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Even before the establishment of Israel, the Zionist Yishuv worked tirelessly to cultivate a certain image for itself. Civilized, democratic, inventive, and above all, moral. This is why the claim of the moral superiority of the Zionist militias, and later the IDF, is central in the narrative of the Israeli state’s foundation.
Similar to other elements of this narrative, such as depicting the Zionist settlers as outnumbered underdogs facing an Arab goliath, this talking point becomes impossible to argue when presented with a factual historical record. As Shlaim notes, especially when it comes to the history of the 1948 war that:
“Most of the voluminous literature on the war was written not by professional historians but by participants, by politicians, soldiers, official historians and by a large host of sympathetic chroniclers, journalists, biographers and hagiographers.”
Therefore, much of the written “history” of the 1948 war is bare-faced propaganda with little basis in reality. This becomes exceedingly clear when it turns out that, for example, Israeli military forces outnumbered and outgunned the entirety of the Arab armies in the 1948 war, which is the complete opposite of the popular narrative of the scrappy Zionist underdog, persisting against the odds.
A central aspect of the claims to the IDF’s morality is the concept of the “purity of arms”. Shlaim continues:
“Of particular relevance here is the precept of tohar haneshek, or the “purity of arms,” which posits that weapons remain pure as long as they are used only for defensive purposes. This popular-heroic-moralistic version of the 1948 war is the one that is taught in Israeli schools and used extensively in the quest for legitimacy abroad. It is a prime example of the use of a nationalist version of history in the process of nation building.”
Needless to say, these claims about the IDF use of weapons only for self-defense have no bearing on reality.
Let us take a brief look at the conduct of the IDF and its predecessors over the years, to show just how baseless this talking point. Naturally, this is by no means an exhaustive list, otherwise this article would be hundreds of pages long.
If the purity of arms dictates that weapons can only be used in defense, I find this difficult to reconcile with the Zionist assault and depopulation of approximately 600 Palestinian villages during the Nakba. I know what you are thinking, perhaps these villages were simply the battlefield and their destruction was a byproduct of the war?
While this claim is put forward by many advocates of Israel, it has no evidence to support it. The evidence actually points to the purposeful ethnic cleansing of Palestinians to create a demographically viable Jewish ethnocracy, which went far outside the proposed borders of the UN partition plan .
Deir Yassin is probably one of the better-known examples of Zionist war crimes during the Nakba.
Deir Yassin was a small, pastoral village west of Jerusalem. The village was determined to remain neutral, and as such refused to have Arab soldiers stationed there. Not only were they neutral, they also had a non-aggression pact signed with the Haganah. This, however, did not save it from its fate, as it was in the territory of the Jewish state lined out in Plan D .
This meant that not only was it to be destroyed and have its population ethnically cleansed, an example needed to be made of it as to inspire terror in the surrounding villages. As a result this massacre was particularly monstrous.
On April 9th 1948, Zionist forces attacked the village of Deir Yassin under the cover of darkness. The Zionist forces shot indiscriminately and killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in their own homes. The number of those murdered ranges from roughly 100 to over 150, depending on estimation.
Perhaps one of the most graphic witness testimonials comes from Othman Akel:
[Warning: Explicit descriptions of torture and violence. Click here to skip]
“I saw the Zionist terrorist soldiers ordering the bakery man of the village to throw his son in the oven and burn him alive. The son is holding the clothes of his father tightly and crying from fear and pleading to his father not to do it. the father refuses and then the soldiers hit him in his gut so hard it caused him to fall on the floor. Other soldiers held his son, Abdel Rauf, and threw him in the oven and told his father to toast him well-done meat. Other soldiers took the baker himself , Hussain al-Shareef, and threw him, too, in the oven, telling him, “follow your son, he needs you there”.
Other stories include tying a villager to a tree before burning him, rape and disembowelment. Dead villagers were thrown into pits by the dozen. Many were decapitated or mutilated. Houses were looted and destroyed. A number of prisoners were taken, put in cuffs, and paraded around West Jerusalem as war trophies, before being executed and dumped in the village quarry.
[End of explicit descriptions of torture and violence]
It is important to note that this massacre was carried out before the 1948 war. It posed no threat and was not part of any military action. More recently, Zionist revisionists have tried to frame the massacre as a battle because the village guards put up resistance to the invading militias. In typical Zionist fashion, I’m certain that even had the villagers lain on the ground and died without resistance, they would have found a way to blame them for their deaths anyway.
It is also noteworthy that because the village had a non-aggression pact with the Haganah, it was the Stern and Lehi that carried out this massacre. The Yishuv offered a few words of condemnation, but later the name of Deir Yassin would be seen listed next to successful operations. In the future, there would not even be the charade of caring about non-aggression pacts or the neutrality of villages that were designated for ethnic cleansing.
But Deir Yassin is far from the only example. Al Dawayma was a Palestinian village that lay west of Al-Khalil (Hebron). According to Haganah records, the village was considered “Very friendly”. Meaning it had not host or participated in any attacks against the Yishuv. This, like Deir Yassin, did not spare them the brutality of the Zionist militias.
On October 8th 1948, the village was occupied by Battalion 89 of Brigade Eight, who committed some depraved acts upon the villagers. 20 armored cars invaded the village while soldiers attacked from another flank. The village guards couldn’t even respond, and the village fell with very little resistance.
The soldiers got out of their vehicles and started indiscriminately shooting villagers to force a panic and hurried depopulation of the village. Hundreds were killed, many of which were women and children. Villagers attempted to seek refuge in mosques and a close by shrine were shot by the dozens. Acts of barbarity were also reported by Zionist troops:
[Warning: Explicit descriptions of torture and violence. Click here to skip]
Babies skulls cracked open, women raped and burned alive in houses, villagers stabbed to death.
[End of explicit descriptions of torture and violence]
The village posed no threat, and was merely in the way of the expanding Jewish state that necessitated a Jewish demographic majority. So, it had to be eradicated.
Despite how often this accusation is hurled at Palestinians, there is actually scant evidence to support it. However, perhaps the most overlooked aspect of this accusation is that it is a case of pure projection on part of Israel. Israel has been notorious in its use of Palestinians as human shields. As a matter of fact, many of investigations into alleged Palestinian use of human shields found that it was actually Israel that was using Palestinians as human shields. For example, they would force Palestinian civilians to check houses for traps, or handle suspicious objects, or tie them to military vehicles to discourage stone throwing.
Even a simple search reveals hundreds of cases of Palestinians being used as human shields. In fact, using Palestinians as human shields was so popular that when the Israeli high court attempted to outlaw the practice the IDF actually appealed to have the decision reversed. I find it difficult to imagine any weapon or soldier remaining “pure” after using a child as a human shield .
Arbitrary arrest and standing trial in a military court is a staple of daily life for Palestinians. This also applies to Palestinian children who are not spared this blatantly illegal practice. Not only were children abducted from their homes in the middle of the night, most were tortured or abused in one way or another.
According to Defense of Children and based on 739 testimonies of arrested children, approximately 74% of them experienced physical violence following their arrest. 95% had their hands tied, 86% were blindfolded, 49% were taken from their homes in the middle of the night. 64% faced verbal abuse, humiliation or intimidation. 74% were not informed of their rights. 96% were interrogated without the presence of a family member. 20% were subjected to stress positions, and 49% were forced under duress to sign documents in Hebrew, a language most Palestinian children do not speak or understand.
The destruction of non-military infrastructure and incurring massive losses in civilians is a deliberate policy which has come to be known as the Dahiya doctrine, where it was first practiced in the Dahiya area of Beirut.
Gadi Eizenkot was quoted as saying that:
“We will apply disproportionate force on it (village) and cause great damage i destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases.”
This is a direct admission that Israel sees civilian areas as military targets, and preemptively justifies their bombardment with accusations that Palestinians are using these civilians as human shields, which there is no evidence of.
The execution of captured prisoners of war by the IDF has been documented, Prior writes that:
“The Israeli daily Ma’ariv (2 August 1995) exposed the killing of some 140 Egyptian prisoners of war, including forty-nine Egyptian workers in 1956 by the elite paratroop unit 890, on the orders of Rafael Eitan, who later became the IDF Chief-of-Staff, subsequently founded the Tzomet party and now serves as Minister of Agriculture and Environment Quality in the Netanyahu government. Israel’s ‘purity of arms’ culture was further rocked by the revelation of former Labour MK, Michael Ben-Zohar, that he had witnessed the fatal stabbing of three Egyptian PoWs by two Israeli chefs during the 1967 June War. Military historian and also former MK, Meir Pa’il knew of many instances in which soldiers had killed PoWs or Arab civilians. In response to these revelations Prime Minister Rabin regretted that ‘things have been said so far. I won’t add anything to this’“
I don’t know about you, but I personally find that torturing children, taking civilians as human shields, massacring hundreds of defenseless villagers and executing prisoners of war does not sound very “pure” to me. And if you consider all of these atrocities to be committed under the guise of “defense” then we have very different definitions of the word.
At the end of the day, the IDF is an army, and like other armies it is there to commit violence. The difference is that other armies are acknowledged as such, while the IDF baselessly claims an elevated moral position for itself. But how does the IDF act when such atrocities come to light? Surely if it is such a moral army, then it would punish the perpetrators of these acts.
Predictably, this is also an area where the IDF fails miserably to live up to its desired image.
The first instinct of the IDF in such circumstances is to deny the existence of the event, or even try and blame it on the Palestinians. They frame the event as “faked” or part of Pallywood . Only after the overwhelming evidence of these atrocities becomes viral and widespread, do the IDF admit that it was caused by them, and promise to investigate. As usual, these investigations are shams that are designed to shield the IDF from ICC prosecution, rather than seeking actual justice for its victims.
The case of Razan al Najjar is emblematic of this operational mode. She was a volunteer nurse who was shot tending to the wounded during the Gaza protests of 2018, even though she posed no danger. The IDF began its usual mantra, blamed Hamas for her death, and even released an edited video to try and defame Al-Najjar and make it seem that she was being used as a human shield. This backfired when the full video was released that made no such claim. The whole issue was buried under the IDF’s “internal investigation” routine.
But even in the extremely rare cases where the investigations lead to a trial, and in the infinitesimally rarer cases it actually finds a soldier to be guilty, the “punishments” are rather laughable. For example, the commander found to be responsible for the Kufr Qassim massacre where 49 Palestinians were murdered in cold blood was fined 10 measly pennies for giving the order to open fire on civilians. His accomplices were sentenced to very light jail time, but were all pardoned and set free within a year. So even when these insulting sentences are given, it’s rare for an Israeli soldier to actually serve their full sentence.
Ultimately, the goal of propaganda is not to paint an accurate image of reality. The most effective variants of it is short, easy to remember, and corresponds to your worldview and biases. This is the case for all Israeli propaganda, much of which was considered the conventional wisdom when it came to the question of Palestine. However, thanks to the efforts of scholars and historians from all over the world, these myths and talking points no longer hold the sway they used to. This is not lost on advocates of Israel, which is why they have moved to try and censor and stifle Palestinian voices through legislation. It is up to us to make sure that Palestinian voices are heard and centered and let no Israeli myth pass unchallenged.
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Khalidi, Walid, Sharif S. Elmusa, and Muhammad Ali Khalidi. All that remains: The Palestinian villages occupied and depopulated by Israel in 1948. Institution for Palestine Studies, 1992.
Shlaim, Avi. “The debate about 1948.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 27.3, 1995: 287-304.
Pappe, Ilan. The ethnic cleansing of Palestine. Simon and Schuster, 2007. | {
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Framing is important. Being able to dictate the narrative, to be given the freedom to explain events in a way sympathetic to your worldview can be an incredibly powerful tool. As many studies have shown, there has been an empirically proven bias towards the Zionist and Israeli narrative in US media. This means that Israelis have had enormous advantages in framing what is happening in Palestine.
Palestinian Author Mourid Barghouti wrote:
“It is easy to blur the truth with a simple linguistic trick: start your story from “Secondly.” […] Start your story with “Secondly,” and the world will be turned upside-down. Start your story with “Secondly,” and the arrows of the native Americans are the original criminals and the guns of the white men are entirely the victim. It is enough to start with “Secondly,” for the anger of the Black man against the white to be barbarous.”
He continues:
“You only need to start your story with “Secondly,” and the burned Vietnamese will have wounded the humanity of the napalm, and Victor Jara’s songs will be the shameful thing and not Pinochet’s bullets, which killed so many thousands in the Santiago stadium. It is enough to start the story with “Secondly,” for my grandmother, Umm ‘Ata, to become the criminal and Ariel Sharon her victim.”
The selective “telling” of the story, is exactly what Israel aims to achieve by framing all its military operations as “self-defense”. Invoking self-defense shifts the conversation from Israeli settler colonialism, and focuses it on any reactions to said colonialism. It compartmentalizes current events into separate decontextualized “escalations” that Israel must “handle”. This is done to avoid situating anything into its proper historical context.
If you limit the scope of the story and begin it with Hamas’ rockets, suddenly they become the aggressors. What gets swept under the rug is the entire history of Zionist settler colonialism -which predates every Palestinian faction existing today- or how the Gaza Strip was created, why there are millions of refugees, and why they are prevented from going home or from having the most fundamental of human rights. Even Hamas’ Arabic acronym translates into “The Islamic Resistance Movement”, which should clue you that it was formed as a reaction to resist something. Stripping this information from the story completely changes its conclusions.
This rhetorical method has been applied to even the most ludicrous scenarios, such as framing a sneak attack on Egypt in 1967 as a “preemptive defensive strike” . Because no matter what Israel does, it always argues that it is purely for defensive reasons.The whole situation is quite ridiculous when you think about it.
What does it even mean for a settler colony to defend itself against the natives it is colonizing? What does it mean for an entity that can only exist through the negation of Palestinians to defend itself from said Palestinians?
Settler colonialism by its very definition necessitates violence and oppression. They are so constant that they seep into every facet of life for the colonized. There are no periods of “calm” or “normalcy” for the Palestinians. Take the average Palestinian living in Gaza, for example. They are a refugee who had their family ethnically cleansed simply because they were not Jewish, and would thus be an inconvenient “demographic threat” to Israeli ethnocracy. This person has the right, by any means possible, to try and reclaim their stolen rights. That cannot under any possible scenario be construed as aggression which could warrant “self-defense”. Even more, Israel wants to reserve the “right” to occupy Palestinians, torment them, besiege them, ethnically cleanse them and steal their land, homes and livelihoods and claim self-defense against any push-back to this oppression.
It boggles the mind that we have people demanding that the colonized and militarily occupied population must guarantee the safety of their oppressors and tormentors. It is akin to a mugger claiming self-defense when their victim fights back against their mugging.
This is hardly unique to Zionism and Israel; colonial forces throughout history have always sought to frame their racist colonialist expansionism as “self-defense” or as acts of mere “self-preservation”.
Thomas Jefferson even argued against abolishing slavery using this exact same logic, citing “self-preservation” as the reason why this barbaric practice must continue. Imagine the audacity of arguing that the slave masters were acting in self-defense against their slaves.
Naturally, this example is not meant to equate the oppression between the victims of slavery on Turtle Island and those of Israeli colonialism, but to highlight the ridiculous ways in which reactionary forces consistently frame their aggression as self-defense.Israel has a long history of arguing about its dubious “rights”.
An infamous example is its “right to exist” which has no basis in international law, nor does it have any practical meaning . It would not be an exaggeration to say that Israel’s legal claims have always gone hand in hand with masking its colonial expansionist agenda. After all, Israel still claims that the West Bank and Gaza strip are unoccupied, even with its troops, siege, settlements and military bases; their argument is that for an occupation to exist, a territory must be part of a sovereign state, which the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were not. This same justification is used to argue that the Geneva conventions, and international and humanitarian law in general, don’t apply to Palestinians. Of course, this argument was never accepted by the international community, which still maintains that these areas are occupied.
Long story short, Israeli legal claims should be taken with a mountain of salt.
However, due to the long-standing refusal of said international community to hold Israel accountable, Palestinians have become jaded by international law. Decades of advisory opinions and resolutions have gone ignored by Israel and the international community, even as Israel’s violations have become more brazen. Were international law be actually applied, Israel’s “right” to self-defense wouldn’t pass muster.
The major flaw with Israel’s claims is that quite simply no legal right can be derived from an illegal act. What are the illegal acts in question?
Israel’s foundation and actions are predicated on denying the Palestinian people the right to self-determination. Peoples the world over have this right, and according to international law, an occupying power cannot suppress any insurrection or resistance which is struggling to gain self-determination.
Israel’s occupation of Palestine has crossed into a permanent occupation, whereas Israel has created permanent new facts on the ground, such as the illegal transfer of its settler population into the occupied areas.
Basically, Israel’s actions are illegal to begin with, and therefore it cannot claim any right to “defend” these actions.
It should be noted that resistance or insurrection here does not necessarily mean “peaceful” or “popular” resistance, but includes all means possible.
United Nations resolution 37/43:
“Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”.
It continues:
“Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Namibian people, the Palestinian people and all peoples under foreign and colonial domination to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without outside interference”.
Even if such a right was not enshrined in international law, Palestinians have a moral right to rid themselves of domination and oppression.
Regardless of what type of resistance Palestinians choose, they will be designated as terrorist aggressors anyway. When Israel seized private Palestinian land to expand an illegal settlement, Palestinians responded by erecting a small encampment called Bab al-Shams on it as a peaceful demonstration against this action. Naturally, they were accused of practicing “construction terrorism” by Israelis and promptly beat, repressed, arrested and removed from the land. When Palestinians started preparing a case against Israel in the International Criminal Court, they were accused of practicing “legal terrorism“. Palestinian prisoner hunger strikes are described as “Terrorism in Prison”. None of this would qualify as terrorism from an international law perspective; however, Israel uses this designation indiscriminately to demonize and ostracize any kind of Palestinian resistance, no matter what it looks like, while simultaneously claiming its monstrous repression as defensive. There must be consistent and principled pushback against the ludicrous claim of Israeli “self-defense”. It is the Palestinians who are defending themselves against settler-colonial, ethnonationalist aggression, and who surely need the support more than an imperialist backed nuclear state.
Learn something new?
Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: Israel is defending itself | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: Israel is defending itself | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "What does it mean for a settler-colony to defend itself from the people it is colonizing? How is Israel defending itself when its existence depends on violence against Palestinians?",
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It should be noted that various Zionist leaders and groups also sought similar alliances with Hitler and Mussolini. The Mufti believed, as many Zionist leaders did at the time, that Britain was the obstacle for the realization of their goal, and that an alliance with the axis forces was the best way to remove said obstacle.
For example, on more than one occasion Avraham Stern, founder and leader of the infamous Stern gang (Lehi), sought to forge an alliance with Hitler, even offering to take part in the war on Germany’s side. All of this would be in return for German support to establish a “totalitarian Hebrew republic” in Palestine. This isn’t some small fringe group, members of Lehi would go on to occupy the highest echelons of Israeli government, and even the position of Prime Minister. Stern is still revered today in Israel, and has a settlement named in his honor, as well as a postage stamp.
As a matter of fact, there was an entire Naval Academy in fascist Italy to train Zionist militias. This was the Betar Naval Academy, and it was built and operated with fascist blessings. Many future commanders of the Israeli navy would train here under fascist supervision. The cadets at this academy were supportive of Mussolini’s regime, and supported Italy’s expansionist colonial wars in Africa, most notably the second Italo-Ethiopian war.
However, when cases such as these are brought up, it is often claimed that these were alliances of necessity; that the Zionist militias merely followed the adage of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Suddenly, it becomes a nuanced discussion on political expedience with no allusion to any ideological kinship, with real attempts to situate their actions in their historical context.
On the other hand, when it comes to Palestinians, all of this is stripped away, and the only explanation is that the Mufti was an enthusiastic Nazi, and all of his actions were animated purely by irrational hatred. Could it also possibly be the case that he also sought the “enemy of his enemy”? We can argue all day about the intentions of all these people, and speculate about their actions and motivations, and it is not the aim of this article to absolve anyone, however, it calls for intellectual and moral consistency. If by seeking an alliance with Hitler and Mussolini to combat the British you brand the Mufti a Nazi and a fascist, then at least consistently apply this same logic to various Zionist leaders and militias who did the exact same thing.
Ultimately, none of this justifies the exaggerated importance relegated to the role of the Mufti, who when all things considered, was a rather powerless politician in exile who couldn’t even muster his own people to fight at the outset of the 1948 war. Suggesting that he was the mastermind behind the genocide of European Jewry is Holocaust-denial for the sake of demonizing Palestinians.
Learn something new?
Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: The Mufti helped inspire the Holocaust | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: The Mufti helped inspire the Holocaust | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "In the endless quest to demonize Palestinians and justify their ethnic cleansing, Zionists have resorted to Holocaust denial by blaming a Palestinian Mufti for the Holocaust.",
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Luckily for us, 416 Labs has already done this hard work for us, and monitored major US newspapers using Natural Language Processing techniques to see how biased they are on the question of Palestine. If you’ve been in any way following what is going on in Palestine, I’m certain that the following will be of no great surprise to you.
The study found that Israeli sources are near two and half times (250%) more likely to be quoted than Palestinian ones, meaning that Israelis have had a huge advantage in framing how the US views current events in Palestine. It also found that over the last 50-year period, there has been a near 85% decline in the instances of the word occupation and its affiliated unigrams in Israel centric headlines. In the Palestine corpus, there has been a 65% decline in the word occupation and its affiliated unigrams, meaning that even mentioning the word occupation is becoming rarer and rarer. It seems even acknowledging what the Palestinians are going through is deemed too far for the editors and writers of these publications.
Another finding is that Israeli headlines were statistically more positive than Palestinian ones for all publications, except for the Washington Post. Mentions related to Palestinian aspirations, such as “Palestinian Refugees” have declined by 93% over the 50-year period.
The study concluded that the:
“results..strongly support previous academic literature that assesses that the U.S. mainstream media’s coverage of the conflict favours Israel in terms of both the sheer quantity of stories covered, and by providing more opportunities to the Israelis to amplify their point of view. The overall sentiment of those stories calculated from the headlines of the five major U.S. newspapers was consistently more negative for Palestinian stories. On the other hand, the Palestinian narrative is highly underrepresented, and several key topics that help to identify the conflict in all its significance, remain understated.”
This is hardly the only study on the matter, for example, Jonas Xavier Caballero investigated the impact of media bias on news coverage during Operation Cast Lead (2008-2009), the 3-week Israeli military assault on the Gaza Strip that resulted in the death of nearly 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis. It found that although Palestinians died at a rate 106 times more than Israelis, the New York Times engaged in a practice of media bias that resulted in coverage of only 3% of Palestinian deaths in the headlines and first paragraphs. Upon analyzing the articles’ entireties, this study found that the New York Times covered 431% of Israeli deaths and only 17% of Palestinian deaths, a ratio of 25:1. Only 17% of Palestinian children deaths were covered in the full articles. This means that every Israeli death was covered multiple times in multiple pieces, whereas less than a fifth of Palestinian deaths were covered at all.
Another study by Jacek Glowacki found that Palestinian deaths were usually reported as “accidents”, while Israeli deaths were almost always reported as “victims of terrorism”.
Perhaps one of the most infamous examples of the New York Time’s distortions of Palestinian death and Israeli war crimes was the case of the Israeli bombing of a cafe in Gaza which was hosting a World Cup viewing event. Instead of reporting on it like any other event, clearly identifying what occurred, they chose to run this craven headline:“Missile at Beachside Gaza Cafe Finds Patrons Poised for World Cup”
As if the missile was its own entity which decided by itself to blow up innocent Palestinians, completely removing the perpetrators of this horrible crime from the picture. This style is often used in US journalism to obfuscate reality, such as when they use the ridiculous “officer involved shooting” to cover the fact that the police murdered yet another person in cold blood. The title was changed after public outcry, but you can see the old title in the tweet.
Another egregious example of this style of headline writing comes following the bombing of four Palestinian boys playing football on the beach in Gaza. Instead of fulfilling their journalistic duty, the New York Times chose to report this heinous crime under the following headline:“Boys Drawn to Gaza Beach, and Into Center of Mideast Strife.”
Notice the passive framing. Suddenly, it becomes the boys fault for being drawn to the beach, and there is absolutely no mention of what happened to them, and who caused it. The general “Mideast Strife” becomes responsible, relieving the IDF trooper pulling the trigger from any culpability.
These are just a few examples of how the media implicitly influences our perception of Palestinians and Israelis, and slowly builds a narrative that frames everything coming out of Palestine. This narrative constantly dehumanizes Palestinians, and portrays any criticism of Israel, no matter how based in reality, as a bloodthirsty smear emanating from antisemitism.
There is absolutely no media bias against Israel in the West, there is, however, ample academic and empirical evidence that there is a strong anti-Palestinian bias. Factual reporting on Israeli violations is not a bias, it is reality. Perhaps reality has an anti-Israel bias too.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: There is a media bias against Israel | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: There is a media bias against Israel | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "In a media environment where neutrality is mistaken for objectivity, any truly objective reporting on Israeli violations is seen as a biased attack.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:27.283Z"
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One of the more recent approaches to the demonization of Palestinians is the claim that the Palestinian Authority subsidizes “terrorism”, or what advocates of Israel gleefully call “pay to slay”. Listening to these sources, you’d think that the Palestinian Authority pays out bounties to incentivize Palestinians to go out and randomly attack Israelis. As per usual, this kind of talking point intentionally distorts and misrepresents reality.
What actually occurs is that the Palestinian Authority provides a small amount of money for the family of those put in jail so that they can sustain themselves. This applies to every single Palestinian prisoner who has spent a certain amount of time in Israeli jail, regardless of charges. Suggesting that this forms an incentive to go out and attack Israelis is as ridiculous as suggesting that meager unemployment benefits incentivize unemployment.
This family support is especially important considering that Israel practices a cruel form of collective punishment, where it demolishes the home of anyone suspected of being a “terrorist”. In such a condition, the family needs all the help it can get. Unless you believe that the family should starve in the street after becoming homeless solely due to them being related to an alleged “terrorist”, then you can see the necessity of such measures.
Another aspect that often goes unappreciated, is that part of these payments ends up in Israeli coffers anyway, as Israeli prisons are well-known for their negligence, and lack many basic necessities. Much of these payments are spent on providing for the basic needs of these prisoners in Israeli jails. This has been rather lucrative for Israel, as many a business have popped up whose practices revolve around exploiting thousands of prisoners with no other options, charging obscene amounts of money for blankets and other basic items.Furthermore, the Israeli military court system that tries Palestinians and designates them as guilty of “terrorism” is notoriously racist and discriminatory. Bearing in mind that civilians shouldn’t be tried in military courts to begin with, they have an astonishing 99.7% conviction rate, meaning that you’re virtually guaranteed to be convicted of something regardless of your guilt or innocence. As if that isn’t bad enough, it has been widely documented that torture is still de facto the standard operating procedure in Israeli prisons to extract false confessions, and it’s very common for interrogators to force Palestinians to sign documents in Hebrew which they do not even understand. This is an especially popular tactic with children detainees who are more easily intimidated and manipulated.
As for the designation of “terrorist” itself, it is applied liberally and without even a second thought when it comes to Palestinians. For example, when Israel seized private Palestinian land to expand an illegal settlement, Palestinians responded by erecting a small encampment called Bab al-Shams on it as a peaceful demonstration against this action. Naturally, they were accused of practicing “construction terrorism” by Israelis and promptly beat, repressed, arrested and removed from the land. Another example was when Palestinians were preparing a case against Israel in the International Criminal Court, they were accused of practicing “legal terrorism“. Palestinian prisoner hunger strikes are described as “Terrorism in Prison“. Naturally, none of this would qualify as terrorism from an international law perspective, however, Israel uses this designation indiscriminately to demonize and ostracize any kind of Palestinian resistance, no matter how peaceful.
According to international law, it is legitimate for an occupied people to resist occupation by any means available to them. United Nations resolution 37/43:
“Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, including armed struggle”.
It continues:
“Reaffirms the inalienable right of the Namibian people, the Palestinian people and all peoples under foreign and colonial domination to self-determination, national independence, territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty without outside interference”.
However, even if such a right was not enshrined in international law, it is natural for humans to want to rid themselves of domination and oppression. But since even the most peaceful methods are enough to paint Palestinians as terrorists, armed struggle would undoubtedly result in worse. However, historically this has been the norm for many a liberation movement. Even Nelson Mandela was called a terrorist in his struggle against Apartheid, MLK was called a “self-seeking rabble–rouser” and was accused of fomenting violence with his marches. Those who fight for freedom are always vilified by the reactionary powers of their time, Palestinians are no exception.
The more you research the long history of Palestinian resistance, whether armed or unarmed, you very quickly come to realize that the issue is the very concept of resistance, not its methods. It would seem like the only way Palestinians can escape this accusation is by just laying down and dying, but even then they’d probably be accused of “telegenically dying” to make Israel look bad, as Netanyahu once claimed .It is, however, quite amusing that the Palestinian Authority has such a negative reputation among mainstream Israelis. If anything, the Palestinian Authority has been an incredible boon for Israel and its expansionist project. It is a deeply unpopular body among Palestinians for exactly that reason.
By nominally participating in the sham that is the Oslo peace process, Israel managed to transfer all of its responsibilities as an occupying power onto the Palestinian Authority while maintaining effective control over the entirety of the area. There is no point in denying the reality on the ground: There exists one sovereign power between the river and the sea. While the Palestinian Authority has some limited administrative powers in certain areas, it has absolutely no sovereign powers. As a matter of fact, Israel de facto even determines who is a Palestinian citizen and who is not through control of the civilian registry, that is how complete Israeli control is. So, to summarize, Israel still has all the benefits of an occupying power while having none of the responsibilities. Even worse, since much of the Palestinian Authority’s functions are supported by the international community through foreign aid, Israel has managed to reap the benefits of a well subsidized occupation.
Security coordination between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, a cornerstone of the post-Intifada status quo, has greatly contributed to the repression of Palestinians and the criminalization of their resistance. It’s no coincidence that the Palestinian Authority is often described as a subcontractor for the occupation, because for all intents and purposes this has become its role, and this is how many Palestinians view it.
The fact that most Israelis see the Palestinian Authority as an enemy speaks to how little information they have about the current status quo, or how anything functions under their occupation of Palestinian society. They have swallowed wholly Israeli state propaganda designed to reinforce a bunker mentality, where Israel is always the victim and anyone ever asking anything of it is tantamount to genocidal incitement.
The vilification of Palestinians through outright falsities like the “pay to slay” and “pallywood” smears are designed to legitimize Israeli intransigence and expansionism. After all, if the other side is so untrustworthy and evil, why even give them one inch? Why compromise on anything? This becomes especially more egregious when you realize that Israel’s “compromise” during the Oslo negotiations was to simply lessen its violations of international law. With enough demonization, even that can be dropped, and Israel’s colonial landgrabs can continue unperturbed.
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But this claim that Gaza is unoccupied has been very useful for Israel, as it plays into the propaganda that Israel has sacrificed immensely for peace, a talking point unsubstantiated by actual history, and also erases the valiant efforts of Palestinian resistance fighters in the Gaza Strip who played a critical role in making the maintenance of a physical military presence inside the strip very costly to Israel to the point it had to retreat.
As noble as Israelis make it sound, there were other less altruistic intentions regarding the retreat from Gaza, articulated by Dov Weisglas, top aide to Ariel Sharon who was Prime Minister at the time:
“The significance of the disengagement plan is the freezing of the peace process, and when you freeze that process, you prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state, and you prevent a discussion on the refugees, the borders and Jerusalem. Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress.”
He continued:
“The disengagement is actually formaldehyde, it supplies the amount of formaldehyde that is necessary so there will not be a political process with the Palestinians.”
And he was right. For example, whenever the Palestinian Authority criticized Israel for its intransigence or its new settlement and colonization projects in the West bank, Israel would retort that they gave up Gaza and sacrificed immensely for peace. This was an effective way for Israel to circumvent criticism of its violations of international law and shift the onus of compromise onto Palestinians. In this context, “compromise” came to mean acquiescence to the brazen colonization of the vast majority of the West Bank. Weisglas bragged that:
“That is exactly what happened, you know, the term `peace process’ is a bundle of concepts and commitments. The peace process is the establishment of a Palestinian state with all the security risks that entails. The peace process is the evacuation of settlements, it’s the return of refugees, it’s the partition of Jerusalem. And all that has now been frozen…. what I effectively agreed to with the Americans was that part of the settlements would not be dealt with at all, and the rest will not be dealt with until the Palestinians turn into Finns. That is the significance of what we did.”
Furthermore, Israel knew it was not really relinquishing control of the Gaza strip, but rather reconfiguring how the occupation looked and functioned. They knew that the occupation, despite being in a new form, would still illicit resistance from those inside the strip. Israel could then use this resistance as proof that “relinquishing” land in return for peace with the Palestinians was an impossible task, because Palestinians would continue to attack it no matter what. This has served as a major argument for why Israel should not withdraw from any inch of the West Bank to this very day.
So, as you can see, the withdrawal from Gaza did not really end the occupation, and it certainly was not a compromise out of a desire for peace with the Palestinians. This is not speculation, this is not a conspiratorial reading or analysis of the policy; we have a complete candid confession from the architect of this plan, it is all documented and easily accessible and we encourage you to read the full interview for context.
Gaza today remains as a staunch reminder of Israel’s birth: A small strip of land filled to the brim with refugees whose houses have been seized by foreign colonists. Israel can occupy, besiege and bomb the strip, but it will never beak the spirit of those yearning for freedom and a return to their stolen homes. It is our duty to help them in any way we can, even if by simply not allowing Israel to create its own false narrative and pass it off as the indisputable truth.
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"pageTitle": "Myth: The Gaza Strip is no longer occupied | Decolonize Palestine",
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A cursory glance at Palestine’s geography would reveal that most of it is part of what is known as the Fertile Crescent (you have three guesses as to why). The region has historically been known for its crops and agriculture. As a matter of fact, if we are to look at the average annual rainfall in the area over the last 100 years, then Ramallah has a higher average annual rainfall than Paris, and Jerusalem has a higher average annual rainfall than Berlin. Now unless you’re going to refer to north-east Germany as an uncultivated desert, then you might want to reevaluate why Jerusalem was framed as such with comparable levels of rainfall. Although Palestine does not have many sources of surface water -relatively speaking- it has an abundance of ground and mineral water stored in its aquifers.
Truth be told, over its history Palestine has had ample problems with an overabundance of water, leading to the creation of swamplands in the north. Naturally, the drying of these swamplands is also used by Zionists as an example of their ingenuity bringing prosperity to the land, while also claiming that Palestine was a dry desert. National foundation mythologies are seldom consistent, and the Zionist one is no exception.
Historically speaking, there is strong evidence that the fertile crescent is where agriculture was first invented and practiced; for example the Natufians who lived in the area are often credited with being the pioneers of agriculture. This, of course, would not be possible if the land lacked the necessary prerequisites, such as abundant water and fertile soil.
This is not to say that Palestine is entirely free of deserts, as the Naqab desert actually extends over vast territories in the south. But under no stretch of the imagination did this mean that Palestine as a whole is or was a desert. For example, vast swathes of land in California are also considered desert, yet it also contains fertile and cultivated lands that make it a major bread basket in the world.
Another aspect we should be wary of is reading desert as to mean uncultivated. Palestinian Bedouins have long cultivated lands in the Naqab desert using traditional farming and water preserving techniques. Records show that despite the loud proclamations of Zionists making the desert bloom, in 1944 land cultivated by Palestinians in the Naqab desert alone was three times of that cultivated by the entire Zionist settler presence in Palestine. As a matter of fact, the amount of cultivated land in the Naqab desert has dropped significantly since the Nakba in 1947-48. This is yet another case of a popular Zionist slogan being the complete opposite of reality.If we look at the data even more closely, it paints an even clearer picture: The vast majority of cultivated agricultural land in Israel today was already being cultivated by Palestinians before their ethnic cleansing. Schechtman estimates that on the eve of the 1948 war, around 2,990,000 dunams of land (or 739,750 acres) were being cultivated by Palestinians. These cultivated lands were so vast, that they were “greater than the physical area which was under cultivation in Israel almost thirty years later.” It took Israel 30 years to even equal the amount of land being cultivated before its establishment. Alan George continues:
“The impressive expansion of Israel’s cultivated area since 1948 has been more apparent than real since it involved mainly the ‘reclamation’ of farmland belonging to the refugees.”
It would be dishonest to claim that there have been no new cultivated lands since, but the fact remains that the agricultural core of the Israeli state consists of cultivated farmland that was stolen from Palestinian refugees after their ethnic cleansing . Zionist settlers did not make the desert bloom, as the land was never as much as a desert as they claimed, and even those areas which were classified as such were still cultivated and tended to by Palestinians. The severe drop in the amount of cultivated land in the Naqab after 1948 attests to this fact.
But as usual, these talking points are never about the actual history, or the data, or reality. They are usually about a message to be conveyed, or an image to be maintained. This is especially clear when we look at some of the modern Naqab farms that Israel loves to market. Never mind the fact that, as mentioned, the amount of cultivated land in the Naqab actually dropped; the portrayal of these farms as oases in the desert, and as an ode to Israeli and Zionist resilience and ingenuity is rooted in Zionist propaganda. These desert farms do not make sense economically, and they are unsustainable in almost any way you look at it. However, their purpose lies in their discursive value. As Messserschmid argues:
“Israel allows itself to waste vast amounts of water and water resources, especially for agriculture. Israel, it’s known, uses over 60 percent of its water for agriculture, which amounts to about 2 percent of GDP… Agriculture in Israel is important in terms of preserving the national ethos, and is not calculated in terms of the actual conditions of the water economy.”
Indeed, making a minor green spot in the desert is no magical feat, as Baskin says “All you need is to waste huge quantities of water“. And despite their “water miracle” propaganda stating the opposite, waste water they do.
In the end, this whole talking point is beyond the issue, and amounts to nothing more than Greenwashing settler colonialism . It simply exists to try and show why the Zionist settlers are more deserving of the land than Palestinians, who had supposedly neglected it. Despite the data showing that the land was far from an uncultivated desert, and that Israel stole millions of dunams of cultivated land to kick-start its agricultural sector, it’s a moot point to begin with. For argument’s sake, even if this talking point was accurate, and that the land was mostly uncultivated desert, does this provide a moral cover for settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and erecting a reactionary ethnocracy at the expense of the people living there?
Of course not. Nothing can justify that. But this raises another point: Why the need to resort to such arguments in the first place? Why did these settlers feel the need to legitimize themselves if they didn’t feel like they were doing anything wrong, or if nobody was there in the first place, as they often claimed?
It’s because they knew they were wronging someone. They knew they were taking over someone’s land, and they knew that they were spouting nonsensical propaganda. This is why these talking points often clash so terribly against each other, because they are not based on fact, but on political utility. It is unfortunate that such baseless claims survive to this day, but as with all propaganda, it loses its effectiveness when you start asking the right questions.
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Producing a complicated-looking table and claiming it proves your argument may seem impressive. It might even convince those less-acquainted with the history and facts on the ground. After all, it looks so “scientific”. However, these attempts to imbue propaganda with empirical validity collapse under even the briefest of scrutiny.
An oft-used tactic is to cite actual data from real sources but to remove them from their context, and proceed to project meaning onto them which isn’t supported or claimed by the original source. Even grifters and genocide deniers use copious amounts of citations and data in their racist publications, but as mentioned previously, they usually tend to be decontextualized, distorted and cherry-picked to build a certain narrative while suppressing contradictory evidence.
Indeed, statistics can be lazily used to claim relationships between different phenomena. Let’s look at an example of how the same data can be decontextualized and used to reach radically different conclusions:
In a certain city, the health of citizens was measured and given a numerical value. After reviewing the data, it became apparent that the average health of citizens in a specific area of the city was significantly less than the city-wide average. What conclusions can we draw from these numbers?
Poverty has been known to have adverse effects on health. People living in poorer neighborhoods tend to have lower life expectancies, as they have less access to healthy nutrition, less time to take care of themselves, and less access to healthcare. This area could simply be a poor neighborhood.
An alternative explanation is that this area houses a chemical plant that has been known to dump its toxic waste nearby, decreasing the overall health of the residents of the area.
Perhaps the whole idea of the area reducing health is erroneous to begin with, and the lower health average is simply due to it being the location of a hospital complex. Meaning that people with poor health congregate in this area rather than the area itself being the cause.
As you can see, without knowing enough about the context and history of this city, the same data -no matter how accurate- cannot tell us the real story or help us to draw conclusions or causal relationships. This is why propagandists love statistics, because they are wagering that you are not familiar enough with the context or history and that these raw decontextualized numbers will convince you. This is why it is also critical to not only look at how the numbers are used, but also where they came from to begin with.
It is a mistake to think of all data as neutral and objective. It was produced by humans who are -at best- influenced by their social context no matter how objective they try to be, and at worst engineer the data specifically to reinforce a narrative or argument.
This is why you should always ask yourself, who is asking the questions? Why are they asking the questions? How did they arrive at their numbers? Do they have any interest in skewing results one way or another?
Pro-Israel organizations are infamous for designing misleading surveys, where the questions are heavily slanted to produce certain outcomes.Denying or minimizing the Nakba is nothing new. A brief look at our myths section shows that the Palestinian refugees and their ethnic cleansing have always been the target of Israeli propaganda. From blaming the Palestinians for their own expulsion, to claiming that no expulsions happened at all, you will find contradictory talking points to fit any purpose.
What these myths have in common is their dishonesty in how they present information. They either decontextualize data to influence conclusions, or they build an argument on erroneous assumptions and projections. This myth mixes both these approaches.
From the get-go, it launches its argument from a false definition of ethnic cleansing, conflating it with outright genocide. While it is argued that ethnic cleansing is a form of genocide, it can vary in the methods used. For example, you do not need to wipe out an ethnic group to practice ethnic cleansing. The term “ethnic cleansing” came to prominence after its widespread practice in the regions of former Yugoslavia, a United Nations Commission of Experts referred to ethnic cleansing as:
“… a purposeful policy designed by one ethnic or religious group to remove by violent and terror-inspiring means the civilian population of another ethnic or religious group from certain geographic areas.”
This is not a mere misunderstanding by hasbarists, but a deliberate twisting of the term to make a slanted argument not compatible with the full definition.
(Similarly, the term Apartheid is often incorrectly used to mean a complete carbon copy of South Africa when the definition of Apartheid says no such thing. There are many examples and types of Apartheid. The insistence on this false definition is to distract you from that fact and to stop you from judging Israel by the criteria of the legal definition.)
With the information above in mind, it becomes clear that looking at the total population number to determine if any ethnic cleansing happened is not in and of itself a useful indicator. Indeed, if everyone was pushed out of New York into Austin, the total population number of New Yorkers would not differ. This would not change the fact that the entire population of New York was expelled.
When the correct dates and areas are specified, not even openly pro-Israel websites like Jewish Virtual Library can dispute the fact that Palestinians were ethnically cleansed from the areas people today call “Israel”:(The table has been abridged for brevity. You can access the full table here)
This is the reason why many Zionist memes trying to “debunk” this historical fact often begin their table after 1948. This kind of cherry-picking of data, and the suppression of inconvenient facts is rife in the Zionist narrative of the Nakba.It is no surprise that social media has also become a battleground for hearts and minds when it comes to Palestine. Zionist propaganda has always adapted to whatever is trendy at the time; at its inception, it argued that the Zionists were enlightened colonists who would bring the “backwards” Palestine into civilization, a feat the natives could not accomplish. As colonialism fell out of favor, suddenly Zionist colonizers started rebranding themselves as a force for decolonization, the absolute opposite of their forefathers.
Today, with the recent rise to prominence of a distorted and shallow understanding of identity politics in the US, we see that hasbarists are once again adapting according to popular rhetoric. Suddenly, we see Zionism being detached from its material history and presented as an integral part of an identity. This is especially popular in the West, where young Zionists who are raised on propaganda and myths of the Zionist project come to treat it as inseparable from themselves. Here, we see the cynical twisting of social justice language to frame any criticism of Israel as antisemitic.
In this context, many Zionist “influencers” -often on the payroll of Israel and its various hasbara organizations- have risen to prominence, spreading disinformation and propaganda couched in progressive language. One such propagandist is Hen Mazzig, who recently shared a laughably bad series of images “debunking” the Nakba, using terrible statistics to try and flip reality on its head:I’m certain that you can instantly see some of the problems with this graph. Twitter user Terriblestats published a series of short videos absolutely demolishing the claims presented.
You will notice that they utilize many of the methods to lie with statistics explored earlier in the article. For example, the graph conveniently inspects the areas of “West Bank, Gaza Strip, Israel” to measure any population change. This is similar to the New York and Austin example above; they are trying to tell you since no population decreased in this area there was no ethnic cleansing. This is clearly false. Another problem with this chart is that it purposefully lacks any kind of data points, obscuring the fact that many Palestinians were expelled to neighboring Arab countries.
This brings us to our next point: The data. Mazzig claims the data is from the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS). The PCBS can indeed be a good source of information on Palestinians today; however, notice how no specific report is cited, just a whole website full of hundreds of reports. The specific numbers used by this chart cannot be verified from the website by a cursory look at the majority of their population statistics.
Even the way the chart is designed would not pass a Statistics 101 class, as it doesn’t even present consistent units of measurement. Notice how the first notch is 30 years, and the remaining ones are 10. If we look at the other graphics in the post, the years and the population being measured are also inconsistent. This was done deliberately to affect the steepness of the inclination of the line on the graph, and by doing so imply a more “rapid” change than what actually occurred.
Once again, we strongly recommend looking at the short videos from Terriblestats for a more illustrated explanation of this post and how it is fudging the numbers.
Ultimately, none of the people spreading these images and memes will fact-check them. We see this all the time in Zionist propaganda. We have seen claim after claim of posts “debunking” well-documented Palestinian history and events by simply contesting them, without providing any real evidence or argument. Quite often, the “debunkings” rely on distortions and outright lies like the case above.
But as we usually say, the goal of propaganda is never to reflect reality. Propaganda exists to make political claims and justify them. It doesn’t even matter if these claims are illogical, all they need to do is support a certain worldview or ideology and its apologists will uncritically adopt it. As our website consistently demonstrates, these ahistorical talking points and dishonest framings comprise much of Zionist propaganda, where ridiculous claims that could be debunked within a minute of research become the cornerstone of a narrative.
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"articleTitle": "Myth: There was no ethnic cleansing because the population increased | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: There was no ethnic cleansing because the population increased | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Claiming that a population increase \"proves\" that there was no ethnic cleansing betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of the term.",
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Israel has long worked hard to portray itself as a guardian of religious plurality and freedom, especially when it comes to the Christian Palestinian population in Palestine. It is no secret that Palestine holds immense importance to many religions, and the facade of tolerance would go a long way towards cultivating a progressive image.
The problem with all of this, of course, is that Israel is an ethnocracy clearly built to leverage one group over all else. All of this talk of tolerance and equality goes out the window when you actually look into the de facto and de jure discrimination that form the basis of Israeli society .
Naturally, this has not stopped advocates of Israel of projecting this discrimination onto the Palestinians themselves, claiming that Palestinian Christians are oppressed by their Muslim neighbors and the Palestinian Authority. They point to the dwindling Christian population of the West Bank as proof of this assertion. Let us take a deeper look at the claims and see if there is any evidence to support these accusations.
First, it is worth mentioning that throughout its history, Israel has cared very little about the different religions or sects of Palestinians, only that they were in the way of its expansionist colonial project [You can read more here]. Bombs and bullets don’t tend to discriminate, neither do sweeping campaigns of ethnic cleansing that resulted in the destruction and depopulation of approximately 600 Palestinian villages.
Perhaps one of the more striking stories of Palestinian Christian and Muslim solidarity comes from the story of the village of Mujaydil, Pappe writes that:
“The village of Mujaydil had 2000 inhabitants, most of whom fled to Nazareth before the soldiers reached their houses. For some reason the army left these intact. In 1950, after the intervention of the Pope in Rome, the Christians were offered the opportunity to move back but refused to do so without their Muslim neighbours.“
As a response, Israel razed half the village and burnt down one of its two mosques. Many Palestinians were shot in an attempt to return to Al-Mujaydil to tend to their crops, eventually people stopped trying due to so many deaths. Today the village has been wiped off the map, with a forest growing on top of it. The only evidence of Palestinian life are the remains of a damaged monastery and church that remain to tell the story.
The idea that Israel is some grand protector of Christians in Palestine can be so easily dispelled by simply talking to an actual Palestinian Christian. I’m certain that the Palestinian Christian refugees all over the world would have a good laugh at the notion.With this context out of the way, let us return to the original question regarding Palestinian Christians leaving Palestine: What are the reasons? Is it as claimed that Christians feel discriminated against? Are their Muslim neighbors harassing them? Do they feel like they simply don’t have a place in Palestinian society?
There have been multiple studies on this phenomenon, and Dr. Rev. Mitri Raheb has become a specialist in this topic. From his review of recent studies, in addition to those done over the last 20 years, he came to the following conclusions on why Palestinian Christians opted to emigrate:
32.6% opted to emigrate due to the loss of freedom and absence of safety amidst the occupation.
26.4% left because of the deteriorating economic conditions.
19.7% emigrated due to political unrest, especially during the second Intifada.
0.3% were motivated to leave for religious purposes. This percentage is so small that it dismisses as irrelevant the premise of religion as a main cause for emigration.
In a completely unsurprising turn of events, the number one reason for Palestinian Christians emigrating is the Israeli occupation. Just one look at how Bethlehem has been turned into a militarized Ghetto will reveal the inhumane treatment of Palestinians and the tremendous harm they endure every single day.
As a matter of fact, the majority of Palestinian Christians (62%) believe that Israel’s end goal is to expel them from their homeland. Given Israel’s track record, who can argue otherwise? 83% of Palestinian Christians are worried about settlers, and 73% are worried about the continued occupation of their lands.
Studies show that Palestinian Christians actually feel safer on average than their Muslim neighbors. The overwhelming majority said that they do not suffer from discrimination when dealing with people and society. Almost all (92%) reported feeling comfortable discussing their religion with a Muslim friend. This sounds nothing like the hostile and discriminatory society that advocates of Israel describe.
The point of these numbers is not to paint an unrealistic or rosy picture of Palestinian society. Of course, there exists prejudice, like in every society on earth. The same study also revealed that there are many aspects that need improving to make Palestine a more inclusive society, such as the Palestinian Basic Law as well as elements of social conservatism. The point is to refute Israeli claims of Palestinian backwardness and intolerance, and to reject it positioning itself as the savior of Palestinian Christians. Especially when Israeli society is sustained by and replete with racism towards all kinds of Palestinians, for example being spat on by Israelis is a staple of Christian Palestinian Clergy life in Jerusalem.
A further aspect that often goes unappreciated is that a considerable portion of support for Israel around the world comes from Evangelical and Christian Zionists, who believe that an Israeli state is crucial to trigger Armageddon. Pandering to these groups has been rather profitable, and there are entire faithwashing organizations dedicated to strengthening these ties . Naturally, these Christian Zionists care nothing for the plight of Palestinian Christians, or even for Jewish Israelis, as they simply see them as a means towards the end days, where they will be forced to convert to Christianity or die.
At the end of the day, Israel does not -and never has- cared about the plight of Palestinian Christians further than being able to use them in its Hasbara efforts. The framing of Palestinian society as backwards and intolerant has long been a staple of Israeli claims, but as the numbers show, Israel was in fact the main cause for the emigration of Palestinian Christians.
Palestinian Christians are an integral part of our culture and identity, they have provided our society with some of our most brilliant intellectuals, and some of our fiercest resistance fighters. We must strongly combat their erasure, no matter the source, and confidently declare that these divide and conquer tactics will not erode our unity.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: Palestinian Christians are leaving due to Palestinian Muslims and the PA | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: Palestinian Christians are leaving due to Palestinian Muslims and the PA | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Protecting the rights of various religious and ethnic groups is a staple of Israeli propaganda. Unfortunately for Israel, this is belied by history and refugee camps full of Palestinians of every stripe. including Palestinian Christians.",
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For instance, Deir Yassin was a small, pastoral village west of Jerusalem. The village was determined to remain neutral, and as such refused to have Arab soldiers stationed there. Not only were they neutral, they also had a non-aggression pact signed with the Haganah. This, however, did not save it from its fate, as it was in the territory of the Jewish state lined out in Plan D.
This meant that not only was it to be destroyed and have its population ethnically cleansed, an example needed to be made of it as to inspire terror in the surrounding villages. As a result, this massacre was particularly monstrous.
On April 9th 1948, Zionist forces attacked the village of Deir Yassin under the cover of darkness. The Zionist forces shot indiscriminately and killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in their own homes. The number of those murdered ranges from roughly 100 to over 150, depending on estimation.
Perhaps one of the most graphic witness testimonials comes from Othman Akel:
[Warning: Explicit descriptions of torture and violence. Click to skip]
“I saw the Zionist terrorist soldiers ordering the bakery man of the village to throw his son in the oven and burn him alive. The son is holding the clothes of his father tightly and crying from fear and pleading to his father not to do it. the father refuses and then the soldiers hit him in his gut so hard it caused him to fall on the floor. Other soldiers held his son, Abdel Rauf, and threw him in the oven and told his father to toast him well-done meat. Other soldiers took the baker himself , Hussain al-Shareef, and threw him, too, in the oven, telling him, “follow your son, he needs you there”.
Other stories include tying a villager to a tree before burning him, rape and disembowelment. Dead villagers were thrown into pits by the dozen. Many were decapitated or mutilated. Houses were looted and destroyed. A number of prisoners were taken, put in cuffs, and paraded around West Jerusalem as war trophies, before being executed and dumped in the village quarry.
[End of explicit descriptions of torture and violence]
The village posed no threat and was not part of any military action. It is also noteworthy that because the village had a non-aggression pact with the Haganah, it was the Stern and Lehi that carried out this massacre. The Yishuv offered a few words of condemnation, but later the name of Deir Yassin would be seen listed next to successful operations. In the future, there would not even be the charade of caring about non-aggression pacts or the neutrality of villages that were designated for ethnic cleansing.
There was absolutely nothing defensive about these actions. They were designed to change demographic realities that the Zionists found inconvenient, as even the proposed Jewish state would not have had a Jewish majority without additional settlers.
Even internally, the Yishuv acknowledged that it had the power to impose a new status quo regardless of what the Palestinians thought, Cabinet Minister Ezra Danin believed that:
“..the majority of the Palestinian masses accept the partition as a fait accompli and do not believe it possible to overcome or reject it.”
This talking point also neglects to mention the enormous efforts behind the scenes aimed at avoiding war, not to mention ending it early when it did eventually break out. These efforts were heavily sponsored by the United States, who asked in March 1948 that all military activities be ceased, and asked the Yishuv to postpone any declaration of statehood and to give time for negotiations. Outside of Abdallah, the Arabs accepted this initiative by the United States. However, it was rejected by Ben Gurion, who knew that any peaceful implementation of the partition plan meant that the refugees he had expelled earlier would have a chance to return, not to mention that war would offer him a chance to conquer the lands outside the partition plan that he coveted.
This was the Zionist aim from the outset, as even in the earliest discussions of partition, Zionists emphasized that any acceptance of partition was merely tactical and temporary. Ben Gurion argued that:
“[I am] satisfied with part of the country, but on the basis of the assumption that after we build up a strong force following the establishment of the state–we will abolish the partition of the country and we will expand to the whole Land of Israel.”
This was not a one-time occurrence, and neither was it only espoused by Ben Gurion. Internal debates and letters illustrate this time and time again. Even in letters to his family, Ben Gurion wrote that “A Jewish state is not the end but the beginning” detailing that settling the rest of Palestine depended on creating an “elite army”. As a matter of fact, he was quite explicit:
“I don’t regard a state in part of Palestine as the final aim of Zionism, but as a mean toward that aim.”
Chaim Weizmann expected that:
“partition might be only a temporary arrangement for the next twenty to twenty-five years”.
When the Arab states finally reluctantly intervened, they arrived for the most part in the areas designated for the Arab Palestinian state per the 1947 partition plan. They were not interested in war and despite their propaganda and rhetoric, sought different secret opportunities to end the war with Israel, which were rejected by the latter with the goal of maximizing its land-grabs. .
For example, there were negotiations between Israel and Egypt in October 1948, where based on previous correspondences, Egypt was prepared to offer many concessions in exchange for peace, even offering to resettle the Palestinian refugees in the UN decreed “Arab” areas of Palestine. Four days after Israeli politician Eliyahu Sasson went to meet with Heikal, chairman of the Egyptian senate, Ben Gurion launched a new military operation. Naturally, this put an end to any negotiation and with it, any attempt at avoiding bloodshed.
From their side, the Syrians also attempted to end the war at the beginning of 1949, where prime minister al-Azm informed the US ambassador of their desire to stop the fighting. The only conditions they put forward was that Palestinians be afforded the right to self-determination, and the recognition of traditional and historic Syrian fishing rights in certain areas of lake Tiberius. In the same month, a Syrian mediator attempted to meet with Eliyahu Sasson’s assistant in Paris to directly discuss a peace treaty. He was instantly turned down because the Israelis believed that any negotiation with Syria meant discussing the division of water sources, which Israel wanted to control in their entirety.
Following a coup in Damascus, Husni al-Zaim seized power and offered Israel even more concessions. As a matter of fact, he suggested meeting Ben Gurion face to face to negotiate a full-fledged peace. Not only that, he offered absorbing and resettling 300,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria. The US was enthusiastic about this development, the Israelis however, were indifferent and refused the offer. Ben Gurion wanted to force an agreement through military might only. Israeli historian Avi Shlaim wrote that:
“During his brief tenure of power [Zaim] gave Israel every opportunity to bury the hatchet and lay the foundations for peaceful coexistence in the long term. If his overtures were spurned, if his constructive proposals were not put to the test, and if a historic opportunity was frittered away . . . the fault must be sought not with Zaim but on the Israeli side.”
This followed a long series of Zionist rejections to overtures by the native Palestinians. In 1928, for example, the Palestinian leadership voted to allow Zionist settlers equal representation in the future bodies of the state, despite them being a minority who had barely just arrived. The Zionist leadership rejected this, of course. Even after this, in 1947 the Palestinians suggested the formation of a unitary state for all those living between the river and the sea to replace the mandate to no avail. There were many attempts at co-existence, but this simply would not have benefited the Zionist leadership who never intended to come to Palestine to live as equals.
So, in a sense, the 1948 war was only inevitable because Zionist expansionism and aims made it such. From their first arrival in Palestine, the settlers were intent on conquering the entirety of Palestine and erecting an exclusivist ethnocratic regime, and never had the intention of living peacefully with anyone else. As Chairman of the Jewish National Fund, Menachem Usishkin, so bluntly put it:
“..the Arabs do not want us because we want to be the rulers. I will fight for this. I will make sure that we will be the landlords of this land . . . . because this country belongs to us not to them..”
The narrative of Israel emerging from an inevitable war of self-defense has little basis in reality, and is rather a reflection of ideological bias. It serves to justify what was done to the Palestinians and disguise the victimizers as the victims. It is therefore unsurprising that many other myths revolve around this talking point, such as the myth of Israel being a small and outnumbered David facing a mighty Arab Goliath . As with most Israeli talking points, when properly inspected and situated in their historical context, a different image emerges. It falls on us to make this sure that this image is accurately conveyed.
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"pageTitle": "Myth: The war of 1948 was inevitable self-defense for Israel | Decolonize Palestine",
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Attempts to conflate the state of Israel, as well as Zionism, with Judaism has a long and sordid history. Consequently, even the mildest criticisms of Israeli policy can be twisted by bad-faith actors into having racist and even genocidal intent.
There is no doubt that antisemitism has been an incredibly destructive force throughout history, and that the Jewish people have been persecuted and put through pogrom after pogrom, as well as endured attempts at systematic annihilation. This is what makes it more tragic when we see that sometimes this very real history of persecution can be cynically weaponized to legitimize or deny the reality which Palestinians suffer under.
The recent rise to prominence of a distorted and shallow understanding of identity politics has been a boon to this kind of conflation. Suddenly we see Zionism being detached from its material history and presented as an integral part of Jewish identity. This is especially popular in the West, where young Zionists who are raised on propaganda and myths of the Zionist project come to treat it as inseparable from themselves. Here, we see the cynical twisting of social justice language to declare that only Zionists may define what Zionism is -As if it was a subjective phenomenon, with no material reality, founders, history, effects or victims- and that it was an attack on the Jewish people to oppose it or describe it as colonial.Questioning the legitimacy of criticism of Israel has a long history shrouded in many ambiguities. For his part, Natan Sharansky came up with a test to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. He dubbed this approach the “3D test“. According to this test, the criticisms are evaluated based on the following criteria:
1) Demonization. Which he described as when “Israel’s actions are blown out of all sensible proportion”.
I imagine this point is left vague on purpose. How do we quantify “sensible”? Who is qualified to mete out judgment on what constitutes “sensibility”? For example, most Jewish Israelis don’t even view the West Bank as militarily occupied. Surely what’s sensible to them would go against the norms of international law and the very obvious and very well documented facts on the ground. Note that here the issue becomes not that Israel has not committed these alleged actions, but rather that the response is not to his liking.
2) Double standards. Which he described as Israel being “singled out” or that criticism is “applied selectively”.
The idea that Israel is being singled out and treated differently is ubiquitous. However, it should be noted that although Israel is one of the world’s leading countries when it comes to violating the Geneva conventions and ignoring UNSC resolutions, it is still afforded a special place among the nations and considered a democratic civilized first world country and has access to special privileges, trade offers and partnerships not available to any other serial violator of human rights. If Israel is being singled out for anything, it is for its impunity to any real consequences for its violations. Nonetheless, once again, we see that the focus is not on denying the charges against Israel, but rather with quantifying how we should respond to them.
3) Delegitimization. Which he described as questioning “Israel’s fundamental right to exist”.
To begin with, no state has a “fundamental right to exist”, not Israel nor any other in the world. . But beyond that, what does this mean in practice?
It means that the Palestinians, whose entire society and way of life was destroyed, whose villages were dynamited, whose people were ethnically cleansed, must embrace the state that now exists only due to their suffering.
Could you imagine asking any indigenous nation on Turtle Island whether the United States or Canada have a right to exist? Who would demand that these nations rubber-stamp their own dispossession with approval, and lend it legitimacy?
If we naturalize the idea that nation states are inherently legitimate, and champion the false notion that they have a right to exist anchored in international law, then this restricts our ability to critique any country’s foundations. Suddenly, acknowledging the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the attempted ethnocide of the Palestinians people in any meaningful way becomes an infringement upon Israel’s fabled right to exist. I am not speaking of mere empty acknowledgment that functions to signal a superficial settler regret while continuing to profit off the dispossession of the natives, but an acknowledgment that aims to be the first step in righting historical wrongs.
The more you research what constitutes “legitimate” criticism of Israel, the more obvious it becomes that it is a cynical attempt to control the discussion. It really is quite convenient for advocates of Israel, as it diverts attention away from the charges at hand to quibbles about the proper way to criticize Israel. Once again, the speech of colonized peoples is policed and relegated to secondary importance after the comfort of the colonist. | {
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"pageTitle": "Myth: Anti-Zionism is Antisemitism | Decolonize Palestine",
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These anxieties are hardly unique to Jewish Israelis; settlers in many different colonies throughout history have echoed these same sentiments. If we were to take a look at the narrative surrounding anti-Apartheid South Africa activism and boycotts, we would find eerily similar projections and arguments.
For example, In an article for the Globe and Mail under the title “The good side of white South Africa” Kenneth Walker argued that ending the Apartheid system and giving everyone an equal vote would be a “a recipe for slaughter in South Africa”. Others, such as Shingler, echoed similar claims, saying that anti-racist activists were actually not interested in ending Apartheid as a policy, but in South Africa as a society. Others came out to claim these activists were actually motivated by “anti-white racism”, fueled by “Black imperialism”. Political comics displayed a giant soviet bear, bearing down on South Africa declaring “We shall drive South Africa into the Sea!”
Sound familiar?
As Fred Moten once said:
“Settlers always think they’re defending themselves. That’s why they build forts on other people’s land. And then they freak out over the fact that they are surrounded. And they’re still surrounded.“
Similarly, in Israel the rights of Palestinian refugees are positioned as a diametric opposite to the very life of the Israeli settler. The return of said refugees then becomes nothing short of annihilation. Therefore, not only does the settler seek to deny the return of the native refugees, but to attack the entire concept of these refugees having any rights to begin with.
However, in the rare cases where Israeli advocates even acknowledge that Palestinian refugees were wronged, and that their dispersal around the world was due to Israeli actions, the argument becomes that while it is tragic, it is the only way to keep the Jewish people safe. Once again, this pretense is hardly unique to Jewish Israelis, as a matter of fact, similar arguments were used against the abolition of slavery in the United States. For example, Thomas Jefferson likened slavery to a wolf: “we have the wolf by the ear, and we can neither hold him nor safely let him go. Justice is in one scale, and self-preservation in the other.”
How utterly ridiculous this all sounds now.
While the first approach is crude and vile propaganda, designed to instigate fear and panic, it is par for the course for settler societies. Perhaps the second approach stands out a little bit more for its brazen attempt at manipulation. In a final endeavor to center their experiences and erase their victims, settlers frame themselves as the stars of their own tragedy, in the end they were the tragic victims of fate, forced to wield injustice for the sake of self-preservation.
Underlying the logic of both of these approaches are racist assumptions that the colonized are barbaric, bloodthirsty and ruthless. It is a deeply dehumanizing logic, steeped in every colonial and Orientalist trope. The idea that a free Palestine would inevitably lead to genocide comes from the same logic. As a matter of fact, for all the claims of the Palestinians wanting to push Israelis into the sea, only the opposite has occurred in reality. Projecting genocidal intent onto even the mildest calls for justice for Palestinians has long been a staple of Israeli Hasbara, these intellectually dishonest interpretations are par for the course. But what is it exactly that Palestinians are calling for when they chant this phrase?
There is no point in denying the reality on the ground: There exists one nuclear-armed power between the river and the sea, and it is not the Palestinians. While the Palestinian Authority has some limited administrative powers in certain areas, it has absolutely no sovereign powers. As a matter of fact, Israel even determines who is a Palestinian citizen and who is not, as it is in de facto control of the Palestinian citizen registry. Israel exercises its control and hegemony through a matrix of control consisting of a mish-mash of different legal systems and practices for different ethnicities in different areas.
When Palestinians call for freedom from the river to the sea, they are calling for decolonization and the dismantling of this racist colonial entity which dominates their lives, and seek to replace it with a state that would not exist at the expense of the subjugation of others.
This is hardly a new or radical position, such an entity was suggested by the Arab states as a counter-proposal to the 1947 partition plan. Naturally, this was rejected by the Zionists. That we barely ever hear about the offers that the Yishuv/Israel rejected should be an indicator of the nature of mainstream discussions on Palestine and the silencing of Palestinian voices. The Palestinian Liberation Organization also called for establishing a secular, democratic unitary state for all its citizens. Naturally, none of these proposals included genocide, ethnic cleansing or mass murder.
Regardless of your ideological leanings, the reality is that we are already living under a de facto one-state reality. Israeli politicians proudly boast about never allowing a Palestinian state to materialize. Israeli school books already erase the green line. Israel already rules the lives of everyone there. Palestinians calling for the dissolution of this naked colonialism is legitimate and just. The fact that Palestinians are even asked to guarantee the well-being and welfare of their oppressors as they are killed, imprisoned and brutally repressed daily is a testament to their utter dehumanization.
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"articleTitle": "Myth: \"From the river to the sea\" is a call to genocide | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: \"From the river to the sea\" is a call to genocide | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "It is often claimed that \"From the river to the sea\" is tantamount to a call for genocide. This false framing is typical in settler societies who see native liberation as their annihilation.",
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In yet another attempt to legitimize the Israeli take-over of Palestine, it was put forward by advocates of Israel that Palestinians had simply sold their land to the Zionist movement. Later, after witnessing how these lands were transformed into a paradise, Palestinians came to regret their decision and claimed that Israel stole their land. This conveniently ties together multiple Zionist myths and talking points into one neat package.
While this fairytale would certainly appeal to anyone trying to morally absolve themselves from the implications of their expropriation of large swathes of territory, unfortunately for them, detailed land purchase records exist. I’m sure you can already tell that these records dispel this ridiculous assertion.
The British were meticulous record keepers, and we have detailed numbers of the land purchased by the various Zionist organizations:For reference, Mandatory Palestine as a whole had a territory of 26,625,600 dunams. The most generous estimations of Zionist land holdings were 2,000,000 dunums by 1948. For reference, a dunam is 1000 square meters. An acre is four dunams.
As you can see, at most the combined Zionist purchasing power could barely acquire 5-7% of the land, depending on source. Needless to say, huge swathes of it being strewn around the entire territory and being non-contiguous. Due to the ease with which this talking point can be debunked, it gradually fell out of favor -relatively speaking- among Israelis. However, it has since seen a resurgence among Arab Zionists desperate for normalization with Israel. In their eyes, this myth needs to be true so that they can blame the Palestinians for their own dispossession and legitimize their cynical political maneuvering.This talking point is further undermined by Israel’s own legislation and policy following the Nakba . The ethnic cleansing of Palestine would not stop after the war of 1948, Palestinians in the Naqab, as well as those close to the ceasefire lines would continue to face mass expulsions into the 1950s. In the same period, Israel issued the infamous Absentee’s Property Law. This law was instrumental in systematically seizing the property of all the refugees it had created, this included their homes, farms, land and even the contents of their bank accounts. Through this law, the state took control of everything remaining behind when the refugees were expelled, and if not contested or claimed, they would then become the property of the state, free to be utilized in any way it saw fit. Given the fact that any refugee attempting to return was shot, you can see how this law served merely as a fig leaf to legitimize what can only be described as naked theft. A step which would be unnecessary had the Zionists actually purchased the land on which Israel was erected, as some ridiculously claim.
This in conjunction with the Land Acquisitions Law allowed for the mass transfer of the entire Palestinian economy to the Israeli state. Practically overnight, the state gained control of over 739,750 agricultural acres, vast majority of which were of excellent quality, 73,000 houses, 7800 workshops and 6 million pounds. This dropped the cost of settling a Zionist family in Palestine from 8000$ to 1500$, effectively subsidizing the creation of the Israeli state and kickstarting its economy.
So, while we have already shown that the record shows no such large-scale purchase of the land as asserted, let us take a deeper look at these smaller purchases and discuss their implications.
First, it is important to note that the majority of the land purchased by Zionists were not sold by Palestinians, but rather by large absentee landlords, living mostly in Lebanon and Syria. Khalidi estimates that a little over the third (of the 5-7%) were sold by absentee landlords of Palestinian origin. And only 6% of the (5-7%) were sold by local landlords or peasants. These estimates are mostly corroborated by Walter Lehn and based on reports from the Jewish Agency that confirmed that the majority of land purchased was from large absentee landlords.
There is also evidence that suggests that these local sellers did not always wish to sell their land. For example, one mode of land extraction was when the Jewish National Fund gave loans to farmers with the precondition that their land would be used as collateral, and when the farmer ultimately defaulted on their payments, they would take possession of the land. In other cases, these peasants thought they were simply selling land to new neighbors. They did not know that they were selling their land for the erection of a new foreign colonial state that sought to dispossess them.
Furthermore, even if the percentage of the territories purchased by Zionist settlers was higher, this would not entitle them to sovereignty over it.
Ultimately, the question of Palestine is not about property rights. It is about settler colonialism and the attempted ethnocide of an entire people. Palestinians deserve to return to their homes and live in dignity, regardless how much private property they lost or didn’t lose.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: Palestinians sold their land to the Zionist settlers | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: Palestinians sold their land to the Zionist settlers | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Claiming that Palestinians sold most of their land to the settlers serves to justify ethnic cleansing and Israeli expansionism. It is also absolutely false.",
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Stop me if you’ve heard this one before:
The miraculous genesis of Israel was achieved through a heroic and desperate battle for survival. Outnumbered and outgunned, the fledgling Jewish state held its own against overwhelming military odds and persevered.
I’m certain that such a narrative makes for some great story-telling, not to mention indoctrination; tales of plucky underdogs overcoming their powerful bullies have always resonated with people and elicited their sympathies. However, as far as foundational tales in the context of nation building tend to be, they are more mythology than reality. Such tall stories cannot withstand even elementary research or scrutiny.
It is not difficult to understand the allure of such a narrative for Israelis and their supporters, as it functions on multiple levels. It evokes a modern-day David and Goliath, which bestows moral superiority to the Zionist colonists, further reinforcing notions that they were favored by God, karma, justice, the universe or whatever metaphysical force you believe in (or don’t). This interplays wonderfully with the claimed Israeli purity of arms (Tohar HaNeshek) where Israeli weapons are framed as “pure” because they are used only in self-defence and never against innocents . It also serves to augment Zionist claims of technical superiority over the natives, as a small number of the enlightened and civilized colonists managed to hold out against seven whole nations! If this isn’t further proof that they are more deserving of the land by virtue of their ingenuity and strength then nothing is.
Unfortunately, as many myths regarding Israel tend to be, this is an enduring one that is still widespread today, especially within Israel itself. Up until relatively recently it was virtually unchallenged in the world outside the Arab states and those sympathetic to the Palestinian cause. It began to be challenged seriously with the advent of the so-called Israeli New Historians, who with access to declassified Israeli war archives offered a “new”, more critical look at Israel’s foundational myths. As far as Orientalism goes, this is nothing new, Palestinian and Arab claims are often dismissed as biased and unscientific, while Israeli claims are accepted with hardly any scrutiny at all. For example, the Palestinian narrative of the Nakba, including acknowledging the ethnic cleansing and war crimes committed by Zionist militias did not even earn a glance from Western audiences until it was confirmed by Israeli scholars, but this is a different topic for a different article.
Avi Shlaim argues that the disconnect between the Israeli narrative and reality is further aided by the fact that:
“Most of the voluminous literature on the war was written not by professional historians but by participants, by politicians, soldiers, official historians and by a large host of sympathetic chroniclers, journalists, biographers and hagiographers.”
Therefore, most “historical” writings on the war are relegated to the realm of political claim-making rather than honestly reflecting the history and events of the war.
With this in mind, what does the historical data say on the question of Israelis being outnumbered in the 1948 war?
Unsurprisingly, the data says that it was in fact the Arab armies which were outnumbered. The actual debate here is about the degree to which the Arab armies were outnumbered. Let us look at a few sources:
Let us begin with the numbers of John Glubb, commander of the Arab Legion during the war, who estimated that on May 15th -the outbreak of the war- the numbers of troops were roughly as follows:
Country
Number of soldiers
Egypt
10000
Transjordan
4500
Iraq
3000
Syria
3000
Lebanon
1000
Arab total
21500
Israel total
65000
How could this be? How could such a numerical advantage be swept under the rug and be so grossly misrepresented? Perhaps as commander of the Arab Legion, he purposefully exaggerated the number of Israeli troops, and downplayed the number of Arab troops.
Let us look at another source, this time the estimates of the brothers Kimche, who have been very vocal about their Zionism. They estimated the balance of power on May the 15th as such:
Country
Number of soldiers
ALA
2000
Egypt
10000
Transjordan
4500
Iraq
3000
Syria
3000
Lebanon
1000
Arab total
23500
Israel total
25000
The main differences in these estimates, is that Kimche added the Arab Liberation Army to their estimates for the Arab side, and trimmed the Israeli total down to 25000. Even in this very conservative estimate, the Israeli army outnumbered every single Arab army combined. But what is the reason for such a large discrepancy? How did 65000 become 25000?
Walid Khalidi sheds some light on this, as he differentiates between first-line mobilized Zionist soldiers and second-line troops in the settlements. Glubb partially accounted for these in his numbers, Kimche elected to omit them completely. Here are Khalidi’s numbers:
Country
Number of soldiers
ALA
3830
Palestinian Arabs
2563
Egypt
2800
Transjordan
4500
Iraq
4000
Syria
1876
Lebanon
700
Arab total
20269
Israel first-line
27000
Israel second-line
90000+
Israel total
117000+
Shlaim goes even further and estimates that the number of first-line Israeli troops was at 35000 on May 15th. So even if we were to omit these second-line forces -for some reason- there is a solid scholarly consensus that it was actually the Arab armies that were outnumbered. Remember that these numbers are for May 15th, the first day of the war. The numbers did not remain static. As a matter of fact, the longer the war went on for, the more the numerical gap between the sides widened in Israel’s favor. Between March and July, almost 13,000 trained men arrived from abroad to join the war on the Israeli side, by mid-June Ben Gurion noted that the IDF stood at 41,000, in addition to the 90,000 second line units as a complement to the IDF. There were efforts to increase these 90000 to 112000. The Arab states also reinforced their armies, but they were never able to keep up with the numbers of the Israeli side. At the end stages of the war, the Israeli army actually outnumbered the Arab armies by 2 to 1. This is not even delving into the qualitative difference in troops, as many troops on the Israeli side had combat experience from the world wars as well as superior equipment and tools after the first truce.
However, another aspect that is often ignored in this narrative is the inter-Arab rivalries and disunity that were the main cause for the intervention in 1948. Contrary to popular framings of the 1948 war, and despite their fiery rhetoric, the Arab countries and leaders were not interested in a war with Israel. Barely coming out from under colonialism, their actions during the war showed that they never really joined the war with eliminationist intent, as the popular narrative goes. The Jordanians were more interested in acquiring the West Bank as a stepping stone to their real ambition, which was Greater Syria. As a matter of fact, there is ample evidence of collusion between the Israelis and Jordanians during the 1948 war, with deals under the table pretty much gifting parts of the West Bank to Jordan in return for not interfering in other areas. This is why Glubb Pasha, commander of the Arab Legion, described the 1948 war as a “phoney war“.
The Egyptians intervened in an attempt to counter the Hashemite power-play that could change the balance of power in the region. This is why the Arab armies generally intervened in the territories of the mandate destined to be part of the Palestinian Arab state according to the 1947 partition plan, and with very few exceptions, stayed away from the area destined to be part of the Jewish state. Yes, support for Palestine and Palestinians played a large role in the legitimization of such interventions, but they were never the real reason behind them. As per usual when it comes to international relations, interests are always at the center of any maneuver despite the espoused noble and altruistic motivations.
Ultimately, Israel enjoyed a number of advantages which are often downplayed if not completely omitted from this “underdog” mythical version of history:
Significant superiority in numbers, technical and military training courtesy of veterans of the world wars, sympathetic allies in Europe who smuggled advanced weaponry and equipment and troops into the country, as well as a centralized command which ensured unity in goals, organization and tactics.
In short, there was nothing “miraculous” about the Israeli victory in 1948. The better organized, better armed and most numerous side won. This is why when spreading this narrative the only numbers mentioned are the number of Arab states that wanted to team up on Israel but still couldn’t win. This is an attempt to imply numerical superiority on the side of the Arab states without explicitly claiming it, as it is complete nonsense when even briefly researched.
The endurance of this myth stems from the desperate need of the Zionist settlers for the illusion of moral superiority in the foundation of their colony. After all, it is hard to sell the scrappy, righteous underdog survivor story if the numbers show you to be the top dog in this situation. This is not a uniquely Israeli quality, however, as in most foundational narratives, it is mostly myth legitimizing horrible acts of cruelty. One need look no further than foundational myths in other settler colonies like the United States or Canada to see how twisting and omitting history is used to legitimize the powers that be.
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Said, Edward W. The war for Palestine: rewriting the history of 1948. Vol. 15. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Institut des études palestiniennes (Beyrouth). From haven to conquest: Readings in Zionism and the Palestine problem until 1948. Ed. Walid Khalidi. No. 2. Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1971.
Shlaim, Avi. Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist movement, and the partition of Palestine. Clarendon Press, 1988.
Shlaim, Avi. “The debate about 1948.” International Journal of Middle East Studies 27.3, 1995: 287-304.
Pappe, Ilan. Britain and the Arab-Israeli conflict, 1948-51. Springer, 1988.
Flapan, Simha. The birth of Israel: Myths and realities. London: Croom Helm, 1987.
Hughes, Matthew. “The Conduct of Operations: Glubb Pasha, the Arab Legion, and the First Arab–Israeli War, 1948–49.” War in History 26.4, 2019: 539-562. | {
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While by no means the first to put forward this myth, it was greatly popularized by Joan Peters in her book From Time Immemorial, where she attempted to empirically “prove” this, by inspecting population records from various sources. Needless to say, that at the time it was a smash-hit among Zionists in the United States. Finally, there was this meticulous scholarly work that proved once and for all that the Palestinians as a people were fictitious, while simultaneously relieving Israel from all moral responsibility for creating millions of refugees. Praise for the book rained in from every corner, Saul Bellow wrote that “millions of people the world over, smothered by false history and propaganda, will be grateful for this clear account of the origins of the Palestinians.” Theodor White, Barbara Tuchman, Walter Reich, Lucy Dawidowicz, Elie Wiesel and many, many others lauded the book for its insight and analysis.
Wow, this seems like the real deal!
However, before I start packing up my belongings to exile my fictitious self, perhaps some further investigation is warranted.
The main argument of this myth relies on so much misdirection, cherry-picking of data, outright falsification of sources, jumping to conclusions and relying on assumptions, to the point where I struggle to imagine any of these reviewers actually having read the book. At least not without overlooking enough egregious academic misconduct to land you in front of a disciplinary committee. The book was such naked, unsubstantiated propaganda that Noam Chomsky thinks it was probably put together by some intelligence agency, with Peters merely signing her name onto it.
Peter’s main argument is that the growth of the Palestinian Arab population was not natural, and was rather the result of some secret migration that was somehow left undocumented. This is done mainly through a tortured twisting of her sources and purposefully omitting qualifiers and any data which contradicts her assertion.
Naturally, I am not the first to write about Peter’s manipulation of sources and bad faith interpretation of data, nor will I be the last. I will not list in this article every single inconsistency or error in Peter’s writing, as that would probably take a book in itself. Thankfully, this work has already been done for us, and you can browse detailed breakdowns of Peter’s work in the “Further reading” section. Perhaps the best known debunking of Peter’s book comes from Norman Finkelstein, who meticulously documented the problems in detail. For example, Finkelstein uses this claim to illustrate the way Peter’s manipulates quotes and data:
Peters “relies” on Carr-Saunders World Population to present the claim that:
“Medical and sanitary progress has made little headway among the Palestinian Arabs as yet, and cannot account for any considerable fall in the death-rate.”
However, if you are as diligent as Finkelstein, and check the source being relied upon, it paints quite a different picture:
“Medical and sanitary progress, so far as it affects the personal health and customs, has made little headway among the Palestinian Arabs as yet, and cannot account for any considerable fall in the death-rate. But general administrative measures, in the region of quarantine, for example, have been designed in the light of modern knowledge and have been adequately carried out. Measures of this kind can be enforced almost overnight. … Therefore we can find in these administrative changes, brought about by the British occupation of Palestine, what is in any case a tenable explanation of the natural increase of population among Arabs.”
That is to say, that medical and sanitary progress in the personal health and customs had not yet made headway, however, implemented administrative measures such as quarantines and other measures had been implemented and is seen by Carr-Saunders as a likely explanation for the decrease in death rates.
Notice how dropping the important signifier, and removing the information from its original context completely flipped the conclusions of the paragraph. This practice is repeated often throughout the entire book. Another method used to inflate numbers to support her argument, is to suggest that any evidence of something is but “the tip of the iceberg” to quote Finkelstein. She asserts that since the British turned a blind eye to Arab illegal immigration, then only the most flagrant cases were actually deported. That means that for every reported deportation of an Arab immigrant from Palestine, there must have been many others whose conduct was not so flagrant as to be deported. Naturally, she arrived to the conclusion that the British turned a blind eye to Arab immigration through tortured manipulation of data, similar to the example shown above.
It should be noted that this myth was difficult to argue even when it first emerged. For example, the Anglo-American Survey of Palestine in 1946 concluded that:
That each [temporary migration into Palestine] may lead to a residue of illegal permanent settlers is possible, but, if the residue were of significant size, it would be reflected in systematic disturbances of the rates of Arab vital occurrences. No such systematic disturbances are observed. It is sometimes alleged that the high rate of Arab natural increase is due to a large concealed immigration from the neighbouring countries. This is an erroneous inference. Researches reveal that the high rate of fertility of the Moslem Arab woman has remained unchanged for half a century. The low rate of Arab natural increase before 1914 was caused by:
(a) the removal in significant numbers of men in the early nubile years for military service in other parts of the Ottoman Empire, many of whom never returned and others of whom returned in the late years of life; and (b) the lack of effective control of endemic and epidemic diseases that in those years led to high mortality rates.
There is also ample evidence that her sources are often outright false or fabricated, for example Anthony Lewis brings up how Peters cites a report by the Institute for Palestine Studies which”…found that 68 percent of the Arabs who became refugees in 1948 ‘left without seeing an Israeli soldier.”’ Lewis informs us, that the report “was actually about refugees in the 1967 war, and the percentage was of just 37 refugees who were studied.” Other sources are utterly useless and unreliable, such as the journals and hearsay of random European travelers to Palestine, which we’re supposed to believe over a century of population and census data.
Fortunately for us, the love affair with this book did not spread outside the United States. As a matter of fact, it was severely panned by critics in the United Kingdom, and even failed to find traction in Israel itself, with Israeli academics and historians calling it nonsense.
Unfortunately for us, the book is still widespread in the United States, and has received multiple reprints, even today and after its thorough debunking, it still maintains a 4.5 out of 5 star rating on Amazon and other online book retailers.
At the risk of repeating myself, but as always, propaganda does not care for facts, but for political utility, and in this case, it is naked to see that the political message is all that matters. I find it difficult to believe that all these “esteemed” reviewers somehow managed to miss all the issues apparent in the book. Sadly, this belief is reinforced by the fact that even when the problems with the book were made apparent, barely any of these reviewers recanted their position. Even Elie Wiesel, who was made aware of the problems early on never recanted his support for the book, choosing to remain silent instead, as his blurb, praise and name continued to be printed in each subsequent edition of the book. I would have liked to remind the late Mr. Wiesel that silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented, but I suppose he always did have a blind spot for Palestinian torment.
Ultimately, Peters’ book was relegated to the dustbin of history, at least in academia. It is exceedingly difficult to quote from this book and be taken seriously as a scholar. However, the pseudo-scientific illusion of empiricism that undergirds her writing still animates many dehumanizing myths regarding Palestinians to this day.
Peters fabricates, misrepresents and cherry-picks her way through hundreds of pages in an attempt to deny the existence of the Palestinian people and absolve Israel of its original sin. Her attempts have been, and will remain unsuccessful. The truth tends to find a way, if not now, then in the future, and as the popular saying goes: “You can’t cover the sun with a sieve”.
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Said, Edward W., and Christopher Hitchens, eds. Blaming the victims: Spurious scholarship and the Palestinian question. Verso, 2001.
Finkelstein, Norman G. Image and reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Verso, 2003.
Kamel, Lorenzo. Imperial perceptions of Palestine: British influence and power in late Ottoman times. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Chomsky, Noam. “The fate of an honest intellectual.” Understanding Power: The indispensable Chomsky, 2002: 244-248.
Lewis, Anthony. ABROAD AT HOME; There Were No Indians, The New York Times, January 13th, 1986.
Gilmour, Ian, and David Gilmour. “Pseudo-Travellers.” Journal of Palestine studies, 14.4, 1985: 129-141.
Porath, Yehoshua. “Mrs. Peters’s Palestine.” New York Review of Books, 1986. | {
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"pageTitle": "Myth: Palestinians were economic migrants who moved to Palestine after Zionist induced prosperity | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Framing Palestinians as outsiders with no ties to the land is yet another attempt to justify their ethnic cleansing. This talking point is based on propaganda with no basis in reality.",
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“Do you affirm Israel’s right to exist?”
We would be surprised if you were at all involved in Palestinian activism and had not come across this question in one form or the other. This question often comes out of the blue and is unrelated to the discussion at hand. This is because it is not asked in good faith or to further any kind of dialogue, but rather to create a “gotcha” moment and derail the conversation.
To begin with, you will notice that you never ever hear of a state’s right to exist outside of the context of Israel. This is because this right does not exist. People have a right to self-determination, but this does not mean that a state -any state- has an inherent right to exist. After all, there are thousands of ethnic groups in the world and not even 200 countries. States either exist or they don’t, and as we’ve discussed [before], states and nations are not static entities, as they often change in form, parameters and even names over their history. Could you imagine the argument that former Yugoslavia had a right to exist? Who would have bestowed this right? Who would have upheld it, and how?
From the get-go, this is a ridiculous question that has absolutely no legal backing in international law or international relations. You’ve never heard, for example, of Belgium affirming the right of Canada to exist as a state.
To reiterate, the goal of this question is not to contribute to dialogue, but rather to shut it down. This is because there has been a concentrated effort on part of Israel and its advocates to conflate Israel with the Jewish people as a whole. When you combine this with long history of persecution of the Jewish people, any hesitation in answering this question in the affirmative is enough to paint you as a bloodthirsty antisemite. This is further aided by the typical settler anxiety shared by beneficiaries of settler colonialism everywhere, where any alternative to the current oppressive matrix of control is framed as genocidal in intent . We saw this particularly in South Africa, where it was argued that full equality would mean the complete destruction of not only South Africa as a state, but the annihilation of the white minority entirely.
But let us try and imagine this question in any other settler colonial context: Could you imagine asking any indigenous nation on Turtle Island whether the United States or Canada have a right to exist? Keep in mind that these states could only exist through the destruction of indigenous life, language and culture.
It doesn’t feel right, does it? How could anyone demand that these nations rubber-stamp their own dispossession with approval, and lend it legitimacy?
If we naturalize the idea that nation states are inherently legitimate, and champion the false notion that they have a right to exist anchored in international law, then this restricts our ability to critique any country’s foundations. Suddenly, acknowledging the Zionist ethnic cleansing of Palestine and the attempted ethnocide of the Palestinian people in any meaningful way becomes an infringement upon Israel’s fabled right to exist. By “meaningful” we are not speaking of mere empty acknowledgment that functions to signal a superficial settler regret while continuing to profit off the dispossession of the natives, but a material acknowledgment that aims to be the first step in righting historical wrongs. | {
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"pageTitle": "Myth: Israel (or any other state) has a right to exist | Decolonize Palestine",
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From its earliest days, the Zionist movement was well-aware of the existence of the Palestinian natives. Even though the claim was “A land without a people for a people without a land” what they truly meant is that the land had no people worth talking about. This becomes exceedingly clear when reading the discussions of early Zionists, such as Chaim Weizmann, who when asked about the inhabitants of Palestine responded with:
“The British told us that there are there some hundred thousands negroes [Kushim] and for those there is no value.”.
You can clearly see the influence and internalization of racist European colonial rhetoric. This attitude would become a cornerstone of Zionism as a political and colonial movement .
Denying the existence of the natives, or their validity or right to exist, is par for the course for many a colonizing movement. This is merely another formulation of the Terra Nullius argument which was used to legitimize settler-colonialism all over the globe .
With the arrival of the first Zionist colonists it became apparent that there was no hope of establishing an ethnocracy without first getting rid of the Palestinians already living there. This was encapsulated by an overheard conversation documented by Moshe Smilansky in 1891:
“We should go east, into Transjordan. That would be a test for our movement.”
“Nonsense… isn’t there enough land in Judea and Galilee?”
“The land in Judea and Galilee is occupied by the Arabs.”
“Well, we’ll take it from them.”
“How?” (Silence.)
“A revolutionary doesn’t ask naive questions.”
“Well then, ‘revolutionary,’ tell us how.”
“It is very simple, we’ll harass them until they get out… Let them go to Transjordan.”
“And are we going to abandon all of Transjordan?” asks an anxious voice.
“As soon as we have a big settlement here we’ll seize the land, we’ll become strong, and then we’ll take care of the Left Bank [of the Jordan River], we’ll expel them from there, too. Let them go back to the Arab countries.”
This is hardly the only example of such candid conversations about the colonist’s intentions towards the Palestinians. There was never an intention to settle Palestine and live in peace with the natives.
When asked about the deprivation of Palestinians from their rights as a result of the Zionist project, Moshe Beilinson, close associate of Ben Gurion stated in 1929 that:
“There is no answer to this question nor can there be, and we are not obliged to provide it because we are not responsible for the fact that a particular individual man was born in a certain place, and not several kilometres away from there.”
In 1930, Menahem Ussishkin, Chairman of the Jewish National Fund and a member of the Jewish Agency executive, declared that:
“We must continually raise the demand that our land be returned to our possession….lf there are other inhabitants there, they must be transferred to some other place. We must take over the land. We have a greater and nobler ideal than preserving several hundred thousands of Arab fellahin.”
There are dozens of other examples of such public statements, this is of course not even taking into account what was being said behind closed doors. But it is obvious that for the Zionist movement to succeed, the Palestinians needed to be removed from Palestine. Anything else would not allow for the erection of an exclusivist Zionist ethnocracy.
The idea of removing the Palestinians was rather popular among Zionist leaders decades before any kind of war or conflict, and was even seen as a necessity by many. Naturally, this set the stage for the ethnic cleansing that occurred between 1947-1950 (and beyond).It is within this context that Plan D (Tochnit Dalet) was developed by the Haganah high command. Although it was adopted in May 1948, the origins of this plan goes back a few years further. Yigael Yadin reportedly started working on it in 1944. This plan entailed the expansion of the borders of the Jewish state, well beyond partition, and any Palestinian village within these borders that resisted would be destroyed and have its inhabitants expelled. This included cities that were supposed to be part of the Arab Palestinian state after partition, such as Nazareth, Acre and Lydda.
Ben Zohar, the biographer of Ben Gurion wrote that:
“In internal discussions, in instructions to his men, the Old Man [Ben-Gurion] demonstrated a clear position: it would be better that as few a number as possible of Arabs would remain in the territory of the [Jewish] state.”
Although it could be argued that Plan D did not outline the exact villages and cities to be ethnically cleansed in an explicit way, it was clear that the various Yishuv forces were operating with its instructions in mind.
To further reinforce my argument that the ethnic cleansing of Palestine was not some byproduct of warfare, but rather deliberate policy -regardless of degree of central organization- I would like to share some rather explicit and deliberate examples of the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.Deir Yassin was a small, pastoral village west of Jerusalem. The village was determined to remain neutral, and as such refused to have Arab soldiers stationed there. Not only were they neutral, they also had a non-aggression pact signed with the Haganah. This, however, did not save it from its fate, as it was in the territory of the Jewish state lined out in Plan D.
This meant that not only was it to be destroyed and have its population ethnically cleansed, an example needed to be made of it as to inspire terror in the surrounding villages. As a result this massacre was particularly monstrous.
On April 9th 1948, Zionist forces attacked the village of Deir Yassin under the cover of darkness. The Zionist forces shot indiscriminately and killed dozens of Palestinian civilians in their own homes. The number of those murdered ranges from roughly 100 to over 150, depending on estimation.
Perhaps one of the most graphic witness testimonials comes from Othman Akel:
[Warning: Explicit descriptions of torture and violence. Click to skip]
“I saw the Zionist terrorist soldiers ordering the bakery man of the village to throw his son in the oven and burn him alive. The son is holding the clothes of his father tightly and crying from fear and pleading to his father not to do it. the father refuses and then the soldiers hit him in his gut so hard it caused him to fall on the floor. Other soldiers held his son, Abdel Rauf, and threw him in the oven and told his father to toast him well-done meat. Other soldiers took the baker himself , Hussain al-Shareef, and threw him, too, in the oven, telling him, “follow your son, he needs you there”.
Other stories include tying a villager to a tree before burning him, rape and disembowelment. Dead villagers were thrown into pits by the dozen. Many were decapitated or mutilated. Houses were looted and destroyed. A number of prisoners were taken, put in cuffs, and paraded around West Jerusalem as war trophies, before being executed and dumped in the village quarry.
[End of explicit descriptions of torture and violence]
It is important to note that this massacre was carried out before the 1948 war. It posed no threat and was not part of any military action. More recently, Zionist revisionists have tried to frame the massacre as a battle because the village guards put up resistance to the invading militias. In typical Zionist fashion, I’m certain that even had the villagers lain on the ground and died without resistance, they would have found a way to blame them for their deaths anyway.
It is also noteworthy that because the village had a non-aggression pact with the Haganah, it was the Stern and Lehi that carried out this massacre. The Yishuv offered a few words of condemnation, but later the name of Deir Yassin would be seen listed next to successful operations. In the future, there would not even be the charade of caring about non-aggression pacts or the neutrality of villages that were designated for ethnic cleansing.Al Faluja and Iraq al Manshiyya were Palestinian villages east of Gaza. They were both home to a pocket of Egyptian troops who were assigned to defend the villages, and were besieged since October 1948. On February 1949, an armistice agreement was reached between Egypt and Israel, where the Egyptian troops and all military personnel would evacuate the pocket and hand it over to Israel.
One of the conditions of this armistice agreement was that the civilians of these villages were to remain safe and unharmed. Israel agreed to this. However, as soon as the villages were under Israeli control they were subjected to a merciless campaign of intimidation to push the villagers to leave, which included beatings, looting, attempted rapes, threats, and the employment of the so called “whispering campaigns”. It is speculated by Benny Morris that the decision was most likely approved by high ranking Israeli officials, but of course, as with Deir Yassin they feigned outrage without doing anything about it.Al Dawayma was a Palestinian village that lay west of Al-Khalil (Hebron). According to Haganah records, the village was considered “Very friendly”. Meaning it had not hosted or participated in any attacks against the Yishuv. This, like Deir Yassin, did not spare them the brutality of the Zionist militias.
On October 8th 1948, the village was occupied by Battalion 89 of Brigade Eight, who committed some depraved acts upon the villagers. 20 armored cars invaded the village while soldiers attacked from another flank. The village guards couldn’t even respond, and the village fell with very little resistance.
The soldiers got out of their vehicles and started indiscriminately shooting villagers to force a panic and hurried depopulation of the village. Hundreds were killed, many of which were women and children. Villagers attempted to seek refuge in mosques and a close by shrine were shot by the dozens. Acts of barbarity were also reported by Zionist troops:
[Warning: Explicit descriptions of torture and violence. Click to skip]
Babies skulls cracked open, women raped and burned alive in houses, villagers stabbed to death.
[End of explicit descriptions of torture and violence]
The village posed no threat, and was merely in the way of the expanding Jewish state that necessitated a Jewish demographic majority. So it had to be eradicated.
These are just only a few of the examples of Palestinian villages that were destroyed and depopulated outside the context of combat or war. As a matter of fact, ethnic cleansing operations continued well into the 1950s, a long time after the war was over.
The ethnic cleansing of Palestinians was deliberate and necessary for the creation of Israel. The evidence that it was planned and not simply a byproduct of the fighting is overwhelming. Israel was not born in a vacuum, its birth was preconditioned on making the native Palestinians disappear.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
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"pageTitle": "Myth: The ethnic cleansing of Palestine was an accident of war | Decolonize Palestine",
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One enduring talking point often employed when discussing the depopulation of Palestinian villages is that the Palestinians voluntarily evacuated their communities at the request of the invading Arab armies. It is not difficult to see the allure of such a claim for Israel. In one stroke it clears itself completely of any blame for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and transfers that responsibility onto the Palestinians themselves, not to mention the neighboring Arab countries.
Alluring as it may be, unfortunately for Israel, it is a myth with little basis in reality. Let us review the evidence:
First, we must consider the magnitude of the Arab League or the Arab Higher Command evacuating an entire people. We are talking about hundreds of thousands of people living in hundreds of communities from the Jalil to the Naqab. This is by no means a simple or brief task. It is very difficult to imagine an order of such scale not leaving behind a trace of some sort. There must have been some mention -even if in passing- of the orders telling the Palestinians to leave. Furthermore, orders such as these do not materialize suddenly, there must have been a preceding process where the decision was taken. These meetings or debates would surely be reflected in some minutes somewhere, right?
The answer is a resounding “no”, because no decision of the sort ever came from these sources. Historian Walid Al-Khalidi reviewed every press release of the Arab league, where every critical announcement was made without a trace of such orders. Not content with official pronouncements, he then examined the minutes of the meetings of the Arab League General Assembly from the relevant periods, there was still no trace of an evacuation order. Determined to be as thorough as possible, he then went through the minutes of the Iraqi Parliamentary Committee which was formed after the 1948 war to report to King Faisal on the causes of the Arab defeat. Once again, zero evidence was found to suggest such orders existed.However, Khalidi’s research revealed that on the 8th of March 1948, a memo circulated by the Arab Higher Command urged the heads of all Arab governments not to grant entry permits to Palestinians, except for a few exceptions. It also requested that residence permits not be renewed for Palestinians already living in the Arab countries. This was animated by the logic of having as many Palestinians as possible in Palestine to help defend their homeland. This seems to directly contradict Zionist claims on the matter. How could the Arab states order Palestinians to leave their country but at the same time not allow them to?
Further investigation is warranted.
If these orders exist, then I’m confident that the various newspapers across the Arab world would surely mention them in some form. Perhaps in a passing comment, or even an opinion piece somewhere?
Not even once.
But do you know what this foray into these newspaper archives revealed instead? That there were frequent mentions of not allowing Palestinians of military age to enter various Arab countries. There were also some calls for sending back Palestinian refugees fleeing the violence which sometimes bordered on demonization.
For something that supposedly exists -according to Israel- these orders have been incredibly hard to pin down. If anything, the deeper we investigate the matter, the more obvious it becomes that the Arab states did not want Palestinian refugees within their borders, let alone the entirety of the Palestinian people.
Perhaps radio broadcasts could shed some light on this matter, for if such an order existed the radio would be the fastest and most efficient way to broadcast it. Luckily for us, there are ways to investigate this, and British researcher Erskine Childers has already done the investigation for us:
“The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) monitored all Middle Eastern broadcasts throughout 1948. The records, and companion ones by a United States monitoring unit, can be seen at the British Museum. There was not a single order or appeal, or suggestion about evacuation from Palestine, from any Arab radio station, inside or outside Palestine, in 1948. There is a repeated monitored record of Arab appeals, even flat orders, to the civilians of Palestine to stay put.”
Indeed, there are multiple occasions where not only were Palestinians told to stay put and not leave their lands, but that they would suffer punishment should they abandon their houses and flee.
Furthermore, had the Palestinians chose to voluntarily leave their villages, then the brief first or second truces in the fighting would have been ideal opportunities to do so. It is worthy of attention that during those periods, not only did Palestinians stay put in their villages, those who had been expelled earlier attempted to return to their original communities, and were greeted by Israeli gunfire.
All the empirical evidence lies in stark contradiction to the Israeli talking point. There is absolutely no proof to even begin entertaining this as a main cause for the exodus of the Palestinians. To this day, there has not been a single citation, or a shred of paper pointing to such blanket orders. Not one radio station has been named, or even a date given for when these alleged orders were broadcasted. They are a complete fabrication with little basis in reality. It is not a coincidence that no specificities are given when this talking point is employed. | {
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When we speak of Israel as a settler colony, we refer to a very specific phenomenon. Settler colonialism differs from classic colonialism, in that settler colonialism only initially and temporarily relies on an empire for their existence. In many situations, the colonists aren’t even from the empire supporting them, and end up fighting the very sponsor that ensured their survival in the first place. Another difference is that settlers are not merely interested in the resources of these new lands, but also in the lands themselves, and to carve out a new homeland for themselves in the area.
The obvious issue here is that these lands were already inhabited by other people before their arrival.
This is when the settler “logic of elimination” comes into play. Coined by scholar Patrick Wolfe, this means that the settlers needed to develop not only moral justifications for the removal of the natives, but also the practical means to ensure its success. This could take the form of ethnic cleansing, genocide or other gruesome tools of ethnocide.
If you’re at all familiar with Zionist talking points, you can see this logic of elimination in motion. “A land without a people for a people without a land“, “there is no such thing as a Palestinian“, “Israel made the desert bloom” and many other talking points illustrate this perfectly. For example, you can immediately see how denying the existence of Palestinians resembles the Terra Nullius argument used by colonists all over the world . All of these talking points are aimed at justifying the dispossession of the Palestinians and legitimizing Zionist claims to the land they wished to colonize. As for the practical means to remove the natives, the Nakba remains a testimony to such crimes.
The claim that Zionism is merely Jewish self-determination also conflates the Jewish people with Zionism, an ideology finding its origins in Europe in the late 1800s. At the time, the Jewish people were largely uninterested in Zionism. As a matter of fact many Jewish groups were fiercely anti-Zionist. The attempt to conflate the two is an attempt to give legitimacy to self-professed settlers from Europe, and portray any criticism of the Zionist project as inherently antisemitic.
Yet in the early days, the Zionist movement was astonishingly honest about its existence as a form of colonialism. For example, Herzl, one of the founders of political Zionism wrote in 1902 to infamous colonizer Cecil Rhodes, arguing that Britain recognized the importance of “colonial expansion”:
“You are being invited to help make history,” he wrote, “It doesn’t 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.”
Nordau, Herzl’s right hand man, even rightfully called Zionist settlements in Palestine “colonies”:
“Zionism rejects on principle all colonization on a small scale, and the idea of “sneaking” into Palestine. The Zionists have therefore devoted themselves preeminently 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.”
Menachem Usishkin, chairman of the Jewish National Fund, was known for his calls to rid Palestine of its natives:
“What we can demand today is that all Transjordan be included in the Land of Israel. . . on condition that Transjordan would be either be made available for Jewish colonization or for the resettlement of those [Palestinian] Arabs, whose lands [in Palestine] we would purchase. Against this, the most conscientious person could not argue . . . For the [Palestinian] Arabs of the Galilee, Transjordan is a province . . . this will be for the resettlement of Palestine’s Arabs. This the land problem. . . . Now the [Palestinian] Arabs do not want us because we want to be the rulers. I will fight for this. I will make sure that we will be the landlords of this land . . . . because this country belongs to us not to them . . . “
Revisionist Zionist Vladimir Jabotinsky, in an essay titled The Iron Law (1925) wrote that:
“A voluntary reconciliation with the Arabs is out of the question either now or in the future. If you wish to colonize a land in which people are already living, you must provide a garrison for the land, or find some rich man or benefactor who will provide a garrison on your behalf. Or else-or else, give up your colonization, for without an armed force which will render physically impossible any attempt to destroy or prevent this colonization, colonization is impossible, not difficult, not dangerous, but IMPOSSIBLE!… Zionism is a colonization adventure and therefore it stands or falls by the question of armed force. It is important… to speak Hebrew, but, unfortunately, it is even more important to be able to shoot – or else I am through with playing at colonizing.”
These quotations are merely the tip of the iceberg, but lest you think I am cherry-picking and choosing out of context passages, I invite you to read their original writings. There are only so many mental gymnastics you can perform to try and find a different meaning to “Zionism is a colonization adventure.” One of them is the claim that the Zionists adopted this kind of language only to convince the great imperial powers. It must have been a pretty convincing act, then, as its practice is still ongoing after over 100 years.
This, of course, is nonsense. It was not a question of rhetoric, but also execution. The first Zionist bank established was named the ‘Jewish Colonial Trust’ and the whole endeavor was supported by the ‘Palestine Jewish Colonization Association’ and the ‘Jewish Agency Colonization Department’. Such an association was yet to become unpopular or taboo as it is today.A further problem with the claim that Zionism is merely Jewish self-determination is that it is an intellectually dishonest claim. It is a claim so rife with critical omissions that it cannot but be classified as a lie when the full context is explored.
Let’s try and apply this argument to another prominent settler colonial context: The colonization of Turtle Island.
When somebody today describes American “Manifest destiny” as settlers seeking a better life for themselves, or claims that the United States was founded on liberty, equality and justice for all, you instantly know that something is amiss. How could they leave out details such as the genocide of the indigenous nations or slavery from the story?
When they say liberty, equality and justice for all, you ask, liberty for whom? Equality for whom? Justice for whom?
In the American case, the answer was white, male land-owners. Everybody else’s oppression -to different degrees- was necessary to build the privileges and power of this class. But you absolutely cannot glean an accurate understanding of American history without mentioning this foundational and continuing oppression.
So, when Zionists claim that Zionism is just Jewish self-determination, what are they leaving out of their story?
At what cost was Israel established?
What happened to the society that already existed when the first Zionist settlers arrived?
Is the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and the colonization of their lands not worth mentioning in this context?
Furthermore, is it intellectually honest to frame objection to these atrocities as objection to Jewish self-determination as a concept?
Once again, we return to the logic of elimination where this destruction is justified.
When it came to Palestinians, the issue was never with an abstract Jewish self-determination. Everybody should be able to determine their own destiny, but not at the expense of the oppression of others. As a matter of fact, there is ample evidence -recorded by the Zionist pioneers themselves- that the native Palestinian population was welcoming of the first Zionist settlers. They worked side by side, they taught them how to work the land, even when they showed arrogance and saw the natives as inferior. Only after it became clear that these settlers did not come merely to live in Palestine, but to become its landlords as Usishkin said, did resistance to Zionism begin.
Palestine has always been home to countless refugee populations, the idea that the Jewish people fleeing persecution could find a safe home in Palestine was never the issue. The issue is that these ideals of coexistence were never reciprocated by the Zionist movement, who showed disdain towards Palestinians from the very beginning and sought to take over the land. For example, it sanctioned settlers working with Palestinians, even calling Arab labor an “illness” and formed a segregated trade union that banned non-Jewish members.
In 1928, the Palestinian leadership even voted to allow Zionist settlers equal representation in the future bodies of the state, despite them being a minority who had barely just arrived. The Zionist leadership rejected this, of course. Even after this, in 1947 the Palestinians suggested the formation of a unitary state for all those living between the river and the sea to replace the mandate to no avail. There were many attempts at co-existence, but this simply would not have benefited the Zionist leadership who never intended to come to Palestine to live as equals.
It is due to this long history that Zionism is facing a legitimacy crisis. It has nothing to do with denying Jewish self-determination, and everything to do with attempting to right historical wrongs. You cannot hope to find solutions if you refuse to even entertain thinking about the root causes.
After all, could it ever be righteous to end a diaspora by causing another one?
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"pageTitle": "Myth: Zionism is not colonialism, just Jewish self-determination | Decolonize Palestine",
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To begin with, The Palestinian Citizenship Order of 1925, which created the category of Palestinian citizen, determined the conditions for the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship. I will not quote or discuss this in great detail, however, should you wish to learn more, please feel free to read the entirety of the order.
Qafisheh discussed the key provisions introduced by the order that would have lasting effects on the demographic future of Palestine:
“One relates to the automatic change of the inhabitants’ nationality from Ottoman subjects into Palestinian citizens. The second regulated the nationality of Palestine’s natives residing abroad. The third was designed to grant Palestinian nationality to immigrants by naturalization.”
In this detailed discussion there is absolutely nothing legally substantiating the claims that only Zionists were considered Palestinians during the mandate period. It is also not a coincidence that virtually all Zionist settlers were relegated to the third category. Indeed, all it takes is a glance at the Nüfus (Ottoman population registry) or the much later British mandate census data to clearly see a minority settler population growing next to a large native majority. I will not be going into the details of population numbers, but if you are at all interested in the minutiae of census and population information in Palestine, then I would recommend obtaining a copy of Justin McCarthy’s The population of Palestine: Population history and statistics of the late Ottoman period and the Mandate.
But this goes beyond mere legalistic terminology. Another implied aspect of this claim is that while Palestinians might have legally been citizens of the mandate, they did not identify as Palestinians, but rather as Arabs.While the mandatory period did see a rise of Palestinians identifying with the idea of a greater Arab nation, this did not preclude regional Palestinian identity and sense of belonging. It is not a contradiction to identify both as an Arab and a Palestinian, as was the case for many. The roots of modern Palestinian identity can be traced back to Ottoman times, but it arguably started crystallizing in its modern form during the WW1 period. It is important to keep in mind that nationalism as a whole first touched the region around that period.
There are multiple elements that coalesced to create this proto-Palestinian identity, first of which was the significant religious attachment to Palestine as a holy land by the people living there. Of course, Palestine has been an important religious nexus throughout history, but this feeling of attachment was particularly strong among those living there.
Another element is the distribution of Ottoman administrative boundaries and the special status afforded to Palestine. According to Khalidi:
“from 1874 onwards, the sanjaq of Jerusalem, including the districts of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Beersheeba, Gaza, and Jaffa, was a separate unit administered independently from any other Ottoman province.“
Previously, Jerusalem was the capital of the larger province (Vilayet) of Palestine (Filastin) which includes the vast majority of what is now considered Palestine.
A third element is the fierce local loyalties and attachments, especially in the larger cities. Khalidi dubbed this “Urban Patriotism”. Nabulsis, Gazans, Jerusalemites, etc all took pride in their cities and their local histories. Evidence of this can be seen in Palestinian family names, such as “Al-Nabulsi” (of Nablus) or “Al-Khalili” (of Hebron) and many other cities, towns and villages. With modernization and the spread of transport, communication, education, and notions of nationalism throughout the region, this local attachment evolved to include areas outside of the direct city or town and came to resemble what we understand today as nationalism more closely.
It is important to emphasize that all of this preceded any encounter with Zionism. This is important to understand, because there is a common assertion that Palestinian identity grew as a consequence of Zionist colonialism of Palestine, even though no such claim is made for the neighboring countries which all developed identities and nationalisms of their own. It is worth noting, however, that for Palestinians, the Zionists were yet another imperial or colonial force in a history full of such forces, be it the Ottomans who the Palestinians rebelled against, the British, or any other.
However, this does not mean that Palestinian identity was not influenced at all by its encounters with European or Zionist colonialism. For example, Najib ‘Azuri, and in response to Zionist goals in Palestine, wrote in 1908 that the progress of “the land of Palestine” depends on expanding and raising the status of Jerusalem.
Evidence of early Palestinian identification and attachment to the land is abundant. One need not look only at some of the larger indicators, such as the founding of the Filastin (Palestine) newspaper in Jaffa in 1911, but also at the smaller ones, such as a group of Palestinian immigrants to Chile founding a football club and naming it Deportivo Palestino in 1920.
But let us cut to the chase and stop dancing around the main premise of this talking point:
This talking point is designed to lend legitimacy to the Zionist settlers, and strip it away from the indigenous Palestinians. Ultimately, this aims at whitewashing the crimes committed against Palestinians by implying that they shouldn’t have been there in the first place.
But even if you swallow this premise wholly, and come to internalize it. What then? Does the national identification (or lack thereof) of the Palestinians mean that they were legitimate targets for ethnic cleansing? Even if we accept the ridiculous premise that the Palestinians were “just Arabs”, how does this justify the destruction of hundreds of villages and the subjugation of millions?
It doesn’t, and it can’t.
From the onset, this talking point is not only racist, but highly ineffectual if followed to its logical conclusion. Palestinians exist, and no amount of revisionist and ideological twisting of history can erase that. The erasure of the indigenous population is a staple in all settler colonial contexts, Palestine is no exception.
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"articleTitle": "Myth: Only Zionists were called Palestinians during the mandate period | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: Only Zionists were called Palestinians during the mandate period | Decolonize Palestine",
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It was a war of “no choice”.
It was a war which would fatefully decide whether Israel would “live or perish”.
It was a war for survival, where an Israeli David defended itself from the Arab Goliath hell-bent on its elimination.
This is how the 1967 war is often described by Israelis. Unfortunately, this view is often uncritically regurgitated in the mainstream narrative of the war. Needless to say, this is pure revisionism with no basis in reality. Israel has managed to score a major propaganda victory when it convinced many that its wars are all defensive, even the one which it initiated through a sneak attack. It is a testament to the triumph of sophistry and confirmation bias over facts in the context of the Palestinian question.
Let us look at the historical record and dismantle this myth piece by piece.
Although it has become part of the conventional “wisdom” for many, the idea that Israel was pushed into a war it wanted nothing to do with collapses upon itself when the historical record of events is examined.
The 1967 war did not materialize out of a vacuum, nor should it be understood as such. The 1967 war was merely a continuation of Israel’s wars against the region to achieve maximum territorial expansion. Particularly, this war would finish what was begun in 1956, when Israel invaded Egypt with the help of Britain and France.
The United Nations Emergency Force (UNEF) was created in the aftermath of the 1956 war on Egypt to secure peace, and patrol both sides of the border between Egypt and Israel. Despite being the aggressor, Israel refused to cooperate with the UN force, and rejected the idea of any peace-keeping force on their side of the border, meanwhile Egypt accepted the UN force and cooperated with them. Not only did Israel refuse to cooperate, but over its decade-long existence, Israeli troops “regularly patrolled alongside the line and now and again created provocations by violating it“.
This, however, was only the tip of the iceberg of Israeli provocations towards its neighbors. Much of Israel’s military actions were designed to goad Nasser into war, an example of this can be seen in the disproportionate Israeli assault on Gaza in 1955, or the assault on Samu in 1966, or the frequent unprovoked bombings of Syrian border positions. This is hardly our unique interpretation of events; at the time this was widely understood. For example the British ambassador in Israel explained that this tactic aimed to spawn a “deliberately contrived preventive war“.
But even if this is unconvincing to you, and you remain adamant that Israel was acting purely in self-defense, there is ample evidence to show that Israel was not intent on avoiding war. As mentioned, war was an opportunity to achieve many of its objectives, one of which is the expansion into territories not conquered in 1948, as Ben Gurion lamented. This becomes exceedingly clear once we examine the diplomatic record, and the numerous times Israel sabotaged any attempt at mediation or diplomacy to avert the outbreak of war.
For example, throughout much of the crisis of 1967 Egypt expressed its willingness to resurrect and expand the Egyptian-Israeli Mixed Armistice Commission (EIMAC), which was officially rejected by Israel in May. In the same month, the UN secretary-General personally attempted to avert an escalation by travelling to Cairo to mediate between the Egyptians and Israelis. He came with a proposal which called for a two-week moratorium in the straits of Tiran (Which we will be discussing shortly). Once again, Egypt agreed to the proposal in an attempt to lower tensions. Israel rejected the proposal. Brian Urquhart, who was a senior UN official at the time, wrote in his memoir that “Israel, no doubt having decided on military action, turned down U Thant’s ideas“.
This is hardly the only attempt at averting an escalation, the United States also tried its hand at mediation. High ranking American diplomats and politicians met with Nasser in late May in a meeting that was deemed a “breakthrough in the crisis”. In this meeting Nasser showed flexibility and a willingness to include the World Court to arbitrate in some of the issues. However, what was most promising was that Nasser agreed to send his vice-president to Washington within a week in an attempt to reach a diplomatic settlement for the crisis.
You may be wondering why you’ve never heard of such a meeting, or what its results were. That is because two days before the meeting, Israel decided to launch its surprise attack, torpedoing all efforts to reach a non-violent diplomatic solution to the crisis.
This shocked even the Americans, Dean Rusk, the Secretary of State wrote that:
“They attacked on a Monday, knowing that on Wednesday the Egyptian vice-president would arrive in Washington to talk about re-opening the Strait of Tiran. We might not have succeeded in getting Egypt to reopen the strait, but it was a real possibility.”
Following the diplomatic developments of the time leaves no shadow of a doubt that Israel was purposely seeking war. It rebuffed all attempts at mediation and even deceived and humiliated its ally, the United States, by allowing it to continue with the charade of diplomacy which Israel knew it was going to attack anyway. On the other hand, this shows Nasser to have been far more flexible, and amenable to diplomatic solutions than many suggest. Yet until this day, Israel is portrayed as being forced into a defensive war, while Nasser is portrayed as a warmonger.
In his memoir, U Thant, the UN Secretary General at the time, wrote that “if only Israel had agreed to permit UNEF to be stationed on its side of the border, even for a short duration, the course of history could have been different. Diplomatic efforts to avert the pending catastrophe might have prevailed; war might have been averted.” This was further confirmed by Odd Bull, chief of staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO) at the time, who stated that “it is quite possible that the 1967 war could have been avoided’ had Israel acceded to the Secretary-General’s request.“
Israel had no interest in avoiding war, this much is clear. But let us delve a little bit deeper and inspect the pretexts it used for the justification of its sneak attack on Egypt, which it labeled as a “preemptive strike”.
The culmination of all the pretexts mentioned previously constituted -according to the Israeli narrative- a clear and present danger to the very existence of the Israeli state. This is why they had to attack Egypt, otherwise Israel would have been utterly destroyed. However, after reviewing these pretexts, the following becomes clear:
Israel was under no military threat from the Egyptian or Syrian militaries.
An ineffective, partial blockade on a minor port did not actually threaten it with strangulation.
Israel constantly and aggressively provoked its neighbors with raids, bombings and violations of UN resolutions.
Israel avoided every attempt at mediation or de-escalation, and chose to attack right before a meeting that could have eased tensions.
Virtually every talking point Israel uses to justify this war is based on strategic omission and the manipulation of history.
Under no circumstance was Israel under an imminent threat of destruction, not even the Israelis believed that at the time. Israeli Minister Mordecai Bentov frankly admitted a few years later that:
“This entire story about the danger of extermination was invented and exaggerated after the fact to justify the annexation of new Arab territories“.
For Israel, the 1967 war had nothing to do with “self-defense” and everything to do with finishing what it started in 1948 and 1956. It had to do with acquiring new territories and expanding, and it had to do with striking Nasser’s project before it could become too big of a threat.
Ben Gurion’s apprehension regarding Nasser was never a secret, he admitted that he:
“..always feared that a personality might arise such as arose among the Arab rulers in the seventh century or like [Kemal Ataturk] who arose in Turkey after its defeat in the First World War. He raised their spirits, changed their character, and turned them into a fighting nation. There was and still is a danger that Nasser is this man.”
We should keep these lessons in mind whenever tackling any Israeli claim. We must never take these arguments at face value. We should always question and investigate. Truth is the best disinfectant, and Israel would not need to lie so brazenly if it truly believed its position to be a just or moral one. All will be revealed in time, and as we say “You can’t cover the sun with a sieve“.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: War of 1967 was self-defense | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: War of 1967 was self-defense | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Israel's self-defense narrative of the 1967 war is convenient, but revisionist nonsense. The political and diplomatic record at the time show each of its pretexts for launching a sneak attack on Egypt had no basis in reality.",
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A frequently recurring theme when discussing the history of Palestine, is the question of “who was there first?”. The implication being, whoever was there first deserves ownership of the land. I have lost count of how many times I have encountered the argument that “The Jewish people have been in Palestine before the Muslims/Arabs,” or a variation thereof. This has always struck me as an interesting example of how people learn just enough history to support their world view, separating it completely from any historical context or the larger picture of the region.
Since this question is so widespread, and since I see it answered in different, and in my opinion, unhelpful ways, we would like to open up the topic for wider discussion.
The argument is simple to follow: Palestinians today are mostly Arabs. The Arabs came to the Levant with the Muslim conquest of the region. Therefore, Arabs -and as an extension Palestinians- have only been in Palestine and the Levant since the seventh century AD.
There are a couple of glaring problems with this line of thought. First of all, there is a clear conflation of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians. None of these are interchangeable. Arabs have had a long history in the Levant before the advent of Islam. For example, The Nabataean kingdom ruled over Jordan, southern Palestine and Sinai a whole millennium before Muslims ever set foot in the area. Another example would be the Ghassanid kingdom, which was a Christian Arab kingdom that extended over vast areas of the region. As a matter of fact, many prominent Christian families in Palestine today, such as Maalouf, Haddad and Khoury, can trace their lineage back to the Ghassanid kingdom.
The second problem with this is that there is a misunderstanding of the process that is the Arabization of the Middle East and North Africa. Once again, we must view the Islamization of newly conquered lands and their Arabization as two distinct phenomena. The Islamization process began instantly, albeit slowly. Persia, for example took over 2 centuries to become a majority Muslim province. The Levant, much longer. The Arabization of conquered provinces though, began later than their Islamization. The beginning of this process can be traced back to the Marwanid dynasty of the Ummayad Caliphate. Until that point, each province was ruled mostly with its own language, laws and currency. The process of the Arabization of the state united all these under Arabic speaking officials, and made it law that the language of state and of commerce would become Arabic. Thus, it became advantageous to assimilate into this identity, as many government positions and trade deals were offered only to Muslim Arabs.
So although the vast majority of the population of these lands were not ethnically Arab, they came to identify as such over a millennium. Arab stopped being a purely ethnic identity, and morphed into a mainly cultural and linguistic one. In contrast to European colonialism of the new world, where the native population was mostly eradicated to make place for the invaders, the process in MENA is one of the conquered peoples mixing with and coming to identify as their conquerors without being physically removed, if not as Arabs, then as Muslims.
Following from this, the Palestinian Arabs of today did not suddenly appear from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century to settle in Palestine, but are the same indigenous peoples living there who changed how they identified over time. This includes the descendants of every group that has ever called Palestine their home. When regions change rulers, they don’t normally change populations. Throughout history, peoples have often changed how they identified politically. The Sardinians eventually became Italians, Prussians became Germans. It would be laughable to suggest that the Sardinians were kicked out and replaced by a distinct foreign Italian people. We must separate the political nationalist identity of people from their personhood as human beings, as nationalism is a relatively modern concept, especially in the Middle East.
Naturally, no region is a closed container. Trade, immigration, invasion and intermarriage all played a role in creating the current buildup of Palestinian society. There were many additions to the people of the land over the millennia. However, the fact remains that there was never a process where Arab or Muslim conquerors completely replaced the native population living there, only added to them.
So, what does this all mean for Palestine?
Absolutely nothing.
Although the argument has many ahistorical assumptions and claims, it is not these which form its greatest weakness. The whole argument is a trap. The basic implication of this line of argumentation is as follows:
If the Jewish people were in Palestine before the Arabs, then the land belongs to them. Therefore, the creation of Israel would be justified.
From my experience, whenever this argument is used, the automatic response of Palestinians is to say that their ancestors were there first. These ancestors being the Canaanites. The idea that Palestinians are the descendants of only one particular group in a region with mass migrations and dozens of different empires and peoples is not only ahistorical, but this line of thought indirectly legitimizes the original argument they are fighting against.
This is because it implies that the only reason Israel’s creation is unjustified is because their Palestinian ancestors were there first. It implies that the problem with the argument lies in the details, not that the argument as a whole is absolute nonsense and shouldn’t even be entertained.
The ethnic cleansing, massacres and colonialism needed to establish Israel can never be justified, regardless of who was there first. It’s a moot point. Even if we follow the argument that Palestinians have only been there for 1300 years, does this suddenly legitimize the expulsion of hundreds of thousands? Of course not. There is no possible scenario where it is excusable to ethnically cleanse a people and colonize their lands. Human rights apply to people universally, regardless of whether they have lived in an area for a year or ten thousand years.
If we reject the “we were there first” argument, and not treat it as a legitimizing factor for Israel’s creation, then we can focus on the real history, without any ideological agendas. We could trace how our pasts intersected throughout the centuries. After all, there is indeed Jewish history in Palestine. This history forms a part of the Palestinian past and heritage, just like every other group, kingdom or empire that settled there does. We must stop viewing Palestinian and Jewish histories as competing, mutually exclusive entities, because for most of history they have not been.
These positions can be maintained while simultaneously rejecting Zionism and its colonialism. After all, this ideologically driven impulse to imagine our ancestors as some closed, well defined, unchanging homogenous group having exclusive ownership over lands corresponding to modern day borders has nothing to do with the actual history of the area, and everything to do with modern notions of ethnic nationalism and colonialism.
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Masalha, Nur. Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History. Zed Books Ltd., 2018.
El-Haj, Nadia Abu. Facts on the ground: Archaeological practice and territorial self-fashioning in Israeli society. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Hjelm, Ingrid, et al., eds. A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine: Palestine History and Heritage Project 1. Routledge, 2019.
Bowersock, Glen W. “Palestine: ancient history and modern politics.” Journal of Palestine Studies 14.4, 1985: 49-57. | {
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"pageTitle": "Myth: My people were here before your people | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Israeli settler colonialism cannot be justified or tolerated, regardless of whatever historical claims are made. Boiling the history of Palestine down into a refutation of modern ethno-nationalist claims does a disservice to our real and multifaceted history.",
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In the grand scheme of Israeli colonialism, this might seem like a relatively small issue. What is stealing a dish when there are millions of Palestinians in refugee camps?
But this theft of culture is typical for settler movements, which seek to coopt and commodify the culture of the natives in an attempt to self-indigenize. Although they would never admit this, it stems from an unconscious nagging that they do not belong and that aspects of the native culture are seen as more legitimate than their imported ones.
Settlers do not only lay claim to these indigenous practices, but they also attempt to ban the natives from practicing them altogether. Examples of such cases are abundant, such as Canadian attempts to ban or restrict indigenous peoples from their millennia-old sustainable fishing practices. Similar efforts were pursued by the Israeli authorities regarding Za’tar, Akub and many other traditional Palestinian wild herbs and plants. Palestinians had been harvesting these plants for centuries, however, Israel quickly moved in to ban picking these herbs, conveniently and selectively citing environmental concerns, while it continued to dump sewage and toxic waste on Palestinian villages in the West Bank .
Meanwhile, Israeli businessmen started cultivating Za’tar. The Ben Herut family was the dominant force in this market, where for the first time they sought to create an Israeli Za’tar mix. Their first attempt resulted in a product that is, according to Ben Herut the son: “Totally disgusting, it came out all black.”
It was only after his father consulted some Palestinians that they learnt how to make the mix that in any way resembles the traditional Za’tar we all know and love. When asked what drove their business, the son responded with: “National pride … I want people to say za��atar is Israel.”
Settler societies have a penchant for selective history, Israel is no different. Consequently, this new cooptation stuck and Israelis started claiming Za’tar as their own. Additionally, it was retroactively legitimized and incorporated into the national mythology, Israelis declared that Za’tar is actually “traditionally Israeli” because the plant is mentioned in the Bible as Ezov. It is quite ‘convenient’ how this supposedly ancient traditional food was only discovered in the 1970s, and only after copying the Palestinian recipe. It is also quite a ridiculous argument, as the Bible does not describe the plant being eaten in the same way as Za’tar, which is a specific blend of spices, herbs and sesame, eaten with olive oil and bread.
If we were to follow this same line of biblical logic consistently, can it also not be argued that any food item mentioned in the Bible is traditionally Israeli? After all, milk was mentioned in the bible, so following this same reasoning can’t we argue that ice cream is also “traditionally” Israeli?
When confronted with these issues, Israelis often claim that since many Israelis are Mizrahim (Jewish people of Middle Eastern or North African ancestry) then these foods are part of their culture and history as well. However, this argument buckles under its own contradictions when examined in a wider context.
It seems that even while attempting to self-indigenize, Zionists can’t help but have an essentialist view of the region. This essentialism treats all Arab or Muslim majority countries across the Middle East and North Africa as one monolithic entity. For example, a large portion of Mizrahi Israelis originated in Iraq and Morocco where dishes such as Hummus, Falafel and herbs such as Za’tar are not part of the local cuisine, and if they are, they are vastly different to the Levantine style that the Palestinians prepare. It is not a coincidence that this exact same Levantine Palestinian style is the one that the Israelis sought to coopt and claim as their own.
Furthermore, as Ali Abunimah observed, this argument is rather selective and only seems to apply in the case of Middle Eastern cuisines. For instance, over a million Israelis today have Polish ancestry, yet we never hear the claim that Pierogi is a traditional Israeli dish. This selective application reinforces the argument put forward by many Palestinians that this claim is not made in good faith, and aims to justify the cooptation of these cultural markers. Indeed, if we were to apply this argument consistently based on the geographic origin of Israeli dishes, it would produce the opposite effect to the intended one, which is to better claim indigeneity.
The increasingly common identification of Zionism with settler colonialism and reactionary far-right movements all over the world has left Israel in a crisis of image. It is more desperate than ever to project an organic, indigenous depiction of itself, but all these efforts are destined to fail as long as Israel remains steadfast in its Zionism. As many propagandists have found out over the years, marketing can only help you so much when you have a rotten product.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: Falafel, Hummus, Za'tar are Israeli | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: Falafel, Hummus, Za'tar are Israeli | Decolonize Palestine",
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This slogan persists to this day because it was never meant to be literal, but colonial and ideological. This phrase is yet another formulation of the concept of Terra Nullius meaning “nobody’s land”. In one form or the other, this concept played a significant role in legitimizing the erasure of the native population in virtually every settler colony, and laying down the ‘legal’ and ‘moral’ basis for seizing native land. According to this principle, any lands not managed in a ‘modern’ fashion were considered empty by the colonists, and therefore up for grabs. Essentially, yes there are people there but no people that mattered or were worth considering.
There is no doubt that Zionism is a settler colonial movement intent on replacing the natives. As a matter of fact, this was a point of pride for the early Zionists, as they saw the inhabitants of the land as backwards and barbaric, and that a positive aspect of Zionism would be the establishment of a modern nation state there to act as a bulwark against these ‘regressive’ forces in the east .
A characteristic feature of early Zionist political discourse is pretending that Palestinians exist only as individuals or sometimes communities, but never as constituting a people or a nation. This was accompanied by the typical arrogance and condescension towards the natives seen in virtually every settler colonial movement.
That the early settlers interacted with the natives while simultaneously claiming the land was empty was not seen as contradictory to them. According to these colonists, even if some scattered, disorganized people did exist, they were not worthy of the land they inhabited. They were unable to transform the land into a modern functioning nation state, extract resources efficiently and contribute to ‘civilization’ through the free market, unlike the settlers. Patrick Wolfe’s scholarship on Australia illustrates this dynamic and how it was exploited to establish the settler colony.
This becomes exceedingly clear when reading the discussions of early Zionists, such as Chaim Weizmann, who when asked about the inhabitants of Palestine responded with:
“The British told us that there are there some hundred thousands negroes [Kushim] and for those there is no value.”.
You can clearly see the influence and internalization of racist European colonial rhetoric. This attitude would become a cornerstone of Zionism as a political and colonial movement. This is why there is an emphasis in the Zionist narrative on how supposedly desolate and backwards Palestine was before their arrival. This same logic animates the ‘making the desert bloom’ myth that remains central to Israeli Hasbara efforts . The underlying message being: We deserve the land more than its natives, they have done nothing with it, and we can bring it into modernity.Perhaps one of the most widely quoted texts used to support this argument is Mark Twain’s The Innocents Abroad (1869) in which he chronicled his travels through Europe and the Middle East. Naturally, his unflattering descriptions of the ‘Holy land’, both people and land, are what draw attention, as he found Palestine to be a “..hopeless, dreary, heart-broken land“. He then concludes that ‘Palestine is desolate and unlovely.’
Twain’s account is taken as definitive proof that Palestine was a lifeless, empty husk before the arrival of the Zionist colonists. But as usual, in order to present and sustain this talking point, context must be completely ignored and any evidence to the opposite omitted. Even if we are to take Twain’s commentary at face value, one would be remiss not to investigate the circumstances of his visit.
Indeed, once some very basic research is done it becomes clear that Twain visited Palestine in September, which meant that it was at the end of the summer season and the land had not seen any rain for months. In addition to this, his visit happened to coincide with a drought, meaning that this was an exceptional case of dryness even for September. And finally, his visit also coincided with the American civil war, which disrupted the cotton trade the region depended upon. That meant that the whole area, not only Palestine, was undergoing a significant economic downturn and increase in poverty, which pushed many a peasant to abandon their farms.
But let us say you are unconvinced by this, what have others who visited Palestine had to say?
Twain is far from the only traveler to visit Palestine in the 19th century. Another such traveler is David Roberts, a Scottish painter who visited Palestine in 1839. He wrote describing his travels that the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem lay..
“..across the plain of Sharon, through a richly-cultivated country. The ground is carpeted with flowers—the plain is studded with small villages and groups of palm-trees, and, independent of its interesting associations, the country is the loveliest I ever beheld.“
Siegfried Sassoon also visited Palestine during the first world war and chronicled his journey:
“March 11, reached Railhead (Ludd) at 2.30 pm. Olive trees and almond orchards. Fine hills inland, not unlike Scotland. Last night we went through flat sandy places. About daybreak the country began to be green. Tents among crops and trees all the way up from Gaza. Weather warm and pleasant, with clouds. A few Old Testament pictures of people and villages. Inhabitants seem to live by selling enormous oranges to the troops on the train.”
On page 94 of his digitized journal, which you can access fully (here), he wrote describing the flowers growing in Palestine:
“Came back through a tangle of huge golden daisies -knee deep solid gold, as if Midas had been walking here among the almond trees and cantaloupes.”
So, what is the truth? Was Palestine a desolate, backwater wasteland, or a paradise with golden daisies and green hills akin to those in Scotland?
Both Roberts and Sassoon visited Palestine in the spring, at the end of the rainy season in years with no droughts. It makes sense, then, that the land would be green and the trees and flowers would be blooming.
So why only focus on the Twain paragraph to the exclusion of others? Is it not intellectually dishonest to present The Innocents Abroad as the definitive description of Palestine when other accounts contradict it? Is this not an irresponsible and deceptive selection of information?
Sadly, this is par for the course, as more often than not these arguments are made in bad faith. Because once again, conveying historical or factual accuracy is not the intended goal of these claims. These claims serve mainly as propaganda to legitimize the colonization of Palestine and to prove that the Zionist movement was more entitled to the land than its natives. This speaks to the insecurity of the settler, as such efforts to justify themselves would not be needed if they did not believe -even if on a subconscious level- that they do not belong.
This is hardly the only example of such discourse, Joan Peters’ From Time Immemorial is one of the more shameless propaganda publications masquerading as a history book, full of cherry-picked data and absurd claims regarding the origins of Palestinians . Even though this book has been utterly debunked by a large number of scholars, it remains incredibly popular among Zionists as the definitive version of history. The endurance of this book as a source of information shows that much discourse on the question of Palestine is anything but fact based.
These cases illustrate a central point about Israeli and Zionist propaganda: It is full of selectively chosen data, dubious framing and omissions of inconvenient information. To succeed, it primarily relies on the ignorance of the listener. These talking points do not stand up to scrutiny, and wither away once countered with actual historic literacy. We should strive to challenge these claims wherever they arise, and do our best to set the record straight.
But for argument’s sake, even if Palestine had been truly “desolate” or “unlovely”, does this provide a moral cover for settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and erecting a reactionary ethnocracy at the expense of the people living there? Of course not. It’s a fruitless argument which only aims to discredit the natives.
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One of the more recent myths that have gained traction among defenders of Israel is the claim that the actual mandate of Palestine flag had a star of David on it. This is usually accompanied by an image of an old book displaying this flag. In their mind, this proves without a doubt that Palestine was always Zionist even during the mandate period. This also neatly complements other popular myths, such as “Arabs moved to Palestine because of Zionist innovation” or “Palestinian referred only to Jewish citizens of the mandate” .
The fact that this claim and image went viral in some pro-Israel circles is a testament to how history and facts have become subservient to reinforcing certain ideologically driven narratives. Without exaggeration, this talking point could be dispelled with a 5 second internet search. But as with all propaganda, conveying historical or factual accuracy is not the intended goal of these claims. These claims serve mainly to flip reality on its head, and indigenize the colonists while portraying Palestinians as outsiders and usurpers to the land.
But what is the story of this flag, and where did it come from, and why is it being employed so frequently in Zionist talking points?
The origins of this claim comes from this image, which was taken from a French dictionary titled Le Petit Larousse Illustré:
This flag appeared in the dictionary from the early 1920s until the late 1930s. However, even a cursory glimpse at the provided image shows that there are other erroneously labeled flags. For example, the flag of Morocco is incorrect, so is the Soviet Union flag. Browsing through the other pages and editions of the dictionary reveals that there are other errors in their flag section, such as quite a bizarre flag for the short-lived kingdom of Hejaz which is a pure fabrication.
Unsurprisingly, images from the dictionary started to turn up cropped in a way as to exclude the other flags on the page in an attempt to lend it more legitimacy.
The only evidence of the use of this flag was from an image in National Geographic in the 1930s of a steam ship named “Emanuel” which was operated by the Hofiya shipping company. It should be noted that this was not considered the official flag even among Zionist groups or the Yishuv, as other shipping companies did not fly this flag. It is still unknown what drove the dictionary to select this specific flag to represent the official mandate of Palestine flag at the time, but seeing the other errors in their flag section it seems that mistakes of this kind were par for the course.
Needless to say, no, this was not the official flag of the mandate of Palestine. It was never used officially or recognized. It was most likely used by one Zionist group or the other in Palestine, but never in an official capacity.
It is worth mentioning that there also existed various Palestinian flags from that same period. There was actually a contest to design an Arab Palestinian flag. Similarly, they were never considered official or recognized by the mandate authorities, and nobody claimed they were. In typical Zionist propaganda fashion, this is never mentioned. The cherry-picking of information and omission of inconvenient data is the standard modus operandi for these talking points.
The popularity of this talking point stems from Zionist settler’s yearning to prove their exclusive ownership of the land. This becomes harder to argue when the majority of them arrived barely a couple of decades before the founding of Israel in 1948, and even then, they were not numerous enough to form a solid majority even in their assigned land partition. This insecurity translates into another attempt to rewrite history in a way which is more friendly to their national mythology, regardless of its veracity.
What stands out about this attempt, however, is how ridiculous it is on every level. Not only could it be debunked in a matter of seconds, but it’s quite a futile claim to begin with. Let’s say for the sake of argument that this was indeed the flag of the mandate of Palestine, what would this prove? I would like to remind you that the flag of mandatory Palestine was a colonial flag, it was not a flag that any of the indigenous population regarded warmly. Would this not simply reinforce the position that Zionist settlers were colonists, or at the very least propped up by colonial powers?
I somehow doubt the people spreading this talking point thought that far ahead.
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Khalidi, Rashid. The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. Metropolitan Books, 2020.
Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian identity: The construction of modern national consciousness. Columbia University Press, 2010.
Khalidi, Rashid, ed. The origins of Arab nationalism. Columbia University Press, 1991.
Muslih, Muhammad. “Arab politics and the rise of Palestinian nationalism.” Journal of Palestine Studies 16.4, 1987: 77-94.
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso books, 2006.
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, eds. The invention of tradition. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Weber, Eugen. Peasants into Frenchmen: the modernization of rural France, 1870-1914. Stanford University Press, 1976. | {
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If you have seriously researched the question of Palestine for any amount of time, then it is safe to say that you have come across your fair share of wild and unsubstantiated claims and arguments from advocates of Israel. Perhaps one of the more consistently asserted ones is the claim that the name Palestine originated with the Romans, and came into existence as a punishment by the Romans against the Jewish people.
It is quite interesting how selective people can be when they read history. They often learn just enough to support their world view, separating it completely from any historical context or the larger picture of the region. I do not know where this talking point comes from, or who popularized it, but it is simply incorrect, and frankly quite comical in how lazy it is. Without exaggeration, this talking point could be debunked with a 10 second search, that’s how easily disproven it is. However, even the crudest of propaganda can be useful as a teaching tool. Keep in mind, of course, that when it comes to history there is a wealth of details and nuances involved which keep it from being a simplistic black and white affair, that’s why ethno-nationalists with their dualistic worldviews tend to have terrible historical literacy.
The very first traces of the name Palestine come from the time of Ramses II and III, roughly around the mid-12th century BC. There is an inscription dated to around 1150 BC at the Medinet Habu temple in Luxor which refers to the Peleset (PLST) among those who fought against Ramses III. Today we know the Peleset as the Philistines.
Interestingly enough, it was long thought that the Philistines were sea-faring marauders, possibly Aegean in origin who invaded the Levant. This would neatly tie them into the Biblical narrative. However, there has been mounting evidence to suggest that the Philistines were actually an indigenous population originating in the region. According to advocates of this relatively new approach to the origins of the Philistines, the evidence has always been there, but in their haste to match archaeological evidence to the Biblical narrative many historians and archaeologists overlooked certain inconsistencies and contradictory evidence. You will find that much of the history of Palestine falls into this same trap, and many of the myths regarding Palestine today emanate from trying to force a Biblical narrative onto history with little -if any- corroborating evidence.
Regardless of their origins, their name came to be associated with the area, not only in ancient Egyptian inscriptions, but also in ancient Assyrian inscriptions. For example, various Assyrian inscriptions from the 8th and 7th century BC refer to the area as “Palashtu”. This is the result of the Philistines’ influence and their intermingling and integration with the various peoples inhabiting the Levant. Prior to this, the area was more commonly known as Djahi, Retenu or Canaan, but beginning from the late Bronze age onwards, and as a result of said Philistine influence, the term Palashtu or Palestine came to replace them.
According to Nur Masalha, their influence can still be felt today:
“..almost all the toponyms of the cities of Philistia: Gaza (Ghazzah), Askelon (‘Asqalan), Ashdod (Isdud), Tantur (Tantura), Gath (Jat), Ekron (‘Aqir) survived into the modern era and were preserved in the modern Palestinian Arabic names and were mostly depopulated by Israel in 1948.“
It was during Classical Antiquity and the Hellenistic period (~500-135 BC) that the name “Palestine” as we know it today took form. The use of the terms Palaistine or Phalastin were widespread in the literature of the period. Philosophers and scientists such as Ptolemy and Aristotle spoke of Palaistine, and Herodotus’ Histories commonly used the name Palestine.
In these writings, the use of the name Palaistine did not refer solely to the areas ruled by the Philistines at one point or another, but to wider swaths of the region, in some cases even stretching as far as what we would today call Jordan.
There are many more examples of the usage of the term or its cognates, and it is not the intention of this article to delve too deeply into the history of these uses. However, if you find the history of the name interesting then the further reading section has some recommendations that you might find to your liking. Regardless, it is quite clear that this name originated well before the Romans or their conquest of Palestine.
As with all propaganda, conveying historical or factual accuracy is not the intended goal. These claims serve mainly to demonize Palestinians and frame them as usurpers to the land, and attempt to tie them to the Roman persecution of the Jewish people. This is purely ideologically motivated with no basis in reality or history, and its widespread use speaks to the prevalence of blind regurgitation of talking points in Zionist circles without any kind of evidence or historical knowledge.
But think about this for a moment: If such a basic falsity which could be debunked with a 10 second search is so widespread and internalized among defenders of Israel, can you imagine all the other, more complicated falsities that form the basis of their talking points?
Sadly, this animates much of the mainstream debate on Palestine, and Palestinians must constantly and consistently re-litigate false claims they had debunked decades ago to no avail. It is my hope that one day we will not have to fight these battles anymore, and the region can recover its hijacked history.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
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A frequently recurring theme when discussing the history of Palestine, is the question of “who was there first?”. The implication being, whoever was there first deserves ownership of the land. I have lost count of how many times I have encountered the argument that “The Jewish people have been in Palestine before the Muslims/Arabs,” or a variation thereof. This has always struck me as an interesting example of how people learn just enough history to support their world view, separating it completely from any historical context or the larger picture of the region.
Since this question is so widespread, and since I see it answered in different, and in my opinion, unhelpful ways, I would like to open up the topic for wider discussion.
The argument is simple to follow: Palestinians today are mostly Arabs. The Arabs came to the Levant with the Muslim conquest of the region. Therefore, Arabs -and as an extension Palestinians- have only been in Palestine and the Levant since the seventh century AD.
There are a couple of glaring problems with this line of thought. First of all, there is a clear conflation of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians. None of these are interchangeable. Arabs have had a long history in the Levant before the advent of Islam. For example, The Nabataean kingdom ruled over Jordan, southern Palestine and Sinai a whole millennium before Muslims ever set foot in the area. Another example would be the Ghassanid kingdom, which was a Christian Arab kingdom that extended over vast areas of the region. As a matter of fact, many prominent Christian families in Palestine today, such as Maalouf, Haddad and Khoury, can trace their lineage back to the Ghassanid kingdom.
The second problem with this is that there is a misunderstanding of the process that is the Arabization of the Middle East and North Africa. Once again, we must view the Islamization of newly conquered lands and their Arabization as two distinct phenomena. The Islamization process began instantly, albeit slowly. Persia, for example took over 2 centuries to become a majority Muslim province. The Levant, much longer. The Arabization of conquered provinces though, began later than their Islamization. The beginning of this process can be traced back to the Marwanid dynasty of the Ummayad Caliphate. Until that point, each province was ruled mostly with its own language, laws and currency. The process of the Arabization of the state united all these under Arabic speaking officials, and made it law that the language of state and of commerce would become Arabic. Thus, it became advantageous to assimilate into this identity, as many government positions and trade deals were offered only to Muslim Arabs.
So although the vast majority of the population of these lands were not ethnically Arab, they came to identify as such over a millennium. Arab stopped being a purely ethnic identity, and morphed into a mainly cultural and linguistic one. In contrast to European colonialism of the new world, where the native population was mostly eradicated to make place for the invaders, the process in MENA is one of the conquered peoples mixing with and coming to identify as their conquerors without being physically removed, if not as Arabs, then as Muslims.
Following from this, the Palestinian Arabs of today did not suddenly appear from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century to settle in Palestine, but are the same indigenous peoples living there who changed how they identified over time. This includes the descendants of every group that has ever called Palestine their home. When regions change rulers, they don’t normally change populations. Throughout history, peoples have often changed how they identified politically. The Sardinians eventually became Italians, Prussians became Germans. It would be laughable to suggest that the Sardinians were kicked out and replaced by a distinct foreign Italian people. We must separate the political nationalist identity of people from their personhood as human beings, as nationalism is a relatively modern concept, especially in the Middle East.
Naturally, no region is a closed container. Trade, immigration, invasion and intermarriage all played a role in creating the current buildup of Palestinian society. There were many additions to the people of the land over the millennia. However, the fact remains that there was never a process where Arab or Muslim conquerors completely replaced the native population living there, only added to them.
So, what does this all mean for Palestine?
Absolutely nothing.
Although the argument has many ahistorical assumptions and claims, it is not these which form its greatest weakness. The whole argument is a trap. The basic implication of this line of argumentation is as follows:
If the Jewish people were in Palestine before the Arabs, then the land belongs to them. Therefore, the creation of Israel would be justified.
From my experience, whenever this argument is used, the automatic response of Palestinians is to say that their ancestors were there first. These ancestors being the Canaanites. The idea that Palestinians are the descendants of only one particular group in a region with mass migrations and dozens of different empires and peoples is not only ahistorical, but this line of thought indirectly legitimizes the original argument they are fighting against.
This is because it implies that the only reason Israel’s creation is unjustified is because their Palestinian ancestors were there first. It implies that the problem with the argument lies in the details, not that the argument as a whole is absolute nonsense and shouldn’t even be entertained.
The ethnic cleansing, massacres and colonialism needed to establish Israel can never be justified, regardless of who was there first. It’s a moot point. Even if we follow the argument that Palestinians have only been there for 1300 years, does this suddenly legitimize the expulsion of hundreds of thousands? Of course not. There is no possible scenario where it is excusable to ethnically cleanse a people and colonize their lands. Human rights apply to people universally, regardless of whether they have lived in an area for a year or ten thousand years.
If we reject the “we were there first” argument, and not treat it as a legitimizing factor for Israel’s creation, then we can focus on the real history, without any ideological agendas. We could trace how our pasts intersected throughout the centuries. After all, there is indeed Jewish history in Palestine. This history forms a part of the Palestinian past and heritage, just like every other group, kingdom or empire that settled there does. We must stop viewing Palestinian and Jewish histories as competing, mutually exclusive entities, because for most of history they have not been.
These positions can be maintained while simultaneously rejecting Zionism and its colonialism. After all, this ideologically driven impulse to imagine our ancestors as some closed, well defined, unchanging homogenous group having exclusive ownership over lands corresponding to modern day borders has nothing to do with the actual history of the area, and everything to do with modern notions of ethnic nationalism and colonialism.
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Masalha, Nur. Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History. Zed Books Ltd., 2018.
El-Haj, Nadia Abu. Facts on the ground: Archaeological practice and territorial self-fashioning in Israeli society. University of Chicago Press, 2008.
Hjelm, Ingrid, et al., eds. A New Critical Approach to the History of Palestine: Palestine History and Heritage Project 1. Routledge, 2019.
Bowersock, Glen W. “Palestine: ancient history and modern politics.” Journal of Palestine Studies 14.4, 1985: 49-57. | {
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Hardly a discussion on Palestine passes by without somebody inevitably bringing up how “complicated” of an issue it is. At this point, it almost seems like an obligatory disclaimer that must be declared in order to be taken seriously when such an occasion arises. This is repeated so frequently that you’d think Palestine is some uniquely convoluted, one-of-a-kind issue, requiring years of dedicated study to grasp and truly comprehend, let alone to comment on in an informed manner. But how complicated is it, really?
I won’t be going into the roots of the question of Palestine or how we arrived at the current status quo, however, you can browse our introductory articles [here] on the matter should you be interested. What this article seeks to address is this claim to exceptional complexity that only seems to come up today when discussing Palestine.
Appeals to complexity, especially in the context of settler colonialism, have been historically employed in an attempt to defend the indefensible. For example, during Apartheid in South Africa, white South African’s would commonly retort that things weren’t so black and white, if you can forgive the pun. Similarly, those defending slavery in the United States would argue that while releasing the slaves was the moral thing to do, it was more complicated than that, because it would too greatly threaten the status quo and the economy. Some try to market such arguments as “nuance”, but in reality, they primarily serve the purpose of apologia for heinous oppression.
Do you notice how it’s usually never elaborated how the question of Palestine is so complicated? Do you notice how often this is employed -especially- when discussing the refugees’ right to return, or anything that would pass for common sense in any other situation?
This is not a coincidence. This idea has very deliberately been nurtured over the years, and it serves multiple purposes. The arcanization of Palestine effectively shuts down dialogue, and prevents people from taking a well-defined stance. Even things that seem straightforward are imbued with an air of mystique, where bald faced atrocities are given the benefit of the doubt. It can’t possibly be that simple or straightforward, no, there must be another explanation. After all, you’re not an expert and it’s just such a complicated mess which has been going on for so long, right?
This mainly affects people who are just learning about Palestine, or who don’t feel confident enough to take a clear stance. Combine this with the widespread -albeit erroneous- understanding where neutrality is mistaken for objectivity, you can see why it’s much easier to prevaricate in order to avoid being seen as biased or ill informed.
This arcanization serves to make Palestine exceptional, meaning that our normal judgment or morality go out of the window; they do not apply here due to these special circumstances.
Normally, it would be difficult to argue against the right of refugees to return to their homes, but in the case of Palestine these are special refugees created under special circumstances . Our conventional approaches to law or morality are framed as ill fitting and lacking in refinement or nuance.
Israel openly colonizing the West Bank is different due its complicated history, it is not occupied it is contested. Consequently, Israel can then argue that the Geneva Conventions don’t apply either. Palestinian prisoners are unique and captured under special circumstances, therefore, they cannot be viewed as prisoners of war, nor can they be viewed as civilians deserving of a civilian court or due process. It’s quite versatile and convenient.
It’s complicated because it is special, it’s special because it’s complicated. The cycle continues, and Palestinians continue to lose their lives and lands, yet find themselves unable to clearly indict their tormentors lest they be accused of lacking nuance. These exceptions aim to legitimize what cannot be legitimized and defend what cannot be defended. So that you can look at injustice, oppression and domination and tell yourself it’s not as clear-cut as it looks.
An appeal to complexity is also a way to silence your own conscience, as I’m sure liberal Zionists grappling with their cognitive dissonance can attest. Palestine becomes “complicated” when you view yourself as a progressive, but simultaneously need to twist yourself into a knot to try and justify racist Israeli demographic obsessions, ethnic cleansing and militarism, none of which you’d support under any other circumstance.
Illan Pappe discusses this arcanization of Palestine, writing that:
“The last paradox is that the tale of Palestine from the beginning until today is a simple story of colonialism and dispossession, yet the world treats it as a multifaceted and complex story—hard to understand and even harder to solve. Indeed, the story of Palestine has been told before: European settlers coming to a foreign land, settling there, and either committing genocide against or expelling the indigenous people. The Zionists have not invented anything new in this respect. But Israel succeeded nonetheless, with the help of its allies everywhere, in building a multilayered explanation that is so complex that only Israel can understand it. Any interference from the outside world is immediately castigated as naïve at best or anti-Semitic at worst.”
For the sake of clarity, Palestine is just as deep and worthy of study as any other anti-colonial struggle, the objection in this article is to framing it as exceptional in its complexity in an effort to obfuscate the reality on the ground. The question of Palestine is not exceptional, we can trace its origins, chronicle its events and trajectories and analyze its politics all quite well. There are decades of scholarship on the matter for reference.
We must reject the arcanization of the question of Palestine, and see it in line with other anti-colonial struggles all over the world. If something is deemed an injustice elsewhere, then it cannot be deemed “complicated” in Palestine.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
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The roots of contemporary Palestinian identity have been outlined in many works, but we believe that Rashid Khalidi’s wonderful book, Palestinian Identity, has one of the more exhaustive and detailed explorations of the subject. According to Khalidi, Palestinian national identity can be traced back to Ottoman times, but it arguably started crystallizing in its modern form during the WW1 period. It is important to keep in mind that nationalism as a whole first touched the region around that period. While the mandatory period did see a rise of Palestinians identifying with the idea of a greater Arab nation, this did not preclude regional Palestinian identity and sense of belonging. It is not a contradiction to identify both as an Arab and a Palestinian, as was the case for many.
There are multiple elements that coalesced to create this proto-Palestinian identity, the first of which was the significant religious attachment to Palestine as a holy land by the people living there. Of course, Palestine has been an important religious nexus throughout history, but this feeling of attachment was particularly strong among those living there. Another element is the distribution of Ottoman administrative boundaries and the special status afforded to Palestine. According to Khalidi:
“from 1874 onwards, the sanjaq of Jerusalem, including the districts of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Beersheeba, Gaza, and Jaffa, was a separate unit administered independently from any other Ottoman province.“
Previously, Jerusalem was the capital of the larger province (Vilayet) of Palestine (Filastin) which includes the vast majority of what is now considered Palestine.
A third element is the fierce local loyalties and attachments, especially in the larger cities. Khalidi dubbed this “Urban Patriotism”. Nabulsis, Gazans, Jerusalemites, etc. all took pride in their cities and their local histories. Evidence of this can be seen in Palestinian family names, such as “Al-Nabulsi” (of Nablus) or “Al-Khalili” (of Hebron) and many other cities, towns and villages. With modernization and the spread of transport, communication, education, and notions of nationalism throughout the region, this local attachment evolved to include areas outside of the direct city or town and came to resemble what we understand today as nationalism more closely.
It is important to emphasize that all of this preceded any encounter with Zionism. This is important to understand, because there is a common assertion that Palestinian identity grew as a consequence of Zionist colonialism of Palestine, even though no such claim is made for the neighboring countries which all developed identities and nationalisms of their own. It is worth noting, however, that for Palestinians, the Zionists were yet another imperial or colonial force in a history full of such forces, be it the Ottomans who the Palestinians rebelled against, the British, or any other.
However, this does not mean that Palestinian identity was not influenced at all by its encounters with European or Zionist colonialism. For example, Najib ‘Azuri, in response to Zionist goals in Palestine, wrote in 1908 that the progress of “the land of Palestine” depends on expanding and raising the status of Jerusalem.
Evidence of early Palestinian identification and attachment to the land is abundant. One need not look only at some of the larger indicators, such as the founding of the Filastin (Palestine) newspaper in Jaffa in 1911, but also at the smaller ones, such as a group of Palestinian immigrants to Chile founding a football club and naming it Deportivo Palestino in 1920. That’s pretty impressive for an identity that allegedly did not exist!
This talking point becomes even more egregious when you consider how hard Israel has worked to co-opt and appropriate Palestinian identity and cultural markers, such as the Kuffiyeh, Dabkeh and even Palestinian cuisine . It simultaneously seeks to sever the ties of the indigenous people to the land while stealing indigenous identity markers in an attempt to self-indigenize its settler population. Ultimately, all these claims aim to whitewash the crimes committed against Palestinians by implying that they shouldn’t have been there in the first place, that they do not belong, and that the settlers are more worthy of the land.
But even if you swallow this premise wholly, and come to internalize it. What then? Does the national identification (or lack thereof) of the Palestinians mean that they were legitimate targets for ethnic cleansing? Even if we accept the ridiculous and false premise that the Palestinians were “just Arabs” without a distinct national identity, how does this justify the destruction of hundreds of villages and the subjugation of millions?
It doesn’t, and it can’t.
From the onset, this talking point is not only racist, but highly ineffectual if followed to its logical conclusion. Palestinians exist, and would have existed regardless of Zionism or any other colonial power. No amount of revisionist and ideological twisting of history can erase that.
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Khalidi, Rashid. Palestinian identity: The construction of modern national consciousness. Columbia University Press, 2010.
Khalidi, Rashid, ed. The origins of Arab nationalism. Columbia University Press, 1991.
Kamel, Lorenzo. Imperial perceptions of Palestine: British influence and power in late Ottoman times. Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Muslih, Muhammad. “Arab politics and the rise of Palestinian nationalism.” Journal of Palestine Studies 16.4 (1987): 77-94.
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined communities: Reflections on the origin and spread of nationalism. Verso books, 2006.
Hobsbawm, Eric, and Terence Ranger, eds. The invention of tradition. Cambridge University Press, 2012.
Weber, Eugen. Peasants into Frenchmen: the modernization of rural France, 1870-1914. Stanford University Press, 1976. | {
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This misconception is often based on an Orientalist understanding of the Middle East which boils everything down to religious sectarianism. This is quite common today, as if middle easterners are just incapable of living with others. How many times have you seen a misguided pundit boil down complex histories, struggles, political actors with diverse ideologies, contexts, motivations and goals into a simplistic Manichean battle between Sunnis and Shias?
Consequently, when viewed in this manner all grievances and conflicts in the area become petty, with no logic or context behind them other than fulfilling some divine commandment. All actors become irrational; it flattens all struggles and equalizes all parties. Suddenly, there are no oppressors or oppressed, no colonists or colonized. Resistance becomes identical to domination, and everything is dismissed as illogical religious superstition typical of the backwards peoples inhabiting the region.
These shallow analyses of the question of Palestine serve multiple functions; First, it is an attractive and easy way to comment without actually saying anything of worth. It is convenient, because it spares you the need to do any research or take a stance while projecting a false image of understanding or nuance.
However, more nefariously, this talking point can serve as a justification for brutal violence. For example, a large portion of American Evangelicals view the “restoration” of Israel as necessary to bring around the end times, and the return of Jesus Christ. In such a case, the oppression of Palestinians becomes a matter of holy significance. This plays a prominent role in many “faithwashing” initiatives .
Humans are quite adept at masking their intentions behind an altruistic and noble facade. Not long ago, the United States attempted to legitimize its invasion of Iraq by claiming it was actually bringing freedom and democracy to the Iraqis. Similarly, religion has been cynically instrumentalized to legitimize and mask political goals when it comes to Palestine. Indeed, many do view the Palestinian question as tied to religion, but the origins are firmly rooted in an anti-colonial struggle.
There would have still been Palestinian resistance to Zionism regardless of the religion of the colonists or the colonized. There would have still been Palestinian resistance to Zionism even if Palestine had no religious significance to anyone on the planet. This has been proven time and time again by liberation movements all over the globe.
Furthermore, and perhaps more importantly, we cannot allow Israel to succeed in its conflation of Zionism with Judaism. We cannot allow Israel to speak in the name of and represent world Jewry. When the question of Palestine is erroneously viewed as a holy war, then these Israeli claims are inadvertently reinforced and legitimized. This simplistic view also erases Jewish allies of Palestine, and overlooks Muslim allies of Israel. Not to mention that it completely misunderstands the dynamics of both societies.
For instance, what of Christian Palestinians? What of secular Palestinians? They also fought against and suffered from Zionist settler colonialism. It would be absurd to suggest that these groups were motivated by wanting to participate in a “Muslim holy war”, as many claim.
Whenever this “holy war ” talking point is used, it is a sure sign that the person practicing it is either -at best- misinformed, or is purposefully cultivating a clash of civilizations narrative to justify one aim or the other. In either case, it is not a claim that can withstand any scrutiny, especially when it is simplistically employed to analyze a heterogeneous society’s struggle against settler colonialism in an area full of liberation movements.
So no, the question of Palestine is not some holy war between eternally warring peoples, it is a recent struggle resulting from settler colonialism infused with reactionary ethno-nationalism, both relatively new concepts originating in the last couple of centuries. The analysis of the question of Palestine through any other lens will produce a flawed and misleading understanding of the facts on the ground, and will result in shallow and ahistorical interpretations of the region as the one discussed above.
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"articleTitle": "Myth: The Palestinian question is about religion | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: The Palestinian question is about religion | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Attempts to frame the Palestinian question as a religious struggle aim to obfuscate the reality on the ground, and to present interfaith dialogue and normalization as a solution to colonialism.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:38.211Z"
} |
A common phenomenon surrounding the question of Palestine is that many seem to be under the impression that the “conflict” is ancient, and has been raging on for thousands of years. This is quite far from the truth, as the Palestinian question is quite modern, relatively speaking. There is virtually unanimous scholarly consensus that it certainly doesn’t extend thousands of years into the past. The roots and causes of the Palestinian question can be traced quite clearly, should you be interested in learning about them in detail.
To briefly recap, the beginning of the question of Palestine is rooted in the Zionist movement, and its goal of colonizing Palestine to establish a Zionist settler ethno-state there. The first Zionist conference took place at the very end of the 19th century (1897), hardly ancient history. However, while it’s true that this conference marked a turning point in the organization of Zionist settlement in Palestine, there were earlier attempts by Zionist “pioneers” to settle in Palestine, such as Haim Chisin, but none of these attempts predated the Zionist movement by more than a few decades. It is also worth noting that at the time, the entire concept of nation states was a relatively novel idea, especially so in the Middle East.
In some of the more extreme versions of this misconception, some even go further to say that the whole region has been at war since time immemorial, and the question of Palestine is just an extension of that. This is the result of an Orientalist understanding of the Middle East which coalesces various political actors with diverse ideologies, contexts, motivations and goals into one chaotic mass at war with itself, where no differentiation can be discerned. Consequently, the Middle East becomes an exceptional arena for bloodshed and barbarity. Naturally, this same standard is never applied to Europe, for example, which was responsible for some of the most bloody and destructive wars in human history, neither is it applied to the various settler colonies around the globe which built their wealth and power on slavery and genocide.
When viewed in this manner, all grievances and conflicts in the area become ancient, and petty, with no logic or context behind them. All actors become irrational; it flattens over struggles and equalizes all parties. Suddenly, there are no oppressors or oppressed, no colonists or colonized. Resistance becomes identical to domination, and everything is dismissed as illogical and undifferentiated violence typical of the backwards peoples inhabiting the region.
This shallow analysis of the question of Palestine serves multiple functions; First, it is an attractive and easy way to comment on the situation without actually saying anything or taking a side. It is convenient because it spares you the need to do any research or take a stance while simultaneously morally elevating yourself over the “backwards” people in the region. This is done in an attempt to project a false image of understanding or nuance.
However, more nefariously, this talking point can serve to justify brutal Israeli practices by appealing to a false historicism; since Israel is in such a “bad neighborhood” which has always been governed by exceptional barbaric violence, Israel is forced to return in kind even if it didn’t want to. After all, Israel must be tough to survive in such a region, and any measure it takes is justified. Indeed, how could we condemn Israel for its domination of Palestinians when Arabs also kill other Arabs on the daily? It’s just how things work in the Middle East, they reason.
The parallels to the racist “Black on Black violence” arguments on Turtle Island are quite apparent. They both rely on a false, decontextualized, shallow and reductive understanding of the struggles at hand to shift blame onto the victims.
Regardless of how and when this “perpetual ancient warfare” talking point is used, it is a sure sign that the person practicing it is misinformed at best, or that they are purposefully being intellectually dishonest in an attempt to absolve Israel of its atrocious human rights record. In either case, it is not a claim that can withstand any scrutiny, especially when it is retroactively employed to analyze a struggle against settler colonialism in an era before these concepts were even invented.
So no, the question of Palestine is not some ancient blood feud between eternally warring peoples, it is a recent struggle resulting from settler colonialism infused with reactionary ethnonationalism, both relatively new concepts originating in the last couple of centuries. The analysis of the question of Palestine through any other lens will produce a flawed and misleading understanding of the facts on the ground and will result in shallow and ahistorical interpretations of the region as the one discussed above.
Learn something new?
Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Myth: The \"Conflict\" is ancient | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Myth: The \"Conflict\" is ancient | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Framing the Palestinian question as a continuation of some ancient, never ending war in the region aims to obfuscate the root cause of the question, which is Zionist settler colonialism.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:38.252Z"
} |
Despite the absurdity of the chauvinism in using humanitarian aid to distract from its colonial violence, Israel’s bluewashing strategy is nonetheless pursued across several social media platforms as well as on the Israeli government’s website. Most insultingly, these pages also mention aid Israel has allowed to enter the besieged Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank it is increasingly dotting with illegal settlements. To really drive in the ridiculousness of Israel boasting of giving aid to the Palestinians under its occupation, it is worthwhile to delve into the context of how Israel is ultimately the root cause of the issues their aid is purporting to help. Let’s take a look at some of Israel’s claims that it proudly displays on its official websites:
“Despite attacks by Hamas, Israel maintains an ongoing humanitarian corridor for the transfer of perishable and staple food items to Gaza.”
Here Israel begins by placing Hamas’s actions in a vacuum, rather than within its rightful context. Most of those who live in the Gaza Strip are refugees of Israel’s ethnic cleansing campaigns during the Nakba which made founding the State of Israel possible. All resistance to Israel from Gaza has been borne out of this catastrophe. Israel here is also absolving itself of its responsibility for Gaza’s present state. Before 1948, Gaza City had been a prosperous market town functioning as a collecting and forwarding center for the citrus, wheat, and barley crops of the Gaza District. Much of its population had worked in the surrounding countryside, and many of the Gazan landowners and farmers had owned or worked on citrus groves and pastures outside the area that became the Gaza Strip. The Nakba drastically altered the situation. Gaza was cut off from its normal sources of supply and from its markets in the areas that became Israel.
The economy was ravaged: within a few months the strip had come to depend almost entirely on imports. Many refugees attempted to return to their homes during those initial months, but such attempts were dangerous. The presence of land mines was evident from the dead camels, donkeys, and cattle along the highway. Despite this, hundreds of refugees still tried daily to return-but none were allowed by the Israelis. Decades later, Palestinian refugees in the Gaza Strip are still fighting for their right to return, as evidenced by the Great March of Return (GMR) which began in 2018. The GMR consisted of Palestinians marching towards the barrier separating them from their villages and in turn being shot dead by Israeli snipers or intentionally disabled by exploding “butterfly bullets”.
Thus, this framing that Israel is acting benevolently despite Hamas’s supposedly irrational violence obscures how Israel began wreaking havoc on Palestinian lives decades before Hamas even existed. This havoc includes how Gaza’s food insecurity began in 1948 and has been allowed to continue since through Israeli violence and domination, despite Israeli claims that the pulling out of settlements from Gaza marked the end of its rule over the strip. Even this “transfer of food items” to Gaza being boasted of is dependent on the whims of the Israeli government and in the past has been blocked while the army was raining bombs down on Gaza, including on UN schools.
“21,200 international organization staff members entered the Gaza Strip.”
Again shamelessly minimizing the devastating impact of total Israeli control over who and what can enter and leave the Gaza Strip and why these staff members need to enter in the first place, this also belies how as recently as 2018, Israel was exposed as having sent in an Israeli commando unit into Gaza undercover as humanitarian aid workers. This is a war crime, and rightfully so as it endangers all actual humanitarian aid workers by placing them under a cloud of suspicion, essentially using these aid workers as human shields.
“22,849 Palestinians exited the Strip, among them 10,544 patients and their companions, exiting for medical treatment in Israel.”
This bluewashing of the Palestinians in Gaza who despite all obstacles were able to leave for proper medical treatment as an act of generosity covers up how Israel is responsible for the abysmal state of Palestinian healthcare. This figure simply ignores how Israel is increasingly limiting the number of Palestinians who are allowed to access the lifesaving care they need, while Gaza’s healthcare system – subjected to half a century of occupation and over a decade of blockade – is left unable to meet the needs of its population. Furthermore, Israel does not allow Palestinians in Gaza to reopen their airport or build a seaport, leaving Palestinians dependent on foreign ports for travel abroad.
Travel to the West Bank from Gaza is also restricted, even for medical treatments: a recent heartbreaking story was of a young Palestinian girl with cancer who eventually died in a hospital in Nablus, after her treatment was delayed and her parents were denied permits to accompany her, a story that is tragically not unique. The precariousness of Palestinians’ access to healthcare has only been exacerbated by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, where with the UN’s plan to facilitate permits stalled, Israel only approved half of the urgent medical permit requests from Gaza by late spring 2020. Thus, many Palestinians who contracted COVID-19 and who suffered from preexisting conditions have been prevented from receiving adequate medical attention, including access to ventilators.
Moreover, the pharmaceutical market in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip is bound by economic agreements with Israel and has been structured in furtherance of Israeli interests at the expense of Palestinians. This is accomplished through the blocking of less expensive pharmaceuticals from neighboring countries, forcing a reliance on Israeli pharmaceuticals, as well as the limiting of raw material imports and the exports of medicines which places a huge burden on Palestinian pharmaceutical manufacturers. In the case of the Gaza Strip, medicines are allowed in but not out, placing the burden of dealing with expired medications on Gaza’s over-capacitated toxic waste processing sites. This has resulted in the pollution of water resources in Gaza which in and of itself leads to further health problems in the population.
“Coordination and processing of requests regarding humanitarian infrastructure, such as water, sewage and electricity systems in the Gaza Strip is conducted between COGAT (the bureaucratic arm of Israel’s military occupation) and the Palestinian Authority”
How generous to ‘process humanitarian requests’ as an occupying power after bombing and destroying Gaza’s water pipelines, sewage treatment centers, electricity systems , and its power plant in the first place. Since then, Israel has not only delayed but benefitted and profited from rebuilding through the “Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism.” Under this mechanism, basic commodities such as cement are deemed a “dual-use material” and thus are subjected to a complicated bureaucratic system of surveillance and Israeli pre-approval which pushes many Palestinians to resort to price-gauged black market goods.
Families wishing to rebuild their destroyed homes have their personal information passed on to Israel who can reject these requests at will, but only after being given unfettered access to everything from family ID card numbers to GPS coordinates. Meanwhile Israeli companies profit while international donors foot the bill for Israeli destruction even when this includes donor-funded structures. One small example is how 10% of the Israeli cement industry is made up of cement sales to Gaza. This is unsurprising considering the hoops Gaza cement companies have to jump through; one factory owner had to install a dozen security cameras with two video-monitoring systems that run 24 hours a day. Due to Gaza’s frequent blackouts (courtesy of Israeli destruction of infrastructure) the factory owner had to buy a pair of battery backups to ensure a steady stream of power. If the lights go out, the internet connection fails, or a storm knocks out a camera, the factory risks being shut down under mechanism rules.
Overall, Palestinians are left with little choice but to either risk buying illegal and exorbitantly priced necessary goods or be subjected to a long and humiliating process to be allowed to access supplies made by the same people who destroyed their homes. All of this is then cynically exploited and spun as a feel-good humanitarian show of kindness.“In 2009, the West Bank enjoyed a significant economic recovery thanks to measures taken by Israel to support economic activity. A number of infrastructure projects are currently in different stages of implementation in the West Bank. These projects will help improve the standard of living for the local population, including among others the upgrading of water, and sanitation infrastructures.”
Israel’s continuous attempts to obfuscate its occupation of the West Bank also extends to its bluewashing efforts. Israel simultaneously seeks to take over as much Palestinian land as possible, and deprives Palestinians of any kind of authority or sovereignty, but also frames the West Bank as some poor neighboring country when it suits it. Here Israel is ignoring its status as the occupier of Palestinian land, framing its actions as “economic aid” rather than as its actual responsibilities under international law as the occupying power.
Despite Israel’s delusions about making the desert bloom , the economy of the West Bank was described as thriving before being occupied in 1967, generating “significant production and income that sustained a growing population of 1 million people”. Since then the Paris Protocol to the Oslo Accords, which was ostensibly signed decades ago to supposedly strengthen the Palestinian economy, has instead resulted in a captive Palestinian market dependent on Israel. Israel has imposed restrictions on the movement of goods so that they can only move freely from Israel to the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, but not vice versa, privileging Israeli goods. This is evident in how the West Bank and the Gaza Strip account for only 3% of total Israeli trade.
Israel has also imposed restrictions on the movement of goods within the West Bank, further fragmenting the Palestinian economy into small and disconnected markets and increasing the time and cost needed to transport goods from one area of the West Bank to another. Furthermore, under the Paris Protocol, Israel collects customs duties on imports destined for the Palestinian market, which are required to go through Israel, as well as indirect taxes on Israeli products sold to the Palestinian market and income taxes from Palestinians employed in Israel or the settlements. Ultimately, most of the money Palestinians earn flows back into the Israeli economy in one way or another. This is not to even mention how damaging the illegal Israeli settlements are to the Palestinian economy. Settlements result in prices for land and water being greatly increased, resulting in very high construction costs, especially for industrial enterprises, which severely hampers Palestinian industrial development.
That Israel is also speaking of assisting with “water upgrades” in the context of settlements is also fascinating, seeing as the settlements hoard water from Palestinians to the extent that 599,901 settlers use six times more water than the whole Palestinian population in the West Bank, some 2.86 million Palestinians as of 2015. Both absolutely and proportionately, Israelis use a far greater amount of the region’s total water resources, while Palestinian water use does not even meet the minimum daily standard recommended by the World Health Organization. Israel also controls a disproportionate amount of the two water systems it shares with Palestine, effectively controlling 100 percent of the Jordan River basin, more than 80 percent of underground water resources from the Western (Mountain) aquifer, and 85% of groundwater resources available in the West Bank – accounting for 25 percent of Israel’s water consumption. Israel hoards water, dries up Palestinian wells and springs, and increases the price of water through checkpoint delays. Turns out the secret to Israel’s “water miracle” is plain old fashioned theft.
Finally, one needs only look at the multiple instances of sewage dumped on Palestinian villages by Israeli settlers, including on a school, to understand exactly what these claims of helping Palestinians in the West Bank with sanitation infrastructure are worth.
Overall, Israeli “humanitarian aid” to the Palestinians living under Israeli colonialism can be best described by one of Malcolm X’s most profound quotes:
“If you stick a knife in my back nine inches and pull it out six inches, there’s no progress. If you pull it all the way out that’s not progress. Progress is healing the wound that the blow made. And they haven’t even pulled the knife out much less healed the wound. They won’t even admit the knife is there.”Lebanon
While Israeli bluewashing of ‘aid’ given to Palestinians under occupation is most egregious, these propaganda efforts are not restricted to Palestine. Following the August 2020 Beirut port explosion, Israeli hasbarists descended like vultures on the tragedy, expressing hollow condolences and making a big show and dance about Tel Aviv city hall being lit up in the colors of the Lebanese flag. Most cynical was the official Israeli army twitter account, which declared that Israel had graciously offered humanitarian aid and medical assistance. We are expected to believe this is a touching change of heart on the part of Israel, when it was only in 2017 that the former Israeli defense minister threatened to “send Lebanon back to the Middle Ages”, this after having already killed between 15,000 to 20,000 people in the 1982 invasion of southern Lebanon which preceded over two decades of occupation.
It was only a few years after Israel withdrew from Lebanon following a UN resolution when it again invaded in 2006 and fired more than a million cluster munitions and missiles into the country. Some of those missiles had messages written on them by Israeli children, obviously incapable of fully grasping the horror these missiles would unleash. Even an Israeli army officer described 2006 as “insane and monstrous” as the army “covered entire towns in cluster bombs.” Monstrous it was, as 1,100 people were killed and some 4,400 injured, the vast majority civilians.
It cannot even be claimed that these civilians were “collateral damage” with the reveal of the infamous Dahiya Doctrine. The doctrine is named after the southern suburb of Beirut, known as the Dahiya, which was totally devastated through bombardment, where the IDF dropped two-thousand-pound bombs. Eizenkot laid out how total destruction and mass casualties was actually the aim, later declaring that “What happened in the Dahiya quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which Israel is fired on. . . . We will apply disproportionate force on it and cause great damage and destruction there. From our standpoint, these are not civilian villages, they are military bases”, brazenly describing a strategy of collective punishment. As is typical, the Dahiya doctrine was never mentioned in statements by U.S. politicians, or in the reporting of the war by most of the mainstream American media. It is within this context that Israel publicly declares the offer of “aid”. This allows Israel to receive a pat on the back for “rising above politics”, and Lebanon’s refusal to partake in this PR stunt can then be depicted as an example of the irrational Arab stubbornness and hatred of peace which poor Israel must contend with.
Syria
Similarly to Palestine and Lebanon, Israel also uses aid to Syria to bluewash its war crimes, despite Syrians being yet another people who have had to deal with Israeli bombs and occupation. Israel has been occupying Syria’s Golan Heights for decades due to its geostrategic advantages and its beautiful natural landscape now dotted with illegal settlements. The occupation of the Golan Heights resulted in the ethnic cleansing of over 100,000 Syrians, and the destruction of dozens of villages. Israel has also carried out multiple air strikes in Syria, killing a whole family in January 2021 alone and through its medical and material support for Al Nusra Front, initially Al- Qaeda���s branch in Syria, has only worsened the devastation of the Syrian civil war.
Israel has of course chosen to deemphasize such stories, instead focusing its bluewashing efforts on some 177 Syrians being treated in Israeli hospitals. Israel acts like this miniscule expenditure of resources on a very small number of Syrians is impressive in the context of a war that resulted in millions of Syrian refugees, the vast majority of whom fled to Turkey, Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan. It is also in effect ignoring how the ethnic cleansing campaigns which made Israel possible resulted in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees ending up in Syria, barred from returning to their homes purely because they are not Jewish. The purpose of this aid is not to make up for the damage and destruction caused in any meaningful way; rather, it is about garnering good press from a Western media more than happy to provide it.
Kashmir, Haiti, the Philippines, Nepal.
Israel’s destruction is of course most immediately felt in the Middle East, but it has a long and sordid history of providing weaponry and support to some of the most odious repressive regimes in modern history. This also includes India, which has sent special forces to train with the Israeli army and has become one of Israel’s biggest customers for weaponry. It uses this weaponry in no insignificant part to strengthen its occupation of Kashmir, which is strikingly similar to the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, not only in practice but also in its justification as part of the ‘war on Islamist terror’. In 2019, the Indian consul-general in New York even suggested that “India should follow the Israeli model, and build settlements in the Kashmir Valley to secure the return of Hindus”. Yet the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs website has the gall to brag of some aid to Kashmir following the 2005 earthquake, even as Israel helps increase the efficacy of Indian brutality which has left Kashmiris more vulnerable to natural disasters.
However, Israel need not have a role in a country’s suffering to exploit it. The same foreign affairs page brags of aid given to Haiti following the devastating 2010 earthquake and to the Philippines following a storm in 2009. In 2015, Israel also touted aid given to Nepal following a devastating earthquake, all of which was painstakingly covered in a sophisticated multimedia propaganda effort. The incentives for this campaign are clear; as the Israeli army’s former chief medical officer has claimed, these efforts “contribute to Israeli hasbara (public relations efforts) and “help bring respect to Israel.” Israel uses this aid to present itself as a gift to the world thanks to its unique technical expertise and goodwill. Meanwhile, the same week that Israeli forces were deployed to the Philippines, Palestinian children in Gaza were wading to school in sewage because of the collapse of infrastructure due to the Israeli blockade.
At the time of writing, the Covid-19 pandemic rages on. When Israel hasn’t been using the pandemic as cover to ramp up its horrific policies such as home demolitions, it’s been using it as a PR moment, quickly administering more vaccines per capita than any other country- a task made more feasible by limiting vaccines to citizens rather than all those under its control. Though it should be noted here that even for those Palestinians with Israeli citizenship, there have been noted discrepancies in vaccination rates, due in part to less resources being allocated to information campaigns conducted in Arabic against the backdrop of the history of systemic discrimination against non-Jews in Israel overall.
Make no mistake- despite the Palestinian Authority and Hamas supposedly being the official governments of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel is really in charge. Israel controls the borders and currency and collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA); even in areas like Ramallah, supposedly under the complete control of the Palestinian Authority (Area A), Israel reserves the right to enter the city at any time. This system, where West Bank settlers are vaccinated while the Palestinians mere kilometers away are ignored until it’s time to burst into their homes and arrest them in the middle of the night, is what has led Palestinians, allies and the international community to deem Israel as instituting medical or vaccine apartheid.
Only after this pushback did Israel start vaccinating some Palestinians in the West Bank, and even then has thus far limited their efforts to exploited workers in settlements because of their direct contact with Israelis. The millions of other Palestinians under Israeli rule have been left waiting while Israel practices vaccine diplomacy– vaccinating diplomats, and promising vaccines for diplomatic favors such as states moving their embassy to Jerusalem. As a result, Guatemala has moved its embassy to Jerusalem, while Honduras has pledged to do so, Hungary has set up a trade mission in Jerusalem, and the Czech Republic has promised to open a diplomatic office there, to name a few examples. Despite some legal challenges to Israel’s vaccine export plans, Israel is still negotiating sending out over 100,000 doses which are set to expire before the end of May, even as Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza have had to go under lockdown yet again. Israel is doing its best to give nearly everyone a vaccine as long as they are not a Palestinian. Currently, the government is working to acquire an additional 36 million doses, despite millions of unused vaccines going to waste. Should this contract be signed, Israel will officially have seven times its population in vaccines.
At the end of the day, Covid-19 does not care about Israel’s painstakingly crafted supremacist system, from a purely public health perspective health perspective, everyone from the river to the sea must be vaccinated as soon as possible if this pandemic is ever going to end. Those who are not among the ranks pressuring Israel to make this happen, and are instead praising Israel as a ‘health model’ as it uses vaccines as bargaining chips while the Palestinians under its boot are dying, are complicit in this egregious form of bluewashing.
It is of course morally incoherent to work to save lives in some places while actively destroying lives in others, or to expect applause for the offer of band-aids to the same people you have mortally wounded. Yet this is what Israel is doing with its bluewashing campaigns; Israel’s goal is applause for technological expertise and aid to drown out the suffering it is causing Palestinians and others in the region. Surely their lives are equal to the lives of those in Haiti, the Philippines, Nepal or anywhere else in the world. Israel must not be allowed to exploit disasters, especially the ones it has caused, to distract from its war crimes, crimes against humanity, and colonization.
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"articleTitle": "Bluewashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Bluewashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Bluewashing refers to when a state or organization uses humanitarian aid campaigns to deflect attention from its harmful practices.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:40.176Z"
} |
Purplewashing refers to when a state or organization appeal to women’s rights and feminism in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.
Much to the dismay of colonizers everywhere, it was once much easier to justify colonialism. The language surrounding it used to be rather straightforward; we deserve these lands and resources because we are more advanced; because God wanted it this way; because you are savages. Israel, as a settler-colony, was no exception to this line of reasoning; the sentiments of the founders of Zionism, and later of the State of Israel, are well documented regarding the native Palestinians, who they deemed as being “backwards” and not as deserving of the land as they were .
It is now a faux pas to say any of this quite so bluntly, even as (neo)colonialism prevails. Today, it is more fashionable to justify the theft of lands and resources under the guise of being protectors of human rights, unlike the enemies they seek to dominate.
It is within this context that Israel is rebranding itself. One facet of this propaganda is now centered on its supposed deep concern for the rights and freedoms of women, even Palestinian ones. This has come to be known as purplewashing, which consists of:
“political and marketing strategies that [indicate] a supposed commitment to gender equality. It often refers to the image-cleaning of western countries, which have not achieved genuine equality between men and women but criticise inequalities in other countries or cultures, often where there is a Muslim majority.”
These strategies constitute representing Muslim women -which Palestinian women are largely coded as despite the existence of non-Muslim Palestinians- as uniquely abused in order to create the narrative that feminism only exists on the side of the West. This is part of an ideological framework referred to by scholars as colonial feminism, whereby women’s rights are appropriated in the service of empire; in the context of Palestine, this rhetoric is also known as gendered Orientalism. The Palestinian Arab/Muslim is framed as an “other”, who is culturally or even genetically predisposed to misogyny. Naturally, this is juxtaposed with the framing of a liberal, enlightened, Israeli Westerner. Ultimately to Israel, this facade of feminism is a way to improve its image, and incorporate women into its violent, colonial, racist systems and institutions, as well as a way to paint Palestinians as unworthy of statehood or even humanity. The fact that these systems subjugate other -usually Palestinian- women is hardly mentioned.
Much of Zionists’ attempts to market Israel as feminist revolves around the Israeli army. The Israeli army’s official social media accounts and those at pro-Israel groups such as the Lawfare Project, hail the Israeli army as “one of the only armies in the Western world in which women are drafted to military service by law”. They praise women’s participation in the ethnic cleansing campaigns and massacres of the 1948 Nakba, and cheer on the increasing role of women in combat positions.
Hannah MacLeod, women’s officer for Australian Young Labor praised women’s participation in the Israeli army as “empowering” and pushed for Australia to encourage this participation. There is a “Hot Israeli Army Girls” Instagram account and Maxim magazine’s infamous “Women of Israel Defence Forces”, was deemed so crucial to Israel’s international reputation that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs threw a party celebrating its publication. One of the more recent and successful additions to the purplewashing of Israel has been Gal Gadot starring as Wonder Woman. Gadot, being a former IDF soldier herself, posted support for the Israeli military as it murdered thousands of Palestinians in its 2014 assault on Gaza, and helped spread the racist and baseless idea that Palestinians use their children and women as human shields. Nonetheless, none of this has stood in the way of trying to frame her as an icon of empowerment for women everywhere.
All of these efforts are meant to sell the idea of Israel being a liberal haven. That sexual assault is rampant in the Israeli army does not make the glossy brochures and social media posts; instead, they are all designed to convey the idea that this objectification in service of a settler-colonial fantasy is the height of female empowerment, an empowerment that Palestinian and other Arab and Muslim women can only aspire to.
This purplewashing of a colonial military, which in addition to subjugating the native population, is also one of the largest exporters of drones globally and has supplied weapons to some of the most repressive, racist regimes in modern history, including Apartheid South Africa. Such a military is anathema to the framework of intersectionality which undergirds a feminism that seeks to dismantle patriarchy and end violence against all women.
The body of theory on intersectionality in feminist movements, created by and largely expanded on by Black feminist writers, compellingly posits that challenging one aspect of structural power alone such as patriarchy, while leaving white supremacy unscathed, only empowers white, upper-class and otherwise privileged women at the expense of all other women. This understanding that feminism must be about ending not only patriarchy but racism and other oppressive systems has led to acts of global solidarity with Palestine, such as from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, notably regarding the partnership between the Israeli military and American police departments.
Zionists’ reaction to this solidarity has frankly been nothing short of unhinged, often attacking the concept of intersectionality as a whole. Monica Osborne from the Jewish Journal declared intersectionality “an even more sinister threat than the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state”, and Sharon Nazarian, a senior vice president for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in her article for the Forward used a series of myths and half-baked talking points to declare that of course Zionism and feminism are compatible, and expressed her dismay at how “anti-Zionism is becoming increasingly visible in intersectional discourse”.
Smearing intersectionality and solidarity efforts is becoming increasingly unpopular, and so instead there has been a push to purplewash Israel’s history instead. These efforts start with its history, especially in regards to its 4th Prime Minister Golda Meir. Zionists gush over Meir as “an icon—feminist and otherwise—of the 20th century.” The titles of one of her more well-known biographies simultaneously declared her as the “iron lady of the Middle East” and the “first woman prime minister in the West”. This is indicative of Zionist attempts to reap the benefits of Israel being considered a Western country even as they work to portray Israel as indigenous to the Middle East.
To Palestinian women, however, she was no more empowering than the male Zionist figures who sought and seek to erase our very existence; she once infamously declared that because Palestinians did not have a state or ascribe to modern-day conceptions of nationalism, they were not really ethnically cleansed:
“It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.” .
These efforts to purplewash Meir are made even more ridiculous by the fact that she did not even consider herself a feminist, as biographer Elinor Burkett stated, “American feminists loved to adopt Golda, but she was not interested…she ignored gender prejudices…she didn’t think of her [premiership] as an achievement for women. She thought of it as an achievement for Golda.”
In the present day, Zionist groups like Hadassah and the Zioness coalition are increasingly attempting to present themselves as feminist, indicative of a concern amongst Israeli hasbarists that Zionism needs to be rebranded in a more social justice inclined era. This is reflected in Hadassah’s online speaker series, “Defining Zionism in the 21st Century” including a “Zionism for Millennials” segment led by speaker Chloe Valdery, an evangelical Zionist and secretary of the Zioness coalition. Recently, Zioness has been revealed to be an astroturfing group co-founded by Amanda Berman, a Lawfare project executive. Zioness also stirred controversy for attempting to insert itself and its purplewashing agenda into Chicago’s Dyke March and Slutwalk Chicago’s annual protest. Understandably, these efforts were rejected by the radical organizers behind the protest, with Slutwalk Chicago’s statement explaining that they were adamantly opposed to Zioness centering its politic “over the fight for equality and against patriarchy”; they continued:
“We find it disgusting that any group would appropriate a day dedicated to survivors fighting rape culture in order to promote their own nationalist agenda.” They later added that “we fight for equality for everyone which means we stand with Jewish AND Palestinian people, while taking a firmly anti-state, anti-imperialist position that necessarily includes Israel.”
Zionists’ purplewashing their nationalist agenda also often takes the form of a contrived concern for Palestinian women, even while erasing the identities of the Palestinian women living within the green line as “Israeli Arabs”, in an effort to depict Israeli society as ‘multi-cultural’ and tolerant . Native informant Yoseph Haddad, whose entire career revolves around being a bankrolled “Israeli Arab” mouthpiece for the Israeli government, posted a graphic titled “Israeli-Arab Women: Breaking the Glass Ceiling”. Per the accompanying caption on Facebook, Haddad presented individual Palestinian women having roles as professors, police officers, or even winning a singing competition as proof refuting the existence of Israeli Apartheid. Haddad also wrote that “While women face systemic discrimination and oppression all over the Middle East, in Israel Arab women can be anything they want to be”. Besides the insulting notion that individual members of an oppressed group having certain jobs or positions precludes the existence of systemic racism, the implied message is clear: Palestinian women living under Israeli rule are “better off” than they would be under Palestinian rule.
Thus, Palestinian women are depicted as in need of saving from Palestinian men. NGO Monitor, an anti-Palestinian group with close ties to the Israeli government and settler movement, specializing in smearing Palestinian human rights organizations as ‘terrorist’ groups, published a special report titled “The Exploitation of Palestinian Women’s Rights NGOs” which scolded Palestinian feminist activists and organizations for “focusing on Israel as the cause of gender inequality, while not paying adequate attention to internal, systemic practices within Palestinian society that are discriminatory against women”.
In a 2017 Daily Beast article, liberal Zionist wonderboy Peter Beinart accused leftists of overlooking Hamas’s misogyny and paternalistically fretted over what it would look like “when Palestinians more fully govern themselves”. Even Beinart’s more conservative Zionist counterpart Bret Stephens, whose racism against Palestinians is so unbridled that he has openly described Palestinians as “psychotic” and “seized by bloodlust”, nevertheless also positions himself as deeply concerned for Palestinian women, and similarly declared that the “so-called progressives now find themselves in sympathy with the misogynists of Hamas”. In that same article Stephens takes it a step further and declares, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the prominence of women at the Gaza Strip’s Great March of Return was orchestrated by Hamas because “Israeli soldiers might be less likely to fire on women”, conveying his worldview where Israeli soldiers value Palestinian women’s lives, unlike Palestinian men, with all the subtlety of a nuclear warhead. That the Palestinian women in question could have attended the protests of their own accord or that Palestinian men also do not deserve to be murdered at the hands of their occupiers were not even considered points worth entertaining.
Even the Israeli government’s official website has a page dedicated to “the status of women in Gaza” which cynically lists the issues Palestinian women face regarding gender-based violence and limited employment, as if issues of sexism can all neatly be reduced to Hamas’ creation a little over 30 years ago, or as if the Gaza Strip, which has become the world’s largest open-air prison, is not increasingly becoming unlivable in every meaning of the word thanks to Israel’s blockade and bombardment.
The aforementioned fixation on Palestinian women obfuscates how dehumanized Palestinian women and Palestinian mothers in particular actually are by Zionists and throughout Israeli society. This is evident in how Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked openly called for the murder of Palestinian women because they give birth to “little snakes.” Bret Stephens similarly targeted Palestinian mothers in a particularly atrocious article, saying that unlike Western mothers who worry their child will get a bad tattoo, Palestinian mothers want their children to die fighting the occupation; he then went on to say that he has yet to meet an Israeli mother who wants to raise a murderer, because in his view state-sanctioned murder vis-a-vis military conscription or having children write messages of racist hate on missiles about to be launched into Lebanon do not count.
Stephens finally openly states that Palestinian culture is “a culture that openly celebrates murder and is not fit for statehood”, consequently, if Palestinians want a state, they should, like postwar Germany, put themselves “…through a process of moral rehabilitation” and that for Palestine, “this should start with the mothers.”
Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli military intelligence officer turned academic made public statements regarding ‘raping the wives and mothers of Palestinian combatants’ to deter ‘terrorist attacks’. These comments were defended by his university as “the bitter reality of the Middle East”. This sentiment is widespread throughout Israeli society, as the eminent scholar Rabab Abdulhadi noted in her incredibly valuable article for Feminist Studies; Israel’s bloody 2014 assault on Gaza was gleefully supported with Israeli social media posts that included a sexualized image of a hijabi women with calls on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to rape her. Furthermore, public banners sponsored by an Israeli city’s city council told Israeli soldiers to ‘pound their mothers and come home to your own mothers!’, and a popular t-shirt design amongst Israeli men who served in the army depicted a bullseye pointing at a pregnant Palestinian niqab-wearing woman with the caption “one shot, two kills.”
Palestinian women are targeted for these kinds of racist and misogynistic attacks because Israel is an ethnocracy, which aims to cement the domination of a certain ethnic group on all spheres of society, a crucial aspect of which is demography. Within this framework, Palestinians are viewed as “demographic threats” . This obsession with demographics necessarily manifests itself, as Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian has written, in racist and gendered policies to “contain and reduce the Palestinian population” through assaults on Palestinian daily and domestic life, extending to the often fatal denial of essential treatment to pregnant women, as evidenced by two UNHCR reports of checkpoints delaying pregnant Palestinian women’s access to healthcare. These reports state that 68 women had forced roadside births resulting in 34 miscarriages and that inadequate medical care during pregnancy was found to be the third cause of mortality among Palestinian women of reproductive age.
The aim is to “target the literal biological reproduction of Palestinian life”; these policies have shaped, Shalhoub-Kevorkian argues, a “death zone” for Palestinians and Palestinian women especially, as part of a larger, ongoing process of dispossession congruent with settler colonial practices elsewhere. This death zone is “the space where the biological, material and cultural reproduction of Palestinian social life is put at daily and intimate risk.” According to Shalhoub-Kevorkian, this “sexual violence is central to the larger structure of colonial power, its racialized machinery of domination, and its logic of elimination. Colonialism is itself structured by the logic of sexual violence.” Attacks on Palestinian women’s lives include rape and other forms of gender-based torture in Israeli prisons, consistent with the UN’s findings that sexual violence as part of overarching violent conflict is “used as a means of inflicting terror upon the population at large” and “can also be part of a genocidal strategy”.
Furthermore, as reported by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Dubravka Šimonović, Israeli settlers also frequently attack little girls going to school, to such an extent that some families have become too afraid to send them. While this is a case of gendered human rights abuses committed by non-State actors, it is ultimately de facto endorsed by the Israeli State through their consistent ‘failure’ to investigate or prosecute perpetrators. Šimonović also reported on the traumatizing effect of Israeli home raids and demolitions, with a woman testifying that she took to sleeping fully covered in anticipation of soldiers’ entering her bedroom during a night raid, as has become all too customary.
That misogyny exists within Palestinian society is undeniable. However, the idea that Israel represents salvation from this misogyny, rather than embodying the racist and colonial structures that perpetuate it, is far more questionable. In fact, there is much evidence that weakening community structures, disruptions in law and order, economic hardship, forced migration and over-crowded living conditions in refugee/displacement camps, all of which Palestinians have experienced as a result of Israeli violence, are all factors that increase the risk of sexual and gender-based violence, especially against women and girls. Furthermore, the bureaucratic colonial fragmentation of Palestine into different areas of control, especially the division of the West Bank into areas A, B, and C and the divide between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is actually an obstacle to preventing this violence or holding its perpetrators accountable .
Palestinian feminist scholars and organizers have been studying and resisting Israel’s violent practices against all Palestinians, and its gendered practices against Palestinian women in particular. As a result, we recognize that true liberation for Palestinian women is impossible with anything short of the liberation of all Palestinians from Israeli settler colonialism. As Palestinian feminists, human rights activists and representatives of women organizations declared in a statement of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement:
“The struggle of Palestinian feminists [is] as marginalized women who are deprived of equal rights and as part of an indigenous people suffering under a regime of occupation and apartheid. We cannot accept the backseat reserved for an obedient minority that must be filled in conferences or statements issued by Israeli groups. We are struggling for our rights, all of our rights, national, social and otherwise, and against all oppression.”
Palestinian women reject all purplewashing attempts to minimize Israeli violence against us and all Palestinians, which only seeks to bolster Israel’s image at the expense of Palestinians’ rights. Palestinian women in the struggle are aware that they are fighting for the rights and human dignity of all, and that “feminism that doesn’t have an understanding of how it intersects with racial and ethnic oppression is simply a diversification of white supremacy.” We hope you will join us in working for the liberation of all Palestinians; and that the next time you see an pro-Israel organization brazenly attempt to use the feminist movement to cover for colonialism, you can see that purple really isn’t Israel’s color.
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Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. Militarization and violence against women in conflict zones in the Middle East: A Palestinian case-study. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera et al. Sexual Violence, Women’s Bodies, and Israeli Settler Colonialism. Jadaliyya. November 17th, 2014. [Link]
Farris, Sara R. In the name of women’s rights: The rise of femonationalism. Duke University Press, 2017.
Jad, Islah. Palestinian Women’s Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism. Syracuse University Press, 2018.
Abdulhadi, Rabab. “Israeli Settler Colonialism in Context: Celebrating (Palestinian) Death and Normalizing Gender and Sexual Violence.” Feminist Studies 45.2-3, 2019: 541-573.
Elia, Nada. “Justice is indivisible: Palestine as a feminist issue.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 6.1, 2017.
Sharoni, Simona, et al. “Transnational Feminist Solidarity in Times of Crisis: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement and Justice in/for Palestine.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 17.4, 2015: 654-670.
Abdulhadi, Rabab, Evelyn Alsultany, and Nadine Naber, eds. Arab and Arab American feminisms: gender, violence, and belonging. Syracuse University Press, 2011.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Do Muslim women need saving?. Vol. 15. No. 5. Sage UK: London, England: SAGE Publications, 2015. | {
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Theodor Herzl, one of the founding fathers of Zionism, wrote a utopian novel by the name of Altneuland, or “Old New Land.” In the book, a Viennese Jew and a Prussian nobleman return from a twenty-year isolation on a tropical island, stop in Palestine and discover Herzl’s utopian vision for the future Jewish state. In Herzl’s wildest dreams -and due to Jewish ingenuity- Palestine is no longer a “neglected and desertified land” but suddenly a technologically savvy nation replete with fast trains to Europe, where in Herzl’s mind everything culturally and politically worthwhile is. Much of the novel drones on about what he perceives to be an “unforgiving arid climate” thanks to human-driven desertification as well as the idea that the biblical land of plenty has devolved into a feudal and largely subsistence economy.
Herzl wasn’t alone in this charged characterization of Palestinian land. In 1928, the Economic Board for Palestine of London recorded a Zionist bulletin declaring that:
“Palestine was a poor and backward agricultural country. This is of course still the case to a large extent, but a remarkable development has taken place which is gradually modifying the traditional life”.
Ben-Gurion, another Zionist founding father and Israel’s first prime minister, described in a 1942 pamplet the Jordan Valley, largely known as the breadbasket of Palestine due to its fertile land, as a wasteland “..which knew not at all the pioneer passion that would come to fertilize it”.
Paired with Zionist rhetoric on the supposed desolation of Palestinian land is the manner in which Palestinian fellahin (farmers) and Bedouins are spoken of as having ruined the land with their incompetence. The Jewish Agency exemplified this rhetoric in its call for replacing the “traditional” Arab farmers with better cultivators, matched by Ben-Gurion stating that “we do not recognize their [the Arabs] right to rule the country to the extent that it has not been built by them and is still awaiting its cultivators”.
They were in fine imperialist company with types like Winston Churchill, then British Colonial Secretary and overall genocide-engineering extraordinaire, who stated that “left to themselves the Arabs would never in 1,000 years take effective steps towards the irrigation of Palestine”, as well as with Laurence Oliphant, a British MP and intelligence officer and occasional collaborator with the Palestine Exploration Fund, who declared that:
“The Arabs have very little claim to our sympathy. They have laid waste this country, ruined its villages, and plundered its inhabitants, until it has been reduced to its present condition…the same system might be pursued which we have adopted with success in Canada with our North American Indian tribes, who are confined to their ‘reserves’, and live peaceably upon them in the midst of the settled agricultural population.”
These statements and attitudes on Palestinian farmers’ inadequacy and the conditions of the land was service to the rather dubious claim, as recorded in Moshe Smilansky’s Jewish Colonisation and the Fellah , that the Palestinian farmer can only be saved from his misery and turned into a ‘real’ farmer through the aid of Jewish settlers. These absurd and racist claims were intended to legitimize the Zionist project, and put forward the idea that Zionist colonialism would not displace or otherwise harm the native Palestinians and would even benefit Palestinians. In reality, the settlers banned re-sale or lease of land to Palestinians and prevented their employment in their Jewish-only endeavors. A significant example of this is the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization founded in 1901 to acquire land in Palestine explicitly for Jewish-only use, and whose dispossession of Palestinians continues to the present day.
Despite the political usefulness of the claims that Zionists were improving conditions for all the inhabitants of Palestine, there is ample evidence that the British and Zionists alike frequently ignored the aspects of Palestinian agricultural practices which contradicted their ideologically-driven predispositions. Yitzhak Elazari-Volkani, one of the founders of the agricultural faculty at the Hebrew University, made a compelling argument in a piece written on Zionist agricultural practices, where he asserted that it was actually the Zionist agricultural practices which could be deemed “defective”, with money blown on expensive machinery only to gain comparable, if not lower income than Palestinian farmers. Furthermore, the British Hope-Simpson report on immigration, land settlement and development in Mandatory Palestine found that said expensive machinery actually risked damaging the soil, while Jewish farmers “had to be protected by subsidies from the JNF or other Jewish agencies in order to sustain their European standard of living.” Nevertheless, the Zionist and British stance was still that Palestinian agriculture was in need of “capital-driven improvement”, because neither could think in terms other than that.
To be clear, besides the agricultural expertise Palestinians had accumulated for generations, they already had a lot to work with naturally; in contrast to claims of barren Palestinian land that was “mostly desert”, most of Palestine had been cultivated, and had supported agricultural populations for centuries. The lands of Palestine have long been written about as one of the most fertile lands in the decidedly aptly named Fertile Crescent. Renowned Roman historian Tacitus described Palestine in flowery terms, saying “the inhabitants are healthy and robust; the rains moderate; the soil fertile.”
In fact, Palestine, as later shown in a pioneering study by Alexander Schölch, produced large agricultural surpluses and was integrated into the world capitalist economy as an exporter of goods such as barley, sesame, olive oil, and soap during the 1856–1882 period. Consular reports on imports and exports such as through the ports of Acre and Haifa showed that exports not only closely shadowed shifting European demand but also exceeded imports of European machine-manufactured goods, which meant that Palestine helped the rest of Greater Syria minimize its overall negative balance of trade with Europe. Already, then, wide areas such as the coastal plain to the north and south of Gaza were cultivated, producing wheat crops, with the city of Gaza once having been a prosperous market town functioning as a collecting and forwarding center for the citrus, wheat, and barley crops of the Gaza District before being cut off from its trade relations following the 1948 Nakba. Examples of this cultivation were not limited to Gaza, with watermelons and above all citrus being cultivated in the Jaffa area, olives and cotton in the Jabal Nablus region, grapes in Al Khalil region, and tobacco and watermelon in the Galilee among others.
To add insult to the injury of these arrogant claims, much of Zionists’ first agricultural attempts went as well as you would expect, seeing as large swathes of the first settlers had no agricultural experience whatsoever. A prominent example of this is the Bilu group, comprised of primarily Russian Jewish settlers who viewed their mission in Palestine as a pioneering one towards “the physical upbuilding of the land as contributing toward both a revitalization of the Jewish nation and the reemergence of Jewish masculinity and virility”. One of these early settlers, Chaim Chissin, himself admitted that this group was composed of students who had little to no experience in agriculture, though he appeared to view this as a minor detail. However, this lack of experience and familiarity with the land definitely impeded their progress; in describing the failure of their first harvest, Chissin acknowledged the condescending attitude of the Jewish pioneers towards the Arab peasants:
“Whenever the Arabs told us that it was already too late to sow barley, or that the land was unsuited for it, we never hesitated to tell the ‘barbarians,’ with considerable self assurance, ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter. We’ll plow deep, we’ll turn the soil inside out, we’ll harrow it clean, and then you’ll see what a crop we’ll have!’ We provided ourselves with big plows, sunk them deep into the soil, and cruelly whipped our horses which were cruelly exhausted. Our self-confidence had no limits. We looked down on the Arabs, assuming that it was not they who should teach us, but we who would show these barbarians’ what a European could accomplish on this neglected land with the use of perfect tools and rational methods of cultivation. The only trouble was that we ourselves knew about European methods of cultivation only from hearsay, and our agriculturalist, too, knew very little [about conditions in Palestine].”
Additionally, George Mansour, an active Palestinian trade unionist of the time compares Palestinian agricultural practices to the new Zionist settlers, writing that with regard to fruit trees other than citrus and bananas, government data actually showed that “the Arabs have, in recent years, very greatly increased their area of olives, figs and vines; while the Jews, in a disastrous rush to make quid profits by planting citrus, have decreased theirs…the present crisis of over-production is entirely due to the Zionists’ desire to develop everything unnaturally quickly, in order to facilitate Jewish immigration.”
It is no wonder then, that large portions of these settlers eventually moved back to Russia or migrated to the West. Even so, it does not appear that Chissin learned from this failure, going on to rationalize that the Jewish settlers could not rely on the advice of the Arabs, as they were untrustworthy and treacherous. These sentiments were echoed by Mark Twain, who also had abhorrent things to say about the indigenous Palestinians, Chissin described Arab peasants as “very ignorant despite all their experience”.
Ultimately, while the dichotomy of Zionist environmental prowess vs. Palestinian carelessness towards the land has been shown to be nonsense, it is worthwhile for us here to emphasize the following: Even in an alternate reality where all the Zionist settlers had been the most talented farmers with the most efficient tools the world, and had all the Palestinians never heard of or seen a tree in their lives, it is an outrageous notion that a people’s, home, sovereignty, self-determination and dignity were all up for grabs through some contest akin to a reality TV show.
Or, as American Jewish philosopher Michael Neumann phrased it:
“It does not matter if the Zionists achieved wonderful things or ‘turned the desert green.’ That I do wonderful things while acquiring the power of life and death over you hardly legitimizes my venture. It does not matter if Palestine was or wasn’t a poor, neglected area; this could not possibly give anyone supreme power over its inhabitants.”
Unfortunately, today the situation is not so different. This justification for colonialism per civilizational metrics continues to rear its ugly head in new ways, and with increased environmentalist concerns over resources with the advent of climate change. These concerns are driving the Israeli state’s green campaigns which reach a fever pitch every Earth Day.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, described Israel as a hub for renewable energy research and development in the global initiative Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) forum. He quoted one of Israel’s “sustainable energy pioneers” who waxed poetic about “the same sun that shines equally on all of us, is owned by none of us, and can supply energy in abundance, inherently promotes peace.”
As touching as this sentiment is, the reality is a bit less sunshine and rainbows. While Israeli and multinational corporations have been reaping enormous profits from the initiation and operation of commercial and residential projects in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians living there are deprived from tapping into the potential of solar energy production. Instead the Palestinian economy has been de-developed and pushed into an expensive reliance on Israeli energy companies. The Jordan Valley alone, with its 3,000 hours of annual sunshine and high radiation levels, would be perfect for solar energy production to meet Palestinian energy needs. Instead, fields for Israeli commercial use are built, which provide uninterrupted electricity to illegal settlements while the neighboring Palestinian towns suffer under blackouts.
To circle back to Prosor’s statement, the sun should belong to everyone. Instead, for years, Israel has destroyed with impunity even the solar panels that have been donated to Palestinians, deeming them “illegal” as permits for Palestinian infrastructure building are difficult to come by, while illegal settlements continue to expand. Solar panel donations from Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland have all been destroyed, with seven EU countries calling for the end of these cruel demolitions.
Similarly, oft-touted are Israel’s assertions of ingenuity regarding wastewater recycling. For example, Israel and Israeli advocacy groups regularly boast about Israel’s recycling of wastewater, as proof of its environmental stewardship, with Israel reportedly being the first country in the world to make effluent recycling a central component of its water management strategy. However, this obscures how the wastewater Israel reuses for irrigation is an environmental and health hazard, given its poor pre-treatment, inadequate oversight, and leniency of standards. Sludge is also generated as a byproduct of wastewater treatment, which contains high concentrations of pathogens, heavy metals, and organic pollutants. Israel dumps about half (46%) of this byproduct directly into the sea, according to the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection. Israeli sludge is now highlighted as the major source of pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, significantly larger than all other sources combined.
Israel supporters also regularly claim that Israel is a “water expert”, with a big song and dance on drip-irrigation and desalination measures. Common tropes again include the idea that water was scarce in Palestine before the Zionist project and would be scarce now if it was not for their ingenuity, and that neighboring Middle Eastern countries have a lot to learn on water technology. Of course, it is not hard to gain a water advantage when you have undertaken all measures possible to extract, steal and hoard the water in the first place. Palestinian environmental scholar Sharif S. Elmusa describes Israel’s water policy, as being a water sponge. A greedy sponge at that, with Israel using 73% of the West Bank’s water, diverting an additional 10% of it to illegal settlements, and selling to Palestinians the remaining 17%. It is also currently utilizing about 80% of the Palestinian groundwater resources in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Of note here as well is Israel denying Palestinian access to the vast majority of the water from the Jordan River despite only 3% of the river falling within the supposed pre-1967 borders. Israel has also diverted most of the water from the Jordan River and from Lake Tiberias (located in the North) to the central and southern parts of the country. This diversion massively reduced the Jordan River’s flow; the amount of water that historically flew into the lower Jordan River reaching the Dead Sea was nearly 1.1 billion cubic meters per year in 1900. Now, barely 50 million cubic meters reach the river, mostly consisting of sewage water from Israeli settlements in the upper Jordan Valley. The water levels are now so low that the Jordan River can no longer replenish the Dead Sea. This drop has led to the development of sinkholes and an increased groundwater flow from surrounding Palestinian aquifers towards the sea. Thus, surrounding aquifers have also become depleted. Meanwhile, the relatively saline waters of Lake Tiberias contaminated groundwater used for irrigation of the Naqab, salinating the soil.
The Israeli army also has the liberty to declare however many dunams of land a “closed military area” at will, as it did in the area of Susya, denying the villagers access to the 13 rainwater harvesting cisterns located there and making their water shortage worse still. Meanwhile, in the nearby illegal Israeli settlement, the Israeli settlers have ample water supplies. They have a swimming pool and their lush irrigated vineyards, herb farms and lawns – verdant even at the height of the dry season – stand in stark contrast to the parched and arid Palestinian villages on their doorstep. This is not an isolated incident: it has been found that overall, water consumption by Israelis is at least four times that of Palestinians living in the OPT. Palestinians consume on average 73 litres of water a day per person, which is well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended daily minimum of 100 litres per capita. In many herding communities in the West Bank, the water consumption for thousands of Palestinians is as low as 20 litres per person a day, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). By contrast, the average Israeli consumes approximately 300 litres of water a day.
Another point of pride for Israel, a familiar policy of greenwashing across all settler-colonies, is the designation of certain areas as national parks, boasting of over 70 across the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. National parks put a green face on Israel’s colonial expansion; the declaration of land belonging to local Palestinian residents as a nature reserve, such as has happened in Wadi Qana, has meant an absolute ban on Palestinian farming, meaning the loss of an important source of income and way of life. Some Palestinian residents have resisted the ban by planting olive trees, but the Israeli government regularly uproots and confiscates these trees. Meanwhile, Israel turns a blind eye to illegal activities by settlers in the same nature reserve, such as massive construction, building roads, and discharging wastewater into the wadi (valley). Some 100 homes in the settlements of Yaqir, Nofim, and Karnei Shomron were constructed within the area of the reserve and, in 2014, master plans were submitted for them which include rezoning areas from a nature reserve to residential.
In east Jerusalem, some of these national parks completely lack any landscape, nature or national treasures or significance, making clear that their true motive is to prevent Palestinian construction, not protect the environment. This has led NGO Bimkon to dub these national parks “green settlements”.
As South African geographer Maano Ramutsindela wrote, even on its face, such national parks appeal to a widespread Western view of nature that people must be excluded from it in order to protect it. Furthermore, as has been the case in the U.S and in Apartheid South Africa, national parks remove and dispossess the Indigenous population and interrupt traditional foodways, ultimately causing more environmental harm than good; such preservation tactics to maintain a landscape in its existing state, is interfering with natural processes and can actually reduce biodiversity, degrading the health of the environment.
Zionism, like all settler-colonialism, does not take into account these natural processes, biodiversity and the overall health of the ecosystem. The delicate interdependence between humans and nature is secondary to atrocities being perpetrated against indigenous populations. This brings us back to the JNF, whose environmental “genius” led to them draining the Hula Lake and the surrounding swamplands, precipitating an environmental disaster that, among other consequences, wiped out dozens of fauna and flora unique to the region. In 1994, once the full impact of the Hula drainage project became apparent and after years of failed attempts to turn the valley into productive agricultural land, the JNF took the unprecedented step of partially reflooding the lake in an attempt to undo the destruction they had wrought. Naturally, this did this not stop the Zionist talking-point of how the settlers supposedly saved Palestine from its swamps.
Most central to JNF’s masquerade as a charitable organization is its insidious tree-planting campaigns, which are cynically exploited for colonial ends. Trees are quite widely perceived as an incontrovertible good, the organization plays on this impression to garner political and financial support for its activities and to conceal their deeply ideological and political work. The trees themselves are used as proof that Zionism is “bettering” the land in ways Palestinians could not and as a symbol of an imagined Israeli past.
The reality of the JNF, in addition to its barely covert mission to dispossess Palestinians, is that its work has also been environmentally destructive. Its manner of planting, its use of hazardous chemicals and its repeated planting of non-native trees, has been disastrous. For example, extensive planting of pine trees has killed off much of the native habitat and is implicated in massive forest fires, including one that killed 42 people:
“The JNF planted hundreds of thousands of trees…helping to establish the Carmel National Park. An area on the south slope of Mount Carmel so closely resembled the landscape of the Swiss Alps that it was nicknamed ‘Little Switzerland. Of course, the nonindigenous trees of the JNF were poorly suited to the environment in Palestine. Most of the saplings the JNF plants at a site near Jerusalem simply do not survive, and require frequent replanting. Elsewhere, needles from the pine trees have killed native plant species and wreaked havoc on the ecosystem. And as we have seen with the Carmel wildfire, the JNF’s trees go up like tinder in the dry heat.”
Most sinisterly, the JNF’s trees are frequently planted over the remains of Palestinian villages ethnically cleansed and destroyed during the 1948 Nakba; the aforementioned pine trees, for example, were planted over the remains of the Palestinian village of Al-Trina. The purpose of this is to construct the physical invisibility of the Palestinians by literally obscuring evidence of their previous existence on the same land.In discussing Zionists’ latest greenwashing claims, we have touched upon the reality of Israel’s environmental destruction. This section will go into further depth on what this environmental destruction looks like and how it amounts to environmental racism against Palestinians.
One prominent example is Al Mokatta River near the city of Haifa, which Israel renamed the Kishon. The river has been polluted for decades with acidic waste from Haifa’s petrochemical industry. This river which was “once the lifeblood of the region has turned to a stinking trench of poison”; it’s said if you put your hand into the river for long enough, the acid will begin to burn it. Not even bacteria can reportedly survive in the water anymore, and tests show that fish die in less than three minutes of being submerged. This river is now reportedly the most polluted river in Israel. However, as Shoshana Gabbay, editor of the Israel Environment Bulletin reports, it is certainly not the only polluted river. With the exception of the upper Jordan River and its tributaries, the prognosis for Israel’s rivers has long been gloomy: a slow and painful death. Whether as a result of industrial discharge, municipal sewage, overpumping or general abuse – rivers have either dried up or become sewage conduits.
Not satisfied with polluting the Palestinian lands stolen in 1948, Israel also treats the West Bank as sewage and pollution dumping grounds. Taking advantage of old Jordanian law provides the West Bank significantly fewer labor and environmental protections than those offered by Israeli law, to the benefit of the Israeli economy. For example, as of 2014, roughly half of Israel’s environmental laws did not apply in the West Bank, encouraging Israeli polluting factories to set up in the West Bank.
For instance, Geshuri industries, a manufacturer of pesticides and fertilizers was ordered in 1982 by an Israeli court to move from Kfar Saba, inside the green line, to an area adjacent to Tulkarem, inside the West Bank because of the company’s negative environmental effects on Israeli land, public health, and agriculture. The health of Israelis was clearly deemed more important than that of the Palestinian residents of Tulkarem, a blatant act of environmental racism. An empirical study showed that this polluting industry may have devastated the environment and health of the Palestinian residents of Tulkarem; Tulkarem residents were found to have some of the highest rates of cancer, asthma, and eye and respiratory health anomalies compared to residents in other districts in the West Bank. Chemical waste from the factory also harmed the farming land that surrounds Tulkarem, causing trees to lose their leaves and destroying the fertile nature of the soil. Vegetables to be sold in Palestinian markets, grew not far from the factory.
The Gaza Strip has not been spared from Israel’s environmental destruction. Israel, as an arms exporter, has tested much of its weaponry on the besieged and blockaded area. Such warfare, besides the horrendous human toll it has taken, is also inherently ecologically damaging, with weapons manufacturing and testing generating tremendous pollution and hazardous waste.
Palestinian environmental NGO, PENGON, published an environmental impact assessment of Israel’s 2014 War on Gaza. Gaza’s environment, the assessment recognized, was already devastated by Israel’s siege, with the war exacerbating these damages. Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in Gaza in 2010 was deemed unfit for drinking due to severe pollution, the water was polluted by both the over pumping of the underground water of the Coast Aquifer and Operation Cast Lead, which caused more than 600,000 tons of waste, including asbestos, oils, and fuels, to contaminate Gaza’s water. Unfortunately, there are no means to rehabilitate the water or treat wastewater, thanks to Israel’s 2007 decision forbidding the entry of the necessary equipment and materials.
Thus, Israel’s 2014 war almost completely halted wastewater treatment. Millions of cubic meters of wastewater were consequently dumped completely untreated into the sea. This dumping deteriorated the marine environment, turning 70% of Gaza’s seashore unfit for recreational activities. The war also produced more than 2.5 million tons of demolition waste, causing particulate matter pollution throughout Gaza. The heavy bombing also sparked fires, which caused air pollution composed of soot, chemicals, and particulate matter.
Moreover, Israel attacked the fuel stores of the Gaza power plant, openly igniting two million liters of diesel, which further contaminated the air. Meanwhile, water and soil infrastructure were damaged and farms, trees, crops, poultry, and livestock were destroyed. 3,450 hectares including more than 250,000 trees, mostly olive, citrus, and grape trees, and more than a thousand greenhouses and tens of thousands of open lands cultivated for the production of vegetables were directly damaged during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza.
While the information presented here barely scratched the surface of Israel’s environmental destruction and racist colonial practices vis-a-vis Palestinians which it hopes to conduct under a green-tinted shroud, it must be taken into account that Palestinians, especially in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, are particularly vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of climate change. So much so, that the UNDP has deemed the Israeli occupation itself as an environmental risk in its own right due to its fragmentation of the Palestinian political landscape, the Apartheid wall, land grabs, settlement expansion and settler violence. We hope then that this has given you much to think and research about and will push you to not only be able to recognize greenwashing campaigns and talking points, but to take action to protect and defend Palestinian sovereignty over our land and resources. | {
"articleTitle": "Greenwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
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"description": "Greenwashing refers to when a state or organization appeals to environmentalism in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:40.327Z"
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Redwashing refers to when a state or organization appeal to socialism or the image of progressive politics in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.
Note: While many Palestinian activists and allies have used redwashing to refer to Israel’s cynical weaponization of indigeneity discourse, and its attempted recruitment of the Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island to cover up its settler-colonial nature, we have chosen here instead to use redwashing to refer to depictions of early Zionist institutions in Palestine as socialist, as well as current claims of Zionism being compatible with leftism or even progressivism. Still, the separate phenomenon of Israel’s audacious indigeneity claims is a significant one also worth critiquing, and so an article addressing this is forthcoming. However, it will be presented under the title of “Brownwashing”, as it will include an exploration of Israel’s exploitation of Arab cultural markers even amidst its deeply interwoven anti-Arab racism and orientalism.
“Those are our comrades up on that hill, looking down on us from that settlement! How sweet of them. Careful, we can’t get any closer or they’ll shoot at us like they did last time.”
This was the tongue-in-cheek statement of a Jordan Valley guide as he led a small group of students and activists around the Jericho area to demonstrate the daily havoc Israeli settlements wreak on Palestinians. His statement was in reference to how the particular settlement he was referring to was a kibbutz, one of the agricultural collectives that built exclusively Jewish settlements on Palestinian land and militantly guarded them. Kibbutzim have been the subject of much flowery romanticized language, presented as an ideal of socialist egalitarianism. As Palestinians were forced to learn, the purpose of these kibbutzim and the ideas and actions of their founders were anything but egalitarian, and ultimately helped entrench a racist and capitalist system of domination which continues to exploit and dispossess Palestinians to this very day. Palestinians, like the Jordan Valley guide, have been forced to live with the consequences of Zionism’s settler-colonial manifestation, even and often especially by Zionists who touted socialist ideals of equality and anti-imperialism; after all, it was the Labor Zionists who engineered and put into action the catastrophic ethnic cleansing campaigns of the Nakba .
Unfortunately, the portrayal of kibbutzim and Israel’s Labor founding fathers as socialists or leftists is a stubborn one which still pops up now and again despite all the evidence to the contrary. More commonly, those Zionists who consider themselves leftist or at least progressive (deemed by Palestinians as “Progressive Except for Palestine”, or PEPs) have failed to reckon with how their professed ideology and the state they support lies in complete contradiction to any liberatory ideals. The purpose of this article then is to critique the ways in which redwashing, or the painting of the State of Israel and Zionism in practice, past or present, as leftist or progressive obscures the disastrous effects of Zionism on the indigenous Palestinian population. Zionist settler-colonialism, as with all forms of settler-colonialism, is and always will be incompatible with socialism. Thus, the Israeli state and Israeli society’s increased descent into right-wing fanaticism was largely inevitable, rather than an aberration or a betrayal of any supposed “earlier values” as some Zionists still wish to pretend.
‘Socialist’ Zionists initially attempted to distance themselves from Theodor Herzl’s Zionist Congress, which opposed mixing Jewish nationalism and socialism, as well as from Vladimir Jabotinsky’s Revisionist Zionist movement, which was openly sympathetic to fascism, to the point where a Revisionist newspaper once ran a column which stated that Hitler’s movement “has both a shell and a kernel; the antisemitic shell is to be discarded, but not the anti-Marxist kernel”. The Socialist Zionist camp ranged from orthodox Marxists like Moses Hess and Ber Borochov to populist socialists like David Ben-Gurion (a Labor Zionist who would go on to become Israel’s first Prime Minister).
‘Socialist’ Zionism was once the most significant iteration of Zionism, building off of the historical popularity of socialism among oppressed Jewish Europeans. However, vast numbers of them were deeply opposed to Zionism. In 1905, the anti-Zionist Bund, the revolutionary organization of Jewish workers, condemned Zionism both for its “solution” to antisemitism and for its colonization of Arabs and actively worked to drive out Zionists from their unions. In 1910, socialist Karl Kautsky wrote:
“It is labor that gives people a right to the land in which it lives, thus Judaism can advance no claim on Palestine. On the basis of the right of labor and of democratic self determination, today Palestine does not belong to the Jews of Vienna, London, or New York, who claim it for Judaism, but to the Arabs of the same country, the great majority of the population.”
Nevertheless, ‘Socialist’ Zionists trudged on with attempting to combine liberatory socialism with reactionary ethnonationalism only to ultimately choose the latter. Hess, who was once an associate of Marx and Engels, would go on to write that if the choice must be made between Jewish Emancipation and Jewish Nationalism, then the former must be done away with, leading Marx and Engels to denounce him as “a proponent of bourgeois society.” Borochov founded the Workers of Zion (Po’ale Zion), which actually played a reactionary role in the Russian labor movement, arguing against any and all united action with non-Jewish workers, a mentality which will be explored in further detail regarding the engineered stratification of Jewish and Palestinian labor in Palestine. Ben-Gurion, who founded MAPAI (Workers’ Party of the Land of Israel, today’s Labor Party), pushed ideas of exclusive Jewish labor on lands owned by the Jewish Nationalist Fund, declaring in 1922 that “The only big concern which dominates our thinking and activity is the conquest of the land and building it through mass immigration (aliya). All the rest is only phraseology.”
The Labor Zionist movement did not raise any principled argument against private property, nor did it challenge the capitalist system. Its demand from the emerging bourgeoisie was for private capital to fulfill its role in developing the land and absorbing immigrants, and for Labor Zionism’s total monopoly over the local economy, its modes of production, and market share to expand the Zionist nationalist project. Overall, Ben-Gurion and his Labor Zionist ilk frequently and explicitly argued for the elevation of ethnic and nationalist interests over class solidarity, reinforcing social hierarchies, ethnic hegemony, and religious oppression.
As Ghassan Kanafani, one of the foremost Palestinian Marxists, wrote on the 1936 Palestine Revolt, the actually progressive labour movement between Jews and Arabs “..suffered crushing blows…the Zionist movement, which was rapidly becoming fascist in character and resorting to armed terrorism sought to isolate and destroy the Communist Party, most of whose leaders were Jews.” Indeed, the Labor Zionists would go on to unite with the Revisionists in 1945 to turn on their British benefactors and wage war on Palestinians.
And so, Zionists of multiple tendencies worked to destroy the Palestinian economy, drive Palestinians out of the labor market, and attempted to erase the very memory they’d ever been there, much of which they were able to do with the support of the British. This meant carrying out a war on a number of fronts, reflected in the three slogans of the pioneer Zionists: “conquest of land,” “conquest of labor,” and “produce of the land”.
“Conquest of the land” and “produce of the land” was strived for through the founding of kibbutzim. Historically, this facet of Zionist colonialism was perceived as having embodied the ostensibly socialist ideology of the Zionist labor institutions, with lands placed under the ownership of the nation for Jews to settle and cultivate. But this model was not derived from any affinity to socialist values; much of the literature on kibbutzim which uncritically depicts them as socialist projects ignores that there is no contradiction between state ownership of land and agricultural capitalism, and that that which requires analysis is the mode through which kibbutzim exploited the land and for what purpose.
In fact, the purpose of kibbutzim was set, not by their members, but by the Jewish National Fund (JNF), whose capital advancements in the form of land and other means of production came with economic and political stipulations, which included boycotting Palestinian workers. The JNF even went so far as to impose a penalty on any Jewish owner who would hire a Palestinian, all with the blessings of the British. Kibbutzim’s value was not their “socialist traits” but the geo-political and military services which they provided to the Zionist colonial project. Kibbutzim went on to drive Palestinians off their lands and harvest their crops, with this appropriation of Palestinian property, a form of primitive accumulation occurred that allowed Zionist economic development and paved the way for the events of 1948.
Decades on, non-Jews are still largely not allowed to be members of kibbutzim, unless to be exploited in menial jobs such as garbage disposal; a revealing example of this is when kibbutzim members found that cotton picking is cheaper when done by underpaid Palestinian women rather than by a modern combine. The women who do this work were called the “Fatima Combine” so much so that this expression has become part of colloquial Hebrew. A Druze who became a member of the kibbutz Sde-Boker, the kibbutz where Ben-Gurion ended his life, was able to do so only after joining the Israeli army and per the following conditions: Not to attempt to marry a Jewish girl before converting to Judaism, to observe the Jewish holidays, not to be conspicuous in observing Druze ceremonies, and several others of a similar nature. This Druze member accepted these humiliating conditions.
Regarding kibbutzim’s militant nature, the result of the conditions through which kibbutzim were created is shown in the numbers of kibbutzim members who have taken part in Israeli military offenses. In 1982, when Beirut, the Palestinian refugee camps, and so many other localities in Lebanon were being mercilessly destroyed, kibbutzniks were 25 percent of the air force pilots and 30 percent of the army officer corps. What made the kibbutz so valuable was that it was “first and foremost, a militaristic institution, a place where the young are being educated to be unthinking soldiers and tough army officers. Everything else is subordinated to.” That multiple Western socialists visited kibbutzim over the years and took part in redwashing their exclusionary, militaristic nature and regarded kibbutzim as progressive while dismissing Palestinian villages as primitive is more indicative of the orientalism of these Western socialists than anything regarding the kibbutzim themselves. Predictably, these Western socialists who tout kibbutzim as a progressive model took for granted the old Zionist line that there was no Palestinian working-class movement. As David Horowitz, Jewish Agency representative and first Governor of the Bank of Israel, claimed when he first settled in Palestine:
“The fabric of social life in Palestine is not that of a modern industrial nation but rather that of an Oriental, backward, feudal society. These social conditions rob the fellah (Palestinian farmer) of the benefits that should have accrued to him through Jewish colonization.”
This talking point of course belied the complex nature of Palestinian collective landholding practices, oversimplifying the nature of land deeds as a means of arguing that Palestinians did not deserve the land in the first place, only Jews did.
“Conquest of labor” was pursued by the Histadrut which drove forward the Zionist colonial project. The Histadrut is the overarching organization of Zionist workers’ trade unions, beginning by controlling key areas including economic production and marketing, defense, and control of the labor force, as well as creating jobs outside the free market so as to avoid competition with abundant and cheap Palestinian labor. The Histadrut thus introduced the irregular phenomenon of a “trade union” that established its own industrial, financial, construction, transport, and service enterprises. As Kanafani reported:
“The Histadrut summed up its policy by declaring that ‘to allow Arabs to penetrate the Jewish labor market meant that the influx of Jewish capital would be employed to service Arab development, which is contrary to Zionist objectives’.”
Furthermore, as Palestinian trade unionist George Mansour wrote of his time organizing with the Arab Workers Society leading up to the 1936 General Strike, the Histadrut’s fundamental aim was to introduce as many Jews as possible into every sector and to oust Palestinians as they did it. The view of Histadrut members was that:
“No matter how many Arab workers are unemployed, they have no right to take any job which a possible immigrant might occupy. No Arab has the right to work in Jewish undertakings. If Arabs can be displaced in other work too, say, in Haifa or Jaffa ports, that is good. If a port can be established in Tel Aviv and Jaffa ports are ruined, that is good. If some Jews still employ Arab labour in their orange orchards, either because Arab labour is cheaper and better for this purpose, then the fact can be used as evidence of the employment provided by Zionism for Arabs. But if Arab labour can be pushed out by ‘picketing’ and ‘pressure’, that is much better. The Histadrut never employed a single Arab if it could help it; when it was forced to do so, it paid them half the wages that it paid to its own men; and whenever it could oust Arab from any sphere of work, it did so.”
Nahla Abdo in her brilliant article “Racism, Zionism, and the Palestinian Working Class” demonstrated how when political/diplomatic means to encourage Jewish employment over Palestinian employment failed, force was often used. Terror squads, referred to by the Histadrut as “Labor Guards” were formed in almost all settlements and construction sites which employed Palestinian workers. Composed of unemployed or new settlers looking for work, these “Labor Guards” were often engaged in disrupting the labor process and attacking both Palestinian workers and Jewish employers, such as the incident in the Palestinian village of Milabbis, known now as Kfar-Saba. In this incident, 40 of these armed guards were sent to force the Jewish owner-farmer of the settlement to dispense with the Palestinian laborers. When the farmer refused, he and other farmers-employers and the Palestinian workers were assaulted.
David Hacohen, a Labor Party leader, in his own words confirms Kanafani, Mansour, and Abdo’s findings as he recalled the ideological difficulties of reconciling the dispossession of Palestinian workers with socialism, saying:
“I had to fight my friends on the issue of Jewish socialism, to defend the fact that I would not accept Arabs in my trade union, the Histadrut; to defend preaching to housewives that they not buy at Arab stores; to defend the fact that we stood guard at orchards to prevent Arab workers from getting jobs there…. To pour kerosene on Arab tomatoes, to attack Jewish housewives in the markets and smash the Arab eggs they had bought”.
This dogmatic pursual of Jewish labor made its mark, with the official census in 1937 indicating that the average Jewish worker received 145% more in wages than their Palestinian counterpart: These disparities reached ludicrous amounts, with Jewish workers being paid as high as 433% more in textile factories employing Jewish and Arab women, and 233% in tobacco factories. By July 1937, the real wages of the average Palestinian worker decreased 10% while those of a Jewish worker rose 10%. Overall, the experiences described affirms Gershon Shafir’s thesis that the very nature of Zionists’ goals -to create a national home for Jews in Palestine with a European standard of living- necessitated their developing a “militarist-nationalist approach to the Palestinians during their struggle to displace them and conquer their jobs.”
Thus, Zionism, in collaboration with the British, successfully undermined the development of a progressive Jewish labor movement and of Jewish-Arab Proletarian brotherhood, and the reactionary Histadrut completely dominated the Jewish labor movement. The influence of Palestinian progressive forces within Palestinian labor federations in Haifa and Jaffa diminished, leaving the ground open for their control by reactionary leaderships that monopolized political action.
By April 1951, not even three years after the founding of the State of Israel, Ben-Gurion had already declared that he viewed Israel to be neither a capitalist state nor a socialist one, but a Jewish one. Additionally, while numerous analyses have claimed that Israel was a “socialist-type” economy prior to the mid-1980s, the fact that Israel’s economy was state-controlled and directed for decades by the Labor Zionist movement was not a reflection of socialist ideology but an outgrowth of the context in which it developed: during the colonization period, the absence of a strong indigenous Jewish capitalist class led the state (or proto-state) to control investment, but this control was not antagonistic to private capital. On the contrary, from 1948 on, the state pursued policies aimed at nurturing a capitalist class by encouraging a few key families to undertake joint projects and investment with state and quasi-state enterprises. The turning point in this state-led class formation was the 1985 Economic Stabilization Plan (ESP), which led to the emergence of private capital as a class independent from the state.
The Israeli state also came to deeply rely on race and class antagonisms: with the expulsion of most of the indigenous Palestinian population in 1948, resulting in the absence of the readily exploitable working class traditionally found in colonial situations, the state embarked on a massive immigration program aimed at bringing Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (Mizrahi Jews) to settle in the new state. The imported Mizrahi Jews were able to constitute a working class on which the economic foundations of the country could be built. Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip in 1967 also increased the size of Israel’s domestic market and provided a new cheap and highly exploitable source of labor in the Palestinian population. By 1985, approximately one third of the West Bank and Gaza Strip labor force worked in Israel.
This proletarianization of the Palestinians allayed protests by Mizrahi Jews who were a rung up the ladder in comparison and often wished to cling to this relative privilege rather than fight back against the discrimination they faced from Ashkenazi Jews. Frequently, Mizrahi immigrants to Israel resented and continue to resent being identified with Arabs, Africans, and natives of any kind, and often their response has been to side with the most chauvinist, racist, and discriminatory elements of Israeli society. As members of the Israeli Communist Party Moche Machover and Akiva Orr wrote decades ago, there has not been:
“..a single example of Israeli workers being mobilized on material or trade-union issues to challenge the Israeli regime itself; it is impossible to mobilize even a minority of the proletariat in this way. On the contrary, Israeli workers nearly always put their national loyalties before their class loyalties. Although this may change in the future, this does not remove the need for us to analyze why it has been so”.
It has been so because of the racist divides Zionism entrenched between non-Jewish and Jewish Arabs and between Palestinians and Jews overall. This divide must be borne in mind by those whose revolutionary strategy for Israeli society is based upon a future alliance of Palestinians and Mizrahi Jews, whether on the basis of their common exploited condition or on the basis of their cultural affinity, as the Israeli Black Panther party once did in regards to anti-Zionism and likening Israeli practices against Palestinians to U.S imperialism and the Palestinian struggle to the Black struggle in the U.S.
As Marx famously said, “a people oppressing another cannot itself be free”. He did not mean this merely as a moral judgment; he also meant that in a society whose rulers oppress another people, the exploited class which does not actively oppose this oppression inevitably becomes an accomplice in it, as Israeli Jews who do not oppose Zionism are complicit in the oppression of Palestinians.
In 1969, Jabra Nicola, a Palestinian communist, and Machover wrote:
“The Palestinian people are waging a battle where they confront Zionism, which is supported by imperialism; from the rear they are menaced by the Arab regimes and by Arab reaction, which are also supported by imperialism. As long as imperialism has a real stake in the Middle East, it is unlikely to withdraw its support for Zionism, its natural ally, and to permit its overthrow; it will defend it to the last drop of Arab oil.”
We would go on to add that the usefulness of Israel on behalf of imperialism includes but goes far beyond “Arab oil”. Zionism from the onset had the support it did from the British in large part because most Zionist leaders presented their cause as a bulwark against the backwards Orientalist hordes. Even the left-leaning Zionists framed their activities in Palestine in this way, all of which obviously did not provide fertile ground for a socialist revolution.
More recently, In the case of the U.S.’s exorbitant spending on Israel which has only increased over time, its return on its investment is not economic profit. As was phrased decades ago, but remains true well into the 21st century:
“Israel has been given a role not unlike that of a watchdog. One need not fear that it will exercise an aggressive policy towards the Arab states if this will contradict the interests of the USA and Britain. But should the West prefer for one reason or another to close its eyes one can rely on Israel to punish severely those of the neighboring states whose lack of manners towards the West has exceeded the proper limits.”
In fact, the entire Israeli economy is founded on the special political and military role which Zionism, and the settlers’ society, fulfill in the Middle East as a whole. Keeping this role in mind elucidates the reasons for why a massive part of the capital inflow into Israel is not intended for economic gain and is not subject to considerations of profitability. For example, donations raised by Zionists in the United States for transferring to another country, are regarded by the U.S Treasury as “charity donations” qualifying for income tax exemptions. These donations depend on the good will of the United States Treasury and it is only reasonable to assume that this good will would not continue were Israel to conduct a principled anti-imperialist policy. This means that although class conflicts do exist in Israeli society, they are constrained by the fact that the society as a whole is subsidized from the outside. This privileged status is related to Israel’s role in the region, and as long as this role continues there is little prospect of the internal social conflicts acquiring a revolutionary character.
Bernie Sanders’s 2016 and 2020 run for U.S. president sparked a new debate over the socialist nature of kibbutzim, with mainstream media collectively clutching pearls at his past on a commune. As is typical, Palestinians and especially Palestinian leftists were rendered invisible and certainly not asked or listened to on what kibbutzim really are. The erasure of Palestinian working class resistance to Zionism is perhaps even more true now than it was in the 20th century when the Zionist project was well underway, as now, socialism and leftism in general are more taboo than ever; few Zionists would actively identify as leftists, and young Israelis are growing more right-wing by the day. Instead, there is focus on vaguely depicting Zionism as “progressive”, eliding or excusing its racist history which still continues to undermine solidarity between Palestinians and Jews.
Simply put, Zionist institutions and the state of Israel were never and cannot be socialist when imperialist-backed ethnonationalism was repeatedly chosen over the liberatory alternative Jewish and Palestinian communists tried to pose along the way. The current Likud and Kahanist, “death-to-Arabs”, capitalist hellscape that we’re stuck with today is thus not surprising, if not inevitable from the start. Still, a free liberatory Palestine for all based on class solidarity rather than ethnicity or religion is possible, but only through the mass rejection of Zionism and through collective movements to change the balance of power to make Israel’s political-military role in the region obsolete. Those still drawn in by the fantasy of Zionist socialism in Palestine would do well to abandon their Zionism and organize alongside Palestinians for a socialist reality.
Abdo, Nahla. “Racism, Zionism and the Palestinian Working Class, 1920–1947.” Studies in Political Economy 37.1, 1992: 59-92. [Link]
Abdo, Nahla. “Colonial Capitalism and Agrarian Social Structure: Palestine: A Case Study.” Economic and Political Weekly, 1991: PE73-PE84. [Link]
Mansour, George. “The Arab Worker under the Palestine Mandate (1937).” settler colonial studies 2.1, 2012: 190-205. [Link]
Honig-Parnass, Tikva. The False Prophets of Peace: Liberal Zionism and the Struggle for Palestine. Haymarket Books, 2011.
Bober, Arie. The other Israel: The radical case against Zionism. Doubleday, 1972. [Link]
Kanafani, Ghassan. The 1936-39 revolt in Palestine. Committee for Democratic Palestine, 1972. [Link]
Assi, Seraj. Why Kibbutzism Isn’t Socialism. Jacobin Magazine. August 10, 2016. [Link]
Shahak, Israel. “Israeli Society and the Kibbutzim.” Arab Studies Quarterly, 1985: 15-23.
Lockman, Zachary. Comrades and enemies: Arab and Jewish workers in Palestine, 1906-1948. Univ of California Press, 1996.
Lockman, Zachary. “The left in Israel: Zionism vs. socialism.” MERIP Reports 49 (1976): 3-18.
Hanieh, Adam. “From state-led growth to globalization: The evolution of Israeli capitalism.” Journal of Palestine Studies 32.4, 2003: 5-21.
Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, The Israeli Histadrut: an Apartheid institution. 2011. [Link] | {
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"description": "Redwashing refers to when a state or organization appeal to socialism or the image of progressive politics in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.",
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While pinkwashing does quite frequently operate as a propaganda or public relations strategy, a deeper understanding of how it functions regarding Palestine and Palestinians reveals that pinkwashing is also the inevitable manifestation of the intrinsically homophobic and Orientalist nature of Zionism, which itself is a manifestation of European colonial thought. As Palestinian queer rights organization Al Qaws has explained, “pinkwashing is the symptom, settler-colonialism is the root sickness.” The pinkwashing of Israel relies on the understanding that the East remains stubbornly backwards regarding homosexuality because of a refusal to learn from Western progressivism. However, as Joseph A. Boone outlines in “The Homoerotics of Orientalism”, this is ignoring several hundred years of history where “it was the uptight Christian West that accused the debauched Muslim East of harboring what it euphemistically called the ‘male vice’ (sodomy)”.
The Middle East was associated with ‘sexual deviancy’ and ‘effeminity’ whose mores and values good Christians must remain on guard against. The movements for modern nation-state building in what is now Turkey and Iran actually saw the adoption of heterosexual norms “at least in part as a response to the European representations of its civilizational ‘backwardness’ and sexual ‘irregularities’”. In Turkey, “unabashedly frank references to same-sex acts and desire were written out of the historical record and repressed from collective memory in the name of western style modernization”, while “the price of Persia’s emergence as the new Iranian nation-state was the official eclipse of its long-standing history of male homoerotic bonds as ‘pre-modern’ and the cultivation of heteroeroticism as the new norm.” Overall, the modern West was positively associated with heteronormativity which the Middle East was deemed in need of emulating in order to enter the realm of progressive modernity.
There is a long, complicated history of homophobic aspersions between not only the constructed binary of the East and West, but also between, for example, the Abbasid Caliphate and the Persian empire, with the former blaming the latter for being a “gay influence”. That today, many Islamic conservatives depict homosexuality as a foreign contagion in the name of nation-building and “cultural authenticity” is merely an outgrowth of the aforementioned historical relations. In the process, the history of homoerotic relations among males once intricately interwoven into the fabric of Muslim culture is being erased and denied.
This is not to oversimplify how homophobia functions in the Middle East, or to lay blame on the West; rather, it is to understand that current depictions of homophobia in the region as resistance to “Western modernity” obscures how these understandings of sexuality we have today, are in fact modern; they are the result of modern nation-state building and the accompanying construction of the “Other” as inferior, to be stigmatized, exploited and discriminated against.
It also obscures how the present-day colloquial deployment of “Islamic sexual repression” narratives currently plaguing human rights, liberal queer, and feminist discourses came to be. This paradox at the heart of Orientalist notions of sexuality, where Muslims are simultaneously hypersexual and repressed, informs the dehumanization of Muslims in general and the sexual violence enacted against the prisoners deemed “terrorists” (whether by the U.S. or Israel) in particular.
Which leads to how the discursive strategy of how racist understandings of sexuality is currently being weaponized in order to uphold present day imperialism and colonial political aims. This necessarily includes the Zionist project in Palestine, which was only possible because of historical processes in Europe. Pertinent to this article, the same European masculine values which deemed Muslims as sexually deviant were also weaponized against Jewish people in antisemitic acts and depictions which deemed Jewish men “effeminate”. Zionist founders were later keen to combat these historic allegations. This has manifested in the conflation of masculinity with the national army, with the dominant masculinity in Israel identified with the Jewish combat soldier and “deemed an emblem of good citizenship” This desire for masculinity is in fact a precondition for the Zionist enterprise—which would later evolve into a violent, militaristic culture.
While “the Jew had been both feminized and Orientalized in Europe, the Zionist culture similarly feminized and Orientalized the indigenous Palestinian Arabs, who were also seen as inadequate. The Israeli state, then, must attempt to transcend the contradictions in needing to appease homophobic supporters of Israel among, say, Western Evangelicals, who constitute the majority of supporters of Israel in the U.S while simultaneously projecting the image of Israel as a gay haven in certain Western secular contexts.
These efforts to transcend these contradictions can best be understood through the lens of homonationalism. This term was coined by Jasbir K. Puar in her excellent Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times. In it she describes homonationalism as the framework in which certain homosexual constituencies are able to embrace and be embraced by nationalist agendas, including the imperial expansion endemic to the war on terror. Basically, (primarily, but not exclusively) white cisgender queers can assimilate into the nation, such as through openly joining the national army and buying into a combination of ethnic chauvinism, religious nationalism, toxic masculinity, and the Islamophobia so crucial to the war on terror.
This is evident in multiple Western countries where, for example, gay politicians have risen in the ranks of conservative political parties, all who articulate Muslim populations as an especial threat to LGBTQIA+ communities. Naturally, this is despite the exhortations by some queer Muslims who insist that their religious and family struggles are not much different from those of their Christian or Jewish counterparts. Gay rights, in other words, have been absorbed into what Puar calls the ‘human rights industrial complex’, which operates through the foregrounding of western countries as champions of human rights and non-western (read: Muslim) countries as their enemies. Implicit to this complex is the notion that religious and racial communities are more homophobic than white mainstream queer communities are racist, or that a critique of homophobia within one’s home community is deemed more pressing than a critique of racism within mainstream queer communities. The logic of homonationalism which underpins pinkwashing strategies is not compatible with queer liberation or the elimination of oppression as a whole. Rather, this logic is in service of broader imperialist aims and thus cannot include those queer people who have been racialized or otherwise deemed enemies of the state.Israeli prime minister Netanyahu in a joint meeting of the U.S Congress declared that the Middle East is “a region where women are stoned, gays are hanged, Christians are persecuted. Israel stands out. It is different.” Missing from this narrative, of course, is how Israel profits from the very persecution he describes through Israeli spyware being used to crackdown on dissidents, including queer people.
However, what is significant here is how the “Israeli Arabs” were spoken about, rather than to. Similarly, StandWithUs’s previously mentioned advertisements which declared Tel Aviv, a “gay paradise” for Palestinians has nothing to do with what’s best for Palestinians at all. After all, as Queers Against Israeli Apartheid (QuAIA) have pointed out, “there is no pink door in the apartheid wall”. Queer Palestinians, like all Palestinians, live under the control of a state that has deemed them demographic threats, obstacles in the way of a Jewish State by and for Jews. Most Palestinians have never set foot in Tel Aviv for this reason, and in general Israel prioritizes ethnicity and demographics above all else, including asylum cases.
These statements and advertisements are meant to accomplish the following goals: (1) Israel being absolved of its colonial and military policies which has resulted in the loss of countless Palestinian lives. (2) Israel being contextualized by the Middle East but ceasing to be located there; Israel should be judged according to ‘regional standards’ while also being treated as a cultural outpost of Europe (which they get to be! Tickets to see Israel in Eurovision, anyone?)Israel being praised for supposedly being so ‘queer-friendly’ is dependent on Palestinians (and Arabs and Muslims in general) being demonized as uniformly homophobic. This is evident in the report released in 2008 by the Israel Project extolling Israel’s progressive values. The report stated that “There are several explanations about how Israel has come to embrace its gay and lesbian community. One is that the family as an institution is central to Israeli Jewish society. Therefore, parents would rather accept their lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) children than let homophobia destroy family unity”. As Steven Salaita excellently analyzed in Chapter 4 of his work Israel’s Dead Soul, Sexuality, Violence, and Modernity in Israel: The Paradise of Not Being Arab, the purpose of such a grotesque statement is to imply that Palestinians:
“are neither family oriented nor tolerant; they are willing to sacrifice their own children to their irrational beliefs, or they are so irrational as to be unable to make such a choice. Even in its exaltation of Israeli open-mindedness, the Israel Project betrays its own implicit homophobia: homosexuality is not embraced by Israeli Jews; it is merely tolerated in the interest of family unity. It is not something Israeli Jews would ever accept; it simply presents a difficult obstacle that they are reluctantly willing to overlook.”
This was perhaps more revealing than the Israel Project intended, but it underscored how the language of LGBTQIA+ rights is being co-opted in the interest of Israeli foreign policy and the tourism industry even as homophobia remains rife in Israeli society. When Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, The Tel Aviv Tourism Board and Israel’s largest LGBT organization, The Agudah, joined together to launch TEL AVIV GAY VIBE, an online tourism campaign to promote Tel Aviv as a travel destination, it was met with the following (verbatim) comments:
Surely nothing to be proud of. Shameful
Haredim!!!!
Gay avek also cute slogan (Yiddish for go away)
Yes by all means bring hordes of aids
Inviting destruction full speed
Opposition to Israel’s so proudly touted pride parades has also reached the point of violence, with an ultra-Orthodox man who was imprisoned in 2005 for stabbing several people at a pride parade doing the same in 2015 following his release.
As Sarah Schulman explains, “Overall, Israel is a profoundly homophobic society. The dominance of religious fundamentalists, the sexism and the proximity to family and family oppression makes life very difficult for most people on the LGBT spectrum in Israel.”, while Aeyal Gross, a professor of law at Tel Aviv University, explains that “gay rights have essentially become a public-relations tool,” even though “conservative and especially religious politicians remain fiercely homophobic.” As Samira Saraya, one of the co-founders of Aswat, an LGBTI+ organization for Palestinian women has further elucidated, “If you are an Israeli gay man who served in the army, looks masculine, acts ‘normal’, and has a secure job, then you are treated well. For the rest of us, things are much less rosy.” That it is to say, if you do not somehow ‘compensate’ for your queer identity in ways conducive to Israel’s ethnonationalist project vis a vis homonationalism, you are even further outside the margins of the Zionist ideal and thus more vulnerable to the brunt of homophobia and racism.
Zionism’s obsession with ensuring a Jewish majority comes with pressure to produce as many children as possible to resolve what Zionists have outright declared as the ‘demographic problem’, adding another obstacle to those who would prefer same-sex partners. This was attested to by Israeli scholar and queer rights activist Amit Kama, who has worked on a government survey to attract more gay tourists to Israel even as he himself was forced to marry his partner outside of the country.
Almost lost in all the rainbow confetti and the condescending hand-wringing over Palestinian or Muslim homophobia is how in Israel, all marital issues are under the control of the Orthodox rabbinic authorities; thus, there is no civil marriage in Israel, only religious marriage. Orthodox Rabbinate representatives supporting the law against civil marriage and gay couple being able to be married with cite a wish to “guarantee the Jewish future of the state of Israel” and protect against “assimilation”.
The weaponized understating of this queerphobic in Israeli society functions through treating Palestinians “as a site onto which queerphobic Zionists may project their queerphobic fantasies”, as articulated in Saffo Papantonopoulou’s excellent article, “Even a Freak Like You Would Be Safe in Tel Aviv: Transgender Subjects, Wounded Attachments, and the Zionist Economy of Gratitude”. In it she details transphobic abuse directed her way which demanded she stop criticizing Israel, as it is supposedly the only place in the Middle East where she could expect to be treated “equal to a male or female heterosexual” and not be met with violence that they so graciously went so far as to describe in detail to her. She explains that Zionists’ deflections of their own queerphobia onto Palestinians is meant to “allow the queerphobic Zionist to live out his own queerphobic fantasy while simultaneously deploying a pretext of caring about queers.”
The identification of Tel Aviv as gay-friendly even by those who harbor queerphobia then is presented as a “gift to all queers” who are in fact meant to feel grateful for being ‘allowed’ to thrive or even live.
“Under the Zionist economy of gratitude, the transgender subject is perpetually indebted to capitalism and the West for allowing her to exist. The properly delimited space for the transgender subject within this ideology is essentially one confined to an apoliticized space of pride parades and gay bars, but never the front lines of an antimperial or anticolonial project. Hence, the queerphobic Zionist can pass the gift of his racist colonial phobia as well as his queerphobia on to the transgender subject…I am supposed to feel vulnerable, afraid, and attacked, in order that I may pass on that gift of death to the supposedly transphobic Palestinian”.Pinkwashing is as prevalent as it is because it is not limited to those on the right, with instances of the logic of pinkwashing internalized and regurgitated even by self-professed radical groups. A prescient example of this was seen in response to ‘‘No Pride without Palestinians,’’ a queer coalition based in New York City, who sought to move World Pride 2006 outside of Jerusalem, arguing that Palestinian queers (and many Arabs from neighboring countries) would be banned from the celebrations, and those already present risked intensified surveillance, policing, harassment, and deportation. OutRage! a British queer group, waltzed in carrying placards commanding ‘‘Israel: stop persecuting Palestine! Palestine: stop persecuting queers!’’ and ‘‘Stop ‘honour’ killing women and gays in Palestine.’’
This seemingly innocuous and politically correct messaging, stemming from the group’s commitment to protest ‘‘Islamophobia and homophobia,’’ negates the ways in which oppression by a settler-colonial state might sustain or even create the conditions for social ills, including homophobia. Their equation of Israeli oppression of all Palestinians with Palestinian homophobia did so by taking for granted the Israeli state narrative that it does not, in fact, “persecute queers”, foremost among them Palestinian queers. Furthermore, it takes for granted that queerphobia is a more pressing threat to queer Palestinians than colonialism, as if these could ever be separated.
This is of similar thinking to an Israeli student who asked Palestinian queer scholar Sa’ed Atshan during a pinkwashing panel why he couldn’t log onto Grindr in Hebron, with another queer student asking about the absence of gay clubs in Gaza, the world’s largest open-air prison which barely has electricity or potable water.
As Atshan replied “Is whether or not Grindr is used among Palestinians a more important question than the conditions in Hebron that Palestinians endure as a result of the Israeli occupation there? How does use of Grindr become a marker of Palestinian civilizational value?…It perplexed me that the absence of gay clubs in Gaza is more outrageous to some people than is the reality of queer and straight Palestinians in Gaza struggling to survive amid unspeakable conditions imposed by Israel.”
What pinkwashing also does is obscure how a society under constant assault is put on the defensive and thus cannot undertake the scope of work needed to fully eradicate social ills. With decades of Zionists negating and attacking Palestinian culture and identity as either nonexistent, inconsequential, threatening, or all of the above, Palestinian society as a whole has become very zealous about what it perceives to be its traditions and culture. As Rima with Aswat explained, “The majority of the society rejects behaviors and changes that “threaten” its heterosexuality and patriarchy, since they are perceived as a threat to the continuity [emphasis added] of the uniqueness of our culture”-while obviously incorrect and dangerous thinking, it is fueled by the constant violence against Palestinians in the name of Zionism and the feeling of insecurity this engenders. The ramifications of this thinking to Palestinians themselves is evident when the Palestinian Authority periodically assigns itself the role of morality police to “protect” Palestinian society from being “infiltrated and corrupted by homosexuals and agents of the West”. The threat of Israel and Zionism to Palestinian coupled with the identification of queerness as a Western phenomenon ends up galvanizing reactionary responses, leaving marginalized Palestinian more vulnerable to multiple forms of violence.[Warning: Descriptions of sexual assault, torture and queerphobia. Click to skip]
Here it is worthwhile to delineate how Israel also draws upon racialized homophobia and transphobia in its abuse of Palestinians. This includes the blackmailing of queer Palestinians, with a former Israeli Intelligence corps member sharing that in training to disregard Palestinians’ privacy and manipulate their personal lives for Israeli state interests, “we actually learned to memorise and filter different words for ‘gay’, in Arabic.”
Even more horrifically, there are detailed accounts from Palestinians imprisoned in Israeli jails of verbal and sexual harassment which use homophobia and transphobia as a threat. One 16 year old described a police officer as telling him that “‘I will fuck you and you will sing on my dick’ as part of his threats. Another 23 year old recounted how an Israeli secret service member shouted “you terrorist, I’ll fuck you like a homosexual!”, while another in a separate report described being harassed by an interrogator who asked “Are you a homosexual? You look like a woman. Have you ever fucked a woman?”. Still another detainee described how they were threatened with having their brother undergo a sex change against their will, saying “They put me in an investigation room with a glass partition and on the other side I saw my brother, dressed as a woman, immodest, in a mini-skirt. […] They said that they […] had arranged for him a sex-change surgery in Jerusalem.”
These are not isolated cases, as Israel’s extensive use of sexual harassment and assault as a form of torture against Palestinians are well documented. The reasons for this are betrayed even in the very report most of the aforementioned testimony was drawn from, with the author declaring that “Sexual torture and ill-treatment, including forced nudity and curses with sexual contents, may have particularly deep and sometimes long-lasting humiliating effects among Arab men. This is grounded in the notion of honour, which is basic in social life in much of the Muslim world.” Here the author is taking for granted the idea that Arab and Muslim men (though here he is using the terms interchangeably) are more sensitive to being sexually harassed and assaulted than their western counterparts. He seems to, whether subconsciously or not, believe that the perpetrators of these acts are comparatively enlightened rather than perpetuating the old use of sexual violence against men in armed conflicts and the concurrent bigoted dynamics of emasculation, feminization and/or homosexualization as insult.
[End of descriptions of sexual assault, torture and queerphobia]
To revisit Puar, the paradox at the heart of such an Orientalist notion of sexuality is reanimated through the objectification of the Muslim terrorist as a torture object, who is both sexually conservative, modest and fearful of nudity (and it is interesting how this conceptualization is rendered both sympathetically and as a problem), as well as queer, animalistic, barbarian, and unable to control his (or her) urges but having an innate “indecency” waiting to be released. In Brothers and Others in Arms: The Making of Love and War in Israeli Combat Units, Danny Kaplan argues that this sexualization is neither tangential nor incidental to the project of conquest but, rather, is central to it: ‘‘[The] eroticization of enemy targets . . . triggers the objectification process.’’
Not only are homophobia and transphobia weaponized against Palestinians in such a manner by the magical rainbow state of Israel, it ends up leaving queer Palestinians vulnerable to the ramifications of queerness being associated with collaboration. As Al Qaws has written:
“this pervasive linking of non-normative sexuality and Palestinian collaboration has become a term and identity of its own in the Palestinian imaginary and reality: isqat…this false connection with Israel and collaboration associates queer people with treason, dishonesty, untrustworthiness, and fraudulence, and therefore works to substantiate a very specific kind of homophobic fear within Palestine”.
The use of homophobia and queerphobia as a cudgel on behalf of Israel is certainly not conducive to queer liberation and is an abhorrent practice. It also must be contextualized in the overarching repression and oppression all Palestinians face, with Palestinians regularly extorted for a variety of reasons, from needing healthcare to wishing to hide marital infidelity to wanting to marry and live with a Palestinian with a differently colored ID card. Whatever individual experiences Palestinians have are shaped by the oppressive hold of Zionism.
Through pinkwashing, Palestinians are reduced to either being a victim of internal Palestinian homophobia in need of saving or to a violent perpetrator of homophobia among Palestinians and terrorism against Israelis. They are forced to walk a tightrope between having queerphobia exploited by Israel as carte blanche for their own dispossession and the ways in which Zionist colonialism shapes the queerphobia they face within their own communities. What is needed is dedication to ending all forms of oppression against Palestinians. Queer Palestinian organizers are calling for the promotion of Palestinian LGBTQ rights to be done in a way that challenges the appropriation and weaponization of that cause by Israeli organizations and instead engages first and foremost with Palestinians, rather than perpetuating the erasure of Palestinians inherent to Zionism.
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Consider sharing the article, or support us by becoming a patron on Patreon! | {
"articleTitle": "Pinkwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Pinkwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Pinkwashing refers to when a state or organization appeals to LGBTQ+ rights in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:41.984Z"
} |
That multiple sites in Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, have religious significance to Christians, Muslims and Jews is not what is being contested, nor is the idea that a dedication to a political cause or peace and justice cannot stem from one’s personal religious beliefs. Rather, what is being contested is that Palestinians continue to resist Zionism for purely religious reasons or that the roots of the colonization of Palestine are religious.
The founding fathers of political Zionism, including David Ben-Gurion, certainly didn’t view their aspirations for Palestine as religious; they were nearly all atheists or religiously indifferent, and Zionism itself from its onset “enjoyed little support from key Jewish figures”. As historian Nur Masalha has explained in detail, political Zionism emerged from the conditions of late-nineteenth century Eastern and Central Europe as a radical break from 2,000 years of rabbinical Judaism and Jewish tradition. The ‘Land of Israel’ was revered by generations of Jews as a place of holy pilgrimage, not as a future secular state, and while generations of Jews expressed their yearning for “Zion” through prayers and customs, only very recently has this yearning become understood as in any way literal. Instead, early political Zionists most frequently framed their goals in Palestine in the colonial terms popular at the time, such as the idea that Zionists as Westerners were better equipped to cultivate the land than the natives.
No wonder then that 80% of early Zionist settlers did not even settle in Jerusalem, including Ben-Gurion himself, who could not be bothered to visit Jerusalem until three years after arriving. This is due to the fact that Zionist settlers at the time deemed Jerusalem too multi-religious and pluralistic for the founding of the ethnonationalist society of their dreams. Not only was it “full of aliens” (native Arabs) but it was also inhabited by the “old Jewish Yishuv”, whose members were part of the anti-Zionist ultra-orthodox community. As a result, Zionists preferred to build the new exclusively Jewish settlement of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast. The notion that political Zionism and the founding of the Israeli state were predicated on the realization of millennia of religious longing is ex post facto justification. Rather, Zionism, like the European nationalisms before it, is an example of nation-building through the invention of tradition: cherry-picking collective memory and manipulating the religious past for political purposes.The political utility of this manipulation was quite apparent to Ben-Gurion, even telling the British Royal Commission visiting Mandatory Palestine that “the Bible is our mandate”. Like many of the other founding fathers of Zionism, his own lack of religious faith did not prevent him from understanding how vital Western and particularly Western Christian support would be to establishing an Israeli state.
This pandering certainly paid off; Christian Zionists and British imperialists, significantly British prime minister Lloyd George and his foreign secretary Arthur Balfour saw the interests of the Zionist movement and their own interests as so compatible it resulted in the 1917 Balfour Declaration. They believed that a ’Jewish Palestine’ would act as a foothold for British imperialism along the main route to India, and would act as a bulwark against communism following the Bolshevik revolution, which the British elite (correctly) saw as ‘the antithesis for everything which British liberalism stood for’. Furthermore, it would reduce the influx of Jewish refugees into Britain, and, as a bonus, would bring about Armageddon, a belief central to Christian Zionists’ worldview, efficiently combining patronizing attitudes towards Jews with imperialist foreign policies towards the Middle East.
So influential was Christian Zionists’ fixation on Palestine that catering to this fixation played a significant role in why Nazareth would become the only major Palestinian city in what is today Israel to not be ethnically cleansed. Despite Ben-Gurion’s order to “drive them out” as part of his ‘Judaisation of the Galilee’ campaign, Ben Dunkelman, a Canadian Jew who was the commander of the Israeli army’s Seventh Armoured Brigade, disobeyed orders to expel Nazareth’s residents. He believed Christian Palestinians needed protecting, a view he did not extend to Muslim Palestinians. In terms of not upsetting Zionists’ Western benefactors, he was correct to do so, because pressure from the Vatican eventually forced Israel to allow the return of some Christian Palestinians who were forcibly displaced (though as historian Illan Pappe has noted, many refused to do so without their Muslim neighbors).
Since then, Christian Zionists’ obsession with Palestine at the expense of Palestinians has continued to develop with the full support of the Israeli state, especially after the United States took over Britain’s role as Israel’s main benefactor. It is no wonder that Israel continues to encourage this obsession, as it has proven politically useful. As of late 2019, tourism to Israel has been growing by about 10% a year according to the Israeli tourism ministry, with a tourism official sharing how most U.S. tourists are Christians, and a growing share of them are evangelicals. These tourists can freely visit the Christian religious sites which many Palestinian Christians cannot, and are gleefully shuffled into museums which highlight Byzantine archaeological remains while ignoring Islamic remains as politically expedient “highlights of history” regarding the various cultural, religious, and political empires that have marked Jerusalem’s past.
Perhaps more importantly, as support for Israel continues to wane among American youth, liberals, minorities and women (it is strongest among older, well-to-do, conservative white men), Israel has found a winning strategy in courting its American Evangelical supporters. It’s a numbers game really; while Israel fashions itself as representing the Jewish people, it need not worry about surveys finding that U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians to say Trump favors the Israelis too much, how younger Jews are less likely to be emotionally attached to Israel, or how 82 percent of American Jews are more apt to stand with human rights and international law and freely criticize Israeli. Why bother when as of 2020, Christians United for Israel, only one of the many pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S, boasts of 10 million members, more than the entire Jewish population in either the United States or Israel.
Overall, the Christian Right has been found to constitute the largest social movement in the U.S and the largest voting bloc within the Republican Party, and its support for U.S. imperialist policy vis-a-vis Israel for years has culminated in billions of dollars of aid. This is in addition to the millions evangelicals have poured into West Bank settlement projects over the past 10 years, estimated at somewhere between $50 million and $65 million.
What this love affair between Israel and its Christian Zionist supporters is really helping accomplish is the faithwashing of Israel’s oppression of all Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, who are not exactly feeling liberated by these Western Christians’ violent and colonial interpretation of the Bible.
Rather, as an early 2020 opinion poll among Palestinian Christians revealed, 62% believe that Israel’s end goal is to expel them from their homeland, 83% of Palestinian Christians are worried about violence by Israeli settlers, and 73% are worried about the continued occupation of their lands. The result of these oppressive conditions contradicts Zionists’ claims that Palestinian Christians are emigrating because of “extremist” Muslim Palestinians; instead 32.6% opted to emigrate due to the loss of freedom and absence of safety amidst the occupation, 26.4% left because of the deteriorating economic conditions, and another 19.7% emigrated due to political unrest, especially during the second Intifada .
This is within a context of repeated attacks against churches by Israeli settlers with incidents far exceeding indictments, lending credibility to Palestinians’ claims that the Israeli government allows settlers to commit these acts with impunity. Christian and Jewish Zionists trying their best to blame Palestinian Muslims for the mess they’ve created is in part a pathetic attempt at a divide-and-conquer strategy to turn Palestinian Muslims and Christians against each other, the failure of which has thus far been quite infuriating to Israel. Instead, Palestinian Christians continue to take on leading roles in defining Palestinian nationalism and resistance to Israel’s occupation, despite Israel’s marketing as the Middle East’s only outpost of ‘civilization’. This blame game is also part of the instrumentalization of Islamophobia and anti-Arab (specifically anti-Palestinian) racism to garner support for their colonial project.Frequently, when any Christian -Palestinian or otherwise- speaks out against Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, their criticism is equated with antisemitism, with the prescribed solution being Christian-Jewish “interfaith dialogue,” an activity that is closely linked to the long-term Christian program to reconcile with Jews for millennia of church persecution. In this way, Christians are permitted to consider the urgent issue of Palestinian human rights only within the context of European Christian penitence for Jewish persecution. This is evident in Christian Zionist groups like Bridges For Peace and the International Christian Embassy for Jerusalem, who describe their missions as “hope and reconciliation” and “teaching the history of Christian antisemitism” as part of a broader mission to mobilize Christian support for Israel. Unfortunately, this tactic is not completely unsuccessful; for many Christians, at leadership levels as well as in the general ranks, preserving hard-won connections with the Jewish community supersedes considerations of human rights issues.
These cynical accusations of antisemitism also lead us to how Islamophobia is used to faithwash Israel’s settler-colonial interests, specifically the dehumanizing and ahistorical claim that Palestinians, especially Muslim Palestinians are uniquely antisemitic compared to enlightened Westerners. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was quite confident that he could rely on this ahistorical framing when repeatedly claiming that it was a Palestinian Mufti who was responsible for Hitler’s plans to exterminate the Jewish people (seriously).
The idea that Palestinians and Muslims more broadly are inculcated to be irrationally violent and hateful towards the “Jewish State” and thus need to be rehabilitated into “civilized’ and “balanced” views of Israel abounds in op-ed pages and news broadcasts. Mark Schneier, ‘rabbi to the stars’ and one of the founders of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding seeking to “improve Muslim-Jewish relations” put it this way:
“First, this is not a war between Israel and Arabs. This is not a war between Muslims and Jews. Rather, it is a war between moderation and extremism; modernity and medievalism; civilization and barbarism.”
Schneier and those heading similar organizations have appointed themselves, in all their magnanimous wisdom, to figuring out who the Good Muslims are. This talking point can be boiled down to the outrageous idea that Palestinians who object to being ethnically cleansed, murdered en masse, and to the theft of their land really are only doing so because the perpetrators of these acts are doing so in the name of a Jewish State. It has also opened up nice little career paths for these Good Muslims: so-called leaders and representatives positioning themselves as Reformers from within. Surely these workshops and itineraries focused on “interfaith dialogue” will get these annoying Palestinians to pipe down about their oppression.Abdullah Antpeli is one of the Good Muslims who has so bravely stepped forward to reign in the backwards hordes. At the time of writing he is Duke University’s Muslim Chaplain, who organized an ‘interfaith’ all-expenses paid program called the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI) which has notoriously been attended by members such as Rabia Chaudry and Wajahat Ali. The program has included primarily non-Palestinian Muslim Americans, ultimately disconnected from Israeli colonialism yet made the representatives of those suffering under it.
The program has also come under fire for its cooperation with Zionist institutions, namely the Shalom Hartman Institute (SHI), which is a liberal Zionist educational institute partnered with the AIPAC lobby in its mission to demonize and otherwise block attempts to boycott Israel due to its human rights violations. SHI also maintains close ties with the Israeli military. The individuals at its helm are actively engaged in the intimidation of American citizens critical of Israel’s policies as part of efforts to drive a wedge between “soft critics and hard deligitimisers”, and as was made clear on its website regarding the MLI program, equates Israel’s actions and Zionism in general with all Jews everywhere.
As such, MLI’s coordinated trips to Israel are in violation of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)’s call for a boycott of projects that bring international delegations, faith-based or otherwise, for visits to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) in a manner that is complicit with Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid. This is because overall, SHI is demonstrably not interested in merely teaching Muslim leaders more about Judaism than it is justifying Zionism; in fact, the curriculum designed for these Muslim leaders was titled “Encountering Israel: Independence, Peoplehood, and Power.”
Finally, seeing as SHI is not only partially funded by Islamophobic foundations but is chaired by the president of a family foundation that has provided significant funding to Islamophobic projects, it seems counterintuitive that they should claim to be “bridging the divide” between Muslim and Jewish communities.Despite these apparent contradictions, we can expect more discourse and more of these initiatives which present the magical solution to a century or so of settler-colonialism as interfaith hand-holding sessions. This will continue even as Israeli settlers attack Muslim places of worship and as the Temple Mount movement gains in strength in its goal to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and replace it with the Third Temple. Far more important to the Gulf and other Muslim states is the political usefulness of formally announcing diplomatic ties with Israel.
While ‘interfaith’ delegations such as government-backed “This is Bahrain” are aiming to provide a cover for these diplomatic ties as moves towards interfaith harmony, a scratch below the surface reveals motives for these diplomatic ties far more plausible than that states like Saudi Arabia or Bahrain have become interested overnight in religious tolerance. Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s regional headquarters, and an acceptance of relations with Israel on the part of these Gulf monarchies comes with promises of arms acquisitions, U.S. diplomatic support in geopolitical matters, as well as preserving the status quo of absolutist rule at home.
Directly after Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a deal normalizing ties, prominent Emirati social media accounts, some with government links, warned that anyone in the UAE criticizing the deal should be reported to the authorities. One post linked to an app released by the Attorney General’s Office which allows users to easily report tweets that threaten “the basic principles of social security.” According to experts and activists, in the past critical social media posts have resulted in detention, forced disappearances and torture.
A prominent example of this is the case of Ahmed Mansoor, a well-known Emirati rights activist targeted by the Israel-based NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in 2016. Israeli spyware has allowed Emirati authorities to “control any activity in the public and private space,” says Andreas Krieg, a risk consultant and professor at the Defense Studies Department of King’s College London. “It has contributed to a constraint of the freedom of speech over the past decade that is unprecedented in its rigidity, even in the Gulf“. This is simply a continuation of the proud Israeli tradition of providing arms and dangerous technology to the most repressive regimes in the world at pretty much any given point in time, including to Apartheid South Africa.
Ultimately, faithwashing through these normalization efforts come at a time where multi-faith alliances under the premise of shared values of equality, justice and human rights are being formed. The Presbyterian Church recently moved to divest its holdings from US corporations complicit in the oppression of Palestinians, non-Zionist Jewish religious communal spaces are being carved out, and the US Council of Muslim Organizations dropped Emgage, an American Muslim political advocacy organization over its ties to pro-Israel lobby groups.
All the aforementioned present an alternative to the deeply sectarian and racist establishment discourse on Israel which erases Christian Palestinians in favor of Western evangelicals and which projects Muslims and Jews as inherently antagonistic to each other. This framing is complicit in the stoking of Islamophobia, antisemitism, and anti-Arab racism in service of Israel’s positioning as a garrison state for America’s interests and is in contradiction to the much more nuanced history of Muslim-Jewish relations.
Principled human rights defenders, activists, and organizers will and must reject the hegemonic efforts to demand Palestinians accept that Israel has a ‘right to exist’ as a an (inherently undemocratic) Jewish state on the ruins of their villages and the bones of their loved ones. Justice in Palestine means that the religiosity of anyone living from the river to the sea does not supersede the rights of anyone else, and that above all else, Palestinians’ rights to self-determination and to living in freedom and justice is no longer denied by settler-colonial structures and ideas under the guise of interfaith heart-to-hearts.
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"articleTitle": "Faithwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Faithwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Faithwashing refers to when a state or organization appeal to interfaith dialogue in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:42.043Z"
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Purplewashing refers to when a state or organization appeal to women’s rights and feminism in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.
Much to the dismay of colonizers everywhere, it was once much easier to justify colonialism. The language surrounding it used to be rather straightforward; we deserve these lands and resources because we are more advanced; because God wanted it this way; because you are savages. Israel, as a settler-colony, was no exception to this line of reasoning; the sentiments of the founders of Zionism, and later of the State of Israel, are well documented regarding the native Palestinians, who they deemed as being “backwards” and not as deserving of the land as they were .
It is now a faux pas to say any of this quite so bluntly, even as (neo)colonialism prevails. Today, it is more fashionable to justify the theft of lands and resources under the guise of being protectors of human rights, unlike the enemies they seek to dominate.
It is within this context that Israel is rebranding itself. One facet of this propaganda is now centered on its supposed deep concern for the rights and freedoms of women, even Palestinian ones. This has come to be known as purplewashing, which consists of:
“political and marketing strategies that [indicate] a supposed commitment to gender equality. It often refers to the image-cleaning of western countries, which have not achieved genuine equality between men and women but criticise inequalities in other countries or cultures, often where there is a Muslim majority.”
These strategies constitute representing Muslim women -which Palestinian women are largely coded as despite the existence of non-Muslim Palestinians- as uniquely abused in order to create the narrative that feminism only exists on the side of the West. This is part of an ideological framework referred to by scholars as colonial feminism, whereby women’s rights are appropriated in the service of empire; in the context of Palestine, this rhetoric is also known as gendered Orientalism. The Palestinian Arab/Muslim is framed as an “other”, who is culturally or even genetically predisposed to misogyny. Naturally, this is juxtaposed with the framing of a liberal, enlightened, Israeli Westerner. Ultimately to Israel, this facade of feminism is a way to improve its image, and incorporate women into its violent, colonial, racist systems and institutions, as well as a way to paint Palestinians as unworthy of statehood or even humanity. The fact that these systems subjugate other -usually Palestinian- women is hardly mentioned.
Much of Zionists’ attempts to market Israel as feminist revolves around the Israeli army. The Israeli army’s official social media accounts and those at pro-Israel groups such as the Lawfare Project, hail the Israeli army as “one of the only armies in the Western world in which women are drafted to military service by law”. They praise women’s participation in the ethnic cleansing campaigns and massacres of the 1948 Nakba, and cheer on the increasing role of women in combat positions.
Hannah MacLeod, women’s officer for Australian Young Labor praised women’s participation in the Israeli army as “empowering” and pushed for Australia to encourage this participation. There is a “Hot Israeli Army Girls” Instagram account and Maxim magazine’s infamous “Women of Israel Defence Forces”, was deemed so crucial to Israel’s international reputation that the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs threw a party celebrating its publication. One of the more recent and successful additions to the purplewashing of Israel has been Gal Gadot starring as Wonder Woman. Gadot, being a former IDF soldier herself, posted support for the Israeli military as it murdered thousands of Palestinians in its 2014 assault on Gaza, and helped spread the racist and baseless idea that Palestinians use their children and women as human shields. Nonetheless, none of this has stood in the way of trying to frame her as an icon of empowerment for women everywhere.
All of these efforts are meant to sell the idea of Israel being a liberal haven. That sexual assault is rampant in the Israeli army does not make the glossy brochures and social media posts; instead, they are all designed to convey the idea that this objectification in service of a settler-colonial fantasy is the height of female empowerment, an empowerment that Palestinian and other Arab and Muslim women can only aspire to.
This purplewashing of a colonial military, which in addition to subjugating the native population, is also one of the largest exporters of drones globally and has supplied weapons to some of the most repressive, racist regimes in modern history, including Apartheid South Africa. Such a military is anathema to the framework of intersectionality which undergirds a feminism that seeks to dismantle patriarchy and end violence against all women.
The body of theory on intersectionality in feminist movements, created by and largely expanded on by Black feminist writers, compellingly posits that challenging one aspect of structural power alone such as patriarchy, while leaving white supremacy unscathed, only empowers white, upper-class and otherwise privileged women at the expense of all other women. This understanding that feminism must be about ending not only patriarchy but racism and other oppressive systems has led to acts of global solidarity with Palestine, such as from the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, notably regarding the partnership between the Israeli military and American police departments.
Zionists’ reaction to this solidarity has frankly been nothing short of unhinged, often attacking the concept of intersectionality as a whole. Monica Osborne from the Jewish Journal declared intersectionality “an even more sinister threat than the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement against the Jewish state”, and Sharon Nazarian, a senior vice president for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in her article for the Forward used a series of myths and half-baked talking points to declare that of course Zionism and feminism are compatible, and expressed her dismay at how “anti-Zionism is becoming increasingly visible in intersectional discourse”.
Smearing intersectionality and solidarity efforts is becoming increasingly unpopular, and so instead there has been a push to purplewash Israel’s history instead. These efforts start with its history, especially in regards to its 4th Prime Minister Golda Meir. Zionists gush over Meir as “an icon—feminist and otherwise—of the 20th century.” The titles of one of her more well-known biographies simultaneously declared her as the “iron lady of the Middle East” and the “first woman prime minister in the West”. This is indicative of Zionist attempts to reap the benefits of Israel being considered a Western country even as they work to portray Israel as indigenous to the Middle East.
To Palestinian women, however, she was no more empowering than the male Zionist figures who sought and seek to erase our very existence; she once infamously declared that because Palestinians did not have a state or ascribe to modern-day conceptions of nationalism, they were not really ethnically cleansed:
“It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from them. They did not exist.” .
These efforts to purplewash Meir are made even more ridiculous by the fact that she did not even consider herself a feminist, as biographer Elinor Burkett stated, “American feminists loved to adopt Golda, but she was not interested…she ignored gender prejudices…she didn’t think of her [premiership] as an achievement for women. She thought of it as an achievement for Golda.”
In the present day, Zionist groups like Hadassah and the Zioness coalition are increasingly attempting to present themselves as feminist, indicative of a concern amongst Israeli hasbarists that Zionism needs to be rebranded in a more social justice inclined era. This is reflected in Hadassah’s online speaker series, “Defining Zionism in the 21st Century” including a “Zionism for Millennials” segment led by speaker Chloe Valdery, an evangelical Zionist and secretary of the Zioness coalition. Recently, Zioness has been revealed to be an astroturfing group co-founded by Amanda Berman, a Lawfare project executive. Zioness also stirred controversy for attempting to insert itself and its purplewashing agenda into Chicago’s Dyke March and Slutwalk Chicago’s annual protest. Understandably, these efforts were rejected by the radical organizers behind the protest, with Slutwalk Chicago’s statement explaining that they were adamantly opposed to Zioness centering its politic “over the fight for equality and against patriarchy”; they continued:
“We find it disgusting that any group would appropriate a day dedicated to survivors fighting rape culture in order to promote their own nationalist agenda.” They later added that “we fight for equality for everyone which means we stand with Jewish AND Palestinian people, while taking a firmly anti-state, anti-imperialist position that necessarily includes Israel.”
Zionists’ purplewashing their nationalist agenda also often takes the form of a contrived concern for Palestinian women, even while erasing the identities of the Palestinian women living within the green line as “Israeli Arabs”, in an effort to depict Israeli society as ‘multi-cultural’ and tolerant . Native informant Yoseph Haddad, whose entire career revolves around being a bankrolled “Israeli Arab” mouthpiece for the Israeli government, posted a graphic titled “Israeli-Arab Women: Breaking the Glass Ceiling”. Per the accompanying caption on Facebook, Haddad presented individual Palestinian women having roles as professors, police officers, or even winning a singing competition as proof refuting the existence of Israeli Apartheid. Haddad also wrote that “While women face systemic discrimination and oppression all over the Middle East, in Israel Arab women can be anything they want to be”. Besides the insulting notion that individual members of an oppressed group having certain jobs or positions precludes the existence of systemic racism, the implied message is clear: Palestinian women living under Israeli rule are “better off” than they would be under Palestinian rule.
Thus, Palestinian women are depicted as in need of saving from Palestinian men. NGO Monitor, an anti-Palestinian group with close ties to the Israeli government and settler movement, specializing in smearing Palestinian human rights organizations as ‘terrorist’ groups, published a special report titled “The Exploitation of Palestinian Women’s Rights NGOs” which scolded Palestinian feminist activists and organizations for “focusing on Israel as the cause of gender inequality, while not paying adequate attention to internal, systemic practices within Palestinian society that are discriminatory against women”.
In a 2017 Daily Beast article, liberal Zionist wonderboy Peter Beinart accused leftists of overlooking Hamas’s misogyny and paternalistically fretted over what it would look like “when Palestinians more fully govern themselves”. Even Beinart’s more conservative Zionist counterpart Bret Stephens, whose racism against Palestinians is so unbridled that he has openly described Palestinians as “psychotic” and “seized by bloodlust”, nevertheless also positions himself as deeply concerned for Palestinian women, and similarly declared that the “so-called progressives now find themselves in sympathy with the misogynists of Hamas”. In that same article Stephens takes it a step further and declares, despite all evidence to the contrary, that the prominence of women at the Gaza Strip’s Great March of Return was orchestrated by Hamas because “Israeli soldiers might be less likely to fire on women”, conveying his worldview where Israeli soldiers value Palestinian women’s lives, unlike Palestinian men, with all the subtlety of a nuclear warhead. That the Palestinian women in question could have attended the protests of their own accord or that Palestinian men also do not deserve to be murdered at the hands of their occupiers were not even considered points worth entertaining.
Even the Israeli government’s official website has a page dedicated to “the status of women in Gaza” which cynically lists the issues Palestinian women face regarding gender-based violence and limited employment, as if issues of sexism can all neatly be reduced to Hamas’ creation a little over 30 years ago, or as if the Gaza Strip, which has become the world’s largest open-air prison, is not increasingly becoming unlivable in every meaning of the word thanks to Israel’s blockade and bombardment.
The aforementioned fixation on Palestinian women obfuscates how dehumanized Palestinian women and Palestinian mothers in particular actually are by Zionists and throughout Israeli society. This is evident in how Israeli lawmaker Ayelet Shaked openly called for the murder of Palestinian women because they give birth to “little snakes.” Bret Stephens similarly targeted Palestinian mothers in a particularly atrocious article, saying that unlike Western mothers who worry their child will get a bad tattoo, Palestinian mothers want their children to die fighting the occupation; he then went on to say that he has yet to meet an Israeli mother who wants to raise a murderer, because in his view state-sanctioned murder vis-a-vis military conscription or having children write messages of racist hate on missiles about to be launched into Lebanon do not count.
Stephens finally openly states that Palestinian culture is “a culture that openly celebrates murder and is not fit for statehood”, consequently, if Palestinians want a state, they should, like postwar Germany, put themselves “…through a process of moral rehabilitation” and that for Palestine, “this should start with the mothers.”
Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli military intelligence officer turned academic made public statements regarding ‘raping the wives and mothers of Palestinian combatants’ to deter ‘terrorist attacks’. These comments were defended by his university as “the bitter reality of the Middle East”. This sentiment is widespread throughout Israeli society, as the eminent scholar Rabab Abdulhadi noted in her incredibly valuable article for Feminist Studies; Israel’s bloody 2014 assault on Gaza was gleefully supported with Israeli social media posts that included a sexualized image of a hijabi women with calls on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu to rape her. Furthermore, public banners sponsored by an Israeli city’s city council told Israeli soldiers to ‘pound their mothers and come home to your own mothers!’, and a popular t-shirt design amongst Israeli men who served in the army depicted a bullseye pointing at a pregnant Palestinian niqab-wearing woman with the caption “one shot, two kills.”
Palestinian women are targeted for these kinds of racist and misogynistic attacks because Israel is an ethnocracy, which aims to cement the domination of a certain ethnic group on all spheres of society, a crucial aspect of which is demography. Within this framework, Palestinians are viewed as “demographic threats” . This obsession with demographics necessarily manifests itself, as Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian has written, in racist and gendered policies to “contain and reduce the Palestinian population” through assaults on Palestinian daily and domestic life, extending to the often fatal denial of essential treatment to pregnant women, as evidenced by two UNHCR reports of checkpoints delaying pregnant Palestinian women’s access to healthcare. These reports state that 68 women had forced roadside births resulting in 34 miscarriages and that inadequate medical care during pregnancy was found to be the third cause of mortality among Palestinian women of reproductive age.
The aim is to “target the literal biological reproduction of Palestinian life”; these policies have shaped, Shalhoub-Kevorkian argues, a “death zone” for Palestinians and Palestinian women especially, as part of a larger, ongoing process of dispossession congruent with settler colonial practices elsewhere. This death zone is “the space where the biological, material and cultural reproduction of Palestinian social life is put at daily and intimate risk.” According to Shalhoub-Kevorkian, this “sexual violence is central to the larger structure of colonial power, its racialized machinery of domination, and its logic of elimination. Colonialism is itself structured by the logic of sexual violence.” Attacks on Palestinian women’s lives include rape and other forms of gender-based torture in Israeli prisons, consistent with the UN’s findings that sexual violence as part of overarching violent conflict is “used as a means of inflicting terror upon the population at large” and “can also be part of a genocidal strategy”.
Furthermore, as reported by the UN Special Rapporteur on violence against women Dubravka Šimonović, Israeli settlers also frequently attack little girls going to school, to such an extent that some families have become too afraid to send them. While this is a case of gendered human rights abuses committed by non-State actors, it is ultimately de facto endorsed by the Israeli State through their consistent ‘failure’ to investigate or prosecute perpetrators. Šimonović also reported on the traumatizing effect of Israeli home raids and demolitions, with a woman testifying that she took to sleeping fully covered in anticipation of soldiers’ entering her bedroom during a night raid, as has become all too customary.
That misogyny exists within Palestinian society is undeniable. However, the idea that Israel represents salvation from this misogyny, rather than embodying the racist and colonial structures that perpetuate it, is far more questionable. In fact, there is much evidence that weakening community structures, disruptions in law and order, economic hardship, forced migration and over-crowded living conditions in refugee/displacement camps, all of which Palestinians have experienced as a result of Israeli violence, are all factors that increase the risk of sexual and gender-based violence, especially against women and girls. Furthermore, the bureaucratic colonial fragmentation of Palestine into different areas of control, especially the division of the West Bank into areas A, B, and C and the divide between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, is actually an obstacle to preventing this violence or holding its perpetrators accountable .
Palestinian feminist scholars and organizers have been studying and resisting Israel’s violent practices against all Palestinians, and its gendered practices against Palestinian women in particular. As a result, we recognize that true liberation for Palestinian women is impossible with anything short of the liberation of all Palestinians from Israeli settler colonialism. As Palestinian feminists, human rights activists and representatives of women organizations declared in a statement of support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement:
“The struggle of Palestinian feminists [is] as marginalized women who are deprived of equal rights and as part of an indigenous people suffering under a regime of occupation and apartheid. We cannot accept the backseat reserved for an obedient minority that must be filled in conferences or statements issued by Israeli groups. We are struggling for our rights, all of our rights, national, social and otherwise, and against all oppression.”
Palestinian women reject all purplewashing attempts to minimize Israeli violence against us and all Palestinians, which only seeks to bolster Israel’s image at the expense of Palestinians’ rights. Palestinian women in the struggle are aware that they are fighting for the rights and human dignity of all, and that “feminism that doesn’t have an understanding of how it intersects with racial and ethnic oppression is simply a diversification of white supremacy.” We hope you will join us in working for the liberation of all Palestinians; and that the next time you see an pro-Israel organization brazenly attempt to use the feminist movement to cover for colonialism, you can see that purple really isn’t Israel’s color.
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Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera. Militarization and violence against women in conflict zones in the Middle East: A Palestinian case-study. Cambridge University Press, 2009.
Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Nadera et al. Sexual Violence, Women’s Bodies, and Israeli Settler Colonialism. Jadaliyya. November 17th, 2014. [Link]
Farris, Sara R. In the name of women’s rights: The rise of femonationalism. Duke University Press, 2017.
Jad, Islah. Palestinian Women’s Activism: Nationalism, Secularism, Islamism. Syracuse University Press, 2018.
Abdulhadi, Rabab. “Israeli Settler Colonialism in Context: Celebrating (Palestinian) Death and Normalizing Gender and Sexual Violence.” Feminist Studies 45.2-3, 2019: 541-573.
Elia, Nada. “Justice is indivisible: Palestine as a feminist issue.” Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education & Society 6.1, 2017.
Sharoni, Simona, et al. “Transnational Feminist Solidarity in Times of Crisis: The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement and Justice in/for Palestine.” International Feminist Journal of Politics 17.4, 2015: 654-670.
Abdulhadi, Rabab, Evelyn Alsultany, and Nadine Naber, eds. Arab and Arab American feminisms: gender, violence, and belonging. Syracuse University Press, 2011.
Abu-Lughod, Lila. Do Muslim women need saving?. Vol. 15. No. 5. Sage UK: London, England: SAGE Publications, 2015. | {
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Theodor Herzl, one of the founding fathers of Zionism, wrote a utopian novel by the name of Altneuland, or “Old New Land.” In the book, a Viennese Jew and a Prussian nobleman return from a twenty-year isolation on a tropical island, stop in Palestine and discover Herzl’s utopian vision for the future Jewish state. In Herzl’s wildest dreams -and due to Jewish ingenuity- Palestine is no longer a “neglected and desertified land” but suddenly a technologically savvy nation replete with fast trains to Europe, where in Herzl’s mind everything culturally and politically worthwhile is. Much of the novel drones on about what he perceives to be an “unforgiving arid climate” thanks to human-driven desertification as well as the idea that the biblical land of plenty has devolved into a feudal and largely subsistence economy.
Herzl wasn’t alone in this charged characterization of Palestinian land. In 1928, the Economic Board for Palestine of London recorded a Zionist bulletin declaring that:
“Palestine was a poor and backward agricultural country. This is of course still the case to a large extent, but a remarkable development has taken place which is gradually modifying the traditional life”.
Ben-Gurion, another Zionist founding father and Israel’s first prime minister, described in a 1942 pamplet the Jordan Valley, largely known as the breadbasket of Palestine due to its fertile land, as a wasteland “..which knew not at all the pioneer passion that would come to fertilize it”.
Paired with Zionist rhetoric on the supposed desolation of Palestinian land is the manner in which Palestinian fellahin (farmers) and Bedouins are spoken of as having ruined the land with their incompetence. The Jewish Agency exemplified this rhetoric in its call for replacing the “traditional” Arab farmers with better cultivators, matched by Ben-Gurion stating that “we do not recognize their [the Arabs] right to rule the country to the extent that it has not been built by them and is still awaiting its cultivators”.
They were in fine imperialist company with types like Winston Churchill, then British Colonial Secretary and overall genocide-engineering extraordinaire, who stated that “left to themselves the Arabs would never in 1,000 years take effective steps towards the irrigation of Palestine”, as well as with Laurence Oliphant, a British MP and intelligence officer and occasional collaborator with the Palestine Exploration Fund, who declared that:
“The Arabs have very little claim to our sympathy. They have laid waste this country, ruined its villages, and plundered its inhabitants, until it has been reduced to its present condition…the same system might be pursued which we have adopted with success in Canada with our North American Indian tribes, who are confined to their ‘reserves’, and live peaceably upon them in the midst of the settled agricultural population.”
These statements and attitudes on Palestinian farmers’ inadequacy and the conditions of the land was service to the rather dubious claim, as recorded in Moshe Smilansky’s Jewish Colonisation and the Fellah , that the Palestinian farmer can only be saved from his misery and turned into a ‘real’ farmer through the aid of Jewish settlers. These absurd and racist claims were intended to legitimize the Zionist project, and put forward the idea that Zionist colonialism would not displace or otherwise harm the native Palestinians and would even benefit Palestinians. In reality, the settlers banned re-sale or lease of land to Palestinians and prevented their employment in their Jewish-only endeavors. A significant example of this is the Jewish National Fund (JNF), an organization founded in 1901 to acquire land in Palestine explicitly for Jewish-only use, and whose dispossession of Palestinians continues to the present day.
Despite the political usefulness of the claims that Zionists were improving conditions for all the inhabitants of Palestine, there is ample evidence that the British and Zionists alike frequently ignored the aspects of Palestinian agricultural practices which contradicted their ideologically-driven predispositions. Yitzhak Elazari-Volkani, one of the founders of the agricultural faculty at the Hebrew University, made a compelling argument in a piece written on Zionist agricultural practices, where he asserted that it was actually the Zionist agricultural practices which could be deemed “defective”, with money blown on expensive machinery only to gain comparable, if not lower income than Palestinian farmers. Furthermore, the British Hope-Simpson report on immigration, land settlement and development in Mandatory Palestine found that said expensive machinery actually risked damaging the soil, while Jewish farmers “had to be protected by subsidies from the JNF or other Jewish agencies in order to sustain their European standard of living.” Nevertheless, the Zionist and British stance was still that Palestinian agriculture was in need of “capital-driven improvement”, because neither could think in terms other than that.
To be clear, besides the agricultural expertise Palestinians had accumulated for generations, they already had a lot to work with naturally; in contrast to claims of barren Palestinian land that was “mostly desert”, most of Palestine had been cultivated, and had supported agricultural populations for centuries. The lands of Palestine have long been written about as one of the most fertile lands in the decidedly aptly named Fertile Crescent. Renowned Roman historian Tacitus described Palestine in flowery terms, saying “the inhabitants are healthy and robust; the rains moderate; the soil fertile.”
In fact, Palestine, as later shown in a pioneering study by Alexander Schölch, produced large agricultural surpluses and was integrated into the world capitalist economy as an exporter of goods such as barley, sesame, olive oil, and soap during the 1856–1882 period. Consular reports on imports and exports such as through the ports of Acre and Haifa showed that exports not only closely shadowed shifting European demand but also exceeded imports of European machine-manufactured goods, which meant that Palestine helped the rest of Greater Syria minimize its overall negative balance of trade with Europe. Already, then, wide areas such as the coastal plain to the north and south of Gaza were cultivated, producing wheat crops, with the city of Gaza once having been a prosperous market town functioning as a collecting and forwarding center for the citrus, wheat, and barley crops of the Gaza District before being cut off from its trade relations following the 1948 Nakba. Examples of this cultivation were not limited to Gaza, with watermelons and above all citrus being cultivated in the Jaffa area, olives and cotton in the Jabal Nablus region, grapes in Al Khalil region, and tobacco and watermelon in the Galilee among others.
To add insult to the injury of these arrogant claims, much of Zionists’ first agricultural attempts went as well as you would expect, seeing as large swathes of the first settlers had no agricultural experience whatsoever. A prominent example of this is the Bilu group, comprised of primarily Russian Jewish settlers who viewed their mission in Palestine as a pioneering one towards “the physical upbuilding of the land as contributing toward both a revitalization of the Jewish nation and the reemergence of Jewish masculinity and virility”. One of these early settlers, Chaim Chissin, himself admitted that this group was composed of students who had little to no experience in agriculture, though he appeared to view this as a minor detail. However, this lack of experience and familiarity with the land definitely impeded their progress; in describing the failure of their first harvest, Chissin acknowledged the condescending attitude of the Jewish pioneers towards the Arab peasants:
“Whenever the Arabs told us that it was already too late to sow barley, or that the land was unsuited for it, we never hesitated to tell the ‘barbarians,’ with considerable self assurance, ‘Oh, that doesn’t matter. We’ll plow deep, we’ll turn the soil inside out, we’ll harrow it clean, and then you’ll see what a crop we’ll have!’ We provided ourselves with big plows, sunk them deep into the soil, and cruelly whipped our horses which were cruelly exhausted. Our self-confidence had no limits. We looked down on the Arabs, assuming that it was not they who should teach us, but we who would show these barbarians’ what a European could accomplish on this neglected land with the use of perfect tools and rational methods of cultivation. The only trouble was that we ourselves knew about European methods of cultivation only from hearsay, and our agriculturalist, too, knew very little [about conditions in Palestine].”
Additionally, George Mansour, an active Palestinian trade unionist of the time compares Palestinian agricultural practices to the new Zionist settlers, writing that with regard to fruit trees other than citrus and bananas, government data actually showed that “the Arabs have, in recent years, very greatly increased their area of olives, figs and vines; while the Jews, in a disastrous rush to make quid profits by planting citrus, have decreased theirs…the present crisis of over-production is entirely due to the Zionists’ desire to develop everything unnaturally quickly, in order to facilitate Jewish immigration.”
It is no wonder then, that large portions of these settlers eventually moved back to Russia or migrated to the West. Even so, it does not appear that Chissin learned from this failure, going on to rationalize that the Jewish settlers could not rely on the advice of the Arabs, as they were untrustworthy and treacherous. These sentiments were echoed by Mark Twain, who also had abhorrent things to say about the indigenous Palestinians, Chissin described Arab peasants as “very ignorant despite all their experience”.
Ultimately, while the dichotomy of Zionist environmental prowess vs. Palestinian carelessness towards the land has been shown to be nonsense, it is worthwhile for us here to emphasize the following: Even in an alternate reality where all the Zionist settlers had been the most talented farmers with the most efficient tools the world, and had all the Palestinians never heard of or seen a tree in their lives, it is an outrageous notion that a people’s, home, sovereignty, self-determination and dignity were all up for grabs through some contest akin to a reality TV show.
Or, as American Jewish philosopher Michael Neumann phrased it:
“It does not matter if the Zionists achieved wonderful things or ‘turned the desert green.’ That I do wonderful things while acquiring the power of life and death over you hardly legitimizes my venture. It does not matter if Palestine was or wasn’t a poor, neglected area; this could not possibly give anyone supreme power over its inhabitants.”
Unfortunately, today the situation is not so different. This justification for colonialism per civilizational metrics continues to rear its ugly head in new ways, and with increased environmentalist concerns over resources with the advent of climate change. These concerns are driving the Israeli state’s green campaigns which reach a fever pitch every Earth Day.
Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Ron Prosor, described Israel as a hub for renewable energy research and development in the global initiative Sustainable Energy for All (SEforAll) forum. He quoted one of Israel’s “sustainable energy pioneers” who waxed poetic about “the same sun that shines equally on all of us, is owned by none of us, and can supply energy in abundance, inherently promotes peace.”
As touching as this sentiment is, the reality is a bit less sunshine and rainbows. While Israeli and multinational corporations have been reaping enormous profits from the initiation and operation of commercial and residential projects in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip, Palestinians living there are deprived from tapping into the potential of solar energy production. Instead the Palestinian economy has been de-developed and pushed into an expensive reliance on Israeli energy companies. The Jordan Valley alone, with its 3,000 hours of annual sunshine and high radiation levels, would be perfect for solar energy production to meet Palestinian energy needs. Instead, fields for Israeli commercial use are built, which provide uninterrupted electricity to illegal settlements while the neighboring Palestinian towns suffer under blackouts.
To circle back to Prosor’s statement, the sun should belong to everyone. Instead, for years, Israel has destroyed with impunity even the solar panels that have been donated to Palestinians, deeming them “illegal” as permits for Palestinian infrastructure building are difficult to come by, while illegal settlements continue to expand. Solar panel donations from Spain, the Netherlands, and Ireland have all been destroyed, with seven EU countries calling for the end of these cruel demolitions.
Similarly, oft-touted are Israel’s assertions of ingenuity regarding wastewater recycling. For example, Israel and Israeli advocacy groups regularly boast about Israel’s recycling of wastewater, as proof of its environmental stewardship, with Israel reportedly being the first country in the world to make effluent recycling a central component of its water management strategy. However, this obscures how the wastewater Israel reuses for irrigation is an environmental and health hazard, given its poor pre-treatment, inadequate oversight, and leniency of standards. Sludge is also generated as a byproduct of wastewater treatment, which contains high concentrations of pathogens, heavy metals, and organic pollutants. Israel dumps about half (46%) of this byproduct directly into the sea, according to the Israeli Ministry of Environmental Protection. Israeli sludge is now highlighted as the major source of pollution in the Mediterranean Sea, significantly larger than all other sources combined.
Israel supporters also regularly claim that Israel is a “water expert”, with a big song and dance on drip-irrigation and desalination measures. Common tropes again include the idea that water was scarce in Palestine before the Zionist project and would be scarce now if it was not for their ingenuity, and that neighboring Middle Eastern countries have a lot to learn on water technology. Of course, it is not hard to gain a water advantage when you have undertaken all measures possible to extract, steal and hoard the water in the first place. Palestinian environmental scholar Sharif S. Elmusa describes Israel’s water policy, as being a water sponge. A greedy sponge at that, with Israel using 73% of the West Bank’s water, diverting an additional 10% of it to illegal settlements, and selling to Palestinians the remaining 17%. It is also currently utilizing about 80% of the Palestinian groundwater resources in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Of note here as well is Israel denying Palestinian access to the vast majority of the water from the Jordan River despite only 3% of the river falling within the supposed pre-1967 borders. Israel has also diverted most of the water from the Jordan River and from Lake Tiberias (located in the North) to the central and southern parts of the country. This diversion massively reduced the Jordan River’s flow; the amount of water that historically flew into the lower Jordan River reaching the Dead Sea was nearly 1.1 billion cubic meters per year in 1900. Now, barely 50 million cubic meters reach the river, mostly consisting of sewage water from Israeli settlements in the upper Jordan Valley. The water levels are now so low that the Jordan River can no longer replenish the Dead Sea. This drop has led to the development of sinkholes and an increased groundwater flow from surrounding Palestinian aquifers towards the sea. Thus, surrounding aquifers have also become depleted. Meanwhile, the relatively saline waters of Lake Tiberias contaminated groundwater used for irrigation of the Naqab, salinating the soil.
The Israeli army also has the liberty to declare however many dunams of land a “closed military area” at will, as it did in the area of Susya, denying the villagers access to the 13 rainwater harvesting cisterns located there and making their water shortage worse still. Meanwhile, in the nearby illegal Israeli settlement, the Israeli settlers have ample water supplies. They have a swimming pool and their lush irrigated vineyards, herb farms and lawns – verdant even at the height of the dry season – stand in stark contrast to the parched and arid Palestinian villages on their doorstep. This is not an isolated incident: it has been found that overall, water consumption by Israelis is at least four times that of Palestinians living in the OPT. Palestinians consume on average 73 litres of water a day per person, which is well below the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended daily minimum of 100 litres per capita. In many herding communities in the West Bank, the water consumption for thousands of Palestinians is as low as 20 litres per person a day, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). By contrast, the average Israeli consumes approximately 300 litres of water a day.
Another point of pride for Israel, a familiar policy of greenwashing across all settler-colonies, is the designation of certain areas as national parks, boasting of over 70 across the occupied West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. National parks put a green face on Israel’s colonial expansion; the declaration of land belonging to local Palestinian residents as a nature reserve, such as has happened in Wadi Qana, has meant an absolute ban on Palestinian farming, meaning the loss of an important source of income and way of life. Some Palestinian residents have resisted the ban by planting olive trees, but the Israeli government regularly uproots and confiscates these trees. Meanwhile, Israel turns a blind eye to illegal activities by settlers in the same nature reserve, such as massive construction, building roads, and discharging wastewater into the wadi (valley). Some 100 homes in the settlements of Yaqir, Nofim, and Karnei Shomron were constructed within the area of the reserve and, in 2014, master plans were submitted for them which include rezoning areas from a nature reserve to residential.
In east Jerusalem, some of these national parks completely lack any landscape, nature or national treasures or significance, making clear that their true motive is to prevent Palestinian construction, not protect the environment. This has led NGO Bimkon to dub these national parks “green settlements”.
As South African geographer Maano Ramutsindela wrote, even on its face, such national parks appeal to a widespread Western view of nature that people must be excluded from it in order to protect it. Furthermore, as has been the case in the U.S and in Apartheid South Africa, national parks remove and dispossess the Indigenous population and interrupt traditional foodways, ultimately causing more environmental harm than good; such preservation tactics to maintain a landscape in its existing state, is interfering with natural processes and can actually reduce biodiversity, degrading the health of the environment.
Zionism, like all settler-colonialism, does not take into account these natural processes, biodiversity and the overall health of the ecosystem. The delicate interdependence between humans and nature is secondary to atrocities being perpetrated against indigenous populations. This brings us back to the JNF, whose environmental “genius” led to them draining the Hula Lake and the surrounding swamplands, precipitating an environmental disaster that, among other consequences, wiped out dozens of fauna and flora unique to the region. In 1994, once the full impact of the Hula drainage project became apparent and after years of failed attempts to turn the valley into productive agricultural land, the JNF took the unprecedented step of partially reflooding the lake in an attempt to undo the destruction they had wrought. Naturally, this did this not stop the Zionist talking-point of how the settlers supposedly saved Palestine from its swamps.
Most central to JNF’s masquerade as a charitable organization is its insidious tree-planting campaigns, which are cynically exploited for colonial ends. Trees are quite widely perceived as an incontrovertible good, the organization plays on this impression to garner political and financial support for its activities and to conceal their deeply ideological and political work. The trees themselves are used as proof that Zionism is “bettering” the land in ways Palestinians could not and as a symbol of an imagined Israeli past.
The reality of the JNF, in addition to its barely covert mission to dispossess Palestinians, is that its work has also been environmentally destructive. Its manner of planting, its use of hazardous chemicals and its repeated planting of non-native trees, has been disastrous. For example, extensive planting of pine trees has killed off much of the native habitat and is implicated in massive forest fires, including one that killed 42 people:
“The JNF planted hundreds of thousands of trees…helping to establish the Carmel National Park. An area on the south slope of Mount Carmel so closely resembled the landscape of the Swiss Alps that it was nicknamed ‘Little Switzerland. Of course, the nonindigenous trees of the JNF were poorly suited to the environment in Palestine. Most of the saplings the JNF plants at a site near Jerusalem simply do not survive, and require frequent replanting. Elsewhere, needles from the pine trees have killed native plant species and wreaked havoc on the ecosystem. And as we have seen with the Carmel wildfire, the JNF’s trees go up like tinder in the dry heat.”
Most sinisterly, the JNF’s trees are frequently planted over the remains of Palestinian villages ethnically cleansed and destroyed during the 1948 Nakba; the aforementioned pine trees, for example, were planted over the remains of the Palestinian village of Al-Trina. The purpose of this is to construct the physical invisibility of the Palestinians by literally obscuring evidence of their previous existence on the same land.In discussing Zionists’ latest greenwashing claims, we have touched upon the reality of Israel’s environmental destruction. This section will go into further depth on what this environmental destruction looks like and how it amounts to environmental racism against Palestinians.
One prominent example is Al Mokatta River near the city of Haifa, which Israel renamed the Kishon. The river has been polluted for decades with acidic waste from Haifa’s petrochemical industry. This river which was “once the lifeblood of the region has turned to a stinking trench of poison”; it’s said if you put your hand into the river for long enough, the acid will begin to burn it. Not even bacteria can reportedly survive in the water anymore, and tests show that fish die in less than three minutes of being submerged. This river is now reportedly the most polluted river in Israel. However, as Shoshana Gabbay, editor of the Israel Environment Bulletin reports, it is certainly not the only polluted river. With the exception of the upper Jordan River and its tributaries, the prognosis for Israel’s rivers has long been gloomy: a slow and painful death. Whether as a result of industrial discharge, municipal sewage, overpumping or general abuse – rivers have either dried up or become sewage conduits.
Not satisfied with polluting the Palestinian lands stolen in 1948, Israel also treats the West Bank as sewage and pollution dumping grounds. Taking advantage of old Jordanian law provides the West Bank significantly fewer labor and environmental protections than those offered by Israeli law, to the benefit of the Israeli economy. For example, as of 2014, roughly half of Israel’s environmental laws did not apply in the West Bank, encouraging Israeli polluting factories to set up in the West Bank.
For instance, Geshuri industries, a manufacturer of pesticides and fertilizers was ordered in 1982 by an Israeli court to move from Kfar Saba, inside the green line, to an area adjacent to Tulkarem, inside the West Bank because of the company’s negative environmental effects on Israeli land, public health, and agriculture. The health of Israelis was clearly deemed more important than that of the Palestinian residents of Tulkarem, a blatant act of environmental racism. An empirical study showed that this polluting industry may have devastated the environment and health of the Palestinian residents of Tulkarem; Tulkarem residents were found to have some of the highest rates of cancer, asthma, and eye and respiratory health anomalies compared to residents in other districts in the West Bank. Chemical waste from the factory also harmed the farming land that surrounds Tulkarem, causing trees to lose their leaves and destroying the fertile nature of the soil. Vegetables to be sold in Palestinian markets, grew not far from the factory.
The Gaza Strip has not been spared from Israel’s environmental destruction. Israel, as an arms exporter, has tested much of its weaponry on the besieged and blockaded area. Such warfare, besides the horrendous human toll it has taken, is also inherently ecologically damaging, with weapons manufacturing and testing generating tremendous pollution and hazardous waste.
Palestinian environmental NGO, PENGON, published an environmental impact assessment of Israel’s 2014 War on Gaza. Gaza’s environment, the assessment recognized, was already devastated by Israel’s siege, with the war exacerbating these damages. Almost 95 percent of the water pumped in Gaza in 2010 was deemed unfit for drinking due to severe pollution, the water was polluted by both the over pumping of the underground water of the Coast Aquifer and Operation Cast Lead, which caused more than 600,000 tons of waste, including asbestos, oils, and fuels, to contaminate Gaza’s water. Unfortunately, there are no means to rehabilitate the water or treat wastewater, thanks to Israel’s 2007 decision forbidding the entry of the necessary equipment and materials.
Thus, Israel’s 2014 war almost completely halted wastewater treatment. Millions of cubic meters of wastewater were consequently dumped completely untreated into the sea. This dumping deteriorated the marine environment, turning 70% of Gaza’s seashore unfit for recreational activities. The war also produced more than 2.5 million tons of demolition waste, causing particulate matter pollution throughout Gaza. The heavy bombing also sparked fires, which caused air pollution composed of soot, chemicals, and particulate matter.
Moreover, Israel attacked the fuel stores of the Gaza power plant, openly igniting two million liters of diesel, which further contaminated the air. Meanwhile, water and soil infrastructure were damaged and farms, trees, crops, poultry, and livestock were destroyed. 3,450 hectares including more than 250,000 trees, mostly olive, citrus, and grape trees, and more than a thousand greenhouses and tens of thousands of open lands cultivated for the production of vegetables were directly damaged during Israel’s 2014 war on Gaza.
While the information presented here barely scratched the surface of Israel’s environmental destruction and racist colonial practices vis-a-vis Palestinians which it hopes to conduct under a green-tinted shroud, it must be taken into account that Palestinians, especially in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, are particularly vulnerable to the catastrophic effects of climate change. So much so, that the UNDP has deemed the Israeli occupation itself as an environmental risk in its own right due to its fragmentation of the Palestinian political landscape, the Apartheid wall, land grabs, settlement expansion and settler violence. We hope then that this has given you much to think and research about and will push you to not only be able to recognize greenwashing campaigns and talking points, but to take action to protect and defend Palestinian sovereignty over our land and resources. | {
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"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:45.537Z"
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That multiple sites in Palestine, particularly in Jerusalem, have religious significance to Christians, Muslims and Jews is not what is being contested, nor is the idea that a dedication to a political cause or peace and justice cannot stem from one’s personal religious beliefs. Rather, what is being contested is that Palestinians continue to resist Zionism for purely religious reasons or that the roots of the colonization of Palestine are religious.
The founding fathers of political Zionism, including David Ben-Gurion, certainly didn’t view their aspirations for Palestine as religious; they were nearly all atheists or religiously indifferent, and Zionism itself from its onset “enjoyed little support from key Jewish figures”. As historian Nur Masalha has explained in detail, political Zionism emerged from the conditions of late-nineteenth century Eastern and Central Europe as a radical break from 2,000 years of rabbinical Judaism and Jewish tradition. The ‘Land of Israel’ was revered by generations of Jews as a place of holy pilgrimage, not as a future secular state, and while generations of Jews expressed their yearning for “Zion” through prayers and customs, only very recently has this yearning become understood as in any way literal. Instead, early political Zionists most frequently framed their goals in Palestine in the colonial terms popular at the time, such as the idea that Zionists as Westerners were better equipped to cultivate the land than the natives.
No wonder then that 80% of early Zionist settlers did not even settle in Jerusalem, including Ben-Gurion himself, who could not be bothered to visit Jerusalem until three years after arriving. This is due to the fact that Zionist settlers at the time deemed Jerusalem too multi-religious and pluralistic for the founding of the ethnonationalist society of their dreams. Not only was it “full of aliens” (native Arabs) but it was also inhabited by the “old Jewish Yishuv”, whose members were part of the anti-Zionist ultra-orthodox community. As a result, Zionists preferred to build the new exclusively Jewish settlement of Tel Aviv on the Mediterranean coast. The notion that political Zionism and the founding of the Israeli state were predicated on the realization of millennia of religious longing is ex post facto justification. Rather, Zionism, like the European nationalisms before it, is an example of nation-building through the invention of tradition: cherry-picking collective memory and manipulating the religious past for political purposes.The political utility of this manipulation was quite apparent to Ben-Gurion, even telling the British Royal Commission visiting Mandatory Palestine that “the Bible is our mandate”. Like many of the other founding fathers of Zionism, his own lack of religious faith did not prevent him from understanding how vital Western and particularly Western Christian support would be to establishing an Israeli state.
This pandering certainly paid off; Christian Zionists and British imperialists, significantly British prime minister Lloyd George and his foreign secretary Arthur Balfour saw the interests of the Zionist movement and their own interests as so compatible it resulted in the 1917 Balfour Declaration. They believed that a ’Jewish Palestine’ would act as a foothold for British imperialism along the main route to India, and would act as a bulwark against communism following the Bolshevik revolution, which the British elite (correctly) saw as ‘the antithesis for everything which British liberalism stood for’. Furthermore, it would reduce the influx of Jewish refugees into Britain, and, as a bonus, would bring about Armageddon, a belief central to Christian Zionists’ worldview, efficiently combining patronizing attitudes towards Jews with imperialist foreign policies towards the Middle East.
So influential was Christian Zionists’ fixation on Palestine that catering to this fixation played a significant role in why Nazareth would become the only major Palestinian city in what is today Israel to not be ethnically cleansed. Despite Ben-Gurion’s order to “drive them out” as part of his ‘Judaisation of the Galilee’ campaign, Ben Dunkelman, a Canadian Jew who was the commander of the Israeli army’s Seventh Armoured Brigade, disobeyed orders to expel Nazareth’s residents. He believed Christian Palestinians needed protecting, a view he did not extend to Muslim Palestinians. In terms of not upsetting Zionists’ Western benefactors, he was correct to do so, because pressure from the Vatican eventually forced Israel to allow the return of some Christian Palestinians who were forcibly displaced (though as historian Illan Pappe has noted, many refused to do so without their Muslim neighbors).
Since then, Christian Zionists’ obsession with Palestine at the expense of Palestinians has continued to develop with the full support of the Israeli state, especially after the United States took over Britain’s role as Israel’s main benefactor. It is no wonder that Israel continues to encourage this obsession, as it has proven politically useful. As of late 2019, tourism to Israel has been growing by about 10% a year according to the Israeli tourism ministry, with a tourism official sharing how most U.S. tourists are Christians, and a growing share of them are evangelicals. These tourists can freely visit the Christian religious sites which many Palestinian Christians cannot, and are gleefully shuffled into museums which highlight Byzantine archaeological remains while ignoring Islamic remains as politically expedient “highlights of history” regarding the various cultural, religious, and political empires that have marked Jerusalem’s past.
Perhaps more importantly, as support for Israel continues to wane among American youth, liberals, minorities and women (it is strongest among older, well-to-do, conservative white men), Israel has found a winning strategy in courting its American Evangelical supporters. It’s a numbers game really; while Israel fashions itself as representing the Jewish people, it need not worry about surveys finding that U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians to say Trump favors the Israelis too much, how younger Jews are less likely to be emotionally attached to Israel, or how 82 percent of American Jews are more apt to stand with human rights and international law and freely criticize Israeli. Why bother when as of 2020, Christians United for Israel, only one of the many pro-Israel lobbying group in the U.S, boasts of 10 million members, more than the entire Jewish population in either the United States or Israel.
Overall, the Christian Right has been found to constitute the largest social movement in the U.S and the largest voting bloc within the Republican Party, and its support for U.S. imperialist policy vis-a-vis Israel for years has culminated in billions of dollars of aid. This is in addition to the millions evangelicals have poured into West Bank settlement projects over the past 10 years, estimated at somewhere between $50 million and $65 million.
What this love affair between Israel and its Christian Zionist supporters is really helping accomplish is the faithwashing of Israel’s oppression of all Palestinians, including Palestinian Christians, who are not exactly feeling liberated by these Western Christians’ violent and colonial interpretation of the Bible.
Rather, as an early 2020 opinion poll among Palestinian Christians revealed, 62% believe that Israel’s end goal is to expel them from their homeland, 83% of Palestinian Christians are worried about violence by Israeli settlers, and 73% are worried about the continued occupation of their lands. The result of these oppressive conditions contradicts Zionists’ claims that Palestinian Christians are emigrating because of “extremist” Muslim Palestinians; instead 32.6% opted to emigrate due to the loss of freedom and absence of safety amidst the occupation, 26.4% left because of the deteriorating economic conditions, and another 19.7% emigrated due to political unrest, especially during the second Intifada .
This is within a context of repeated attacks against churches by Israeli settlers with incidents far exceeding indictments, lending credibility to Palestinians’ claims that the Israeli government allows settlers to commit these acts with impunity. Christian and Jewish Zionists trying their best to blame Palestinian Muslims for the mess they’ve created is in part a pathetic attempt at a divide-and-conquer strategy to turn Palestinian Muslims and Christians against each other, the failure of which has thus far been quite infuriating to Israel. Instead, Palestinian Christians continue to take on leading roles in defining Palestinian nationalism and resistance to Israel’s occupation, despite Israel’s marketing as the Middle East’s only outpost of ‘civilization’. This blame game is also part of the instrumentalization of Islamophobia and anti-Arab (specifically anti-Palestinian) racism to garner support for their colonial project.Frequently, when any Christian -Palestinian or otherwise- speaks out against Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights, their criticism is equated with antisemitism, with the prescribed solution being Christian-Jewish “interfaith dialogue,” an activity that is closely linked to the long-term Christian program to reconcile with Jews for millennia of church persecution. In this way, Christians are permitted to consider the urgent issue of Palestinian human rights only within the context of European Christian penitence for Jewish persecution. This is evident in Christian Zionist groups like Bridges For Peace and the International Christian Embassy for Jerusalem, who describe their missions as “hope and reconciliation” and “teaching the history of Christian antisemitism” as part of a broader mission to mobilize Christian support for Israel. Unfortunately, this tactic is not completely unsuccessful; for many Christians, at leadership levels as well as in the general ranks, preserving hard-won connections with the Jewish community supersedes considerations of human rights issues.
These cynical accusations of antisemitism also lead us to how Islamophobia is used to faithwash Israel’s settler-colonial interests, specifically the dehumanizing and ahistorical claim that Palestinians, especially Muslim Palestinians are uniquely antisemitic compared to enlightened Westerners. Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu was quite confident that he could rely on this ahistorical framing when repeatedly claiming that it was a Palestinian Mufti who was responsible for Hitler’s plans to exterminate the Jewish people (seriously).
The idea that Palestinians and Muslims more broadly are inculcated to be irrationally violent and hateful towards the “Jewish State” and thus need to be rehabilitated into “civilized’ and “balanced” views of Israel abounds in op-ed pages and news broadcasts. Mark Schneier, ‘rabbi to the stars’ and one of the founders of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding seeking to “improve Muslim-Jewish relations” put it this way:
“First, this is not a war between Israel and Arabs. This is not a war between Muslims and Jews. Rather, it is a war between moderation and extremism; modernity and medievalism; civilization and barbarism.”
Schneier and those heading similar organizations have appointed themselves, in all their magnanimous wisdom, to figuring out who the Good Muslims are. This talking point can be boiled down to the outrageous idea that Palestinians who object to being ethnically cleansed, murdered en masse, and to the theft of their land really are only doing so because the perpetrators of these acts are doing so in the name of a Jewish State. It has also opened up nice little career paths for these Good Muslims: so-called leaders and representatives positioning themselves as Reformers from within. Surely these workshops and itineraries focused on “interfaith dialogue” will get these annoying Palestinians to pipe down about their oppression.Abdullah Antpeli is one of the Good Muslims who has so bravely stepped forward to reign in the backwards hordes. At the time of writing he is Duke University’s Muslim Chaplain, who organized an ‘interfaith’ all-expenses paid program called the Muslim Leadership Initiative (MLI) which has notoriously been attended by members such as Rabia Chaudry and Wajahat Ali. The program has included primarily non-Palestinian Muslim Americans, ultimately disconnected from Israeli colonialism yet made the representatives of those suffering under it.
The program has also come under fire for its cooperation with Zionist institutions, namely the Shalom Hartman Institute (SHI), which is a liberal Zionist educational institute partnered with the AIPAC lobby in its mission to demonize and otherwise block attempts to boycott Israel due to its human rights violations. SHI also maintains close ties with the Israeli military. The individuals at its helm are actively engaged in the intimidation of American citizens critical of Israel’s policies as part of efforts to drive a wedge between “soft critics and hard deligitimisers”, and as was made clear on its website regarding the MLI program, equates Israel’s actions and Zionism in general with all Jews everywhere.
As such, MLI’s coordinated trips to Israel are in violation of the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC)’s call for a boycott of projects that bring international delegations, faith-based or otherwise, for visits to the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt) in a manner that is complicit with Israel’s regime of occupation, colonialism and apartheid. This is because overall, SHI is demonstrably not interested in merely teaching Muslim leaders more about Judaism than it is justifying Zionism; in fact, the curriculum designed for these Muslim leaders was titled “Encountering Israel: Independence, Peoplehood, and Power.”
Finally, seeing as SHI is not only partially funded by Islamophobic foundations but is chaired by the president of a family foundation that has provided significant funding to Islamophobic projects, it seems counterintuitive that they should claim to be “bridging the divide” between Muslim and Jewish communities.Despite these apparent contradictions, we can expect more discourse and more of these initiatives which present the magical solution to a century or so of settler-colonialism as interfaith hand-holding sessions. This will continue even as Israeli settlers attack Muslim places of worship and as the Temple Mount movement gains in strength in its goal to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque and replace it with the Third Temple. Far more important to the Gulf and other Muslim states is the political usefulness of formally announcing diplomatic ties with Israel.
While ‘interfaith’ delegations such as government-backed “This is Bahrain” are aiming to provide a cover for these diplomatic ties as moves towards interfaith harmony, a scratch below the surface reveals motives for these diplomatic ties far more plausible than that states like Saudi Arabia or Bahrain have become interested overnight in religious tolerance. Bahrain is home to the US Navy’s regional headquarters, and an acceptance of relations with Israel on the part of these Gulf monarchies comes with promises of arms acquisitions, U.S. diplomatic support in geopolitical matters, as well as preserving the status quo of absolutist rule at home.
Directly after Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) signed a deal normalizing ties, prominent Emirati social media accounts, some with government links, warned that anyone in the UAE criticizing the deal should be reported to the authorities. One post linked to an app released by the Attorney General’s Office which allows users to easily report tweets that threaten “the basic principles of social security.” According to experts and activists, in the past critical social media posts have resulted in detention, forced disappearances and torture.
A prominent example of this is the case of Ahmed Mansoor, a well-known Emirati rights activist targeted by the Israel-based NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware in 2016. Israeli spyware has allowed Emirati authorities to “control any activity in the public and private space,” says Andreas Krieg, a risk consultant and professor at the Defense Studies Department of King’s College London. “It has contributed to a constraint of the freedom of speech over the past decade that is unprecedented in its rigidity, even in the Gulf“. This is simply a continuation of the proud Israeli tradition of providing arms and dangerous technology to the most repressive regimes in the world at pretty much any given point in time, including to Apartheid South Africa.
Ultimately, faithwashing through these normalization efforts come at a time where multi-faith alliances under the premise of shared values of equality, justice and human rights are being formed. The Presbyterian Church recently moved to divest its holdings from US corporations complicit in the oppression of Palestinians, non-Zionist Jewish religious communal spaces are being carved out, and the US Council of Muslim Organizations dropped Emgage, an American Muslim political advocacy organization over its ties to pro-Israel lobby groups.
All the aforementioned present an alternative to the deeply sectarian and racist establishment discourse on Israel which erases Christian Palestinians in favor of Western evangelicals and which projects Muslims and Jews as inherently antagonistic to each other. This framing is complicit in the stoking of Islamophobia, antisemitism, and anti-Arab racism in service of Israel’s positioning as a garrison state for America’s interests and is in contradiction to the much more nuanced history of Muslim-Jewish relations.
Principled human rights defenders, activists, and organizers will and must reject the hegemonic efforts to demand Palestinians accept that Israel has a ‘right to exist’ as a an (inherently undemocratic) Jewish state on the ruins of their villages and the bones of their loved ones. Justice in Palestine means that the religiosity of anyone living from the river to the sea does not supersede the rights of anyone else, and that above all else, Palestinians’ rights to self-determination and to living in freedom and justice is no longer denied by settler-colonial structures and ideas under the guise of interfaith heart-to-hearts.
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"articleTitle": "Faithwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Faithwashing | Decolonize Palestine",
"description": "Faithwashing refers to when a state or organization appeal to interfaith dialogue in order to deflect attention from its harmful practices.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:47.444Z"
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On the 19th of April 1939, the future Leader of Islamic Iran was born in the holy city of Mashhad, in the province of Khorasan. Sayyed Ali was the second son of Sayyed Javad Khamenei, a humble and poor Islamic scholar who taught all members of his family how to lead a simple, humble way of life.
"My father, though a well-known religious figure, was a bit of an ascetic. We had a hard life. Sometimes for supper we had nothing but bread with some raisins, which our mother had somehow improvised.... our house, some sixty-five square meters, consisted of a single room and a gloomy basement. When visitors came to see my father as the local cleric to consult about their problems, the family had to move into the basement while the visit went on.... Years later some charitable persons bought the small, empty lot adjacent to our house, so we were able to build two more rooms."
Detailed biography of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of Islamic Revolution
EDUCATION
At the age of four Sayyed Ali and his older brother Mohammad, were sent to maktab, the traditional primary-schools of that time, in order to learn the alphabet and the Holy Quran. Later, he was transferred to a newly established Islamic school to continue his learning.
After this primary schooling, Sayyed Ali pursued his studies at the theological seminary in Mashhad. "The main encouraging factors for this enlightened decision were my parents, especially my father" says Ayatollah Khamenei today.
At Soleiman Khan and Nawwab religious schools and under the supervision of his father and the tutorships of some great religious scholars, he studied all the 'intermediate level ' curriculum including logic, philosophy and Islamic jurisprudence in the exceptionally short time of five years. He then started his advanced level studies called darse kharij with such eminent scholars and instructors as Grand Ayatollah Milani.
THE FAMED SEMINARIES OF NAJAF AND QUM
The young Sayyed Ali was only eighteen years old when he started his studies at the highest level. He decided to make a pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Iraq, and so he left Iran for Najaf in 1957. He was fascinated by the theological and academic instructions of such eminent scholars such as Ayatollah Hakim and Ayatollah Shahrudi. He attended their lessons and was willing to stay there and continue his studies in order to profit from these excellent teachers. However his father made it known that he preferred his son continue his advanced studies in the holy city of Qum. Thus, respecting his father's wish, he returned to Iran in 1958.
Diligently and enthusiastically he followed his advanced studies in Qum from 1958 to 1964 and benefited from the teachings of great scholars and grand ayatollahs such as Ayat. Borujerdi, Imam Khomeini, Ayat. Haeri Yazdi and Allamah Tabatabai.
He received the bad news that his father had lost his sight in one eye and was not able to read properly. This prompted him to return to Mashhad and while being at the service of his father, seek further knowledge from him, from Ayatollah Milani and other important scholars residing in Mashhad. The young Sayyed Ali, who had now become a mujtahid by having completed his advanced level studies, began to teach various religious subjects to younger seminary and university students.
Recalling this important point of departure in his life, the Leader says, "If there have been any successes in my life, they all go back to God's blessings favored upon me because of my dutiful caring for parents."
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
"In the areas of political and revolutionary ideas and Islamic jurisprudence, I am certainly a disciple of Imam Khomeini" says Ayatollah Khamenei. He adds: "Yet the very first sparks of consciousness concerning Islamic, revolutionary ideas and the duty to fight the Shah's despotism and his British supporters, was kindled in my soul at the age of 13 when the brave cleric, Nawwab Safavi, later martyred by the Shah's regime, came to our school in Mashhad in 1952 and delivered a fiery speech against the Shah's anti-Islamic and devious policies."
It was in Qum in 1962, that Sayyed Ali joined the ranks of the revolutionary followers of Imam Khomeini who opposed the pro-American, anti-Islamic policies of the Shah's regime.
Dedicated and fearless, he followed this path for the next 16 years which ultimately led to the downfall of the Shah's brutal regime: persecution, torture, imprisonment and exile could not make him waver for a moment.
In May of 1963 (corresponding to the holy month of Muharram), Imam Khomeini honored the young, brave cleric Sayyed Ali, with the mission of taking a secret message to Ayatollah Milani and other clergymen in Mashhad, on the ways and tactics of exposing the true nature of the Shah's regime. He fulfilled this mission properly and traveled to the city of Birjand for further propagation of Imam Khomeini's views. Here he was arrested for the first time and spent one night in jail. The following the authorities ordered him not to speak at the pulpit again. From that moment he knew that he would be under police surveillance all the time. Of course he did not submit to police threats, and as a result of his activities relating to the bloody June 1963 Uprising (15th of Khordad ), he was again arrested and transferred to Mashhad to spend ten days in prison under severe conditions.
In January 1964 (Ramadhan 1383), according to a well-organized plan, Ayatollah Khamenei and a few close friends traveled to Kirman and Zahedan in southern Iran, to expose the phony referendum the Shah was holding for his so-called reforms. There in the course of many public speeches, he exposed the satanic American policies of the Pahlavi regime. This time, the Shah's feared intelligence agency, SAVAK, stepped in and arrested him one late evening. He was taken to Tehran by an airplane to spend two months in solitary confinement during which time he was tortured.
Once freed, he started holding lessons on the exegeses of the Holy Quran, the Prophetic Traditions and Islamic ideology in Mashhad and Tehran. These lessons were most appreciated by the revolutionary Iranian youth. As he was sure now that SAVAK was watching him closely, he was forced to go underground in 1967. However, he was arrested again for holding such classes and Islamic discussions.
Ayatollah Khamenei has himself explained the reasons for such measures by SAVAK:
"From 1970 onwards, grounds for an armed movement were being laid out. Accordingly the regime's sensitivity and severity of action against me increased. They could not believe that the armed actions were not connected with a sound, Islamic ideology. They thought that there must be links between these revolutionaries and people like me because of my intellectual and diligent activities. Despite all this, after I was released, more and more people attended my classes on the Holy Quran and many were present at our clandestine gatherings."
LAST ARREST AND EXILE
Throughout the years 1972-1975, Ayatollah Khamenei was holding classes on the Holy Quran and Islamic ideology in three different mosques in Mashhad. These classes together with his lectures on Imam Ali's (as) Nahjul Balagha attracted thousands of conscious, politically-minded youth and students. The lectures were circulated among the people in hand-written or typed forms, in most towns and cities.
His students traveled to distant cities to spread his lessons and ideas. All this frightened the Shah's SAVAK agents and so, in the winter of 1975, they broke into his home in Mashhad and arrested him for the 6th time and confiscated all his books and notes.
Now he was detained in Tehran's notorious "Police-SAVAK Joint Prison" for many months. This had been his most trying imprisonment, and Ayatollah Khamenei has this to say about the barbarous treatment of the detainees: "These conditions may be understood only by those who suffered them..."
In the autumn of 1975, he was freed and sent back to Mashhad and he was now completely banned from delivering lectures or holding classes.
His clandestine activities, however, prompted SAVAK to apprehend him in the winter of 1976 and sentence him to exile for three years. This difficult period came to an end in the latter part of 1978 due to the prevailing political conditions, and Ayatollah Khamenei returned to Mashhad a few months before the triumph of the Islamic revolution. He diligently continued his political-religious activities in this momentous period of civil unrest and mass demonstrations throughout Iran.
Thus, after nearly 15 years of bearing all sorts of torture and maltreatment at the hands of the agents of the Shah's bloodthirsty regime, he could now witness the fall of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime and the rise of an Islamic Republic in Iran.
THE VICTORY OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION
Shortly before the triumph of the Islamic Revolution (February 11, 1979) and before Imam Khomeini's victorious return to Iran from Paris, an Islamic Revolutionary Council was formed at the behest of the Imam. Ayatollah Khamenei was appointed as a member of this Council together with other important Islamic notables such Shahid Ayatollahs Motahhari and Beheshti. He, therefore, left Mashhad for Tehran to take up his new responsibilities.
NEW RESPONSIBILITIES
The following is a list of the services he has rendered to the Islamic Republic since that time:
1980- Founding member of the Islamic Republic Party, together with such religious scholars and Mujahids as Shahid Beheshti, Rafsanjani, Shahid Bahonar, and Musavi-Ardebili.
• Deputy-Minister of Defence
• Supervisor of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
• Imam of Tehran's Friday Congregational Prayers, per Imam Khomeini's decree.
• Elected Tehran MP in the Majlis (Consultative Assembly)
1981- Imam Khomeini's Representative at the High Council of Defence
• Active presence at the fronts of the Iraqi-imposed war.
1982- Elected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran following the martyrdom of President Mohammad Ali Rajai (Ayatollah Khamenei was himself the target of an assassination attempt at Abu Dhar mosque in Tehran after which he was hospitalized for a few months).
• Appointed Chairman of the Revolution's Cultural Council.
1986- President of the Expediency Council
• Re-elected President of the Islamic Republic for a second 4-year term
1989- Elected as the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Assembly of Experts after the demise of Imam Khomeini.
1990- Chairman of the Committee for Revision of the Constitution.
WORKS AUTHORED AND TRANSLATIONS
Works Authored
1. Islamic Thought in the Quran (An Outline)
2. The Profundity of Prayer
3. A Discourse on Patience
4. On the Four Principal Books of Traditions Concerning the Biography of Narrators.
5. Guardianship (Wilayah)
6. A General Report of the Islamic Seminary of Mashhad
7. Imam Al-Saadiq (AS)
8. Unity and Political Parties
9. Personal Views on the Arts
10. Understanding Religion Properly
11. Struggles of Shia Imams (as)
12. The Essence of God's Unity
13. The Necessity of Returning to the Quran
14. Imam Al-Sajjad (as)
15. Imam Reza (as) and His Appointment as Crown Prince.
16. The Cultural Invasion (Collection of Speeches)
17. Collections of Speeches and Messages ( 9 Volumes )
Translations (from Arabic into Farsi)
1. Peace Treaty of Imam Hassan (AS) , by Raazi Aal-Yasseen
2. The Future in Islamic Lands, by Sayyed Qutb
3. Muslims in the Liberation Movement of India, by Abdulmunaim Nassri
4. An Indictment against the Western Civilization, by Sayyed Gutb | {
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“If they were to force you out of your homes, what would you do? Palestine bears the burden of Israel’s occupation, suffering under the weight of an arrogant occupying regime primed for war. In a recent surge of resistance along the West Bank, be it in the streets of Gaza or the alleys of Jerusalem, stones stand resilient against bullets. Intifada (Arabic for civil uprising)! Intifada! Intifada! Freedom.”
These verses belong to the song "Intifada," which saw thousands of Chileans participating in an unprecedented event on November 12. They sang in harmony with the Spanish music group SKA-P in Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Over the past weeks, in streets located thousands of kilometers from Gaza, resounding voices declare, “Palestine will triumph!” and passionately demand an end to the genocide against the Palestinian people. The rallying cry, “Latin America stands with Palestine!” echoes through the air. Meanwhile, captivating murals adorned with the empowering slogan “Always towards victory” draw attention, featuring the unwavering gaze of a determined young Palestinian.
For the people in Latin America, the Palestinian Cause transcends mere politics, resonating deeply as a humanitarian cause. The populace passionately rallies behind Gaza, employing the power of social media to share millions of posts exposing Zionist crimes. Hashtags such as #FreePalestine and #IsraelGenocide prominently circulate, with a poignant video portraying a Palestinian girl surviving a bombing amassing nearly 20 million views.
While the Israeli regime had sought to foster close ties with Latin American nations and governments by the United States’ backing in recent years, a seismic shift occurred on October 7, 2023. The revelation of the true nature of this regime triggered an exponential surge in animosity among the people in the region towards the Zionists, intensifying with each passing hour.
Chile’s condemnation of Israel’s atrocities
On October 19, the area surrounding the Israeli Embassy in Chile took center stage as pro-Palestinian demonstrators boldly voiced unprecedented slogans, including the pointed accusation of “Zionist terrorist.” This fervent display gained momentum on November 18, when hundreds of Chileans orchestrated a symbolic act by placing 1,000 shoes in front of the “La Moneda” Presidential Palace in Santiago. Each pair symbolized a child tragically killed in Gaza. A moment of profound silence was observed as a tribute to the victims, punctuated by the impassioned chant, "No to killing children!" Alongside this heartfelt gesture, protesters wielded signs fervently advocating for the protection of Palestinian children.
The Chilean President Gabriel Boric aligned himself with the sentiments of his people. In a post on X, he asserted, “Children are not ‘collateral damage’ in the war against Hamas; they are the main victims. Nothing justifies this brutality in Gaza. Nothing.” Chile’s government also took a decisive step by recalling its ambassador from Israel to Santiago.
Venezuela: Zionists will target us after Palestine
The Venezuelan populace has a longstanding tradition of expressing solidarity with Palestine and resonating their discontent through slogans such as “Israel is just like the Nazis.” This substantial support for Palestine traces its roots back to 2009, when the Venezuelan government, vehemently protesting the Gaza massacre, took the bold step of completely severing ties with the Zionist regime.
In a recent speech, President Nicolas Maduro brought a heightened awareness to his citizens, as well as Christians in America and Europe, shedding light on the threat that Zionism poses to Christianity — a topic that had previously been left largely unexplored.
Maduro asserted, “Zionists have adopted an ideology more perilous than that of the Nazis. Their initial actions targeted the people of Palestine through invasion, genocide, and bombings. Subsequently, they will direct their aggression towards the Arab population and all Muslims, with Christians and Catholics next in their line of sight.” The belief among Jews that they are the ‘chosen people,��� and non-Jews are mere animals in human guise obligated to serve them, underscores the gravity of the president's caution.
The Venezuelan President also urged people worldwide to continue the rallies, stating, "We must prevail in this battle for the right to life and the establishment of the Palestinian state."
Bolivia: We cannot turn a blind eye to the suffering of the Palestinians
On October 22, San Francisco Square and the streets of La Paz, Bolivia’s capital, became the backdrop for a massive demonstration, where protestors fervently called for an end to the Gaza genocide.
Bolivian President Luis Arce declared in a post on X: “We cannot remain indifferent to the plight of the Palestinian people, who have the right to live in peace. We denounce the war crimes in Gaza.”
In response to the ongoing Zionist atrocities, the Bolivian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officially announced the severance of diplomatic ties with the Zionist regime, while condemning the massacre of thousands of civilians.
Colombia: “Netanyahu is a crazy man”
Chile is not the only Latin American country where demonstrators have chosen to target the Israeli embassy as a symbolic act of protest. On November 4, 2023, protestors in Colombia defaced the walls of the Israeli embassy in Bogotá, painting them with images of Nazi symbols.
President Gustavo Petro, in a tweet, expressed that the people of Palestine are enduring one of the most egregious injustices in the contemporary world. Referring to Netanyahu as “a crazy man,” he also declared that Colombia will support the complaint lodged by the Republic of Algeria, submitted to the International Criminal Court, accusing Benjamin Netanyahu of war crimes and the mass killing of Palestinian children.
Nicaragua and Cuba: America bears primary responsibility in Gaza conflict
Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega and Cuba's President Miguel Díaz-Canel have issued strong responses to the unfolding events in Gaza. Aligned with the sentiments articulated by Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, who emphasized that "the US is definitely an accomplice of the criminals. In other words, in this crime, the US’s hand is drenched and stained up to its elbow with the blood of the oppressed, the children, the sick, women, and others," they have implicated the White House as a complicit partner in the crimes committed by the Zionists.
In a public address, Ortega held America accountable as the principal perpetrator of the genocide in Gaza, asserting, "Israel’s brutal and inhumane war is not merely an aspect of the United States government; it is part of a larger strategy. Just as America annihilated the natives of North America, other powers are now engaged in similar actions in Asia."
The President of Cuba, in a televised speech, characterized Washington as a "collaborator in the heinous acts of the Zionists" for vetoing the ceasefire resolution in Gaza.
Díaz-Canel, by sharing images of Palestinian children martyred in Israel’s bombings on his X account, conveyed, “History will not forgive the indifferent. It is time to bring an end to the idea of plunder so that the philosophy of war perishes due to a lack of motivation. The people of Palestine are enduring horror today.”
Argentinians and Mexicans: Sever Ties with the Zionist Regime
Argentinians and Mexicans have directed their protests toward the embassies of the Zionist regime as well. In Buenos Aires, Argentina, a substantial gathering on October 9 called for the “expulsion of the racist government” of Israel from their country, expressing their dissatisfaction. Likewise, in a significant march on November 18 in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, participants criticized President Andrés Manuel López Obrador's measured stance on the events in Palestine and urged their government to sever diplomatic, political, and economic ties with Netanyahu’s cabinet.
Honduras: Wake up call for humanity
President Xiomara Castro of Honduras shared on her official X account: “Silence is complicity in a crime that threatens humanity. Oh, humanity, wake up! We have no more time!” Finally, on November 3, in response to the dire humanitarian situation of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, the Castro government "urgently summoned Mr. Roberto Martinez, Honduras’ Ambassador to Israel, for consultations to Tegucigalpa, the capital."
Sending humanitarian aid to Gazan people
The dispatch of 30 and 73-ton shipments of food and medicine by the governments of Venezuela and Bolivia, accompanied by an airlift from the Colombian government providing essential supplies to Egypt, serves as a testament to the humanitarian aid extended by Latin American governments to the people of Gaza. Despite these efforts, the aid has not reached the people of Gaza due to the blockade of the Rafah crossing.
It can be asserted that no other region has seen governments and nations express support for Palestine as openly as in Latin America. This assertion finds backing in the statements of Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, on April 4, 2009. He addressed the President of Venezuela regarding the crimes against the people of Gaza that year and the subsequent severance of Caracas’ relations with Tel Aviv, stating, “What the Venezuelan government did was, in fact, the duty of European governments who claim to advocate for human rights and support for humanity. Unfortunately, the claimant European governments acted in the opposite direction during the massacre of the people of Gaza."
14 years later, Imam Khamenei also praised the position of the Cuban president on the issue of Palestine in a meeting that they had on Dec. 4, 2023.
The call to sever ties with the Zionist regime, identified by Imam Khamenei as a key means to halt the tragedies in Gaza, complemented by the dispatch of humanitarian aid and the resounding support for Palestine from a populace shaped by figures like Simón Bolívar, José Martí, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara is not surprising. These figures, embraced by the people, embody anti-oppression and resistance values, which are deeply ingrained in their collective identity. | {
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Ruhollah Abdolmaleki, researcher in regional studies
In his book All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity, Marshall Berman has a famous phrase quoted from Marx, which is also seen in the title of his book: “All that is solid melts into air.” Even though this book is an outlook on the impact of culture on the process of modernization, Berman's words were a summation of what happened on October 7. The Leader of Iran described it as the victory of a small group that “was able to burn down and put an end to” everything that the Zionist regime had boasted about to the world regarding the superiority of its military and intelligence “in a matter of hours” (“Ultimate Victory”). Therefore, Hamas fighters inflicted irreparable blows on the military and intelligence of the Zionist regime through a calculated, surprising plan.
After many years of military, security, and intelligence dominance, the Zionist regime had now found itself in the middle of a battle in which it conceded hard, unbelievable and irreparable concessions to its opponent.
In response to this, the Zionist leaders used all their power to hold their ground and manage the crisis to their own interest. In this regard, during an apparently calculated plan, they followed a two-pronged policy based on which Gaza would be safeguarded on the condition that Hamas be removed from the Palestinian political sphere, while Hamas's insistence on remaining there would come at the cost of Gaza’s destruction.
On the one hand, this two-pronged policy sought a geopolitical victory when the occupying regime announced that it was necessary for the people of Gaza to exit from the south of this region. On the other hand, by deeming it necessary to destroy the Hamas government, it hoped for a political victory by planning to remove Hamas from the political future of Gaza and Palestine (Rascoe and Inskeep).
In order to achieve the above-mentioned goals, the Zionist regime relies on its military power. On paper, it is one of the world’s top military powers (“Israel ranks”) with an annual military budget of over 20 billion dollars (“Israel Defense”). It uses the most advanced American military equipment and in an unequal match, it bombarded the small, Gaza enclave with all kinds of military equipment.
Despite the maximum use of this regime's military capabilities and destructive and advanced weaponry, as the days of fighting and bombing of Gaza passed, the inability of the occupiers to achieve their declared goals became even more apparent to the point where US military commanders (if not other American soldiers) went to the occupied territories to lend a hand to the Zionist regime (Stewart). In spite of this, after about 45 days, none of the above goals were achieved.
In the field of diplomacy and international relations, the traditional supporters of the Zionist regime, especially the Arrogant Powers who themselves have a history of colonizing nations and launching wars and campaigns against the world’s nations, including Muslim nations, rushed to the aid of this regime.
The US president has spoken of unlimited moral and diplomatic support for the Zionist regime (Bacevich). The French president and the Briths prime minister expressed clear statements in support of the Zionist regime. The German chancellor also considered it his government’s duty to protect the security of Israel.
Despite this, these diplomatic measures were not able to create even a noteworthy consensus in the international arena in favor of the Zionist regime to the point where, in a letter addressed to Macron, the French ambassador to North Africa and West Asia criticized the French president’s pro-Israeli stance on the Gaza war (“French ambassadors”). More importantly, with the deterioration of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, international discontent multiplied, resulting in calls for a cease-fire by various countries (Saric and Mukherjee). The Zionist regime’s refusal to accept a ceasefire triggered reactions from many countries in the American, African, and Asian continents.
In addition to the condemnations and verbal protests of the official authorities of various countries, the governments of South Africa, Jordan, Turkey, Colombia, Bahrain, etc. withdrew their ambassadors from the occupied territories in protest of the disastrous conditions in Gaza. These statements, measures and the more severe encounters, such as the cutting of diplomatic ties with the Zionist regime by Bolivia, contained a clear message that the Zionist regime has lost the battle of international diplomacy in the Gaza war, ceding the field to its opponent (Sforza).
The sidetracking of the plan of normalization between the Zionist regime and Saudi Arabia and making it contingent on the resolution of the Gaza crisis and the Palestinian issue by Saudi Arabia (Scott) confirmed the claim that the Zionist regime has failed in the field of diplomacy and political relations.
In the field of media, the Zionist regime counted on the mainstream media in the West in the hope of gaining a win in the social and media field by coaxing public opinion. A large part of the mainstream Western media narrated the Gaza war with a theme revolving around the condemnation of the Hamas and Gazan fighters (Ridley).
Without addressing the origin of Hamas’s formation from within the Gazan society and the suffering and oppression that they endured in previous years, the aforementioned media used all their technical capacity to make the Palestinian fighters in Gaza appear as terrorists. The prevalence of one-sided news and analysis in the media space, while ignoring the vast magnitude of destructions, killings, injuries, displacements, and homelessness of the oppressed people of Gaza these days reminds one of a famous saying attributed to Mark Twain that states: “A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
A large proportion of the world's media were repeating and rebroadcasting the justifications and claims of the Zionist regime while the oppressed people of Gaza were deprived of basic necessities such as food and energy and their hospitals were being targeted one after another by Zionist missiles. The situation in Gaza was so grave that the extent of the destructive power of the occupying regime’s heavy bombardment of the coastal enclave was estimated to be three times that of an atomic bomb (“Israel hits Gaza”).
One of the other measures that the media giants took was that they propagated and published the comments and statements made by movie stars in support of the Zionist regime, while placing pressure on the actors who voiced their protest against the crimes of the occupying regime. The news about the dropping and firing of Hollywood stars due to their apparently pro-Palestinian statements (Kay) and the revelations of popular and famous figures showed that the Zionist regime had made plans to lure and threaten them in line with supporting the occupation and condemning the people of Gaza.
The Western media’s support regarding the manner in which news related to the Gaza war was covered triggered protests from analysts, commentators, and members of the media. From the viewpoint of these people, the significant bias of the Western media in its coverage of the war in Gaza indicates a double standard (“Media coverage”) and evokes this cultural perception in the West that the people of Palestine and Israel do not have an equal right to life (Gathara).
When we consider the historical support of the Western countries, especially the United States, for the many years of Israeli occupation and the cooperation of the mass media outlets with the discriminatory policies of the West in soft-pedalling years of violence and expansion of the Zionist occupation, the unequal and one-sided coverage of the Gaza war comes as no surprise. The purpose of this form of representation is to depict and narrate reality based on the interests of the Arrogant Powers and to interfere in the process of the public opinion’s understanding of matters while having a targeted impact on the audience.
That said, the use of media techniques and psychological operations by the Western media regarding the Gaza issue did not prove to be successful. The audience of these media outlets acted contrary to the goals of the propaganda machines, which was seen in the way they deciphered matters and in the reactions they displayed. In fact, many social groups, on the one hand, correctly understood that the representation of the aforementioned media was biased and not a reflection of the actual public opinion. And on the other hand, they reacted to it with collective measures such as the use of hashtags on social media and participating in protest rallies outside of social media.
In order to empathize with the residents of Gaza, especially the children and babies whose number of dead and injured were soaring under the showering of the Zionist regime's rockets, they denounced the actions of the Zionist regime on social media and called for the freedom of Palestine. As an example, according to a report in the Washington Post, during the Gaza war, the #freepalestine hashtag was used on Facebook 39 times more than the #standwithIsrael hashtag, and this number was 26 times more on Instagram (Adib).
In addition to this, the remarkable demonstrations in the capitals and important cities around the world, especially in Western countries that support the Israeli regime, such as Paris, London, and Berlin (“People”), signified people's disgust with the Zionist regime’s assault. It was also an indication of the gap that exists between the public opinion and the governments of these countries regarding the issue of Palestine. On that account, the Zionist regime was not able to steer the public opinion toward supporting its crimes in its media campaign or on social media or at least coax them into being silent and neutral about the atrocities that are taking place in the Gaza Strip.
With all being said, it can be concluded that the Gaza war, with the initiative of Hamas fighters, dealt a heavy blow to the military and security credibility of the occupying regime and marked the failure of the Zionist regime in the fields of geopolitics, politics, diplomacy, and public opinion. Ultimately, the occupying regime accepted a ceasefire without achieving any of its declared goals. Not only did this prove that what it had suffered was an irreparable defeat, but this failure also turned into a full-scale “knockout defeat.”
By recalling this verse from the Holy Quran that states, “How many a small group has defeated a large group by God’s will!” (2:249), the disgraceful defeat of the Zionist occupation once again showed that when the power of determination and faith of a small, impoverished, oppressed population is combined with patience and resistance, they gain the ability to “burn down and put an end” to the apparently tough powers “in a matter of hours.”
References:
Adib, Desiree. “Amid Israel-Hamas conflict, 'information war' plays out on social media, experts say.” ABC News, 24 Nov. 2023, https://abcnews.go.com/International/social-media-information-war-israel-hamas-conflict/story?id=104845039.
Bacevich, Andrew. “The Israel-Gaza War Will Fail.” Quincyinst, 10 Nov. 2023, https://quincyinst.org/2023/11/10/the-israel-gaza-war-will-fail/.
Berman, Marshall. All That Is Solid Melts Into Air: The Experience of Modernity. Penguin, 1988.
“French ambassadors pen letter to Macron urging change of stance on Israel's Gaza war.” The New Arab, 16 Nov. 2023, https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-french-ambassadors-criticise-macron-pro-israel-stance.
Gathara, Patrick. “Western media failures say more about the West than Gaza.” Aljazeera, 25 Oct. 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/10/25/western-media-failures-say-more-about-the-west-than-gaza.
“Israel Defense Market Size, Trends, Budget Allocation, Regulations, Acquisitions, Competitive Landscape and Forecast to 2028.” GlobalData, 29 May 2023, https://www.globaldata.com/store/report/israel-defense-market-analysis/.
“Israel hits Gaza Strip with the equivalent of two nuclear bombs.” Euro-Med Monitor, 2 Nov. 2023, https://euromedmonitor.org/en/article/5908/Israel-hits-Gaza-Strip-with-the-equivalent-of-two-nuclear-bombs.
“Israel ranks among 10 most powerful countries in annual list; 4th strongest military.” The Times of Israel, 2 Jan. 2023, https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-among-10-most-powerful-countries-in-the-world-in-annual-list/.
Kay, Jeremy. “Stars fired, dropped as Hollywood wrestles with ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict.” Screendaily, 22 Nov. 2023, https://www.screendaily.com/news/stars-fired-dropped-as-hollywood-wrestles-with-ongoing-israel-hamas-conflict/5188091.article.
“Media coverage of Israel and Gaza is rife with deadly double standards.” The New Humanitarian, 23 Oct. 2023, https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/editorial/2023/10/23/media-coverage-israel-and-gaza-double-standards.
“People across the world protest against Israel’s war on Gaza.” Aljazeera, 17 Nov. 2023, https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2023/11/17/photos-people-protest-israeli-war-on-gaza-across-the-world.
Rascoe, Ayesha, and Steve Inskeep. “Israel says its goal is to remove Hamas from power. What comes next is unclear.” NPR, 5 Nov. 2023, https://www.npr.org/2023/11/05/1210734100/israel-says-its-goal-is-to-remove-hamas-from-power-what-comes-next-is-unclear.
Ridley, Yvonne. “‘Do you condemn Hamas?’” Middle East Monitor, 16 Nov. 2023, https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20231116-do-you-condemn-hamas/.
Saric, Ivana, and Rahul Mukherjee. “Which countries have withdrawn diplomats over Israel's actions in Gaza.” Axios, 16 Nov. 2023, https://www.axios.com/2023/11/16/israel-gaza-war-countries-against-cease-fire-diplomats.
Sayyid Ali Khamenei. “Ultimate victory which is not too far away will be for Palestine.” Khamenei.ir, 1 Nov. 2023, https://english.khamenei.ir/news/10278/Ultimate-victory-which-is-not-too-far-away-will-be-for-Palestine. Speech.
Scott, Malcolm. “Saudi Minister Says Israel Talks Hinge on Palestinian Question.” Bloomberg, 8 Nov. 2023, https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-08/saudi-minister-says-israel-talks-hinge-on-palestinian-question.
Sforza, Lauren. “These 8 countries have pulled ambassadors from Israel amid Hamas war.” The Hill, 6 Nov. 2023, https://thehill.com/homenews/4296621-these-8-countries-have-pulled-ambassadors-from-israel-amid-hamas-war/.
Stewart, Phil. “Exclusive: Senior US general flies into Israel as its war with Hamas deepens.” Reuters, 17 Oct. 2023, https://www.reuters.com/world/senior-us-general-flies-into-israel-its-war-with-hamas-deepens-2023-10-17/. | {
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Introduction
Imam Ayatollah Seyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (May 17, 1900 – June 3, 1989) was a Muslim cleric and Marja, and the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the Revolution, Imam Khomeini became Grand Leader of Iran — the paramount figure in the political system of the new Islamic Republic — until his demise.
Imam Khomeini was considered a Marja-e taqlid to many Muslims, and in Iran was officially addressed as Imam rather than Grand Ayatollah; his supporters adhere to this convention. Imam Khomeini was also a highly-influential and innovative Islamic political theorist, most noted for his development of the theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult."
Imam Khomeini
Early Years
Family and early years
Ruhollah Mousavi was born to Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Musavi and Hajieh Agha Khanum, also called Hajar, in the town of Khomein, about 300 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, Iran, possibly on May 17, 1900 or September 24, 1902. He was a Seyyed from a religious family that are descendants of Prophet Mohammad, through the seventh Imam, (Imam Mousa Kazem). His paternal grandfather was Seyyed Ahmad Musavi, whose third wife, Sakineh, gave birth to Mostafa in 1856. Imam Khomeini's maternal grandfather was Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari, a high-ranking cleric in central Iran whose Fatwa for banning usage of Tobacco in opposition to a monopoly granted by Shah to a British company, led to cancellation of the concession.
Imam Khomeini's father was murdered when he was five months old, and he was raised by his mother and one of his aunts. Later, when he was 15, his mother and aunt died in the same year. At the age of six he began to study the Quran, Islam's holy book. He received his early education at home and at the local school, under the supervision of Mullah Abdul-Qassem and Sheikh Jaffar, and was under the guardianship of his elder brother, Ayatollah Pasandideh, until he was 18 years old. Arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan, but he was attracted, instead, to the seminary in Arak, which was renowned for its scholastic brilliance under the leadership of Ayatollah Sheikh Abdol-Karim Haeri-Yazdi (himself a pupil of some of the greatest scholars of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq).
In 1921, Imam Khomeini commenced his studies in Arak. The following year, Ayatollah Haeri-Yazdi transferred the Islamic seminary to the holy city of Qom, and invited his students to follow. Imam Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved, and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom before being exiled to the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. After graduation, he taught Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia), Islamic philosophy and mysticism (Irfan) for many years and wrote numerous books on these subjects.
Although during this scholarly phase of his life Imam Khomeini was not politically active, the nature of his studies, teachings, and writings revealed that he firmly believed from the beginning in political activism by clerics. Three factors support this suggestion. First, his interest in Islamic studies surpassed the bounds of traditional subjects of Islamic law (Sharia), jurisprudence (Fiqh), and principles (Usul) and the like. He was keenly interested in philosophy and ethics. Second, his teaching focused often on the overriding relevance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day. Third, he was the first Iranian cleric to try to refute the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His now well-known book, Kashf-e Asrar (Discovery of Secrets) was a point by point refutation of Asrar-e Hezar Saleh (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kasravi. Also he went from Qom to Tehran to listen to Ayatollah Hassan Modarres —the leader of the opposition majority in Iran's parliament during 1920s.
Imam Khomeini became a Marja in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi.
Early Political Activity
In this time he could represent his religious-political ideas openly. Because the deaths of the leading, although quiescent, Shia religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Borujerdi (1961), and of the activist cleric Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani (1962) left the arena of leadership open to Imam Khomeini, who had attained a prominent religious standing by the age of 60. In addition, although ever since the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi to power in the 1920s the clerical class had been on the defensive because of his secular and anticlerical policies and those of his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, these policies reached their peak in the early 1960s with "White Revolution."
Opposition to White Revolution
Imam Khomeini first became politically active in 1962. When the White Revolution proclaimed by the Shah's government in Iran called for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests, electoral changes to enfranchise women, profit sharing in industry, and an anti-illiteracy campaign in the nation's schools. Most of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous, Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially the powerful and privileged religious scholars (Ulama) who felt keenly threatened. The Ulama instigated anti-government riots throughout the country. They found the White Revolution a sustainable ideological framework to support a particular relation of domination, in this case the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. This was above all a hegemonic project intended to portray the Shah as a revolutionary leader through the utilization of social and historical myths reinterpreted through the prism of contemporary, often conflicting ideological constructs, such as nationalism and modernism.
In January 1963, the Shah announced a six-point program of reform called the White Revolution, an American-inspired package of measures designed to give his regime a liberal and progressive facade. Imam Khomeini summoned a meeting of his colleagues (other Ayatollahs) in Qom to press upon them the necessity of opposing the Shah's plans. Imam Khomeini persuaded the other senior Marjas of Qom to decree a boycott of the referendum that the Shah had planned to obtain the appearance of popular approval for his White Revolution. Imam Khomeini issued on January 22, 1963 a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans. Two days later Shah took armored column to Qom, and he delivered a speech harshly attacking the ''ulama'' as a class. Imam Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programs, issuing a manifesto that also bore the signatures of eight other senior scholars. In it, he listed the various ways in which the Shah allegedly had violated the Constitution, condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of comprehensive submission to America and Israel. He also decreed that the Nowruz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 (March 21, 1963) be cancelled as a sign of protest against government policies. In the afternoon of Ashura (June 3, 1963), Imam Khomeini delivered a speech at the Feiziyeh Madreseh seminary in which he drew parallels between Yazid and the Shah and warned the Shah that if he did not change his ways, the day would come when the people would offer up thanks for his departure from the country.
Following Imam Khomeini's public denunciation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a "wretched miserable man" and his arrest, on June 5, 1963 (Khordad 15, on the Iranian calendar), three days of major riots erupted throughout Iran with nearly 400 killed. Imam Khomeini was kept under house arrest for 8 months and was released in 1964.
Also this was a turning point in political viewpoint of Islam. The clergies had supported Shia monarchy since establishment of Safavids and this was the main source of legitimacy of monarchs. Shia clergies had advised them to be just and obey Ja'fari jurisprudence. Also monarchs didn't enforce religious rules which restricted or threatened religious life and institutions and defended the Shia territory of Iran. But Reza Shah transformed the Iranian monarchy into a modern dictatorship. The modernizing programs of Pahlavi dynasty restricted and threatened religious life and made clergies be against monarchy and finally Imam Khomeini decide to fight with them and build another state comparable to religious rules.
Opposition to capitulation
During November of 1964, Imam Khomeini made a denunciation of both the Shah and the United States, this time in response to the "capitulations" or diplomatic immunity granted to American military personnel in Iran by the Shah. In Nov. 1964 Imam Khomeini was re-arrested and sent into exile.
Life in exile
Imam Khomeini spent over 14 years in exile, mostly in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. Initially, he was sent to Turkey on 4 November 1964, where he stayed in the city of Bursa for less than a year. He was hosted by a Turkish Colonel named Ali Cetiner in his own residence, who couldn't find another accommodation alternative for his stay at the time. Later in October 1965 he was allowed to move to Najaf, Iraq, where he stayed until being forced to leave in 1978, after then-Vice President Saddam Hossein forced him out (the two countries would fight a bitter eight year war 1980-1988 only a year after the beginning of Imam Khomeini’s leadership in Iran and the start of Saddam Hussein’s term in Iraq) after which he went to Neauphle le Château in France.
Logically, in the 1970s, as contrasted with the 1940s, he no longer accepted the idea of a limited monarchy under the Iranian Constitution of 1906-1907, an idea that was clearly evidenced by his book Kashf-e Asrar. In his Islamic Government (Hokumat-e Islami) — which is a collection of his lectures in Najaf published in 1970 — he rejected both the Iranian Constitution as an alien import from Belgium and monarchy in general. He believed that the government was an un-Islamic and illegitimate institution usurping the legitimate authority of the supreme religious leader (Faqih), who should rule as both the spiritual and temporal guardian of the Muslim community (Umma).
In early 1970 Imam Khomeini gave a lecture series in Najaf on Islamic Government which later was published as a book titled variously Islamic Government or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (velayat-e faqih). This was his most famous and influential work and laid out his ideas on governance (at that time):
That the laws of society should be made up only of the laws of God (Sharia), which cover "all human affairs" and "provide instruction and establish norms" for every "topic" in "human life."
Since Sharia, or Islamic law, is the proper law, those holding government posts should have knowledge of Sharia (Islamic jurists are such people), and that the country's ruler should be a faqih who "surpasses all others in knowledge" of Islamic law and justice, as well as having intelligence and administrative ability. Rule by monarchs and/or assemblies of "those claiming to be representatives of the majority of the people" (i.e. elected parliaments and legislatures) have been proclaimed "wrong" by Islam unless approved by the faqih.
This system of clerical rule is necessary to prevent injustice: corruption, oppression by the powerful over the poor and weak, innovation and deviation of Islam and Sharia law; and also to destroy anti-Islamic influence and conspiracies by non-Muslim foreign powers.
A modified form of this Velayat-e Faqih system was adopted after Imam Khomeini and his followers took power, and he became the Islamic Republic's first "Guardian" or Grand Leader.
In the meantime, however, Imam Khomeini was careful not to publicize his ideas for clerical rule outside of his Islamic network of opposition to the Shah which he worked to build and strengthen over the next decade. Cassette copies of his lectures fiercely denouncing the Shah as, for example, "the Jewish agent, the American snake whose head must be smashed with a stone," became common items on the markets of Iran, helped to demythologize the power and dignity of the Shah and his reign.
As protest grew, so did Imam Khomeini’s profile and importance. During the last few months of his exile, Imam Khomeini received a constant stream of reporters, supporters, and notables, eager to hear the spiritual leader of the revolution.
Grand Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran
Return to Iran
Only two weeks after the Shah fled Iran on January 16, 1979, Imam Khomeini returned to Iran triumphantly, on Thursday, February 1, 1979, invited by the anti-Shah revolution which was already in progress.
Conservative estimates put the welcoming crowd of Iranians at least three million. When Imam Khomeini was on plane on his way to Iran after many years in exile, a reporter, Peter Jennings asked him: "What do you feel?" and surprisingly Imam Khomeini answered "Nothing!"
In a speech given to a huge crowd on the first day of returning to Iran, Imam Khomeini attacked the government of Shapoor Bakhtiar promising "I shall punch their teeth in." He also made a variety of promises to Iranians for his coming Islamic regime: A popularly elected government that would represent the people of Iran.
Establishment of new government
On February 11, Imam Khomeini declared a provisional government. On March 30, 1979, and March 31, 1979, the provisional government asked all Iranians sixteen years of age and older, male and female, to vote in a referendum on the question of accepting an Islamic Republic as the new form of government and constitution. Through the ballot box, over 98% voted in favor of replacing the monarchy with an Islamic Republic. Subsequent elections were held to approve of the newly-drafted Constitution. Along with the position of the Grand Leader, the constitution also requires that a president be elected every four years, but only those candidates approved indirectly by the Council of Guardians may run for the office. Imam Khomeini himself became instituted as the Grand Leader for life, and officially decreed as the "Leader of the Revolution." After assuming power, Islam was made the basis of Iran's new constitution and obedience to Islamic laws made compulsory.
Relationship with other Islamic nations
Imam Khomeini intended to reconstruct Muslim unity and solidarity, so he declared the birth week of Prophet of Islam (the week between 12th to 17th of Rabi'al-Awwal in Islamic Hegira calendar) as the Unity Week. Then he declared the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan as the International Day of Quds in 1979.
But because of Islamic ideology of Islamic Republic of Iran, most rulers of other Muslim nations turned against him and supported Iraq in the imposed war against Iran, even though most of Islamic parties and organizations supported his idea.
Iran-Iraq War
Saddam Hussein, Iraq's secular Arab nationalist Ba'athist leader, was eager to take advantage of Iran's weakened military and (what he assumed was) revolutionary chaos, and in particular to occupy Iran's adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan and undermine attempts by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries to incite the Shia majority of his country.
With what many believe was the encouragement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries, Iraq soon launched a full scale invasion of Iran, starting what would become the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War (September 1980 - August 1988). A combination of fierce patriot resistance by Iranians and military incompetence by Iraqi forces soon stalled the Iraqi advance and by early 1982 Iran regained almost all the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Imam Khomeini's stature and allowed him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership.
Although outside powers supplied arms to both sides during the war, the West (America in particular) became alarmed by the possibility of the Islamic Revolution spreading throughout the oil-exporting Persian Gulf oil and began to supply Iraq with whatever help it needed. The war continued for another six years, with 450,000 to 950,000 casualties on the Iranian side and the use of chemical weaponry by the Iraqi military.
As the costs of the eight-year war mounted, Imam Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. As the war ended, the struggles among the clergy resumed and Imam Khomeini’s health began to decline.
Rushdie Fatwa
In early 1989, Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British author. Imam Khomeini claimed that Rushdie's murder was a religious duty for Muslims because of his alleged blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad in his novel, The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's book contains passages that some Muslims — including Ayatollah Imam Khomeini — considered offensive to Islam and the Prophet. Though Rushdie publicly apologized, the fatwa was not revoked, Imam Khomeini explaining that "even if Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell."
Letter to Mikhail S. Gorbachev
In December 1988 (before the fall of the Berlin Wall), Ayatollah Imam Khomeini sent a letter to USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev predicting the fall of Communism and inviting him to study and research Islam. In his historical letter he wrote: "It is clear to everyone that Communism should henceforth be sought in world museums of political history."
Life under Imam Khomeini
Under Imam Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced, with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women. Women had to cover their hair, and men were not allowed to wear shorts.
Life for religious minorities has been mixed under Imam Khomeini and his successors. Shortly after his return from exile in 1979, Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities (except Bahai) be treated well. By law, several seats in the Parliament are reserved for minority religions. Imam Khomeini also called for unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims (Sunni Muslims are the largest religious minority in Iran).
Death and funeral
After eleven days in a hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, Imam Khomeini died of cancer on Saturday, June 3, 1989, at the age of 89. Many Iranians mourned Imam Khomeini's death and poured out into the cities and streets. More than 10 million people from across the country attended Imam Khomeini’s funeral to form one of the largest ever funerals in the world.
Following Imam Khomeini’s demise, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei came to be selected on June 4, 1989 by the Assembly of Experts to be his successor, in accordance with the Constitution.
Political thought and legacy
Imam Khomeini adamantly opposed monarchy, arguing that only rule by a leading Islamic jurist would insure Sharia was properly followed (Velayat-e Faqih).
Imam Khomeini believed that Iran should strive towards self-reliance. He viewed certain elements of Western culture as being inherently decadent and a corrupting influence upon the youth. His ultimate vision was for Islamic nations to converge together into a single unified power, in order to avoid alignment with either side (the West or the East), and he believed that this would happen at some point in the near future.
Imam Khomeini expressed support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in Sahifeh Nour (Vol. 2, page 242), he states: "We would like to act according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We would like to be free. We would like independence."
Imam Khomeini led an ascetic lifestyle, being deeply interested in mysticism, and was against the accumulation of land and wealth by the clergy.
Many of Imam Khomeini's political and religious ideas were considered to be progressive and reformist by leftist intellectuals and activists prior to the Revolution.
Imam Khomeini's definition of democracy existed within an Islamic framework. His last will and testament largely focuses on this line of thought, encouraging both the general Iranian populace, the lower economic classes in particular, and the clergy to maintain their commitment to fulfilling Islamic revolutionary ideals.
Family and descendants
In 1929, Imam Khomeini married Batol Saqafi Khomeini, the daughter of a cleric in Tehran. They had seven children, though only five survived infancy, 3 daughters and 2 sons. His sons entered into religious life. The elder son, Mostafa, was murdered in 1977 while in exile with his father in Najaf, Iraq and SAVAK (the Imperial-era secret police) was accused of his death by Imam Khomeini. Ahmad Khomeini, the younger son, died in 1995.
Imam Khomeini's grandson Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, son of the late Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini, is also a cleric and the trustee of Imam Khomeini's shrine.
Works:
Velayat-e Faqih
Forty Hadiths (Forty Traditions)
Adab-e Salat (The Disciplines of Prayers)
Jihad-e Akbar (The Greater Struggle)
Tahrir al-Wasilah
Interpretation of Surah Fatihah
Serr al-Salat (Secrets of Prayers)
Interpretation of Dawn Pray
Interpretation of Forces of Reason and Negligence Tradition
Hajj | {
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Palestine is an oppressed power. Palestine is truly strong today. The Palestinian youth do not allow the question of Palestine to be forgotten and they're standing up in opposition to the enemy's crimes.
Click on the image to view the large size | {
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Our demand is the liberation of Palestine, not the liberation of a part of Palestine. Any plan to divide Palestine is completely unacceptable. The two-state idea which has been presented in the self-righteous clothing of "recognizing the Palestinian government as a member of the United Nations" is nothing but giving in to the demands of the Zionists - namely, "recognizing the Zionist government in Palestinian lands". This would mean trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation, ignoring the historical right of the displaced Palestinians and even jeopardizing the right of the Palestinians settled in "1948 lands".Our magnanimous Imam announced that one of the goals of the Revolution was to liberate Palestine and to remove the cancerous tumor, Israel. The powerful waves of this Revolution, which engulfed the entire world at that time, conveyed this message wherever it reached: "Palestine must be liberated." Even the repeated and great problems that the enemies of the Revolution imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to discourage the Islamic Republic from defending Palestine. One instance of the problems that they caused was the eight-year war waged on Iran by Saddam Hussein who had been goaded by America and England and was supported by reactionary Arab governments.
Thus, new blood was pumped into the veins of Palestine. Muslim resistance groups started to emerge in Palestine. The Lebanese Resistance formed a powerful and new front against the enemy and its supporters. Instead of relying on Arab governments and seeking help from global organizations such as the United Nations, which were accomplices of the arrogant powers, Palestine started to rely on itself, its youth, its deep Islamic faith and its selfless men and women. This is the key to all achievements.
Today the general history of Palestine in the past 60 years is in front of our eyes. It is necessary to delineate the future by considering that general history and learning lessons from it.
Two points should be clarified in advance. The first point is that our demand is the liberation of Palestine, not the liberation of a part of Palestine. Any plan to divide Palestine is completely unacceptable. The two-state idea which has been presented in the self-righteous clothing of "recognizing the Palestinian government as a member of the United Nations" is nothing but giving in to the demands of the Zionists - namely, "recognizing the Zionist government in Palestinian lands". This would mean trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation, ignoring the historical right of the displaced Palestinians and even jeopardizing the right of the Palestinians settled in "1948 lands". It would mean leaving the cancerous tumor intact and exposing the Islamic Ummah - especially the regional nations - to constant danger. It would mean bringing back decades-long sufferings and trampling upon the blood of the martyrs.
Any operational solution must be based on the principle of "all of Palestine for all Palestinian people". Palestine is the land that extends "from the river to the sea", not one inch less than that. Of course it should be noted that through its elected government, the Palestinian people will run the affairs of the any part of the Palestinian soil they manage to liberate, just as they did in the case of Gaza, but they will never forget the ultimate goal.
The second point is that in order to reach this lofty goal, what is necessary is action, not words. It is necessary to be serious, not to make ceremonial gestures. It is necessary to have patience and wisdom, not engage in a variety of impatient actions. It is necessary to consider horizons that lie far ahead and to move forward step by step with determination, reliance on God and hope. Muslim governments and nations and the resistance groups in Palestine, Lebanon and other countries can each identify their share of work in this general struggle and solve the puzzle of resistance with Allah's permission.
October 1, 2011 | {
"articleTitle": "Any plan to divide Palestine is doomed to failure: Ayatollah Khamenei",
"pageTitle": "Any plan to divide Palestine is doomed to failure: Ayatollah Khamenei - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Our demand is the liberation of Palestine, not the liberation of a part of Palestine. Any plan to divide Palestine is completely unacceptable. The two-state idea which has been presented in the self-righteous clothing of \"recognizing the Palestinian government as a member of the United Nations\" is nothing but giving in to the demands of the Zionists - namely, \"recognizing the Zionist government in Palestinian lands\". This would mean trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation, ignoring the historical right of the displaced Palestinians and even jeopardizing the right of the Palestinians settled in \"1948 lands\".",
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Today, the issue of Palestine is the first issue of the world of Islam. Anyone who has a correct understanding of the issue of Palestine acknowledges that the issue of Palestine is the first issue of the world of Islam. The key to defeating the enemies of Islam is the issue of Palestine. The most important issue of the world of Islam in the present time is the issue of Palestine. Why is that? This is because Palestine is an Islamic country. They have come and occupied this country. They have taken it away from its people. The issue is not about usurping a village or city. The enemy has usurped a country and it has used it as a base for jeopardizing the security of regional countries. One should fight against a cancerous tumor.
Notice that if a person issues a fatwa as a religious mufti saying that fighting against Zionism is haram, that helping such and such a group which is fighting against Zionism is not allowed, this is really a disaster to witness that some people in the world of Islam are acting against the interests of Islam and have friendly relations with the enemies. This is the exact opposite of the Quran's clear words: "Those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, but compassionate among each other" [The Holy Quran, 48: 29]. However, those people are strong against Muslims, but compassionate among unbelievers. They are on good terms with them, but notice what they are doing to Muslims. | {
"articleTitle": "The issue of Palestine is the World of Islam’s top priority",
"pageTitle": "The issue of Palestine is the World of Islam’s top priority - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Today, the issue of Palestine is the first issue of the world of Islam. Anyone who has a correct understanding of the issue of Palestine acknowledges that the issue of Palestine is the first issue of the world of Islam. The key to defeating the enemies of Islam is the issue of Palestine. The most important issue of the world of Islam in the present time is the issue of Palestine. Why is that? This is because Palestine is an Islamic country. They have come and occupied this country. They have taken it away from its people. The issue is not about usurping a village or city. The enemy has usurped a country and it has used it as a base for jeopardizing the security of regional countries. One should fight against a cancerous tumor.\nNotice that if a person issues a fatwa as a religious mufti saying that fighting against Zionism is haram, that helping such and such a group which is fighting against Zionism is not allowed, this is really a disaster to witness that some people in the world of Islam are acting against the interests of Islam and have friendly relations with the enemies. This is the exact opposite of the Quran's clear words: \"Those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, but compassionate among each other\" [The Holy Quran, 48: 29]. However, those people are strong against Muslims, but compassionate among unbelievers. They are on good terms with them, but notice what they are doing to Muslims.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:51.433Z"
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The issue of Palestine is not a minor issue. About 60-plus years have passed from the occupation of Palestine. Several generations of these people – the Palestinians - have come and gone, but the Palestinian ideal has thrived. The enemy is trying to destroy the Palestinian ideal, but the Palestinian ideal has thrived.
Unfortunately, Arab governments are so busy doing other things that they do not have the time or they do not want to attend to the issue of Palestine. Standing on ceremony with other countries, different other considerations and aligning oneself with America and others do not allow them to do so. The issue of Palestine is a very important issue. We cannot abandon the issue of Palestine. Today, the Intifada of the people of Palestine has begun in the West Bank. The people are fighting, but the judgment that arrogant bullhorns make is a completely oppressive judgment. When a person whose house has been occupied, whose life is in danger and who does not have financial security – they come and destroy his house with a bulldozer, they engage in building settlements and they destroy his farm – attacks with a stone, they say that that person is a terrorist! This is while the organization that is destroying that person’s life, security, dignity, wealth and world is referred to as innocent. They say that this organization is defending itself. This is very strange. This is one of the wonders of today’s world!
Someone has come and has usurped a house. They have thrown out the owner of the house and they are constantly oppressing him. They say to him that he should not defend himself, but he is defending himself. If the oppressed owner – who has lost his security and his house, and whose wife, children, dignity and everything he has are under threat – swears at the usurper or throws a stone at him, they call him a terrorist. Is this a minor thing? Is this a minor wrongdoing? Is it a minor mistake? Is it a minor act of oppression that can be forgiven? This cannot be forgiven! We will defend the movement of the Palestinian nation with all our power as long as we can and in whatever way we can! | {
"articleTitle": "The enemy seeks to obliterate the Palestinian cause",
"pageTitle": "The enemy seeks to obliterate the Palestinian cause - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The issue of Palestine is not a minor issue. About 60-plus years have passed from the occupation of Palestine. Several generations of these people – the Palestinians - have come and gone, but the Palestinian ideal has thrived. The enemy is trying to destroy the Palestinian ideal, but the Palestinian ideal has thrived.\nUnfortunately, Arab governments are so busy doing other things that they do not have the time or they do not want to attend to the issue of Palestine. Standing on ceremony with other countries, different other considerations and aligning oneself with America and others do not allow them to do so. The issue of Palestine is a very important issue. We cannot abandon the issue of Palestine. Today, the Intifada of the people of Palestine has begun in the West Bank. The people are fighting, but the judgment that arrogant bullhorns make is a completely oppressive judgment. When a person whose house has been occupied, whose life is in danger and who does not have financial security – they come and destroy his house with a bulldozer, they engage in building settlements and they destroy his farm – attacks with a stone, they say that that person is a terrorist! This is while the organization that is destroying that person’s life, security, dignity, wealth and world is referred to as innocent. They say that this organization is defending itself. This is very strange. This is one of the wonders of today’s world!\nSomeone has come and has usurped a house. They have thrown out the owner of the house and they are constantly oppressing him. They say to him that he should not defend himself, but he is defending himself. If the oppressed owner – who has lost his security and his house, and whose wife, children, dignity and everything he has are under threat – swears at the usurper or throws a stone at him, they call him a terrorist. Is this a minor thing? Is this a minor wrongdoing? Is it a minor mistake? Is it a minor act of oppression that can be forgiven? This cannot be forgiven! We will defend the movement of the Palestinian nation with all our power as long as we can and in whatever way we can!",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:51.451Z"
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If Muslims are united, Palestine will not be in the situation that it is in now. Today, Palestine is in a difficult situation. Gaza and the West Bank are in a difficult situation, both in different ways. Today, the people of Palestine are under serious pressures on a daily basis. They want to erase the issue of Palestine from the minds of people and consign it to oblivion. They want to, as they say, busy the West Asian region, including our own countries – this is an extraordinarily sensitive and strategic region, it is a sensitive region in terms of geography, natural resources and sea passageways - with themselves.
They want Muslims to stand up against Muslims and Arabs against Arabs. They want them to target and destroy one another so that the armies of Muslim countries – particularly those armies that are neighboring the Zionists – weaken on a daily basis. This is their goal. | {
"articleTitle": "Forgetting the issue of Palestine is the enemies’ goal",
"pageTitle": "Forgetting the issue of Palestine is the enemies’ goal - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "If Muslims are united, Palestine will not be in the situation that it is in now. Today, Palestine is in a difficult situation. Gaza and the West Bank are in a difficult situation, both in different ways. Today, the people of Palestine are under serious pressures on a daily basis. They want to erase the issue of Palestine from the minds of people and consign it to oblivion. They want to, as they say, busy the West Asian region, including our own countries – this is an extraordinarily sensitive and strategic region, it is a sensitive region in terms of geography, natural resources and sea passageways - with themselves.\nThey want Muslims to stand up against Muslims and Arabs against Arabs. They want them to target and destroy one another so that the armies of Muslim countries – particularly those armies that are neighboring the Zionists – weaken on a daily basis. This is their goal.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:51.469Z"
} |
The issue of Palestine is the primary issue of the world of Islam. Fortunately, on the issue of Palestine, Muslims have gradually gained the upper hand. You should take a look at the events of the 50-day war in Gaza and see how a limited number of Palestinians -- who did not have powerful weapons, enough resources, and means of communication -- managed to defeat the Zionist regime which is the symbol of Western power in the region. Notice how they managed to impose their requests upon them and how they frustrated their effort to attack Gaza.
This shows that we are strong on the inside. We have many capabilities, we can challenge every enemy, and we can defend ourselves. We should not underestimate our power. The power of Islam, the power of the Holy Quran, the power of faith, and the power of the Islamic Ummah is a great power. --This power should not be underestimated because it can resist oppression. We do not intend to dominate the world, rather we intend to condemn and resist the oppression of arrogant governments that bully Muslim nations. We intend to resist oppression, and we can. | {
"articleTitle": "Muslims have the upper hand in the issue of Palestine",
"pageTitle": "Muslims have the upper hand in the issue of Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The issue of Palestine is the primary issue of the world of Islam. Fortunately, on the issue of Palestine, Muslims have gradually gained the upper hand. You should take a look at the events of the 50-day war in Gaza and see how a limited number of Palestinians -- who did not have powerful weapons, enough resources, and means of communication -- managed to defeat the Zionist regime which is the symbol of Western power in the region. Notice how they managed to impose their requests upon them and how they frustrated their effort to attack Gaza.\nThis shows that we are strong on the inside. We have many capabilities, we can challenge every enemy, and we can defend ourselves. We should not underestimate our power. The power of Islam, the power of the Holy Quran, the power of faith, and the power of the Islamic Ummah is a great power. --This power should not be underestimated because it can resist oppression. We do not intend to dominate the world, rather we intend to condemn and resist the oppression of arrogant governments that bully Muslim nations. We intend to resist oppression, and we can.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:52.569Z"
} |
It is in such conditions that the enemy is focusing all its efforts on making the Islamic Ummah forget about Palestine. How do they want to do this? They want to do this by creating discord, waging domestic wars, promoting deviant extremism in the name of Islam, religion and Islamic sharia. They want a group of people to say takfiri things against Muslims. The existence of these takfiri orientations which have emerged in the world of Islam is good news for arrogance and the enemies of the world of Islam. It is these takfiri orientations that attract the attention of Muslims towards insignificant issues instead of letting them pay attention to the truth about the existence of the malevolent Zionist regime.
This is the exact opposite of what Islam wants. Islam has asked Muslims to be "strong against unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other" [The Holy Quran, 48, 29]. Muslims should be strong against the enemies of religion. They should stand firm and they should not be influenced by the enemies. Being "strong against unbelievers" is the clear message of this ayah. Muslims should be compassionate towards one another, they should stay together and join hands and they should hold fast to the rope which Allah stretches out for them. This is the command of Islam.
Now what happens if an orientation emerges which divides Muslims into believers and unbelievers, which targets a group of people as unbelievers and which pits Muslims against one another? Who can doubt the role of arrogance and the security services of arrogant and malevolent governments in creating, supporting and enriching these orientations and in equipping them with weapons? These arrogant powers sit and plan for this. The world of Islam should attend to this issue because it is a grave danger.
Unfortunately, a number of Muslim governments unwittingly add fuel to the fire of this discord. They do not understand that fueling this discord will kindle a fire which will burn them as well. This is what arrogance wants: they want a group of Muslims to wage a war against another group of Muslims. | {
"articleTitle": "Sowing discord and conflict among Muslims is enemy’s trick to make Palestine ignored",
"pageTitle": "Sowing discord and conflict among Muslims is enemy’s trick to make Palestine ignored - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "It is in such conditions that the enemy is focusing all its efforts on making the Islamic Ummah forget about Palestine. How do they want to do this? They want to do this by creating discord, waging domestic wars, promoting deviant extremism in the name of Islam, religion and Islamic sharia. They want a group of people to say takfiri things against Muslims. The existence of these takfiri orientations which have emerged in the world of Islam is good news for arrogance and the enemies of the world of Islam. It is these takfiri orientations that attract the attention of Muslims towards insignificant issues instead of letting them pay attention to the truth about the existence of the malevolent Zionist regime.\nThis is the exact opposite of what Islam wants. Islam has asked Muslims to be \"strong against unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other\" [The Holy Quran, 48, 29]. Muslims should be strong against the enemies of religion. They should stand firm and they should not be influenced by the enemies. Being \"strong against unbelievers\" is the clear message of this ayah. Muslims should be compassionate towards one another, they should stay together and join hands and they should hold fast to the rope which Allah stretches out for them. This is the command of Islam.\nNow what happens if an orientation emerges which divides Muslims into believers and unbelievers, which targets a group of people as unbelievers and which pits Muslims against one another? Who can doubt the role of arrogance and the security services of arrogant and malevolent governments in creating, supporting and enriching these orientations and in equipping them with weapons? These arrogant powers sit and plan for this. The world of Islam should attend to this issue because it is a grave danger.\nUnfortunately, a number of Muslim governments unwittingly add fuel to the fire of this discord. They do not understand that fueling this discord will kindle a fire which will burn them as well. This is what arrogance wants: they want a group of Muslims to wage a war against another group of Muslims.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:52.587Z"
} |
The solution of the Islamic Republic to the issue of Palestine and this old wound is a clear and logical proposal that is based on political wisdom accepted by global public opinion and it has been presented in detail previously. We neither propose a classical war with the armies of Islamic countries, nor do we propose throwing Jewish immigrants into the sea or intervention of the United Nations and other international organizations. We propose a referendum among the Palestinian people. Just like any other nation, the Palestinian nation has the right to determine its own destiny and to elect its own government. All the original people of Palestine - including Muslims, Christians and Jews and not foreign immigrants - should take part in a general and orderly referendum and determine the future government of Palestine whether they live inside Palestine or in camps or in any other place. The government that is established after the referendum will determine the destiny of non-Palestinian immigrants who migrated to Palestine in the past. This is a fair and logical proposal which global public opinion understands and it can receive support from independent nations and governments.
Of course we do not expect the usurping Zionists to willingly accept this proposal and this is where the role of governments, nations and resistance organizations becomes significant. The most important pillar of supporting the Palestinian nation is to stop supporting the usurping enemy and this is the great duty of Islamic governments. | {
"articleTitle": "The Islamic Republic’s proposal for solving the issue of Palestine",
"pageTitle": "The Islamic Republic’s proposal for solving the issue of Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The solution of the Islamic Republic to the issue of Palestine and this old wound is a clear and logical proposal that is based on political wisdom accepted by global public opinion and it has been presented in detail previously. We neither propose a classical war with the armies of Islamic countries, nor do we propose throwing Jewish immigrants into the sea or intervention of the United Nations and other international organizations. We propose a referendum among the Palestinian people. Just like any other nation, the Palestinian nation has the right to determine its own destiny and to elect its own government. All the original people of Palestine - including Muslims, Christians and Jews and not foreign immigrants - should take part in a general and orderly referendum and determine the future government of Palestine whether they live inside Palestine or in camps or in any other place. The government that is established after the referendum will determine the destiny of non-Palestinian immigrants who migrated to Palestine in the past. This is a fair and logical proposal which global public opinion understands and it can receive support from independent nations and governments.\nOf course we do not expect the usurping Zionists to willingly accept this proposal and this is where the role of governments, nations and resistance organizations becomes significant. The most important pillar of supporting the Palestinian nation is to stop supporting the usurping enemy and this is the great duty of Islamic governments.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:52.606Z"
} |
Our demand is the liberation of Palestine, not the liberation of a part of Palestine. Any plan to divide Palestine is completely unacceptable. The two-state idea which has been presented in the self-righteous clothing of "recognizing the Palestinian government as a member of the United Nations" is nothing but giving in to the demands of the Zionists - namely, "recognizing the Zionist government in Palestinian lands". This would mean trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation, ignoring the historical right of the displaced Palestinians and even jeopardizing the right of the Palestinians settled in "1948 lands". It would mean leaving the cancerous tumor intact and exposing the Islamic Ummah - especially the regional nations - to constant danger. It would mean bringing back decades-long sufferings and trampling upon the blood of the martyrs.
Any operational solution must be based on the principle of "all of Palestine for all Palestinian people". Palestine is the land that extends "from the river to the sea", not one inch less than that. Of course it should be noted that through its elected government, the Palestinian people will run the affairs of the any part of the Palestinian soil they manage to liberate, just as they did in the case of Gaza, but they will never forget the ultimate goal.
The second point is that in order to reach this lofty goal, what is necessary is action, not words. It is necessary to be serious, not to make ceremonial gestures. It is necessary to have patience and wisdom, not engage in a variety of impatient actions. It is necessary to consider horizons that lie far ahead and to move forward step by step with determination, reliance on God and hope. | {
"articleTitle": "Any plan to divide Palestine is absolutely refutable",
"pageTitle": "Any plan to divide Palestine is absolutely refutable - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Our demand is the liberation of Palestine, not the liberation of a part of Palestine. Any plan to divide Palestine is completely unacceptable. The two-state idea which has been presented in the self-righteous clothing of \"recognizing the Palestinian government as a member of the United Nations\" is nothing but giving in to the demands of the Zionists - namely, \"recognizing the Zionist government in Palestinian lands\". This would mean trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation, ignoring the historical right of the displaced Palestinians and even jeopardizing the right of the Palestinians settled in \"1948 lands\". It would mean leaving the cancerous tumor intact and exposing the Islamic Ummah - especially the regional nations - to constant danger. It would mean bringing back decades-long sufferings and trampling upon the blood of the martyrs.\nAny operational solution must be based on the principle of \"all of Palestine for all Palestinian people\". Palestine is the land that extends \"from the river to the sea\", not one inch less than that. Of course it should be noted that through its elected government, the Palestinian people will run the affairs of the any part of the Palestinian soil they manage to liberate, just as they did in the case of Gaza, but they will never forget the ultimate goal.\nThe second point is that in order to reach this lofty goal, what is necessary is action, not words. It is necessary to be serious, not to make ceremonial gestures. It is necessary to have patience and wisdom, not engage in a variety of impatient actions. It is necessary to consider horizons that lie far ahead and to move forward step by step with determination, reliance on God and hope.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:52.625Z"
} |
More than six decades have passed since the tragic occupation of Palestine. All the main causes of this bloody tragedy have been identified and the colonialist English government is the most important cause. The policies, weapons and military, security, economic and cultural power of the English government and other arrogant western and eastern governments were put to the service of this great oppression. Under the ruthless clutches of the occupiers, the defenseless people of Palestine were massacred and forced out of their homes. Until today even one percent of the human and civil tragedy - which was carried out at that time by the claimants of civilization and ethics - has not been properly portrayed and this tragedy has not had its fair share in the media and visual arts. The owners of visual and cinematic arts and western movie mafias have not been willing to allow this to happen. An entire nation was massacred and displaced in silence.
Certain instances of resistance emerged at the beginning, which were harshly and ruthlessly crushed. From outside Palestinian borders and mainly from Egypt, a number of men with Islamic motives made certain efforts which were not sufficiently supported and could not have an effect on the scene.
Afterwards there were full-scale and classical wars between a few Arab countries and the Zionist army. Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized their military forces, but the unconditional, massive and increasing military and financial support of America, England and France for the Zionist regime overwhelmed Arab armies. Not only did they fail to help the Palestinian nation, but they also lost an important portion of their territories during these wars. | {
"articleTitle": "The colonial British government is at top of usurping Palestine",
"pageTitle": "The colonial British government is at top of usurping Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "More than six decades have passed since the tragic occupation of Palestine. All the main causes of this bloody tragedy have been identified and the colonialist English government is the most important cause. The policies, weapons and military, security, economic and cultural power of the English government and other arrogant western and eastern governments were put to the service of this great oppression. Under the ruthless clutches of the occupiers, the defenseless people of Palestine were massacred and forced out of their homes. Until today even one percent of the human and civil tragedy - which was carried out at that time by the claimants of civilization and ethics - has not been properly portrayed and this tragedy has not had its fair share in the media and visual arts. The owners of visual and cinematic arts and western movie mafias have not been willing to allow this to happen. An entire nation was massacred and displaced in silence.\nCertain instances of resistance emerged at the beginning, which were harshly and ruthlessly crushed. From outside Palestinian borders and mainly from Egypt, a number of men with Islamic motives made certain efforts which were not sufficiently supported and could not have an effect on the scene.\nAfterwards there were full-scale and classical wars between a few Arab countries and the Zionist army. Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized their military forces, but the unconditional, massive and increasing military and financial support of America, England and France for the Zionist regime overwhelmed Arab armies. Not only did they fail to help the Palestinian nation, but they also lost an important portion of their territories during these wars.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:52.643Z"
} |
We believe that all Palestinian lands belong to the Palestinians. Those who tried to wipe Palestine off the map of the world made a mistake. Such a thing will not happen. Palestine will survive. The usurpers have occupied Palestine for a few decades, but there is no doubt that Palestinian lands will be restored to the people of Palestine and to the world of Islam. And this will happen. The people of Palestine are vigilant. Palestine cannot be partitioned. Palestine belongs to the Palestinians entirely. The Islamic Republic presented the solution to the Palestinian issue several years ago. The solution to the issue of Palestine is not the kind of solutions that America and other such countries present. Such solutions will prove ineffective. The solution is to hold a referendum among the people of Palestine. Any government that receives the majority of the votes in the referendum will rule the entire Palestinian lands. Then that government will decide what to do with the Zionists who immigrated to Palestine. And this depends on the decision of the government that will be elected by the people of Palestine. | {
"articleTitle": "Palestine belongs to Palestinians",
"pageTitle": "Palestine belongs to Palestinians - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "We believe that all Palestinian lands belong to the Palestinians. Those who tried to wipe Palestine off the map of the world made a mistake. Such a thing will not happen. Palestine will survive. The usurpers have occupied Palestine for a few decades, but there is no doubt that Palestinian lands will be restored to the people of Palestine and to the world of Islam. And this will happen. The people of Palestine are vigilant. Palestine cannot be partitioned. Palestine belongs to the Palestinians entirely. The Islamic Republic presented the solution to the Palestinian issue several years ago. The solution to the issue of Palestine is not the kind of solutions that America and other such countries present. Such solutions will prove ineffective. The solution is to hold a referendum among the people of Palestine. Any government that receives the majority of the votes in the referendum will rule the entire Palestinian lands. Then that government will decide what to do with the Zionists who immigrated to Palestine. And this depends on the decision of the government that will be elected by the people of Palestine.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:53.752Z"
} |
Take a look at the conditions of Palestine in the present time. Palestine is only an example. Of course, it is a very important example, but the situation is not particular to Palestine. Take a look at Palestine and see that the Islamic Ummah suffers from a great wound which is the disaster that has befallen the great people and the historical and holy land of Palestine. What have they done to this land? What have they done to these people? What are they doing to them in the present time? Is the event of Gaza forgettable? Is it possible to erase it from the mind of the Islamic Ummah?
The pressures, savage acts, cruelties and oppressions that have been committed against the people of Gaza continue to exist even after the 22-day war during which the Zionist government was defeated and failed to achieve its goals. But despite these crimes, the Islamic Ummah cannot defend them. The Islamic Ummah has faced this phenomenon as if it were not related to it. It behaves as though it were not its right to stand up against this usurpation. It behaves as though this oppression were not shown against it. Why are we like this? Why has the Islamic Ummah faced this situation?
A dangerous and deadly cancer - namely, the fake Zionist and Israeli government - has been created by the enemies of Islam and the Islamic Ummah. Its supporters - who have collaborated with it in showing oppression and committing great sins - continue to support it while the Islamic Ummah cannot defend itself. This is our weakness. Why is that? We should make up for this weakness by returning to Islam and pivoting around the teachings of the Holy Prophet of Islam (s.w.a.). | {
"articleTitle": "Palestine, a big wound on the body of Islamic Ummah",
"pageTitle": "Palestine, a big wound on the body of Islamic Ummah - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Take a look at the conditions of Palestine in the present time. Palestine is only an example. Of course, it is a very important example, but the situation is not particular to Palestine. Take a look at Palestine and see that the Islamic Ummah suffers from a great wound which is the disaster that has befallen the great people and the historical and holy land of Palestine. What have they done to this land? What have they done to these people? What are they doing to them in the present time? Is the event of Gaza forgettable? Is it possible to erase it from the mind of the Islamic Ummah?\nThe pressures, savage acts, cruelties and oppressions that have been committed against the people of Gaza continue to exist even after the 22-day war during which the Zionist government was defeated and failed to achieve its goals. But despite these crimes, the Islamic Ummah cannot defend them. The Islamic Ummah has faced this phenomenon as if it were not related to it. It behaves as though it were not its right to stand up against this usurpation. It behaves as though this oppression were not shown against it. Why are we like this? Why has the Islamic Ummah faced this situation?\nA dangerous and deadly cancer - namely, the fake Zionist and Israeli government - has been created by the enemies of Islam and the Islamic Ummah. Its supporters - who have collaborated with it in showing oppression and committing great sins - continue to support it while the Islamic Ummah cannot defend itself. This is our weakness. Why is that? We should make up for this weakness by returning to Islam and pivoting around the teachings of the Holy Prophet of Islam (s.w.a.).",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:53.770Z"
} |
The enemies of the world of Islam have always tried to make maximum use of denominational, tribal, geographical and regional differences. And today, they are using modern instruments to fulfill their purpose. We should pay attention to this and we should awaken.
They want to busy us with one another so that they can distract our attention from the main point. They want to pit Muslim ethnicities, nations and denominations - including Shia, Sunni and other Islamic denominations - against one another so that the issue of Israel will be forgotten. The issue of occupying Palestine should have made us get close to one another. But they are using it to make us drift away from one another. They create discord in the world of Islam and pit governments against one another by using the issue of Palestine.
The issue of Palestine is a clear issue. There is no Islamic denomination that has any doubts about the fact that jihad is wajib for Muslims whenever an Islamic land is under attack. All Islamic denominations share this belief and there is no ground for disagreement on this matter. However, the enemies cast doubt on this matter which all Muslims believe in. They create division among Muslims, they provoke denominational and tribal prejudice and they fuel its fire so that they can freely pursue their goals. | {
"articleTitle": "Defending Palestine is a must for all Muslims",
"pageTitle": "Defending Palestine is a must for all Muslims - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The enemies of the world of Islam have always tried to make maximum use of denominational, tribal, geographical and regional differences. And today, they are using modern instruments to fulfill their purpose. We should pay attention to this and we should awaken.\nThey want to busy us with one another so that they can distract our attention from the main point. They want to pit Muslim ethnicities, nations and denominations - including Shia, Sunni and other Islamic denominations - against one another so that the issue of Israel will be forgotten. The issue of occupying Palestine should have made us get close to one another. But they are using it to make us drift away from one another. They create discord in the world of Islam and pit governments against one another by using the issue of Palestine.\nThe issue of Palestine is a clear issue. There is no Islamic denomination that has any doubts about the fact that jihad is wajib for Muslims whenever an Islamic land is under attack. All Islamic denominations share this belief and there is no ground for disagreement on this matter. However, the enemies cast doubt on this matter which all Muslims believe in. They create division among Muslims, they provoke denominational and tribal prejudice and they fuel its fire so that they can freely pursue their goals.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:53.790Z"
} |
Our magnanimous Imam announced that one of the goals of the Revolution was to liberate Palestine and to remove the cancerous tumor, Israel. The powerful waves of this Revolution, which engulfed the entire world at that time, conveyed this message wherever it reached: "Palestine must be liberated." Even the repeated and great problems that the enemies of the Revolution imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to discourage the Islamic Republic from defending Palestine. One instance of the problems that they caused was the eight-year war waged on Iran by Saddam Hussein who had been goaded by America and England and was supported by reactionary Arab governments.
Thus, new blood was pumped into the veins of Palestine. Muslim mujahid groups started to emerge in Palestine. The Lebanese Resistance formed a powerful and new front against the enemy and its supporters. Instead of relying on Arab governments and seeking help from global organizations such as the United Nations, which were accomplices of the arrogant powers, Palestine started to rely on itself, its youth, its deep Islamic faith and its selfless men and women. This is the key to all achievements.
Over the past three decades this process has been accelerated on a daily basis. The humiliating defeat of the Zionist regime in Lebanon in the year 2006, the humiliating failure of the arrogant Zionist army in Gaza in the year 2008, the Zionist regime's escape from South Lebanon and withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of the resistance government in Gaza and in brief, changing the Palestinian nation from a group of helpless and hopeless people to a hopeful, resistant and self-confident nation - these were the outstanding characteristics of the past thirty years.
This general picture will be clear when attempts at compromise and treacherous activities - whose goal is to break down resistance and make Palestinian groups and Arab governments acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel - are also reflected upon in an appropriate way.
These activities, which were initiated with the Camp David Accords by the treacherous and unworthy successor of Gamal Abdel Nasser, have always been aimed at undermining the steely determination of resistance forces. During the Camp David Accords, for the first time an Arab government officially acknowledged that the Palestinian lands belonged to the Zionists and it signed the papers according to which Palestine was recognized as the homeland of Jews. | {
"articleTitle": "One of the goals of the Islamic Revolution is the liberation of Palestine",
"pageTitle": "One of the goals of the Islamic Revolution is the liberation of Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Our magnanimous Imam announced that one of the goals of the Revolution was to liberate Palestine and to remove the cancerous tumor, Israel. The powerful waves of this Revolution, which engulfed the entire world at that time, conveyed this message wherever it reached: \"Palestine must be liberated.\" Even the repeated and great problems that the enemies of the Revolution imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to discourage the Islamic Republic from defending Palestine. One instance of the problems that they caused was the eight-year war waged on Iran by Saddam Hussein who had been goaded by America and England and was supported by reactionary Arab governments.\nThus, new blood was pumped into the veins of Palestine. Muslim mujahid groups started to emerge in Palestine. The Lebanese Resistance formed a powerful and new front against the enemy and its supporters. Instead of relying on Arab governments and seeking help from global organizations such as the United Nations, which were accomplices of the arrogant powers, Palestine started to rely on itself, its youth, its deep Islamic faith and its selfless men and women. This is the key to all achievements.\nOver the past three decades this process has been accelerated on a daily basis. The humiliating defeat of the Zionist regime in Lebanon in the year 2006, the humiliating failure of the arrogant Zionist army in Gaza in the year 2008, the Zionist regime's escape from South Lebanon and withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of the resistance government in Gaza and in brief, changing the Palestinian nation from a group of helpless and hopeless people to a hopeful, resistant and self-confident nation - these were the outstanding characteristics of the past thirty years.\nThis general picture will be clear when attempts at compromise and treacherous activities - whose goal is to break down resistance and make Palestinian groups and Arab governments acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel - are also reflected upon in an appropriate way.\nThese activities, which were initiated with the Camp David Accords by the treacherous and unworthy successor of Gamal Abdel Nasser, have always been aimed at undermining the steely determination of resistance forces. During the Camp David Accords, for the first time an Arab government officially acknowledged that the Palestinian lands belonged to the Zionists and it signed the papers according to which Palestine was recognized as the homeland of Jews.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:53.808Z"
} |
The Oslo Accords in the year 1993 and later on in complementary plans - which were imposed one after the other on compromising and careless Palestinian groups with the intervention of America and the cooperation of colonialist European governments - the enemy tried its best to discourage the Palestinian nation and Palestinian groups from resisting through the use of empty and deceptive promises and making them busy with amateur political games. The uselessness of all these accords was revealed very soon and the Zionists and their supporters repeatedly showed that they consider these accords as worthless pieces of paper. The goal of these plans was to create doubt among the Palestinians, make materialistic unbelievers greedy and cripple Islamic resistance.
So far, the spirit of resistance among the Islamic Palestinian groups and the Palestinian people has been the antidote to all these treacherous games. They stood up against the enemy with Allah's permission and as promised by God, they benefited from divine assistance: "And surely Allah will help him who helps His cause. Most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty." [The Holy Quran, Sura al-Hajj, Ayah 40] The resistance of Gaza in spite of a comprehensive siege was an instance of divine assistance. | {
"articleTitle": "The antidote to enemy’s treasonous plots lies in the spirit of resistance among Palestinian groups",
"pageTitle": "The antidote to enemy’s treasonous plots lies in the spirit of resistance among Palestinian groups - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The Oslo Accords in the year 1993 and later on in complementary plans - which were imposed one after the other on compromising and careless Palestinian groups with the intervention of America and the cooperation of colonialist European governments - the enemy tried its best to discourage the Palestinian nation and Palestinian groups from resisting through the use of empty and deceptive promises and making them busy with amateur political games. The uselessness of all these accords was revealed very soon and the Zionists and their supporters repeatedly showed that they consider these accords as worthless pieces of paper. The goal of these plans was to create doubt among the Palestinians, make materialistic unbelievers greedy and cripple Islamic resistance.\nSo far, the spirit of resistance among the Islamic Palestinian groups and the Palestinian people has been the antidote to all these treacherous games. They stood up against the enemy with Allah's permission and as promised by God, they benefited from divine assistance: \"And surely Allah will help him who helps His cause. Most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty.\" [The Holy Quran, Sura al-Hajj, Ayah 40] The resistance of Gaza in spite of a comprehensive siege was an instance of divine assistance.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:53.827Z"
} |
The path of Quds, the path of Palestine and the path of resolving the issue of Palestine is the path of fighting. As was pointed out by the gentlemen in this meeting, there is no other path for Palestine. I am happy to see that all of you agree with and believe in this issue. Those people who do not accept this path - whether knowingly or unknowingly - are delivering a blow to the issue of Palestine. If they are doing this knowingly, then this is called treachery. If they are doing it unknowingly, then this is called ignorance and negligence. In any case, it is a blow to the issue of Palestine. Such people are delivering a blow to the issue of Palestine.
Palestine has no way other than resistance. The people of Palestine should say and want this and Islamic governments should echo it. Of course, many Arab governments dismally failed their test on the issue of Gaza and other issues before that. They failed dismally. Whenever there was a talk about the issue of Palestine, they said, "The issue of Palestine is the issue of Arabs". But when it was time for action, the issue of Palestine was completely removed from their equations.
Instead of helping Palestine and the Palestinians, instead of helping their Arab brothers and instead of being committed to their Arabic principles - even if they do not believe in Islam - all of them left the arena. They failed dismally in this test and these things will be recorded in history. The negative consequences of this action are not particular to the afterlife. Rather, they will witness the consequences in this world as well, as God's assistance to you who are fighting is not particular to the afterlife. | {
"articleTitle": "The path to liberating Palestine is nothing but resistance",
"pageTitle": "The path to liberating Palestine is nothing but resistance - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The path of Quds, the path of Palestine and the path of resolving the issue of Palestine is the path of fighting. As was pointed out by the gentlemen in this meeting, there is no other path for Palestine. I am happy to see that all of you agree with and believe in this issue. Those people who do not accept this path - whether knowingly or unknowingly - are delivering a blow to the issue of Palestine. If they are doing this knowingly, then this is called treachery. If they are doing it unknowingly, then this is called ignorance and negligence. In any case, it is a blow to the issue of Palestine. Such people are delivering a blow to the issue of Palestine.\nPalestine has no way other than resistance. The people of Palestine should say and want this and Islamic governments should echo it. Of course, many Arab governments dismally failed their test on the issue of Gaza and other issues before that. They failed dismally. Whenever there was a talk about the issue of Palestine, they said, \"The issue of Palestine is the issue of Arabs\". But when it was time for action, the issue of Palestine was completely removed from their equations.\nInstead of helping Palestine and the Palestinians, instead of helping their Arab brothers and instead of being committed to their Arabic principles - even if they do not believe in Islam - all of them left the arena. They failed dismally in this test and these things will be recorded in history. The negative consequences of this action are not particular to the afterlife. Rather, they will witness the consequences in this world as well, as God's assistance to you who are fighting is not particular to the afterlife.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:54.924Z"
} |
The issue of Palestine is an Islamic issue. All peoples are responsible towards Palestine. All governments are responsible towards Palestine, whether Muslim or non-Muslim governments. Any government which claims to advocate humanity is responsible towards this issue.
However, Muslims' responsibility in this regard is a heavier one. Islamic governments are responsible and they should carry out their responsibility on this issue. Any government which does not carry out its responsibility on the issue of Palestine will suffer a loss. This is because nations have awakened and they want governments to do such things. Therefore, governments have to give in to this issue and they have to surrender. | {
"articleTitle": "All governments are responsible with regards to Palestine",
"pageTitle": "All governments are responsible with regards to Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The issue of Palestine is an Islamic issue. All peoples are responsible towards Palestine. All governments are responsible towards Palestine, whether Muslim or non-Muslim governments. Any government which claims to advocate humanity is responsible towards this issue.\nHowever, Muslims' responsibility in this regard is a heavier one. Islamic governments are responsible and they should carry out their responsibility on this issue. Any government which does not carry out its responsibility on the issue of Palestine will suffer a loss. This is because nations have awakened and they want governments to do such things. Therefore, governments have to give in to this issue and they have to surrender.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:54.945Z"
} |
The issue of Gaza and Palestine is our issue. It is our Islamic issue. It is the issue of all Muslims and it is our responsibility. What we are doing is our responsibility and we do not ask anyone to thank us for this. We have carried out our responsibility and we ask Allah the Exalted to help us continue carrying out our responsibilities... Any Palestinian who stepped away from resistance suffered a loss. Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Even if it were honest, it would not have any right in Palestine and therefore, its request would be illegitimate. But Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Those people who took the path of negotiations were forced to accept the enemy's impositions. If they had turned away from the path of the enemy's impositions even for one moment, they would have been either eliminated or humiliated. You have witnessed both cases. They eliminated some and they humiliated and disowned the rest. | {
"articleTitle": "The issue of Palestine is an issue to be concerned of by all Muslims",
"pageTitle": "The issue of Palestine is an issue to be concerned of by all Muslims - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The issue of Gaza and Palestine is our issue. It is our Islamic issue. It is the issue of all Muslims and it is our responsibility. What we are doing is our responsibility and we do not ask anyone to thank us for this. We have carried out our responsibility and we ask Allah the Exalted to help us continue carrying out our responsibilities... Any Palestinian who stepped away from resistance suffered a loss. Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Even if it were honest, it would not have any right in Palestine and therefore, its request would be illegitimate. But Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Those people who took the path of negotiations were forced to accept the enemy's impositions. If they had turned away from the path of the enemy's impositions even for one moment, they would have been either eliminated or humiliated. You have witnessed both cases. They eliminated some and they humiliated and disowned the rest.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:54.963Z"
} |
The issue of Gaza is not the issue of a small piece of land. The issue of Palestine is not only a geographical issue. It is the issue of humanity and human principles. Today, the issue of Palestine is a dividing line between commitment and hostility to human principles. This issue has such significance.
Without a doubt, America will suffer a loss in this deal. These historical eras and these ten, twenty, thirty-year historical developments are like a moment and they will soon pass. But the history and future of America will definitely suffer a loss as a result of the movement that they launched in the past 50, 60 years with regards to the issue of Palestine. The issue of Palestine will be a source of disgrace for America for many years in the future.
Palestine will be liberated. You should have no doubt about this. Palestine will definitely be liberated. It will be restored to the people of Palestine and a Palestinian government will be formed in this country. There is no doubt about this, but America's disgrace and notoriety will not disappear. They will continue to be disgraced.
There is no doubt that a new Middle East will be formed based on the truths which Allah the Exalted has determined. This Middle East will be an Islamic Middle East. | {
"articleTitle": "The issue of Palestine will be a source of disgrace for the U.S. for centuries to come",
"pageTitle": "The issue of Palestine will be a source of disgrace for the U.S. for centuries to come - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The issue of Gaza is not the issue of a small piece of land. The issue of Palestine is not only a geographical issue. It is the issue of humanity and human principles. Today, the issue of Palestine is a dividing line between commitment and hostility to human principles. This issue has such significance.\nWithout a doubt, America will suffer a loss in this deal. These historical eras and these ten, twenty, thirty-year historical developments are like a moment and they will soon pass. But the history and future of America will definitely suffer a loss as a result of the movement that they launched in the past 50, 60 years with regards to the issue of Palestine. The issue of Palestine will be a source of disgrace for America for many years in the future.\nPalestine will be liberated. You should have no doubt about this. Palestine will definitely be liberated. It will be restored to the people of Palestine and a Palestinian government will be formed in this country. There is no doubt about this, but America's disgrace and notoriety will not disappear. They will continue to be disgraced.\nThere is no doubt that a new Middle East will be formed based on the truths which Allah the Exalted has determined. This Middle East will be an Islamic Middle East.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:54.981Z"
} |
Today, America and the west are lying in a blatant day on the issue of Palestine and many other issues. They are lying in a blatant way. They completely misinterpret a great disaster such as the disaster of Gaza in the 22-day war. I would like to remind you that we should pay attention to this issue. Today, Gaza and Palestine are an arena of disgrace for the west. The west with is claim to support human rights has ignored the greatest and the most disastrous violation of human rights in Gaza.
Last year, westerners did not say a single word in favor and in defense of the people of Gaza for many days. Many days passed while we were listening carefully to see if any word in favor of the people of Gaza is uttered by the Europeans - let alone the Americans - by human rights organizations and by so-called defenders of freedom. But no word was uttered. They began to talk after the people in different countries raised their voices and held different processions and demonstrations and when the scandal heated up. However, it was just talking. The west did not show any support for the people of Gaza against such a great disaster which was taking place in front of everyone's eyes. And the west has continued to adopt the same positions until today.
The United Nations disgraced itself. America was disgraced and it became even more disgraced. They did not show any support even after the Goldstone Report was released and everyone became aware of it. Today, the savage and criminal leaders of the Zionist regime should be put to trial and punished, but nothing is being done in this regard. No measure is being adopted. On the contrary, support for the usurping and fake Zionist regime is increasing even more than this. These things have brought shame on the west... I would tell you that today, the western civilization has been challenged on the issue of Palestine. Today, the claim of western liberal democracy has been questioned. This means that you in Palestine have brought down and dismissed this western claim which had survived for several centuries and with which the west used to rule over the entire world. Resistance - the one that you are showing - has such significance and greatness. | {
"articleTitle": "The biggest and most dreadful violation of human rights by West occurs in Gaza",
"pageTitle": "The biggest and most dreadful violation of human rights by West occurs in Gaza - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Today, America and the west are lying in a blatant day on the issue of Palestine and many other issues. They are lying in a blatant way. They completely misinterpret a great disaster such as the disaster of Gaza in the 22-day war. I would like to remind you that we should pay attention to this issue. Today, Gaza and Palestine are an arena of disgrace for the west. The west with is claim to support human rights has ignored the greatest and the most disastrous violation of human rights in Gaza.\nLast year, westerners did not say a single word in favor and in defense of the people of Gaza for many days. Many days passed while we were listening carefully to see if any word in favor of the people of Gaza is uttered by the Europeans - let alone the Americans - by human rights organizations and by so-called defenders of freedom. But no word was uttered. They began to talk after the people in different countries raised their voices and held different processions and demonstrations and when the scandal heated up. However, it was just talking. The west did not show any support for the people of Gaza against such a great disaster which was taking place in front of everyone's eyes. And the west has continued to adopt the same positions until today.\nThe United Nations disgraced itself. America was disgraced and it became even more disgraced. They did not show any support even after the Goldstone Report was released and everyone became aware of it. Today, the savage and criminal leaders of the Zionist regime should be put to trial and punished, but nothing is being done in this regard. No measure is being adopted. On the contrary, support for the usurping and fake Zionist regime is increasing even more than this. These things have brought shame on the west... I would tell you that today, the western civilization has been challenged on the issue of Palestine. Today, the claim of western liberal democracy has been questioned. This means that you in Palestine have brought down and dismissed this western claim which had survived for several centuries and with which the west used to rule over the entire world. Resistance - the one that you are showing - has such significance and greatness.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:55.000Z"
} |
Two months ago the Muslim Ummah gained another victory - that is, the victory of the Palestinian Resistance Movement over their Zionist enemies in Gaza. That was a great and glorious victory. What victory can be more impressive than defeating a powerful army that had managed to defeat three powerful armies between 1967and 1973? What could be more impressive than 22 days of futile efforts of a powerful army against the resisting youth and persistent soldiers of Gaza? The Zionist army was forced to retreat empty-handed. In addition, the Zionist regime and its supporters, especially the US, were disgraced in the world. They were publicly disgraced. That was a great victory for all Muslims. It led Muslims to a kind of unity. This time they could not resort to the Shia-Sunni conflict. They brought up the issue of ethnicity this time. They started a debate, arguing that the Palestinian issue was an Arab issue and that non-Arabs had no right to get involved in the issue. The Palestinian issue is an Islamic issue. It is not peculiar to Arabs or non-Arabs.
If ethnicity was dragged into the matters of importance to the world of Islam, the greatest source of discord would be created. When ethnicity is dragged into the matters of importance to the world of Islam, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Kurds, Indonesians, Malaysians, Pakistanis, and Indians will have to be separate from one another. What will remain of the Muslim Ummah if such a thing happens? Is it not a disaster for the Muslim Ummah and its collective capabilities?
These are the machinations of arrogant powers and, unfortunately, some people in the world of Islam have fallen for these machinations. They do not want to let the sweet memory of the victories in Lebanon and Gaza remain in the minds of Muslims. They found that situation unpleasant and, therefore, they thought up a source of discord to separate Muslims from one another. | {
"articleTitle": "The issue of Palestine is an issue of Islam regardless of being Arab or non-Arab",
"pageTitle": "The issue of Palestine is an issue of Islam regardless of being Arab or non-Arab - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Two months ago the Muslim Ummah gained another victory - that is, the victory of the Palestinian Resistance Movement over their Zionist enemies in Gaza. That was a great and glorious victory. What victory can be more impressive than defeating a powerful army that had managed to defeat three powerful armies between 1967and 1973? What could be more impressive than 22 days of futile efforts of a powerful army against the resisting youth and persistent soldiers of Gaza? The Zionist army was forced to retreat empty-handed. In addition, the Zionist regime and its supporters, especially the US, were disgraced in the world. They were publicly disgraced. That was a great victory for all Muslims. It led Muslims to a kind of unity. This time they could not resort to the Shia-Sunni conflict. They brought up the issue of ethnicity this time. They started a debate, arguing that the Palestinian issue was an Arab issue and that non-Arabs had no right to get involved in the issue. The Palestinian issue is an Islamic issue. It is not peculiar to Arabs or non-Arabs.\nIf ethnicity was dragged into the matters of importance to the world of Islam, the greatest source of discord would be created. When ethnicity is dragged into the matters of importance to the world of Islam, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Kurds, Indonesians, Malaysians, Pakistanis, and Indians will have to be separate from one another. What will remain of the Muslim Ummah if such a thing happens? Is it not a disaster for the Muslim Ummah and its collective capabilities?\nThese are the machinations of arrogant powers and, unfortunately, some people in the world of Islam have fallen for these machinations. They do not want to let the sweet memory of the victories in Lebanon and Gaza remain in the minds of Muslims. They found that situation unpleasant and, therefore, they thought up a source of discord to separate Muslims from one another.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:56.108Z"
} |
Our great community, with the blessing of the Islamic awakening, possesses tremendous power. The key to the solution of many of the problems of the Muslim countries lies in resoluteness and solidarity. The question of Palestine is the most urgent problem of the Islamic world.
At times some people are heard to say that Palestine is an Arab problem. What does that mean? If it means that there is a stronger feeling of consanguinity among the Arabs, who are willing to offer Palestine a greater service and do more struggle for its sake, that is something desirable and we welcome it. But if it means that the heads of some Arab countries should refuse to pay any heed to the cries of help of the Palestinian people which are addressed to all Muslims, if it means that they may collaborate with the ruthless usurper enemy in such an important case as the tragedy of Gaza while loudly condemning others who cannot remain indifferent to their call of duty to help Gaza- then no proud and conscientious Muslim or Arab will accept it, nor spare the speaker of disapproval and reproach. It is the same as the logic of Akhzam, who used to beat his father and chide others for interfering. After him, his son would assault the grandfather with his fists. The fable is the source of an Arabic proverb. (Which means: My sons have left me covered with blood, a custom that I know was laid down by Akhzam)
Offering a multi-faceted assistance to the people of Palestine and complete support is a joint duty of all Muslims. The governments which criticize the Islamic Republic of Iran and some other Muslim countries for assisting Palestine should come forward to bear the burden of such support so that others are relieved of this Islamic duty. But if they lack the ability and courage to do so, instead of criticism and causing hindrance, they should appreciate the dutiful and courageous steps taken by others. | {
"articleTitle": "Providing all-inclusive assistance to Palestinians and thoroughly supporting them is kafa’i obligation for Muslims",
"pageTitle": "Providing all-inclusive assistance to Palestinians and thoroughly supporting them is kafa’i obligation for Muslims - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Our great community, with the blessing of the Islamic awakening, possesses tremendous power. The key to the solution of many of the problems of the Muslim countries lies in resoluteness and solidarity. The question of Palestine is the most urgent problem of the Islamic world.\nAt times some people are heard to say that Palestine is an Arab problem. What does that mean? If it means that there is a stronger feeling of consanguinity among the Arabs, who are willing to offer Palestine a greater service and do more struggle for its sake, that is something desirable and we welcome it. But if it means that the heads of some Arab countries should refuse to pay any heed to the cries of help of the Palestinian people which are addressed to all Muslims, if it means that they may collaborate with the ruthless usurper enemy in such an important case as the tragedy of Gaza while loudly condemning others who cannot remain indifferent to their call of duty to help Gaza- then no proud and conscientious Muslim or Arab will accept it, nor spare the speaker of disapproval and reproach. It is the same as the logic of Akhzam, who used to beat his father and chide others for interfering. After him, his son would assault the grandfather with his fists. The fable is the source of an Arabic proverb. (Which means: My sons have left me covered with blood, a custom that I know was laid down by Akhzam)\nOffering a multi-faceted assistance to the people of Palestine and complete support is a joint duty of all Muslims. The governments which criticize the Islamic Republic of Iran and some other Muslim countries for assisting Palestine should come forward to bear the burden of such support so that others are relieved of this Islamic duty. But if they lack the ability and courage to do so, instead of criticism and causing hindrance, they should appreciate the dutiful and courageous steps taken by others.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:56.127Z"
} |
A big fallacy which has taken control of the minds of some persons concerning the problem of Palestine is that a country named Israel is a 60-year old reality with which one has to reconcile. I do not know why these people do not learn from other realities that are in front of their eyes. Is it not a fact that the countries of the Balkans, Caucasus, and Southwest Asia reclaimed their identity after 80 years of loss, and after being parts of the former Soviet Union? Why cannot Palestine, which is part of the body of the Islamic world, reclaim its Islamic and Arab identity? Why cannot the Palestinian youths, who are among the most astute and resistant of Arab youth, overcome this unjust reality by their will and resolution?
Another big fallacy is to say that negotiation is the only means of deliverance for the Palestinian nation. With whom are these negotiations to be held? With a usurper, misguided and bullying regime which does not believe in anything except force? What have those who have been captivated with this game and delusion achieved?
Firstly, what they obtained from the Zionists in the form of the Palestinian Authority- its humiliating and disgraceful character aside- was at the enormous cost of having to recognize the ownership of the usurper regime over nearly the entire Palestine.
Secondly, even that partial and fake authority was at times trampled underfoot by the Zionists under flimsy excuses. The siege of Yasser Arafat in his administrative building in Ramallah and numerous forms of humiliation he was made to suffer are not events that can be forgotten.
Thirdly, during Arafat's days and especially after him, they have treated the officials of the autonomous Authority as police-station chiefs whose duty was to prosecute and arrest Palestinian combatants and to keep them under intelligence and police surveillance, thus spreading seeds of enmity among Palestinian groups and prompting them to wage war against one another.
Fourthly, even that puny achievement was the fruit of the struggle of Palestinian combatants and resistance of its proud men and indomitable women. Had the Intifada not occurred, the Zionists would not have given them even this little, despite the successive compromises made by the conventional Palestinian leaders. Or shall it be negotiations with the United States and Britain, who are guilty of the biggest sin in creating and sustaining this malignant tumor, and who moreover, are one of the parties to the dispute and not arbiters? The United States government has never ceased its unconditional support for the Zionist regime and its flagrant crimes, such as those committed during the recent events in Gaza. | {
"articleTitle": "Palestine will regain its Islamic-Arabic identity",
"pageTitle": "Palestine will regain its Islamic-Arabic identity - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "A big fallacy which has taken control of the minds of some persons concerning the problem of Palestine is that a country named Israel is a 60-year old reality with which one has to reconcile. I do not know why these people do not learn from other realities that are in front of their eyes. Is it not a fact that the countries of the Balkans, Caucasus, and Southwest Asia reclaimed their identity after 80 years of loss, and after being parts of the former Soviet Union? Why cannot Palestine, which is part of the body of the Islamic world, reclaim its Islamic and Arab identity? Why cannot the Palestinian youths, who are among the most astute and resistant of Arab youth, overcome this unjust reality by their will and resolution?\nAnother big fallacy is to say that negotiation is the only means of deliverance for the Palestinian nation. With whom are these negotiations to be held? With a usurper, misguided and bullying regime which does not believe in anything except force? What have those who have been captivated with this game and delusion achieved?\nFirstly, what they obtained from the Zionists in the form of the Palestinian Authority- its humiliating and disgraceful character aside- was at the enormous cost of having to recognize the ownership of the usurper regime over nearly the entire Palestine.\nSecondly, even that partial and fake authority was at times trampled underfoot by the Zionists under flimsy excuses. The siege of Yasser Arafat in his administrative building in Ramallah and numerous forms of humiliation he was made to suffer are not events that can be forgotten.\nThirdly, during Arafat's days and especially after him, they have treated the officials of the autonomous Authority as police-station chiefs whose duty was to prosecute and arrest Palestinian combatants and to keep them under intelligence and police surveillance, thus spreading seeds of enmity among Palestinian groups and prompting them to wage war against one another.\nFourthly, even that puny achievement was the fruit of the struggle of Palestinian combatants and resistance of its proud men and indomitable women. Had the Intifada not occurred, the Zionists would not have given them even this little, despite the successive compromises made by the conventional Palestinian leaders. Or shall it be negotiations with the United States and Britain, who are guilty of the biggest sin in creating and sustaining this malignant tumor, and who moreover, are one of the parties to the dispute and not arbiters? The United States government has never ceased its unconditional support for the Zionist regime and its flagrant crimes, such as those committed during the recent events in Gaza.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:56.147Z"
} |
The only way to solve the issue of Palestine is resistance and fighting. This is correct, but this resistance and fighting is dependent on preserving the people's morale and hope and their presence on the scene. In my opinion, this is the greatest task that Palestinian groups, organizations and activists should carry out.
The purpose of the pressures that are exerted on Gaza by both sides - whether by Zionists or by westerners - is to make the people turn away from resistance. The purpose of the pressures which are exerted on the West Bank - on the issue of Jewish settlements, on the issue of Quds, which was referred to by one of the friends in this meeting, on the issue of shocking and drastic measures, on the issue of the Israeli West Bank barrier and other such issues - is to make the people turn away from resistance and to submit. We should not allow this to happen. You should not allow this to happen. You should keep the people of Palestine and Gaza - these resistant and strong people - hopeful so that they know their great movement will produce results. | {
"articleTitle": "The only solution to the issue of Palestine is resistance and fighting",
"pageTitle": "The only solution to the issue of Palestine is resistance and fighting - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The only way to solve the issue of Palestine is resistance and fighting. This is correct, but this resistance and fighting is dependent on preserving the people's morale and hope and their presence on the scene. In my opinion, this is the greatest task that Palestinian groups, organizations and activists should carry out.\nThe purpose of the pressures that are exerted on Gaza by both sides - whether by Zionists or by westerners - is to make the people turn away from resistance. The purpose of the pressures which are exerted on the West Bank - on the issue of Jewish settlements, on the issue of Quds, which was referred to by one of the friends in this meeting, on the issue of shocking and drastic measures, on the issue of the Israeli West Bank barrier and other such issues - is to make the people turn away from resistance and to submit. We should not allow this to happen. You should not allow this to happen. You should keep the people of Palestine and Gaza - these resistant and strong people - hopeful so that they know their great movement will produce results.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:56.168Z"
} |
The Americans used the event that happened on the 20th of Shahrivar - that is to say, the 11th of September - four, five years ago as a pretext to pursue their greedy desires in the Middle East region. Their main goal was to build a kind of Middle East which would pivot around the interests of Israel. As we used to say in those days, they wanted to build a kind of Middle East whose capital would be Israel... Analyze each and every part of this plot. In Palestine, this plot failed to achieve results. In Palestine - which was a strategic point - this plot failed. Why? Because in Palestine, it was Hamas, the biggest and the main opposition group against Israel, which formed the government after being elected by the people. Is there any slap across the face - delivered to America and Israel - which is harder than this? Since the day that this government was formed, they are constantly creating obstacles so that they can throw it out of the arena. But they have not managed to do this until today. Unfortunately, they have received help from a number of Palestinians in order to bring this popular government to its knees. But, thankfully, they have not managed to do this until today. We hope that they will not manage to do this from now on either. | {
"articleTitle": "9/11: a plot for an Israel-centered Middle East",
"pageTitle": "9/11: a plot for an Israel-centered Middle East - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The Americans used the event that happened on the 20th of Shahrivar - that is to say, the 11th of September - four, five years ago as a pretext to pursue their greedy desires in the Middle East region. Their main goal was to build a kind of Middle East which would pivot around the interests of Israel. As we used to say in those days, they wanted to build a kind of Middle East whose capital would be Israel... Analyze each and every part of this plot. In Palestine, this plot failed to achieve results. In Palestine - which was a strategic point - this plot failed. Why? Because in Palestine, it was Hamas, the biggest and the main opposition group against Israel, which formed the government after being elected by the people. Is there any slap across the face - delivered to America and Israel - which is harder than this? Since the day that this government was formed, they are constantly creating obstacles so that they can throw it out of the arena. But they have not managed to do this until today. Unfortunately, they have received help from a number of Palestinians in order to bring this popular government to its knees. But, thankfully, they have not managed to do this until today. We hope that they will not manage to do this from now on either.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:56.187Z"
} |
Today, all Muslim nations should treat the issue of Palestine as their own issue. This is a mysterious key that will open the doors of deliverance to the Muslim Ummah. Palestine should return to the Palestinian nation, and a single Palestinian government, elected by all Palestinians, should administer the entire Palestinian territories.
The fifty-year efforts of Britain and the United States and Zionists to remove the word 'Palestine' from world maps and incorporate the Palestinian nation into other nations have proved futile, and their pressures, injustice and cruelty have yielded contrary results. Today, the Palestinian people are livelier, more valorous and more efficient than their predecessors who lived some sixty years ago.
This process which has emerged as a result of faith, jihad and the glorious Intifada will continue, and this divine promise will be fulfilled that "Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will most certainly make them rulers in the earth as He made rulers those before them, and that He will most certainly establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will most certainly, after their fear, give them security in exchange; they shall serve Me, not associating aught with Me; and those who disbelieve henceforth, they are rebellious and wicked." (the Holy Qur'an, 24: 55)
It is also possible in a vaster arena, namely the Islamic world, to achieve the noble objective of freedom from domination, bullying and intervention on the part of colonialists and live under the banner of Islam, but this is contingent on a jihad of a different kind, namely a scientific, political and moral jihad. | {
"articleTitle": "Palestine should be ruled by a single government elected by all Palestinians",
"pageTitle": "Palestine should be ruled by a single government elected by all Palestinians - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Today, all Muslim nations should treat the issue of Palestine as their own issue. This is a mysterious key that will open the doors of deliverance to the Muslim Ummah. Palestine should return to the Palestinian nation, and a single Palestinian government, elected by all Palestinians, should administer the entire Palestinian territories.\nThe fifty-year efforts of Britain and the United States and Zionists to remove the word 'Palestine' from world maps and incorporate the Palestinian nation into other nations have proved futile, and their pressures, injustice and cruelty have yielded contrary results. Today, the Palestinian people are livelier, more valorous and more efficient than their predecessors who lived some sixty years ago.\nThis process which has emerged as a result of faith, jihad and the glorious Intifada will continue, and this divine promise will be fulfilled that \"Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will most certainly make them rulers in the earth as He made rulers those before them, and that He will most certainly establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will most certainly, after their fear, give them security in exchange; they shall serve Me, not associating aught with Me; and those who disbelieve henceforth, they are rebellious and wicked.\" (the Holy Qur'an, 24: 55)\nIt is also possible in a vaster arena, namely the Islamic world, to achieve the noble objective of freedom from domination, bullying and intervention on the part of colonialists and live under the banner of Islam, but this is contingent on a jihad of a different kind, namely a scientific, political and moral jihad.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:57.279Z"
} |
Those powers that claim to oppose tyranny and dictatorship are themselves the most despotic and tyrannical regimes in the world. Even in the case of Palestine, it is the U.S. officials and nobody else that are to blame for the Middle East issue not having been resolved yet. They claim that Iran is preventing the settlement of the Middle East dispute! But it is in fact the U.S. officials that are doing so. Disregarding a nation has no result except this. You are trying to eliminate the Palestinian nation with a several-thousand-year historical background from the political equations of the region, something which is not possible. This is why you are experiencing defeat and failure. You are supporting and backing up a rabid dog that is attacking Palestinian men, women, children, the young and the elderly. It is clear that the Middle East issue will not be solved in this manner. One should be naïve if he thinks that it is possible to trample a nation and still expect them to do nothing in the face of oppression, tyranny and pressure. This is not possible.
It is a few years now since the beginning of the Intifada in Palestine. The young Palestinian generation that is the motive force of the Intifada will not be diverted by worldly enticements. It is not possible to put out the flame of the Intifada, unless you recognize the rights of the Palestinian nation and opt for the solution to the issue of Palestine that has been presented by the Islamic Republic.
This solution calls for holding a referendum on the future of Palestine among all the Palestinians who belong to this land, and for the establishment of a government based on the results of the referendum. The established government can then decide about the non-Palestinian immigrants currently living in Palestine. | {
"articleTitle": "U.S. is the main culprit in the failure of resolving the Palestinian issue",
"pageTitle": "U.S. is the main culprit in the failure of resolving the Palestinian issue - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Those powers that claim to oppose tyranny and dictatorship are themselves the most despotic and tyrannical regimes in the world. Even in the case of Palestine, it is the U.S. officials and nobody else that are to blame for the Middle East issue not having been resolved yet. They claim that Iran is preventing the settlement of the Middle East dispute! But it is in fact the U.S. officials that are doing so. Disregarding a nation has no result except this. You are trying to eliminate the Palestinian nation with a several-thousand-year historical background from the political equations of the region, something which is not possible. This is why you are experiencing defeat and failure. You are supporting and backing up a rabid dog that is attacking Palestinian men, women, children, the young and the elderly. It is clear that the Middle East issue will not be solved in this manner. One should be naïve if he thinks that it is possible to trample a nation and still expect them to do nothing in the face of oppression, tyranny and pressure. This is not possible.\nIt is a few years now since the beginning of the Intifada in Palestine. The young Palestinian generation that is the motive force of the Intifada will not be diverted by worldly enticements. It is not possible to put out the flame of the Intifada, unless you recognize the rights of the Palestinian nation and opt for the solution to the issue of Palestine that has been presented by the Islamic Republic.\nThis solution calls for holding a referendum on the future of Palestine among all the Palestinians who belong to this land, and for the establishment of a government based on the results of the referendum. The established government can then decide about the non-Palestinian immigrants currently living in Palestine.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:57.300Z"
} |
Think of the Palestine of the 1940's: a land in the heart of the Arab world, a poor country with a weak government and an unaware nation and some neighbors installed by colonial powers. The wealthiest and most evil Western government with the greatest stockpile of arms and weapons, provoked by the Zionists, took it away from Muslims and entrusted it to a racist, belligerent and terrorist party which received support from all Western countries and from both of the world's two political blocs that were at odds with each other.
It also received services from the puppet regimes in the region, including the Pahlavi regime in Iran and others that had turned their backs on Islam and Arab nations. It was provided with money, weapons, science and technology from everywhere. The United States acted as its guardian, attorney and caterer, and this was the only issue on which the former Soviet Union expressed no disagreement with the United States.
The UN resolutions, even in their weak and conservative form, were utterly ignored by the forged and rogue Zionist regime. Relying on the backing and support on the part of the United States and Europe, the Zionist regime launched a military offensive on Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and occupied some parts of their territories with the intention of annexing them.
The Zionist regime openly and audaciously made threats to assassinate, kill and plunder, and notorious terrorists took power one after another in this regime, the last of whom was the infamous butcher of 'Sabra and Shatila'. For tens of years, the usurper Zionist regime remained on the scene of Palestine with a violent, inflexible and invincible face. | {
"articleTitle": "The story of the usurping of Palestine",
"pageTitle": "The story of the usurping of Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "Think of the Palestine of the 1940's: a land in the heart of the Arab world, a poor country with a weak government and an unaware nation and some neighbors installed by colonial powers. The wealthiest and most evil Western government with the greatest stockpile of arms and weapons, provoked by the Zionists, took it away from Muslims and entrusted it to a racist, belligerent and terrorist party which received support from all Western countries and from both of the world's two political blocs that were at odds with each other.\nIt also received services from the puppet regimes in the region, including the Pahlavi regime in Iran and others that had turned their backs on Islam and Arab nations. It was provided with money, weapons, science and technology from everywhere. The United States acted as its guardian, attorney and caterer, and this was the only issue on which the former Soviet Union expressed no disagreement with the United States.\nThe UN resolutions, even in their weak and conservative form, were utterly ignored by the forged and rogue Zionist regime. Relying on the backing and support on the part of the United States and Europe, the Zionist regime launched a military offensive on Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and occupied some parts of their territories with the intention of annexing them.\nThe Zionist regime openly and audaciously made threats to assassinate, kill and plunder, and notorious terrorists took power one after another in this regime, the last of whom was the infamous butcher of 'Sabra and Shatila'. For tens of years, the usurper Zionist regime remained on the scene of Palestine with a violent, inflexible and invincible face.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:57.318Z"
} |
The present age is the era of Islamic awakening, and Palestine lies at the center of this awakening. Almost sixty years have passed since the occupation of Palestine, and the oppressed Palestinian people have endured hard times and undergone various trials, ranging from desperate empty-handed resistance following the occupation, homelessness and displacement, witnessing the destruction of their homes and the massacre of their relatives and dear ones to seeking assistance from international organizations and engaging in futile political deals and the gamble of negotiation with the occupier, a gamble that yielded nothing but a heavy loss, and the mediation of those powers that were the main culprits in the creation and continuation of their plight and suffering.
The outcome of this historic experience helped the new zealous generation of this valorous nation to reach the summit of awakening and broad-mindedness and caused the volcano of the Intifada to erupt.
On the opposite front also various steps were taken on a different path, ranging from merciless and unbridled ferocity, genocide and wrathful demolition, military aggression against neighbors and claims to the territories from the Nile to the Euphrates, to political and economic encroachment on the region by profiting from the weakness and betrayal on the part of certain politicians of the Islamic world and, all of a sudden, confronting the awakening of the sleeping lion of Palestine and the roaring Intifada of a nation fed up with and rising against oppression.
Today, the product of this adventurous process, which was reliant all the time on the money and might of the United States and Britain and their shameful support for Zionist criminals, is wavering and despair on the part of those ruling the usurper Zionist regime and their coming face to face with the sweeping wave of rising Islamic awakening.
It is true that Palestine is even today the scene of the most heinous crimes in human history being committed by alien and usurper Zionists against the oppressed owners of Palestinian territories, and the most brutal atrocities are being openly and boastfully perpetrated by the Zionist regime in an unprecedented manner.
However, a glance at what has happened over the past sixty years reveals a surprising reality, which serves as a lesson, and this reality is nothing but a great change on the scene and the shift of power from one front to the other both in Palestine and in the Middle East and the Islamic world.
As a matter of fact, Western politicians had planned and given rise to the tragedy of the usurpation of Palestine with the intention of ensuring their long-term control and domination of Palestinian territories. | {
"articleTitle": "The usurping of Palestine for a long period of time was plotted, executed by Western politicians",
"pageTitle": "The usurping of Palestine for a long period of time was plotted, executed by Western politicians - Khamenei.ir",
"description": "The present age is the era of Islamic awakening, and Palestine lies at the center of this awakening. Almost sixty years have passed since the occupation of Palestine, and the oppressed Palestinian people have endured hard times and undergone various trials, ranging from desperate empty-handed resistance following the occupation, homelessness and displacement, witnessing the destruction of their homes and the massacre of their relatives and dear ones to seeking assistance from international organizations and engaging in futile political deals and the gamble of negotiation with the occupier, a gamble that yielded nothing but a heavy loss, and the mediation of those powers that were the main culprits in the creation and continuation of their plight and suffering.\nThe outcome of this historic experience helped the new zealous generation of this valorous nation to reach the summit of awakening and broad-mindedness and caused the volcano of the Intifada to erupt.\nOn the opposite front also various steps were taken on a different path, ranging from merciless and unbridled ferocity, genocide and wrathful demolition, military aggression against neighbors and claims to the territories from the Nile to the Euphrates, to political and economic encroachment on the region by profiting from the weakness and betrayal on the part of certain politicians of the Islamic world and, all of a sudden, confronting the awakening of the sleeping lion of Palestine and the roaring Intifada of a nation fed up with and rising against oppression.\nToday, the product of this adventurous process, which was reliant all the time on the money and might of the United States and Britain and their shameful support for Zionist criminals, is wavering and despair on the part of those ruling the usurper Zionist regime and their coming face to face with the sweeping wave of rising Islamic awakening.\nIt is true that Palestine is even today the scene of the most heinous crimes in human history being committed by alien and usurper Zionists against the oppressed owners of Palestinian territories, and the most brutal atrocities are being openly and boastfully perpetrated by the Zionist regime in an unprecedented manner.\nHowever, a glance at what has happened over the past sixty years reveals a surprising reality, which serves as a lesson, and this reality is nothing but a great change on the scene and the shift of power from one front to the other both in Palestine and in the Middle East and the Islamic world.\nAs a matter of fact, Western politicians had planned and given rise to the tragedy of the usurpation of Palestine with the intention of ensuring their long-term control and domination of Palestinian territories.",
"dateScrapedDate": "2025-02-13T12:38:57.336Z"
} |
The solution to the issue of Palestine
Palestine is both oppressed and powerful
Apr 26, 2022
The issue of Palestine is the World of Islam’s top priority
Nov 23, 2017
Today, the issue of Palestine is the first issue of the world of Islam. Anyone who has a correct understanding of the issue of Palestine acknowledges that the issue of Palestine is the first issue of the world of Islam. The key to defeating the enemies of Islam is the issue of Palestine. The most important issue of the world of Islam in the present time is the issue of Palestine. Why is that? This is because Palestine is an Islamic country. They have come and occupied this country. They have taken it away from its people. The issue is not about usurping a village or city. The enemy has usurped a country and it has used it as a base for jeopardizing the security of regional countries. One should fight against a cancerous tumor.
Notice that if a person issues a fatwa as a religious mufti saying that fighting against Zionism is haram, that helping such and such a group which is fighting against Zionism is not allowed, this is really a disaster to witness that some people in the world of Islam are acting against the interests of Islam and have friendly relations with the enemies. This is the exact opposite of the Quran's clear words: "Those who are with him are strong against unbelievers, but compassionate among each other" [The Holy Quran, 48: 29]. However, those people are strong against Muslims, but compassionate among unbelievers. They are on good terms with them, but notice what they are doing to Muslims.
Forgetting the issue of Palestine is the enemies’ goal
Dec 17, 2016
If Muslims are united, Palestine will not be in the situation that it is in now. Today, Palestine is in a difficult situation. Gaza and the West Bank are in a difficult situation, both in different ways. Today, the people of Palestine are under serious pressures on a daily basis. They want to erase the issue of Palestine from the minds of people and consign it to oblivion. They want to, as they say, busy the West Asian region, including our own countries – this is an extraordinarily sensitive and strategic region, it is a sensitive region in terms of geography, natural resources and sea passageways - with themselves.
They want Muslims to stand up against Muslims and Arabs against Arabs. They want them to target and destroy one another so that the armies of Muslim countries – particularly those armies that are neighboring the Zionists – weaken on a daily basis. This is their goal.
The enemy seeks to obliterate the Palestinian cause
Nov 25, 2015
The issue of Palestine is not a minor issue. About 60-plus years have passed from the occupation of Palestine. Several generations of these people – the Palestinians - have come and gone, but the Palestinian ideal has thrived. The enemy is trying to destroy the Palestinian ideal, but the Palestinian ideal has thrived.
Unfortunately, Arab governments are so busy doing other things that they do not have the time or they do not want to attend to the issue of Palestine. Standing on ceremony with other countries, different other considerations and aligning oneself with America and others do not allow them to do so. The issue of Palestine is a very important issue. We cannot abandon the issue of Palestine. Today, the Intifada of the people of Palestine has begun in the West Bank. The people are fighting, but the judgment that arrogant bullhorns make is a completely oppressive judgment. When a person whose house has been occupied, whose life is in danger and who does not have financial security – they come and destroy his house with a bulldozer, they engage in building settlements and they destroy his farm – attacks with a stone, they say that that person is a terrorist! This is while the organization that is destroying that person’s life, security, dignity, wealth and world is referred to as innocent. They say that this organization is defending itself. This is very strange. This is one of the wonders of today’s world!
Someone has come and has usurped a house. They have thrown out the owner of the house and they are constantly oppressing him. They say to him that he should not defend himself, but he is defending himself. If the oppressed owner – who has lost his security and his house, and whose wife, children, dignity and everything he has are under threat – swears at the usurper or throws a stone at him, they call him a terrorist. Is this a minor thing? Is this a minor wrongdoing? Is it a minor mistake? Is it a minor act of oppression that can be forgiven? This cannot be forgiven! We will defend the movement of the Palestinian nation with all our power as long as we can and in whatever way we can!
Muslims have the upper hand in the issue of Palestine
Sep 7, 2014
The issue of Palestine is the primary issue of the world of Islam. Fortunately, on the issue of Palestine, Muslims have gradually gained the upper hand. You should take a look at the events of the 50-day war in Gaza and see how a limited number of Palestinians -- who did not have powerful weapons, enough resources, and means of communication -- managed to defeat the Zionist regime which is the symbol of Western power in the region. Notice how they managed to impose their requests upon them and how they frustrated their effort to attack Gaza.
This shows that we are strong on the inside. We have many capabilities, we can challenge every enemy, and we can defend ourselves. We should not underestimate our power. The power of Islam, the power of the Holy Quran, the power of faith, and the power of the Islamic Ummah is a great power. --This power should not be underestimated because it can resist oppression. We do not intend to dominate the world, rather we intend to condemn and resist the oppression of arrogant governments that bully Muslim nations. We intend to resist oppression, and we can.
Sowing discord and conflict among Muslims is enemy’s trick to make Palestine ignored
Jan 19, 2014
It is in such conditions that the enemy is focusing all its efforts on making the Islamic Ummah forget about Palestine. How do they want to do this? They want to do this by creating discord, waging domestic wars, promoting deviant extremism in the name of Islam, religion and Islamic sharia. They want a group of people to say takfiri things against Muslims. The existence of these takfiri orientations which have emerged in the world of Islam is good news for arrogance and the enemies of the world of Islam. It is these takfiri orientations that attract the attention of Muslims towards insignificant issues instead of letting them pay attention to the truth about the existence of the malevolent Zionist regime.
This is the exact opposite of what Islam wants. Islam has asked Muslims to be "strong against unbelievers, (but) compassionate amongst each other" [The Holy Quran, 48, 29]. Muslims should be strong against the enemies of religion. They should stand firm and they should not be influenced by the enemies. Being "strong against unbelievers" is the clear message of this ayah. Muslims should be compassionate towards one another, they should stay together and join hands and they should hold fast to the rope which Allah stretches out for them. This is the command of Islam.
Now what happens if an orientation emerges which divides Muslims into believers and unbelievers, which targets a group of people as unbelievers and which pits Muslims against one another? Who can doubt the role of arrogance and the security services of arrogant and malevolent governments in creating, supporting and enriching these orientations and in equipping them with weapons? These arrogant powers sit and plan for this. The world of Islam should attend to this issue because it is a grave danger.
Unfortunately, a number of Muslim governments unwittingly add fuel to the fire of this discord. They do not understand that fueling this discord will kindle a fire which will burn them as well. This is what arrogance wants: they want a group of Muslims to wage a war against another group of Muslims.
The colonial British government is at top of usurping Palestine
Oct 1, 2011
More than six decades have passed since the tragic occupation of Palestine. All the main causes of this bloody tragedy have been identified and the colonialist English government is the most important cause. The policies, weapons and military, security, economic and cultural power of the English government and other arrogant western and eastern governments were put to the service of this great oppression. Under the ruthless clutches of the occupiers, the defenseless people of Palestine were massacred and forced out of their homes. Until today even one percent of the human and civil tragedy - which was carried out at that time by the claimants of civilization and ethics - has not been properly portrayed and this tragedy has not had its fair share in the media and visual arts. The owners of visual and cinematic arts and western movie mafias have not been willing to allow this to happen. An entire nation was massacred and displaced in silence.
Certain instances of resistance emerged at the beginning, which were harshly and ruthlessly crushed. From outside Palestinian borders and mainly from Egypt, a number of men with Islamic motives made certain efforts which were not sufficiently supported and could not have an effect on the scene.
Afterwards there were full-scale and classical wars between a few Arab countries and the Zionist army. Egypt, Syria and Jordan mobilized their military forces, but the unconditional, massive and increasing military and financial support of America, England and France for the Zionist regime overwhelmed Arab armies. Not only did they fail to help the Palestinian nation, but they also lost an important portion of their territories during these wars.
The Islamic Republic’s proposal for solving the issue of Palestine
Oct 1, 2011
The solution of the Islamic Republic to the issue of Palestine and this old wound is a clear and logical proposal that is based on political wisdom accepted by global public opinion and it has been presented in detail previously. We neither propose a classical war with the armies of Islamic countries, nor do we propose throwing Jewish immigrants into the sea or intervention of the United Nations and other international organizations. We propose a referendum among the Palestinian people. Just like any other nation, the Palestinian nation has the right to determine its own destiny and to elect its own government. All the original people of Palestine - including Muslims, Christians and Jews and not foreign immigrants - should take part in a general and orderly referendum and determine the future government of Palestine whether they live inside Palestine or in camps or in any other place. The government that is established after the referendum will determine the destiny of non-Palestinian immigrants who migrated to Palestine in the past. This is a fair and logical proposal which global public opinion understands and it can receive support from independent nations and governments.
Of course we do not expect the usurping Zionists to willingly accept this proposal and this is where the role of governments, nations and resistance organizations becomes significant. The most important pillar of supporting the Palestinian nation is to stop supporting the usurping enemy and this is the great duty of Islamic governments.
Any plan to divide Palestine is absolutely refutable
Oct 1, 2011
Our demand is the liberation of Palestine, not the liberation of a part of Palestine. Any plan to divide Palestine is completely unacceptable. The two-state idea which has been presented in the self-righteous clothing of "recognizing the Palestinian government as a member of the United Nations" is nothing but giving in to the demands of the Zionists - namely, "recognizing the Zionist government in Palestinian lands". This would mean trampling on the rights of the Palestinian nation, ignoring the historical right of the displaced Palestinians and even jeopardizing the right of the Palestinians settled in "1948 lands". It would mean leaving the cancerous tumor intact and exposing the Islamic Ummah - especially the regional nations - to constant danger. It would mean bringing back decades-long sufferings and trampling upon the blood of the martyrs.
Any operational solution must be based on the principle of "all of Palestine for all Palestinian people". Palestine is the land that extends "from the river to the sea", not one inch less than that. Of course it should be noted that through its elected government, the Palestinian people will run the affairs of the any part of the Palestinian soil they manage to liberate, just as they did in the case of Gaza, but they will never forget the ultimate goal.
The second point is that in order to reach this lofty goal, what is necessary is action, not words. It is necessary to be serious, not to make ceremonial gestures. It is necessary to have patience and wisdom, not engage in a variety of impatient actions. It is necessary to consider horizons that lie far ahead and to move forward step by step with determination, reliance on God and hope.
One of the goals of the Islamic Revolution is the liberation of Palestine
Oct 1, 2011
Our magnanimous Imam announced that one of the goals of the Revolution was to liberate Palestine and to remove the cancerous tumor, Israel. The powerful waves of this Revolution, which engulfed the entire world at that time, conveyed this message wherever it reached: "Palestine must be liberated." Even the repeated and great problems that the enemies of the Revolution imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran failed to discourage the Islamic Republic from defending Palestine. One instance of the problems that they caused was the eight-year war waged on Iran by Saddam Hussein who had been goaded by America and England and was supported by reactionary Arab governments.
Thus, new blood was pumped into the veins of Palestine. Muslim mujahid groups started to emerge in Palestine. The Lebanese Resistance formed a powerful and new front against the enemy and its supporters. Instead of relying on Arab governments and seeking help from global organizations such as the United Nations, which were accomplices of the arrogant powers, Palestine started to rely on itself, its youth, its deep Islamic faith and its selfless men and women. This is the key to all achievements.
Over the past three decades this process has been accelerated on a daily basis. The humiliating defeat of the Zionist regime in Lebanon in the year 2006, the humiliating failure of the arrogant Zionist army in Gaza in the year 2008, the Zionist regime's escape from South Lebanon and withdrawal from Gaza, the establishment of the resistance government in Gaza and in brief, changing the Palestinian nation from a group of helpless and hopeless people to a hopeful, resistant and self-confident nation - these were the outstanding characteristics of the past thirty years.
This general picture will be clear when attempts at compromise and treacherous activities - whose goal is to break down resistance and make Palestinian groups and Arab governments acknowledge the legitimacy of Israel - are also reflected upon in an appropriate way.
These activities, which were initiated with the Camp David Accords by the treacherous and unworthy successor of Gamal Abdel Nasser, have always been aimed at undermining the steely determination of resistance forces. During the Camp David Accords, for the first time an Arab government officially acknowledged that the Palestinian lands belonged to the Zionists and it signed the papers according to which Palestine was recognized as the homeland of Jews.
The antidote to enemy’s treasonous plots lies in the spirit of resistance among Palestinian groups
Oct 1, 2011
The Oslo Accords in the year 1993 and later on in complementary plans - which were imposed one after the other on compromising and careless Palestinian groups with the intervention of America and the cooperation of colonialist European governments - the enemy tried its best to discourage the Palestinian nation and Palestinian groups from resisting through the use of empty and deceptive promises and making them busy with amateur political games. The uselessness of all these accords was revealed very soon and the Zionists and their supporters repeatedly showed that they consider these accords as worthless pieces of paper. The goal of these plans was to create doubt among the Palestinians, make materialistic unbelievers greedy and cripple Islamic resistance.
So far, the spirit of resistance among the Islamic Palestinian groups and the Palestinian people has been the antidote to all these treacherous games. They stood up against the enemy with Allah's permission and as promised by God, they benefited from divine assistance: "And surely Allah will help him who helps His cause. Most surely Allah is Strong, Mighty." [The Holy Quran, Sura al-Hajj, Ayah 40] The resistance of Gaza in spite of a comprehensive siege was an instance of divine assistance.
Palestine belongs to Palestinians
Jun 4, 2011
We believe that all Palestinian lands belong to the Palestinians. Those who tried to wipe Palestine off the map of the world made a mistake. Such a thing will not happen. Palestine will survive. The usurpers have occupied Palestine for a few decades, but there is no doubt that Palestinian lands will be restored to the people of Palestine and to the world of Islam. And this will happen. The people of Palestine are vigilant. Palestine cannot be partitioned. Palestine belongs to the Palestinians entirely. The Islamic Republic presented the solution to the Palestinian issue several years ago. The solution to the issue of Palestine is not the kind of solutions that America and other such countries present. Such solutions will prove ineffective. The solution is to hold a referendum among the people of Palestine. Any government that receives the majority of the votes in the referendum will rule the entire Palestinian lands. Then that government will decide what to do with the Zionists who immigrated to Palestine. And this depends on the decision of the government that will be elected by the people of Palestine.
Defending Palestine is a must for all Muslims
Mar 4, 2010
The enemies of the world of Islam have always tried to make maximum use of denominational, tribal, geographical and regional differences. And today, they are using modern instruments to fulfill their purpose. We should pay attention to this and we should awaken.
They want to busy us with one another so that they can distract our attention from the main point. They want to pit Muslim ethnicities, nations and denominations - including Shia, Sunni and other Islamic denominations - against one another so that the issue of Israel will be forgotten. The issue of occupying Palestine should have made us get close to one another. But they are using it to make us drift away from one another. They create discord in the world of Islam and pit governments against one another by using the issue of Palestine.
The issue of Palestine is a clear issue. There is no Islamic denomination that has any doubts about the fact that jihad is wajib for Muslims whenever an Islamic land is under attack. All Islamic denominations share this belief and there is no ground for disagreement on this matter. However, the enemies cast doubt on this matter which all Muslims believe in. They create division among Muslims, they provoke denominational and tribal prejudice and they fuel its fire so that they can freely pursue their goals.
Palestine, a big wound on the body of Islamic Ummah
Mar 4, 2010
Take a look at the conditions of Palestine in the present time. Palestine is only an example. Of course, it is a very important example, but the situation is not particular to Palestine. Take a look at Palestine and see that the Islamic Ummah suffers from a great wound which is the disaster that has befallen the great people and the historical and holy land of Palestine. What have they done to this land? What have they done to these people? What are they doing to them in the present time? Is the event of Gaza forgettable? Is it possible to erase it from the mind of the Islamic Ummah?
The pressures, savage acts, cruelties and oppressions that have been committed against the people of Gaza continue to exist even after the 22-day war during which the Zionist government was defeated and failed to achieve its goals. But despite these crimes, the Islamic Ummah cannot defend them. The Islamic Ummah has faced this phenomenon as if it were not related to it. It behaves as though it were not its right to stand up against this usurpation. It behaves as though this oppression were not shown against it. Why are we like this? Why has the Islamic Ummah faced this situation?
A dangerous and deadly cancer - namely, the fake Zionist and Israeli government - has been created by the enemies of Islam and the Islamic Ummah. Its supporters - who have collaborated with it in showing oppression and committing great sins - continue to support it while the Islamic Ummah cannot defend itself. This is our weakness. Why is that? We should make up for this weakness by returning to Islam and pivoting around the teachings of the Holy Prophet of Islam (s.w.a.).
The path to liberating Palestine is nothing but resistance
Feb 27, 2010
The path of Quds, the path of Palestine and the path of resolving the issue of Palestine is the path of fighting. As was pointed out by the gentlemen in this meeting, there is no other path for Palestine. I am happy to see that all of you agree with and believe in this issue. Those people who do not accept this path - whether knowingly or unknowingly - are delivering a blow to the issue of Palestine. If they are doing this knowingly, then this is called treachery. If they are doing it unknowingly, then this is called ignorance and negligence. In any case, it is a blow to the issue of Palestine. Such people are delivering a blow to the issue of Palestine.
Palestine has no way other than resistance. The people of Palestine should say and want this and Islamic governments should echo it. Of course, many Arab governments dismally failed their test on the issue of Gaza and other issues before that. They failed dismally. Whenever there was a talk about the issue of Palestine, they said, "The issue of Palestine is the issue of Arabs". But when it was time for action, the issue of Palestine was completely removed from their equations.
Instead of helping Palestine and the Palestinians, instead of helping their Arab brothers and instead of being committed to their Arabic principles - even if they do not believe in Islam - all of them left the arena. They failed dismally in this test and these things will be recorded in history. The negative consequences of this action are not particular to the afterlife. Rather, they will witness the consequences in this world as well, as God's assistance to you who are fighting is not particular to the afterlife.
The issue of Palestine is an issue to be concerned of by all Muslims
Feb 27, 2010
The issue of Gaza and Palestine is our issue. It is our Islamic issue. It is the issue of all Muslims and it is our responsibility. What we are doing is our responsibility and we do not ask anyone to thank us for this. We have carried out our responsibility and we ask Allah the Exalted to help us continue carrying out our responsibilities... Any Palestinian who stepped away from resistance suffered a loss. Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Even if it were honest, it would not have any right in Palestine and therefore, its request would be illegitimate. But Israel is not honest in its request for peace. Those people who took the path of negotiations were forced to accept the enemy's impositions. If they had turned away from the path of the enemy's impositions even for one moment, they would have been either eliminated or humiliated. You have witnessed both cases. They eliminated some and they humiliated and disowned the rest.
The issue of Palestine will be a source of disgrace for the U.S. for centuries to come
Feb 27, 2010
The issue of Gaza is not the issue of a small piece of land. The issue of Palestine is not only a geographical issue. It is the issue of humanity and human principles. Today, the issue of Palestine is a dividing line between commitment and hostility to human principles. This issue has such significance.
Without a doubt, America will suffer a loss in this deal. These historical eras and these ten, twenty, thirty-year historical developments are like a moment and they will soon pass. But the history and future of America will definitely suffer a loss as a result of the movement that they launched in the past 50, 60 years with regards to the issue of Palestine. The issue of Palestine will be a source of disgrace for America for many years in the future.
Palestine will be liberated. You should have no doubt about this. Palestine will definitely be liberated. It will be restored to the people of Palestine and a Palestinian government will be formed in this country. There is no doubt about this, but America's disgrace and notoriety will not disappear. They will continue to be disgraced.
There is no doubt that a new Middle East will be formed based on the truths which Allah the Exalted has determined. This Middle East will be an Islamic Middle East.
All governments are responsible with regards to Palestine
Feb 27, 2010
The issue of Palestine is an Islamic issue. All peoples are responsible towards Palestine. All governments are responsible towards Palestine, whether Muslim or non-Muslim governments. Any government which claims to advocate humanity is responsible towards this issue.
However, Muslims' responsibility in this regard is a heavier one. Islamic governments are responsible and they should carry out their responsibility on this issue. Any government which does not carry out its responsibility on the issue of Palestine will suffer a loss. This is because nations have awakened and they want governments to do such things. Therefore, governments have to give in to this issue and they have to surrender.
The biggest and most dreadful violation of human rights by West occurs in Gaza
Feb 27, 2010
Today, America and the west are lying in a blatant day on the issue of Palestine and many other issues. They are lying in a blatant way. They completely misinterpret a great disaster such as the disaster of Gaza in the 22-day war. I would like to remind you that we should pay attention to this issue. Today, Gaza and Palestine are an arena of disgrace for the west. The west with is claim to support human rights has ignored the greatest and the most disastrous violation of human rights in Gaza.
Last year, westerners did not say a single word in favor and in defense of the people of Gaza for many days. Many days passed while we were listening carefully to see if any word in favor of the people of Gaza is uttered by the Europeans - let alone the Americans - by human rights organizations and by so-called defenders of freedom. But no word was uttered. They began to talk after the people in different countries raised their voices and held different processions and demonstrations and when the scandal heated up. However, it was just talking. The west did not show any support for the people of Gaza against such a great disaster which was taking place in front of everyone's eyes. And the west has continued to adopt the same positions until today.
The United Nations disgraced itself. America was disgraced and it became even more disgraced. They did not show any support even after the Goldstone Report was released and everyone became aware of it. Today, the savage and criminal leaders of the Zionist regime should be put to trial and punished, but nothing is being done in this regard. No measure is being adopted. On the contrary, support for the usurping and fake Zionist regime is increasing even more than this. These things have brought shame on the west... I would tell you that today, the western civilization has been challenged on the issue of Palestine. Today, the claim of western liberal democracy has been questioned. This means that you in Palestine have brought down and dismissed this western claim which had survived for several centuries and with which the west used to rule over the entire world. Resistance - the one that you are showing - has such significance and greatness.
The only solution to the issue of Palestine is resistance and fighting
Feb 27, 2010
The only way to solve the issue of Palestine is resistance and fighting. This is correct, but this resistance and fighting is dependent on preserving the people's morale and hope and their presence on the scene. In my opinion, this is the greatest task that Palestinian groups, organizations and activists should carry out.
The purpose of the pressures that are exerted on Gaza by both sides - whether by Zionists or by westerners - is to make the people turn away from resistance. The purpose of the pressures which are exerted on the West Bank - on the issue of Jewish settlements, on the issue of Quds, which was referred to by one of the friends in this meeting, on the issue of shocking and drastic measures, on the issue of the Israeli West Bank barrier and other such issues - is to make the people turn away from resistance and to submit. We should not allow this to happen. You should not allow this to happen. You should keep the people of Palestine and Gaza - these resistant and strong people - hopeful so that they know their great movement will produce results.
The issue of Palestine is an issue of Islam regardless of being Arab or non-Arab
Mar 15, 2009
Two months ago the Muslim Ummah gained another victory - that is, the victory of the Palestinian Resistance Movement over their Zionist enemies in Gaza. That was a great and glorious victory. What victory can be more impressive than defeating a powerful army that had managed to defeat three powerful armies between 1967and 1973? What could be more impressive than 22 days of futile efforts of a powerful army against the resisting youth and persistent soldiers of Gaza? The Zionist army was forced to retreat empty-handed. In addition, the Zionist regime and its supporters, especially the US, were disgraced in the world. They were publicly disgraced. That was a great victory for all Muslims. It led Muslims to a kind of unity. This time they could not resort to the Shia-Sunni conflict. They brought up the issue of ethnicity this time. They started a debate, arguing that the Palestinian issue was an Arab issue and that non-Arabs had no right to get involved in the issue. The Palestinian issue is an Islamic issue. It is not peculiar to Arabs or non-Arabs.
If ethnicity was dragged into the matters of importance to the world of Islam, the greatest source of discord would be created. When ethnicity is dragged into the matters of importance to the world of Islam, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, Kurds, Indonesians, Malaysians, Pakistanis, and Indians will have to be separate from one another. What will remain of the Muslim Ummah if such a thing happens? Is it not a disaster for the Muslim Ummah and its collective capabilities?
These are the machinations of arrogant powers and, unfortunately, some people in the world of Islam have fallen for these machinations. They do not want to let the sweet memory of the victories in Lebanon and Gaza remain in the minds of Muslims. They found that situation unpleasant and, therefore, they thought up a source of discord to separate Muslims from one another.
Providing all-inclusive assistance to Palestinians and thoroughly supporting them is kafa’i obligation for Muslims
Mar 4, 2009
Our great community, with the blessing of the Islamic awakening, possesses tremendous power. The key to the solution of many of the problems of the Muslim countries lies in resoluteness and solidarity. The question of Palestine is the most urgent problem of the Islamic world.
At times some people are heard to say that Palestine is an Arab problem. What does that mean? If it means that there is a stronger feeling of consanguinity among the Arabs, who are willing to offer Palestine a greater service and do more struggle for its sake, that is something desirable and we welcome it. But if it means that the heads of some Arab countries should refuse to pay any heed to the cries of help of the Palestinian people which are addressed to all Muslims, if it means that they may collaborate with the ruthless usurper enemy in such an important case as the tragedy of Gaza while loudly condemning others who cannot remain indifferent to their call of duty to help Gaza- then no proud and conscientious Muslim or Arab will accept it, nor spare the speaker of disapproval and reproach. It is the same as the logic of Akhzam, who used to beat his father and chide others for interfering. After him, his son would assault the grandfather with his fists. The fable is the source of an Arabic proverb. (Which means: My sons have left me covered with blood, a custom that I know was laid down by Akhzam)
Offering a multi-faceted assistance to the people of Palestine and complete support is a joint duty of all Muslims. The governments which criticize the Islamic Republic of Iran and some other Muslim countries for assisting Palestine should come forward to bear the burden of such support so that others are relieved of this Islamic duty. But if they lack the ability and courage to do so, instead of criticism and causing hindrance, they should appreciate the dutiful and courageous steps taken by others.
Palestine will regain its Islamic-Arabic identity
Mar 4, 2009
A big fallacy which has taken control of the minds of some persons concerning the problem of Palestine is that a country named Israel is a 60-year old reality with which one has to reconcile. I do not know why these people do not learn from other realities that are in front of their eyes. Is it not a fact that the countries of the Balkans, Caucasus, and Southwest Asia reclaimed their identity after 80 years of loss, and after being parts of the former Soviet Union? Why cannot Palestine, which is part of the body of the Islamic world, reclaim its Islamic and Arab identity? Why cannot the Palestinian youths, who are among the most astute and resistant of Arab youth, overcome this unjust reality by their will and resolution?
Another big fallacy is to say that negotiation is the only means of deliverance for the Palestinian nation. With whom are these negotiations to be held? With a usurper, misguided and bullying regime which does not believe in anything except force? What have those who have been captivated with this game and delusion achieved?
Firstly, what they obtained from the Zionists in the form of the Palestinian Authority- its humiliating and disgraceful character aside- was at the enormous cost of having to recognize the ownership of the usurper regime over nearly the entire Palestine.
Secondly, even that partial and fake authority was at times trampled underfoot by the Zionists under flimsy excuses. The siege of Yasser Arafat in his administrative building in Ramallah and numerous forms of humiliation he was made to suffer are not events that can be forgotten.
Thirdly, during Arafat's days and especially after him, they have treated the officials of the autonomous Authority as police-station chiefs whose duty was to prosecute and arrest Palestinian combatants and to keep them under intelligence and police surveillance, thus spreading seeds of enmity among Palestinian groups and prompting them to wage war against one another.
Fourthly, even that puny achievement was the fruit of the struggle of Palestinian combatants and resistance of its proud men and indomitable women. Had the Intifada not occurred, the Zionists would not have given them even this little, despite the successive compromises made by the conventional Palestinian leaders. Or shall it be negotiations with the United States and Britain, who are guilty of the biggest sin in creating and sustaining this malignant tumor, and who moreover, are one of the parties to the dispute and not arbiters? The United States government has never ceased its unconditional support for the Zionist regime and its flagrant crimes, such as those committed during the recent events in Gaza.
9/11: a plot for an Israel-centered Middle East
Sep 14, 2007
The Americans used the event that happened on the 20th of Shahrivar - that is to say, the 11th of September - four, five years ago as a pretext to pursue their greedy desires in the Middle East region. Their main goal was to build a kind of Middle East which would pivot around the interests of Israel. As we used to say in those days, they wanted to build a kind of Middle East whose capital would be Israel... Analyze each and every part of this plot. In Palestine, this plot failed to achieve results. In Palestine - which was a strategic point - this plot failed. Why? Because in Palestine, it was Hamas, the biggest and the main opposition group against Israel, which formed the government after being elected by the people. Is there any slap across the face - delivered to America and Israel - which is harder than this? Since the day that this government was formed, they are constantly creating obstacles so that they can throw it out of the arena. But they have not managed to do this until today. Unfortunately, they have received help from a number of Palestinians in order to bring this popular government to its knees. But, thankfully, they have not managed to do this until today. We hope that they will not manage to do this from now on either.
Palestine should be ruled by a single government elected by all Palestinians
Apr 14, 2006
Today, all Muslim nations should treat the issue of Palestine as their own issue. This is a mysterious key that will open the doors of deliverance to the Muslim Ummah. Palestine should return to the Palestinian nation, and a single Palestinian government, elected by all Palestinians, should administer the entire Palestinian territories.
The fifty-year efforts of Britain and the United States and Zionists to remove the word 'Palestine' from world maps and incorporate the Palestinian nation into other nations have proved futile, and their pressures, injustice and cruelty have yielded contrary results. Today, the Palestinian people are livelier, more valorous and more efficient than their predecessors who lived some sixty years ago.
This process which has emerged as a result of faith, jihad and the glorious Intifada will continue, and this divine promise will be fulfilled that "Allah has promised to those of you who believe and do good that He will most certainly make them rulers in the earth as He made rulers those before them, and that He will most certainly establish for them their religion which He has chosen for them, and that He will most certainly, after their fear, give them security in exchange; they shall serve Me, not associating aught with Me; and those who disbelieve henceforth, they are rebellious and wicked." (the Holy Qur'an, 24: 55)
It is also possible in a vaster arena, namely the Islamic world, to achieve the noble objective of freedom from domination, bullying and intervention on the part of colonialists and live under the banner of Islam, but this is contingent on a jihad of a different kind, namely a scientific, political and moral jihad.
The usurping of Palestine for a long period of time was plotted, executed by Western politicians
Apr 14, 2006
The present age is the era of Islamic awakening, and Palestine lies at the center of this awakening. Almost sixty years have passed since the occupation of Palestine, and the oppressed Palestinian people have endured hard times and undergone various trials, ranging from desperate empty-handed resistance following the occupation, homelessness and displacement, witnessing the destruction of their homes and the massacre of their relatives and dear ones to seeking assistance from international organizations and engaging in futile political deals and the gamble of negotiation with the occupier, a gamble that yielded nothing but a heavy loss, and the mediation of those powers that were the main culprits in the creation and continuation of their plight and suffering.
The outcome of this historic experience helped the new zealous generation of this valorous nation to reach the summit of awakening and broad-mindedness and caused the volcano of the Intifada to erupt.
On the opposite front also various steps were taken on a different path, ranging from merciless and unbridled ferocity, genocide and wrathful demolition, military aggression against neighbors and claims to the territories from the Nile to the Euphrates, to political and economic encroachment on the region by profiting from the weakness and betrayal on the part of certain politicians of the Islamic world and, all of a sudden, confronting the awakening of the sleeping lion of Palestine and the roaring Intifada of a nation fed up with and rising against oppression.
Today, the product of this adventurous process, which was reliant all the time on the money and might of the United States and Britain and their shameful support for Zionist criminals, is wavering and despair on the part of those ruling the usurper Zionist regime and their coming face to face with the sweeping wave of rising Islamic awakening.
It is true that Palestine is even today the scene of the most heinous crimes in human history being committed by alien and usurper Zionists against the oppressed owners of Palestinian territories, and the most brutal atrocities are being openly and boastfully perpetrated by the Zionist regime in an unprecedented manner.
However, a glance at what has happened over the past sixty years reveals a surprising reality, which serves as a lesson, and this reality is nothing but a great change on the scene and the shift of power from one front to the other both in Palestine and in the Middle East and the Islamic world.
As a matter of fact, Western politicians had planned and given rise to the tragedy of the usurpation of Palestine with the intention of ensuring their long-term control and domination of Palestinian territories.
The story of the usurping of Palestine
Apr 14, 2006
Think of the Palestine of the 1940's: a land in the heart of the Arab world, a poor country with a weak government and an unaware nation and some neighbors installed by colonial powers. The wealthiest and most evil Western government with the greatest stockpile of arms and weapons, provoked by the Zionists, took it away from Muslims and entrusted it to a racist, belligerent and terrorist party which received support from all Western countries and from both of the world's two political blocs that were at odds with each other.
It also received services from the puppet regimes in the region, including the Pahlavi regime in Iran and others that had turned their backs on Islam and Arab nations. It was provided with money, weapons, science and technology from everywhere. The United States acted as its guardian, attorney and caterer, and this was the only issue on which the former Soviet Union expressed no disagreement with the United States.
The UN resolutions, even in their weak and conservative form, were utterly ignored by the forged and rogue Zionist regime. Relying on the backing and support on the part of the United States and Europe, the Zionist regime launched a military offensive on Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon and occupied some parts of their territories with the intention of annexing them.
The Zionist regime openly and audaciously made threats to assassinate, kill and plunder, and notorious terrorists took power one after another in this regime, the last of whom was the infamous butcher of 'Sabra and Shatila'. For tens of years, the usurper Zionist regime remained on the scene of Palestine with a violent, inflexible and invincible face.
U.S. is the main culprit in the failure of resolving the Palestinian issue
Feb 7, 2005
Those powers that claim to oppose tyranny and dictatorship are themselves the most despotic and tyrannical regimes in the world. Even in the case of Palestine, it is the U.S. officials and nobody else that are to blame for the Middle East issue not having been resolved yet. They claim that Iran is preventing the settlement of the Middle East dispute! But it is in fact the U.S. officials that are doing so. Disregarding a nation has no result except this. You are trying to eliminate the Palestinian nation with a several-thousand-year historical background from the political equations of the region, something which is not possible. This is why you are experiencing defeat and failure. You are supporting and backing up a rabid dog that is attacking Palestinian men, women, children, the young and the elderly. It is clear that the Middle East issue will not be solved in this manner. One should be naïve if he thinks that it is possible to trample a nation and still expect them to do nothing in the face of oppression, tyranny and pressure. This is not possible.
It is a few years now since the beginning of the Intifada in Palestine. The young Palestinian generation that is the motive force of the Intifada will not be diverted by worldly enticements. It is not possible to put out the flame of the Intifada, unless you recognize the rights of the Palestinian nation and opt for the solution to the issue of Palestine that has been presented by the Islamic Republic.
This solution calls for holding a referendum on the future of Palestine among all the Palestinians who belong to this land, and for the establishment of a government based on the results of the referendum. The established government can then decide about the non-Palestinian immigrants currently living in Palestine. | {
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On the 19th of April 1939, the future Leader of Islamic Iran was born in the holy city of Mashhad, in the province of Khorasan. Sayyed Ali was the second son of Sayyed Javad Khamenei, a humble and poor Islamic scholar who taught all members of his family how to lead a simple, humble way of life.
"My father, though a well-known religious figure, was a bit of an ascetic. We had a hard life. Sometimes for supper we had nothing but bread with some raisins, which our mother had somehow improvised.... our house, some sixty-five square meters, consisted of a single room and a gloomy basement. When visitors came to see my father as the local cleric to consult about their problems, the family had to move into the basement while the visit went on.... Years later some charitable persons bought the small, empty lot adjacent to our house, so we were able to build two more rooms."
Detailed biography of Ayatollah Khamenei, the Leader of Islamic Revolution
EDUCATION
At the age of four Sayyed Ali and his older brother Mohammad, were sent to maktab, the traditional primary-schools of that time, in order to learn the alphabet and the Holy Quran. Later, he was transferred to a newly established Islamic school to continue his learning.
After this primary schooling, Sayyed Ali pursued his studies at the theological seminary in Mashhad. "The main encouraging factors for this enlightened decision were my parents, especially my father" says Ayatollah Khamenei today.
At Soleiman Khan and Nawwab religious schools and under the supervision of his father and the tutorships of some great religious scholars, he studied all the 'intermediate level ' curriculum including logic, philosophy and Islamic jurisprudence in the exceptionally short time of five years. He then started his advanced level studies called darse kharij with such eminent scholars and instructors as Grand Ayatollah Milani.
THE FAMED SEMINARIES OF NAJAF AND QUM
The young Sayyed Ali was only eighteen years old when he started his studies at the highest level. He decided to make a pilgrimage to the holy shrines in Iraq, and so he left Iran for Najaf in 1957. He was fascinated by the theological and academic instructions of such eminent scholars such as Ayatollah Hakim and Ayatollah Shahrudi. He attended their lessons and was willing to stay there and continue his studies in order to profit from these excellent teachers. However his father made it known that he preferred his son continue his advanced studies in the holy city of Qum. Thus, respecting his father's wish, he returned to Iran in 1958.
Diligently and enthusiastically he followed his advanced studies in Qum from 1958 to 1964 and benefited from the teachings of great scholars and grand ayatollahs such as Ayat. Borujerdi, Imam Khomeini, Ayat. Haeri Yazdi and Allamah Tabatabai.
He received the bad news that his father had lost his sight in one eye and was not able to read properly. This prompted him to return to Mashhad and while being at the service of his father, seek further knowledge from him, from Ayatollah Milani and other important scholars residing in Mashhad. The young Sayyed Ali, who had now become a mujtahid by having completed his advanced level studies, began to teach various religious subjects to younger seminary and university students.
Recalling this important point of departure in his life, the Leader says, "If there have been any successes in my life, they all go back to God's blessings favored upon me because of my dutiful caring for parents."
POLITICAL ACTIVITIES
"In the areas of political and revolutionary ideas and Islamic jurisprudence, I am certainly a disciple of Imam Khomeini" says Ayatollah Khamenei. He adds: "Yet the very first sparks of consciousness concerning Islamic, revolutionary ideas and the duty to fight the Shah's despotism and his British supporters, was kindled in my soul at the age of 13 when the brave cleric, Nawwab Safavi, later martyred by the Shah's regime, came to our school in Mashhad in 1952 and delivered a fiery speech against the Shah's anti-Islamic and devious policies."
It was in Qum in 1962, that Sayyed Ali joined the ranks of the revolutionary followers of Imam Khomeini who opposed the pro-American, anti-Islamic policies of the Shah's regime.
Dedicated and fearless, he followed this path for the next 16 years which ultimately led to the downfall of the Shah's brutal regime: persecution, torture, imprisonment and exile could not make him waver for a moment.
In May of 1963 (corresponding to the holy month of Muharram), Imam Khomeini honored the young, brave cleric Sayyed Ali, with the mission of taking a secret message to Ayatollah Milani and other clergymen in Mashhad, on the ways and tactics of exposing the true nature of the Shah's regime. He fulfilled this mission properly and traveled to the city of Birjand for further propagation of Imam Khomeini's views. Here he was arrested for the first time and spent one night in jail. The following the authorities ordered him not to speak at the pulpit again. From that moment he knew that he would be under police surveillance all the time. Of course he did not submit to police threats, and as a result of his activities relating to the bloody June 1963 Uprising (15th of Khordad ), he was again arrested and transferred to Mashhad to spend ten days in prison under severe conditions.
In January 1964 (Ramadhan 1383), according to a well-organized plan, Ayatollah Khamenei and a few close friends traveled to Kirman and Zahedan in southern Iran, to expose the phony referendum the Shah was holding for his so-called reforms. There in the course of many public speeches, he exposed the satanic American policies of the Pahlavi regime. This time, the Shah's feared intelligence agency, SAVAK, stepped in and arrested him one late evening. He was taken to Tehran by an airplane to spend two months in solitary confinement during which time he was tortured.
Once freed, he started holding lessons on the exegeses of the Holy Quran, the Prophetic Traditions and Islamic ideology in Mashhad and Tehran. These lessons were most appreciated by the revolutionary Iranian youth. As he was sure now that SAVAK was watching him closely, he was forced to go underground in 1967. However, he was arrested again for holding such classes and Islamic discussions.
Ayatollah Khamenei has himself explained the reasons for such measures by SAVAK:
"From 1970 onwards, grounds for an armed movement were being laid out. Accordingly the regime's sensitivity and severity of action against me increased. They could not believe that the armed actions were not connected with a sound, Islamic ideology. They thought that there must be links between these revolutionaries and people like me because of my intellectual and diligent activities. Despite all this, after I was released, more and more people attended my classes on the Holy Quran and many were present at our clandestine gatherings."
LAST ARREST AND EXILE
Throughout the years 1972-1975, Ayatollah Khamenei was holding classes on the Holy Quran and Islamic ideology in three different mosques in Mashhad. These classes together with his lectures on Imam Ali's (as) Nahjul Balagha attracted thousands of conscious, politically-minded youth and students. The lectures were circulated among the people in hand-written or typed forms, in most towns and cities.
His students traveled to distant cities to spread his lessons and ideas. All this frightened the Shah's SAVAK agents and so, in the winter of 1975, they broke into his home in Mashhad and arrested him for the 6th time and confiscated all his books and notes.
Now he was detained in Tehran's notorious "Police-SAVAK Joint Prison" for many months. This had been his most trying imprisonment, and Ayatollah Khamenei has this to say about the barbarous treatment of the detainees: "These conditions may be understood only by those who suffered them..."
In the autumn of 1975, he was freed and sent back to Mashhad and he was now completely banned from delivering lectures or holding classes.
His clandestine activities, however, prompted SAVAK to apprehend him in the winter of 1976 and sentence him to exile for three years. This difficult period came to an end in the latter part of 1978 due to the prevailing political conditions, and Ayatollah Khamenei returned to Mashhad a few months before the triumph of the Islamic revolution. He diligently continued his political-religious activities in this momentous period of civil unrest and mass demonstrations throughout Iran.
Thus, after nearly 15 years of bearing all sorts of torture and maltreatment at the hands of the agents of the Shah's bloodthirsty regime, he could now witness the fall of the tyrannical Pahlavi regime and the rise of an Islamic Republic in Iran.
THE VICTORY OF THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION
Shortly before the triumph of the Islamic Revolution (February 11, 1979) and before Imam Khomeini's victorious return to Iran from Paris, an Islamic Revolutionary Council was formed at the behest of the Imam. Ayatollah Khamenei was appointed as a member of this Council together with other important Islamic notables such Shahid Ayatollahs Motahhari and Beheshti. He, therefore, left Mashhad for Tehran to take up his new responsibilities.
NEW RESPONSIBILITIES
The following is a list of the services he has rendered to the Islamic Republic since that time:
1980- Founding member of the Islamic Republic Party, together with such religious scholars and Mujahids as Shahid Beheshti, Rafsanjani, Shahid Bahonar, and Musavi-Ardebili.
• Deputy-Minister of Defence
• Supervisor of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards
• Imam of Tehran's Friday Congregational Prayers, per Imam Khomeini's decree.
• Elected Tehran MP in the Majlis (Consultative Assembly)
1981- Imam Khomeini's Representative at the High Council of Defence
• Active presence at the fronts of the Iraqi-imposed war.
1982- Elected President of the Islamic Republic of Iran following the martyrdom of President Mohammad Ali Rajai (Ayatollah Khamenei was himself the target of an assassination attempt at Abu Dhar mosque in Tehran after which he was hospitalized for a few months).
• Appointed Chairman of the Revolution's Cultural Council.
1986- President of the Expediency Council
• Re-elected President of the Islamic Republic for a second 4-year term
1989- Elected as the Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran by the Assembly of Experts after the demise of Imam Khomeini.
1990- Chairman of the Committee for Revision of the Constitution.
WORKS AUTHORED AND TRANSLATIONS
Works Authored
1. Islamic Thought in the Quran (An Outline)
2. The Profundity of Prayer
3. A Discourse on Patience
4. On the Four Principal Books of Traditions Concerning the Biography of Narrators.
5. Guardianship (Wilayah)
6. A General Report of the Islamic Seminary of Mashhad
7. Imam Al-Saadiq (AS)
8. Unity and Political Parties
9. Personal Views on the Arts
10. Understanding Religion Properly
11. Struggles of Shia Imams (as)
12. The Essence of God's Unity
13. The Necessity of Returning to the Quran
14. Imam Al-Sajjad (as)
15. Imam Reza (as) and His Appointment as Crown Prince.
16. The Cultural Invasion (Collection of Speeches)
17. Collections of Speeches and Messages ( 9 Volumes )
Translations (from Arabic into Farsi)
1. Peace Treaty of Imam Hassan (AS) , by Raazi Aal-Yasseen
2. The Future in Islamic Lands, by Sayyed Qutb
3. Muslims in the Liberation Movement of India, by Abdulmunaim Nassri
4. An Indictment against the Western Civilization, by Sayyed Gutb | {
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Introduction
Imam Ayatollah Seyed Ruhollah Musavi Khomeini (May 17, 1900 – June 3, 1989) was a Muslim cleric and Marja, and the political leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of Iran which overthrew Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran. Following the Revolution, Imam Khomeini became Grand Leader of Iran — the paramount figure in the political system of the new Islamic Republic — until his demise.
Imam Khomeini was considered a Marja-e taqlid to many Muslims, and in Iran was officially addressed as Imam rather than Grand Ayatollah; his supporters adhere to this convention. Imam Khomeini was also a highly-influential and innovative Islamic political theorist, most noted for his development of the theory of velayat-e faqih, the "guardianship of the jurisconsult."
Imam Khomeini
Early Years
Family and early years
Ruhollah Mousavi was born to Ayatollah Seyyed Mostafa Musavi and Hajieh Agha Khanum, also called Hajar, in the town of Khomein, about 300 kilometers south of the capital Tehran, Iran, possibly on May 17, 1900 or September 24, 1902. He was a Seyyed from a religious family that are descendants of Prophet Mohammad, through the seventh Imam, (Imam Mousa Kazem). His paternal grandfather was Seyyed Ahmad Musavi, whose third wife, Sakineh, gave birth to Mostafa in 1856. Imam Khomeini's maternal grandfather was Mirza Ahmad Mojtahed-e Khonsari, a high-ranking cleric in central Iran whose Fatwa for banning usage of Tobacco in opposition to a monopoly granted by Shah to a British company, led to cancellation of the concession.
Imam Khomeini's father was murdered when he was five months old, and he was raised by his mother and one of his aunts. Later, when he was 15, his mother and aunt died in the same year. At the age of six he began to study the Quran, Islam's holy book. He received his early education at home and at the local school, under the supervision of Mullah Abdul-Qassem and Sheikh Jaffar, and was under the guardianship of his elder brother, Ayatollah Pasandideh, until he was 18 years old. Arrangements were made for him to study at the Islamic seminary in Esfahan, but he was attracted, instead, to the seminary in Arak, which was renowned for its scholastic brilliance under the leadership of Ayatollah Sheikh Abdol-Karim Haeri-Yazdi (himself a pupil of some of the greatest scholars of Najaf and Karbala in Iraq).
In 1921, Imam Khomeini commenced his studies in Arak. The following year, Ayatollah Haeri-Yazdi transferred the Islamic seminary to the holy city of Qom, and invited his students to follow. Imam Khomeini accepted the invitation, moved, and took up residence at the Dar al-Shafa school in Qom before being exiled to the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. After graduation, he taught Islamic jurisprudence (Sharia), Islamic philosophy and mysticism (Irfan) for many years and wrote numerous books on these subjects.
Although during this scholarly phase of his life Imam Khomeini was not politically active, the nature of his studies, teachings, and writings revealed that he firmly believed from the beginning in political activism by clerics. Three factors support this suggestion. First, his interest in Islamic studies surpassed the bounds of traditional subjects of Islamic law (Sharia), jurisprudence (Fiqh), and principles (Usul) and the like. He was keenly interested in philosophy and ethics. Second, his teaching focused often on the overriding relevance of religion to practical social and political issues of the day. Third, he was the first Iranian cleric to try to refute the outspoken advocacy of secularism in the 1940s. His now well-known book, Kashf-e Asrar (Discovery of Secrets) was a point by point refutation of Asrar-e Hezar Saleh (Secrets of a Thousand Years), a tract written by a disciple of Iran's leading anti-clerical historian, Ahmad Kasravi. Also he went from Qom to Tehran to listen to Ayatollah Hassan Modarres —the leader of the opposition majority in Iran's parliament during 1920s.
Imam Khomeini became a Marja in 1963, following the death of Grand Ayatollah Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi.
Early Political Activity
In this time he could represent his religious-political ideas openly. Because the deaths of the leading, although quiescent, Shia religious leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Mohammad Borujerdi (1961), and of the activist cleric Ayatollah Abol-Ghasem Kashani (1962) left the arena of leadership open to Imam Khomeini, who had attained a prominent religious standing by the age of 60. In addition, although ever since the rise of Reza Shah Pahlavi to power in the 1920s the clerical class had been on the defensive because of his secular and anticlerical policies and those of his son, Mohammad Reza Shah, these policies reached their peak in the early 1960s with "White Revolution."
Opposition to White Revolution
Imam Khomeini first became politically active in 1962. When the White Revolution proclaimed by the Shah's government in Iran called for land reform, nationalization of the forests, the sale of state-owned enterprises to private interests, electoral changes to enfranchise women, profit sharing in industry, and an anti-illiteracy campaign in the nation's schools. Most of these initiatives were regarded as dangerous, Westernizing trends by traditionalists, especially the powerful and privileged religious scholars (Ulama) who felt keenly threatened. The Ulama instigated anti-government riots throughout the country. They found the White Revolution a sustainable ideological framework to support a particular relation of domination, in this case the monarchy of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. This was above all a hegemonic project intended to portray the Shah as a revolutionary leader through the utilization of social and historical myths reinterpreted through the prism of contemporary, often conflicting ideological constructs, such as nationalism and modernism.
In January 1963, the Shah announced a six-point program of reform called the White Revolution, an American-inspired package of measures designed to give his regime a liberal and progressive facade. Imam Khomeini summoned a meeting of his colleagues (other Ayatollahs) in Qom to press upon them the necessity of opposing the Shah's plans. Imam Khomeini persuaded the other senior Marjas of Qom to decree a boycott of the referendum that the Shah had planned to obtain the appearance of popular approval for his White Revolution. Imam Khomeini issued on January 22, 1963 a strongly worded declaration denouncing the Shah and his plans. Two days later Shah took armored column to Qom, and he delivered a speech harshly attacking the ''ulama'' as a class. Imam Khomeini continued his denunciation of the Shah's programs, issuing a manifesto that also bore the signatures of eight other senior scholars. In it, he listed the various ways in which the Shah allegedly had violated the Constitution, condemned the spread of moral corruption in the country, and accused the Shah of comprehensive submission to America and Israel. He also decreed that the Nowruz celebrations for the Iranian year 1342 (March 21, 1963) be cancelled as a sign of protest against government policies. In the afternoon of Ashura (June 3, 1963), Imam Khomeini delivered a speech at the Feiziyeh Madreseh seminary in which he drew parallels between Yazid and the Shah and warned the Shah that if he did not change his ways, the day would come when the people would offer up thanks for his departure from the country.
Following Imam Khomeini's public denunciation of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi as a "wretched miserable man" and his arrest, on June 5, 1963 (Khordad 15, on the Iranian calendar), three days of major riots erupted throughout Iran with nearly 400 killed. Imam Khomeini was kept under house arrest for 8 months and was released in 1964.
Also this was a turning point in political viewpoint of Islam. The clergies had supported Shia monarchy since establishment of Safavids and this was the main source of legitimacy of monarchs. Shia clergies had advised them to be just and obey Ja'fari jurisprudence. Also monarchs didn't enforce religious rules which restricted or threatened religious life and institutions and defended the Shia territory of Iran. But Reza Shah transformed the Iranian monarchy into a modern dictatorship. The modernizing programs of Pahlavi dynasty restricted and threatened religious life and made clergies be against monarchy and finally Imam Khomeini decide to fight with them and build another state comparable to religious rules.
Opposition to capitulation
During November of 1964, Imam Khomeini made a denunciation of both the Shah and the United States, this time in response to the "capitulations" or diplomatic immunity granted to American military personnel in Iran by the Shah. In Nov. 1964 Imam Khomeini was re-arrested and sent into exile.
Life in exile
Imam Khomeini spent over 14 years in exile, mostly in the holy city of Najaf in Iraq. Initially, he was sent to Turkey on 4 November 1964, where he stayed in the city of Bursa for less than a year. He was hosted by a Turkish Colonel named Ali Cetiner in his own residence, who couldn't find another accommodation alternative for his stay at the time. Later in October 1965 he was allowed to move to Najaf, Iraq, where he stayed until being forced to leave in 1978, after then-Vice President Saddam Hossein forced him out (the two countries would fight a bitter eight year war 1980-1988 only a year after the beginning of Imam Khomeini’s leadership in Iran and the start of Saddam Hussein’s term in Iraq) after which he went to Neauphle le Château in France.
Logically, in the 1970s, as contrasted with the 1940s, he no longer accepted the idea of a limited monarchy under the Iranian Constitution of 1906-1907, an idea that was clearly evidenced by his book Kashf-e Asrar. In his Islamic Government (Hokumat-e Islami) — which is a collection of his lectures in Najaf published in 1970 — he rejected both the Iranian Constitution as an alien import from Belgium and monarchy in general. He believed that the government was an un-Islamic and illegitimate institution usurping the legitimate authority of the supreme religious leader (Faqih), who should rule as both the spiritual and temporal guardian of the Muslim community (Umma).
In early 1970 Imam Khomeini gave a lecture series in Najaf on Islamic Government which later was published as a book titled variously Islamic Government or Guardianship of the Islamic Jurists (velayat-e faqih). This was his most famous and influential work and laid out his ideas on governance (at that time):
That the laws of society should be made up only of the laws of God (Sharia), which cover "all human affairs" and "provide instruction and establish norms" for every "topic" in "human life."
Since Sharia, or Islamic law, is the proper law, those holding government posts should have knowledge of Sharia (Islamic jurists are such people), and that the country's ruler should be a faqih who "surpasses all others in knowledge" of Islamic law and justice, as well as having intelligence and administrative ability. Rule by monarchs and/or assemblies of "those claiming to be representatives of the majority of the people" (i.e. elected parliaments and legislatures) have been proclaimed "wrong" by Islam unless approved by the faqih.
This system of clerical rule is necessary to prevent injustice: corruption, oppression by the powerful over the poor and weak, innovation and deviation of Islam and Sharia law; and also to destroy anti-Islamic influence and conspiracies by non-Muslim foreign powers.
A modified form of this Velayat-e Faqih system was adopted after Imam Khomeini and his followers took power, and he became the Islamic Republic's first "Guardian" or Grand Leader.
In the meantime, however, Imam Khomeini was careful not to publicize his ideas for clerical rule outside of his Islamic network of opposition to the Shah which he worked to build and strengthen over the next decade. Cassette copies of his lectures fiercely denouncing the Shah as, for example, "the Jewish agent, the American snake whose head must be smashed with a stone," became common items on the markets of Iran, helped to demythologize the power and dignity of the Shah and his reign.
As protest grew, so did Imam Khomeini’s profile and importance. During the last few months of his exile, Imam Khomeini received a constant stream of reporters, supporters, and notables, eager to hear the spiritual leader of the revolution.
Grand Leader of Islamic Republic of Iran
Return to Iran
Only two weeks after the Shah fled Iran on January 16, 1979, Imam Khomeini returned to Iran triumphantly, on Thursday, February 1, 1979, invited by the anti-Shah revolution which was already in progress.
Conservative estimates put the welcoming crowd of Iranians at least three million. When Imam Khomeini was on plane on his way to Iran after many years in exile, a reporter, Peter Jennings asked him: "What do you feel?" and surprisingly Imam Khomeini answered "Nothing!"
In a speech given to a huge crowd on the first day of returning to Iran, Imam Khomeini attacked the government of Shapoor Bakhtiar promising "I shall punch their teeth in." He also made a variety of promises to Iranians for his coming Islamic regime: A popularly elected government that would represent the people of Iran.
Establishment of new government
On February 11, Imam Khomeini declared a provisional government. On March 30, 1979, and March 31, 1979, the provisional government asked all Iranians sixteen years of age and older, male and female, to vote in a referendum on the question of accepting an Islamic Republic as the new form of government and constitution. Through the ballot box, over 98% voted in favor of replacing the monarchy with an Islamic Republic. Subsequent elections were held to approve of the newly-drafted Constitution. Along with the position of the Grand Leader, the constitution also requires that a president be elected every four years, but only those candidates approved indirectly by the Council of Guardians may run for the office. Imam Khomeini himself became instituted as the Grand Leader for life, and officially decreed as the "Leader of the Revolution." After assuming power, Islam was made the basis of Iran's new constitution and obedience to Islamic laws made compulsory.
Relationship with other Islamic nations
Imam Khomeini intended to reconstruct Muslim unity and solidarity, so he declared the birth week of Prophet of Islam (the week between 12th to 17th of Rabi'al-Awwal in Islamic Hegira calendar) as the Unity Week. Then he declared the last Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan as the International Day of Quds in 1979.
But because of Islamic ideology of Islamic Republic of Iran, most rulers of other Muslim nations turned against him and supported Iraq in the imposed war against Iran, even though most of Islamic parties and organizations supported his idea.
Iran-Iraq War
Saddam Hussein, Iraq's secular Arab nationalist Ba'athist leader, was eager to take advantage of Iran's weakened military and (what he assumed was) revolutionary chaos, and in particular to occupy Iran's adjacent oil-rich province of Khuzestan and undermine attempts by Iranian Islamic revolutionaries to incite the Shia majority of his country.
With what many believe was the encouragement of the United States, Saudi Arabia and other countries, Iraq soon launched a full scale invasion of Iran, starting what would become the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq War (September 1980 - August 1988). A combination of fierce patriot resistance by Iranians and military incompetence by Iraqi forces soon stalled the Iraqi advance and by early 1982 Iran regained almost all the territory lost to the invasion. The invasion rallied Iranians behind the new regime, enhancing Imam Khomeini's stature and allowed him to consolidate and stabilize his leadership.
Although outside powers supplied arms to both sides during the war, the West (America in particular) became alarmed by the possibility of the Islamic Revolution spreading throughout the oil-exporting Persian Gulf oil and began to supply Iraq with whatever help it needed. The war continued for another six years, with 450,000 to 950,000 casualties on the Iranian side and the use of chemical weaponry by the Iraqi military.
As the costs of the eight-year war mounted, Imam Khomeini, in his words, "drank the cup of poison" and accepted a truce mediated by the United Nations. As the war ended, the struggles among the clergy resumed and Imam Khomeini’s health began to decline.
Rushdie Fatwa
In early 1989, Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa calling for the killing of Salman Rushdie, an Indian-born British author. Imam Khomeini claimed that Rushdie's murder was a religious duty for Muslims because of his alleged blasphemy against Prophet Mohammad in his novel, The Satanic Verses. Rushdie's book contains passages that some Muslims — including Ayatollah Imam Khomeini — considered offensive to Islam and the Prophet. Though Rushdie publicly apologized, the fatwa was not revoked, Imam Khomeini explaining that "even if Salman Rushdie repents and becomes the most pious man of all time, it is incumbent on every Muslim to employ everything he has got, his life and wealth, to send him to Hell."
Letter to Mikhail S. Gorbachev
In December 1988 (before the fall of the Berlin Wall), Ayatollah Imam Khomeini sent a letter to USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev predicting the fall of Communism and inviting him to study and research Islam. In his historical letter he wrote: "It is clear to everyone that Communism should henceforth be sought in world museums of political history."
Life under Imam Khomeini
Under Imam Khomeini's rule, Sharia (Islamic law) was introduced, with the Islamic dress code enforced for both men and women. Women had to cover their hair, and men were not allowed to wear shorts.
Life for religious minorities has been mixed under Imam Khomeini and his successors. Shortly after his return from exile in 1979, Imam Khomeini issued a fatwa ordering that Jews and other minorities (except Bahai) be treated well. By law, several seats in the Parliament are reserved for minority religions. Imam Khomeini also called for unity between Sunni and Shia Muslims (Sunni Muslims are the largest religious minority in Iran).
Death and funeral
After eleven days in a hospital for an operation to stop internal bleeding, Imam Khomeini died of cancer on Saturday, June 3, 1989, at the age of 89. Many Iranians mourned Imam Khomeini's death and poured out into the cities and streets. More than 10 million people from across the country attended Imam Khomeini’s funeral to form one of the largest ever funerals in the world.
Following Imam Khomeini’s demise, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei came to be selected on June 4, 1989 by the Assembly of Experts to be his successor, in accordance with the Constitution.
Political thought and legacy
Imam Khomeini adamantly opposed monarchy, arguing that only rule by a leading Islamic jurist would insure Sharia was properly followed (Velayat-e Faqih).
Imam Khomeini believed that Iran should strive towards self-reliance. He viewed certain elements of Western culture as being inherently decadent and a corrupting influence upon the youth. His ultimate vision was for Islamic nations to converge together into a single unified power, in order to avoid alignment with either side (the West or the East), and he believed that this would happen at some point in the near future.
Imam Khomeini expressed support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; in Sahifeh Nour (Vol. 2, page 242), he states: "We would like to act according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We would like to be free. We would like independence."
Imam Khomeini led an ascetic lifestyle, being deeply interested in mysticism, and was against the accumulation of land and wealth by the clergy.
Many of Imam Khomeini's political and religious ideas were considered to be progressive and reformist by leftist intellectuals and activists prior to the Revolution.
Imam Khomeini's definition of democracy existed within an Islamic framework. His last will and testament largely focuses on this line of thought, encouraging both the general Iranian populace, the lower economic classes in particular, and the clergy to maintain their commitment to fulfilling Islamic revolutionary ideals.
Family and descendants
In 1929, Imam Khomeini married Batol Saqafi Khomeini, the daughter of a cleric in Tehran. They had seven children, though only five survived infancy, 3 daughters and 2 sons. His sons entered into religious life. The elder son, Mostafa, was murdered in 1977 while in exile with his father in Najaf, Iraq and SAVAK (the Imperial-era secret police) was accused of his death by Imam Khomeini. Ahmad Khomeini, the younger son, died in 1995.
Imam Khomeini's grandson Seyyed Hassan Khomeini, son of the late Seyyed Ahmad Khomeini, is also a cleric and the trustee of Imam Khomeini's shrine.
Works:
Velayat-e Faqih
Forty Hadiths (Forty Traditions)
Adab-e Salat (The Disciplines of Prayers)
Jihad-e Akbar (The Greater Struggle)
Tahrir al-Wasilah
Interpretation of Surah Fatihah
Serr al-Salat (Secrets of Prayers)
Interpretation of Dawn Pray
Interpretation of Forces of Reason and Negligence Tradition
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The following is the full text of the speech delivered by Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with thousands of Iranian students on November 1, 2023. This meeting was held before National Student’s Day and the National Day of Fighting Global Arrogance celebrated annually on the 13th of Aban [4th of November].In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
All praise is due to God, Lord of the Worlds, and peace and greetings be upon our Master, Muhammad, and his pure, immaculate Progeny, particularly the Remnant of God on earth.
This meeting with you, our dear young people, our youth, and our teenagers, is a very blessed, lively, and meaningful meeting. I would like to thank those who gave presentations, those who spoke, those who performed the anthem, those who recited the Quran, and the respected host of the program.
Among the three events that took place on the 13th of Aban, the US struck a blow against the Iranian people in two of these events, and the Iranian people struck a blow against the US on one occasion. One of the two events in which the US struck a blow against the Iranian people was when Imam Khomeini was exiled on the 13th of Aban in 1343 AHSh [Nov. 4, 1964]. Imam Khomeini was exiled because he opposed the Capitulation laws.
“Capitulation” is a political term. What it means is that the employees of one country have immunity in another country. In other words, what the treasonous Pahlavi government agreed to was that US personnel in Iran have [legal] immunity. This meant that they were not tried in Iranian courts for any crime they committed. This was the law of capitulation. It is one of the most humiliating laws. Imagine if a drunk American drove a car in the streets [of Iran] and killed ten people, Iranian courts did not have the right to prosecute such a person. This person would be sent to the US to be prosecuted there.
This law was passed by the Pahlavi government. A voice was raised in opposition to this law, a forceful voice, and it was the voice of the magnanimous Imam. Imam Khomeini stood up, gave a speech, and said we would not accept that law. The outcome of this was that Imam was arrested and exiled from Iran on the 13th of Aban. So, the US was behind this. In other words, the Americans struck a blow against us.
The second blow was the killing of students. That was during the peak days of the Iranian nation's revolutionary movement. This Revolution was not just against the Pahlavi regime — it was against the Pahlavi regime and America. The police of that tyrannical regime, the Shah's police, massacred students in front of the [Tehran] University. They showered the students with bullets killing them. This also took place on the 13th of Aban. So, it was in these two events that the US struck a blow against us, the Iranian nation.
Ten months after the victory of the Revolution, on the 13th of Aban 1358 [Nov. 4, 1979], students entered the US embassy, took control of it, and uncovered the secrets and hidden documents in this embassy. The US was disgraced. This was our blow. It was the Iranian nation’s blow against the US. That’s three events.
So, what I want to say is that you, the youth of today, need to have analyses of different matters. Merely having emotions is not enough. Now I will explain what I mean by this. You need to analyze the core of the Islamic Revolution. You need to analyze the Sacred Defense, the eight-year war. You need to analyze the various events that took place in the 1360s [1980s].
You need to analyze the divergences that took place in the 1370s [1990s]. You need to analyze the various events that took place in the 1380s [2000s] and 1390s [2010s]. So you should know and realize what a certain event was about, how it started, who was behind it, and what caused it. These are examples of analyzing events.
Now I want to discuss an issue and that issue is our confrontation with the US. You’ve been chanting slogans against the US for the past hour, and there is no doubt about them. But what is the issue? Why do we have a problem with the US? The Americans themselves attribute their enmity toward the Iranian nation to the issue of the embassy — you see, what I am discussing is based on paying attention to and knowing what is being done, and what they want to do; I want you, our dear young people, to pay attention — some people follow them and repeat those same things.
What does this mean? They say that the reason the US imposes sanctions on Iran, the reason they treat Iran badly, the reason they incite riots and create problems in Iran, and the reason for America’s enmity toward Iran is that your students seized the US embassy. Both the Americans and their followers inside the country say this. During my presidency, a well-known American reporter and interviewer interviewed me in New York. The first thing he told me was, “The conflict that exists between us is due to you entering our embassy and seizing it.”
They want people to believe this, but this is a big lie. That is not the case. Twenty-six years before the event that took place at the embassy, the 28th of Mordad coup took place. No one went into the embassy at that time. In 1332 [1953], the US overthrew an independent, national government in Iran that was not affiliated with the US in a brutal, criminal coup. That is how the enmity of the US is. Therefore, America’s enmity toward the Islamic Republic, toward the Iranian nation, and toward Islamic Iran has nothing to do with the issue of the embassy.
Consider the documents that were found in the embassy. As you know, the students went in and brought the documents out. A large number of these documents had been thrown into paper shredders by the Americans. The students sat down and patiently stuck these pieces of paper back together. These documents now amount to 70 to 80 volumes of books. These documents showed that from the very first days after the victory of the Revolution the US embassy was a center of conspiracy and espionage against Iran.
A coup was even being planned in the US embassy. They wanted to stage a coup against the Revolution. They were devising a scheme to start a civil war. They were trying to launch a civil war in the provinces on the country’s border. They were planning how they could infiltrate the new Revolutionary government. They directed the counter-Revolutionary media that existed inside the country — they told them write this, say this, forge this, and spread this rumor and that rumor. They also had plans for sanctions. Therefore, from the very first days of the Revolution, the embassy was the center for planning conspiracies against the country and the Revolution. So this [US enmity] has nothing to do with the seizure of the Den of Espionage [US Embassy]. They started their activities against the Revolution long before that.
So the issue is not what the US tries to make appear to be [reality], and it is not what a few people — either naively or for various other reasons and motives — spread domestically saying, “The reason you see a power like the US is so active against the Islamic Republic is because you went and seized their embassy at that time.” No, that is not the case.
So, what is the issue? In order to understand the root of the matter, let's go back [in time] a little. I would like you young people to work carefully and thoughtfully on these issues because the future belongs to you. You are the strong arms for our country's progress. The country belongs to you and you must move forward. Let's delve a bit deeper and consider these issues.
The issue of Western influence in Iran started with the British. First, they came to Iran. Of course, starting in 1800s they infiltrated the Qajar government and gradually expanded their influence. The goal of the British was to do the same things in Iran which they had done in India. You know that India was in the clutches of the British for about 150 years. The British took the life out of India. Most of the wealth that the British have acquired stems from their colonization of India, which itself is a long story.
They wanted to do the same thing in Iran. In other words, they planned to start somewhere small, gradually build on that, and take control of the country’s economic resources. Then once the economy was in their control, political control would be easy for them. This is exactly what they did in India.
In India, they first established the East India Company. Then, when they had moved forward, they took over the Indian government. India became a part of the British Empire. That’s how it was for 150 years. They wanted to do the same thing in Iran. One of the first things they did was the monopolization of tobacco — you must have heard of the “Tobacco Movement" — where a monopoly for growing, selling, and buying tobacco in the country was given to England. The government organizations of that time during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah did not realize what this meant, so they accepted it.
[Ayatollah] Mirza Hasan Shirazi, a Shia marja [religious authority] in [the holy Iraqi city of] Samarra, understood what was going on behind this. He issued a fatwa that stopped and put an end to this agreement. This was the first thing they [England] did. It failed. There were various successive contracts of this kind. One of these important contracts was known as the “Vosuq al-Dowleh Agreement” [“Anglo-Persian Agreement”]. In the year 1919 AD or 1299 AHSh, the British gave a substantial bribe to the Iranian Prime Minister at that time [Mirza Hasan Khan Vosuq al-Dowleh] and this agreement was signed.
The Vosuq al-Dowleh Agreement placed Iran’s economy, politics, army, governing system, and everything else at the disposal of the British. This agreement was signed, but Martyr Modarres stood up all alone against this contract in the National Majlis of that time. He disclosed what was happening and did not allow them to proceed, so this contract was also cancelled. There were other contracts as well, such as the “Reuters Concession” and others, but most of these contracts were annulled, cancelled, or prevented by religious scholars.
Of course, England then took revenge on the religious scholars. The British government found that the plan they had implemented in India was not practical in Iran. They found a solution. Pay attention to this. Their solution was the following: They decided that they should instate a brutal, dictatorial government in Iran that was 100 percent dependent on them so that they wouldn’t have to worry anymore and then they could do whatever they wanted to do in Iran through that government.
They found the Cossack Reza Khan [Pahlavi] — they knew him; they saw who he was. Reza Khan was just the person that the British needed. He was a very cruel, vicious, impudent, illiterate, ignorant, roughneck, impious, faithless person. That is the type of person they found.
They took advantage of the weakness of the Qajar king, Ahmad Shah, and launched a coup in Iran using Reza Shah and another person, Sayyid Zia Tabatabai, whom they later removed. First, they made Reza Khan the commander-in-chief, then they made him the prime minister, and then they made him the Shah of Iran. What the British wanted was done in Iran.
The first thing they used Reza Shah for was to suppress the clergy and terrorize the people. They severely terrorized the people. As our parents and grandparents told us, no one dared to even breathe during the reign of Reza Shah. No one dared to criticize Reza Shah even in a private room, in a room with only two or three members of their own family!
That is how he terrorized the nation. He made the clergy stay at home, removed their turbans from their heads, closed the seminaries, publicly opposed religious laws such as hijab, and did what the British wanted to be done in Iran, that is, seizing the financial and economic resources [of the country]. He did whatever they wanted.
I would like to point out something about intellectual, westernized people, people who were connected to the West, although not all were connected to the West. Some people weren’t connected to the West, but they were westernized and admired the West. They played a role in whitewashing Reza Khan’s government. These people will also be questioned by God. Those intellectuals, whom I do not want to name, were also Reza Shah’s accomplices in the crimes that were committed against the Iranian nation. This is also a point.
So, Reza Shah became a British agent in Iran. In the meantime, World War II began. In World War II, Reza Shah’s own nature caused him to be inclined toward Germany. He liked the sort of things Hitler did, and he became fond of the Germans. The British realized this and decided he was no longer of any use to them. Therefore, they overthrew Reza Shah in 1320 AHSh [1941]. The same people who brought him to power overthrew him!
They overthrew him and replaced him with his son with certain conditions. They told him that he must do this and that and that he should behave in a certain way. He accepted those conditions. They even told him he was not permitted to listen to a certain radio channel and he accepted. That’s how far they went! So, the British were governing things up until this point.
The 1320s [1940s] was the decade of the gradual decline of Britain’s power. People resisted, India gained independence, some African and other countries gained independence, and Britain became weak. Britain’s weakness resulted in the US stepping forward. In the mid-1320s, the US stepped into Iran. They started gradually and in an [apparently] friendly way, with Truman’s “Four Point Program” and other things that are very detailed.
Sometimes they would even agree with and support England’s opponents in order to gain favor with the people. Unfortunately, they were able to cause some politicians who were not affiliated with England to become dependent on them, and they gained their favor. That is how the US behaved in Iran. First, they started kindly and showed that they had no intention to colonize Iran. This was the case until a nationalist government was formed, Mosaddeq’s government. Mosaddeq was actually optimistic about America, due to his gullibility, negligence, or naivety — whatever you want to call it. Mosaddeq was against England and he was hopeful that the US would help!
That is what relying on foreign governments is like. When that government was formed and showed that it was not and could not be a government that was dependent on the US, the US launched a coup d’état on the 28th of Mordad [August 19, 1953] and overthrew the government. They were the cause of many tragedies in Iran.
Once the US was unmasked and it was proven that they were not a kind government or a friend of Iran, they did everything they could. The Americans took all of the country’s affairs into their own hands. They made the country completely dependent on themselves, both politically and economically. They allowed the Zionist regime to enter Iran. The Americans did this. The Americans first allowed Zionists into Iran and they established SAVAK [Pahlavi regime’s secret police]. SAVAK was a center of complete, utter violence and brutality toward people, protestors, and opposition groups. They would ruthlessly suppress even the smallest opposition.
All these took place during the period of the US domination, during the 1330s and 40s [1950s and 60s] and the like. They brought tens of thousands of military advisors to Iran and made the Iranian nation pay for their heavy costs. Weapons, the purchase of weapons, choosing who to buy them from, at what price, and how to pay for and receive them were all in the hands of the US.
They spread organized corruption. That is, in the 1330s and 40s — it peaked in the late 1340s and early 1350s — moral corruption was spread in Iran in accordance to the precise, careful planning of the US in order to pull the youth into corruption. Obviously, a corrupt young person does not have the strength to resist or oppose. They wanted to weaken the Iranian youth. There was backwardness in science, backwardness in technology, increased moral corruption, and a horrifying increase in class discrimination. All of these took place during the period of America’s control of the government and the infiltration of the US into Iran.
They continued this enmity and once the Revolutionary movement become strong, they felt threatened and increased the intensity of their actions. Even about one week after the victory of the Revolution, an important American general by the name of Huyser came to Iran to launch a coup, if he could, by killing hundreds of thousands or even millions of people — that was their intention, this is what Huyser wanted to do. Of course, the Revolution had reached a point where their schemes were useless.
A strong determination such as that of the magnanimous Imam Khomeini stood in front of them. They wanted to launch a coup and they declared martial law. Imam told the people to go into the streets. He broke the martial law and overturned their plans, so they were defeated. Huyser realized there was no use, so he fled Iran. Of course if he had stayed another four or five days, he would probably have been among the first to be executed after the Revolution. He was lucky to have left in time.
So, this is the story behind the US and Iran. When you say “Death to America,” this isn’t just a slogan. It’s a roadmap, and what I just mentioned is the reason behind it. For many years, from the mid-1330s until the victory of the Revolution — that is, in the last years of the 1350s — for 30 years, the US did everything it could in Iran against the Iranian people. They struck us anyway they could, causing financial, economic, political, scientific, and moral damage, yet the Revolution was victorious in such a situation. The Revolution was faced with this kind of corrupt government and this kind of destructive infiltration, but with the help of God, with the efforts of the people of Iran, and with the leadership of the magnanimous Imam the Revolution was victorious.
Right now, what Huyser wanted to do in Iran, the US is doing in Gaza. It is the same story. The same thing is being done in Palestine. The Zionists, who are ruling over occupied Palestine and oppressed Palestine, are supported by the US. If it weren’t for the support of the US and its arms support, the corrupt, fake, fictitious government of the Zionist regime would have collapsed the very first week. The US is supporting them.
Today, there are events taking place in Gaza that they would have done in Iran if they could have. The tragedy in Gaza, which is being carried out by the Zionists and actually at the hands of the US, is an unprecedented tragedy in history. In three weeks, nearly 4,000 children have been killed by them! Where have you seen such a thing in history?
The Islamic Ummah needs to know what the truth is. It needs to identify what is happening in the field. The war in Gaza isn’t a war between Gaza and Israel. It’s a war between falsehood and truth, a war between the Arrogant powers and faith. On one side is the power of faith, on the other side is the power of the Arrogant powers. Of course, the Arrogant powers gain power using bombs, military pressure, bombardments, tragedies, and crimes. But the power of faith will overcome all of these by God’s grace.
Our hearts are bleeding because of the sufferings of the Palestinian people, especially the people of Gaza. We are upset. However, when we take a closer look at what is taking place, we realize that the victors in this battle are the people of Gaza and Palestine. They have been able to do great things.
First of all, the people of Gaza have removed the false mask of human rights from the faces of the US, France, England and the like with their patience, resilience, and refusal to surrender. They have disgraced them! The people of Gaza have been able to stir the human conscience with their patience.
See what is happening in the world today. In Western countries, in England, in France, in Italy, and in states across the US itself people are coming out in huge numbers to chant slogans against Israel and in many cases against America. Their [these countries] reputation has been ruined. They truly have no solution for this. They cannot justify it [what they’ve done]. Thus, you see some fool comes and says, “Iran was behind the rally in the UK”. “The London Basij must be behind this!” or “The Paris Basij must have done this!” [Audience laughs and cheers].
One of the many shameless actions of Western politicians and Western media these days is calling the Palestinian fighters “terrorists.” Is a person who is defending his own home a terrorist? Is a person who is defending his own country a terrorist?
Back when the Germans occupied Paris in World War II and the French were fighting the Germans, were the French fighters “terrorists?” Why were they considered fighters and a source of pride for France, but you consider the youth of [Palestinian Islamic] Jihad and Hamas to be terrorists? You are shameless! The people of Gaza and the Palestinian fighters have exposed the liars of the world!
One of the important things that the Al-Aqsa Storm [Operation] did was to show how a small group — the Palestinians are less in number than they are — with little supplies and provisions, but with faith and determination, was able to burn down and put an end to the result of many years of the enemy’s criminal efforts in a matter of hours. They [the Palestinians] showed how they were able to humiliate the world’s Arrogant governments. The Palestinians humiliated both the usurping regime and the supporters of the usurping regime with their actions, their courage, the measures they took, and the patience that they are demonstrating today. This is a great lesson. Of course, these [Zionists’] crimes shook humanity. They shook everyone.
I said this a few days ago, I will repeat it again now: There is more expectation from the Islamic world. Muslim governments should realize that if they don’t help Palestine today — everyone must help in any way they can — they have helped Palestine’s enemy, which is the enemy of Islam and humanity, to get stronger. And tomorrow this same danger will be a threat to them. What Muslim governments must insist on is an immediate end to the crimes that are being committed in Gaza.
The bombings must be stopped immediately. Muslim governments must block the export of oil and essentials to the Zionist regime, and they must stop economic cooperation with the Zionist regime. They must raise their voices in all international assemblies to condemn these crimes and atrocities. This must be done without any hesitation or faltering. When there is an Islamic assembly or an Arabic assembly, the talk of the few people who speak there mustn’t be ambiguous or faltering. They must clearly state what they have to say so that it becomes apparent what is taking place. The Zionist regime must be condemned. The entire Islamic world must take action against the Zionist regime.
Of course, the blow that the Zionist regime received is irreparable. I said this at the start and I emphasize and repeat it again now. This has gradually been revealed in the words of the elements of the Zionist regime as well that the blow they received is not a blow that can be compensated. They cannot compensate for this. The Zionist regime is desperate and confused now. It’s even lying to its own people. The Zionist’s expressions of concern about their own captives who are in the hands of the Palestinians is also a lie. The bombardments they are carrying out may kill their own captives as well.
The fact that they are expressing concern for their own captives means they are also lying to their own people. And they are lying because they don’t have any choice. The Zionist regime is bewildered, it is distressed, it doesn’t know what to do, and whatever it does is out of its desperation. In other words, it doesn’t understand what it needs to do. If it doesn’t have America’s support, the Zionist regime will definitely be crippled in a matter of days.
The Muslim world must not forget that in this important, crucial matter, those who stood against Islam, a Muslim nation, and the oppressed Palestinians were the US, France, and Britain. The Muslim world must not forget this. They need to understand this in their dealings, calculations, and analyses. They must not forget who is standing against and putting pressure on these oppressed people and this oppressed nation. It is not just the Zionist regime.
Of course, we have no doubt that “Allah’s promise is indeed true” (Quran 30:60). God’s promise is true. “And do not let yourself be upset by those who have no conviction” (Quran 30:60). Do not let those who are uncertain about God's promise make you waver with their negativity. God willing, the ultimate victory, which is not too far away, will be for the Palestinian people and Palestine.
May God’s greetings, mercy, and blessings be upon you. | {
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On the anniversary of the historic pledging allegiance of Air Force commanders with Imam Khomeini (known as the Homafaran Allegiance) on February 8, 1979, a large number of the commanders and staff of the Army Air Force and Air Defense Force will meet with Imam Khamenei tomorrow, February 7, 2025.
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The following is the full text of the speech delivered by Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with people from different segments of society held in the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah on December 11, 2024. In this meeting, Imam Khamenei spoke about the recent developments in Syria and the region.
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"articleTitle": "The Great Nation of Palestine",
"pageTitle": "The Great Nation of Palestine - Khamenei.ir",
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The blow that the Zionist regime received is irreparable. The Zionist regime is desperate and confused now. Of course, we have no doubt that “Allah’s promise is indeed true” (Quran 30:60). God’s promise is true. “And do not let yourself be upset by those who have no conviction” (Quran 30:60). Do not let those who are uncertain about God's promise make you waver with their negativity. God willing, the ultimate victory, which is not too far away, will be for the Palestinian people and Palestine.
Imam Khamenei
Nov. 1, 2023
Click on the image to view the large size | {
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Most Viewed
Imam Khamenei's important speech about recent developments in Syria and region
The following is the full text of the speech delivered by Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, in a meeting with people from different segments of society held in the Imam Khomeini Hussainiyah on December 11, 2024. In this meeting, Imam Khamenei spoke about the recent developments in Syria and the region.
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Imam Khamenei to speak tomorrow (Tuesday) in a meeting with thousands of women from throughout the country | {
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"I swear to God, that if other countries had supported the Resistance like Iran has, we would have been freed much earlier..."
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Imam Khamenei's statements about Palestine During his meeting with the organizers of the National Congress of the Martyrs of Lorestan Province
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With the beginning of the renaissance and the spread of humanist ideas in Europe, the concept of the university also changed. The general orientation of the university turned from religious sciences such as theology to sciences that played an active role in everyday life such as law, grammar, astronomy, and politics. Ever since the middle of the 15th century, humanistic beliefs and new philosophy spread in European universities and gradually became the dominant belief in these scientific circles. In the 17th and 18th centuries and at the peak of the Age of Enlightenment, European thinkers and university professors undertook a rather bold mission, which was to define and determine the moral boundaries for human life without using religious frameworks. The great claim of secular humanism throughout history has been the ability of solving all human problems by relying solely on human wisdom, scientific progress, and not needing religious laws for the prosperity of human societies. During these several hundred years, scientists and university professors all over the world have depicted different utopias and proposed many ways to reach them by focusing on human learning and thinking. A look at the current state of the world leaves no doubt that the two following claims are true:
1. Science has had an unprecedented growth.
2. The current state of the world is not even close to the utopias that some had in mind.
The question that comes to mind is that why this broad scientific progress in the world has not been able to bring the promised paradise on earth to humans? Why does the material well-being of some countries have come only at the cost of the destruction and backwardness of many other nations? Why are there still class differences and poverty in these same usurping countries?
Perhaps the best recent example to explain the contradiction between the goals of Western science and the current state of the world is the Gaza issue. The institution of science in the West, i.e. the university, has always tried to show itself as independent from the powers, unlike the institutions of religious education. A few protests limited to the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza were enough for prominent Western universities to start firing and suspending professors and students who asked for the minimum request, that being a ceasefire in Gaza. These actions were clearly carried out to support the Zionist regime and its goals in the invasion of Gaza.
One of the branches of humanities, that is, the science of law, has been taught and completed in universities around the world for years. In the international arena, this science also sees itself in the position of defending the nations that are attacked. International institutions such as The Hague International Court, the United Nations, etc. have been established to implement and complete these laws. The inability of these institutions to stop the genocide of the Zionists in Gaza brought the ineffectiveness of these laws and their ostentatious nature to the eyes of the world even more. It took several months for a case against the Zionist regime to reach a conclusion at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, and the result was also very disappointing. In the United Nations Security Council, the repeated US vetoes have made the attempt to stop a full-scale Zionist genocidal crime a joke. Only after the ceasefire resolution was approved, no action was taken to stop the attacks of the Zionist regime on the people of Gaza.
Another branch of science is engineering science, which has tried for centuries to harness the power of nature and put it at human disposal, and the progress of the West in this field cannot be denied. These sciences gave humans the ability to travel very long distances in very little time, fly in the sky, and use the power inside the elements. Utilizing them, the West delivers a large amount of weapons to the Zionist regime in a very short time from America and Europe, using fighter planes to carpet bomb the neighborhoods of Gaza and using heavy bombs to destroy houses, hospitals, and universities in a blink of an eye. Perhaps the bombing of Gaza universities with bombs produced by American university graduates is the most telling illustration of the contradiction in Western science with its goals.
Imam Khamenei said in a meeting with students on April 7, 2024:
If we want to define a university, the main pillar of the definition of a university is science, knowledge. The university has three main tasks. First, it should educate scholars, secondly, it should produce science, and thirdly, university should direct the education of scholars and the production of science. The universities of the world educate scientists, they also produce science, but they are experiencing problems with the third duty worldwide, which involves directing the education of scholars and the production of science. Because of this, their products become tools in the hands of the Arrogant and Zionist Powers.
The separation of the institution of science in the West from the religious moral frameworks has caused this institution to become a tool in the hands of those with power and capital around the world. Perhaps Gaza can make the West to reconsider the path that the university has taken in the last four centuries. | {
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Ruhollah Abdolmaleki, researcher in regional studies
Reports of the Zionist regime's atrocities in the Gaza Strip are aired nearly every day on news broadcasts. As a result, the Gaza crisis has become a frequent topic in news conferences, political analyses, and expert discussions. One of the most pressing questions in this context is how to find a solution to the current crisis in Gaza and put an end to the widespread killing and destruction in the region.
When examining the current situation in the occupied Palestinian territories using an appropriate approach and logical method, it appears that there are at least two scenarios and several potential hypotheses for addressing the ongoing crisis in the Gaza situation.
In essence, to halt the bombing of Gaza and the widespread killing in the region, we can consider two main scenarios: in one, an internal drive born from the conflict must deter the Zionist regime from prolonging its assaults, while in the other, an external force beyond the occupied territories must coerce the occupying regime into making such a choice.
In the first scenario, two conceivable hypotheses exist: one assumes that the authorities of the Zionist regime conclude it is necessary to cease military attacks on Gaza and, if there is a way to get out of the current conditions, they should pursue it through other means such as political solutions. The second hypothesis is that the resistance of the people of Gaza and the efforts of the Hamas group compel the Zionist regime to halt the brutal attacks.
The statements of the authorities of the Zionist regime and the official declaration to continue attacks on Gaza indicate that there is no serious intention to stop the bombing and the mass killing of Palestinian men, women, and children in Gaza. Consequently, the first hypothesis cannot be considered a viable option, and its likelihood is weak. The resistance of the people of Gaza and the efforts of Hamas (in the second hypothesis) have thus far been significant factors in the failure of the Zionist regime to achieve its stated goals, even leading to tensions among Zionist regime authorities and criticisms within Netanyahu's cabinet, indicating the Zionist government's inability to subdue the people of Gaza and Hamas, facing internal challenges. This situation has progressed to the extent that The Wall Street Journal titled the current state within the Zionist regime as "Netanyahu's War Cabinet Is at War With Itself." Therefore, the possibility that the calculations of the Zionist regime could change with the continuation of resistance and efforts in Gaza, leading to a halt in the heavy artillery, is not very unlikely.
The second scenario involves exerting external pressure on the Zionist regime to enforce a ceasefire. There are several hypotheses for this approach. One suggests applying pressure through respected international institutions like the United Nations and the International Court of Justice. By collectively recognizing the Zionist regime as a criminal entity, these institutions could compel it to halt its violent attacks on Gaza's infrastructure, buildings, and innocent civilians. However, the repeated vetoing of numerous United Nations' resolutions by the United States and the weak stance of the International Court of Justice not only reject this hypothesis but also raise the likelihood that the US, with increased financial and military aid, has defined its interests in perpetuating and escalating tensions and crises.
In another hypothesis, efforts are made to halt the attacks by individual countries and international actors. This entails countries supportive of the Zionist regime, notably England, Germany, and France, applying pressure through official statements, threats of severing ties, and halting various forms of aid to the regime. Additionally, influential Islamic nations like Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Turkey could sever any beneficial ties with the regime. However, this approach is flawed for several reasons. As long as the US openly supports the Zionist regime, European nations, which largely follow America's lead in West Asian affairs and vocally support the regime, are unlikely to take effective action to stop the ongoing atrocities in Gaza. In the context of Islamic countries, some, like Egypt due to geographical factors, could independently sway the balance in favor of Gaza. Conversely, others like Saudi Arabia and Turkey, for reasons such as their leadership roles among Islamic nations, identification as custodians of Islam, and rich civilizational heritage and credibility, could shape the interactions and cooperation of Islamic nations with the Zionist regime, applying pressure accordingly. The notion that Islamic countries should overtly support the oppressed, as explicitly stated in the Holy Quran, and leverage their resources to challenge the Zionist regime, is a logical and reasonable expectation consistently highlighted by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in his speeches. He has even criticized leaders of Islamic nations for not adhering to Quranic principles regarding the Gaza issue. However, despite the vocal opposition and rhetoric against the Zionist regime from some Islamic countries, there's been a notable absence of significant escalation in action or severance of ties, especially in political and economic realms. Consequently, the Islamic world continues to witness the suffering and devastation inflicted upon the innocent people of Gaza and their land, leading to limited optimism about the potential of this hypothesis.
In the second scenario, the third hypothesis suggests that the Zionist regime might reassess its aggressive actions due to the significant damage inflicted by the practical and effective support of Resistance groups in the region. Resistance Front is now operating in several fronts against the Zionist regime, with Islamic Republic of Iran as its pivot and a main supporter. Right after the Islamic Revolution in Iran, this country turned into the main supporter of every anti-Zionist movement in the region. First among these movements was the Hezbollah in Lebanon, then the Islamic Resistance in Palestine came into being, and Resistance groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen followed the same track. The results of the actions taken by Hezbollah in Lebanon, Resistance forces in Iraq, and Ansar Allah in Yemen in response to the Zionist regime's brutal attacks on Gaza can be seen to be the most impactful measures, altering the crisis equation substantially. The frequent firing of missiles, rockets, and shells toward northern Israel from Lebanon, the resilience of Islamic Resistance in Iraq against Zionist regime bases, and notably, the Yemeni Resistance's infliction of serious damage on transportation and trade linked to the Zionist regime in the Red
Sea, all indicate that this hypothesis holds the potential to influence the decisions of the Zionist regime.
A third scenario could involve a combination of internal resolve and external pressure, which might force the regime to halt the massacre of the people in Gaza. Essentially, blending the second hypothesis from the first scenario with the third hypothesis from the second scenario presents an option that has shown promising indications thus far. The internal pressure stemming from Gaza's Resistance and resilience, coupled with external pressure from supporters of the Resistance and the people of Gaza — essentially, the Resistance Front — has proven to be the most effective military strategy against the Zionist regime. This highlights the significance of the philosophy championed by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, emphasizing the "legitimacy of forming a Resistance Front" to combat the ongoing and enduring oppression by the Zionist criminals. It offers a compelling, robust, and unique pathway out of the current crisis in favor of the Islamic world.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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From the onset of the Zionist regime's ruthless attacks on Gaza, supporters of the Palestinian cause have tirelessly worked to share the plight of Gaza's residents. Additionally, significant endeavors have been made to commemorate the names of every martyr of these atrocities. Today, one name, “Amir Abu Aisha,” has gained particular prominence in the media.
The Palestinian Red Crescent has announced that the deceased body of Amir Abu Aisha, a member of the medical team at Al-Amal Hospital in Khan Yunis, was fatally shot by Zionist soldiers near the hospital and is unable to be buried due to ongoing shootings and bombings by the Israeli military surrounding the area. Today, the unburied remains of Amir Abu Aisha serve as a stark reminder, telling the world a story of the relentless Zionist atrocities within Gaza hospitals.
Al-Shifa Hospital: Target of Zionist resentment for its resilience
March 24, 2024 marks the seventh consecutive day of Zionists’ second attack on Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital. Disturbing images and accounts of this assault have circulated widely. According to some reports, Zionist soldiers are apprehending, abusing, interrogating, and even executing individuals within the hospital premises, obstructing the removal of bodies and the delivery of aid. There have been instances where direct gunfire from Zionist soldiers has resulted in fatalities among both civilians and medical staff. Additionally, severe shortages of food and medical supplies have led to the deaths of more than twelve Palestinians due to hunger and inadequate resources. Since last night, Zionists have also brazenly entered the hospital, claiming to be searching for an underground Resistance tunnel network, but instead, they have detained or killed individuals without regard for their safety.
In another instance, on the morning of November 15, Zionists launched an assault on Al-Shifa Hospital, employing military gear and explosives to strike the emergency ward. This attack, happening in the initial phases of the conflict, prompted widespread international reactions. Addressing the plight of children at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, consistently urged for an immediate halt to hostilities, emphasizing, "The world cannot remain silent as hospitals, meant to be sanctuaries, turn into arenas of death, devastation, and hopelessness".
The residents and Resistance fighters in the northern Gaza Strip have effectively communicated the Zionists' defeat in this war to the global community through their mere presence in this area. It appears that the Zionists seek revenge for their loss by targeting the largest hospital in the region of northern Gaza.
Hospitals under fire since the early days
The bombing of Al-Maamadani Hospital on October 17, 2023, shocked the world, evoking anger and sorrow. The hospital, providing refuge for thousands of women and children, tragically witnessed the deaths of about 500 Palestinians and injuries to around 10,000 individuals. The global outcry forced the authorities of the Zionist regime and its Western ally, the US, to try to shift blame onto the Resistance. The ongoing attacks by the Zionist regime on hospitals have desensitized the world to this egregious war crime, emboldening them to commit countless atrocities in Gaza hospitals without fear of repercussions. Consequently, the Zionist regime no longer feels compelled to deny its hospital attacks.
On December 16, Zionist military forces launched an attack on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza, using bulldozers to excavate mass temporary graves around the hospital and removing the bodies of Palestinian martyrs. Asmaa Tanteesh, the head of nursing at Kamal Adwan Hospital, vividly describes the horrifying events that transpired at the medical facility: “The bodies outside in the courtyard were plowed in front of our eyes. … All the while, we were shouting and screaming at them, but our screams fell on deaf ears.” Satellite imagery taken before and after the incident depicts the scarred landscape surrounding Kamal Adwan Hospital. Additionally, videos and images showing decaying body parts strewn across the hospital grounds have been circulated.
Targeting sick Palestinian children: Routine for bloodthirsty Zionists
On November 10, 2023, the Zionist regime bombed and set fire to the Al-Rantisi Children's Hospital. Witnessing a sick child forced into hospitalization is heart-wrenching enough to break anyone's heart. Despite efforts by specialized pediatric care centers to minimize pain and psychological stress, scenes of injecting serum or an ampoule into a child, or seeing a child with a limb tied up in bandages, are distressing for any human. The thought of hospitals being set ablaze with these innocent children inside is even more agonizing. Nonetheless, the Zionists didn't hesitate to do so, aiming to further oppress the people of Gaza into forsaking their ideals. Unfortunately, the attack on the children's hospital got lost amidst the deluge of grim news emanating from Gaza.
Cancer and the Zionist regime: Two entities with a common root
On October 30, 2023, the Zionist regime inflicted severe damage on the Gaza Strip's only specialized cancer hospital, rendering it non-functional. Alongside this disease, the Zionist regime aggressively pursues the destruction of Palestinian lives. Furthermore, it has hindered the entry of essential medications for cancer patients into the Gaza Strip.
The Zionist regime has continuously breached United Nations Resolution 2675 and has conducted raids on Palestinian civilian gathering centers using weak pretexts. This occupying regime, devoid of any legitimate reason to engage with Palestinian military forces, relentlessly targets unarmed civilians, including hospitals, escalating the pressures of war upon them.
Imam Khamenei, in his remarks on November 19, 2023, elucidated the motive behind the hospital attacks:
From the start, they have said that their goal is to annihilate and cripple Hamas and the Resistance. But they have been unable to do this. … The reason they are dropping bombs on people's heads is because they are enraged by this defeat. The Zionist regime is enraged now. It’s upset. That’s why it’s committing these crimes. It bombs hospitals, it bombs ill patients, and it bombs women and children because it has been defeated.
The widespread atrocities perpetrated by the occupying regime in Gaza, especially within hospitals, have starkly exposed the true nature of the Zionists to people around the globe. The pressing need to adopt the idea that the removal of this malignant force from the West Asian region is the only viable solution to stop these atrocities becomes increasingly evident day by day. | {
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On March 20, 2024, Imam Khamenei, during his Nowruz speech while speaking about the situation in Gaza, described the Zionist regime as a regime which "is facing a crisis, not only in terms of protecting itself, but also in terms of coming out of the crisis. Because by entering the war in Gaza, it has become stuck in a quagmire. Regardless of whether it comes out of Gaza or not, it will have failed." What follows tries to explain the reasons and dimensions of Imam Khamenei's describing the Zionist regime in this way.
It's been almost 150 days since Zionist regime began its ground invasion of Gaza. This brutal attack, which has resulted in martyrdom of more than 13 thousand children and more than 9 thousand women, was initially staged to be an attempt to eliminate Resistance and its facilities in Gaza, and to force the population of Gaza to leave Palestine for Sinai desert. In January 2024, IOF claimed that it has completely dismantled Hamas’ military capabilities in northern Gaza, and that it is expanding this status throughout the Gaza strip. More than 70 days have passed since this claim was made, and two headlines simultaneously are seen in the news regarding the war in Gaza. First, Netanyahu's insistence on expanding ground invasion to Rafah, located in southern parts of Gaza strip, and second, intense clashes between Resistance forces and Zionist army around Al-Shifa hospital, located in Gaza City in north Gaza.
Prior to this, Zionist regime’s prime minister talked about attempts to assassinate Hamas top commanders. These attempts have failed drastically after several months of Zionist ground invasion of Gaza. Adding to this, videos and news are coming out of Resistance operations in areas over which Zionists have claimed dominance are circulated on social media almost every day. This paradox between the news coming out of the battlefield in Gaza and the Zionist official’s claims has only one meaning. It seems like the Zionist regime has not been able to reach any of its goals in Gaza strip, and is now under increasing pressure. This pressure is both coming from inside and the outside. The outside pressure has got to a level where its Western ally, Canada, has announced that it will halt arms export to it, and its main supporter, the US, although hypocritically, is rooting for a ceasefire. Zionist regime’s failure in Gaza is not limited to military or diplomatic areas. The economic damages that the continuation of war has inflicted and continue to inflict on this regime are also significant. A brief account of these economic damages was given in this article. Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, Secretary General of Hezbollah, also pointed out an aspect of this failure, saying that, “The fact that after nearly six months, Zionist regime is negotiating with Hamas is a clear sign of its failure.” All these go hand in hand to prove the point raised by Imam Khamenei in his speech on March 20, 2024 that Gaza has turned into a quagmire for Zionist regime, and it will fail no matter if it continues to stay in Gaza.
But there is also another aspect to Zionist regime’s failure, and that is its disgraceful defeat if it decides to leave Gaza. This murderous regime which has committed atrocities in order to regain its prestige and deterrence, will put an end to its deterrence if it leaves Gaza today. There is an ongoing considerable dispute going on between political parties and fractions inside the Zionist regime. This was manifested in the controversies created around the decision to send ultra-orthodox Zionists to war. These domestic clashes will go to another level if the Zionist army gets out of Gaza, defeated. Internationally, israeli regime which has been trialed for genocide, will see its ambitious plans for normalization and integration into the region all perished, and three war fronts open at the same time. First, is the ongoing battle against the Hezbollah in north; second is the Yemeni blockade on Zionist ships in the Red Sea, and third is the front against the Iraqi Resistance, which has targeted israeli ports once in a while with cruse missiles.
Imam Khamenei stated in a meeting on Mach 20, 2024, “Another point and another perspective from which we can view this issue is that everyone has become aware of the true status of the Zionist regime. It has become clear that the Zionist regime is suffering a crisis, not only in terms of protecting itself, but also in terms of coming out of the crisis. It got stuck in a quagmire and is unable to save itself. Because by entering the war in Gaza, it has become stuck in a quagmire. Regardless of whether it comes out of Gaza or not, it will have failed. And if it doesn’t come out, it will also have failed. This is the situation the Zionist regime is in.” | {
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The following is part of an interview with Romina Guadalupe Pérez Ramos, Bolivia’s ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this interview, she has expressed her opinion regarding the reasons behind the Western mainstream media blocking pro-Palestinian accounts and pages. In particular, Mrs. Pérez refers to and discusses Meta's recent act of closing Imam Khamenei's Persian and English Instagram and Facebook pages with more than 5 million followers.Question: The Meta company has recently closed Imam Khamenei's Instagram and Facebook pages after its posts against terrorism and Zionism. What do you think was the reason behind this move?
R. Pérez: This is a war. They restrict Instagram and Facebook pages due to the fact that Imam Khamenei's Instagram account promotes a discourse that is grounded in reality and provides moral support for the Palestinian people. This is true not only with regard to the matter of Palestine, but in all areas. I would like to remind you of the words of [Imam] Khomeini, who had warned even before the Revolution that the issue of Palestine and Israel could lead to the current situation. That is why he established Quds Day.
Therefore, there are individuals who are ahead of their time due to their strategic understanding of issues. They [companies like Meta] strategically limit any speech and discussion that is different. The media and social networks hold significant power. They are the so-called "fourth power" in many countries. Social networks are currently even more influential than other measures. You can use a social network to mobilize large numbers of people to launch a hybrid war.
So when they want to silence you, they do this in two ways. Not only do they close your channel or means of communication, but they also censor you. Therefore, someone who has been censored may not want to appear on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter anymore. There are different ways to censor a person. Sometimes, they don’t just close a person’s Instagram page. They silence them from the root. The worst form of censorship is when they accuse a person unjustly. For example, they may accuse you of being anti-Semitic and you have to bear the burden of this accusation.
Let me give you an example of what I have encountered in Iran myself. I was in a meeting with the mayor of Tabriz, and we were discussing issues regarding cooperation, brotherhood, and friendship between our two countries, among other things. The meeting took place during the protests [riots], and I told him that this is a hybrid war [against Iran]. What do you think was the headline of the distorted news written by Iran International, which we know operates in London using Israeli funding, regarding this meeting?
The news headline that was published in my country was this, "[Bolivia]’s Ambassador in Iran condemns feminist marches." However, I had not even talked about the demonstrations, nor about feminists, nor about anything else [about the marches]. So this is how they can harm you without closing your Instagram page or other communication channels. At that time, I witnessed how the media attacked my stance while I was trying to observe the hybrid warfare that was taking place against Iran.
The West did not want to reflect the reality of what was taking place in Iran. They wanted to pretend that the subject of the protests was focused on hijab and other such issues. The West was aware of the truth, but they wanted to focus on the issue of hijab in order to divert attention from other underlying matters. They were pleasing [and working for] those who were behind the unrest.
So, that matter created problems for me. They called me from my country and asked me, “Why [did you say such a thing]?” Firstly, since I was the president of the Network of Women Parliamentarians of the Americas from Canada to Argentina, and also due to my involvement in passing an anti-patriarchy law, I am a well-known figure in the field of gender equality. We are very powerful in Bolivia because our political system mandates that parliament be made up of 50 percent women and 50 percent men. We operate with fairness and in proportion.
So, I was required to go and give an explanation. I took the footage [of my meeting in Tabriz], and I provided a statement to the Iranian media. A month ago, the Ammar Film Festival honored the ambassador of Bolivia for the stance her country had taken against Arrogance. But how did Iran International manipulate this news story? They stated that I was given this award for my support of hijab being “mandatory.” This had nothing to do with what had happened. The attack on the Bolivian ambassador was due to media politics.
The opposition’s press and the Israeli media talk about Alba, Cuba, Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Bolivia without ever mentioning the names of their ambassadors. However, I find myself constantly targeted by media attacks, likely due to my critical views and opposition to imperialism and Zionism. And that is the reason the media distorts the news about a person.
So it's not a surprise that they closed your Instagram account, because they restrict other things too. However, we must refrain from adopting the mentality of a victim. That's all I'm trying to say. We must have our own understanding of ourselves, and we must act and be very creative and innovative. We must respond to the attacks of the West and their technology using the strong relationships we have built with our allies, because here the issue of treachery is also related to technology. All of these matters need to be addressed.
(The views expressed in this interview are interviewee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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"description": "The following is part of an interview with Romina Guadalupe Pérez Ramos, Bolivia’s ambassador to the Islamic Republic of Iran. In this interview, she has expressed her opinion regarding the reasons behind the Western mainstream media blocking pro-Palestinian accounts and pages. In particular, Mrs. Pérez refers to and discusses Meta's recent act of closing Imam Khamenei's Persian and English Instagram and Facebook pages with more than 5 million followers.",
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Mohammad Mahdi Abbasi, researcher in the field of American Studies
Today, it is rare to find an individual in the US and the West without a conscience, allowing them to remain silent and indifferent to one of the worst atrocities of the past century — a tragedy that has claimed over 32,000 lives in Gaza so far. According to a United Nations official, the kill rates in Gaza is the highest in the world since the Rwandan genocide. Now, individuals are expressing their opposition: one by self-immolation in front of the Zionist regime's embassy and protesting their country’s involvement in the genocide, another by resigning from a key position in the US State Department, and yet another by participating in weeks of anti-war protests in the streets of Washington, New York, and San Francisco.
However, on the other side, we have the stage of the US government. This administration, against the desires of most Americans, has entangled itself in the brutal massacre of the people of Gaza by the Zionist regime, plunging itself into a deep crisis.
Just a few days ago, in his speech on the first day of the Iranian New Year in 1403 AHS (March 20, 2024), the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khamenei, provided a precise analysis of the US administration’s approach to the Gaza crisis, labeling it as “choosing the worst stance on the Gaza issue,” and outlined three of the dire consequences of their misguided decision.
1. The real nature of American human rights has been exposed to the world
In the early days of the conflict, Joe Biden made a trip to Tel Aviv to pledge support for the Zionist regime, and shortly after, the US Congress swiftly passed its initial bill to greenlight a package of aid to Israel. Presently, the US administration is pushing for another $14 billion aid package to assist the Zionist regime. Additionally, The Washington Post recently stirred controversy with a report revealing that since the Gaza war began on October 7, the US has quietly approved over 100 separate military and arms sales to Israel! Several US senators, including Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, have also openly highlighted the US administration’s role in the ongoing Gaza crisis.
Consequently, nobody in the world can hide the ongoing involvement of the US in the atrocious crimes of the Zionist regime. This collaboration has revealed the true essence of American human rights to the world and has morally bankrupted the nation.
In his address on the occasion of the Iranian New Year, Imam Khamenei emphasized the importance of Palestinian Resistance and the resilience of Gaza's people in exposing and refuting the West's assertions of civilization and human rights: “The tragedies in Gaza have unveiled the prevalent injustice and darkness in the world. This Western world, frequently praised as civilized and advocates of human rights, has demonstrated the darkness that dictates their lives, thoughts, and actions.”
2. US reputation took a nosedive globally and in the region
In recent months, cities worldwide have seen widespread protests and demonstrations condemning the atrocities committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza and the United States' involvement in them. These protests even reached the heart of the US, including Washington D.C. and inside the US Congress building. Interestingly, this widespread dissatisfaction with the US administeration spilled over into the US elections. For instance, during the Democratic Party presidential primaries in crucial states like Michigan, over 100,000 people opted for "Uncommitted" as a way to protest against the Biden administration's policies regarding Gaza.
In recent months, opposition to the US among regional governments and public resentment toward the country in Islamic nations have significantly increased. CNN reported that the Biden administration has received grave warnings from American diplomats across Arab nations, cautioning that US support for Israel's deadly military campaign in Gaza will alienate an entire generation of Arab people from the US. A recent poll by the Washington Institute validates this concern, revealing that only 7% of the population in these Arab countries believe that the US played a positive role in the Gaza conflict. Furthermore, the chairman of the board of directors of Egypt's renowned newspaper Al-Ahram explicitly stated in a recent editorial that the US is the Arab world’s No. 1 enemy. The negative reactions of regional countries to recent resolutions by the US and its allies at the United Nations further reinforce this sentiment.
The Leader of the Islamic Revolution analyzed the United States’ considerable decline in the region and its actions regarding Gaza as follows:
The US chose the worst situation in the Gazan region. What it did has made it despised throughout the entire world. Those who take part in pro-Palestinian protests in the streets of London, Paris, and other European countries, and the US itself are in fact expressing their hatred toward the US. The US has become despised in the world. It was already despised in the region, and this hatred has now increased tenfold.
3. US Plans and Strategies in the Region Disrupted
The Gaza conflict has starkly demonstrated that the US and its policies no longer wield significant influence in the West Asia region. Perhaps the primary and most ambitious of the US plans, thwarted by the Resistance, was the normalization of relations between Arab and Islamic nations with the Zionist regime. Recent data indicates a strong public opposition in the Arab world toward recognizing the Zionist regime. For example, in a recent survey, 89% of Arab respondents expressed opposition to recognizing the state of Israel. This statistic not only reflects nearly unanimous resistance to normalization within the Arab world but also highlights a 5% increase in opposition to the Zionist regime compared to a 2022 survey, where 84% opposed recognizing Israel.
Western intellectuals and political thinkers have also acknowledged the failure of this plan in recent months. For example, Fred Kempe, the president and chief executive officer of the Atlantic Council, said in an interview a few weeks ago: “I think a big victim is the efforts at Saudi Arabia and Israel normalization. ... There was a prospect of a deal; people were giving it a 50/50 chance. Right now, you have to give it zero chance.” Similarly, Zineb Riboua, a senior researcher at the Hudson Institute in the US, believes that the primary achievement of Hamas and the Axis of Resistance from the recent conflict is the halt of normalization of relations between Arabs and the Zionist regime.
Moreover, the main surrogate of the US in the region, namely the Zionist regime, has also suffered significant setbacks in recent months. Today, in addition to the military casualties and substantial economic costs of the Gaza war, the Zionist regime is grappling with widespread internal tensions and divisions.
Imam Khamenei explained the impact of the Resistance Front's actions on the US in the region, stating, "The Resistance has revealed its authentic presence, abilities, and situation to the world, illustrating the essence of true resistance. They have disrupted all of Washington’s calculations."
In summary, the US is now grappling with the severe repercussions of its misguided approach to the Gaza crisis. With each minute that passes in this conflict, the Biden administration finds itself more entangled in domestic dissatisfaction, hastening the US’s decline on the global stage.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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Newlywed couples set out on journeys filled with love, excitement for progress, and growth. However, the reality for brides and grooms in Gaza paints a different picture. The initial moments of a newborn's arrival typically represent one of a mother's most beautiful experiences—a time marking the end of a long wait and the beginning of a life filled with love and hope. Unfortunately, for mothers in Gaza, the scenario takes an unexpected turn.
Imagine a family gathering where children play joyfully, and parents are deeply engaged in preparing a meal. As the aroma of the ready food fills the air, the mother calls her children to gather for a meal, creating a sweet and delightful moment. Sadly, for Gaza mothers, the situation unfolds with a different tone.
Gaza’s exclusion
Gaza being excluded from the above-said situations is the result of the actions of one of the most ruthless regimes in world history. Since taking control of Palestinian land, it has committed numerous crimes, gravest of them being the ongoing genocide in Gaza since early October 2023. Under the guise of combating terrorism, the Zionist regime has relentlessly pursued a full-scale genocide and the expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza. Particularly alarming is the regime's targeted attacks on women and children in Gaza. It has led to an increasing exclusion of Gaza's women; an exclusion from life.
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A different bride in Gaza: Wissal Al-Ashram, the wife of the late Ahmad, who had only begun her married life six months ago, now clutches her martyred husband's shoes, solemnly looking upon his lifeless body.
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A different motherly hug: A mother from Gaza holds her martyred child, kissing him with the same care and anticipation she felt during his first moments of life, gently guiding him to his eternal resting place.
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A different family reunion: A mother in Gaza, surrounded by the wreckage of her home, raises her voice, summoning her children to reunite once more. However, such a gathering will never occur in Gaza again, as each of her five children has become a martyr.
Zionist regime’s femicide
The challenges faced by women in Gaza surpass what is conveyed in these personal narratives. The impact of the ruthless attacks by the Zionist regime on Gazan women becomes fully apparent when the massacre is described in figures like ‘tens of thousands,’ ‘hundreds of thousands,’ and ‘millions.’ The Palestinian Ministry of Health reported the martyrdom of over 8,200 Palestinian women in Gaza. On average, the Zionist regime claims the lives of two mothers every hour—mothers who have witnessed the martyrdom of over 13,000 of their children to date. The struggles of women and girls in Gaza extend beyond the pain of losing loved ones. With the destruction of over 290,000 housing units, more than one million Gazan women and girls are now displaced. Residing in densely populated refugee camps in southern Gaza and the city of Rafah, these women and girls face severe challenges in terms of food, medical care, hygiene, mental health, and economic well-being.
Around 50,000 pregnant women call the Gaza Strip home, and it's expected that over 5,500 of them will give birth this month. Of this group, roughly 840 are projected to need specialized medical care for childbirth, but due to the deteriorating healthcare infrastructure, they're practically denied these services. These circumstances may heighten the risk of giving birth to infants with congenital disorders like intellectual disability or infantile paralysis. Premature birth and stillbirths are also among the additional consequences when mothers lack adequate nutrition and proper healthcare. In the current wartime conditions, where shelters and hospitals are under-equipped, approximately 180 women give birth daily. Unfortunately, almost none of them have access to suitable health, nutritional, and mental well-being conditions. These mothers, whose children now face only a one-third chance of survival, lack the necessary conditions even for raising their children if they manage to survive.
Over 68,000 mothers face the risk of anemia and severe malnutrition, making it difficult to provide proper nutrition for their children. This number is roughly equivalent to the entire population of a city like Kansas City in the US. Women and girls in Gaza are grappling with the most severe health challenges. The refugee camps have over 310,000 cases of respiratory diseases and more than 75,000 cases of lice and scabies (which is intensified for women). They are even deprived of essential hygiene items, leading some women to resort to using period delaying pills with severe side effects to prevent menstruation. Others are compelled to use old clothes for hygiene purposes.
The Israeli government has been responsible for an average of over 210 instances of martyrdom and more than 500 injuries, affecting Gazan on a daily basis. Moreover, since the start of the war, at least 3,000 women have become widows, and from now on, they face the challenge of supporting themselves and their families. All of this is occurring in the midst of Gaza's weak economy, which was already struggling with significant unemployment issues, even for men, prior to these unfolding events. Admirably, women in Gaza demonstrate resilience amidst significant psychological and emotional pressures resulting from the Zionists’ crimes, to the extent that it has aroused global curiosity about the reasons behind this dignified resistance. Nevertheless, the emotional impact of such tragedies on women and girls in the city is indescribable.
Women of Gaza are excluded from womanhood
“Any inequality or suffering is wrong.” “Each [young girl] is already a unique and valuable person when she’s born; every human being is.”
Put these statements against the backdrop of the apparent disparity between the situation of women in Gaza and women globally. One might initially assume that the speaker is expressing anger after witnessing the plight of women in Gaza and is marching to advocate for their rights. However, the reality diverges; Gloria Steinem, the speaker of these sentences, a leader of the second wave of feminism, who has a substantial history of writing numerous books and contributing to various newspapers and magazines in support of women's rights, has not taken a position in support of women in Gaza. Despite actively supporting the 2022 Iran riots, Steinem has not voiced any support for the women in Gaza. Intriguingly, her feminist allies, who have long championed equality and the elimination of discrimination, are now either condemning Hamas or, like popular feminist pages, sidelining the issue of Gaza women without the slightest mention of the inherent occupier nature of the Zionist regime. As an example, since early October 2023 and the beginning of Zionists invasion of Gaza, from approximately 420 posts on the Instagram page @feminist, boasting 6 million followers, only less than 10 posts have touched upon the topic of Palestinian women. None of these posts have condemned Israeli crimes, and in some, efforts have been made to strike a balance in the conflict by addressing Israeli women and their issues. Some have gone a step further, condemning activists supporting Palestinian women. These condemnations have been heard from official platforms, and the French Minister of Gender Equality, in noteworthy remarks, criticized the silence on the sufferings of Zionist women.
Targeted discrimination
Western governments and women's rights movements have been at the forefront, exerting political, economic, and even military pressure on countries beyond their international influence, including Iran, Afghanistan, and Iraq, all under the guise of advocating for women's rights. Presidents of France and the US have personally engaged with individuals labeled as women's rights activists, championing the economic and security policies of their respective nations and the West. These efforts, from giving Nobel Peace Prizes to accolades at film festivals, have advanced their cause. However, why do the women of Gaza lack such support? The exclusion of Gaza women from the backing of politicians and the mainstream Western women's rights activists raises a crucial question: Can we rely on this discrimination as the prevailing ideological-political trend for supporting women's rights globally? In December 1992, the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Khamenei remarked, " we consider what they claim, to be false, and deceptive. Their support for human rights is similar to their support for women's rights. The imperialists, oppressors, and pillagers of the world, those who ignore the rights of nations, and destroy the interests of weaker nations, and the occupiers of weaker countries, are the so-called bearers of the flag of advocating human rights and women's rights!" The increasing indifference and inaction of Western supporters of women's rights towards the women of Gaza indicates that this indifference is not an isolated incident but stems from ideological and political foundations.
Lately, the Western perspective on women and women's rights has reached a global scale, leveraging academic institutions, education, media, and diverse platforms to impact different regions and cultures, shaping the prevailing mindset. The unfolding events in Gaza, characterized by a genocidal invasion orchestrated by the Zionist regime and supported by Western allies, resulting in the tragic martyrdom of over 30,000 civilians, including women and children, have glaringly exposed the shortcomings and fallacies within Western notions of human rights and women's rights.
Isn't it time for people worldwide to seriously contemplate distancing themselves from the inefficient Western human rights system and to take decisive action in this direction? | {
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Mohsen Faezi, researcher in Palestine and West Asia issues
To mark National Tree Planting Day in Iran on March 5, Imam Khamenei planted three saplings, including an olive tree. Following the olive tree planting, he expressed, "[Planting the olive tree] symbolizes our solidarity and empathy with the people of Palestine, which is the center for [the cultivation of] olives. We send our greetings from afar to these oppressed, beloved, truly resilient people. We want you to know that you are constantly in our thoughts, even as we the plant this olive tree in your honor” (March 5, 2024).
Imam Khamenei planting tree saplings on the occasion of Iran’s National Tree Planting Day, March 5, 2024
The olive tree holds profound significance as a symbol of "life" for Palestinians, a tree that has stood alongside them for centuries. Its roots are thought to originate in the Levant and Palestine, gradually spreading across the centuries to Western Asia, North Africa, Morocco, Tunisia, and eventually reaching Europe.
Olive and its tree, due to their deep historical significance, are important parts in Palestinian culture, seamlessly woven into the fabric of Palestinian women's clothing, the iconic keffiyeh, and the architectural essence of Palestinian homes. The leaves and tree of the olive stand out prominently in these cultural expressions.
Following the beginning of the Zionist occupation, the olive tree became a symbol of Palestinian resistance. Due to the Zionist regime's persistent opposition to Palestinian identity in different variations, olive trees weren't exempt from Zionist aggression. According to Mahmoud Al-Sayfi, director of the Geological Research Center in the northwest coastal region, "Zionists meticulously plan to target olive trees, akin to their military operations. Israel has destroyed over 2 million olive trees since the occupation of Palestine".
Even after the Zionist occupiers destroyed over 2 million olive trees in the last 75 years, these sturdy and resilient trees persist.
UNESCO acknowledges the historical significance of olive trees in Palestine, dating back to 5500 years ago. Consequently, since 2019, November 26th has been designated as World Olive Day annually. Currently, more than 11 million olive trees thrive in Palestine. The oldest olive tree in Palestine, located near Bethlehem in the village of Al-Walaja, near the city of Al-Quds, boasts an age exceeding 5000 years, proudly standing at a height of over 13 meters.
The rich history of the Palestinian people and their land, evident in cultural symbols like the olive tree, spans many centuries and remains both undeniable and enduring. Ayatollah Khamenei echoes this sentiment, affirming, “Palestine is not a fake country that has come into being today. Palestine has a thousand-year history. The people of Palestine are a nation. They own a land” (July 6, 2016).
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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In an interview with Khamenei.ir, Mahdi Azraqi, a researcher in the economic issues of West Asia, explains how Muslim countries cutting economic relations with the Zionist regime can (contrary to what is usually thought) bring benefits for and serve the national interests of the Muslim countries.Question: The Leader of Islamic Revolution has described cutting economic ties with the Zionist regime by Islamic countries as a decisive blow to this regime. In your view, how practical and attainable is this solution, and why has the Leader consistently highlighted it in various statements?
Mr. Arzaqi: In my view, this approach serves two significant purposes: One is to economically pressure the Zionist regime. How does this pressure unfold? Currently, Islamic countries collectively engage in direct exports and imports with the Zionist regime, totaling around $14 billion. 14 billion dollars in the total foreign trade of the regime is not a high number, although it specifically pertains to commodity trade. Oil export is separate from these numbers and it is a big number. Hence, one argument suggests that Islamic countries should cease direct trade with the Zionist regime, covering both goods and oil. Another perspective proposes that Islamic nations should prohibit the import of products from multinational companies associated with the Zionist regime. Although these products may not be directly considered part of trade with the regime, they contribute to its economic power. Refraining from importing these brands could deal a significant blow to Israel.
Another crucial aspect involves Islamic countries avoiding collaboration with companies affiliated with the Zionists. In recent times, we've observed Yemen's impact on the regime's trade without direct engagement, highlighting the potential effectiveness of this approach. Therefore, both at the governmental and societal levels, Islamic countries can take action by refraining from partnering with transportation companies, technology firms, and component manufacturers associated with the regime. Putting pressure on these entities to discontinue cooperation with Tel Aviv represents another avenue to disrupt vital economic lifelines of the regime.
The second goal of the ongoing proposal to cut off the vital lifelines of the Zionist regime by Islamic countries is to exert psychological, political, and media pressure on this regime. Currently, there exists a significant capability and platform to restrict the use of products linked to the Zionist regime. A unified and determined effort by Islamic countries can promptly translate this idea into action. Naturally, this initiative will carry noteworthy psychological and political implications for the Zionist regime.
In the meantime, another factor that has led the Leader of the Islamic Revolution to repeatedly emphasize the necessity of Islamic countries severing the vital lifelines of the Zionist regime is the significant limitations faced by the leaders of these nations in defining the scope and tools of their responses. While expecting a military reaction from these countries might be unrealistic, the least they can do is apply economic pressure on the regime. Therefore, the Leader's directive for an economic confrontation with the regime stems from the fact that the capability, authority, and tools for such pressure actions rest within the hands of Islamic countries. No consent from the regime or approval from any other party in this arena is required. Consequently, another justification for the repeated introduction of this discussion by the Leader to Islamic countries is that the capacity to execute this action lies within the Islamic countries themselves.
Question: What's your assessment of the effectiveness of the strategy to sever the vital lifelines of the Zionist regime and apply pressure on its economy?
Mr. Arzaqi: The reality is that the issue of cutting off the economic lifelines of the Zionist regime is definable as an effective and shared action among Islamic countries. This means that Islamic countries, both at the governmental and societal levels, can define a position and role for themselves in this action. There is potential for the development of this capacity. Therefore, the most practical expectation from Islamic countries is to define an effective action for themselves in the economic realm.
The next crucial consideration is that the inaction of Islamic countries in response to the events in Gaza could carry significant and enduring consequences for their own interests. There is a possibility that they may not be fully aware of the potential repercussions. Examining the historical patterns of the Zionist regime's behavior makes it evident that when the regime achieves its objectives in a conflict, it gains confidence and proceeds with further invasions against other countries in various forms. Therefore, if Islamic countries don't actively support Palestine and fail to take positive steps to aid the people of Gaza, they essentially work against their own national interests. Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah explicitly addressed the neighboring countries of Palestine in one of his speeches, emphasizing that these events contradict the national interests of these countries, and their lack of effective intervention could result in harm to their own national interests. Hence, the proposed strategy of severing the vital lifelines of the Zionist regime aligns with the national interests of Islamic countries and can help mitigate many risks stemming from the regime's future actions.
Question: What are the strategies for accomplishing this goal, including potential obstacles, and what insights do you have regarding the key actions needed to overcome these challenges?
Mr. Arzaqi: The key aspect in cutting vital lifelines of the Zionist regime is acknowledging the dominance of the economic structures of the West in the region and globally. The strategy for Islamic countries to exert economic pressure on the Zionist regime sets the stage for their independent actions outside the Western hegemonic system, fostering their progress and autonomous development in the future. Furthermore, recent developments in the region, particularly the attacks on Gaza and the surprise operation by the Resistance on October 7, indicate that the current world order is crumbling, paving the way for the emergence of a new order.
Hence, the current actions taken by Islamic countries help them better prepare for the future order and gain significant advantages for themselves in the times ahead. Given that economic tools are generally employed by the Western powers to control other countries, the emphasis by the Leader of Islamic Revolution on the capability of Islamic countries to act against the regime through putting economic pressure is aimed at enabling them to weaken the Western hegemonic system, which utilizes the economy as a tool. This is in line with creating the groundwork for the region's entry into a new system and order based on regional capacities and the will of the region's nations.
(The views expressed in this interview are interviewee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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“The Al-Quds Day march, the eight-year-long Iran-Iraq war, and grieving Muslim youth,” What do you think ties together these three phrases? These are the expressions used by the brother of Martyr Robert Lazar, an Iranian Christian martyr, as he recounts the funeral procession for his brother.
On February 7, 1997, following the Al-Quds Day march in Tehran, a massive gathering of Muslim youth assembled to escort the body of Martyr Robert Lazar — a Christian martyr from the Iran-Iraq war — to Tehran's Saint Sarkis Cathedral. On that day, alongside Robert's remains, a thousand other martyrs, who had sacrificed their lives resisting the oppressive invasion by Iraqi forces starting in 1980 and remained unaffected even by the United Nations Security Council Resolution 598, were also laid to rest in Tehran. However, Robert's funeral had a distinctive atmosphere: “The funeral was strangely and remarkably massive, it was divine! The streets were closed! The ceremony became very grand, and I reflected, another Al-Quds Day [for our brother] has unfolded here. Inside Saint Sarkis Cathedral, Muslim brothers were gently beating their chests, [reciting verses] proclaiming that Jesus Christ is the owner of mourning today. There was no distinction between us and them.”
On the night of December 24, 2015, during the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei paid a visit to the martyr's family. In his address to the family, he remarked, “Religious minorities passed their test very well in the revolution and in the war as well. … They, as loyal, wise and brave Iranians, entered to war shoulder to shoulder with other Sunni and Shia Muslims.”
Iranian Christian youth actively participated during the intense days of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and throughout the eight-year war against Iraqi forces led by Saddam Hussein, aligning themselves with the struggle against the Shah (Pahlavi) system and Global Arrogance. Their involvement took various forms, including direct participation on the battlefields and providing logistical support to the war fronts. In Iran, Christians are primarily engaged in mechanical and automotive repair trades.
During the siege of Abadan in the years of the imposed war, Christians from Abadan, like many of their fellow citizens, chose not to evacuate the city. They worked alongside others in repairing vehicles used in the war. Christians also served as soldiers on the war's fronts. “Razmik Davidian” is another Christian martyr who, from the early days of the Islamic Revolution, joined Islamic Revolution Committees[1] alongside his Muslim Iranian brothers and ultimately attained martyrdom in the Sacred Defense. In his testament, he conveyed, “Dear compatriots, I sacrificed my life for the freedom of our homeland. Beloved friends, do not mourn my martyrdom, as from the early days of the revolution, my objective was to sacrifice my life for the homeland's freedom. I am honored to wear the uniform of a soldier so that my name will be remembered alongside the names of patriots.”
Yet, Iranian Christians didn't join the Islamic Revolution movement merely because of their Iranian identity. The revolution emerged from the spirit of justice and the longing for freedom within the Iranian people. In the Book of Matthew, a saying attributed to Jesus Christ proclaims, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after justice” (Matthew 5:6). Similarly, the book emphasizes, “But seek first the kingdom and its justice and all these things will be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The inherently just and monotheistic essence of the Islamic Revolution motivated Iranian Christians to stand shoulder to shoulder with their Muslim compatriots in support of the anti-oppression movement of Islam.
Resistance in the birthplace of Jesus Christ
"Defiance against Zionist occupiers, mourning by Palestinian Muslim youth, Jerusalem." These are the first phrases that come to mind when witnessing the funeral procession of the late Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian Christian journalist killed by Israeli soldiers. On May 11, 2022, while covering the clashes between Palestinian resistance youths in the Jenin refugee camp and Zionist occupier forces, she was shot and killed by direct gunfire from Zionist military personnel. Youths from the West Bank, both Muslim and Christian, carried his coffin adorned with Palestinian flags. They were compelled to engage with Zionist security forces, marking a memorable chapter in the history of the struggle of the Palestinian people and Palestinian Christians against occupation.
Palestine bears historical significance as the birthplace of Christianity, with Jesus born in Bethlehem near Jerusalem, and crucial events of his divine life unfolding in this sacred land. In 1947, aided by British colonizers, an artificial state emerged, introducing Zionist immigrants. The wave of Global Arrogance, which in the 1980s drew Christians to the frontlines against its attack on the Islamic Revolution in Iran, had involved Palestinian Christians over four decades earlier, beginning in the early 1940s. Recognizing the colonial nature of this regime from the start, Palestinian Christians joined hands with Palestinian Muslims in a struggle that commenced more than four decades before the events of the 1980s.
At present, Christians in the West Bank are speaking out against evacuating their homes, and they have opened their churches in Gaza to provide shelter for war refugees.
The Common Foe of Islam and Christianity
The illegitimate Israeli government is inherently expansionist and acts as an occupier. This is evident through the widely recognized slogan “Zionist rule from the Nile to the Euphrates” and the confiscation of Palestinian lands and properties since the early days of the regime. Over the years of occupying Palestinian territories, the Zionist regime has made little distinction between Muslims and Christians. Actions like land confiscation, religious restrictions, desecration of holy sites, prohibition of construction, and even home repairs, along with harassment, unjustified arrests, and ultimately indiscriminate bloodshed highlight the minimal differentiation in the treatment of Palestinian Christians and Muslims by the Zionist regime.
The barriers imposed by the Zionist regime along the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip limit the mobility and access of Muslim and Christian communities in these regions to other cities or neighborhoods. Furthermore, the members of these communities have been denied access to agricultural lands, which have been replaced by Israeli settlements.
Zionist provocations continue to target both Muslims and Christians. The authorities, endorsing offensive acts such as spitting on Christians, aim to provoke anger and disrespect Muslims by desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
During the recent conflict in Gaza, Israeli bombs and bullets struck the Baptist Hospital and other hospitals with no discrimination. Amidst the remnants of ancient mosques in Gaza, one can also see stones from the crumbling structures of churches, along with the blood of those seeking refuge within.
Muslim fighters and those on the path to north Gaza have not been the only target of Zionist gunmen; even Christians inside churches are considered legitimate targets for the marksmen of this regime's army.
"Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:10)
Christians worldwide rallied in the streets to support the Palestinian cause and the people of Gaza, aiming to show their solidarity with the oppressed. Some had to stop their pursuit of education or professional endeavors for backing the Palestinian cause. It is expected that Prophet Jesus’ followers and everyone who believes that venerable person to possess a greatness and high spirituality that is in accord with his exalted status will follow him on this path. However, despite efforts by Christian leaders in Gaza, and despite the cancellation of the Christmas celebrations in the West Bank, a loud and clear voice from the world Christian leaders is not heard. On October 7, the people of Gaza sought to raise awareness of the injustices they endured for years. Merely calling for a ceasefire in Gaza, without acknowledging the hardships Palestinians have faced over the past seven decades and the rights they have lost, goes against the principles of justice.
On December 27, 2000, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Sayyid Ali Khamenei stated:
This great divine prophet always made efforts during his lifetime to fight oppression, transgression, corruption, and those who tried to dominate nations by relying on their wealth and power and caused them to suffer both in this world and the hereafter. The sufferings which this great prophet endured since his childhood … were all aimed at achieving these goals.
At present, the people of Gaza, on the birth anniversary of Jesus Christ, are facing a historic genocide alongside their Christian brethren. It is certain that if Jesus were with us today, he would be working tirelessly to find a way to assist the oppressed people of Gaza and confront the oppressive and bloodthirsty enemy, Israel.
[1] . Shortly after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, considering the situation in the country and the absence of security forces in the country, Imam Khomeini called for the formation of these committees. These committees in every city and neighborhood had the duty to protect their appointed areas. | {
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In an interview with Khamenei.ir, Dr. Masoud Fekri, a professor at Tehran University, discussed how the measures taken by Islamic countries to sever economic ties with the Zionist regime has dealt a significant blow to the occupying regime. Additionally, he talked about the role of the elites in fulfilling their propelling and positive duty in explaining the Palestinian issue and their ability to encourage the people and the rulers to take action and seek a resolution regarding this matter.Question: Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khamenei, has called the severance of Islamic countries’ economic relations with the Zionist regime a decisive blow to this regime. In your view, what capacities exist in the Islamic world to achieve this goal and deliver a decisive blow to Tel Aviv?
M. Fekri: Regarding what Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, uttered, we should pay attention to the fact that in the face of the usurping, criminal occupying regime, several ways and options should be put on the agenda to stop the expansionist demands of the Zionist regime. This regime does not honor any international, humanitarian, and legal obligations, and it does not respect the values supported by nations around the world. The first approach to deal with the Zionist regime is to focus on the media confrontation to expose the horrific crimes of Tel Aviv. Naturally, the media coverage of the reverberations of Operation Al-Aqsa Flood will play a huge role in this regard. A media encounter with the enemy will play a very impactful role in exposing the criminal actions of the Zionist regime.
The second approach is political confrontation. In this approach, one can benefit from diplomatic measures, among which holding emergency meetings of the heads of Islamic countries or the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Arab League, and the United Nations can be pointed out. The relations between the countries, especially the Islamic and neighboring countries in the region, should be maintained in such a way that they pressure the Zionist regime to stop its bloody aggression against the Palestinian people, especially the people of Gaza.
Another approach to confront the Zionists, as the Leader of the Revolution has also referred to, is economic confrontation. Islamic countries have many facilities and capacities in the economic and commercial fields. Accordingly, they export some petroleum products, petrochemicals, and all kinds of solid materials and metals to the Zionist regime. On the other hand, some Israeli products are also imported by Islamic countries. This economic relationship based on import and export between the two sides boosts Israel’s economy. In such circumstances, however, the Islamic countries must use this opportunity to exert economic pressure on the Zionist regime and not suffice to just chant slogans.
Here, I do not want to mention the names of those countries in the Persian Gulf, West Asia, or North Africa that have extensive economic and commercial relations with the Zionist regime. In the shadow of these relations, water and food are being exported to the Zionist regime. It is self-evident that exporting water and food to the Zionist regime strengthens it and encourages it to commit horrible crimes and attack the oppressed Palestinian people. Therefore, the objective of the Leader’s advice to cut off the vital lifeline of the Zionist regime is for the Arab world and the Islamic world to cut off their commercial and economic ties with Israel and neither import from it nor export goods that Tel Aviv desperately needs. Such an action would be a fatal blow to the Zionist regime and would pressure it to stop its crimes.
Question: What role can the Islamic world’s elites, especially the scientific and academic elites, play in forcing their governments to cut off relations with the Zionist regime or at least reduce these ties, especially in the economic field?
M. Fekri: Concerning the role of the elites throughout the Islamic world and the Arab world, I must point out that Arab and Islamic countries are still under the influence of the elites, especially ulama [religious scholars] and clerics. Since the beginning of Israel’s occupation in the middle of the previous century, we have clearly seen that ulama and clerics have been the pioneers of proposing the idea of liberating Palestine and reclaiming Palestinian lands. In this regard, many names stand out in history, among whom Izz ad-Din al-Qassam and other Palestinian, Syrian, and Lebanese ulama can be mentioned. Anyway, ulama and clerics have always played a pioneering role in calling for the liberation of Palestine and confronting the occupation of the Zionist regime.
Regarding the effectiveness of the role of ulama, clerics, and elites, two basic points should be considered. The first point is that in the countries of the Islamic world, a large number of Muslims participate in religious ceremonies and rituals held in mosques and holy places and listen to the lectures of ulama. These ulama are also present in the cultural scene of schools, universities, and other scientific centers, and these centers are in turn a bridge of communication between them and the general public. On the other hand, publications, newspapers, and websites are among other tools that the elites of the Islamic world can benefit from in order to communicate with Muslims and influence their approach and attitude. The second point is that, along with ulama and clerics, there are other elites such as thinkers, intellectuals, artists, university professors and students who have the power to directly influence the audience due to their more informed points of view and attitudes than the general public.
Based on what was said, if the ulama and clerics as well as the elites that we mentioned can play their pioneering and positive role in defending the Palestinian cause and providing solutions to this issue, without a doubt, a large strata of the general public would follow their opinions and thoughts to a great extent. This [capacity of the elites] is an invaluable support that Imam Khamenei also mentioned. Therefore, it is necessary for the elite class in the Islamic world to fulfill its role in this field.
Question: If the demands of the elites and scientific elites ultimately lead to the complete or partial termination of the economic relations of the Muslim governments with the Zionist regime, what impact will this have on the collective morale of the Islamic Ummah?
M. Fekri: As I pointed out, if the elites properly fulfill their role in society, they can have a direct impact on the general public. In every society, there are thinkers and theoreticians along with the decision-makers. Yes, perhaps the thinkers and intellectuals in society are not able to bring about practical change, but nevertheless, they can be effective and influential in changing the thoughts and views of the people in society. Therefore, if they support the idea of severing relations with the Zionist regime and oppose the normalization of relations with Tel Aviv, which has no benefit for the Islamic world and the Arab world, then they can also change the views of the society as well. Without any doubt, playing this role creates a kind of direct pressure on the Zionist regime to stop its crimes against the Palestinians. The role that they play may even have more impact and lead to the total annihilation of the occupying regime.
The truth is that the world has become interested in the positions [of the elite], especially after Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. After this operation, the Palestinian case received widespread public attention. Therefore, today the general public is paying attention to the Palestinian issue and is looking for a way to resolve it. If the Islamic world pays attention to the views and thoughts of the ulama and elites of Islamic societies, then we will witness the formation of an Islamic thinking around the Palestinian issue. Undoubtedly, this Islamic thinking would directly affect the attitudes of the general public toward the Zionist regime. This is the outcome that we expect to reach through direct communication between the elites and the general public.
(The views expressed in this interview are interviewee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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Ruhollah Abdolmaleki, researcher in regional studies
In 2023, as the year wrapped up, the bravery of Palestinian fighters and the resilience of women and children in Gaza against the oppression and crimes of Zionist occupiers kept intensifying. Moving into the new year, a fresh front against the Zionist regime was launched, not only significantly damaging the regime’s international credibility but also imposing substantial economic costs on it.
Yemen's involvement in the Gaza conflict, marked by aerial attacks like missile launches at occupied territories, has showcased strategic gains for the oppressed people of Palestine and targeted vital lifelines of the Zionists. Supporters of the Zionist regime in the West have voiced concerns about these actions, openly opposing them and criticizing Yemen's Resistance movement Ansar Allah. For example, the French Foreign Minister labeled Yemen's attack on Israeli ports as a threat to the region. Moreover, a high-ranking Pentagon official said, “Houthi attacks on Israeli ports demonstrate a serious threat to regional security.”
Former US President Barack Obama, explicitly linking the security of the Zionist regime to regional security, aligns Western authorities' perception of the regional security threat with a threat to the Zionist regime's security. Apart from the isolated stance of Western countries, those typically aligned with the US have sided with the oppressor instead of defending the oppressed. In a collective and joint statement, these nations, in a new alignment, concluded their arguments by cautioning the people of Yemen about bearing the consequences of attacking the ports of Israeli regime.
Nevertheless, disregarding these threats, Yemeni resistance fighters persist in defending the oppressed Palestinians and confronting the ruthless Israeli criminals. Their actions echo the divine description of true fighters, as expressed in verse 173 of Surah Al-Imran: "Those to whom hypocrites said, 'Indeed, the people have gathered against you, so fear them.' But it [merely] increased them in faith, and they said, "Allah is sufficient for us, and He is an excellent trustee."
Subsequently, the United States and Britain issued multiple orders for attacks on Yemen. Despite this, Yemen made it clear that these assaults would not diminish their backing for the oppressed Palestinians. They continued striking against the interests of the Zionist regime. This display of courage and unwavering determination in the face of Western aggression earned admiration from supporters of the world's oppressed. Imam Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, commended the Yemeni fighters, urging them to persist in supporting the people of Gaza amidst oppression. He emphasized, “They struck a blow to the lifeline of the Zionist regime. The US threatened them, but they didn’t fear the US. That’s how they are! They didn’t fear the US. When a person fears God, he does not fear anyone else. What they did is truly and rightly an example of fighting on the path of God.”
Yemen's support for the Palestinian Cause has a history
Yemen's historical support for the Palestinians and resistance groups like Hamas goes back to the 20th century. One key reason behind Yemen's backing of Palestinian groups, including Hamas, lies in the anti-Zionist stance of Yemeni Muslims and their historical anti-colonial background. Yemen's history also shows support for Hezbollah and Hamas, including visits from Palestinian leaders. Yemen has supported Hamas through military backing. Yemen served as a channel for sending missiles and armaments to the Gaza Strip in 2006. Amid the heightened conflict led by the coalition of Saudi Arabia and Ansar Allah in Yemen, Ansar Allah fighters collaborated with Lebanese Hezbollah, expanding their arms power and transferring weapons to Hamas in Gaza. Beyond weapon supply, Yemen played a role in military attacks on Israeli targets and maritime transport associated with the Zionist regime.
After Al-Aqsa Flood Operation
The astonishing military operation by Gaza fighters into occupied territories, named Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, marked a pivotal moment in the Gaza people's struggle for the freedom of their occupied lands. In an attempt to compensate for irreparable losses, the Zionist regime unleashed its most brutal and horrendous attacks against the oppressed people of Gaza, receiving political, financial, and military support from its traditional backers in the West. A glance at the statistics of this ruthless massacre reveals that Gaza has turned into a blood-soaked stage for the Zionist regime's crimes. Over approximately 100 days of brutal operations, the regime has killed over 26,000 Palestinians, including more than 10,000 children, 120 journalists, and 7,000 women.
One of the strategies to prevent the continuation of the Zionist regime's inhumane crimes against the people of Gaza involves exerting economic and commercial pressure on this illegitimate and child-killing regime. From the beginning, Imam Khamenei called on the Islamic countries and countries of the region to undertake this crucial initiative, emphasizing strategic measures such as cutting off economic lifelines to the Zionist regime, including preventing the entry of energy and goods. Yemen, with its longstanding support for the Palestinian people as mentioned above, utilized its capacities to aid the people of Gaza and Hamas. This dealt a severe blow to the structure of the Zionist regime, as briefly explained below:
1. Attacking Israeli ports
After the Al-Aqsa Flood, Yemeni authorities swiftly came to the aid of the oppressed Palestinians, directing missile and drone attacks toward the coastal city of Eilat in the occupied territories. In October 2023, they launched a ballistic missile and several cruise missiles at the port of Eilat, escalating the intensity of the conflict in the subsequent months. This military initiative strategically deployed their military capabilities and operational focus on specific sections of the occupied territories controlled by the Zionist regime, leading Israel's War Minister, Yoav Gallant, to acknowledge that the Zionist regime is now a target for military attacks on multiple fronts. Economically, Yemeni fighters have inflicted a significant blow to the economy of the Eilat port. Israeli mid-level officials have conceded that since Yemen's attacks on Eilat and ships heading to this port in the Red Sea, the activity of the Eilat port has seen an 85% decrease.
2. Strikes on Israeli-linked commercial vessels
Despite warnings from human rights organizations about water, food, and fuel shortages in Gaza over the tragic 100-day events, the massacre of the people and the blockage of essential supplies continue. Ignoring these warnings and using their veto power to support this regime, there seems to be no alternative but reciprocal responses, limiting fuel supplies, and obstructing the free trade of the Zionist regime in international waters. Attacking commercial ships associated with Israel may negatively impact global markets and jeopardize the economic security of this regime, possibly compelling the Zionists to abandon their strategy of imposing famine, exacerbating drug shortages, and causing widespread death in Gaza due to the lack of essential necessities. To accomplish this objective, Yemen successfully disrupted maritime communications along one of the world's major transportation routes in a brief period, presenting substantial challenges to the Zionist regime's economy.
Looking at it from a different angle, there has been a global initiative against the Zionist regime, where anti-war and justice-seeking groups worldwide have been actively participating for nearly two decades through the Global BDS Movement (“Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions”). Ansar Allah's actions in Yemen bring a military aspect to this global sanctioning method. Essentially, the same rationale behind launching the BDS movement, which condemns the occupation and colonization of Palestinian territories and the neglect of the rights of Arab Palestinian citizens, aims to cut off international support for the regime. Consequently, there is a consensus to sever the economic lifelines of the regime to halt the unjust slaughter of innocent Palestinians.
Following this approach, starting from early December when Ansar Allah disrupted the Red Sea and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, maritime transport and the flow of goods and energy to the Zionist regime encountered interruptions. The United States, being a key supporter of the Zionist regime, declared that a US warship and several American commercial ships were attacked in the Red Sea. Western governments felt the impact of Yemeni resistance, with the French transportation group CMA CGM announcing the suspension of its maritime transport. Furthermore, the UK reported that one of its ships, crossing the Red Sea, was hit by a missile. Yemen conducted a skillful and diplomatic operation against ships heading to Zionist ports; despite the attacks, no ships were sunk, and the crews faced no serious harm except in self-defense. As a result, major global shipping organizations advised ship owners to avoid this perilous maritime region, leading to a 50% reduction in ship movements through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait. Additionally, the Qatari government-owned energy company halted the transportation of liquefied natural gas through the Red Sea. This dealt another blow to the Zionist regime in the maritime trade sector.
Yemen's recent actions have stirred hope across Islamic nations. The Yemeni people's support for the Palestinian cause has garnered remarkable popularity and backing in West Asia, as reported by the Times of Israel. On the flip side, the prospect of a bright future for the Zionist regime appears doubtful, with analysts cautioning that its image and global standing have dwindled. Even if it pursues victory in this crisis (which is far from taking place), it's suggested that it might result in a "pyrrhic victory."
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.) | {
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Afshin Zeinizadeh, researcher in the Palestinian issues
After the Six-Day War in 1967, the Zionist regime commenced the establishment of Jewish settlements in the territories it had occupied, commonly known as Israeli settlements. In certain areas that remain under the occupation of this regime, the construction of settlements persists and has even seen expansion. The creation of settlements is regarded as a pivotal policy for the consolidation and development of the occupied territories by this regime.
History and method of Israeli settlement construction
Following the Six-Day War, Israel assumed control over the western bank areas of the Jordan River, which encompassed East Jerusalem (previously under Jordanian administration since 1949), the Gaza Strip (under Egyptian control since 1949), the Sinai Desert from Egypt, and the Golan Heights from Syria. This occupation entailed the enforcement of military laws in these regions and initially served military objectives and presence.
Over time, Israel, for various reasons, started the construction and establishment of Jewish settlements in these occupied areas. In early September 1967, the cabinet of Levi Eshkol gradually embraced the settlement policy. The foundation for settlement construction in the West Bank was known as the “Allon Plan,” named after its creator, Yigal Allon, who served as the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister at that time (1967-1977). This plan aimed to annex significant portions of the occupied territories of Israel, particularly East Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley (Lustick).
Settlement construction based on the Allon Plan continued under the Yitzhak Rabin’s cabinet as well. Numerous settlements were initially formed as “Nahal” outposts, established by specialized units of the Israel War Forces sharing the same name. Initially, these outposts were former military bases repurposed for military use through military orders. Over time, through land confiscation, the development of essential infrastructure, and the settlement of non-military residents, they evolved into fully established settlements (Berger).
For example, the land for the Kiryat Arba settlement was initially seized exclusively for military purposes. However, it subsequently became apparent that the plan was strategically crafted for the benefit of the settlement residents.
The methods employed for land appropriation in the 1970s for settlement construction included occupation under the guise of ostensibly military purposes and the spraying pesticide on lands (Aderet). The Likud government, under the leadership of Menachem Begin, openly endorsed settlement construction policies. Even Ariel Sharon declared in 1977 that there was a plan to settle two million Jews in the West Bank by the year 2000 and lifted the ban on Israel purchasing occupied lands (Bidwell 442).
A notable aspect of settlements is that their construction is typically undertaken by non-governmental contractors. Since 1967, the World Zionist Organization (WZO), formerly the Jewish Agency, ostensibly a non-governmental organization but financially supported by the government of Israel, has been tasked with executing plans and constructing settlements. The objective of this approach is to avoid direct involvement of Israeli political entities in the construction of non-military settlements.
For example, the “Drobles Plan,” presented in 1978 by Matityahu Drobles, the former director of the Jewish Agency and a former member of the Israeli Knesset (Parliament), aimed at a large-scale settlement in the West Bank. Its purpose extended beyond mere settlement; it sought to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state under the guise of security within the framework of settlement. Consequently, the settlement policy is practically carried out and implemented by non-governmental contractors. It is crucial to note that all settlements must obtain the necessary approvals from the engineering unit of the Israel War Forces for construction.
The Settlement Division is the department tasked with executing construction projects within the World Zionist Organization (WZO). It functions under the supervision of the Ministry of Agriculture in Israel. In 2009, the Benjamin Netanyahu cabinet made the decision to subject all settlement construction activities to the approval of the Israeli Prime Minister and the Minister of War. Since 2011, these activities have been directly overseen by the Prime Minister's Office, in conjunction with the Ministry of Agriculture, emphasizing the particular importance attached to settlement construction.
Reasons for Israeli settlement construction
Israeli settlements are established and developed for various reasons, including:
1) Reclaiming lost territories from the 1948 War: Important settlements like “Gush Etzion” between Jerusalem and Hebron were established for this purpose.
2) Expansion of defense and security facilities: Drawing inspiration from the Allon Plan, Israeli settlements strategically positioned in areas like the Jordan Valley were established to bolster defense facilities and serve as a bargaining chip in peace negotiations.
3) Increasing Jewish ownership of “Holy Lands”: Jewish immigrants with ideological motivations seek to maximize Jewish control over lands referenced in religious texts, as evidenced by settlements like “Kiryat Arba” near Hebron.
4) Providing housing for new immigrants: Many new Jewish immigrants in Israel find housing through settlements.
5) Providing strategic centers: Israel faces constraints in strategic centers because of its proximity to crucial areas, making the establishment of residential settlements in occupied areas a defensive imperative. This helps to enhance strategic prowess against potential threats.
6) Preventing the establishment of an independent Palestinian State: The pattern and dispersion of settlements practically hinder the creation of a cohesive and unified independent Palestinian state.
7) Utilizing water and natural resources in these areas: Since the establishment of settlements, Israel has claimed access to various natural and water resources in these regions under the pretext of meeting the infrastructure needs of the settlements.
8) Altering the Jewish-Palestinian population ratio: While Palestinians still constitute the majority in the West Bank, the rapid growth of the Jewish population in these regions reflects Israel's efforts to alter the existing demographic composition.
Geography of Israeli settlement areas
The settlements established in the Sinai Desert were evacuated and demolished in 1982 following the peace agreement with Egypt in 1979. Additionally, 21 settlements in the Gaza Strip were evacuated in 2005 after Israel's withdrawal, though some were reconstructed on the West Bank. From 2005 to the present, these settlements are exclusively situated on the West Bank, and some are in the Golan Heights.
Israel has initiated the construction of settlements in portions of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which were under Jordanian administration from 1949 to 1967. The construction of settlements in the Golan Heights should also be noted. Israel claimed complete control over these lands in 1967 and 1981 for unilateral annexation, but these annexations are not officially recognized by most international observers and the original inhabitants who still reside in these areas. Since 1981, the Golan Heights are governed by the law with the same title (Golan Heights Law).
Demographics of Israeli settlements
As of January 2023, there are 144 Jewish settlements on the West Bank, with 12 settlements situated exclusively in East Jerusalem. Overall, more than 500,000 Israelis live in settlements on the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, while the residents of East Jerusalem settlements number over 220,000. Additionally, in the Golan Heights, over 20,000 settlers reside in 32 settlements. The estimated Palestinian population in the West Bank and East Jerusalem exceeds 2.74 million individuals. The daily lives and movement of Palestinians face impediments due to hundreds of illegal checkpoints throughout the West Bank, purportedly established to ensure the security of settlers.
Aspects of Israeli settlements
From the standpoint of international law, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights are deemed illegal. In accordance with the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power is prohibited from transferring or deporting parts or the entire population to the territories it occupies (Playfair 396; Albin 150; Judicial Protection 72). UN Security Council Resolution 446, aligning with this convention, urges Israel to abstain from transferring its population to these areas or altering their demographic structure. Furthermore, the principal judicial bodies of the United Nations and the International Court of Justice have explicitly ruled settlement construction as illegal.
Nevertheless, the stance of the Israeli officials is that these settlements are legal under international law, as Israel does not recognize the Fourth Geneva Convention. Despite designating these areas as military zones, Israel applies civil laws to settlers within its borders, extending civil and citizenship rights to them. This contrasts with the situation for Palestinians, as these laws are not similarly applied to them. For instance, numerous settlements are constructed on lands privately owned by Palestinians, and the acquisition of these lands frequently involves military confiscation — a practice not employed for privately owned lands within Israel.
The violation of human rights against Palestinians in these areas is quite apparent. Primary roads and thoroughfares in the West Bank, crucial for connecting settlements, are closed and off-limits to Palestinians, frequently serving as barriers between villages and Palestinian lands (Barahona 42). Numerous incidents of Palestinians being killed by settlers have taken place, pointing to a significant level of violence perpetrated by Israeli residents against Palestinians (Barahona 98-99).
Moreover, a considerable number of effluents from Israeli industrial centers and factories in the West Bank flows through Palestinian residential and agricultural areas, contaminating their living spaces and lands. Some of these wastewater discharges also pollute their water sources.
The significance of the settlement policy can be viewed as a multifaceted strategy for Israel. In addition to the mentioned reasons and dimensions, this policy yields other benefits for the regime. Since its inception, settlement policy has been pursued by all governments, albeit with fluctuations in intensity. Security consistently occupies a distinctive place in Israel's strategies and policies. Therefore, one of the most substantial impacts of settlement construction is Israel's security and military presence in areas housing Israeli settlements.
While these settlements are portrayed as residential and non-military, Israel, ostensibly to ensure the security of settlers, maintains a robust military presence in these regions, allowing for control and dominance over Palestinians. Additionally, the designation of the region as a military zone makes it feasible to deal with Palestinians based on military law. Many human rights violations against Palestinians, such as administrative detention, massacres, restrictions on movement, and frequent inspections, occur under security pretexts and justifications.
Settlement construction systematically and discreetly erodes the Palestinian identity in these areas. The Zionist regime suppresses and eliminates the possibility of forming intellectual circles or ideologies that could foster consensus against Israel by closely monitoring Palestinian students and various groups. Consequently, the formation of Palestinian organizations and resistance cores is effectively neutralized. Palestinians are continually monitored in their daily lives and online activities by this regime through the use of technological surveillance tools. Additionally, this policy hampers the economic growth and development of these areas for Palestinians, to the extent that many Palestinians, faced with high unemployment rates in the West Bank, perceive no solution other than working in Israeli factories for their livelihood.
In his most recent reference to the crime of Zionist settlements and the analysis of the regime’s attacks on Gaza, Imam Khamenei mentioned:
These tragedies that have taken place during the last 50 days are a summation of the crimes that the Zionist regime has been committing in Palestine for 75 years. What it has done now is that it has compressed its actions. Otherwise, it has been doing all these things throughout these years: Massacring people, driving them out of their homes, and destroying the homes [of the Palestinians]. Where have the settlements been built? Where have the Zionist settlements been built? It destroyed people's homes, destroyed Palestinian farmland, and built Zionist settlements.
In conclusion, the significance of the settlement policy lies in its role as a covert form of occupation. This policy has consistently played a pivotal role in Zionists strategies and plans, encompassing the annexation of the West Bank, the disruption of the peace process for Palestinians, the normalization of relations with other countries, and the development of Israeli immigration policies. Discontinuing this policy would disrupt many of the aforementioned aspects and benefits for Israelis.
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
References:
Aderet, Ofer. “Israel Poisoned Palestinian Land to Build West Bank Settlement in 1970s, Documents Reveal.” Haaretz, 23 June 2023, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2023-06-23/ty-article-magazine/.highlight/israel-poisoned-palestinian-land-to-build-west-bank-settlement-in-1970s-documents-reveal/00000188-e8aa-df52-a79d-fcabdd200000.
Albin, Cecilia. Justice and Fairness in International Negotiation. Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Barahona, Ana. Bearing Witness: Eight Weeks in Palestine. Metete, 2011.
Berger, Yotam. “Secret 1970 Document Confirms First West Bank Settlements Built on a Lie.” Haaretz, 28 July 2016, https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-07-28/ty-article/.premium/document-confirms-first-settlements-built-on-a-lie/0000017f-ea04-da9b-a1ff-ee6ff9080000.
Bidwell, Robin. Dictionary of Modern Arab History. Routledge, 2010.
Judicial Protection of Human Rights: Myth or Reality? Edited by Mark Gibney and Stanlislaw Frankowski, Praeger Publishers, 1999.
Lustick, Ian S. For the land and the Lord: Jewish fundamentalism in Israel. Council on Foreign Relations Press, 1988.
Playfair, Emma. International Law and the Administration of Occupied Territories. Oxford UP, 1992. | {
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While some assert that body language serves as a universal means of communication, evidence contradicts these claims. Nevertheless, the raised right hand of the US ambassador during the United Nations Security Council meeting on December 8, 2023, was unmistakably interpreted by the pilots of the Zionist regime's fighter jets. Similar to the signals used by airport air traffic controllers, the ambassador's hand indicated approval for the flight and bombing raids targeting Palestinian homes in Gaza.[i]
Since the onset of the brutal military aggression by the Zionist regime on the Gaza Strip following the historic Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on October 7, the United States has consistently taken a stance opposing the establishment of a ceasefire and bringing an end to the bloodshed in Gaza. Although, during this period, officials in Washington have at times tried to present themselves as disturbed by the events in Gaza, their actions speak louder than words, revealing a duplicitous effort to sustain continuous political cover for the ongoing massacre of non-combatants in the besieged Gaza enclave.
Washington has employed a significant tool, their veto power, without hesitation to provide political protection for the war crimes committed by the Zionist regime against Palestinian women and children. Despite occasionally expressing concerns that may seem insincere, Washington's actions consistently demonstrate a steadfast commitment to ensuring political cover for the continuous atrocities against civilians in the confined spaces of Gaza.
Once again, the United States exercised its veto power in the Security Council on October 16, blocking a proposed resolution by Russia that called for an immediate ceasefire. Similarly, on October 18, Washington vetoed a resolution presented by Brazil, emphasizing the urgent need to halt the aggressive attacks by the Zionist regime on the Gaza Strip. [ii]This highlights Washington's recurring use of its veto power as a powerful tool to politically support the Zionist regime, defying international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
However, it should not be overlooked that exercising the veto power against Security Council resolutions does not necessarily imply the commitment and adherence of the United States to the adopted resolutions. For instance, one can point to the non-compliance of the United States with a resolution passed on November 16, which focused on the 'immediate establishment of humanitarian ceasefires' in Gaza.[iii] Despite the approval of Security Council members for this resolution, proposed by Malta, the Americans never implemented it.
What were the resolutions of Russia and Brazil?
Brazil, in its proposed resolution, emphasized the necessity of establishing ceasefire in the Gaza Strip to facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid to the inhabitants of this enclave. The resolution also stressed the need to halt the forced displacement of Palestinians from the north to the south of Gaza. However, Brazil, in its proposed resolution, also took into account the interests and benefits of the Zionist regime, condemning the October 7 operation of Hamas. The resolution also asked for the release of Israeli prisoners arrested by Hamas.[iv] Despite the special attention given to the interests of the Zionists in the Brazilian resolution, the United States' unwavering support for the Zionists prevented them from even accepting the most basic rights of the Palestinians, namely, the receipt of humanitarian aid.
In the draft of the proposed Russian resolution, the need to open humanitarian corridors was also emphasized. The Russian representative in the Security Council described the resolution as a "purely humanitarian text" and stated, "This draft condemns all forms of violence and calls for the opening of humanitarian corridors and the release of all captives.”[v]
Why did Washington resort to the 'veto power'?"
Using the veto right against the Palestinians and in support of the Zionist regime illustrates that the US has no intention of initiating a ceasefire in Gaza or putting an end to the unprecedented genocide in this small enclave. One major factor contributing to this is Washington's reluctance to hinder the forced displacement of Gaza residents.
In a resolution proposed by Brazil, it explicitly declared that Israel must immediately cease all attempts for the forced relocation of Gazans. [vi]Therefore, by vetoing this resolution, the Americans essentially permitted the Zionists to persist in evicting Palestinians from their homes and shelters in Gaza.
Another reason prompting Washington to accelerate its political backing for the regime known for child killings in international forums was the absence of explicit references to 'Israel's right to self-defense' in ceasefire resolutions. The third factor was that, contrary to Washington's belief, none of the resolutions identified the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, as a terrorist organization.[vii] Another aspect of the United States' use of veto power in favor of Israel can be seen in the official statements and positions of Washington's authorities.
In this context, the US representative in the United Nations Security Council, explaining the reason for vetoing Russia's proposed resolution on October 16, stated: “Hamas is not mentioned in this resolution. We cannot allow the responsibility for what is happening in Gaza to fall on Israel's shoulders.”[viii] In the October 18 session, he reiterated the rationale for vetoing Brazil's resolution, emphasizing: “There is no reference to Israel's right to self-defense in this resolution.” [ix]This statement was made despite the absence of any international laws or resolutions that consider the indiscriminate massacre of women, children, and the elderly by Zionists in Gaza as an example of 'self-defense.'
What do the statistics indicate?
The statistics and figures indicate that since the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, the United States has used the veto power 82 times, with half of them, namely 46 times, in support of the Zionist regime and against the Palestinian cause.[x]
One of the crucial resolutions in support of the Palestinian cause was Resolution 3236, introduced by the United Nations General Assembly in 1976. This resolution officially acknowledged the 'right to self-determination' for Palestinians. However, the Americans vetoed it, undermining its credibility. This suggests that Washington denied Palestinians even the most fundamental right enjoyed by the inhabitants of any land. In 1980, a resolution condemning the Zionist regime's settlements in East Jerusalem was also vetoed by Washington.[xi]
The table below shows the resolutions that the United States has vetoed in the United Nations Security Council in support of the Zionist regime.[xii]
Click on the image to view the large size
The use of 'veto power': A prominent example of Washington's support for Tel Aviv
the Leader of the Islamic Revolution in his recent meeting with Ismail Haniyeh, the head of the political bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas, emphasized: “The crimes of the Zionist regime [against Palestine and Gaza] are carried out with direct support from the United States and some Western countries.” It is evident that the use of the veto power is considered one of the prominent examples of this direct support by Washington for the Zionists.
As it appears, the veto power has always been a powerful 'diplomatic weapon' for the United States to support the aggressive policies of the Zionist apartheid regime. Each time the Americans vetoed resolutions presented to the United Nations Security Council in support of the Palestinian cause, they provided a green light to the Zionist regime to pursue its evil policies against Palestinians. These include the continuation of settlements, Judaization of occupied Jerusalem, forced displacement of Palestinians from their homes, arbitrary arrests of Palestinian citizens, desecration of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, arming settlers for the slaughter of Palestinian civilians, further confiscation of Palestinian lands, blindly arresting the Palestinian people, the ongoing siege of Gaza, and more. Accordingly, Washington continues its tradition of supporting Israel by vetoing resolutions aimed at achieving a ceasefire in Gaza, signaling a consistent stance.
(This article has been updated.)
References:
[i] https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/12/8/antonio-guterres-urges-un-security-council-to-push-for-gaza-ceasefire
[ii] https://www.newarab.com/news/gaza-war-us-vetoes-un-resolution-humanitarian-pause
[iii] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15506.doc.htm
[iv] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15450.doc.htm
[v] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15445.doc.htm
[vi] https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142507
[vii] https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/10/1142507
[viii] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15445.doc.htm
[ix] https://press.un.org/en/2023/sc15450.doc.htm
[x] https://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick/veto
[xi]https://manar.com/page-47081-ar-ar-ar.html
[xii] https://research.un.org/en/docs/sc/quick/veto | {
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The term “genocide” was initially coined in 1944 by Raphaël Lemkin, a Polish lawyer, in his book Axis Rule in Occupied Europe. Lemkin used this term to characterize actions directed at the destruction of particular groups of people in the past. In 1946, genocide was formally recognized as a crime under international law for the first time in the United Nations General Assembly.
What defines genocide?
According to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (the Genocide Convention), it comprises of any action that involves “killing members of the group,” “causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group,” “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group,” and “intentionally inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”
killing members of the group
As per the recent announcement from the Gaza Health Ministry, the devastating attacks by the Zionist regime have resulted in over 20,000 fatalities and approximately 53,320 injuries, primarily affecting women and children. The organization Defense for Children International — Palestine (DCIP) reports that, up to the tenth day of the attacks, children constitute more than one-fourth of the total Palestinian casualties. The most recent statistics as of December 19, 2023, show that this number has reached 7,700 child martyrs, comprising about 40% of the total victims.
Causing serious bodily harm
While the death of over 20,000 Palestinians constitutes a blatant violation of this aspect of the United Nations Genocide Convention, specifically “causing serious bodily harm,” developments in Gaza suggest that without ample humanitarian assistance, we could witness even graver tragedies. UNICEF, sounding the alarm regarding the scarcity of “sufficient safe water, food and sanitation” in Gaza, underscores the potential for “child deaths due to disease” to surpass “those killed in bombardments.”
Two days after Operation Al-Aqsa Storm, Yoav Gallant, the Minister of War for the Zionist regime, declared in a statement that was largely carried out, “We are putting a complete siege on Gaza … No electricity, no food, no water, no gas — it’s all closed.”
The emergence of various diseases among 1.9 million Palestinian refugees in the aftermath of the Zionist regime's attacks has led to an increase in skin diseases and rashes, jaundice, scabies, and more. Earlier, Human Rights Watch (HRW) organizations and Amnesty International deemed the use of phosphorus munitions by the Zionist regime "unlawful" due to the serious risks and potential long-term harm it could inflict on civilians and non-combatants.
Causing serious mental harm
“When they shelled us with the second missile, I woke up and was surrounded by rubble. I realized that my leg had been cut off. Because there was blood, and I had no leg. I tried to move it but it wouldn’t move. My father and my mother were martyred. My brother Mohammad and my sister Dalia too. I want someone to take me abroad, to any country, to install a prosthetic leg, to be able to walk like other people. So that I can move and go out and play with my siblings.”
The heart-wrenching words from Dunia Abu Mohsen, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl killed on December 17 when an Israeli tank shell hit the maternity building of Nasser Hospital in the southern city of Khan Younis, represent only a fraction of the immense suffering endured by the people of Gaza.
The cumulative trauma of chronic violence significantly impacts children's mental health and perspectives, leaving lasting negative effects that persist into adulthood. For Palestinians, this issue is especially palpable, as many may never have had a moment in their entire lives free from the constant threat and fear of attacks by the Zionist regime.
Nearly every child in the Gaza Strip has faced profoundly distressing events and psychological harm, arising from widespread destruction, relentless attacks, displacement, and severe shortages of essential necessities for life.
One year ago, the non-governmental organization Save the Children published insights into the mental health of Palestinian children. The report revealed that four out of five children in the Gaza Strip experience depression, grief, and fear at some point in their lives. According to the 2022 study, the mental health situation has notably deteriorated since 2018, with emotional distress among children rising from 55% to 80%.
The Guardian reported just 16 days after the commencement of the Zionist regime's attacks in October 2023, quoting Fadel Abu Heen, a Palestinian psychiatrist, that Children in Gaza are developing severe trauma symptoms. These include convulsions, bed-wetting, fear, aggressive behavior, nervousness, and not leaving their parents’ sides.
Intentionally inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
United Nations assessments show that since the start of widespread Zionist attacks on non-combatants on October 7, almost one-fifth of the buildings in the Gaza Strip have either been destroyed or suffered severe damage.
The statistics rely on images supplied by the United Nations Satellite Centre, enabling analysts to generate maps of damaged structures. Yet, certain analysts raise concerns about these statistics, suggesting a potential issue. Specifically, there is a high likelihood that some of the estimated figures for destroyed buildings may be lower than the actual situation. This discrepancy arises from the fact that the images, for instance, categorize collapsed buildings with intact ceilings as undamaged.
As a result of the bombardment by the Zionist regime and the destruction of Palestinian homes, approximately 1.9 million people, equivalent to 85% of the population of Gaza, lack safe shelter against cold and rain and are living in very difficult conditions.
Imposing measures to prevent births within the group
The actions of the Zionist regime aim to hinder the birth and survival of newborns in Gaza. Dr. Shireen Abed, a neonatal specialist in Gaza, describes the conditions surrounding childbirth as "extremely horrible." In her view, "There’s no humanity for people." Many pregnant women in Gaza, suffering from stress and pressure due to the attacks by the Zionist regime, experience premature births, placing these preterm infants at a high risk of early mortality.
As a result of the complete siege on Gaza, the lack of fuel and energy, even within minutes, can jeopardize the lives of infants dependent on incubators.
Furthermore, attacking medical centers after cutting off the supply of fuel, electricity, and medicine is another act of destruction against infants. According to The Independent, with power outages and the malfunctioning of incubators, doctors are forced to use tin foil to keep infants warm and maintain their body temperature.
With a little reflection on what has transpired in Gaza over the past three months and the definition of genocide provided by international organizations, to which the Zionist regime and its main supporter the United States are members, it can be stated that the Zionists have extensively committed all the mentioned crimes outlined in the United Nations Genocide Convention against the people of Gaza.
According to a treaty known as the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, the ICC is responsible for the prosecution of individuals accused of committing the most serious crimes in the international community, including genocide.
Looking beyond the different aspects and severity of the Zionist regime's wrongdoings against Palestinians, particularly the people of Gaza, what deserves heightened focus is the importance of addressing this ongoing genocide. The Leader of the Islamic Revolution stressed the necessity of a “prosecution” against the Zionist regime, asserting, “They [the Zionist regime] choose crowded centers and strike there. … This crime is being seen by everyone in the world. They must be prosecuted. The current usurping government of the Zionist regime must definitely be prosecuted today. They must be prosecuted.”
It is evident that when independent and justice-seeking nations take necessary and impactful measures to condemn the Zionist regime for its egregious crime of genocide, the global community, too, will soon witness Israel being prosecuted as an illegitimate and condemned state for genocide. The foundation for such actions lies in justice and a profound understanding of the crimes against the Palestinians, undeniably illuminated and evident in this era. A recent noteworthy development is South Africa filing a case against the Zionist regime at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), accusing it of crimes of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. This serves as an exemplary instance of such initiatives. | {
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Ruhollah Abdolmaleki, researcher in regional studies
During the days these lines are being written down, the world is witnessing an asymmetrical confrontation between two opposing sides, which has displayed the peak of brutality as well as desperation on one side and innocence along with heroic resistance on the other side. It would suffice to review the distant past years so that a completely different image forms in our minds. In those days, whenever Palestine and the Muslims living in it were mentioned, the atmosphere of innocence, being doomed to failure, and suffering under occupation prevailed in the background of phrases and sentences. In the same way, the words Zionist regime and occupation emanated a sense of undisputed power, security dominance, and military invincibility. Unlike that era, now the bubble of security dominance and military invincibility of the Zionist regime has burst, and the political intrigues, diplomatic tricks and media propaganda of the occupiers have disintegrated like a loose spider web. Operation Al-Aqsa Flood has destroyed the credibility of the Zionist regime in various aspects, and the resistance of the innocent Muslims of Gaza and their resilience against the huge and comprehensive volume of the round-the-clock bombardments have drawn the admiration and astonishment of world nations.
With a broader look at the years of confrontation and conflict between Global Arrogance and its vassals in West Asia on the one hand, and the Resistance Front and popular forces on the other hand, there remains no doubt that the astonishing work by Hamas and the residents of Gaza in Palestine are the domino effect of successive defeats of the hegemons and global colonialism in the region. The decline of Western colonialism, which was caused by the increasing strength of the resistance and the weaknesses of the Arrogance Front, smashed the expansionist plots and conspiracies that were planned so as to dominate the West Asia region under titles such as the greater or the new Middle East plan. In elucidating this point of view, one of the major policies of the US government in the first decade of the current century was the pursuit of the “New Middle East” plan, and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq under the title of “War on Terror” created the capacity to initiate the “New American Century” in line with the New Middle East plan. Although the Zionist regime and Lebanon’s Hezbollah engaged in a confrontation in the Lebanon War and the United States did not openly intervene militarily in it, the authorities of this country interpreted the war as the formation of a New Middle East. In this regard, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said during the 33-day war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006: “What we’re seeing here is, in a sense, the growing—the birth pangs of a new Middle East, and whatever we do, we have to be certain that we’re pushing forward to the new Middle East, not going back to the old Middle East.” According to the Leader of Iran, the West’s plan was to draw a new geopolitical map for a New Middle East to secure the interests and needs of the US and the West. In this geopolitical situation, for which a hypothetical map was prepared by Ralph Peters, a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel, dividing the Middle East into smaller countries and changing the borders were considered fundamental solutions to the problems of the current Middle East.
However, more than two decades of resilience and courage by the Resistance Front and the resistance of the Muslim nations in different countries, such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen, and recently Palestine, showed that the New Middle East plan as well as securing the hegemonic interests of the US in West Asia and the Islamic geography of the region have failed. One of the most significant international figures who played a prominent and distinct role in imposing this defeat was martyr General Soleimani. Some of the failures of the Arrogance Front and the impact of martyr General Soleimani on them are mentioned below.
Palestine
The latest case of these defeats is the ongoing Gaza crisis, which was mentioned at the beginning of this article. While the United States and the Zionist regime have sought to pass the Palestinian issue into oblivion and isolate Hamas in Gaza in their long-term plan, the fact that the Palestinian issue has become the headline of many alternative and independent media outlets and even the mainstream media, which have had no choice but to report the regime’s oppression in Gaza — albeit in a very biased manner — demonstrates the failure of the conspiracy to pass the cause of Palestine into oblivion. An important factor in empowering the Palestinian resistance to confront the Zionist regime and the innovative and unannounced attack on the Israeli-occupied territories is the arming of this group with its needed weapons by the Islamic Republic of Iran, and the most central role in this regard relates to martyr General Soleimani. This arming of the Palestinian resistance has been mentioned by international political and military experts and analysts, the Supreme Leader of Iran, and even the Palestinian resistance officials. A few years before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the Supreme Leader of Iran highlighted the prominent role of General Soleimani in empowering Palestine and Gaza: “that man empowered the Palestinians. He did something to make a small region like the Gaza strip — which is a small strip of land — stand up to the Zionist regime despite all their extravagant claims. He created such a disastrous situation for them that they asked for ceasefire after just 48 hours!”
Syria
In the midst of the Islamic Awakening uprisings in the Arab and Islamic countries of West Asia and North Africa, the Western countries plotted instability and insecurity in Syria in order to abuse the conditions of chaos and direct it to their advantage. As soon as the internal situation in Syria turned toward unrest, the US ambassador went to the opposition and by his presence tried to provoke them and turn a political dispute into a civil war. Then, with the escalation of internal tensions, the United States and its allies provided political, military, and logistical support to the Syrian opposition in order to further escalate the conflict and intensify the civil war, and conditioned any political solution on the removal of Bashar al-Assad from power. Of course, before the unrest in Syria, the United States had condemned the government of this country on the pretext of supporting groups such as Hamas, the Islamic Jihad of Palestine, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, as well as for providing logistical support to the Lebanese Hezbollah. This was while the most dangerous terrorist groups in the region, such as the DAESH, were created by the US — as admitted by American authorities — to achieve their goals in the region by fomenting terrorism and promoting terrorist acts. The interference of the United States and its allies in Syria changed the situation in such a way that many analysts doubted the survival of the legitimate government of Syria. It seemed that with the overthrow of the Syrian government, the country should welcome permanent chaos. Nevertheless, as the editor of Al-Masdar News writes, this situation changed in early October when General Soleimani, along with several IRGC officers, arrived at Bassel al-Assad International Airport in Syria’s Latakia. General Soleimani’s role in the Syrian crisis had many dimensions, which included a briefing and advisory presence, formation of popular mobilization forces, reconstruction of the Syrian army, strong presence on the battlefield, and leading military operations against the DAESH in the Arab country. The Long War Journal writes about the field presence and military leadership of General Soleimani in Syria that the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps and foreign Shia militias under the command of General Soleimani played an important role along with the support of the Russian Air Force in the siege of Aleppo during a 15-month operation and managed to avert two major offensives by the Islamist-led coalitions. Therefore, one of the effective factors in thwarting the project of overthrowing the Syrian government and imposing permanent chaos in this country was the actions of General Soleimani at various levels.
Iraq
In 2013, after conquering Ramadi, Fallujah, Mosul, Tikrit, and some other areas in northern Iraq, the DAESH entered into a full-scale war with the Iraqi government and managed to capture more than 50,000 kilometers of Iraq and subjugate more than 4 million of the country’s population. While the DAESH was advancing in Iraq, the US took advantage of the difficult situation in the Arab country and pressured the then Iraqi government to resign. As a result, Nouri al-Maliki had no other choice but to resign. The DAESH’s threats and brutality, captivity of women and children, and mass killing of opponents, as well as its strict laws not only painted an ugly, hateful and completely false image of Islam, but also instilled fear in the hearts of the Iraqi people and drove some opposition groups to the Iraqi government. The Iraqi government asked General Soleimani for help to save it from this predicament, and following his military advice and managerial capability and initiative in mobilizing the people and using Hashd al-Shaabi, the offensive path of the DAESH in Iraq was stopped. General Soleimani’s skill in using the capacity of popular mobilization in cases such as bringing together Kurdish and Shia forces to fight the DAESH was pivotal, and his supervision of the joint operations carried out by these two groups (Ostovar 227) was fruitful. In addition to monitoring the situation, General Soleimani’s active participation in popular operations was his other important feature that uplifted the spirit of the Iraqi popular mobilization against the DAESH. Former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced in an interview that Qasem Soleimani was present in all the operations organized by Hashd al-Shaabi against the DAESH. “In some of them, which were carried out in Amerli, Tal Afar, and Tuz Khurmatu, we needed drones to come to the aid of the Mujahideen. In some military operations, we also needed artillery, and Haj Qasem provided all the military facilities and weapons from the Islamic Republic of Iran to Iraq.” During the DAESH incursion into Iraq, if it was not for General Soleimani and his effective role at levels such as the transfer of weapons from Iran to Iraq, the Arab country would not have been able to resolve the problems and obstacles in the war with the terrorist group. Nouri al-Maliki says in this regard: “We used to buy weapons at that time, but the world countries did not give us weapons when it was necessary. However, [General] Soleimani helped us a lot because of his role in Iraq and his permanent presence in this country.” Martyr General Soleimani’s strategic view and management and organization capabilities showed another level of his capabilities in pushing back the DAESH from the occupied areas of Iraq. For example, the report of Britain’s Independent newspaper about the battle with the DAESH in Tikrit shows the capabilities of Martyr Soleimani in organizing and operational planning as well as his vital influence in recapturing the Iraqi city of Tikrit from the DAESH. This city, which is located on the left bank of the Tigris River and is the largest and most important city between Baghdad and Mosul, had great strategic value for the DAESH, and its loss dealt a heavy blow to this group. In this way, the DAESH was expelled from Iraq.
Therefore, General Soleimani, having the required skills to make use of various military capacities, was one of the most effective people who challenged Western expansionism in the Islamic countries of the region and brought projects such as the New Middle East to failure. In relation to the influence of this figure, the Foreign Policy magazine, in its annual 2019 report introducing the top 100 thinkers in various fields, placed General Soleimani at the top of the military and security figures and wrote about him: “Soleimani’s fingerprints are everywhere that Iran is active, from Yemen to Iraq to Syria.” As the Leader of the Islamic Revolution said, “In today’s world of Islam, whenever some people wish to resist in the face of arrogant bullying, their role model and their code word is Shahid Soleimani. … In fact, he taught the people how to use the resistance software and the fighting paradigm and he promoted them among nations.”
(The views expressed in this article are author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)
References:
Ostovar, Afshon. Vanguard of the Imam: Religion, Politics, and Iran's Revolutionary Guards. Oxford UP, 2016. | {
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Afshin Zeinizadeh, researcher in the Palestinian issues
Today is the 100th day of the Zionist regime’s war against Gaza, but the acts of oppression and calamity inflicted on the innocent people of Gaza during this period are innumerable. As the number of days of war increases, the intensity of killings and crimes of this regime increases as well. During this period, the Zionist regime has failed to achieve its declared goals (destroying Hamas and freeing the “hostages”). Therefore, it sees no other option than committing crimes against defenseless civilians and destroying Gaza, because “deterrence through terror” is the faintest possibility to reach its desired deterrence. Although its military has announced that it will fight only against Hamas fighters, the statistics of the martyrs and the destruction of Gaza show the opposite. A brief overview of the crimes of this regime is horrifying.
The martyrs and the wounded
In these one hundred days, more than 23,357 people have been martyred in Gaza, of whom more than 9,600 are children and 6,750 are women, meaning that more than 70% of the martyrs are women and children. Also, more than 59,410 people have been injured, among them 6,327 women and 8,663 children, and more than 8,000 people are missing.
The Zionist military occupation forces published an online map of the Gaza Strip on December 1, dividing the enclave into more than 600 numbered blocks. It asked Gaza’s civilians to identify the block corresponding with their area of residence and evacuate when ordered. However, leaflets ordering evacuations are inconsistent with online warnings, and the regime targeted many areas it had previously declared safe in order to increase civilian casualties. In addition, many residents of Gaza have no reliable way to access the map due to limited access to electricity or the internet, because the blockade of the Gaza Strip and its extensive bombardment have destroyed the territory’s telecommunications infrastructure. People are increasingly being relocated to smaller areas due to the constant bombardment, because they have to go to safer places. But in practice, nowhere in Gaza is truly safe. More than a million people – about half of the population – have been forced to take refuge in Rafah on the Egyptian border.
There is severe overcrowding at this border crossing. Food and water are very scarce, and essential medicines cannot be found. These crises are aggravated by the Zionist regime’s restrictions on the delivery of aid, closing the borders, imposing blockades, and preventing access. Currently, Palestinians in Gaza receive only 10 percent of the weekly food aid they need.
Zionist forces kill 250 Palestinians directly every day. This is while the risk of famine and scarcity of necessities of life can indirectly add to this figure. For example, the average daily death toll in Gaza is significantly higher than in any other armed conflict in recent years, including Syria (96.5 deaths per day), Sudan (51.6), Iraq (50.8), Ukraine (43.9), Afghanistan (23.8) and Yemen (15.8).
So far, more than 1,000 children have lost one or both of their legs, that is, 10 children every day. At least 25,000 children have been orphaned by the loss of their parents. More than 85 percent, equivalent to 1.9 million people, of the population of Gaza have been displaced, and 1.7 million of them are settled in IDP camps, among whom 900,000 are children.
Another factor behind the increase in the number of martyrs is the lack of medicine and health facilities for the treatment and care of the sick and injured, given that with the deliberate targeting of Gaza hospitals by the Zionist regime, its healthcare system completely collapsed on November 10. Therefore, proximity to corpses, lack of clean water and food, and the production and littering of more than 15 million tons of debris in Gaza have greatly increased the risks of infectious diseases there. The Zionist regime prevents the birth of Palestinian babies by implementing measures such as destroying the fuel sources of hospitals, solar panels, and health facilities.
In just one case, an attack on pipelines and a pumping station flooded the Jabalya refugee camp with sewage, and cases of diarrhea increased 40-fold due to a lack of safe drinking water and proper sanitation. Health concerns and risks are much greater for pregnant women, children and the weak, namely the disabled or the elderly.
Every hour, 15 people, 6 of whom are children, are martyred and 35 people are injured; 42 bombs fall on Gaza and 12 buildings are destroyed. In these one hundred days, at least 112 journalists have been martyred in Gaza. In the West Bank, 340 people have been martyred so far, 84 of whom are children, and more than 3,949 people have been wounded. The number of martyrs and wounded in this war reflects the worldview and attitude of the leaders of this regime towards the Palestinians, namely its prime minister who invited them to kill every man, woman and infant by comparing them to the Amalek in his October 28 speech addressing the Zionist military. Also, Amihai Eliyahu, the heritage minister of this regime, in his speech on November 5, called for dropping a nuclear bomb on Gaza to destroy all its inhabitants. Their intention is nothing but the genocide of Palestinians, as it is manifested in the mass graves in Gaza.
Massive destruction and demolition
According to the latest data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Palestinian Authority, the Zionist regime’s attacks in these one hundred days have damaged or destroyed more than half of the houses in Gaza or about 359,000 residential units. 370 educational and cultural centers and 30 out of 35 hospitals in Gaza have been completely destroyed. In addition, this regime has destroyed 121 ambulances, 221 mosques, and 3 churches.
The forced relocation of Gaza residents takes place while Gaza has been under the tightest land, sea and air blockade by Israel since 2007, and the entry and exit of every item is strictly monitored by the Zionist regime. This is while 2.3 million people live in the most densely populated region of the world in an area of about 350 square kilometers, and the Zionist regime, contrary to its false claims, does not use precision strikes to hit its targets, and in addition, the use of heavy ammunition increases the casualties.
The fact that the weather is getting cold in Gaza as well as the lack of suitable clothes and blankets, fuel, heating devices, and hot water make the situation more critical. Temporary shelters and camps have no protection or heating during rains, and sometimes people buy blankets by selling their food or water. In many cases, each family has only one blanket if they are lucky.
In less than a hundred days, due to relentless attacks on Gaza, more than half of the territory’s water and sewage systems have been seriously damaged and put out of order. Also, as a result of these attacks, 22% of agricultural land in Gaza has been completely destroyed and left unusable, and many plantations have also been destroyed. Even the animals were not spared from Zionist viciousness. In just one case, the zoo in Jabalya, which housed more than 100 species, was destroyed due to the attacks of this regime. The Zionist regime has targeted the Gaza Strip with 45,000 missiles and 65,000 tons of bombs in these one hundred days.
What has been pointed out so far is a small portion of the crimes committed by the Zionist regime against the Palestinian people, especially in the Gaza Strip, which continues amid global silence. An important point in the course of this war and massacre is the regime’s disregard for world public opinion, while the news of its crimes is being broadcast to the world instantly. Now, imagining what atrocities this regime has committed against the Palestinian people in the past 75 years which have been buried in history is absolutely horrifying. The Gaza war exposed the innocent-killing and child-killing nature of this regime to the world and showed that it will not shy away from committing any crime due to its desperation and failure, in a way that it is currently facing the most hideous accusations, including genocide, in the International Court of Justice. This war will also end with the victory of the innocent Gaza, but if one day the Guinness World Records considered a place for the most bloodthirsty criminals, the Zionist regime will definitely win an important spot just for its brutal massacre in the recent Gaza war. Although Gaza and the Palestinian people have been subjected to an unprecedented level of oppression in the history of mankind – an oppression and suffering that does not allow the world’s awakened consciences to rest even for a moment – this issue has another dimension, and that is how the Palestinian nation and the people of Gaza have shined brightly. Such resistance, patience, trust in God, and perseverance promise a definite victory. As the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khamenei, pointed out:
Our hearts are bleeding because of the sufferings of the Palestinian people, especially the people of Gaza. We are upset. However, when we take a closer look at what is taking place, we realize that the victors in this battle are the people of Gaza and Palestine. They have been able to do great things… God willing, the ultimate victory, which is not too far away, will be for the Palestinian people and Palestine. | {
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Exactly one hundred days ago, in the early morning hours, the gates of the "Gaza Concentration Camp" were breached. The youth of Gaza, armed with by far less advanced weaponry than that of the Zionist regime's army, successfully penetrated the security wall encircling Gaza. This triumph, which had evaded even the combined efforts of several large Arab armies for decades, occurred on October 7, 2023. Palestinian youth fighting for Resistance, equipped with a distinctive intelligence and operational strategy, entered the occupied Palestinian territories for the first time in about 60 years. This action served as a stark reminder to the occupying regime that this land is unlawfully taken, and it won't be long before its rightful owners reclaim it.
From the early hours of the operation, the officials' responses to this operation were surprising. The Zionist regime officials were determined to obliterate Palestinian Resistance movement Hamas, forcibly evacuate Gaza residents, and eliminate Resistance in the region. The ambitious goals of the Zionists hinted at an unsuccessful genocide and a futile war crime from the outset. However, after a hundred days, it has become evident to everyone how unrealistic the objectives of the Zionists were, driven by emotions following the irreversible defeat on October 7. In what follows, we will delve into examining some aspects of these failures.
Setbacks in strategy and military operations:
The initial strategic setback occurred when all four of David Ben-Gurion's defense doctrines collapsed. These principles included deterrence, early warning, military decision, and transferring the battle to enemy territory.
The execution of operations on this scale highlighted the failure of the regime's intelligence dominance principle, the principles of deterrence and shifting combat onto the enemy's soil. The entry of Hamas forces into cities and towns around Gaza, coupled with the launch of thousands of missiles in the early stages of the battle, revealed the regime's incapacity to protect the Israeli settlers.
Another significant failure was in the realm of security services. Despite the regime's advanced spy equipment and surveillance capabilities, they were incapable of monitoring the primary communication channels among Palestinian fighters. Additionally, an excessive reliance on advanced equipment for monitoring and defending the Gaza Strip border resulted in their complete failure in the initial moments of the operation. This allowed Palestinian fighters to seize several military bases, as well as to kill and capture the soldiers within those bases. The centralization of command in the Gaza border defense line led to the failure of transmitting a warning from that base to rear lines after its destruction. Furthermore, during the months leading up to the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, the regime's intelligence apparatus, in overconfidence, dismissed any possibility of armed operations from within Gaza. They fell into a trap as Resistance leaders, aware of their eavesdropping, intentionally disseminated misinformation to deceive the regime. Another security failure was the inability to monitor the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation, despite extensive collaborations with American security organizations.
Since the commencement of the Zionist regime's siege of Gaza and Hezbollah's attacks on the northern borders, Israeli authorities have diligently sought to downplay their reported casualties. Analyzing the concrete evidence and the historical records of the Zionist regime indicate that its media outlets cannot be deemed a reliable source for such statistics.
Over the past hundred days, the Resistance Front has dealt significant blows to the Zionist regime. In the attack on October 7, more than 300 Zionist soldiers died. By December 25, 2023, around two months after the ground assault on Gaza, over 750 armored vehicles, including tanks, personnel carriers, and engineering equipment, have sustained partial or severe damage. According to Yahya Sinwar's statement, the Zionist regime's army has seen over 5000 soldiers targeted, resulting in approximately 1600 fatalities, and the remaining forces compelled to exit the battlefield with serious injuries. Considering the scope of military conflict between the Israeli occupying forces and Hamas forces, figures and numbers referred to in Sinwar's statement seem more realistic. The northern front has been challenging for the Zionists, with more than 2000 soldiers killed or injured from October 8, 2023, to January 5, 2024. Over 40 armored vehicles, including at least 20 Merkava tanks, have been destroyed, and more than 180 Zionist military positions in that region have been under attack.
The Zionist regime faced another failure by accepting Hamas and the Resistance's terms during the prisoner and the exchange of Palestinian hostages. In this process, the Resistance released captives in central Gaza, an area the regime claimed to control, marking yet another defeat for the Zionist regime. Additionally, the Zionist regime's attempts at freeing captives through multiple stages were unsuccessful, resulting in significant casualties among its special forces and compelling them to retreat.
All these failures in Gaza underscore the complete inability of the Zionist regime to fulfill its assertion of eradicating Hamas, as its officials affirmed in the early days.
Failures in the cognitive-media warfare
Major media companies, employing discriminatory policies, have sought to downplay the extensive history of violence and expanding occupation of Gaza by the Zionists. They presented a biased and one-sided coverage of the Gaza war, aiming to shape the narrative according to hegemonic interests, influence public opinion, and strategically impact the audience. However, Western media's use of techniques and psychological operations in the Gaza issue did not achieve the intended objectives, as media audiences reacted contrary to the goals of advertising agencies in both perceiving and showing reactions to the issues.
In the early days of the war, the Zionist narrative, characterizing the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation as a terrorist and brutal act, gained traction on the internet. Yet, activists in the social media quickly began analyzing the behaviors of the Zionist regime, undermining its narrative. Within a few weeks, this one-sided narrative began to shift. The failure of the narrative depicting Hamas as having beheaded children and negatively portraying their behavior toward captured residents resulted in widespread distrust in the regime's propaganda machine. Despite the Zionist regime's attempts to silence and restrict pro-Palestine movements globally, demonstrations in the capitals of Western countries, including London, Paris, Stockholm, Washington, and others, and the support of students from renowned American universities for the Palestinian cause countered these efforts. Furthermore, many media professionals, by examining over seventy years of occupation history and demonstrating the aggressiveness and usurping nature of the Zionist regime, exposed its colonial narrative and inherent colonialism, limiting its ability to present a victim narrative.
International failures:
Political failure on the global stage
The Al-Aqsa Flood also impacted the Zionist regime's international political plans. The Abraham Accords was crucial for the regime's regional integration and dominance. The Al-Aqsa Flood effectively put a stop to the normalization and regional integration of Israel.
Israel is now without the previous level of international support, experiencing a notable decline in popularity among countries around the world. A clear sign of this waning popularity is the opposition of over two-thirds of countries worldwide to the regime and the United States in the United Nations resolutions.
Losing the international public opinion:
The atrocities committed by the Zionist regime in Gaza have led to a widespread wave of condemnation, altering international public opinion significantly. This shift has resulted in increased support for Palestine and strong condemnation of the Zionist regime. Approximately 70% of the population in the United Kingdom and around 60% in the United States are now in opposition to the aggressive policies of the Zionist regime. These two countries were traditionally considered among the primary supporters of the Zionist regime.
Failure in domestic Politics
Even before the war, a noticeable internal political divide existed within the Israeli regime, and expectations of resolving it through a war turned out to be unfounded. The Zionist regime also has failed in extinguishing the aspirations of the armed Palestinian Resistance in the occupied territories. Surveys indicate that, after October 7, over 70% of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank lean towards supporting armed resistance. The concept of a two-state solution has significantly waned in its appeal among the Palestinian population.
Individuals who do not belong to the Palestinian lands resorted to reverse migration as tensions heightened in Gaza and the northern borders, seeking refuge in various parts of the world. The policy of increasing the population of settlers faced setbacks, with over 230,000 settlers leaving areas near the northern borders following Hezbollah's attacks in Lebanon, and an additional 120,000 settlers escaping from the vicinity of Gaza to locations outside the occupied territories.
Economic failures
The conflict in Gaza and its aftermath put considerable strain on the import-dependent economy and the agricultural sector in the Zionist regime. Deploying approximately 220,000 military reserve forces delivered a significant blow to the regime's workforce. Some analysts project that, over the long term, this war will impose a four-hundred-billion-dollar setback on Israel's economy. With a daily cost reaching around 260 million dollars so far, this war will pose numerous economic challenges for the Zionist regime in the future. The agricultural sector in areas adjacent to the conflict zones, along the borders with Lebanon and Gaza, has been severely impacted due to a shortage of labor.
Israel's economy is highly dependent on sea imports. Disruptions in maritime trade, especially after Yemen gaining control of Bab el-Mandeb, have compelled Israel to seek assistance from the United States and its Western allies to secure its maritime trade. Several major global shipping companies have halted their partnerships with Israeli ports. Additionally, commercial ports have faced challenges due to Yemen's attacks on Eilat and Iraqi Resistance’s attacks on Haifa. These combined factors have triggered an economic downturn and raised the costs associated with imports and investments in the Zionist regime.
100-day patience and steadfastness, the cause of a 100-day Zionist defeat
The Leader of Islamic Revolution, Imam Khamenei, addressing the people of Qom on January 9, 2024, highlighted the clear signs of the regime's failure and stated:
Resistance forced the Zionist regime to retreat. The Zionist regime has failed to reach its goals after nearly 100 days. What is the meaning of defeat? That is defeat. They said they would destroy Hamas. They couldn’t. They said they would displace the people of Gaza. They couldn’t. They said we will stand in the way of the Resistance’s actions. They couldn’t. The Resistance is alive, energetic, and well-prepared, while the Zionist regime is tired, abased, filled with regret, and has been marked as a criminal. This is the situation that exists today.
Earlier, Imam Khamenei had commended the people of Gaza for their remarkable patience, steadfastness, and resilience in the face of the Zionist regime's atrocities. He foresaw victory at the beginning of the war on October 25, and now, after a hundred days, this prediction is becoming a reality. | {
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