Gideon Polya, “Anti-racist Jews against racist Zionism”, MWC News, 24 July 2009.
[2019 update: for a very detailed, updated and alphabetically-arranged compilation of anti-racist Jewish opinion critical of racist Zionism and the ongoing Palestine Genocide by Apartheid Israel see the website “Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/ and the related websites:
“Gaza Concentration Camp”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/gaza-concentration ,
Apartheid Israeli state terrorism: (A) individuals exposing Apartheid Israeli state terrorism, and (B) countries subject to Apartheid Israeli state terrorism.”, Palestinian Genocide: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/apartheid-israeli-state-terrorism .
“Palestinian Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/palestiniangenocide/ ,
“Non-Jews Against Racist Zionism”: https://sites.google.com/site/nonjewsagainstracistzionism/ ,
“Boycott Apartheid Israel”: https://sites.google.com/site/boycottapartheidisrael/ , and
“Muslim Holocaust, Muslim Genocide”: https://sites.google.com/site/muslimholocaustmuslimgenocide/ .]
Anti-racist Jews against racist Zionism.
The World has been horrified by latest Gaza Massacre inflicted by Apartheid Israel on what the Catholic Church describes as Gaza Concentration Camp - over 1,300 Palestinians killed (one third being children) and over 5,000 wounded in response to zero Israeli deaths from Gaza missiles in the preceding year.
This latest Israeli atrocity has highlighted the utter racist obscenity of the continuing 42 year Occupation and has led to growing indignation against Apartheid Israel and the racist Zionists and other Western neocons who support Jewish colonization and ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
The racist Zionists routinely falsely condemn critics of the State of Israel as “anti-Semites” and indeed extend this false abuse to Jewish critics of Zionism by falsely calling them “self-hating Jews” as well as “anti-Semites”.
Anti-Semitism means damaging Semitic people in word or deed for being ethnically or culturally Semitic (something Semites can’t help being), noting that Semites include 300 million Arab Semites, 1,500 million culturally Semitic Muslims and 15 million largely culturally Semitic Jews.
The anti-Arab anti-Semitism of the racist Zionists (RZs) is clear in word and horrendous, genocidal deed in Occupied Palestine. However the anti-Jewish anti-Semitism of the racist Zionists (RZs) is revealed by (a) their virulent attacks on outstanding anti-racist Jews critical of Zionist war crimes and other human rights abuses and (b) their false identification of all Jews with the racist policies of the racist Zionists running Apartheid Israel.
The horrendous crimes of the racist Zionists and their false identification of all Jews with those crimes represent major threats to the safety of Jews around the world. As perceived by UK writer Alan Bate in his recent book “Zionism: the Real Enemy of the Jews” (Clarity Press), racist Zionism represents an immense threat not just to the Arab and Muslim World but also to decent, anti-racist, humanitarian Jews throughout the World
Virulent, false defamation by fanatical racist Zionists has scared most politicians and commentators of the Western Murdochracies into adopting explicit or implicit pro-Israel positions. Most criticism of Apartheid Israel now comes from Arab or Muslim sources; anti-racist, generally leftist Western writers and activists; and from anti-racist Jews.
Jews Against Racist Zionism (see: http://sites.google.com/site/jewsagainstracistzionism/home ) is dedicated to opposition to racist Zionism and in particular documents the views against racist Zionism of outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish scholars, leaders, writers and activists.
For anti-racist Jews - and indeed all anti-racist humanitarians - the core moral messages from the Jewish Holocaust (5-6 million dead, 1 in 6 dying from deprivation) and from the more general WW2 European Holocaust (30 million Slav, Jewish and Gypsy dead) are “zero tolerance for racism”, “never again to anyone”, “bear witness” and “zero tolerance for lying”.
However these sacred injunctions are grossly violated by the anti-Arab anti-Semitic racist Zionists (RZs) running Apartheid Israel and their Western backers variously involved in the ongoing Palestinian Genocide, Iraqi Genocide and Afghan Genocide (post-invasion violent and non-violent excess deaths 0.3 million, 2.3 million and 3-7 million, respectively; post-invasion under-5 infant deaths 0.2 million, 0.6 million and 2.3 million, respectively; refugees totalling 7 million, 5-6 million and 3-4 million, respectively, plus a further 2.5 million NW Pakistan Pashtun refugees) (for details and documentation see “Pro-Zionist Western Holocaust Denial” on MWC News: http://mwcnews.net/content/view/29844/26/ ).
All decent, anti-racist, humanitarians must vigorously oppose and sideline those supporting racist Zionism, Apartheid Israel and racist Western wars and occupations who are currently complicit in 0.7 million non-violent excess deaths annually; continuing, racist perversion of human rights, humanitarian values and rational discourse in the Western democracies; ignoring of worsening, Western-complicit climate genocide (that may kill 10 billion non-Europeans this century through unaddressed man-made climate change); and egregious anti-Jewish anti-Semitism through falsely identifying decent, anti-racist Jews with these appalling crimes.
The fundamental moral issue has been clearly stated by outstanding Jewish American scholar Professor Jared Diamond who in his best-selling book "Collapse” (Prologue, p10, Penguin edition) enunciated the "moral principle, namely that it is morally wrong for one people to dispossess, subjugate, or exterminate another people" – an injunction grossly violated by racist Zionist (RZ)-run Apartheid Israel and its racist, genocide-committing and genocide-ignoring US Alliance backers.
Below are some key statements from outstanding, anti-racist Jewish intellectuals about racist Zionism. For documented details of these wonderful anti-racist, humanitarian scholars, leaders, writers and activists and for references and links to these and other important moral statements see the Jews Against Racist Zionism (JARZ) website. For your convenience and ready reference I have presented the names alphabetically. Please note that these eminent anti-racist Jewish people range from atheists to Orthodox Jews, from the Left to the Right.
1. Gilad Atzmon (anti-racist, Jewish Israeli jazz musician, composer, novelist, commentator and anti-Zionist activist): “For me racism is categorically wrong and it is that very realisation that made me into a devoted opponent of Israel and of Zionism.”
2. Uri Avnery (Jewish Israeli writer, founder of the Gush Shalom peace movement): “This is the principle that guided the Israeli army in the Gaza War, and, as far as I know, this is a new doctrine: in order to avoid the loss of one single soldier of ours, it is permissible to kill 10, 100 and even 1000 enemy civilians. War without casualties on our side. The numerical result bears witness: more than 1000 people killed in Gaza, a third or two thirds of them (depending on who you ask) civilians, women and children, as against 6 (six) Israeli soldiers killed by enemy fire.”
3. Joel Brand (1906 –1964; Jewish Hungarian Holocaust hero associated with the Aid and Rescue Committee involved in saving Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe; Zionists and pro-Zionist Churchill blocked his scheme to save the Hungarian Jews): “Rightly or wrongly, for better or for worse, I have cursed Jewry's official leaders ever since. All these things shall haunt me until my dying day. It is much more than a man can bear.”
4. Lenni Brenner (Jewish American Marxist writer, civil right activist, peace activist, anti-Zionist and exposer of Zionist collaboration with the Nazis): “They hanged people all over Europe after WW II for notes to the Nazis like these [from Zionist collaborators]. But these treasons against the Jews were virtually unknown in the run up to the creation of the Zionist state in May 1948 … Jews and other Americans still know little of Zionism's sordid past. But today only programmed fanatics can come away pro-Zionist after reading plain facts.”
5. Professor Noam Chomsky (outstanding Jewish American linguistics scholar at the prestigious, 73-Nobel-Laureate Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT): “I don't have to tell you that there are constant attacks going on in Gaza, which is basically a prison, huge prison, under constant attack all the time: economic strangulation, military attack, assassinations, and so on.”
6. Professor Richard Falk (outstanding Jewish American scholar: emeritus professor in international law at Princeton University, writer, the author or co-author of 20 books, speaker, activist on world affairs, and an appointee to 2 UN positions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories): “There is little doubt that the Nazi Holocaust was as close to unconditional evil as has been revealed throughout the entire bloody history of the human species… Is it an irresponsible overstatement to associate the treatment of Palestinians with this criminalized Nazi record of collective atrocity? I think not. The recent developments in Gaza are especially disturbing because they express so vividly a deliberate intention on the part of Israel and its allies to subject an entire human community to life-endangering conditions of utmost cruelty.”
7. Professor Norman Finkelstein (outstanding, world-famous Jewish American scholar; author of numerous books, most notably “The Holocaust Industry”; terminated through racist Zionist pressure at Chicago’s Catholic De Paul University (2007); arrested, imprisoned, deported and forbidden to return to Palestine by Apartheid Israel in 2008): “I strongly support this statement [by Hampshire College Students for Justice in Palestine in support of divestment from Israel). Israel’s settlement policy in the Occupied Territories is a war crime. The wall Israel has been building in the Occupied Territories is designed to incorporate these illegal settlements. The final five-point itemization of your statement makes unambiguously clear that anyone who opposes such divestment supports war crimes.”
8. Professor David Theo Goldberg (South African-born; Director of the University of California Humanities Research Institute (UCHRI), Professor of Comparative Literature and Professor of Criminology, Law and Society at the University of California, Irvine (UCI), Fellow of the UCI Critical Theory Institute; leader in Critical Race Theory): “I fully endorse the reasonable and courageous decision of the Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest all investments that support the Israeli occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people.”
9. Gush Shalom (“The Peace Bloc”; major Israeli peace group): “The primary aim of Gush Shalom is to influence Israeli public opinion and lead it towards peace and conciliation with the Palestinian people, based on the following principles: putting an end to the occupation, accepting the right of the Palestinian people to establish an independent and sovereign State of Palestine in all the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 …”
10. Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888); the outstanding German and European rabbi of the 19th century): “During the reign of Hadrian when the uprising led by Bar Kochba proved a disastrous error, it became essential that the Jewish people be reminded for all times of an important, essential fact, namely that (the people of) Israel must never again attempt to restore its national independence by its own power; it was to entrust its future as a nation solely to Divine Providence."
11. Independent Australian Jewish Voices (IAJV) (peace group containing some of Australia's most eminent Jewish scholars and professionals): “We are Jews with diverse opinions on the Middle East who share a deep concern about the current crisis in the region. We are committed to ensuring a just peace that recognizes the legitimate national aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians with a solution that protects the human rights of all.”
12. Independent Jewish Voices (IJV) (UK organization of pro-Peace British Jews launched in 2007 by 150 eminent British Jews including Nobel Laureate Harold Pinter): “These [moral] principles are contradicted when those who claim to speak on behalf of Jews in Britain and other countries consistently put support for the policies of an occupying power above the human rights of an occupied people. The Palestinian inhabitants of the West Bank and Gaza Strip face appalling living conditions with desperately little hope for the future. We declare our support for a properly negotiated peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people and oppose any attempt by the Israeli government to impose its own solutions on the Palestinians.”
13. Independent Jewish Voices, Canada (first Jewish organization in the World to join the Boycott, Disinvestment & Sanctions (BDS) campaign in support of Palestinians); Diana Ralph, Co-Chair of IJV: "Independent Jewish Voices has voted to join the international boycott campaign because we stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and support their right to self-determination. We are calling on the Canadian government and all Members of Parliament to push for immediate sanctions on Israel."
14. Jews Against the Occupation (New York City Jewish group for peace through justice for Palestine and Israel): “We as American Jews reject the Israeli government assertion that it is "necessary" to subjugate Palestinians for the sake of keeping Jews safe. We assert that security can only come from mutual respect, and that the occupation of Palestine is only worsening the position of Jews in the Middle East and around the world.”
15. Jews Against the Occupation – Sydney (JAO-Sydney; pro-peace Sydney Jewish group): “What we stand for. We are a diverse group of Jews in Sydney, Australia, who oppose the continuing Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. We support a non-violent negotiated settlement to the conflict. Current and earlier peace frameworks have failed to deliver justice or security for either Palestinians or Israelis. A peaceful, just resolution cannot occur until the Israeli government withdraws all forces and settlements in line with the 1967 borders.”
16. Ronald (Ronnie) Kasrils (South African Jewish hero in the fight against Apartheid; South African Minister for Intelligence (2004-2008)) : “Travelling into Palestine's West Bank and Gaza Strip, which I visited recently, is like a surreal trip back into an apartheid state of emergency. It is chilling to pass through the myriad checkpoints -- more than 500 in the West Bank. They are controlled by heavily armed soldiers, youthful but grim, tensely watching every movement, fingers on the trigger… The West Bank, once 22% of historic Palestine, has shrunk to perhaps 10% to 12% of living space for its inhabitants, and is split into several fragments, including the fertile Jordan Valley, which is a security preserve for Jewish settlers and the Israeli Defence Force. Like the Gaza Strip, the West Bank is effectively a hermetically sealed prison. It is shocking to discover that certain roads are barred to Palestinians and reserved for Jewish settlers. I try in vain to recall anything quite as obscene in apartheid South Africa.”.
17. Naomi Klein (famous Jewish Canadian journalist, author and activist who is very well known for her books and critiques of corporate globalization): “There is a debate among Jews - I'm a Jew by the way. The debate boils down to the question: "Never again to everyone, or never again to us?... [Some Jews] even think we get one get-away-with-genocide-free card...There is another strain in the Jewish tradition that say, 'Never again to anyone.”
18. Daniel Lang-Levitsky (theatre worker and organizer based in New York City, and a co-founder of Jews Against the Occupation): "One of the main accomplishments of the Israeli government’s bombing and invasion of the Gaza Strip last winter was to inspire new vitality within leftist and peace groups in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for justice and liberation. This wave of activity has continued after the supposed ceasefire, with demonstrations and direct actions from New York to Los Angeles, Paris, Jaffa, and Tel Aviv. Most noteworthy has been a coming out of sorts of an increasingly large and vocal segment of the Jewish world that is not only opposed to the Israeli government’s wars and military occupations, but critical of Zionism itself.”
19. Stephen Lendman (outstanding anti-racist, humanitarian Jewish American analyst, writer and a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization): “Since the 1940s, they [the Palestinians] were ethnically cleansed and slaughtered without mercy so their homeland would become one for Jews alone. The shameful result is that Palestinians then and today have almost no rights including being able to live in peace and security on their own land in their own state that no longer exists. Survivors then and their offspring either live in Israel as unwanted Arab citizens with few rights or in the Occupied Palestinians Territories (OPT) where their lives are suspended in limbo in an occupied country in which they're subjected to daily institutionalized and codified racism and persecution.”
20. Antony Loewenstein (Jewish Australian political activist, journalist, author and commentator; author of “My Israel Question”): “Honest debate about Israel and Palestine is sadly lacking in Australia and much of the Western world. It's invariably overly emotive, factually challenged, partisan and counter-productive …Discussing Israel and Palestine is therefore vital in an age of rising fundamentalisms. Labelling critics of Israel as anti-Semitic or anti-Israel merely attempts to silence individuals who passionately believe the current political path of the Jewish state is destined to lead to its disappearance. I share this fear. The simple truth is that Israel's long-term security lies with the Arab world, not a superpower thousands of miles away.”
21. Dr Jennifer Loewenstein (Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Madison; Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University's Refugee Studies Centre): “The destruction of Gaza has nothing to do with Hamas. Israel will accept no authority in the Palestinian territories that it does not ultimately control. Any individual, leader, faction or movement that fails to accede to Israel’s demands or that seeks genuine sovereignty and the equality of all nations in the region; any government or popular movement that demands the applicability of international humanitarian law and of the universal declaration of human rights for its own people will be unacceptable for the Jewish State.”
22. The Neturei Karta (Aramaic for "Guardians of the City”; eminent Orthodox Jewish group opposed to the establishment and existence of the so-called "State of Israel"): "The founding of the Zionist State is in direct contradiction to the teachings of the Torah, which forbids the establishment of a Jewish State and commands Jews to remain in exile until released from that exile by G-d Himself without any human intervention. At which time all Nations of the world will live together in peace.”
23. Professor Bertell Ollman (professor of politics at New York University): “Politically, this [requisite action] means avoiding any association with this "rogue state" whatsoever (as we did with South Africa earlier), boycotting it economically and otherwise (keeping it out of the Olympics, for example), bringing pressure on our politicians to stop all U.S. aid (private as well as public) to Israel, supporting various sanctions (including trade sanctions) against it, calling for the strongest possible resolutions at the U.N. and in all other available forums denouncing Zionist human rights abuses, and, of course, confronting head-on the Zionist lobby that would oppose all this …An all out struggle against Zionism by Jews, therefore, is also the most effective way to fight against real anti-Semitism. Furthermore, if Zionism is indeed a particularly virulent form of nationalism and, increasingly, of racism and if Israel is acting toward its captive minority in ways that resemble more and more how the Nazis treated their Jews, then we must also say so. For obvious reasons, the Zionists are very sensitive about being compared to the Nazis (not so sensitive that it has restrained them in their actions but enough to bellow "unfair" and to charge "anti-Semitism" when it happens). Yet, the facts on the ground, when not obscured by one or another Zionist rationalization, show that the Zionists are the worst anti-Semites in the world today, oppressing a Semitic people as no nation has done since the Nazis.”
24. Professor Ilan Pappé (Professor of history at the University of Exeter (UK), co-Director of the Exeter Center for Ethno-Political Studies, formerly a Senior Lecturer in political science at Haifa University; author of “The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”): "When it created its nation-state, the Zionist movement did not wage a war that `tragically but inevitably' led to the expulsion of `parts of' the indigenous population, but the other way round: the main goal was the ethnic cleansing of all of Palestine, which the movement coveted for its new state.”
25. Harold Pinter (1930-2008; outstanding Jewish British playwright; winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize for Literature) and other outstanding writers: “ Today outrage follows outrage; makeshift missiles cross sophisticated ones. The latter usually find their target situated where the disinherited and crowded poor live, waiting for what was once called Justice. Both categories of missile rip bodies apart horribly - who but field commanders can forget this for a moment? Each provocation and counter-provocation is contested and preached over. But the subsequent arguments, accusations and vows, all serve as a distraction in order to divert world attention from a long-term military, economic and geographic practice whose political aim is nothing less than the liquidation of the Palestinian nation.”
26. The late Professor Tanya Reinhart (1943-2007; Emeritus Professor of Linguistics and Media Studies at Tel-Aviv University; Professor of Linguistics at the University of Utrecht in The Netherlands; Global Distinguished Professor at New York University): “In the present political atmosphere in the US and Europe, anybody who dares express criticism of Israel is immediately silenced as an anti-Semite. Part of the reason why the Israeli and Jewish lobby has been so successful in forcing this accusation is the massive lack of knowledge about what is really happening. Without the facts, the dominant narrative remains that Israel is struggling to defend its mere existence. Attention focuses only on the horrible and despicable Palestinian terror, so that if you criticize Israel, you are accused of justifying terror. My hope, then, is to give the readers the weapons to face such accusations a detailed knowledge of the facts. My second hope is to restore hope. As I said, a sane and rational solution is still possible. People have managed in the past to move from a history of bloodshed into peaceful coexistence, Europe is being the most well known example.”
27. Professor Steven Rose (Professor of Biology and Neurobiology at the Open University and the University of London): “The University and College Union annual congress last week voted by a two-thirds majority to organise a campus tour for Palestinian academic trade unionists to explain why they had called for an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, and to encourage UCU members to consider the moral implications of links with Israeli universities. Not surprisingly, this overwhelming vote met with a roar of hostility from what we have learned to call the Israel lobby … Academic freedom, it appears, applies to Israelis but not Palestinians, whose universities have been arbitrarily closed, Bir Zeit for a full four years. Students and teachers have been killed or imprisoned. Attendance at university is made hazardous or impossible by the everyday imposition of checkpoints. Research is blocked by Israeli refusal to allow books or equipment to be imported. Even within Israel itself, some universities sit on illegally expropriated land, Arab student unions are not recognised and there are increasing covert restrictions on Arab-Israelis (20 per cent of the population) entering university at all.”
28. Professor Shlomo Sand (Jewish Israeli professor of history at Tel Aviv University and author of “When and how was the Jewish people invented?”, a book that argues for a non-racist state in Palestine and the following Jewish origins for North African Jews (Berber and other converts to Judaism in the 6th century AD), Jews of Yemen (remnants of the Himyar Kingdom in the Arab Peninsula remnants, converts to Judaism in the 4th century), the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe (refugees from the Kingdom of the Khazars, converts to Judaism in the 8th century), and the Palestinians (descendants of the inhabitants of Palestine in and before the time of Christ): "We must begin to work hard to transform our place into an Israeli republic where ethnic origin, as well as faith, will not be relevant in the eyes of the law. Anyone who is acquainted with the young elites of the Israeli Arab community can see that they will not agree to live in a country that declares it is not theirs. If I were a Palestinian I would rebel against a state like that, but even as an Israeli [Jewish Israeli] I am rebelling against it.”
29. Professor Avi Shlaim (Jewish Israeli Professor of International Relations, Oxford University, UK; author of “The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World” and of “Lion of Jordan: King Hussein's Life in War and Peace”: “The only way to make sense of Israel's senseless war in Gaza is through understanding the historical context. Establishing the state of Israel in May 1948 involved a monumental injustice to the Palestinians … This brief review of Israel's record over the past four decades makes it difficult to resist the conclusion that it has become a rogue state with "an utterly unscrupulous set of leaders". A rogue state habitually violates international law, possesses weapons of mass destruction and practises terrorism - the use of violence against civilians for political purposes. Israel fulfils all of these three criteria; the cap fits and it must wear it. Israel's real aim is not peaceful coexistence with its Palestinian neighbours but military domination. It keeps compounding the mistakes of the past with new and more disastrous ones. Politicians, like everyone else, are of course free to repeat the lies and mistakes of the past. But it is not mandatory to do so.”
30. True Torah Jews Against Zionism (Orthodox Jews opposed to Zionism): “Traditional Jews are not Zionists. Although there are those who refuse to accept the teachings of out Rabbis and will continue to support the Zionist state, and will continue to support the state, there are also many who are totally unaware of the history of Zionism and its contradiction to the beliefs of Torah-True Jews.”
31. Professor Howard Zinn (outstanding Jewish American activist, civil libertarian, anti-war activist, historian, playwright, political activist, social critic, and socialist; author of some 20 books; Professor Emeritus in the Political Science Department at Boston University, Boston Massachusetts, USA; author of the best-seller “A People’s History of the United States”: “I want to express my admiration and support for the actions of Hampshire College students in their successful campaign for divestment from financial ties with Israel. It is extremely important for Israel to know that its violence against Gaza and its long occupation of Palestinian lands is not acceptable to the people in the United States. I hope your campaign will set an example for students all over the country, and lead to justice in the Middle East, as the divestment campaign helped end Apartheid in South Africa.”
Please tell everyone you can – and especially your Jewish friends – so they can take strength from this short collection of statements from outstanding anti-racist Jews opposed to racist Zionism.
In 1945 Germans adopted a post-Holocaust protocol summarized by the acronym C4A (CAAAA) – Cessation of the killing, Acknowledgment of the crimes, Apology, Amends and Assertion “never again to anyone”.
In the face of pro-Zionist Obama’s cowardice over Apartheid Israel, the World needs to urgently apply comprehensive Sanctions and Boycotts against Apartheid Israel and its Western backers to force racist Zionist (RZ) -run Apartheid Israel to cease its illegal, racist and war criminal Occupation now, return to the 1967 borders, eliminate race-based laws and abide by international law.