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date: 2024-11-04T09:45 tags: [date/2024/11/04, gemnews]
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created: 2024-11-04T10:44:39 (UTC +01:00) tags: [] source:
https://autonomies.org/2024/10/zionism-voices-of-cassandra/#more-17424
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## Excerpt
In Gaza, the death is so constant, the devastation so relentless, the intention so explicit, there can be no acceptance – only rupture, withdrawal, disorientation. There can be no accommodation wit…
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In Gaza, the death is so constant, the devastation so relentless, the intention so explicit, there can be no acceptance – only rupture, withdrawal, disorientation. There can be no accommodation with what is happening. And as Israel reaches another sickening summit, what becomes undeniably clear is that the powers that let it all get this far cannot be reasoned with and cannot be shamed. They can only be rebelled against.
Nesrine Malik,
, 28/10/2024
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We share a 1948 statement from the International Jewish Labor Bund, in New York, after the founding of the state of Israel and an open letter to the New York Times expressing great alarm that Zionists implicated in atrocities were given a warm reception in the United States. Signed by Albert Einstein, Hannah Arendt and other Jewish notables.
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The State of Israel – International Jewish Labor Bund
The response of the International Jewish Labor Bund to the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May 1948, which appeared in the Vol. 1 No. 6 (June 1948) issue of the Bund Bulletin. Bundism was a Jewish anti-Zionist socialist movement that originally developed in the Russian Empire, and whose adherents argued for Jews to confront anti-Semitism wherever they found themselves rather than to migrate to Palestine.
May 15, 1948, will certainly mark a date of great importance in the history of the Jews. On this day the Socialist Government of England ended its rule in Palestine and turned over, according to its promise and on its own volition, the further responsibility for this troublesome scrap of land to the United Nations.
Almost the same hour an independent Jewish state called Israel was proclaimed in Tel-Aviv. President Truman immediately recognized the Jewish State. After a few days the second great world power, Soviet Russia, also bestowed the new State with its recognition. Other countries swiftly followed suit.
A wild wave of joy and excitement swept the Jewish communities in the United States and the world over. Even though the united Arab nations replied to the proclamation of the Jewish State by declaring war and by immediately invading Palestine, these hostilities were not able to abate the joyous sentiments of the majority of the Jews.
We frankly admit that the rank and file of the Jewish Socialists under the BUND banner cannot rejoice with the majority of the Jewish population. Heavy misgivings assail us as to the immediate future of the 600,000 Jews in Palestine as well as to the repercussions of the Jewish State on the whole of Jewish life outside it. What the Jews in Palestine need is not the right to bleed and die under the banner of their own independent state, but to live in peaceful cooperation with the Arabs so as to assure and enhance their cultural and national advancement. We doubt the ability of the United Nations to bridle the nationalistic fanaticism of the aroused Arabs, worsened by the propaganda of their reactionary Muftis. The present state of affairs, in which the life and the future of the 600,000 Jews in Palestine became an object with which the great world powers play their imperialistic game, is foreboding indeed. No matter how courageous the Jews of Palestine fight, the odds against them are overwhelming: A Jewish island of 600,000 people surrounded by an Arab ocean of 30,000,000 can hardly survive.
The composition of the provisional government of the new State of Israel is anything but reassuring. Against the opposition of the Jewish workers organized in Histadrut, and heedless of their warnings, representatives of the notorious Jewish terrorist groups with familiar fascist tendencies are included in the government. Such appeasement of fascist trends had always led to fatal results, wherever it was tried. It is liable to lead to the same bleak developments inside the Jewish State.
The midget Jewish State in Palestine has already become the main attraction of Jewish life everywhere. Hundreds of millions of dollars, not to mention the tremendous amount of spiritual effort, are already elicited from the Jewish communities and poured into the Jewish State in Palestine. The necessity of waging war is prone to increase the scale of all kinds of donations and activities for the sake of an independent Jewish State. The impact of such generosity on the Jewish communities outside Palestine cannot be but devastating. The diversion from their actual needs, the frustrated hopes which will inevitably replace the present state of bliss, the apathy which will sooner or later come in the wake of the present excitement, are the dreary consequences which the Jews everywhere will have to pay for the present nationalistic paradise they cherish.
Jewish Socialists never shared the opinion of Zionists that an independent state in Palestine would solve the Jewish problem. Nor do we share it today, after such a state has been established. We have always believed that the only solution for the Jews, as well as for mankind in general, is the reconstruction of the world on a socialist and democratic basis. Our belief remains unshaken even now, when the Zionists achieved, at least temporarily, their goal. During half a century the BUND movement tried to win the Jewish working population for the international struggle for Socialism. Non-Jewish Socialists rather than the Jewish nationalists were for half a century our nearest allies. The establishment of a Jewish State in Palestine does not reconcile us with Jewish nationalism and cannot change our traditional attitude. We belong to the international Socialist camp and we will remain there.
But first of all and above all it is our duty as Jewish Socialists, faithful to our Socialist tradition and our Socialist inheritance, to do our utmost in order to stop the war which is now ravaging Palestine. An end must be put immediately to the gory war. Only the nationalist-minded elements in both camps—the Arab as well as the Jewish—are intoxicated with hatred toward the so-called enemy.
The Jewish population, as well as the Arabs, must not sacrifice their lives on the shrine of nationalism. The Jews as well as the Arabs need peaceful relations based on equality, on mutual respect for the rightful aspirations of both nationalities of Palestine. An independent Palestine—a common state of the Arabs and the Jews which may guarantee both nations the widest autonomy for their further national and cultural development and unite them for the well-being of all the inhabitants of the land,—that is the real goal to strive for.
Taken from the Bund Bulletin, Vol. 1 No. 6, June 1948.
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1948: Einstein-Arendt letter to the New York Times
New Palestine Party
Visit of Menachen Begin and Aims of Political Movement Discussed
To the Editor or The New York Times : Amongst the most disturbing political phenomena of our time is the emergence in the newly created state of Israel of the “Freedom Party” (Tnuat Haherut), a political party closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties. It was formed out of the membership and following of the former Irgun Zvai Leumi, a terrorist, right-wing, chauvinist organization in Palestine.
The current visit of Menachen Begin, leader of this party, to the United States is obviously calculated to give the impression of American support for his party in the coming Israeli elections, and to cement political ties with conservative Zionist elements in the United States. Several Americans of national repute have lent their names to welcome his visit it is inconceivable that those who oppose fascism throughout the world, if correctly informed as to Mr. Begin’s political record and perspectives, could add their names and support to the movement he represents. Before irreparable damage is done by way of financial contributions, public manifestations in Begin’s behalf, and the creation in Palestine of the impression that a large segment of America supports Fascist elements in Israel, the American public must be informed as to the record and objectives of Mr. Begin and his movement. The public avowals of Begin’s party are no guide whatever to its actual character.
Today they speak of freedom, democracy and anti-imperialism, whereas until recently they openly
preached the doctrine of the Fascist state. It is in its actions that the terrorist party betrays its real character; from its past actions we can judge what it may be expected to do in the future.
Attack on Arab Village
A shocking example was their behavior in the Arab village of Deir Yassin. This village, off the main roads and surrounded by Jewish lands, had taken no part in the war, and had even fought off Arab bands who wanted to use the village as their base. On April 9 (The New York Times), terrorist bands attacked this peaceful village, which was not a military objective in the fighting, killed most of its inhabitants—240 men, women and children— and kept a few of them alive to parade as captives through the streets of Jerusalem. Most of the Jewish community was horrified at the deed, and the Jewish Agency sent a telegram of apology to King Abdullah of Trans-Jordan. But the terrorists, far from being ashamed of their act, were proud of this massacre’, publicized it widely, and invited all the foreign correspondents present in the country to view the heaped corpses and the general havoc at Dein Yassin. The Deir Yassin incident exemplifies the character and actions of the Freedom Party. Within the Jewish community they have preached an admixture of ultranationalism, religious mysticism, and racial superiority.
Like other Fascist parties they have been used to break strikes, and have themselves pressed for the destruction of free trade unions. In their stead they have proposed corporate unions on the Italian Fascist model. During the last years of sporadic anti-British violence, the IZL and Stern groups inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community. Teachers were beaten up for speaking against them, adults were shot for not letting their children join them. By gangster methods, beatings, windowsmashing, and wide-spread robberies, the terrorists intimidated the population and exacted a heavy tribute. The people of the Freedom Party have had no part in the constructive achievements in Palestine. They have reclaimed no land, built no settlements, and only detracted from the Jewish defense activity. Their much-publicized immigration endeavors were minute, and devoted mainly to bringing in Fascist compatriots.
Discrepancies Seen
The discrepancies between the bold claims now being made by Begin and his party, and their record of past performance in Palestine bear the imprint of no ordinary political party. This is the unmistakable stamp of a Fascist party for whom terrorism (against Jews, Arabs, and British alike), and misrepresentation are means, and a “Leader State” is the goal. In the light of the foregoing considerations, it is imperative that the truth about Mr. Begin and his movement be made known in this country. It is all the more tragic that the top leadership of American Zionism has refused to campaign against Begin’s efforts, or even to expose to its own constituents the dangers to Israel from supporting Begin. The undersigned therefore take this means of publicly presenting a few salient facts concerning Begin and his party; and of urging all concerned not to support this latest manifestation of fascism.
ISIDORE ABRAMOWITZ, HANNAH ARENDT, ABRAHAM BRICK, RABBI JESSURUN CARDOZO, ALBERT EINSTEIN, HERMAN EISEN, M.D. HAYIM FINEMAN, M. GALLEN, M.D., H.H HARRIS, ZELIG S. HARRIS, SIDNEY HOOK, FRED KARUSH, BRURIA KAUFMAN, IRMA L. LINDEHEIM, NACHMAN MAJSEL, SEYMOUR MELMAN, MYER D. MANDELSON, M.D., HARRY D. ORLINSKY, SAMUEL PITLICH, FRITZ RHORLICH, LOUIS P.ROCKER, RUTH SAGER, ITZHAK SANKOWSKY, I.J. SCHOENBERG, SAMUEL SHUMAN, M. ZNGER, IRMA WOLFE, STEFFAN WOLFE,
New York, December 2, 1948.
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Zionism: Voices of Cassandra | Autonomies was published on 2024-11-04
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