Was the Zionist claim to Palestine a valid one? Part 4

In the forth and last part of this article, I want to focus on the roots of modern Zionism as a secular movement with a political orientation towards Palestine and also on the factors that contributed to the success of the Zionist project. It is worth mentioning the fact that ordinary Jews of European countries who had at first no intention to emigrate to Israel did at the same time identify with the Zionist ideal. Outside Europe, Israel became a common identity for all American Jewish groups. Whether they were liberal or not, the Jews gave Israel a mythic quality, coming from both ethnical identity and religion[1]. No matter how true or wrong this position towards Israel was, it was strongly influenced by factors such as the failure of Jewish efforts to become assimilated in Western societies and the intensification of anti-Semitism in Europe.

For centuries, Jews had been regarded as foreign bodies wherever they have been living. However, their status was different from Western to Eastern Europe were the situation of the Jewish population was getting worse day by day. We should also bear in mind the impact of the Nazism in Germany and the Holocaust which is reminded even today as one more reason for the Jews to have the right to their national homeland.

Still, I strongly believe that the ones to pay for the Jewish struggles and sufferings shouldn’t have been the Palestinians. This is just a proof that, unfortunately, history hasn’t taught the Zionists anything, or if it did, they must have got everything wrong.

Still, everything relies on the way we learn to manage our actions, our fear or courage, our angriness or the wish for power and command. The Arab-Israeli conflict has definitely been a lesson, but still most of the ones involved fail to understand it. This is actually the reason why I chose this question as the topic for my article. It helped me go back to the seeds of the conflict and to prove how once again one made the games for everyone. 

To sum up, I reaffirm my belief that the Zionist claim to Palestine is not just invalid, but also totally unfair for the natives of the land. Not only that Palestine wasn’t an aim for the Zionist project from the start, but even when it became their goal it was already a home for other people whose existence was completely denied. Other arguments such as the historical background and demographic numbers support my belief.

A very old Arabic saying states: “I have three friends and three enemies. My friends are: my friend, the friend of my friend and the enemy of my enemy. My enemies are: my enemy, the friend of my enemy and the enemy of my friend.” I finish my article leaving on you to reflect on who are the friends and enemies of the Arabs.

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[1] Karmi, Married to another man: Israel’s dilemma in Palestine, 58-60

Was the Zionist claim to Palestine a valid one? Part 3

The historical and theological background of the Zionist claim should also be discussed and argued. As history and religion might seem interrelated, I want to eliminate from the start the argument of the Promised Land. According to the Bible, the land of Canaan was given by God to Abraham and his seed – the Jews. This can be easily found in Torah, in the Bible and in the Qur’an. At the same time, Zion is one of the biblical names of Jerusalem. Since the destruction of the First Temple in 586 B.C. and the exile to Babylon, the Jews yearned to return to Zion[1]. This is the theological motivation of the Zionist claim to Palestine.

For a non-believer this whole argument would have no value. In fact, as it is a matter of religious belief it cannot even be taken into account as a proof. Moreover, bearing in mind that Palestine is the land of the holy places for all the three monotheistic religions, one might say that any of them would have equal rights to the land. Nevertheless, how can anyone prove that the Jews are actually the same with the ancient Israelities? It is hard to accept the idea that for such a long period of time a group of people has remained unchanged as they traveled from one place to another and they’ve been through processes like conversion and intermarriage.

Here we come to the historical background of the problem. No one can contest the argument that Jews originated in Palestine 2000 years ago. On the other hand, this can never give them the right to claim it for themselves after all this time in the detriment of its indigenous inhabitants. There are many cases in world’s history of people and tribes that were forced to move from their homeland to another place, but no one except from the Zionists promote such an abhorrent idea of reversing the history.

In fact, Jews were dispersed by the Romans in AD 70 and they were sent into exile. However, the mass dispersion was rather small and mainly internal. It is true that some of them ended up joining the diaspora, but most of the Jews remained in Palestine. From those, a part converted to Christianity and later on to Islam. The rest of them were the Jewish minority that could be found in Palestine before the whole Zionist project started: less than 10% of the population[2].

But Zionism was born in Europe and not in the Middle East, therefore what concerns us is the question of the European Jews and their origins. By the 19^th century more than a half of the whole Jewish population was in Lithuania and Poland. Big communities of Jews could also be found in Russia and in Western Europe, even though their status and condition was different from one country to another[3].

There are two main explanations for the origins of the European Jews: the Jewish traders of the Middle Ages who travelled to the Mediterranean and Western Europe and the Khazar conversions in the 18^th century (East European Jews)[4].

No matter which explanation we accept or whether we accept them both, it is hard to believe in the existence of an unbroken chain in between the Jews of Palestine and those of Europe. This was just one more absurd argument used by the Zionists to convince people and to justify the return to their “homeland”- Palestine.  In fact, keeping in mind the conversion to Judaism that had been taking place all over the world, it could not be said that there was such a biological, racial or national entity as the “Jewish People”[5].

On the other hand, Palestine became a predominantly Arab country by the end of the 7^th century. Even though it has been inhabited by Muslims, Jews and Christians, Palestine existed as a largely pastoral community that also had social, economical, political and cultural strengths, and whose people used a common language – Arabic. For a big majority the religion was Islam. They were the owners of the land and that was their home. Even as a province in the Ottoman Empire, Palestine was still proving a sense of nationalism, of course different from the European perception of nationalism. Therefore, whereas the Jews can’t really prove a national identity, the Palestinians were joined together not only by their land, but also by their common history and language. 

And the reality is even more striking when it comes to numbers that prove once again how the Zionist claim is more of a “struggle between a presence and an interpretation”[6]. In 1822, according to Israeli sources, in Palestine there were no more than 24,000 Jews which represented less than 10% of the whole Arab population. In 1931, the number of Jews was 174,606 out of 1,033,314, in 1936, they were 384,078 out of 1,366,692 and in 1946 their number was 608,225 out of 1,912,112[7]. The majority of natives is reflected in those numbers and it was easily distinguishable: they were mainly Sunni Muslims, but they were also minorities of Christians, Druzes, Shiite Muslims; they all spoke Arabic.

Having seen the numbers, the declaration of a right-wing writer in Haaretz would definitely make no sense: “Our right to Eretz Israel and our right to establish a sovereign national entity on it does not depend on our numbers, and on whether we are a majority or a minority.” How can one pretend that a land is his and deny the existence of such a great minority that had been there from the very start?! This is one more example of the way the whole Zionist project was based on an absurd denial.

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[1] Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World, 10

[2] Karmi, Married to another man: Israel’s dilemma in Palestine, 64-65

[3] Idem.

[4] Karmi, Married to another man: Israel’s dilemma in Palestine, 66-67

[5] Idem

[6] Edward W. Said, The Question of Palestine, 8.

[7] Idem