The history of the Zionist settler state in Palestine is an unbroken chain of violence perpetrated by it against those whose land it covets. This statement, however inconvenient it is to Zionist myth-makers and liberal Zionist fantasies of a redeemable Israel, is not an opinion. Rather, it is a meticulously substantiated, incontrovertible historical fact that only ignorance, prejudice, or plain racism can deny.
It is more accurate to say, then, that the Zionist settler state in Palestine itself is an unbroken chain of violence. Its defining feature, its inherent and fundamental quality — upon which its existence was forged and is now inescapably maintained — is that of systematic violence enacted primarily, but not solely, against the Palestinian people whose land it stole in order to exist.
This violence manifests in every imaginable — and often unimaginable — form, from the most genocidal and massive in scale in Gaza today, to the more routine but deeply insidious acts of aggression, humiliation, indignity, and psychological torture.
Since October 7, 2023, that ever-present, inescapable, and all-encompassing violence has been at its most extreme — its most overtly genocidal — in decades, possibly more so than ever. Though such comparisons are crude, it is arguable that Israel’s cataclysmic onslaught on Gaza has, by some measures, now surpassed the scale and severity of the violence and destruction that took place during the Nakba in 1948. In that small coastal strip of Palestine, it has committed acts of violence so depraved, remorseless, and vast that reports describing them require re-reading multiple times to even begin to comprehend their horror.
Paradoxically, while Israel has blocked journalists from entering Gaza and systematically murdered those Palestinian journalists and their families already there, some of the most shocking evidence of its atrocities has been provided willingly by the perpetrators themselves. These soldiers — feeding a fascistic, primarily domestic, audience hungry for the blood and humiliation of the natives who had dared to resist them — have posted evidence of their sordid crimes on social media with sadistic glee. Both they and their depraved spectators — who overwhelmingly approve of the genocidal violence being unleashed — are desperate to reassert the violent psychological dominance that settler states strive to enforce upon their colonized populations. The initial military success of the al-Aqsa Flood operation shook this domination to its foundations, and Israel’s failure to defeat the resistance militarily in Gaza ever since has further undermined it.
At this juncture, full of both pain and hope, four fundamental points on solidarity are more salient and fixed in my mind than ever before. They are necessary to repeat in light of tendencies within the Palestine solidarity movement, latent and overt, that have the habit of coddling Zionism in damaging ways that obfuscate the nature of the struggle against it and how it will be won — whether through exceptionalizing Benjamin Netanyahu, condemning Palestinian armed resistance, or pedantically criticizing the slogans used by student solidarity movements.
First: Palestinians have a right to armed resistance
Contrary to the violent, colonial ontology that has rendered the Palestinians non-people underserving of life and dignity: they not only exist as a people, but have a moral, legal, and human right to defend that existence, resist their ongoing dispossession, colonization, and genocide, and pursue their national liberation by any means necessary including armed struggle. Whatever the International Criminal Court or other Western institutions may declare, there is no comparison to ever be made or equivalence drawn between the violence of the oppressor and the violence of the oppressed.
I wrote in support of the Palestinians’ inalienable right to pursue armed resistance in June 2021 in the wake of Sayf al-Quds (“The Sword of Jerusalem”), a battle that in many ways foreshadowed what has come after it. Had I been aware of them at the time, I would have included in my essay these powerful words of Rachel Corrie, sent to her mother just weeks before she was murdered by an Israeli military bulldozer in Gaza in 2003:
If any of us had our lives and welfare completely strangled, lived with children in a shrinking place where we knew, because of previous experience, that soldiers and tanks and bulldozers could come for us at any moment and destroy all the greenhouses that we had been cultivating…and did this while some of us were beaten and held captive…do you think we might try to use somewhat violent means to protect whatever fragments remained? I think about this especially when I see orchards and greenhouses and fruit trees destroyed — just years of care and cultivation. I think about you and how long it takes to make things grow and what a labor of love it is. I really think, in a similar situation, most people would defend themselves as best they could. I think Uncle Craig would. I think probably Grandma would. I think I would.
Second: Zionism is irredeemable
In expressing support for the Palestinian cause and dispelling propaganda about it, not an inch should be conceded to the delusions, prejudices, and cynical emotional manipulation of Zionists. The feelings and comfort of a Zionist deserve as much consideration and respect as those of a fascist. In other words: none.
Zionism is not a benign cultural identity or religious belief; it is a murderous, colonial, and inherently racist political ideology that must be isolated, opposed, and defeated.
If reading that sentence feels shocking or insensitive, then it can only mean the reader has not yet come to terms with the extent to which Zionism is a form of fascism and white supremacy.
Third: we will not police our slogans
No authentic slogan of the oppressed will ever be palatable to their oppressors. Therefore, any ostensible ally who polices or publicly criticizes the slogans and terminology that represent the fundamental and material aspirations of the Palestinian liberation movement is not genuinely committed to supporting what it will take to achieve liberation, and consequently, their opinion should be ignored.
Fourth: ‘Israel’ must come to an end
Finally, the Zionist entity commonly known as Israel is a settler colonial project sustained by U.S. imperialism for its own purposes. It is a temporary presence on Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese land that will eventually be defeated and come to an end. That liberation will be achieved primarily by those fighting for it on the ground, but until that day comes and the Zionist settler colonial state is no more, it is incumbent upon every one of us to help the Palestinian struggle for existence and liberation in any way that our responsibilities, abilities, and circumstances allow.
From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free
On point 1, “ armed resistance” is one of those abstractions like “ Israel has a right to defend itself”. I am not morally equating them ( more on that stupid phrase in a moment), but they function the same way.
”Israel has a right to defend itself” is something that apologists say to gloss over Israeli war crimes. Even if one accepted that country A is the innocent victim of an unprovoked attack, it doesn’t have the right to act the way Israel does, with mass bombing, torture and genocidal starvation tactics.
And saying “ armed resistance” is vague in the same way. Yes, Palestinians have the right to armed resistance, whether one thinks it is a good idea or not. They could have limited themselves on Oct 7 to attacks on IDF soldiers and taking them as prisoners. They did not have the right to murder civilians or capture 85 year old grandmothers.
As for “ There is no moral equivalence between…”, that phrase is usually followed by something stupid. Two groups can fight. One can have a righteous cause and the other not at all. Neither has the right to murder civilians. Their moral equivalence or lack of it is not relevant to the question of whether they can murder civilians or torture captives. Five year old children can be taught to understand basic notions of fairness and morality.
Daniel Levy, former Israeli negotiator** :
I think it’s important to acknowledge that alongside condemning what Hamas did on October 7th, one has to acknowledge that the Palestinians have the right, under international law, to resist an illegal occupation. They must simply do so within the parameters defined by international law, just as Israel has a right to defend its citizens.
https://www.democracynow.org/2024/5/7/daniel_levy_israel_rafah_ceasefire_hamas
** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Levy_(political_analyst)
Daniel Levy is a British–Israeli analyst, commentator, author, and former advisor to the Israeli government…
This article very well expresses what I have felt for a long time, especially since the Gaza war began. Jews say they have waited two thousand years to have their own country and then create the most oppressive, racist, apartheid country in the world populated by self righteous, narcistic, sociopaths hiding behind a facade of Judaism. Instead of being a safe haven for Jews Israel is the most dangerous place in the world for Jews to live. Instead of helping to abate antisemitism Israel has fostered increasing widespread antisemitism. Ultimately, this pariah state will be militarily defeated or Jews who recognize the incredible harm it does to the Jewish people will finally put an end to it.
I feel the righteous anger coming from the author. I’ve felt it too, but one can support a liberation movement without fully and always supporting the means chosen.
If anything, one should be very cautious in designing means, as they inevitably determine the ends. Those allies outside the pressures and unique stresses of being in the cauldron, must be ready to assist in grounding such movements in humanity, and in helping them reach the still unknowing, and those beginning to be aware, but not yet committed.
There have been grievous errors of judgment in this long struggle. Black September and Munich come to mind. As much as I cared about Palestinian liberation even back then, that action made me sick. As a caring human, it cannot be condoned. It also was a failure of knowledge and reasoning on a tactical level. That single act alone may have underminined the Palestinian cause for decades. It may also help explain, to some extent, the seemingly entrenched pro-Israel views in many older Americans.
Our role as supportes should be assiting in discovering new, humane, ways to achieve the goals. Not just for Palestinians, but the fate of humanity depends on our understanding that we have to learn how to gain our objectives, without becoming our enemy.
sentiments i can live with