Yossi Schwartz ISL the RCIT section in Israel/Occupied Palestine, 28.11.2023
One of the tricks of the Zionist propaganda is to ignore the real history of Palestine and to begin their narrative on October 7th. In this way it is possible for them to try and reach those who are not familiar with the history of the repression of the Palestinian from the beginning of the colonization of Palestine already at the end of the 19th century. In this article we will prove this claim by quoting from articles and books of the founding fathers of the Zionists and their supporters.
Today the Zionists deny that Israel is a society of settler colonialists. However, these documents show that the fathers of the Zionist movement were aware that they were colonialist and also prove that the project of colonialism in Palestine was more important for them than saving Jews from the Nazi genocide.
Ahad Ha’Am (born Asher Ginsburg) was the founder of Cultural Zionism without aspirations to turn Palestine into a Zionist state. In an essay “A Truth from Eretz Yisrael” published in 1891 he wrote:
“We must surely learn, from both our past and present history, how careful we must be not to provoke the anger of the native people by doing them wrong, how we should be cautious in our dealings with a foreign people among whom we return to live, to judgment. And what do our brothers do? Exactly the opposite! They were slaves in their Diasporas, and suddenly they found themselves with unlimited freedom, wild freedom that only a country like Turkey [the Ottoman Empire] can offer. This sudden change has planted despotic tendencies in their hearts, as always happens to former slaves, when a slave becomes king – Proverbs 30:22]. They deal with the Arabs with hostility and cruelty, trespass unjustly, beat them shamefully for no sufficient reason, and even boast about their actions. There is no one to stop the flood and put an end to this despicable and dangerous tendency. Our brothers indeed were right when they said that the Arab only respects those who exhibit bravery and courage. But when these people feel that the law is on their rival’s side and, even more so, if they are right to think their rival’s actions are unjust and oppressive, then, even if they are silent and endlessly reserved, they keep their anger in their hearts. And these people will be revengeful like no other […]” [1]
This behavior is typical of European colonialists who settle in a country of the native people. (U.S., Australia, Canada, Africa, Algeria, Vietnam, Cambodia, China, India among others).
Theodor Herzl Founder of Political Zionism:
“When we occupy the land, we shall bring immediate benefits to the state that receives us. We must expropriate gently the private property on the estates assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it any employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly. Let the owners of immovable property believe that they are cheating us, selling us things for more than they are worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back” [2]
“The Four Great Powers [Britain, France, Italy and the United States] are committed to Zionism. And Zionism, be it right or wrong, good or bad, is rooted in age-long traditions, in present needs, and future hopes, of far profounder import than the desires and prejudices of the 700,000 Arabs who now inhabit that ancient land” [3]
“The antisemites will become our most loyal friends, the antisemites’ nations will become our allies” [4]
Chaim Weizmann, the first president of the Zionist state:
“The British told us that there are some hundred thousand blacks [kushim – in the original Hebrew] and for those there is no value” [5]
David Ben Gurion the first Prime Minister of the Zionist apartheid State
“Why should the Arabs make peace? If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country. Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them? Our God is not theirs. We come from Israel, it’s true, but two thousand years ago, and what is that to them? There has been antisemitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only see one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?” [6]
In a letter to Ben Gurion by a Zionist researcher S. Beit Zvi we find:
“To: The Prime Minister of Israel, Jerusalem
Dear Mr. Prime Minister:
The undersigned S. Beit-Zvi, lives in Tel Aviv and teaches for a living. Years ago, I wrote in newspapers under the name “B. Shavivi.” In recent years I was active in Maoz, an association to aid Soviet Jews. My public pursuit led me to study extensively the rescue effort by Jews and in particular by the Zionist movement during the Holocaust in Europe (the years 1939-1945). The study involved an examination of the press and literature of that period as well as conversations with people who were able and willing to assist me. The extensive material which I saw in the year I studied the issue led me to the conclusion that the Zionist movement and the Jewish Yishuv in the Land of Israel are very guilty with respect to their brethren in Europe, both by failing to do things which needed to be done in order to save them, and by doing things which greatly hurt the rescue efforts. Here are some of these acts of commission and omission: When the war broke out, rescuing Jews did not become the chief goal of the Zionist movement and of the Jewish Yishuv in Palestine. In fact, this goal was not even alongside the two goals which your honor announced when the war broke out (fighting Hitler and fighting the White Paper). Never during the Holocaust period, not even when the extent of the destruction became known and widely publicized, the rescue effort as such was not at the center of Zionist movement activity nor did it keep busy on a full-time basis its main leaders (your honor, Dr. Weizmann, B. Katzenelson). At most, during the “peak” period several leaders of the Zionist movement worked on it part time and the task was handled by marginal institutions of the Movement. The Zionist Organization, which was at the time the chief Jewish force in the world and had the power to act and demobilize failed to show dedication to rescuing European Jewry. And in the absence of dedication to the rescue effort, it was doomed to fail even before it began. Apart from what was not done, the actions which were carried out were even more serious in hampering the rescuing of Jews. During the emergency situation which developed when the war broke out, the Zionist movement continued full scale its war against “territorialism.” It declared war against any Jew who would escape Europe and find shelter in a place other than Palestine. Your honor declared at the Biltmore conference that “the meaning of the ships (Patria and Struma) is simple-the Land of Israel or death.” This statement which was made as a description of objective reality was, in actuality, an expression of the policy of the Zionist movement. This policy turned the British government (which in any event was not made up of saints) into Hitler’s de-facto allies in murdering Europe’s Jews (see the notorious statement of Lord Cranborne in the British parliament and Eden’s argument against saving the Jews in Bulgaria when he met with Roosevelt). (R. Sherwood: Roosevelt and Hopkins, chapter 28) As the Zionist movement was callous towards the Holocaust in Europe, it did not hesitate to exploit their catastrophe towards its own ends, and it even planned openly and publicly how it would exploit the post-war situation when the survivors would be around and their presence and plight would further the ends of Zionism. Striking examples can be found in your honor’s speeches in the book Bernaarcha (In the Struggle) volume 3, p. 123, 134; volume 4, p. 31,90, 102; volume 2, p. 255, 268. This hope did indeed materialize, but the small proportion which survived did so entirely not thanks to the institutions and the Yishuv in that in the critical years they rendered direct assistance to the propaganda and deception machinery of Goebbels. In September1944, your honor announced that “the news of the Massacre in Poland reached us late, and even when it did reach us nobody wanted to believe us. “Unfortunately, I found no confirmation of that statement. The truth is that for more than three years-through November 1942-Davar as well as other newspapers campaigned vehemently and systematically against “exaggerations” about the killing of Jews which reached Palestine from various sources. Your honor, if I am not mistaken, was in London (or New York) in August and September 1942 when Siegelbaum and the Polish government made public lots of reliable information about what was taking place in Poland, but the news reached the Jewish Yishuv without restrictions and denials no earlier than late November. Till that time the Yishuv had been “immunized” against “horrendous propaganda” to the point that it continued to see some degree of exaggeration in all it heard, especially that now and then there were hints to that effect in statements of Yishuv leaders. See for instance your honor’s statement of March 1943 about “a major massacre of Jews by the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands”-no millions yet!). These and other facts, with which I do not wish to tire you with, your honor led me to the conclusion which was expressed at the beginning of this letter. I believe I also understand the reason for the conduct of the Zionist Organization-a reason which has to do with the instinct not the nature of Zionism. It is hardly necessary to point out that I did not come to the conclusions I did lightly, and if I have not exaggerated my conclusions then their significance would be nothing short of fateful. Fearing that I might have failed to take into account something elementary which has escaped me, or perhaps there is something I misunderstood, I am asking your honor to grant me a meeting so we can discuss this matter.
Respectfully and Thanking in Advance, S. Beit Zvi, 13 May 1962″ [7]
For the victory of Hamas!
For Palestine red and free from the river to the sea!
Endnotes:
[1] quoted in Wrestling with Zion, Grove Press, T. Kushner and A. Solomon, 2003 PB, p. 15)
[2] The Complete Diaries of Theodor Herzl, vol. 1 Harry Zohn. Trans., New York: Herzl Press and T. Yoseloff, 1960 pp. 88-89, 12 June, 1895
[3] Documents on British Foreign Policy 1919-1931, First series Vol 4.page 345 memorandum from Lord Balfour to Lord Curzon, August 11, 1919, and quoted by The Origin of the Palestine-Israeli Conflict 2nd Edition, 2002
[4] Tom Segev, One Palestine Complete, p. 47, Little, Brown &Co., 2001
[5] Response to Arthur Ruppin regarding the Balfour Declaration; Protocol of Arthur Ruppin’s speech at Jewish Agency Executive, 20 May 1936.The Struggle for the State: The Zionist Policy 1936-1948 Jerusalem, 1984, p.140
[6] Nahum Goldmann: The Jewish Paradox, trans. Steve Cox (NY: Grosset and Dunlap, 1978), p. 99 told to him by Ben Gurion
[7] Post-Ugandan Zionism on Trial, and cited in Naiem Giladi, “Ben Gurion’s Scandals”