Zionism is the dominant ideology that makes up the foundation of the current state of Israel. The ongoing war in Gaza is a brutal affair, with it being estimated that 60% of buildings has either been damaged or destroyed, entire neighbourhoods flattened and tens of thousands dead.
The scale of this war has been compared to something like the Second World War, particularly as the amount of bombs dropped by Israel has exceeded those of the bombings of Dresden, Hamburg and London combined. Some may say this is sadly just a result of war in an effort to rid Gaza of Hamas. Yet, it is a lot deeper, particularly in the motives of Israel in what they want to get out of this.
Zionism is a settler colonial project, plain and simple. Itâs proponents and founders would have agreed with me after all.
In a speech delivered in London, 1899, Theodor Herzl, main founder of Zionist thought, iterated that:
âWe want to carry culture to the East. And once again, Europe will in turn profit from this work of ours. We will create new trade routes â and none will be more interested in this than England with its Asiatic possessions. The shortest route to India lies through Palestine ⌠What could I, poor barbarian from the Continent, tell the inhabitants of England about these things [progress and industry]. They are our superiors in all technical achievements, just as their great politicians were the first to see the necessity for colonial expansion. That is why the flag of Greater-Britain waves over every sea ⌠And so I should think that here in England, the Zionist idea, which is a colonial one, should be easily and quickly understood in England, and this in its most modern form.â
It sounds very 19th Century Colonial-like doesnât it? The fact that Herzl even blatantly says this out loud should be enough proof. Herzl reiterates this throughout his work, particularly with his 1902 letter to the one and only Cecil Rhodes:
âYou are being invited to help make history,â he wrote, âIt doesnât involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen, but Jews. How, then, do I happen to turn to you since this is an out-of-the-way matter for you? How indeed? Because it is something colonial.â
Such an ideology driven by this idea of needing to âcoloniseâ the lands of Palestine was shared amongst others who followed what Herzl sought after. Max Nordau, one of his right hand men, also agreed with this in his book Zionism and Anti-Semitism (1904):
"Zionism rejects on principle all colonization on a small scale, and the idea of âsneakingâ into Palestine. The Zionists have therefore devoted themselves pre-eminently to a zealous and tireless advocacy of the uniting of the already existing Jewish colonies in Palestine with those who until now have given them their aid and who of late have inclined towards the withdrawal of their support from them.â
What all of these quotes show harks back to the mention of Gaza at the start. Do you really think that Israel is just aimlessly acting this horrifically to the citizens that are present there? How could it be a coincidence when they actively engage in not stopping the hundreds of thousands of settlers in the West Bank that has been described as violating international humanitarian law and constitutes as a war crime.
It is because Israel needs to remove the Palestinian population. It must make sure that a system of Apartheid is constructed in order to assure that the supremacy of the Israelis is maintained and that, overtime, the gradual systematic eradication of the people that once lived here is fulfilled. It is linked to this idea of transfer.
This idea of transfer maintains the colonial characteristic that helps to define Zionism. One may look to what Herzl, Nordau and earlier thinkers of this ideology may have said and will say themselves âthis probably just was the earlier thinkers and later leaders donât share the same thingâ. This is not true either. Take the founding Prime-Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, for example, in a letter to his son in October 1937:
âWe must expel Arabs and take their place.â
Or what about the late Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in July 1948, who was an officer at the time, speaking with Ben-Gurion regarding the fate of 50,000 Palestinians living in Lydda and Ramleh according to a New York Times interview with Rabin himself:
âWe walked outside, Ben-Gurion accompanying us. [Yigal] Allon repeated his question, âWhat is to be done with the Palestinian population?â Ben-Gurion waved his hand in a gesture which said âDrive them out!ââ Rabin added, âI agreed that it was essential to drive the inhabitants out.â
And even Ben-Gurionâs successor as Prime Minister, Moshe Sharett, stated in Israeli Historian Benny Morrisâ book Righteous Victims, page 91, how:
âWe have forgotten that we have not come to an empty land to inherit it, but we have come to conquer a country from people inhabiting it.â
I could go on an on with endless examples of a clear defining motive when it comes to what the end goal of the Israeli state is. Noting the word motive, you most likely can tell that this links to genocide, but as a matter of fact, it very much is just that. It is what they have always wanted. Through understanding the origins and this baseline foundation of the ideology of Zionism, this then creates implications for the largest backers for this state. The West. The West would necessarily be implicit in having aided a genocide and have done so since the inception of the state of Israel in the first place.
The young are already strongly pro-Palestine with the fact that this is considered the first live streamed genocide in history. They hold a unique insight and window into what is happening on the ground with their high consumption of social media. The West will continue to place themselves more and more into a precarious situation with this, and likewise those who support Zionism will continue to construct excuses for trying to justify this. As the common saying goesâŚ
Every accusation is a confession.
