As human rights groups continue to call out war crimes committed by the Israeli military, we speak to the only U.S. diplomat to publicly resign from the Biden administration over its policy on Israel.
We first spoke to Hala Rharrit when she resigned from the State Department in April, citing the illegal and deceptive nature of U.S. policy in the Middle East. “We continue to willfully violate laws so that we surge U.S. military assistance to Israel,” she says after more than a year of Israel’s war on Gaza.
Rharrit says she found the Biden administration unmovable in its “counterproductive policy,” which she believes has gravely harmed U.S. interests in the Middle East. “We are going to feel the repercussions of that for years, decades, generations.”
I’m referring to the 1920s - 1930s
From 3rd link
From 4th link
Forcible ‘Transfer,’ Ethnic Cleansing, has been central to Zionist thought since the 1880s
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This still deals with Israeli atrocities after they became strong enough to commit them, and ignores much context. For instance, how Theodor Herzl proposed his Judenstaat to Jewish leaders of his time and was rejected, due to the dangers his ideas posed to existing Jewish settlements in the region.
This ignoring of key details, and focusing in on only evidence that, in isolation, supports a certain narrative is not conducive to a healthy understanding and discussion of events. This is, again, a common feature of propaganda, and we should be wary of it in any conflict.
Even the 1920s are not the beginning, if we want to understand this conflict, we should be paying attention to the earliest influx of Jewish settlement, which began in the 19th century, not the 20th century. Without understanding of the earliest atrocities, we lack important context for the environment that led to our future.
Here’s some more context. None of this changes the realities of Zionism as a Settler Colonialist Ideology.
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Read Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History by Nur Masalha if you want the history of the region since before British Occupation.
Read The Concept of Transfer 1882-1948 by Nur Masalha if you want the details about Zionism and it’s origins.
Read A History of Modern Palestine by Ilan Pappe if you want the history of the region since the 1800s (this is the book I quoted, pg 89)
Nur Masalha appears to be a well-regarded Palestinian expert in Palestinian history, very good. Ilan Pappe is a post-modernist though, there’s a little too much narrative massaging without evidence in that philosophy. In most fields this is fine, but history is a dangerous one due to its common use for propaganda purposes.
You’ll note, I’m trying very hard to avoid spreading any propaganda myself, pro-Israeli or pro-Palestinian. I’m very leery of the stuff, and it is very common unfortunately due to how it can be used to justify violence that people may wish to commit for any number of reasons. Opposing viewpoints should always be viewed together, with appropriate attention given to all available evidence.
This is a genocide. I wouldn’t ‘both sides’ this conflict anymore than the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Zionism is a fascist ideology. I won’t equate that to an anti-colonialist resistance.
Advocating for the humanity of Palestinians, a permanent ceasefire, and a One-State Solution with equal rights for all is the right way to approach this issue.