Who is responsible – the Jews or the Zionists?

An opinion survey conducted in 15 European Union countries by the European Commission showed nearly 60 percent of the questioners believed that Israel represented the greatest threat to world peace. This corresponds with the rising percentage of people around the world who reject and condemn Israel’s occupation, discrimination and gross violations of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

The justification Israel and its lobby give for the continued occupation and oppression is not convincing anyone. But instead of Israel reviewing its policies and practices, it is accusing its opponents of being anti-Semitic.

This accusation presents a great danger to all Jews and their interests and requires answers to the questions: Who is responsible for Israel’s racism and crimes against the Palestinian people, clearly defined by international law as war crimes and crimes against humanity? Is it the Jews or the Zionists? Is there a difference between the two? And is opposing Israel's occupation, war crimes and discrimination a form of anti-Semitism? I would like to answer these questions from the victim’s point-of-view.

I was a few months old when I was dispossessed with my mother in 1948 and denied my right to return to my homeland and rejoin my father in Haifa, the city of my birth. I did not see my father and he did not see me for 48 years. The first Jew I ever met was in my class at high school in Damascus. I was the only Palestinian refugee in the class and he was the only Syrian Jew. We were both Arabs and Semites. Despite my own personal tragedy and the Nakba, the tragedy of the Palestinian people, I have never felt for one moment that either he or the Jews were responsible for the crimes committed against me and my people.

Neither my Arab culture nor religion allow me to be anti-Semitic or anti-Jewish. This is because Islam, Christianity and Judaism are part of Arab culture. The three monotheistic religions and their prophets came from our region and are part of us. Islam is the continuation of Judaism and Christianity and is not against Christians or Jews whom it regards as ‘People of the Book’. Moslems believe God is One and is the One who sent all the prophets from Adam to Ibrahim, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed (peace be upon them).

In fact, it is because of the openness of the Arab culture and the moderation of Islam that throughout history many oppressed minorities from Europe sought and found refuge in the Arab countries e.g. Jews, Armenians, Caucasians and others, and the Golden Age of the Jews was achieved within the Golden Age of Islam.

Palestine, the Holy Land, is holy to Jews, Christians and Moslems. But this does not give the right to foreign Jews, Christians and Moslems to occupy and control it. Similarly, neither do Roman Catholics from the United States, for example, have the right to occupy and control the Vatican because it is holy to them, nor do Indonesian or Iranian Moslems have the right to occupy Saudi Arabia because it is holy to them.

Throughout the centuries, Jews, Christians and Moslems made pilgrimages to Palestine and returned back home, and so did Arab Jews. They never felt the need to settle in Palestine at a time when they were able to as until World War One, there were no borders between Arab states, there was freedom of movement and residency.

When the Palestinians, Arabs and Moslems fought against the Crusaders they did not fight against them because they were Christians but because they were invaders, oppressors and occupiers. And when the Arabs fought against the Ottoman occupation they were not against the Turks, Moslems or Islam. Similarly, the current struggle against Israel and Zionism does not mean they are against Jews.

What Zionism and Israel means to me is my dispossession from my homeland and denial of my and my people’s right to return to it on racial and religious grounds. It means occupation, oppression and racial and religious discrimination.

We believe Judaism and Zionism are different and unparallel. The literature of the Palestine revolution and the PLO has also consolidated our vision and our belief in the difference between Judaism as a religion and Zionism as a political ideology. In order to make this crucial point clear, the Palestinian national liberation movement (Fateh) raised the slogan “Not every Jew is a Zionist and not every Zionist is a Jew”, and that the one who is fully responsible for the crimes committed against the Palestinian and Arab people are the Zionists. The extremist Christian Zionist groups, George Bush and Tony Blair are examples of non-Jewish Zionists. And in fact the first people to reject Zionism and fight against it were not Palestinians, but Jews, including the first Australian-born governor-general of Australia, Sir Isaac Isaacs.

The international community also found it crucial to emphasise the difference between the two with its adoption in 1975 of the UN resolution 3379 condemning “Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination” and holding it responsible for its crimes against the Palestinian people.

Israel and the Zionist organisations launched an anti-UN campaign and with the support of the US, Australian and British governments, were able, sixteen years later, through bullying other countries, pressure and bribes to repeal that resolution in December 1991 thus putting an end to the international community’s attempts to differentiate between Judaism and Zionism.

Israeli and Zionist objectives behind this were to silence critics and voices opposed to Israel’s policies and to blackmail anyone who does that by insinuating that behind their criticism lies a hidden agenda of anti-Semitism.

Needless to say incalculable damage was inflicted on Jews and Jewish interests around the world by repealing this UN resolution because it blurred and confused the picture in the eyes of the public who will now see Israel and Zionist crimes as Jewish crimes, and cannot be blamed for doing so, especially when Israel calls itself ‘the Jewish state’ and the mainstream Jewish organisations zealously lobby and defend Israel’s violations, occupation, war crimes and racism, and campaign against the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people. Indeed, the Zionists have shown once again that they do not care about the damage inflicted by this deliberate mix-up against the Jews. As always they commit their crimes and hide behind the Jewish people.

The fathers of the Zionist movement have acknowledged the benefits gained by the rise of anti-Semitism. Herzl himself wrote in his Diary "anti-Semitism has grown and continues to grow, and so do I …The anti-Semites will become our most loyal friends, the anti-Semite nations will become our allies". Without anti-Semitism, Jews would not necessarily see the need to immigrate to Israel or to pay fat donations and defend it, right or wrong.

Israel tries to shirk its responsibility and blame its victims for the crimes and violations it is committing against them. The accusation of anti-Semitism thrown at its critics and opponents is counterproductive and a bankrupt policy. While it succeeded for some time, it is no longer intimidating anyone. People no longer care much about such accusations. http://medicalguide.cc On the contrary, knowing they are not anti-Semitic, people feel bitter about such slander and insult. They become more determined as they know the objective is to bully and silence them through this blackmail while Israel continues its daily crimes.

This is best expressed by the renowned Australian author, speechwriter and film director Bob Ellis in his letter printed in The Australian newspaper on 29 October 2003:

‘Is it anti-Semitic to say it is wrong to bulldoze apartment blocks and leave the tenants with nowhere to live? Then I swear on the head of my grandmother Rachel Larkman that I am anti-Semitic too. Is it anti-Semitic to say that killing 3000 unarmed Palestinians in three years is wrong and a crime against humanity? Then I swear by the blood of my ancestors all the way back to Abraham that I am anti-Semitic too. Is it anti-Semitic to say that threatening to “remove” a democratically-elected head of state is wrong and a breach of international law? Then I too am anti-Semitic and I await my punishment. By helicopter gunship perhaps.’

Anti-Semites, no doubt, attempt to exploit Israel’s racism and aggression to attack Jews, exactly as anti-Moslems attempt to exploit Bin Laden and 9/11 to attack Moslems.

Anti-Semitism is racism, illegitimate and must be fought against, side by side, with all forms of racism against Aborigines, Moslems, Arabs, blacks, Asians … etc. But for that to be effective and real there has to be a clear definition of anti-Semitism which does not confuse it with anti-Zionism, which is legitimate.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s remark in his recent speech to the UN-organised seminar dedicated to anti-Semitism that “When we seek justice for the Palestinians, as we must – let us firmly disavow anyone who tries to use that cause to incite hatred against Jews – in Israel or elsewhere” is incomplete. He should have continued to say that we should equally disavow anyone who incites hatred against Palestinians and accuses those who support the legitimate rights of Palestinians and opposes Israel’s crimes as anti-Semites

The international community must put an end to the extremely dangerous Zionist game of playing with words, challenging international law and norms and turning facts upside down because the damage this causes goes far beyond the Palestinian people and affects Jews themselves and the world at large. Opposing Israel and Zionism is not anti-Semitism and fighting occupation, oppression and racism is not terrorism, and must not be confused with terrorism. Only when this is clearly defined can anti-Semitism and terrorism be defined and fought collectively in the same way fighting against all bigots and racists around the world.

Jews should be the first to be extremely concerned with this confusion and mix-up and what Israel is committing in their name. It is foremost in their interest to face this challenge and not bury their heads in the sand, because they will be the first ones to pay the price dearly.

A recent editorial in the London-based Palestinian newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi pointed out that "Israel has become the most hated country in the world and every day it adds a new cause for this hatred". When 60 percent of Europeans regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace, Jewish people around the world must get the message and not allow the Israeli Government and its lobby to shoot the messenger. They must force Israel to recognise the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and end its occupation before it is too late.

Ali Kazak is head of the General Palestinian Delegation to Australia and New Zealand and Ambassador of Palestine to Vanuatu and East Timor