstructed contents
The following are measured refutations to Kay�s
statements:
Kay: They [Palestinians] were transferred for two reasons: i) because
their own leaders told them to leave so they would not be in the path of war,
which the Arab countries initiated in 1948 and fully expected to win, after
which the people would return and take back all the land and homes of the Jews;
Refutation: The statement does not address the
primordial question: did Europeans of Jewish faith and other converts to
Judaism have right to colonize Palestine? The answer is a resolute no, and the reason for such resoluteness
resides in one fact: their ancestors never inhabited the land they colonized.
In addition, Zionist colonists have been basing their colonization on either
blatant historical falsification that their ancestors once inhabited the land
or on the theological mythology that �God� gave it to them. This latest claim
requires, dialectically, two proofs: 1) God�s existence beyond ontological
sensations, and 2) at least some credible witness hearing (including
specification of spoken language) God promising a land called Palestine to
European, Iraqi, Yemeni, Ethiopian, Arab, Persian, and other groups adhering to
Judaism.
Pointedly, and
contrary to Kay�s claim, Palestinians did not leave voluntarily or by
insinuation -- Jewish immigrants expelled them through well-documented acts of
terrorism. [2] Second, even if they left
because their leaders told them to do so,
as she claims, that still does not eliminate their inalienable right to the
land they inherited through millennia of continuous existence as a people.
Moreover, as she
falsifies history and engages in naked lies, Kay moves to make puerile
hypotheses such as this one: �after which the people would return and take back
all the land and homes of the Jews.� This is why we think it is puerile: If you
take something from someone with violence, your act will not: 1) make you
automatically the owner of the thing you take by violence, and 2) confer legal
ownership of what you take by violence. Arguably, therefore, if the
Palestinians struggle to retake their homes and recover their lands, this is
their right. Another analogy on ownership by violence: If a thief robs a bank,
and the bank tries to recover its money, would the thief then proclaim that the
bank is trying to rob him or her illegally?
Kay: because you cannot have hostile people in your own state if they
will not agree to live as citizens.
Refutation: This is nonsense. Kay cast labels around
freely and in a discriminatory fashion. She labels the dispossessed as a
�hostile people.� The Jewish Zionist dispossessors who violently perpetrated
the Nakba (�catastrophe� in Arabic referring to the takeover of Palestine by
Zionists) are presumably non-hostile. By Kay�s logic, if she and her family
were invaded in their residence, stripped of the residence, and cast out, then
if she opposed being dispossessed, she would be a �hostile person�!
Simply, colonists of
all colors cannot take the land of others, make a state, and ask the
land-stripped people to leave because they refuse to be a part of the new state
formed by colonists. However, there never was an intention that Zionists would
share the stolen land with the Palestinians; it was to be a Jewish state with
land reserved for Jews. This does not work in modern times. Yes, it worked on
Turtle Island (Canada and the US), Aotearoa (New Zealand), Australia, and
elsewhere in the western hemisphere. This took a few centuries to accomplish,
and happened in a historical period where universal mass communication or
modern illuminating principles were not widespread in acceptance among states.
The dispossession of the Original Peoples, however, is a moral outrage that
still demands official apology, rectification, return of land title (a Western
capitalist concept), and reparations. A principled approach recognizes this and
demands expiation.
Kay: Transfers of populations go on all
the time.
Refutation: That is not true in any context except
when, at affecting such a transfer, are colonialist authorities. Regardless of
socio-economic conditions, an established society would never transfer a
population unless such transfer is deemed necessary to protect the population
from impending natural calamities such earthquakes, flooding, etc. Any transfer
of a large number of a certain population by another ethnic group under any
guise, including enforcement by violence, induction by intimidation, or propitiation
with selective bribes, is pure �ethnic cleansing,� especially if coupled with
appropriation of lands, homes, or cities belonging to the transferred
population. Examples of this type of transfer include the entire experience
sustained by the in indigenous populations of the western hemisphere,
Australia, Aotearoa, South Africa, and, of course, Palestine.
But logical thinking
is also a victim in Kay�s Zionist game of explanation.
Is she stating that just because something has been occurring for a long time,
then it is acceptable that it continues to occur, whether it be legal, illegal,
moral, immoral? If that was not her inferred conclusion, then why make such a
statement, unless she was attempting to induct by false analogy? Yet, if what
she is proposing is permissible, then a transfer of Jews from historical
Palestine must also be also be feasible as directed by the vicissitudes of
power and streams of time. This is nonsense as it implies a never-ending cycle
of transfers depending on which group is most powerful at a given moment.
Next: Part 12 of 12
NOTES
[1] Moshe Leshem, Ballam�s Curse (Simon and Shuster: 1989, inside jacket).
[2] Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Israel (Oneworld Publications, 2006). Ari
Shavit, �Survival of
the Fittest? An Interview with Benny Morris,� Haaretz, 16 January 2004. Available at CounterPunch. The big difference between Pappe and Morris is that
Morris thinks the �ethnic cleansing� was proper and that it should have been
complete.
Kim Petersen is co-editor of
Dissident Voice and B. J.
Sabri is an Iraqi-American antiwar activist Email
them at Petersen_sabri@yahoo.com.