Israel

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Israel, formally the State of Israel, is a Jewish settler-colonial state in the Middle East that was established from the British territory of Mandatory Palestine in 1948. It was founded on the ideology of Zionism, which from its roots in the late 19th century sought a Jewish state in the area now occupied by Israel. In theory and in practice, this necessarily means degrading the local Arabs to second-class citizens, if not expulsion. Israel has massive amounts of US backing due to its strategic geopolitical position, though almost universally has antagonistic relations with socialist states, those of the past and present.

Israel is frequently condemned internationally and especially so by leftists, who widely consider it necessary to support Palestine in the face of Israel in order to both oppose Israeli/US imperialism on top of establishing solidarity with the Palestinian people.

History

In the late 19th century, the Ottoman Empire ruled over the land of Palestine, which at the time generally correlated to three districts: the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem, the Nablus Sanjak, and the Acre Sanjak. The population of these three districts, according to the Ottoman census of 1878 and later scholar estimates of foreign-born Jews at the time, gave a population distribution of 86-87% Muslim, 9% Christian, and 4-5% Jewish.[1][2] Everybody spoke Arabic as the daily language, and in Jerusalem the religious populations were roughly equal, where they lived together peacefully. Then in parallel to nationalist movements of other peoples in Europe at that time, Zionism arose which caused many Jews to come to the Palestinian region in hopes of establishing their own state — most envisioned a secular one. In 1917, the United Kingdom, hoping to gain the support of Jewish people, issued the Balfour declaration, promising "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people". After the British wrought control of the region from the Ottoman Empire, they began segregating the region by establishing different institutions for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, making it difficult for these groups to cooperate and inciting division among them instead — part of the British plan to divide and rule. Meanwhile, the British also attempted to honor the Balfour Declaration's promise to "facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions", overseeing an influx of 320,000 Jews between 1920 and 1939. By 1938, Jews were just under 30% of the population of Palestine.

Establishment and consolidation

The growing Jewish population focused on purchasing land from absentee non-Palestinian Arab landowners, then evicting Palestinian farmers who were living and working there. By controlling both the land and the labor, the settlers hoped to establish a more secure community within Palestine, however this heightened tensions between Jewish people and Arab Palestinians. Simultaneously, the Palestinian Arabs were developing a national conscious of their own, which manifested in the Palestinian revolt against the British in 1936, which lasted until 1939 when it was brutally put down with the help of Jewish militias. In the aftermath however, the British issued a white paper limiting Jewish immigration to the area, further calling for the establishment of a joint Arab-Jewish state in the region within ten years. This pleased neither side, with Jews angry at the British for limiting Jewish migration when Jews most needed to leave Europe, and the Arab Palestinians being unhappy at the prospect of waiting ten years for a state. During World War II the region was actually rather peaceful, however afterwards tensions resumed, which in the post-war situation made the United Kingdom give up the land to the newly-created United Nations. In November of 1947, the United Nations voted to partition the land into separate Palestinian and Jewish states, roughly equal in size. The plan however ceded more area to Jewish settlers than what they actually controlled, and thus was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine,[3][4] but rejected by Arab leaders, who further indicated that they were unwilling to accept any form of territorial division, arguing that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN Charter which granted people the right to decide their own destiny.[4][5][6][7]

Soon after the plan was announced, there erupted a war from 1947-1949, which was the culmination of six decades of conflict between the native Arabs and the Jewish minority. In the middle of the war, in 1948, the Jewish settlers began forced resettlement of the Arabs[8] and between 400 to 600 Palestinian villages were pillaged, with urban Palestinian lands almost entirely destroyed.[9] Over 700,000 Palestinians fled or were expelled from their homes and became stateless refugees,[10] calling the war Al-Nabka, or "the catastrophe". After Israel won the war, it illegaly seized land from Palestine, increasing its own territory by a third. In the three years following the war, about 700,000 Jews emigrated to Israel.[11] This is part of a process called aliyah, a Hebrew word meaning "ascent" which refers to the immigration of Jews to Israel. Israel's Law of Return gives Jews and their descendants automatic rights regarding residency and Israel citizenship, and encourages such immigration, which benefits the state by expanding its labor pool on top of providing more settlers to occupy Palestinian lands.

In 1948, Jordan would annex the West Bank and the Old City of Jerusalem, while Egypt would occupy the remaining Gaza strip the following year. Both countries would relinquish authority over Palestinian lands in 1967, when Israel seized them in the Six-Day War, which was itself a war of aggression dreamt up by Israeli hardliners who wanted to annex more land; exploiting people's fears over Egypt building up its military by (falsely) stating that Egypt was preparing for an invasion.[12] Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin had this to say afterwards:

The Egyptian Army concentrations in the Sinai approaches do not prove that Gamal Abdel Nasser was really about to attack us. We must be honest with ourselves. We decided to attack him.[13]

Syria and Jordan joined the war in support of Egypt, however were pushed back and Syria's Golan Heights region was invaded and occupied. Israel would later vote to illegally annex this region, despite the action being universally condemned by the United Nations security organization.

The Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) signed the Oslo Accords with Israel in 1993 and 1995, dividing the West Bank into three areas: Areas A, B, and C. The Palestinian Authority, an interim Palestinian government, was established as a result of these agreements and was granted limited control of Areas A and B. However, Palestinian control over the West Bank shrank once more, as the Accords gave Israel 60% of the region, designated as Area C, for administration.

Area A is 18% of the West Bank, with the Palestinian Authority controlling most affairs of this area, including internal security. Area B is 21% of the West Bank, wherein the Authority controls education, health, and economy. In both Areas A and B, however, Israeli authorities have full external security control, meaning the Israeli military can enter these areas at any time, typically to raid homes or detain individuals under the pretext of safety. Area C, on the other hand, is just about entirely controlled by Israel, despite part of it being intended to be transferred to the Palestinian Authority in 1999 as per the Oslo Accords — though this did not materialize. Area C is where the vast majority of the over 200 illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank are, where more than 400,000 settlers live. According to B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights group, Israel has restricted Palestinians from building on, and even accessing much of the land in Area C, regularly denying requests for building permits. According to the United Nations, Palestinians who attempt to build in the area are subject to home demolition orders, resulting in displacement and the disruption of livelihoods. B'Tselem further states that Israel’s blocking of Palestinian development in the area is also carried out by “designating large swaths of land as state land, survey land, firing zones, nature reserves and national parks". On the other hand, Israeli settlements there are allocated large plots of land that are connected to advanced infrastructure, such as Jewish-only bypass roads that circumvent Palestinian areas. Besides severe restrictions on planning and construction, Palestinians are also unable to access basic resources such as water, with the end result being the indirect expulsion of Palestinians from the area. According to B'Tselem and other groups, the forcible transfer of Palestinians from an occupied territory is considered a war crime, whether direct or indirect.

In 2019, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to annex parts of Area C, in particular the Jordan Valley and the northern Dead Sea region — this is despite the fact that Palestinians outnumber Israelis there nearly six-to-one, however there is pressure to annex it nonetheless as it is considered to be the most fertile land in the West Bank, which has also proven lucrative for Israeli companies that have been exploiting the area's land and natural resources.[14]

Politics

Nation-State Bill

In 2018, Israel adopted its 14th Basic Law, which is akin to a constitutional amendment, which declares that only Jews have the right of self-determination in the country — essentially formalizing Israel as an explicit ethnostate. Arabic was stripped of its official language status and downgraded to a "special status" where for now, it would be continued to be used within Israeli institutions, however is implicitly to be phased out. The law was criticized by a multitude of different groups, including Israeli Arab political leaders, Israeli opposition politicians, liberal Jewish groups in the US, the European Union, and the Turkish foreign ministry. The 1.8 million Arabs in Israel, who are about 20% of the population, are thus to be excluded even further through this law.[15]

Relations with the socialist world

The Soviet Union was one of the first nations to recognize Israel following its creation in 1948, however Stalin soon became angered with it due to its growing alliance with the United States, a reason which led the majority of socialist countries to oppose Israel as well. This would manifest in selling arms to Israel's enemies and even participating in conflicts against Israel more directly, such as in the Six-Day War where some Soviet Marines secretly joined in on the fighting.[16] The Soviet Union would later fight against Israel again in the War of Attrition from 1967-1970, and in the Yom Kippur War of 1973 both Cuba and North Korea would fight against Israel. North Korea has never recognized Israel, while Cuba withdrew recognition in 1973. The People's Republic of China, on the other hand, recognizes Israel and has sold weapons to it for many years, and has further developed close strategic military links with the country as well. Bilateral military relations have also developed into a close strategic partnership, and the two countries also began an extensive military cooperation as early as the 1980s.[17][18][19] However, China is also in favor of a two-state solution, and has repeatedly voiced concerns about Israel's plan of annexing parts of the West Bank. The Palestinian state that publically China favors, nonetheless, is one based 1967 borders, which though represents some reversal of Israeli occupation, is still far less than what the Palestinians had before Jewish seizures of land had begun, and is still considerably less than even the 1947 UN Partition Plan.[20]

Relations with the United States

Israel serves as a foothold in the Middle East for the US, allowing for the destabilization of the region. Besides this, Israel is also a customer for weapons and other products. The close relations between the two countries are further due to the large amount of Jews in the US, as a total sum and proportionately. Jews therefore have more influence in the US than in many other countries, with the presence of Jews and anti-Semitism being more tangible to the rest of the populace than for instance the plight of Armenians. The Holocaust and empathy for it is also a large part of the American collective conscious. Places where genocides have occurred, such as Rwanda or the Ottoman Empire, are also generally felt to be more foreign to Americans than Germany. Though the Holocaust was in fact comparatively extensive and systematic, it has been cemented as the genocide through various institutions, including the media, and with this there is the attitude of singling out the Holocaust for punishment, since almost nothing was done about the Armenian Genocide (Hitler himself is widely believed to have said "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"). America also directly fought against Nazi Germany in what was seen as a battle of ideals, with Germany being the opponent to America and its ways. Though Jews were only about half of those who died in the Holocaust, they are emphasized since persecution of Slavs was downplayed because of the Cold War, with few caring about what had happened to homosexuals or Roma on top of this. There is also the belief of many Evangelical Christians, which existed long before the State of Israel, that the "reestablishment" of Israel in modern times must happen. For instance, Clark Clifford, an adviser to President Truman, stated:

There was language in Deuteronomy, [Truman] said, in which the Bible promised the Jews. The language went something like, 'The day will come when you will be led into the land of your fathers and it shall become your own.' He believed that he was going to do everything he could to help them get their homeland.

This sentiment nowadays has morphed into Evangelicals zealously defending Israeli policy against Palestinians and arguing that the State of Israel must exist for Jesus to come back.

There is the idea that Israel is an outpost of "Western civilization", hence phrases like "Israel is the only democracy in the region" (which besides being nonsense is implying that Arabs cannot build a functioning civilization). Ayn Rand's support for Israel is a case in point, from a 1974 talk:

The Arabs are one of the least developed cultures. They are typically nomads. Their culture is primitive, and they resent Israel because it’s the sole beachhead of modern science and civilization on their continent. When you have civilized men fighting savages, you support the civilized men, no matter who they are. Israel is a mixed economy inclined toward socialism. But when it comes to the power of the mind—the development of industry in that wasted desert continent—versus savages who don’t want to use their minds, then if one cares about the future of civilization, don’t wait for the government to do something. Give whatever you can.

Zionist ideology

Zionism is defined by Merriam Webster as the international movement originally for the establishment of a Jewish national or religious community in Palestine and later for the support of modern Israel. Early ideologues of the Zionist movement were heavily influenced by European racialist ideas. As such, the idea of establishing a Jewish colony in Palestine was entirely rooted in European racialism. An ideological and practical collaboration between European racialists and Zionists was formed on the basis of deporting Jews from Europe and the historical precedent of Zionists collaborating with European fascists continues into the modern day.

Atrocities

Israel regularly commits war crimes, with soldiers torturing and killing Palestinian children for entertainment rather frequently.[21][22] Through organizations like AIPAC, Israel lobbies the US military into conducting imperialism on its behalf, and also tries to get evangelicals into positions of power to benefit itself.

The rocket attacks, suicide bombings, etc. of militant Palestinian groups pale in comparison to the counter-insurgency that the IDF is capable of and has carried out since the establishment of the State of Israel. In large part, this is due to the funding Israel gets from the United States, and thus has a lot more firepower than Palestinian forces.

Groups such as Hamas tend to operate as guerillas in densely-populated areas, and because of this the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) sometimes uses the excuse that Hamas is using "human shields" to justify the destruction of Palestinian schools, hospitals, houses, and other buildings. There have also been plenty of times throughout Israel's history where the IDF has hit such buildings even when it was shown that there were no militants present. Whether or not Hamas actually does use human shields to a significant extent is debatable, but ironically the IDF has been proven to have done so itself extensively in the past.[23] The IDF also reportedly gives out orders to Palestinian neighborhoods to clear out just so that it will be easier to justify attacking Palestinian lands, claiming anyone who hasn't left as a combatant. This is in contrast to the narrative that Israel does this to minimize casualties for its own sake. Israel has been put under intense scrutiny for the ruthlessness with which it carries out attacks in Gaza and the West Bank, with many observers noting that Israel is very likely targeting civilians intentionally.[24]

Israel also has a 26-foot-tall wall around the West Bank, which Palestine calls an attempt at isolating the West Bank which also effects its economy, making it weaker against future incursions by Israel. Israel however claims that it was built only to prevent suicide bombers from reaching Israel, which is in fact substantiated by evidence however very conveniently, also strangles the Palestinian economy and the livelihood of its people — the wall even blocks many people's access to medical care. Palestine has trouble representing itself in the United Nations as it is only partially recognized, though despite this the United Nations has repeatedly attempted to pass resolutions condemning Israel, even declaring the wall illegal. However, any resolution against Israel is vetoed by the United States, which is a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council and very close ally of Israel. In 2003, the United Nations reached out to the International Court of Justice, requesting an advisory opinion on the legality of the wall, to which the ICJ responded that the construction of the wall, even for just the stated reason of security that Israel put forth, was a violation of international law. Specifically, the Fourth Geneva Convention and the United Nations' articles on state responsibility. The ICJ struck down Israel's "self defense" argument, stating that the Palestinian territories are in fact occupied by Israel. This occupation was noted to have violated the UN charter and several UN resolutions which prohibit territorial annexations by force, further denying the people of Palestine the right of self-determination. As an occupying power, Israel was also called out for violating Paragraph 6, Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which reads:

The Occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.[25]

The Court further cited Article 25 of Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts,[26] which states that:

Necessity [which Israel argues is the reason for the wall and occupation] may not be invoked by a State as a ground for precluding the wrongfulness of an act not in conformity with an international obligation of that State[27]

Israel, however, dismissed the jurisdiction of the court and no binding resolution was enacted.

With the backing of the United States, which has veto power and worldwide influence, Israel generally acts with impunity when violating international law. The issue of the wall is the only one to have made it to court, although there are many other crimes against humanity which Israel is guilty of.

During the COVID-19 pandemic Israel rushed to vaccinate its population, innoculating over 10% within two weeks of receiving vaccines. However, in this it neglected Palestinians in occupied areas, preferring its own settlers instead.[28]

Legitimacy of Jewish claims on the region

Exclusive Jewish claims on the land of Palestine are invalid on several levels. Firstly because Jews were not even the original people in the land, even by the account of their own mythology, as they came to Israel from Egypt. Furthermore, "historical claims to land" in any case is nonsense. Israel is supported by a mythic tale about how the Jewish god himself supposedly gave the Jews the land, even though most Jews (at least 70% in Israel) don't even believe in that religion.[29]

As it relates to the narrative of the Exodus, it's been postulated that the account of such is false on the sheer basis that Palestine was under the control of Egypt of the time, and thus the Jews were not actually escaping the Pharaoh. Some theories hold that the Jews come from southern Arabia properly.[30] Mainstream history and archaeology now consider the Exodus to not have happened in the manner described in the Torah, and the story to be a narrative put together between the 8th and 5th centuries BCE, based on earlier oral traditions and collective memories possibly dating as far back as the 13th century BCE.[31][32][33]

References

  1. ↑ Dowty, Alan (16 April 2012). Israel / Palestine. Polity, 13. ISBN 978-0-7456-5611-3. 
  2. ↑ Mendel, Yonatan (5 October 2014). The Creation of Israeli Arabic: Security and Politics in Arabic Studies in Israel. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 188. ISBN 978-1-137-33737-5. “Note 28: The exact percentage of Jews in Palestine prior to the rise of Zionism is unknown. However, it probably ranged from 2 to 5 per cent. According to Ottoman records, a total population of 462,465 resided in 1878 in what is today Israel/Palestine. Of this number, 403,795 (87 per cent) were Muslim, 43,659 (10 per cent) were Christian and 15,011 (3 per cent) were Jewish (quoted in Alan Dowty, Israel/Palestine, Cambridge: Polity, 2008, p. 13). See also Mark Tessler, A History of the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), pp. 43 and 124.” 
  3. ↑ Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press, 75. Retrieved on 24 July 2013. “" p. 75 The night of 29–30 November passed in the Yishuv’s settlements in noisy public rejoicing. Most had sat glued to their radio sets broadcasting live from Flushing Meadow. A collective cry of joy went up when the two-thirds mark was achieved: a state had been sanctioned by the international community. ; p. 396 The immediate trigger of the 1948 War was the November 1947 UN partition resolution. The Zionist movement, except for its fringes, accepted the proposal.”” 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Question of Palestine: Brochure DPI/2517/Rev.1: Chapter 2, The Plan of Partition and end of the British Mandate
  5. ↑ Sami Hadawi, Bitter Harvest: A Modern History of Palestine, Olive Branch Press, (1989)1991 p.76.
  6. ↑ Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press, 66, 67, 72. Retrieved on 24 July 2013. “" p.66, at 1946 "The League demanded independence for Palestine as a “unitary” state, with an Arab majority and minority rights for the Jews." ; p.67, at 1947 "The League’s Political Committee met in Sofar, Lebanon, on 16–19 September, and urged the Palestine Arabs to fight partition, which it called “aggression,” “without mercy.” The League promised them, in line with Bludan, assistance “in manpower, money and equipment” should the United Nations endorse partition." ; p. 72, at December 1947 "The League vowed, in very general language, “to try to stymie the partition plan and prevent the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine"” 
  7. ↑ Benny Morris (2008). 1948: a history of the first Arab-Israeli war. Yale University Press, 73. Retrieved on 24 July 2013. “"p73 All paid lip service to Arab unity and the Palestine Arab cause, and all opposed partition... p. 396 The immediate trigger of the 1948 War was the November 1947 UN partition resolution. … The Palestinian Arabs, along with the rest of the Arab world, said a flat “no”… The Arabs refused to accept the establishment of a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. And, consistently with that “no,” the Palestinian Arabs, in November–December 1947, and the Arab states in May 1948, launched hostilities to scupper the resolution’s implementation ; p. 409 The mindset characterized both the public and the ruling elites. All vilified the Yishuv and opposed the existence of a Jewish state on “their” (sacred Islamic) soil, and all sought its extirpation, albeit with varying degrees of bloody-mindedness. Shouts of “Idbah al Yahud” (slaughter the Jews) characterized equally street demonstrations in Jaffa, Cairo, Damascus, and Baghdad both before and during the war and were, in essence, echoed, usually in tamer language, by most Arab leaders. ”” 
  8. ↑ McDowall, David (1987). The Palestinians. Minority Rights Group Report no 24. ISBN 978-0-946690-42-8. 
  9. ↑ Bardi, Ariel Sophia (March 2016). "The "Architectural Cleansing" of Palestine". American Anthropologist 118 (1): 165–171. doi:10.1111/aman.12520. 
  10. ↑ Benny Morris, 2004. The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem Revisited, pp. 602–604. Cambridge University Press; ISBN 978-0-521-00967-6. "It is impossible to arrive at a definite persuasive estimate. My predilection would be to opt for the loose contemporary British formula, that of 'between 600,000 and 760,000' refugees; but, if pressed, 700,000 is probably a fair estimate";
    – Memo US Department of State, 4 May 1949, FRUS, 1949, p. 973.: "One of the most important problems which must be cleared up before a lasting peace can be established in Palestine is the question of the more than 700,000 Arab refugees who during the Palestine conflict fled from their homes in what is now Israeli occupied territory and are at present living as refugees in Arab Palestine and the neighbouring Arab states.";
    – Memorandum on the Palestine Refugee Problem, 4 May 1949, FRUS, 1949, p. 984.: "Approximately 700,000 refugees from the Palestine hostilities, now located principally in Arab Palestine, Transjordan, Lebanon and Syria, will require repatriation to Israel or resettlement in the Arab states."
  11. ↑ Morris, 2001, pp. 259–60.
  12. ↑ A 50-Year Occupation: Israel’s Six-Day War Started With a Lie
  13. ↑ EXCERPTS FROM BEGIN SPEECH AT NATIONAL DEFENSE COLLEGE
  14. ↑ What are areas A, B, and C of the occupied West Bank?
  15. ↑ EU leads criticism after Israel passes Jewish 'nation state' law
  16. ↑ Ginor, Isabella and Remez, Gideon: The Soviet-Israeli War, 1967–1973: The USSR's Military Intervention in the Egyptian-Israeli Conflict, p. 23
  17. ↑ U.S. up in arms over Sino-Israeli ties. Asia Times (2004-12-21). Retrieved on 2008-06-11.
  18. ↑ Friedman, Thomas L.. "Israel and China quietly form trade bonds (pg. 2)", The New York Times, 1985-07-22. Retrieved on 2008-06-11. 
  19. ↑ "China's weapon chase", BBC News, 2000-07-12. Retrieved on 2008-06-11. 
  20. ↑ China reaffirms commitment to two-state solution to Palestinian issue
  21. ↑ Palestinian children tortured, used as shields by Israel: U.N.
  22. ↑ Israeli 'torture' methods illegal
  23. ↑ Israeli high court bans military use of Palestinians as human shields
  24. ↑ Israel is finding it harder to deny targeting Gaza infrastructure
  25. ↑ https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/ihl/WebART/380-600056 Treaties, States parties, and Commentaries - Geneva Convention (IV) on Civilians, 1949 - 49 - Deportations, transfers, evacuations
  26. ↑ ICJ Advisory opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the OPT – Full text
  27. ↑ https://www.law.umich.edu/facultyhome/drwcasebook/Documents/Documents/International%20Law%20Commission%202001%20Draft%20Articles%20on%20State%20Responsibility.pdf Article 25 of Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts
  28. ↑ [1]
  29. ↑ Israel Among the Least Religious Countries in the World
  30. ↑ Forbbiden Pictures Revealed Saudi Arabia Mt. Sinai
  31. ↑ John McDermott, "Reading the Pentateuch" (Paulist Press, 2002) p.22
  32. ↑ Faust, A., 2015, The Emergence of Iron Age Israel: On Origins and Habitus, in T.E. Levy, T. Schneider and W.H.C. Propp (eds.), Israel’s Exodus in Transdisciplinary Perspective: Text, Archeology, Culture and Geoscience, Springer, pp. 467-482
  33. ↑ Israel Finklestein and Neil Asher Silberman, The Bible Unearthed: Archaeology's New Vision of Ancient Israel and the Origin of Its Sacred Texts, Free Press, 2001. ISBN 978-0-684-86912-4.
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