The latest intensification of the attack on the Palestinian people demonstrates that Zionism is white supremacy’s last stand.
How can the state of Israel openly call for the genocide of Palestinian people and then proceed to completely destroy Palestinian homes and lands with thousands of deadly bombs? Why did all the leaders of the white west frantically travel to Israel last week to show their support, even as the Israeli military had already killed thousands of Palestinian civilians–including one thousand children–in one week. How can Israel act with such impunity but it is never treated as the criminal state that it is? Why is it that, instead of being threatened with sanctions or foreign military intervention, Isreal is receiving all the support, the fealty, and money for its genocide against Palestinians? What is it about Israel that it can perpetuate a holocaust against Palestinians in view of the entire world and get away with it?
What is Israel and why does it find so much support among the imperialist West?
One word: Zionism.
Zionism is a nationalist political movement that sought to create a physical homeland for Jewish people, presumably on the site of their historic homeland. But this site, chosen and given to them by the British, was already populated by hundreds of thousands of Palestinian people who had lived on the land for thousands of years. But with the help of Europeans and the U.S., the Zionists were able to kill and displace the hundreds of thousands of Palestians, taking over their land to establish the state of Israel. The Palestinians that survived the Nakba were relocated to massive refugee camps, or placed in open air prisons controlled by the brutal racist colonial power that Israel had become. In other words, Zionism’s very existence and maintenance depends explicitly on the continuing subjugation of millions of Palestinians.
But Zionism’s existence also depends on upholding white supremacy. In 1896, Theodr Herzl, the father of Zionism described the purpose for Europe of a state of Israel in these words: “There we should also form a portion of the rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilization as opposed to barbarism. We should remain a neutral state in intimate connection with the whole of Europe, which would guarantee our continued existence.” Today we see how, in the face of yet another Israeli genocidal and white supremacist attack on Palestinians, European leaders are guaranteeing its continued existence. Zionism is white supremacy’s last stand.
In April 1973, the African American Solidarity Committee published a special issue on solidarity with Palestine in their newsletter, The African Agenda. This special issue was an important intervention in the discussion on the “conflict in the Middle East” as it attempted to fight against the view that portrayed Zionism as a project of liberation and the Israeli state as a perpetual victim. The editors argued that “Black Americans and other progressive people must…support the just cause of the Arab peoples against Zionism which seeks to colonize Arab lands and act as an outpost of U.S. imperialism.” The special issue included an essay on the history of the establishment of Israel, “The Creation of a Zionist State.” This history clearly demonstrates the reality that “Israel is the ‘front man’ for Western imperialism in the Middle East and Africa,” and that its expansion “is a threat to all progressive forces on the African continent.”
As we witness perhaps the most brutal intensification of yet another Zionist aggression against the people of Palestine, we reprint below, “The Creation of a Zionist State.” We urge our people to learn who the real enemies of peace and self-determination are in order to support those who resist.
Victory to the Palestinian Liberation!
The Creation of a Zionist State
African American Solidarity Committee
The American media gives very little information about the so-called “Middle East Crisis.” In order to understand the charges and countercharges, it is necessary to look at the historical roots of the problem. The first thing to clarify is that the Palestinian people are not "anti-Jewish" (the term anti-semitic does not make sense here since the Arabs are also a semitic people). Jewish people have lived in the Middle East for thousands of years. These same "oriental jews'' suffer a second class status at the hands of their Zionist brothers in Israel. The Arab people are against ZIONISM.
Zionism has always been a reactionary nationalist movement led by the European bourgeois and petty bourgeois Jews. The World Zionist Organization was founded in Basle in 1897. The Basle Congress (1897) clearly stated the goals of Zionism: “The object of Zionism is the establishment for the Jewish people a home in Palestine secured by public law.” The congress went on to outline the following plan:
- The promotion, on suitable lines, of the COLONIZATION of Palestine by Jewish agricultural and industrial workers.
- The organization and binding together of the whole of Jewry by means of appropriate institutions, local and international, in accordance with the laws of each country.
- The strengthening and fostering of Jewish national sentiment and consciousness.
- Preparatory steps towards obtaining Government consent where necessary, to the attainment of the aim of Zionism.
As early as 1896, Herzl, a Zionist leader, stated that the Jews in Palestine “should form a part of a wall of defense in Europe and Asia an outpost of civilization against barbarism.” At that time there were only 17,000 Jews in Palestine. The Zionists began to immediately work on their four point program. They entered into lengthy negotiations with the various European governments. At one point, the Zionists seriously considered the British offer to settle in Uganda. Palestine was at that time part of the Turkish Empire. During World War I, Turkey was an ally of Germany; the Arab peoples aligned with the British to overthrow the Turks. But the British had no intention of letting Palestine become independent. In the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the British stated, “His
Majesty's government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that NOTHING SHALL BE DONE WHICH MAY PREJUDICE THE CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS RIGHTS OF EXISTING NON-JEWISH COMMUNITIES IN PALESTINE of the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews or any other country.” Later the League of Nations assigned most of the Middle East to England and France as “mandated” territory. Needless to say no Arab representative agreed to this arbitrary transfer of Palestine to British hands (with plans to eventually be transferred to the Zionists), but then they were deliberately not consulted. Balfour, the British foreign minister stated in 1919 that “In Palestine we do not propose even going through the form of consulting the wishes of the present inhabitants of the country.” Thus dismissing with a word 97% of the population.
In the thirties under the British mandate, the underground activities of the budding Zionist army greatly expanded. During that period guns were collected (illegally through the British army) and the underground railroad to bring illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine was established. The Palestinian people responded to British colonialism and its support of Zionist activities. In the cities, workers went on long strikes and began to organize the peasants in the countryside. In 1937 this general uprising amongst the people forced the British colonialists to appeal to “friendly” Arab leaders to stop the strikes and violence. Portions of the bourgeois and feudal leadership amongst the Arabs collaborated with the British by spying and forming “peace teams” to attack rebel forces. World War II (1939) brought this revolutionary thrust of the Palestinian workers and peasants to a halt. However some of the reactionary Arab leaders led by Hajj Amin al-Huseini collaborated with the Nazis in an attempt to rid themselves of the British.
By 1946 the Jewish population had grown to 650,000 and they were in possession of 5.6% of the land. The Arab population was 1,293,000 and they owned over 90% of the land. It was at this point in history that the United Nations tried to resolve the problem in the Middle East. In I 946, the Soviet Union demanded at the U.N. that British troops withdraw immediately from Palestine and that the Palestinian people be given their independence. There was some reluctance on the part of some Arab states to help push the issue and the UN decided not to consider the question that year. In the 1947 session of the UN the Soviet Union again accused England of colonialism and demanded Palestinian independence. They urged the formation of a unified bi-national Palestine.
The partition plan called for the creation of a "Jewish State" to occupy 56% of the land with a population that would be 498,000 Jews and 497,000 Arabs. The Arab state was to occupy 43% of the land with 10,000 Jews and 725,000 Arabs. The Palestinian people now supported by the Arab States rejected this partition plan. They pointed out that the UN had no right to arbitrarily violate the wishes of two thirds of the country, and that the partition violated the UN principle of the right to self determination.
Having won a victory in the UN, the Zionists immediately confirmed Arab fears by waging a war in 1948-49. They attacked defenseless villages, drove thousands upon thousands of Arabs off their lands and more than doubled the size of Israel indicated in the UN plan. In 1956 and again in 1967 the Zionists invaded more Arab territory. They have been successful in their 1897 goal to drive the Arab people off the land and establish a Zionist state. These wars have created hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, crowded into camps struggling to regain their land.
Israel is the “front man” for Western imperialism in the Middle East and Africa. Their expansion is a threat to all progressive forces on the African continent.
Source: African American Solidarity Committee, “The Creation of a Zionist State,” African Agenda, Vol. 2, No. 4, April 1973, p. 2
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