An incredible video and speech by Jamal Zahalka, a member of the Israeli Knesset, in which he blames Stav Shaffir and her tradition of Labour Zionism for doing far more to hurt Palestinians than the later Likudniks.
“The party that expelled us from our homeland, which disenfranchised us, far more than the right wing, which had murdered tens of thousands of Palestinians. And they come here preaching to us. The social justice woman [Shaffir] outdid them all.
Shaffir had never spoken a word to me. She doesn’t even say hello. I am transparent to her.
The extreme right at least acts like human beings. They smile, they say hello to you.
Even Yisrael Beteinu smiles at us. But the Labour Party is the mother and father of racism. You have invented racism.
Who harmed us more? The Likud or the Labor party?
The Labor of course!
The Likud had built settlements beside Arab villages, while you have built your Kibbutzim, your socialism, on top of the ruins on our lands.
Then you come here and speak in the name of social justice, in the name of the left, while rolling your eyes.”
:
“She did half a demonstration on social justice and would now like to preach us morality! Shame on you!”
MK Jamal Zahalka on libZionism and its Supremacist Foundation from ronnie on Vimeo.
Thanks to Ofer Neiman and Ronnie Barkan.
This speech, and Zahalka’s body count, requires a response from J Street, which hosts Stav Shaffir like she’s a rock star, and from Assaf Sharon, who in the current issue of The New York Review of Books, explains that the Likudniks are heirs of the Jewish terrorists of the last century and that if they could only be pushed out, Zionism and Israel would be fine, because terrorism doesn’t work. The piece elides the violence of Labor Zionism, the state terrorism that Zahalka describes above: tens of thousands killed. Assaf (you and I visited the settlements together once), what do you say to this analysis?
P.S. Our media will be hopeless until it includes these Palestinian voices. And asks these citizens: How many of you believe in Zionism? And if you don’t believe in it, why not reconstitute the society?
Gideon Levy linked to this video in his latest piece. Amazing. It’s not just Zahalka’s courage in directly challenging the crushing force of the Israeli state but his self-control. How do you maintain your composure in such a hostile environment backed up by the force of the state. I wonder how the Israeli pols will retaliate? Shaffir’s sneers were not quite so charming as her J St glamor shot.
Let’s give this as much publicity as possible. Ari Shavit, Labor and J St will all look like quite silly once we hear the authentic voices of Palestinians over here.
J Street and AIPAC are simply variations on the same ugly, violent theme?
Agree.
I hope ruminations on the demise of AIPAC and the ascendancy of J Street reflect that. J Street is not a change agent. It’s a mechanism for prolonging Palestinian suffering (by diluting and deflecting calls for direct justice and/or maintaining that modest change can only happen in ways and in such time that Jewish-Israelis and other Zionists are not made uncomfortable; i.e. staunch champions of the hyper-elusive “immaculate solution”). Their political acceptance, and therefore ascendancy, is based on that one characteristic – innocuous chatter/advocacy in support of things that everyone knows are never going to happen.
Any mark of progress should be, must be, made on the anti-/non-Zionist side of J Street.
This article, with its Palestinian voice, points that out very clearly. Great catch. Thank you.
Meanwhile in Jerusalem (not in any of J Street’s libzio definitions of “occupation”), Palestinians are routinely being beaten: https://mondoweiss.mystagingwebsite.com/2015/09/palestinians-jerusalem-neighborhood
Israel is a settler colonial entity
without exception settler colonial entities are racist
therefore all of its institutions are racist
the labor party is an Israeli institution
no surprise that it is & has always been racist
I remember talking to one Palestinian I met once who said something to the extent of “at least the (Israeli Jewish) right is honest” in that they’re very upfront in what they believe about the Palestinians and what they’d like to do regarding the occupied Palestinian West Bank and the “settler” annexation project.
The left and “diaspora” Liberal Zionists are always a lot easier to talk to, if you can get past the weepy-eyed “why can’t we just all get along” shit, but it’s been said before and it’ll be said again that they think the problem begins and ends with the illegal occupation and the annexation project, as well as Gaza.
Which are, in the context of Israel-Palestine, the most pressing current issues, but it’s not as though (as it’s been said) there was nothing wrong and everything was fine before 1967.
The main issue here is that we cannot go back in time. We can, and should, recognize that Jews only ever bought and were entitled to maybe some 6% of the overall land. We can, and should recognize that Palestinians had zero obligation to “share” massive tracts of land with people who had no intention of sharing with the Palestinians, who wanted a “Jewish state for Jews only” based off of the ideas of Zionism. We can and should urge Palestinians to always remember as much. To not forget, to keep bringing up that fact even if it’s all they can do as individuals.
There is no doubt that Israel is one of the most racist nations in the world. Despite calling themselves “democratic” their policies are apartheid, treats black Jews differently, treats Arabs like second class citizens, and the Jewish terrorists show nothing but hatred for Arabs by attacking, firebombing, spraying racist graffiti, burning Mosques and Churches, and basically behaving superior to everyone else. Eerily similar to those who once acted evil towards them.