You want context? You’re an antisemite!
JVL Introduction
In this piece for Al-Jazeera, Ilan Pappe explains in a few words why pro-Israel advocates are so determined to derail attempts to set the events of the last few weeks in context.
“The October 7 attack is used by Israel as a pretext to pursue genocidal policies in the Gaza Strip. It is also a pretext for the United States to try and reassert its presence in the Middle East. And it is a pretext for some European countries to violate and limit democratic freedoms in the name of a new “war on terror”.”
To challenge these pretexts, or to provide historical background by way of explanation, is to invite the charge of antisemitism.
NWI
This article was originally published by Al-Jazeera on Sun 5 Nov 2023. Read the original here.
Why Israel wants to erase context and history in the war on Gaza
The dehistoricisation of what is happening helps Israel pursue genocidal policies in Gaza.
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Brilliant. Necessary and many thanks (again) for posting this
I fear Israel’s intention IS that the Palestinians will be “disappeared” in their hundreds of thousands from every area Israel wants to take over – Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
I am glad to see that JVL has offered a platform to this old, New Historian Ilan Pappe, who had been meticulously studying the last decennia, the slow but certain process of a continuous Nakbah, with the ultimate objective, of using the format of the Great Replacement, until no Palestinian will be present any longer in Eretz-Israel : “The land From the River to the Sea”.
However grateful I am of hearing all those things – that many of us had been saying for a very long time now before – from his sharp pencil, I do miss a more existential approach of the entire Zionist project.
After all, the Zionist ideology is basically founded on the false supposition, that Jews are an apart, special and exceptional race, characterized by the presence of a special Jewish gene. The very same gene, that would connect the contemporaneous Jews, with their antique ancestors and it has been that notion, that – according to the very same reasoning – should justify “the Right to Return to Sion”.
Apart from that, there, in addition, is a more religio-metaphysical justification among many Zionist-Jews, which they are projecting in mythological mantra’s like : “Gods Covenant People”, that has been given “the Divine Right, to Return” (from “the Diaspora”) “to Sion, the Holy Promised Land” in order “to Prepare for the Coming of the Messiah”. “Who will Unite the Jewish Tribes and Deliver Peace throughout the World”.
A third justification of founding a mono-ethnic nationalist State on other people’s territory has been – as is well known of course – the reference by the Zionists to the nazi-Holocaust. But since this horrific German-Austrian endeavour had been developed entirely within the realms of Europe, it can in no way be expected from the Palestinians, to offer their land to the victims of the criminal nazi-Holocaust.
[cut to our limit of 300 words – admin]
Context has been shut down everywhere on the right. Before I comment further, pretext is the wrong word to use around the horror to what Hamas did. The right have they also tried to shut down feelings, humanity, any response to protest at the horror Israel is perpetrating in revenge, in order to stop a genocide. JVL and others warned hundreds of times of the nature of this Israeli government and LFI and others here tried to shut down those voices too. But surprisingly there are some of the right who are calling out the right and pointing out the need for a solution – includingSimon Sebag Montefiore who is far more willing to try to find a solution and call out Netanyahu than Simon Schama who is unable to calm his rage or care about innocence slaughtered in Gaza.
As usual, this is illuminating. The refusal to actually address the historical and current situation in imperialist Britain is depressing but not surprising. The increase attempts to suppress free speech on Palestine is worrying and needs to be resisted. Can I just remind readers that Britain still has a colonial occupation in the north of Ireland; which explains a lot.
Balfour and other British imperialist thinkers,planners and ideologues wanted to create a loyal Ulster in the Middle East in backing and supporting Zionism. https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/winston-churchill-sent-the-black-and-tans-to-palestine-1.3089140
Very insightful article I would like it to get more publicity