“For if life had taught her anything, it was that healing and peace can begin only with acknowledgment of wrongs committed.” ― Susan Abulhawa, Mornings in Jenin
“At Basel I founded the Israeli state,” wrote Theodor Herzl in his diary after the First Zionist Congress in 1897. He was an Austrian literary figure whose role in Zionism defied his literary and humane persona as an academic and litterateur. Back then in the 19th century it was hard for the world to accept Jewish prominence, since with the commanding presence of the Ottoman Empire this was a far cry. While slowly Jews were getting permission to observe religious rituals in Palestine they were not allowed to settle.Their activities were invariably dubious, threatening the state and empire; hence the Muslim leaders were watchful of them. Herzl, nonetheless, wrote that in some years it would be the norm despite all difficulties.
This systemic ethnic cleansing of Palestinian Arabs follows a pattern that enlarges on a global strategic desensitization campaign. The things that were unimaginable back in the 1800s are prevalent today. A “Report on Israeli Settlement in the Occupied Territories” by the Foundation for Middle East Peace published in 2009 said that Israel was unlawfully demolishing homes in occupied Palestinian territories. The USA said it could not help it much. The report condemned the actions and the advisor to the Palestinian Prime Minister resigned due to global insensitivity. This Israeli daring was objectionable back then but given the current scenario where Palestinians are being bombed, given deadlines to evacuate their homes and their cases being held in Hebrew-speaking Israeli courts, one only wonders where it all will end.
It keeps escalating. Israel strikes and the world cries and suddenly all goes mum in no time. The UNO, ruled by permanent members, fails time and again to find a solution. The world getting bored with the impasse has now become insensitive.
The slogan Herzl used for Zionism was that there will be a land– one for all– and alI Jews will fight for it– all for one. Steven Beller wrote in his famous essay “Theodor Herzl and Austria- A Century Later”, that he must have been foolish to think of consolidating thousands of Jews in an uninhabited land. But he did so because his messianic urgings drove him on to lead his people from the desert of misery back to the Promised Land”. Also he says, “Herzl was too proud, much too proud to be a good human”. Meaning he could jeopardize an entire nation for his slogan.
In the backdrop of relentless Israeli slaughter of the indigenous Palestinians one just wonders how it all came about. With each murderous massacre of the poor locals, year after year, Israel only rises in strength in the world community. The world plummets deeper into silent slumber.
While the world kept plunging deeper into the secular pit, Zionist Jews kept making hay. Jewish immigration started. Many flew to the USA while countless moved to South Africa, South America and Palestine. This first immigration into Palestine was called the First Aliya. This was the agricultural phase. Steamship and locomotive advancement made these Jewish dreams possible. To escape pogroms Jews needed an excuse. Holocaust was an addition.
Despite worldwide protests again the masters of world politics remained frozen. Painfully enough even some Arab nations! Under the barrage of Instagram and Facebook stories, media hype and general outcry on the recent Israeli occupation and annihilation of Palestinian neighborhoods of Sheikh Jarrah, Silwan among others, where did it all begin? How did Israel start to end this once thriving country? For this it is vital to know the history of Zionism, leading up to today’s chaos.
Many places were thought of as a probable country for the Jews but slowly it all boiled down to Palestine. It assumed that a state without people, Palestine, would cater to the people (Jews) without a state. Some places in South America and South Africa were also considered, but Palestine was the final decision.
This was a fundamental flaw in the ideology that was based on a fraudulent assumption. It entailed a massive massacre and illegal settlement policy. Palestine was the motherland Jews had been driven out from therefore return to the motherland was fundamental to the theory. This was opposed by ultra-orthodox Jews. The basic problem was how to turn the Arabs from an indigenous nation into a minority. Anita Shapira writes in Israel a History that this ideology of Zionism even defied the Jewish pledge with God that they would not settle in a land by oppressing the nations of the world. They will wait for the Messiah, or else, their actions of destroying nations will hasten the arrival of their messiah, who in their connotation is the Anti-Christ.
It is important to know Jews were always looked upon as a canker. They faced atrocities and discrimination from European empires. They were persecuted and marginalized in Europe, east and west, and around the globe were looked at as troublemakers. Due to fewer opportunities they were poor and underprivileged. Their status began to change with the Hapsburg Empire’s 1780s ‘Edicts of Tolerance’ that allowed them education and economic advancement.
Now religion alone was not a determinant of inclusion. Similarly, in Tsarist Russia, Czar Alexander II promised reforms to uplift people under his rule. This included Jews as well. The Pale of Settlement was the area in the newly conquered lands allowed to Jews to settle down who were driven out of the Russian mainland, created In 1791 by Catherine the Great.
But things turned bitter with the murder of Tsar Alexander II, when Jews turned out to have assassinated him. This triggered rounds of persecution in Russia called the pogroms. The earlier 1821 Odessa pogroms marked the beginning of the 19th century pogroms in Tsarist Russia; there were four more such pogroms in Odessa before the end of the century.
Jewish self-governing Kehillahs were abolished by Tsar Nicholas I in 1844. This violence across Eastern Europe prompted a wave of Jewish migration westward that totaled about 2.5 million people. This was a turning point for Jews to migrate to other places under the pretext of fleeing from atrocities.
As the empires in Europe faced nationalist movements and calls for liberty, fraternity and equality, religion was put on the road to some anachronistic destination. Religion was losing grip over the masses hence creating a secular world. In these circumstances Jewish rise to key positions worldwide became easy.
While the world kept plunging deeper into the secular pit, Zionist Jews kept making hay. Jewish immigration started. Many flew to the USA while countless moved to South Africa, South America and Palestine. This first immigration into Palestine was called the First Aliya. This was the agricultural phase. Steamship and locomotive advancement made these Jewish dreams possible. To escape pogroms Jews needed an excuse. Holocaust was an addition.
Toward the end of the Ottoman Empire things had started to shape up. Frederick Mayor writes in his book The Rothschilds that with the help of rich banking families such as the Rothschilds, stay and survival in Palestine was made possible for Jews. Baron de Rothschild once said, “I created the Yishuv all alone.” Yishuv means a Jewish community. He believed that “never speak of it always think of it.” This was the indoctrination of the Jewish people. Every day the Jews prayed for their return to Zion. “Next year in Jerusalam” they said every Passover. They mourned the destruction of the Temple. Hence yearning for Zion was instinctual for Jews.
Jonathan Lawrence writes in his article “The Plot Against Caliphate” that the biggest outcome of the decline of the Ottomans was the free hand Jews gained in Palestine through diplomacy. Under the Ottomans Jews were not allowed to settle there, so heightened diplomacy was needed to abolish the biggest stumbling block to their dream. The Caliphate allowed the Jewish pilgrims initially for a month and then later three months to visit their holy sites in Palestine. Each local ruler made allowances according to his own understanding. This gave Jews sufficient loopholes to benefit. Due to the changes in the Ottoman Empire, citizens could move more freely, and from 1869, travel improved because of the Suez Canal, which reduced the travel time from Yemen to Syria. Certain Yemenite Jews interpreted these changes and the new developments in the Holy Land as heavenly signs that the time of redemption was near. By settling in Ottoman Syria, they would play a part in what they believed could precipitate the anticipated messianic era.
Anita Shapira writes in her book that Jews have waited for the Messiah ever since, and therefore they now look upon him for their rise and redemption. The promise they made to God that they will not persecute nations of the world to establish their homeland has been broken. This will only help their Messiah come to the fore sooner than later. The
Messiah is the Antichrist also known as Dajjal to Muslims. This explains how religious undertones of the Israeli occupation of Palestine and the ensuing conflict are so heightened. It is not just an imperial ambition of land grab from the locals but a complete and systemic Arab ethnic cleansing to prepare for the Messiah who alone will guarantee the unhindered Jewish rise in the world.
Susan Abulhawa writes in her classic novel Mornings in Jenin,
“Toughness found fertile soil in the hearts of Palestinians, and the grains of resistance embedded themselves in their skin. Endurance evolved as a hallmark of refugee society. But the price they paid was the subduing of tender vulnerability. They learned to celebrate martyrdom. Only martyrdom offered freedom. Only in death were they at last invulnerable to Israel. Martyrdom became the ultimate defiance of Israeli occupation.”
