Salim Nazzal
The disgusting view of the fundamentalist Jewish colonizer driving his car several times over the Palestinian young man Wasim muwasada has invoked extreme rage among Palestinians.
The criminal event is not an isolated event because the “defense” Israeli army was watching the dreadful act without any attempt to hinder it, and also because such crimes have become a normal thing in the Jewish religious culture towards Palestinians. For Palestinians the Zionist Jewish culture of baby killing and extreme brutality is not the act of a fanatic person, but, rather, the product of a culture based on murder and violence. The cultural mind which allowed, justified and instructed the murder of Palestinian children and pregnant woman in Deir Yasin in 1948 is the same cultural mind which permitted the murder Palestinian babies in 2009.
The Palestinian writer Saleh Al Naame raised the issue of the increasing influence and power of the fundamentalist Rabbis in the Israeli society and their role in legitimizing the violent acts religious justification which became an ideological instrument in the hands of the fundamental Jews. According to Al Naame, the most dangerous religious options those opinions issued at 06.03.2008 signed by a number of senior Jewish rabbis of the so called (Association Rabbis for the land of Israel) led by Rabbi Dove Loir ,which permitted the Israeli army to shell Palestinian communities without discrimination. According to this opinion, Jewish law permits the bombing of civilian’s population of the land of Palestine.
Such religious opinions are not the sole work of fanatical rabbis as it is sometimes portrayed. According Al Jazeera net a senior rabbi has recently issued a religious obligation calling Jewish colonizers to poison the well of the Palestinian villagers and to cut their trees as if 62 years of Zionist “secular” brutality is not satisfying fanatical Jews .
Apparently, this phenomenon expresses deep crisis in the Zionist society which realize more and more that it has been constructed in the wrong place. Early Zionists from the war lord Ben Gorion generation thought that the cleansing of Palestine “victory” is enough to establish a reality the region will accept sooner or later. But the region resisted and the Israeli promise to each generation that this each war will be the last war was groundless and the reality is, each war planted the seeds of the next war. Today, most signs indicate that the trend of Resistance against the Apartheid state of Israel is getting stronger and the war in Lebanon 2006, in Gaza 2009 has undoubtedly demythised the Israeli army and proved that it is not much difficult to break down this army towards dissolving the Zionist colonial project in later periods.
The question is why the fundamentalist Jewish phenomenon appeared now and not earlier?
Let me first mention that most observers tend to view the fundamentalist phenomenon as a new thing in the state of Israel widely believed to have been established on secular basis. The historical truth shows that despite that the Zionist founders were mostly non religious or atheists they exploited the Jewish religious tradition to bring more Jews to Palestine. Ben Gorien who was atheist used the appeasement policy towards religious Jews and for this aim he imposed certain religious regulations on the Israeli institutions. Therefore the phenomenon was there in its potentiality and when the periods of victories was over after the1973 war, the tendency towards religious fanatism and ultra rightedness thinking began to emerge and to get strong with time. The Israeli election in 1977 which brought the right wing and religious parties into power in the state of Israel marks the beginning of the rise of Jewish fundamentalism .
In my view there are three major interrelated reasons which might explain the increasing crisis in the Zionist project appeared now and not earlier. However, for the sake of clarity and methodology I call the first reason the Israeli factor, the second , the Palestinian factor, and the third , the international factor. The First factor is related to the first waves of the Zionist pioneers arrived to Palestine and having god deal of enthusiasm and idealism which was reflected upon positively in the Zionist society. But, as this generation vanishes, and as the new generation found itself in endless wars, it is not unnatural thing that new generation of Israelis taught that Israel was founded to escape persecution in Europe will began to wonder about the point of the state when the reason of its foundation vanishes.
The logical reasoning is, if Israel was founded on the base of oppression in Europe, if the reason do not exist any longer why should the Zionist state stays in the region? The existential questions about the whole point of the Zionist project began to be uttered not only from key zionist pioneers such as Dove Yermiya who declared the death of Zionism (I shall not be loyal to the Jewish fascist state and its mad visions, that I shall not sing anymore its national anthem) .And senior politicians like the Knesset former leader Abraham Borg who compares between the Nazi state and the Zionist state, but also from second degree intellectuals and literate class.
The picture could be clearer if we view the signs of fatigues in the zionist society such the severe socio economical and cultural problems, the gradual increasing of hopelessness in the future of the state, the spread of corruption, the Mafiazation of the Zionist society, the increasing level of crimes which reached a red line as described by the Knesset, the division between the religious strata concentrated in Jerusalem and the colonies and the secular strata concentrated in and around Tel Aviv, and most importantly , the fact that Israel has no future except the future of war.
The Palestinian factor in my view is the decisive factor. I intentionally put it in the middle because it is the factor which links between the first factor and the third factor.
The importance of this factor can be summarized in one word, Resitance.It does not mean that the Palestinian resistance was always successful or effective for reasons beyond the aim of this paper, but the actual and potential Palestinian and Arab resistance has been always the nightmare of the Zionists. Without this resistance a number of the factors which weakening the state of Israel would not even exist.
The importantance of the international factor derives from the fact that Israel heavily depended and still on the western support. And managed in the past to market itself and succeeded to conceal its crimes through decades. The old Israel which marketed itself to the western world as “oases for democracy” in the region has become known in the world as a factory of industrializing death for Palestinians, in addition that great secular circles in Europe which sympathized in the past with Israel on secular basis began to show its concern towards the rise of fundamentalism in the Zionist society.
Today, the picture of Israeli soldiers with the blood of Palestinian babies on their hands has become known throughout the world. Zionist Jews know very well that lies are not working any longer, this which explains their Paranoia that (the whole world stands against Jews!!!) They know very well that the game of (the oppressed Jew!!!) is over, and the time the world listening to the voice of the Palestinian victims has surely come. Today Israel is the most condemned state on earth in the UN and among the human right organizations. But there should be no mistake, without the Palestinian Resistance the Palestinian voice would not have been heard. Therefore the relative change in the western public is not due to writings and lectures here and there, but mostly due to the thousands of brave Palestinian men and woman who paid their lives for the freedom of Palestine ,and the thousands of the murdered Palestinian babies who Zionist deprived them the right to live and to grow up.
Bearing in mind the increasing Jewish brutality, present day Palestinian ask the same question their parents asked before.
Have Israeli, Zionists, Jews or whatever they call themselves, not realized that the more they murder the more they are rejected, the more they cause suffering to Palestinians and Arabs the more they enlarge and consolidate the sentiments of revenge and consequently the less chance for their artificial state to stay in the region. Do Zionist Jews, as their past and current history demonstrates, think they become safer in defying and challenging and threatening the whole region? It also invokes the same question Palestinians ever asked since the arrival of the Zionist colonizers to Palestine, how Palestinians could live side by side a culture imported from the ghettoes of east Europe arsenal storage of hate towards Europe which they claim to escape from, and towards the Islamic world which they agitate Europe against.
The questions above are repeatedly asked because it is apparent that the concept of peace for Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and the vast majority of the world differ than the Zionist concept of peace. (Except for the US which pro Israel Jews dominate its policy and Macrosina which no one heard about)? Zionists use very often the term peace void of any political perspective as peace has no affiliation with life, land, rights, culture etc. And if there is a peace based on justice and mutual respect, and there is peace of deceit it is apparent that Israel chooses the peace of deceit... Peace and justice are seen by sociologist as an equation for stability in the same society or in the world. For that reason, sociologists of different sociological schools explain great deal of the domestic and international tensions, including the civil wars and instabilities in the absence of social, political and cultural justice to include the various interpretations. Therefore we perhaps need to remember the wise words said by a native American who told his grandson that there are two wolves fighting inside humans, the wolf of fear and hate, and the wolf of love and peace.' The grandson listened, then looked up at his grandfather and asked, 'Which one will win?' The grandfather replied, 'The one we feed.'
Bringing examples from daily life the picture might be clearer.
In some neighborhoods if a family wants to move into a new neighborhood the responsible committee of that neighborhood would check the history of those moving in because they do not want people with criminal past to destroy their neighbouthood. If this is applied on individuals what to say about the Zionist case, Palestine got a group of a racists which produced a great deal of hate and prejudice towards the peoples of the original countries they come from, and moved to impose itself on a region they do not belong to, and challenging the whole region on all levels .
Today it is apparent the hopes of finding a solution to the conflict are evaporating and the reason is the Zionist state.
The ultra right government decided that any future withdrawl from the occupied areas in the land of Palestine be endorsed by the Knesset which is a step to escape withdrawal from the land of Palestine. This conveys for the million times a message to those believe in a possible peace with Zionists that they need to review their positions because 18 years of time wasting is enough.
Palestinians and Arabs must answer this step by calling for an Arab referendum about the future of the state of Israel in the region.
Palestinians and Arabs have a strong argument that they are the victims of the foundation of this state and thusly they have the right to decide their future. This referendum can be justified on democratic and moral basis. The region has been moving from war to war since the foundation of the Zionist state and the result is the spread of militarization, fanatism, poverty, instability, the east west conflicts, and, considering the advancement of arms which Israel brought to the region, the future wars will be more devasting. This referendum is important because the state of Israel is the only reason for wars in the region and thusly the vanishing of this state will end these wars. Even if the referendum has a symbolic value but it will carry a message to the world that the Zionist state is not welcomed in the Arab neighborhood. Palestinian and Arabs must articulate clearly that nobody wish to allow criminals to destroy their neighborhood.
This will be a step towards delegalizing the Zionist state in the road towards ending the wars and conflicts and promoting the culture of development, tolerance and peace.
Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region. Salim_nazzal@yahoo.com
The disgusting view of the fundamentalist Jewish colonizer driving his car several times over the Palestinian young man Wasim muwasada has invoked extreme rage among Palestinians.
The criminal event is not an isolated event because the “defense” Israeli army was watching the dreadful act without any attempt to hinder it, and also because such crimes have become a normal thing in the Jewish religious culture towards Palestinians. For Palestinians the Zionist Jewish culture of baby killing and extreme brutality is not the act of a fanatic person, but, rather, the product of a culture based on murder and violence. The cultural mind which allowed, justified and instructed the murder of Palestinian children and pregnant woman in Deir Yasin in 1948 is the same cultural mind which permitted the murder Palestinian babies in 2009.
The Palestinian writer Saleh Al Naame raised the issue of the increasing influence and power of the fundamentalist Rabbis in the Israeli society and their role in legitimizing the violent acts religious justification which became an ideological instrument in the hands of the fundamental Jews. According to Al Naame, the most dangerous religious options those opinions issued at 06.03.2008 signed by a number of senior Jewish rabbis of the so called (Association Rabbis for the land of Israel) led by Rabbi Dove Loir ,which permitted the Israeli army to shell Palestinian communities without discrimination. According to this opinion, Jewish law permits the bombing of civilian’s population of the land of Palestine.
Such religious opinions are not the sole work of fanatical rabbis as it is sometimes portrayed. According Al Jazeera net a senior rabbi has recently issued a religious obligation calling Jewish colonizers to poison the well of the Palestinian villagers and to cut their trees as if 62 years of Zionist “secular” brutality is not satisfying fanatical Jews .
Apparently, this phenomenon expresses deep crisis in the Zionist society which realize more and more that it has been constructed in the wrong place. Early Zionists from the war lord Ben Gorion generation thought that the cleansing of Palestine “victory” is enough to establish a reality the region will accept sooner or later. But the region resisted and the Israeli promise to each generation that this each war will be the last war was groundless and the reality is, each war planted the seeds of the next war. Today, most signs indicate that the trend of Resistance against the Apartheid state of Israel is getting stronger and the war in Lebanon 2006, in Gaza 2009 has undoubtedly demythised the Israeli army and proved that it is not much difficult to break down this army towards dissolving the Zionist colonial project in later periods.
The question is why the fundamentalist Jewish phenomenon appeared now and not earlier?
Let me first mention that most observers tend to view the fundamentalist phenomenon as a new thing in the state of Israel widely believed to have been established on secular basis. The historical truth shows that despite that the Zionist founders were mostly non religious or atheists they exploited the Jewish religious tradition to bring more Jews to Palestine. Ben Gorien who was atheist used the appeasement policy towards religious Jews and for this aim he imposed certain religious regulations on the Israeli institutions. Therefore the phenomenon was there in its potentiality and when the periods of victories was over after the1973 war, the tendency towards religious fanatism and ultra rightedness thinking began to emerge and to get strong with time. The Israeli election in 1977 which brought the right wing and religious parties into power in the state of Israel marks the beginning of the rise of Jewish fundamentalism .
In my view there are three major interrelated reasons which might explain the increasing crisis in the Zionist project appeared now and not earlier. However, for the sake of clarity and methodology I call the first reason the Israeli factor, the second , the Palestinian factor, and the third , the international factor. The First factor is related to the first waves of the Zionist pioneers arrived to Palestine and having god deal of enthusiasm and idealism which was reflected upon positively in the Zionist society. But, as this generation vanishes, and as the new generation found itself in endless wars, it is not unnatural thing that new generation of Israelis taught that Israel was founded to escape persecution in Europe will began to wonder about the point of the state when the reason of its foundation vanishes.
The logical reasoning is, if Israel was founded on the base of oppression in Europe, if the reason do not exist any longer why should the Zionist state stays in the region? The existential questions about the whole point of the Zionist project began to be uttered not only from key zionist pioneers such as Dove Yermiya who declared the death of Zionism (I shall not be loyal to the Jewish fascist state and its mad visions, that I shall not sing anymore its national anthem) .And senior politicians like the Knesset former leader Abraham Borg who compares between the Nazi state and the Zionist state, but also from second degree intellectuals and literate class.
The picture could be clearer if we view the signs of fatigues in the zionist society such the severe socio economical and cultural problems, the gradual increasing of hopelessness in the future of the state, the spread of corruption, the Mafiazation of the Zionist society, the increasing level of crimes which reached a red line as described by the Knesset, the division between the religious strata concentrated in Jerusalem and the colonies and the secular strata concentrated in and around Tel Aviv, and most importantly , the fact that Israel has no future except the future of war.
The Palestinian factor in my view is the decisive factor. I intentionally put it in the middle because it is the factor which links between the first factor and the third factor.
The importance of this factor can be summarized in one word, Resitance.It does not mean that the Palestinian resistance was always successful or effective for reasons beyond the aim of this paper, but the actual and potential Palestinian and Arab resistance has been always the nightmare of the Zionists. Without this resistance a number of the factors which weakening the state of Israel would not even exist.
The importantance of the international factor derives from the fact that Israel heavily depended and still on the western support. And managed in the past to market itself and succeeded to conceal its crimes through decades. The old Israel which marketed itself to the western world as “oases for democracy” in the region has become known in the world as a factory of industrializing death for Palestinians, in addition that great secular circles in Europe which sympathized in the past with Israel on secular basis began to show its concern towards the rise of fundamentalism in the Zionist society.
Today, the picture of Israeli soldiers with the blood of Palestinian babies on their hands has become known throughout the world. Zionist Jews know very well that lies are not working any longer, this which explains their Paranoia that (the whole world stands against Jews!!!) They know very well that the game of (the oppressed Jew!!!) is over, and the time the world listening to the voice of the Palestinian victims has surely come. Today Israel is the most condemned state on earth in the UN and among the human right organizations. But there should be no mistake, without the Palestinian Resistance the Palestinian voice would not have been heard. Therefore the relative change in the western public is not due to writings and lectures here and there, but mostly due to the thousands of brave Palestinian men and woman who paid their lives for the freedom of Palestine ,and the thousands of the murdered Palestinian babies who Zionist deprived them the right to live and to grow up.
Bearing in mind the increasing Jewish brutality, present day Palestinian ask the same question their parents asked before.
Have Israeli, Zionists, Jews or whatever they call themselves, not realized that the more they murder the more they are rejected, the more they cause suffering to Palestinians and Arabs the more they enlarge and consolidate the sentiments of revenge and consequently the less chance for their artificial state to stay in the region. Do Zionist Jews, as their past and current history demonstrates, think they become safer in defying and challenging and threatening the whole region? It also invokes the same question Palestinians ever asked since the arrival of the Zionist colonizers to Palestine, how Palestinians could live side by side a culture imported from the ghettoes of east Europe arsenal storage of hate towards Europe which they claim to escape from, and towards the Islamic world which they agitate Europe against.
The questions above are repeatedly asked because it is apparent that the concept of peace for Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims and the vast majority of the world differ than the Zionist concept of peace. (Except for the US which pro Israel Jews dominate its policy and Macrosina which no one heard about)? Zionists use very often the term peace void of any political perspective as peace has no affiliation with life, land, rights, culture etc. And if there is a peace based on justice and mutual respect, and there is peace of deceit it is apparent that Israel chooses the peace of deceit... Peace and justice are seen by sociologist as an equation for stability in the same society or in the world. For that reason, sociologists of different sociological schools explain great deal of the domestic and international tensions, including the civil wars and instabilities in the absence of social, political and cultural justice to include the various interpretations. Therefore we perhaps need to remember the wise words said by a native American who told his grandson that there are two wolves fighting inside humans, the wolf of fear and hate, and the wolf of love and peace.' The grandson listened, then looked up at his grandfather and asked, 'Which one will win?' The grandfather replied, 'The one we feed.'
Bringing examples from daily life the picture might be clearer.
In some neighborhoods if a family wants to move into a new neighborhood the responsible committee of that neighborhood would check the history of those moving in because they do not want people with criminal past to destroy their neighbouthood. If this is applied on individuals what to say about the Zionist case, Palestine got a group of a racists which produced a great deal of hate and prejudice towards the peoples of the original countries they come from, and moved to impose itself on a region they do not belong to, and challenging the whole region on all levels .
Today it is apparent the hopes of finding a solution to the conflict are evaporating and the reason is the Zionist state.
The ultra right government decided that any future withdrawl from the occupied areas in the land of Palestine be endorsed by the Knesset which is a step to escape withdrawal from the land of Palestine. This conveys for the million times a message to those believe in a possible peace with Zionists that they need to review their positions because 18 years of time wasting is enough.
Palestinians and Arabs must answer this step by calling for an Arab referendum about the future of the state of Israel in the region.
Palestinians and Arabs have a strong argument that they are the victims of the foundation of this state and thusly they have the right to decide their future. This referendum can be justified on democratic and moral basis. The region has been moving from war to war since the foundation of the Zionist state and the result is the spread of militarization, fanatism, poverty, instability, the east west conflicts, and, considering the advancement of arms which Israel brought to the region, the future wars will be more devasting. This referendum is important because the state of Israel is the only reason for wars in the region and thusly the vanishing of this state will end these wars. Even if the referendum has a symbolic value but it will carry a message to the world that the Zionist state is not welcomed in the Arab neighborhood. Palestinian and Arabs must articulate clearly that nobody wish to allow criminals to destroy their neighborhood.
This will be a step towards delegalizing the Zionist state in the road towards ending the wars and conflicts and promoting the culture of development, tolerance and peace.
Dr. Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian-Norwegian historian in the Middle East, who has written extensively on social and political issues in the region. Salim_nazzal@yahoo.com
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